Reasons to Leave a Church

1) A church begins to compromise the biblical essentials (e.g., Jesus is God and came to provide us salvation, there is one God).
2) When differences in belief or practice become so serious that cooperation in ministry is seriously hindered.
3) When legitimate needs are not being met.
4) When the leadership becomes abusive, serving themselves at the expense of the members, or tolerating sin that should have been dealt with.
5) Leaving to serve in another church so that the gospel can flourish.

In every situation, the decision to leave should always be done carefully, prayerfully, and in communication with the church leaders to see if the issues can be worked out. People should never just disappear from a church unless they are being spiritually abused causing any form of communication to be dangerous.

In summary, Christians need to be committed to the church.

(There are many illegitimate reasons to leave a church - I will post those soon.)

Conflict is the Price of Growth

When a church grows, it changes, and that change causes conflict.

The sad thing is, many times when a church begins to face this inevitable conflict they take a collective step backwards and in order to not deal with the conflict they refuse progress in their mission to grow, disciple, and reach the lost.

Conflict is not always a bad thing in a church. Conflict, if handled in love and humility according the principles laid out in Scripture, should be the recipe for a more mature church that is more unified than ever. The churches that refuse to deal with conflict shifts their worshiping from Christ to comfort even if they might not admit to it.

In Vintage Church by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, they discuss eight different forms of conflict in which a person or a group of people want something that they perceive they lost due to change.

1) Power - Change requires some people to lose power (e.g., job title, prominence, proximity to the top leaders, the right to make key decisions) when responsibilities must be divided. These people often forget that Jesus took on the lowly title of "servant" for Himself as our model of humility, and rather than acting like power-hungry heathens we should strive to act more like our God.
2) Compensation - Change requires that compensation such as salaries and benefits be reallocated to other priorities. Money motivates too many people, and when their pay does not meet their expectations, conflict occurs.
3) Preference - Change requires that long-standing leaders be reassigned in roles and responsibilities so that new leaders can be raised up.
4) Information - Change requires that new people have access to certain information, which means that some people will feel out of the "information loop". While it is important to make sure the appropriate people are appropriately informed, those who are driven by information will fight to be "in the know" and thus, conflict.
5) Visibility - Change requires that new people become more prominently visible, while others who use to be prominently visible become less so. Sadly, by causing conflict over their loss of visibility, such people often forget that Jesus is still watching their behavior and is quite disappointed.
6) Energy - Change requires more physical, emotional, and spiritual energy than might have been needed in prior stages of ministry. As the pace picks up, the leaders need to be fully capable of taking on the load. If they are not capable, they should quickly be replaced. The replaced often complain about things changing too fast and rather than humbly accept their limits and find a place to serve that best suits their energy levels they cause conflict.
7) Expedient Pace - Change requires that decisions be made at an expedient pace so the church can mature and grow. Some people value their ability to control the pace of the church decision making because it is a form of power and rule.
8) Control - Church change results in less control over everything! The church is like a river that can be channeled and influenced for progress and power. However, every attempt to control a church kills either the church or the person seeking to control the church.

In summary, for a church to grow it must accept the pain that accompanies change. Because we want more people to have a relationship with God and worship Him we must be willing to accept the inevitable conflict that change brings.

Which of the eight forms of conflict have you seen active in a church? Was it handled properly?

10 Things You Didn't Know About Senior Pastors of Large Churches

I read a very cool article pulled from a survey of 232 pastors of churches that have an attendance (on average) of at least 2,000 people. Interesting stuff that came out of it - thought I would share. Let me know what you think.

1. They think of themselves more as teachers and directional leaders than as pastors.
Sure, their business cards may say pastor and their congregants may call them Pastor Smith -- but when these leaders are asked which phrase best describes how they see themselves and their role, the phrase "pastor, shepherd or spiritual guide" ranks a distant fourth.

Which words do today's senior leaders resonate with? When presented with nine options, more than 80% select "preacher/teacher." Half choose the term "directional leader," and slightly more than a third select the word "visionary."

2. Preaching tops the list of things they do best.
Jesus spent a lot of time healing people, but only 1% of senior pastors surveyed say visiting members, the sick and shut in is something they personally do best. Only 7% say they're great at converting others to the faith, and only 10% identify pastoral counseling and spiritual direction as an area of significant strength. These results may seem problematic, but with a high value on lay involvement and an average reported staff of 55, it's likely that others at the church excel in these areas.

So where do senior pastors believe their strengths lie? Seventy nine percent say they're best at "preaching" followed by "thinking about and promoting a vision and goals for the future."

3. They haven't always worked in churches.
Although most attended church regularly at the age of 16, 42% of them spent five or more years working in another field before entering the pastorate. The most popular prior career choice? Business. Meanwhile, a third of senior pastors' spouses work both outside the home and outside the church.

4. Being an extrovert isn't mandatory.
Yes, their role demands that they be comfortable standing on a platform and speaking in front of large crowds. But nearly half of them say they're somewhat or very introverted.

5. Family stays at the top of mind when it comes to prayers.
In a 53-hour work week, megachurch senior pastors spend a full 19 hours in and preparing for preaching, teaching and worship, 9 hours in meetings--and 5 hours in intentional prayer and meditation.

When they pray, who do they pray for? Their family (94%) and themselves (84%) primarily, followed by church staff (76%) and other individuals at church (64%). Almost two-thirds say they seldom pray for political leaders and roughly 20% say they never do. Similarly, only 19% regularly pray for their neighbors.

6. They usually like the people they work with.
Megachurch pastors report low levels of conflict in their churches, and high levels of satisfaction with the individuals they work with. Only 5% of pastors report being "somewhat dissatisfied" with the church board; the remaining 95% of pastors gave satisfactory ratings. Worship directors got the lowest rating of "very dissatisfied" but only among a mere 2% of the pastors surveyed.

7. They believe their top gift is leadership.
According to our survey, the spiritual gifts most often possessed by large-church senior pastors are leadership (77%) and teaching (67%), distantly followed by exhortation (21%).

8. They are actively involved in sports.
When asked "in which of these areas outside your church community would you describe yourself as ‘currently active'," the most common answer was not a school-related activity, a social service or hobby group; it was a parachurch group (37%), followed by a sports league (34%) and denominational activities (32%). As was found to be the case in Leadership Network's recent executive pastor survey, the top non-church involvement for senior pastors in large churches is sports leagues. In fact "sports" is also the most frequently mentioned way megachurch pastors say they maintain their sanity during crazy or stressful moments of ministry.

9. They find worship at their church helpful for personal spiritual growth.
One might think that working at a church could hinder full engagement in the worship experience, however 41% of pastors surveyed said that worship services were extremely helpful for them. On the flip-side, only 27% of senior pastors report finding small groups extremely helpful to their spiritual growth, and 11% went on record to say they're not very helpful at all. Personal time with God still tops the list with 79% saying that reading the Bible, prayer or solitude is "extremely helpful" to spiritual growth. This finding also parallels the responses of executive pastors.

10. They're not thinking about quitting.
In today's world, people tend to switch careers a lot. But what about pastors? Just under half of large church senior pastors surveyed admit they've thought about leaving their church to enter a different occupation in the last five years, although on the upside, most say it's only "once in a while." Furthermore, when asked about their plans to retire, on average senior pastors expect to be in their position for 17 more years (until age 68) – on top of the 15 they've already put into their role.

I feel called...

Precursor:
Before I start, I want it to be clear that anything and everything I ever say or write comes from somebody else. I don't claim to be wise by any means. I just listen and read a lot. And so whenever I come to the blank whiteboard of iRescue, it is oftentimes because my thoughts and/or emotions just got sparked by something someone else said. This is definitely one of those times.
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I've heard MANY people use the term "calling". In fact, I myself have used the phrase, "I have been called into a full-time, life-time ministry." I, along with many people, use these words to try and communicate that we feel God has given us a specific "missional" assignment in the kingdom. But, now that I read and think more about it, I wonder if this type of language is misleading.

The truth is, Christian's have already been given The Call; it is inherent in being a disciple. If you are already a Christian that desires to use your passion and abilities to worship God and lead others into worshiping God, then you are a disciple. The call has already been issued: "Glorify Me in all that you do. Love and serve your neighbor. Go into the world and preach the gospel to every person." That's it.

Now, each person must evaluate how this call specifically relates to them. God does give direction like He did to Paul in Acts 16:8 as He told Paul to go to Macedonia. But this direction and guidance will always be in retrospect of the call that we already have.

So, I think that instead of waiting for "the call", we should go ahead and recognize that we have already all been called and find out how we can each individually best fulfill our missional role as Christ-followers.

For those brilliant mathematicians that like to get their hands dirty - go be the best engineer you can be. But don't forget your calling. For the skillful businessman with incredible leadership abilities - go run a thriving corporation. But don't forget your calling. And for that pastor that just cannot get away from the church - go preach and lead that congregation. But don't forget that your calling is the same as every other Christian's - love Jesus and tell others about Him.


For more on this, check out The Resurgence's new blog: http://theresurgence.com/greear_language-of-calling-part1

I'd like to hear what you think. My mind is still racing on this one and I am still unsure about all of my thoughts on this. Add a comment below!

From Memory to Memorial

Genesis 9:11-17; Genesis 28:18-22; Exodus 20:8-11; Joshua 24:26-27; 1 Samuel 7:12; 1 Corinthians 11:23-34.

Just a few of the times in Scripture in which a person, a group of people, or God Himself set up a memorial. All are different situations with different reasons behind them, but each memorial was set up for the same purpose - to honor God, to remember what He had done, and to pass on their traditions and truths to later generations.

Whether it was stones in the wilderness or a rainbow in the sky, memorials were set up all throughout the Bible, and I believe we as Christians would be smart to follow this pattern. In fact, I believe we are expected to.

Memorials are demanded. Methods are diverse.

Some may write blogs. Some may write in diaries (women) or journals (men). Others may take pictures or keep mementos. And even some may feel the need to paint, draw, or sculpt.

Don't say you can just remember it all because you can't. And even if you are superhuman and can, how is your incredible, flawless memory going to benefit your children, your children's children, and your children's children's children?

We need to make memorials in our lives so that we can look back and remember the faithfulness of God to show up in this situation, to answer this prayer, to work in the life of that friend, or to do this miracle.

And it doesn't have to be a daily thing. It can be something you do weekly or even biweekly. But it needs to be regular and consistent. Because we, as God's people, need to remember the things that God has done for us, honor Him for the things he Has done for us, and share the things that He has done for us.

P.S. We wouldn't have a Bible or any knowledge of Christian history if those before us hadn't taken this to heart. So maybe we should too.

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"I will teach you hidden lessons from our past—stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us. We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders. For he issued his laws to Jacob; he gave his instructions to Israel. He commanded our ancestors to teach them to their children, so the next generation might know them—even the children not yet born—and they in turn will teach their own children. So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands."
Psalm 78:2-7

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Worship

Everyone worships.

Everyone, all the time, is continually worshiping - giving themselves away to, identifying themselves in the light of, or giving the glory to someone or something.

Even those that do not know Christ are worshipers. They are living for something - significant other, sex, money, Grade Point Average, work, music, sports, etc.

True worship = Living for the glory of God the Creator.
Idolatry = Living for the glory of Creation.

We, all people, were created to worship God and enjoy creation. Not the opposite. When the opposite occurs, we find ourselves in idolatry. And sadly, at some time or another, we all find ourselves in a situation in which we are worshiping something other than God.

The tough thing is that most of the time we aren't worshiping things that are bad. In fact, we oftentimes find ourselves worshiping things that are good. But what happens is this:

We take a good thing, we make it a God-thing, and that is a bad thing.

For example, a single man can be looking for a wife - that is a good desire. Proverbs 18:22 says "He who finds a wife finds what is good..." But if he deifies (makes a god of) a bride, then singleness is his hell. Marriage is his heaven. And a woman is his savior.

Another example - A woman can yearn to be a mother (good thing). But when that yearning turns into her main motivation and driving force in life that good thing slowly becomes a God-thing, and that is a bad thing. Being motherless becomes her hell. Having a child delivers her into her heavenly kingdom of motherhood. And that child becomes her savior.

Idols give false identity. They try and define who we are and we allow that to happen. There are those that have idolized position in the church, position in the workplace, a husband or wife, or even worship itself. People find their identity in these things and when these things fall apart so does the person. And we oftentimes don't notice we worship these things until they are taken away.

We have got to direct our worship back to the Creator. When we start to see ourselves slipping into worship of creation we must immediately make some changes. If we fail to do this, we become like the rest of mankind that Paul talks about here:

Romans 1:25 - "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised."

We are all worshipers. What is it that you are worshiping?

Death by Process

I just listened to Ed Young and his team talk about the concept and tendency of churches to experience "Death by Process". What this is is when churches see a process working for another church, and since it works for that church, they assume that it will work for their church. They then implement that process in the life of their church only to find out that it doesn't work, in fact, it sometimes works negatively and causes decrease in whatever area they were hoping to see increase.

We often tend to think that what works for one successful church will flawlessly work for our churches. This isn't the case. There is always a story behind the story.

Church A might succeed in adding another contemporary service with flashing lights, smoke, and a loud rock band. While Church B might fall flat on their face when trying to do the same. The story behind the story might be that Church A is in the middle of a young adult community in Austin, Texas, while Church B might be a growing church in Bentonville, Arkansas, that is surrounded by an older generation of people that like country music and everything simple.

What works perfectly for one church will not work perfectly for another.

What will work is taking a concept or idea that is working for one church and applying it to your own scenario and situation. Change and adapt. Make it your own. Maybe Church B would benefit from adding another contemporary service but cancel the lights, smoke, and glitter, and add a loud traditional band that can start to bridge the gap between the old folks and the younger ones in the community.

If you completely mimic another church's process, you will most likely experience death.
If you take another church's process and adapt it to fit your situation with your story behind the story, then you are on your way to success.