He has all the answers, knows just what the church needs to do in order to grow and is certain that the church will follow his lead. They better. They need him. Without him, that church can not thrive.
A new worship program, a new youth program, a church building renovation project to modernize the worship center and a half-dozen new paid staff positions... the plan can not fail.
He can already see the praise band, the people singing, hands lifted up to the Lord. He can already see himself leading a staff meeting, preaching from the new pulpit, utilizing state of the art multi-media displays to accentuate his Sunday morning message.
Oh, but wait! What's this? The church voted down his plan for church revitalization? WHY? What gives? Who do these people think they are? Why they must be a bunch of Pharisees stuck in their traditions... more in love with their traditions than they are with reaching people.
Furiously, he rips into them, decrying their dead works of tradition and telling them that they'll never grow until they get with it. Furiously, he storms out the door. Will he be back? Will they be back? Has God been honored in this situation? Did the preacher even consult the Lord? Did the Lord answer? If so, why did the Lord direct him to cause disorder in the church?
We have a problem in the Lord's churches today. Church growth has become a competitive sport, with some pastors ranking themselves and others based on who is able to lead their church to change and grow. It is a race of who can be the most innovative, who can use the latest techniques, vocabulary, who has the best technology, who has the latest Bible translation, and in some cases, who's worship band has signed a contract with the biggest label.
Indeed, churches have become like NFL franchises, and the pastor is the head coach. Churches have become multi-million dollar corporations, and the pastor is the CEO.
Just two small problems. (1) Many times, these carnal pastors, full of the pride of life, throw well seasoned Christians, men and women who have served the Lord faithfully their entire lives, under the bus, calling them hypocrites, pharisees, and challenging their faith. This is done in the name of "change," "progress," and "reaching the unreached." The other problem, (2) GOD NEVER CALLED ANY MAN TO REMAKE THE CHURCH AFTER HIS OWN IMAGE!
These type of pastors have as much love for seasoned Christians and long-term church members as Rush Limbaugh has for Nancy Pelosi. They see these aging deacons, ladies auxiliary officers and Sunday school teachers as obstacles to overcome in order to obtain church growth. There is a certain amount of animosity from progressives toward these Christians. The fact that animosity is in place is evidence of a spiritual problem on the part of the progressive pastor, not the church member. While this type of pastor may feel that the church member is more in love with the traditions than the Lord, the fact is this type of pastor is more in love with his new ideas than he is the church member.
1 John 2:9 says "He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now." Don't sit there and criticize, run down, and complain about your church members, your brothers and sisters in Christ, then try to tell me how spiritual you are. You are not, and your attitude and the Bible bear witness to that fact.
Secondly, if you truly want to have a successful ministry, one that God will reward, you need to remember what your role is. Ephesians 4:12 says your work is the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry, and the edifying of the body of Christ (the local church). If you want to see true church growth, perfect your saints. That means to equip them for the work of the ministry, which is making disciples (evangelism and teaching).
Furthermore, 2 Timothy 4:5 says "Do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry." Did God truly call you to preach the Gospel? Then why are you not soul-winning? Do you really want to reach the unreached? Why aren't you knocking on their doors.
The work of a pastor is to train the church to do the Great Commission (which is soul-winning, baptizing and teaching, not total change and cosmetic appeal), and to do the Great Commission himself, not to remake the church after his own image.
Why do I bring all this up? Why did I go on this rant? Why?
Because I, for one, and tired of hearing news about a church split where a pastor thought he had to effect a bunch of change to reach new people. I'm tired of hearing how that church was divided and torn apart because the pastor insisted on ramming his agenda through business meeting. I'm tired of hearing about believers being wounded by pastors who degrade them for not "getting with it." I'm tired of it!
I am not anti-Contemporary worship. However, Contemporary worship never won a single soul to the Lord (neither did traditional.) The preaching of the Gospel and the work of evangelists have won multitudes of souls for the Lord. A new worship center can not win souls, but a spirit-filled preacher can. A cool, hip approach to church can not welcome a visitor like a church where there is a sweet spirit.
Brethren, it is time to quit wasting time and churches on this nonsense and get back to basics. Evangelism and teaching. May God bless you where you minister.
5 comments:
In agreement here on all points.
I have one particular hypothetical situation which I'm not sure I know how to handle. If a younger (or many younger) adults/children want to make a change in the church, but the elderly don't desire to do it, I would be faced with a dilemma. I knew a few adults personally who left their church after trying to work with the youth, but were time and again stopped b/c the pastor sided with the elderly every time. Everything they felt led of God to do in ministering to the church, they were stopped (whether it was mission trips, VBS things, skits, etc.) They felt like they could not serve God there, and so they (along with about 15 younger couples) left the church. They didn't "rally" or politic to get anyone else to leave. These were just the people who helped with youth who all left about the same time (within the period of a year or two).
How should the pastor deal with such a situation?
Unfortunately, this situation has become common in our churches as well.
Usually in dealing with mission trips, VBS, skits, special music presentations, the concern is (a) is there enough money to pay for it, (b) are there enough adult volunteers and (c) will it replace or interfere with a worship service.
Each of these situations should be dealt with differently, but all require leadership on the pastor's part to see the value of each group (young and old) to the work of the Lord, and the ability of the pastor to effectively communicate each side's concerns to the other, being able to lay aside reservations and overcome fears.
For things such as VBS, common objections are that there is not enough money to purchase the literature and hold VBS, and there are not enough workers. If you have a significant number of young adult workers, obstacle #2 has been overcome already.
Regarding Obstacle #1 (finances), you may have to turn to the workers and those with a vested interest to finance the VBS from their own pockets for the first year, or adopt a really low budget ($200) and encourage giving among the supporters to overcome that impact on the church budget.
If need be, allowing the adults to still have class somewhere on Wednesday night might still be necessary. Usually, if the first VBS goes off successfully (meaning no major negative incidents) and the church doesn't go bankrupt, and the building is still standing afterwards, then usually the older adults will be on board for the next year. It is rare that seniors despise children's ministry. Usually they just don't want to see it go badly.
Regarding skits, the most common objection will be that it will replace the preaching with entertainment. Insure to your seniors that the preaching will still take place, but the skit is nothing more than a "special."
If that doesn't work, consider having the youth hold a special event for the entire church outside of normal worship service, say, after a lunch fellowship or on a Saturday evening, where the entire church is invited to view the skit.
Mission trips and camp will be a matter of financing and safety, as well as whether the church is legally at risk of litigation should anything go wrong. Once financing and safety concerns are put to rest, usually these go well too.
All of these scenarios are possible with God's help, and with the pastor realizing that the church is bigger than him. Should two factions arise in disagreement within the church, the pastor must avoid the temptation to side with one and defeat the other.
He must remind himself that in situations like these, all are working for the Lord. Realizing that, he can begin to work with both groups, bringing them to a mutually agreeable compromise where each others' reservations are overcome.
Patience is also key, on everyone's part, and the pastor must continually remind the congregation of this. It may take a year or two to learn the best way of doing Bible School or Discovery, but it will get there. It may take a while to bring the rest of the church alongside the youth or seniors' group. Keeping both sides reminded of this will also go a long way.
Being able to sort these things out is what separates pastors from preachers.
Regarding Obstacle #1 (finances),
Not really what I was thinking of, but good advice. I just figure if a church has no finances, then it has no finances. That wasn't the concern with VBS about which I was thinking.
I was thinking about elderly being against new things like parts of the VBS, whether it be the theme or the videos or the activities. And the same elderly oppose it and throw a fit about it to members throughout the church EVERY year, but won't bring it up in business meeting b/c they know it wont' do any good. This "rare" occurrence is more common in Northwest LA than you might think. Usually it isn't the majority of elderly, but often is a quite a few who go about trash talking the VBS before it even starts.
"Regarding skits"
The argument I've heard is not that it replaces preaching, but that it resembles "dancing" in that there are staged movements. Also that they don't like the idea of a skit b/c it is new.
"Mission trips and camp will"
Same case. These people are opposed to camps b/c they are not in the Bible (and ultimately b/c they did not have them when they were kids since they don't mind the things that aren't in the Bible that they DID have as kids such as pianos, bathrooms, fellowship halls, buildings, altars, invitations, revivals, etc.)
Thanks for the advice.
Well, in this case, the best advice I can give you is to go back to the basics... not the ABA doctrinal statement, but rather the basics for why the church exists in the first place. The church exists to make disciples, baptize and teach.
It will take a long time in that pastorate, but if the scriptures regarding the church are taught, and the congregation is willing to listen and apply the Word to their lives, then change in this regard will happen.
The important thing is to love the people while you minister to them. To love them means that yoru emphasis is helping them grow, not running them off so you can grow your church. (Not that you'd do such a thing, but I think we sometimes need reminding of why we are in ministry.)
DISCLAIMER: The memories I have are of churches I visited when younger. They are not any churches in which I pastored, youth pastored, or had a significant role. I just witnessed these things and this is what my discussion was about.
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