Working on a church staff is hard!

I traveled and talked with literally hundreds and hundreds of pastors and church leaders across the country.  I attended conferences lead by the superstars in the Christian world.  I read books and blogs, attended webinars, listened to podcasts and sermons, walked the beach reflecting on what God was revealing to me about what was and is happening in the church and specifically how trends are shaping ministry involvement today.

These are but a few of what others are saying as it relates to church…

• Need more evaluation
• Need to create a vision
• It’s not more vision but understanding your culture
• Need a strategy
• Sermons need to be deeper and more biblical
• Sermons need to be more relevant
• Churches need to be more social media friendly
• Churches need to become more technologically savvy
• Churches need to get back to building face-to-face relationships
• Churches are not hiring and depending more on volunteers
• More Americans are attending church
• Less Americans are attending church
• Need to be more actively involved in government politics
• Need to be less involved in government politics
• Giving is down
• Is there a way to do more with less
• Denominations are dead
• Big box church will continue to attract
• House churches are the next “big thing”
• Churches need to be more ethnically diverse
• Christians need more passion for the world
• It is not about missions but being missional
• Christians are becoming more theologically ignorant
• Need to portray more tolerance to those outside the church
• Need to call sin and be less tolerant

The list could go on and on.  Entire books, seminars, sermons and online media forums are working overtime to convince you and me that what the church, its leaders and people need is to _________________ (you fill in the blank).  Maybe it is my age, but ministry and direction for leading ministry is becoming more and more complicated and confusing.  It seems for every idea to take us to the promised land another idea downplays the one we just learned about and offers the perfect solution to solve our issue and take us to where we want to be in our church and ministry.

Sad But True

One message I am not hearing on a regular basis is that people need a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  If I do hear this message it is often buried within some self-help message or in such an un-winsome and/or irrelevant way that it will cause people to move further away from Christ or ignore the message.  Sad but often true of me is that I think way too much about methods, models and messages to influence the organization of the church in a positive manner and not the organs that pump life into the Body of Christ.

Church Consultant Is Suppose To Give Answers

I know a church consultant like myself is expected to give simple answers to complex challenges, but sometimes I feel we need to “just” ponder what the challenges are in our life and ministry.

• Maybe 2011 could be much more impactful if we would spend less time looking around and more time looking up and within ourselves.
• Maybe we could be more effective in 2011 if we spend less time listening to the latest superstar communicator and listening more to the Holy Spirit within each of us as believers.
• Maybe 2011 could be more fulfilling and significant if we strove to introduce more people to the Savior and fewer to our agendas.
• Maybe 2011 could be more successful if we focused on making Him successful and less on making ourselves successful.

As you begin 2011 I would welcome the opportunity to listen, encourage, advise and pray with you the direction you feel God is leading you and your ministry.  Thanks ahead of time for the privilege to come alongside you in the journey.

Recently I was in a church that intrigued me when they gave their weekly announcements at the end of the service.  The staff member talked about all the opportunities to get involved in ministry.  As I listened I realized every opportunity was about coming to an event to hear a person teach, not about what I considered “getting involved in ministry.”  Shortly thereafter, I was in a mall where a church was advertising, “How May We Help You? – Now Offering 162 Ministries for You and Your Family!”  Now let me state up front I am not against a church teaching its members truths from Scripture or offering ministries to help believers grow in their relationship with God and build strong families.  Paul teaches Timothy in II Timothy 3:16-17 that, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (NIV).  Paul is saying to Timothy teach in order that believers can serve.

The Swinging Pendulum

I’m afraid that often churches swing from one pendulum to another is not just hearing vs. doing.  So many churches will highlight one teaching in the Bible to the exclusion of another.  They will often do this with the one verse that is balanced in its command.  For example, in the Scripture above Paul writes about the importance of teaching so that a believer can be “equipped for every good work.”  Often those who believe in doing over teaching quote a verse like James 1:22, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says.”  However, when you look at God’s Word as a whole it is not either/or, but both/and when it comes to hearing and doing.

The reason I thought about writing today on this subject is yesterday when I was at church I read the church bulletin.  To my surprise the bulletin was about 50 percent opportunities to come and hear and 50 percent opportunities to go and serve.  Often during the Christmas season that is quickly approaching churches work extremely hard (which I am grateful) to provide opportunities for their members to help those less fortunate.  Let me give a quick challenge to you in evaluating your church’s advertisements this past year.  Did your church balance hearing and doing?  Was the hearing people received so that they could “…be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (II Timothy 3:17) or some type of self-help?  In closing to those of you reading that help shape the direction for your church calendar will you seek next year to balance hearing and doing?