Larry Doyle has written a good review of Richard Stearns' The Hole in Our Gospel. Is the church in America powerless because we have failed to be the radical voice that Jesus called us to be? Click the title of the blog to read Larry Doyle's review. Larry is the Director of Missions for the Piedmont Baptist Association in Greensboro/ High Point, NC.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Times are a Changin' - The Digital Age Grows Up
These numbers will make you say Hmmm and then OH ME.
In just 10 years, the world has changed significantly and the digital age has come into full swing. I believe these numbers are the tip of the iceberg. The big question to ask is "What has the church done to keep up?" Is it even necessary for the church to keep up? Click the blog title to look at the chart in Newsweek that shows us the advancement of the digital society over the last ten years.
In just 10 years, the world has changed significantly and the digital age has come into full swing. I believe these numbers are the tip of the iceberg. The big question to ask is "What has the church done to keep up?" Is it even necessary for the church to keep up? Click the blog title to look at the chart in Newsweek that shows us the advancement of the digital society over the last ten years.
What Causes Pastors to Burn Out?
Carol Howard Merritt has posted a note by this title on Facebook. It is excellent not only because it points to a number of reasons that pastors leave the ministry but it also shows the very real frustrations that pastors feel. I am posting the note here in its entirety and including a link at the end of the post if you want to read the post on FB.
Click here to read the original note of Facebook
Pastors have a fifty percent burnout rate. In the first couple of years of ministry, half of them will drop out. I expect this from nursing and teaching, but I didn’t know that the rate would be quite so high for the pastorate. Do our churches realize what we’re doing to our professionals? What about our denominations? When we put so much time and energy into preparing pastors for the ministry, isn’t it disconcerting to watch half of them leave within a couple of years? I have often seen people shrug off the burnout. They figure that the ones who were not tough enough left. We question their call into ministry, or find another way to blame the pastors for the failure.
But what if our assumptions are not true? What if blaming the pastor is not the solution to our problem, but compounds the problem? What if we’re losing our most gifted and talented professionals? What if it’s the healthy ones who are leaving? What if we ought to be looking at the employment situations instead of assuming it’s the minister’s fault? I wondered about this, so I asked my twitter community of pastors (I’m @CarolHoward) about why we fizzle out so quickly. This is the feedback that I heard.
The Financial Realities—No one entered the ministry to make a lot of money. We don’t expect to. But the problem occurs when it takes an awful lot of money to go to college and seminary. After seven years of no income and high tuition, most of us have tremendous debt, and when we take that first call in a small church or as an associate pastor, we simply cannot make the numbers add up. Too often, pastor salaries are decided by people who have never had to live with the reality of school loans, and the fact that their new pastor might be 40k in the hole never occurs to them. But the financial burden becomes too difficult for the pastor, and she has to walk away.
The Professional Loneliness—Clearly, after you become a pastor, going to a party will never be quite the same experience again. There are people who will tell you every problem they have had with religion, or every problem that they have in general. They will apologize for cursing or for drinking. Or they are entirely too happy that you’re a minister. And all of it can make a pastor long to be just an ordinary citizen of the world. The problem becomes compounded when the pastor is single. I recently went to lunch with a wonderful group of clergywomen, who explained that they do not tell guys their profession on the first few dates. They tell them that they work for a non-profit.
The Gaping Disconnect—There was also the sense that there was a detachment between the theory we learned in seminary, and the practical application that we needed in the church. For instance, we weren’t taught enough about finances, budgets, technology, or conflict management. I would add that we’re not taught evangelism in a way that is practically applicable either.
The Downward Trajectory—There was the difficulty of walking into a church that has been plummeting in membership for the last forty years. The frustration , anger, and longing to recreate the past looms large. Then when the new pastor walks in, he or she is considered to be either the bearer of salvation or the reason for the failure.
The Idea Dam—There was the palpable frustration over leaving seminary with great excitement and an innovative spirit for ministry, and then having all of that creativity blocked in the first few years. When a pastor is full of ideas, going into a declining church that is looking back, hoping to re-create the past, can be like a rush of water that hits a giant, concrete wall and has nowhere to go. As I look at generational theory, I can see that this could be a particularly frustrating thing for Generation X (those who are 28 to 48), because a leading characteristic that marks our Generation is innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit. Yet, in our churches, our creative flow can get quickly jammed.
Then there was The Problem of Productivity–We live in a world of metrics, reports, and data. Our congregants want to see our output, they want measurable proof that we have been working, that our time has been used in a valuable way. But what do you do when you spend ten hours of your week, counseling a couple through a terrible divorce? What do you do when you read a theological text to prepare for a sermon? How do you measure those hours, when you sneak off to the hospital to visit the teenager who just tried to commit suicide, but her parents don’t want anyone in the church to know about it? What about those weeks when your work calls you to be out of the office more than in it?
So much of our time is filled with work that cannot be measured, sometimes it cannot even be accounted for, but it is incredibly valuable. Not only that, but there seems to be a lack of trust underlying much of this inquiry. It can be quite frustrating to be laboring overwhelming hours, and then have anxious members checking to see if your car is in the church lot or have others proclaim that you “only work one hour week!”
It is clear that we cannot continue to train so many people and have them leaving the profession after a couple of years. So can we begin to imagine churches in which pastors can flourish? How can we communicate these problems to our congregations? What can we do for pastors who are starting out that might ease some of these tensions? What do you wish someone had done for you?
But what if our assumptions are not true? What if blaming the pastor is not the solution to our problem, but compounds the problem? What if we’re losing our most gifted and talented professionals? What if it’s the healthy ones who are leaving? What if we ought to be looking at the employment situations instead of assuming it’s the minister’s fault? I wondered about this, so I asked my twitter community of pastors (I’m @CarolHoward) about why we fizzle out so quickly. This is the feedback that I heard.
The Financial Realities—No one entered the ministry to make a lot of money. We don’t expect to. But the problem occurs when it takes an awful lot of money to go to college and seminary. After seven years of no income and high tuition, most of us have tremendous debt, and when we take that first call in a small church or as an associate pastor, we simply cannot make the numbers add up. Too often, pastor salaries are decided by people who have never had to live with the reality of school loans, and the fact that their new pastor might be 40k in the hole never occurs to them. But the financial burden becomes too difficult for the pastor, and she has to walk away.
The Professional Loneliness—Clearly, after you become a pastor, going to a party will never be quite the same experience again. There are people who will tell you every problem they have had with religion, or every problem that they have in general. They will apologize for cursing or for drinking. Or they are entirely too happy that you’re a minister. And all of it can make a pastor long to be just an ordinary citizen of the world. The problem becomes compounded when the pastor is single. I recently went to lunch with a wonderful group of clergywomen, who explained that they do not tell guys their profession on the first few dates. They tell them that they work for a non-profit.
The Gaping Disconnect—There was also the sense that there was a detachment between the theory we learned in seminary, and the practical application that we needed in the church. For instance, we weren’t taught enough about finances, budgets, technology, or conflict management. I would add that we’re not taught evangelism in a way that is practically applicable either.
The Downward Trajectory—There was the difficulty of walking into a church that has been plummeting in membership for the last forty years. The frustration , anger, and longing to recreate the past looms large. Then when the new pastor walks in, he or she is considered to be either the bearer of salvation or the reason for the failure.
The Idea Dam—There was the palpable frustration over leaving seminary with great excitement and an innovative spirit for ministry, and then having all of that creativity blocked in the first few years. When a pastor is full of ideas, going into a declining church that is looking back, hoping to re-create the past, can be like a rush of water that hits a giant, concrete wall and has nowhere to go. As I look at generational theory, I can see that this could be a particularly frustrating thing for Generation X (those who are 28 to 48), because a leading characteristic that marks our Generation is innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit. Yet, in our churches, our creative flow can get quickly jammed.
Then there was The Problem of Productivity–We live in a world of metrics, reports, and data. Our congregants want to see our output, they want measurable proof that we have been working, that our time has been used in a valuable way. But what do you do when you spend ten hours of your week, counseling a couple through a terrible divorce? What do you do when you read a theological text to prepare for a sermon? How do you measure those hours, when you sneak off to the hospital to visit the teenager who just tried to commit suicide, but her parents don’t want anyone in the church to know about it? What about those weeks when your work calls you to be out of the office more than in it?
So much of our time is filled with work that cannot be measured, sometimes it cannot even be accounted for, but it is incredibly valuable. Not only that, but there seems to be a lack of trust underlying much of this inquiry. It can be quite frustrating to be laboring overwhelming hours, and then have anxious members checking to see if your car is in the church lot or have others proclaim that you “only work one hour week!”
It is clear that we cannot continue to train so many people and have them leaving the profession after a couple of years. So can we begin to imagine churches in which pastors can flourish? How can we communicate these problems to our congregations? What can we do for pastors who are starting out that might ease some of these tensions? What do you wish someone had done for you?
Click here to read the original note of Facebook
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Older Churches, Budgets and making very Hard Decisions
This article really speaks to exactly where Lexington Avenue is. Just this year we have started meeting in our Family Life Center as the cost of heating and cooling the Worship Center for one hour a week was out of hand. Click the title of the blog to read the One News Now Article by Tom Breen.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Churches on Fire
This is a great blog by Jim Elliff of CCW.org. It simply reminds us of God's love for his church. Click the blog title to reaf Elliff's blog post
Friday, July 09, 2010
NC Pastor Fired as House Chaplain for Praying in Jesus' Name
Who would have ever thought this possible? Where is the First Amendment? What does it say? Congress shall make no law allowing anyone to be offended in any way. We are all different for crying out loud and just our differences can be offensive sometimes. BTW the actual first amendment says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Click the title of the blog to read the Fox News story
Click the title of the blog to read the Fox News story
Lebron's $25 Million Dollar Savings
This is interesting. It makes you realize the implications that lower taxes can have in terms of attracting business to a region. Click the title of the blog to read the Walletpop article by Kelly Phillips Erb. Thanks to my fellow thespian Jordan Googe for posting this on Facebook.
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
The Impact the SBC has had on Culture
While this article describes the reasons that news coverage of the SBC has declined over the years, ther is a lot of information here to be gleaned reading between the lines. Leonard and Stetzer provide some really eye opening insights. It reminds me of the barber quote I posted a few weeks back.
Preacher: "What do you know about Southern Baptists?"
Barber: "You fight a lot and you are against a lot of things."
Click the title of the blog to read the news article by Jeffrey Weiss of Politics Today.
Preacher: "What do you know about Southern Baptists?"
Barber: "You fight a lot and you are against a lot of things."
Click the title of the blog to read the news article by Jeffrey Weiss of Politics Today.
Monday, July 05, 2010
Great Homeschool News From Ebay
Ebay has rescinded their discriminatory policy of not allowing Home Schooling families to list the teacher editions and answer keys. Click the title of the blog to read a Q&A from Ebay.
Saturday, July 03, 2010
Sherwood’s Main Role
Sherwood’s Main Role is a blog about the role of Sherwood Church's commitment to their missiona focus. It is worthy of a couple of minutes to read. Click the blog title or the link above to read the Courageous blog.
Friday, July 02, 2010
The Mission Field of Haiti
This is a good article from World Relief. I am sincerely hoping that LABC will take up the World Relief banner in the fall and get involved is some missions with them. Time will tell. Click the title of the blog to read the article.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Pulpit Methodology
I am an expositor at heart but will from time to time preach series on topics using stand alone texts. I would welcome comments from those of you who desire to preach the whole counsel of God's word. Comment here or on Facebook. Click the title of the blog to read the article by Iain Campbell from Reformation21.
Ethics Matter on the Supreme Court
The abortion issue aside, anyone who would manipulate information such as this is not only unethical but dishonest. Is Elena Kagan President Obama's best choice for the high court? With lapses in integrity and honesty like this, I think he could do better.
Click the blog title to read the National Review Online Article by Shannen Coffin.
Click the blog title to read the National Review Online Article by Shannen Coffin.
Misusing Evangelical Material
This is an article on how a Mexican drug cartel is using evangelical literature for training purposes. It is an eye opening read.
Paul admonished Timothy to devote himself tot he public reading of the scriptures, exhortation and teaching: turning the 'logos' into the 'gramma.' Maybe the church n eeds to stop relying quite so much on Bible Study Material ans start looking more directly at the Word of God.
Click the blog title to read the Christianity Today article by Trevor Persaud.
Paul admonished Timothy to devote himself tot he public reading of the scriptures, exhortation and teaching: turning the 'logos' into the 'gramma.' Maybe the church n eeds to stop relying quite so much on Bible Study Material ans start looking more directly at the Word of God.
Click the blog title to read the Christianity Today article by Trevor Persaud.
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