Methodist Hashtags

Posted on April 9, 2011 by David

Here are some twitter hashtags:

#emergingumc
#methomergent
#umclead: Responses to the Call to Action event

Unwilling

Posted on June 27, 2009 by David

Adam Hamilton said something that really has caused me to pause and reflect. He said that successful (however you define it) pastors and churches are willing to do what unsuccessful pastors and churches are not willing to do. This seems to make a lot of sense. It is not only true of pastors and churches, but of musicians, athletes parents and students. Really it is true of just about everyone.

In the book Outliers Malcolm Gladwell discusses the very successful. Among his various observations is the ten thousand hour rule. Ten thousand hours is the time it takes to become successful. If you want to be a virtuoso, then you will need to practice around ten thousand hours Malcolm says. Sure talent plays a role, but the findings are that ten thousand trumps innate talent.

Successful people are willing to put in the time; in the gym, the practice room, the library, etc. The unsuccessful ones just are not willing to do so.

Perhaps one of the most productive things we can do is determine what we are not willing to do as individuals. Ten thousand hours is a lot of time. It takes most people about 10 years. I might not be interested.

What are we not willing to do as a church? The ten thousand hours may not come into play, but it is still helpful to know. Are you not willing to help in the nursery? VBS? There are things I’m not willing to do. Just remember though, the successful churches are those who are willing to do what the unsuccessful aren’t.

– Post From My iPhone

Embracing our theology

Posted on June 25, 2009 by David

Listening to Adam Hamilton caused me to realize that as United Methodists we need to embrace our theology. It is one that connects the head and the heart. Hopefully I can post more later.

– Post From My iPhone

Pastors and Expectations

Posted on October 16, 2008 by David

Someone once told me that a pastor is the only person who has two hundred bosses. That is…if you serve a church with two hundred members. The larger the church, the more ‘bosses’ you have. Of course I chuckled at that. It isn’t nearly that bad, but one of the pressures of being of pastor is a sense that you have different sets of expectations that aren’t always compatible, thus the idea of multiple bosses.

In the previous article I listed the expectations the Discipline has. They are varied and many. Yet, there are times when the district has their own set of expectations (that are usually backed up in the Discipline) as does the conference. There are also expectations coming from your church, your community, your family and even yourself. Over and beyond that we have a sense that God has expectations too. So, what is a pastor to do? Who trumps whom? Should we always meet expectations coming from our church, or should it always be the district/conference? Or maybe our family? Where do our own expectations formed in prayer, silence and spiritual practices come into play?

There have been times when I’ve felt like I’m running around trying to keep multiple plates spinning at once. Other times I feel like I’m walking on a tightrope high above the cold hard ground trying to stay balanced. Keeping conflicting expectations (which do occur) balanced isn’t so much a science than it is an art. I believe age and maturity can help us prioritize our lives. Our understanding of worth and where we receive a sense of validation is one of the main factors in how we keep things in balance and decide what we must do and what we can leave undone. If we receive our worth and feelings of validation from being viewed as the pastor who has it all together and can do ‘all things’ then the church’s expectations will probably win. If our validation comes from a positive view of our DS, bishop or other connectional colleague, then we will try to meet and exceed our conference/district expectations.

A sense of worth, validation and esteem are powerful motivators. Jesus even spoke to this. He asks, what good is it to gain the whole world, yet loose your soul? I have to ask myself: What good is it to have all those around you sing your praises if you are empty inside? If we get our sense of worth and validation anywhere other than God, there is a possibility that we will be led to a wrong end.

We will always have conflicting expectations. The question is, will we be able to manage them? I suggest spending time discerning what God’s call is for you as a pastor. What passions has God placed in your life? There will always be expectations surrounding you and ministry, but it is important to spend time allowing God to leading to those one or two things God has called you to. This is not as easy as it sounds. We must first put aside all of our agendas and ambitions. We must stifle the voice of the culture that will try to define what ‘success’ looks like. Success is discovering God’s will for you and following that without guilt or apology. Listening in prayer is important and so is listening to spiritually mature individuals whom you trust.

Once you believe you know what God’s call for you is, then it is time to deal with issues such as productivity, distractions, time management, delegation, etc. I will discuss these things in later postings. The first task is to spend time with God discerning God’s will and praying the prayer that Jesus prayed (“not my will, but Your’s be done”). God’s will is the foundation from which ministry will flow.

On Pastoral Work

Posted on September 30, 2008 by David

Okay. I’ll admit it. I’m a pastor. It is what I do. It is who I am. I can’t get away from it. Every Monday morning I get up and I start the week doing the work of a pastor. I know I’m not alone. There are a lot of pastors out there. Perhaps you are one…or know one. But what does it mean to be a pastor? What is our work really about? How do we know when we are doing the work of a pastor? How do we know if we are doing the work of the pastor?

The Book of Discipline has some things to say about pastoral work. Even though pastors are ordained to Word, Sacrament, Order and Service there are many things that potentially includes. Here is what 2004 Book of Discipline says (I’ve condensed some of this so it isn’t ‘word for word’ but it does include all of the responsibilities listed in paragraph 340):

Word
- Preach, lead in worship, read and teach the scripture and engage the people in study and witness
  - Ensure faithful transmission of the Christian faith
  - Lead people in discipleship and evangelistic outreach
- Counsel persons with personal, ethical, or spiritual struggles
- Perform the ecclesial acts of marriage and burial
  - perform marriages after due counsel in accordance with state laws and rules of the UMC.
  - With funerals/memorials provide care and grief counseling
- Visit in the homes of the church and community, especially the sick, aged, imprisoned, and others in need
- Maintain all confidences inviolate except in the cases of suspected child abuse or neglect, or in cases where mandatory reporting is required by civil law.
Sacrament
- Administer the sacraments of baptism and the Supper of the Lord according to Christ’s ordinance
  - Prepare the parents and sponsors before baptizing infants or children, and instruct them concerning the sacrament’s significance and their responsibilities.
  - Encourage reaffirmation of the baptismal covenant and renewal of baptismal vows at different stages of life
  - Encourage people baptized in infancy or early childhood to make their profession of faith, after instruction, so that they might become professing members of the church
  - Explain the meaning of the Lord’s Supper and to encourage regular participation as a means of grace to grow in faith and holiness
  - To select and train others to serve the consecrated communion elements
- Encourage the private and congregational use of the other means of grace
Order
- To be the administrative officer of the local church and to assure that the organizational concerns of the congregation are adequately provided for
  - To give pastoral support, guidance, and training to the lay leadership, equipping them to fulfill the ministry to which they are called
  - To give oversight to the educational program of the church and encourage the use of United Methodist literature and media
  - To be responsible for organizational faithfulness, goal setting, planning and evaluation.
  - To search out and counsel men and women fo rthe ministry of deacons, elders, local pastors and other church related ministries.
- To administer the temporal affairs of the church in their appointment, to the annual conference, and the general church
  - To administer the provisions of the Discipline
  - To give an account of their pastoral ministries to the charge and annual conference according to the prescribed forms
  - To provide leadership for the funding ministry of the congregation
  - To promote faithful, financial stewardship and to encourage giving as a spiritual discipline
  - To lead the congregation in the fulfillment of its mission through full and faithful payment of all apportioned ministerial support, administrative, and benevolent funds
  - To care for all church records and local church financial obligations, and certify the accuracy of all financial, membership, and any other reports submitted by the local church to the annual conference for use in apportioning costs back to the church
- To participate in denominational and conference programs and training opportunities
  - To seek out opportunities for cooperative ministries with other United Methodist pastors and churches
  - To be willing to assume supervisory responsibilities within the connection
- To lead the congregation in racial and ethnic inclusiveness
Service
- To embody the teachings of Jesus in servant ministries and servant leadership
- To give diligent pastoral leadership in ordering the life of the congregation for discipleship in the world
- To build the body of Christ as a caring and giving community, extending the ministry of Christ to the world
- To participate in community, ecumenical and inter-religious concerns and to encourage the people to become so involved and to pray and labor for the unity of the Christian community.

That is quite a list. It is important to notice that while there are many responsibilities, they also vary greatly. For example: Pastors are supposed to be counselors and administrators along with teachers and in some respect scholars. Added to those four roles, pastors are also to be able to communicate, that is preach, effectively. Is it any wonder why pastors can find their task challenging and at times frustrating. I also wonder if there is any one person who can adequately, let a lone successfully, fulfill all of the varied roles.

Yet, there is another aspect to pastoral work. The Discipline can say all it wants about pastoral roles, but most pastors believe they also have a calling from God. One of my wonders is whether it is possible for one person to be all the Discipline calls him or her to be and all God calls that person to be. Is it possible that if a person fulfills the calling of the Discipline they may fail their calling of God? How can one know? How can a pastor know he or she is being faithful rather than shirking his or her responsibilities?

It would be easy for a pastor to get by with doing little or not much at all. Most pastors don’t have anyone holding them accountable for how they spend their time. While some pastors spend as much as twenty hours on sermon preparation, others could just ‘wing’ it. There may be a segment of pastors who know that and exploit it for their benefit. That being said, I find the vast majority of pastors have a strong work ethic and probably do more than their congregation ever knows about. They are diligent workers because they are trying to please their Lord.

I’m planning on posting several articles exploring what it means to be a pastor. I want to explore the ambiguity, difficulties, loneliness, joy, struggle, emotions that are connected with being a 21st century pastor. These articles will be my perspective and opinions. You can feel free to disagree and you probably will. I am also interested in your experiences, thoughts, opinion and stories. How are you doing in ministry? Is it a joy or burden? Are you doing well, or are you struggling? I don’t plan on posting anything you send to me unless you give me specific permission to do so.

If you comment on this article it could begin a conversations.

The next article in this series will be Pastors and Expectations.

Cluster Headaches

Posted on September 29, 2008 by David

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a fan of the new cluster model being introduced in my conference. On the surface it seems a positive move, but I believe in practice it will not be as beneficial as believed. Why? Geography. The idea is that United Methodist churches will ‘cluster’ together to do ministry in their community. While that may work with churches in a large city, it will not with those of us in smaller communities. The closest UMC to me is about 20 minutes away in a neighboring town. The communities are not the same. We are suppose to have four or more churches involved. If that is the case, that means we will have churches from four different communities. I could go on, but basically I feel it will be next to impossible for multiple rural area churches to come together and have a cooperative ministry to each individual community. With the price of gas, and the “time crunch” issues I believe there is a potential that individuals will choose either the cluster ministry or local church ministry, but not both.

I guess Google feels the same way. When I opened up this email from my DS about the cluster kickoff, I also noticed that Google had placed an advertisement to “End cluster headaches.” How did they know??? Perhaps I can bookmark this site for later use…

Getting More Done by Doing Less

Posted on September 25, 2008 by David

This is a Google Tech Talk by Marc Lesser. Even though he comes from a Zen background, there are still some excellent points, especially for those of us called to lead churches in this culture. One of the things he talks about (especially at the end of this) is about chaos/innovation. It makes sense but I had never put those two things together before.

He says something as simple as wearing your watch on the other wrist puts you into ‘chaos.’ It shakes things up. From this unfamiliarity innovation can be birth. I see how this is possible. Of course we have all heard the quip “if you keep doing what you always have done you will keep getting what you have always had…” or something like that. If we continue to do things the same way, there really isn’t much chance for innovation.

Chaos forces us to look at things differently. It forces us to access what is important and what is not. If we are thrown into chaos by some type of catastrophe, we find ourselves doing things differently. This also means that we will look at things differently too.

One of the things I’m taking away from this is to not fear the chaos. Also it might be good to create my own chaos from time to time. Perhaps something as simple as changing the time of a meeting, or the order of service might help us to find ways to innovate. This is not change for change’s sake, but rather using change (or chaos) as a tool toward innovation.

In the UMC we are in a type of chaos with the decline in membership/worship/etc. Yet, this has been such a slow decline that we have been able to adapt rather than being thrown into complete chaos. We still believe we can ‘fix’ the things that are wrong. Perhaps it is time to make drastic changes to throw us into complete chaos. For example…how much chaos would we be in if we stopped statistical measurements? What if we canceled worship services? What if we stopped having our administrative meetings in the church building? You get the idea. We would be forced to think differently. That could be a very good thing.

A Reason To Sit in the Back Pew (or An Illustration Gone Bad)

Posted on September 18, 2008 by David

KOKOMO, Ind. — A pastor trying to demonstrate the concept of unity to his congregation broke his wrist when he accidentally drove a motorcycle off a 5-foot platform inside the church.

Kokomo pastor crashes motorcycle in church | IndyStar.com | The Indianapolis Star

Not too much of a point to this post. This happened over the summer in my home town, so I heard about it. It came up the other day, so I thought I’d look it up to see if there was more information. I guess from time to time my illustrations go bad…but at least I haven’t broken my wrist because of it. Perhaps more than anything, this shows how desperate pastors are to communicate the gospel. Or, it might show how much pressure we feel to do something extra-ordinary to keep the folks awake!

In some ways it is a sad indicator of where Americanized Christianity is. Why do pastors feel the need to bring dirt bikes, or live animals, or tractors, or a whole host of things onto the stage so that people will be interested? Why do we know have light shows, expensive theatre-type sanctuaries and larger than life screens? Why does it seem like we have to go to these extremes to keep people from saying church is boring?

Sex Scandal Plagues Methodist Founders

Posted on August 26, 2008 by David

Monday, March 22 [1736] While I was persuading Mr Welch not to concern himself in this disturbance, I heard Mrs Hawkins cry out: Murder! and walked away. Returning out of the woods, I was informed by Mr Welch that poor blockhead Mrs Welch had joined with Mrs Hawkins and the Devil in their slanders of me. I would not believe it till half the town told me the same, and exclaimed against her ingratitude.

From: Methodism founder Charles Wesley’s secret code diary cracked by priest -Times Online

Who would have known that something as innocent as Charles Wesley’s diary could generate ‘tabloid’ type headlines. Yet, that is what I find as I do a search for Wesley’s diary. It took Professor Kenneth Newport nine years to transcribe the 1000 page manuscript. The code, it seems, was based on John Byrom’s, an 18th Century poet, who published New Universal Shorthand in 1940. This was about 4 years after Wesley used it (or an adaptation of it) for his journal.

It makes sense that Charles would code his diary using something. After all, sexual allegations are not good for someone trying to reform the church. Some of the allegation sound a little far fetched to me however. According to the DailyMail.co.uk:

“A section reveals Mr Oglethorpe told Charles: ‘She came crying to me with complaints that you had confined her husband by keeping him three days under a tree, and come to bed with her’.
Charles fiercely denied the allegations - but also had to face taunts that he had sex with a maid.
He wrote that a pair of colonists shouted out to him as he strolled along in conversation with the maid: ‘There goes the parson with his whore. I saw her and him were under the bushes.’”

I have a hard time believing that Charles would have been able to trap a woman’s husband under a tree for three days. Also, if that were the case, why didn’t he come complaining to Mr. Oglethorpe (the mayor, I believe)? I’m not saying it didn’t happen (Charles said it didn’t), I’m just saying I have a hard time believing it. Yet, then, as well as today, people are more than ready to believe scandal, especially with those who are trying to call people to a higher calling in Christ. It happened then….it still happens today. I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised.

I am really interested in reading this when it comes out. It will give us insights into John and Charles’ relationship, their struggles, the pressures they were under and also remind us of the power of God to work through us and in spite of us.

You might also want to check out Ben Witherington’s blog post too!

Fuzzythinking

Thoughts on John Wesley, UMC, life, faith, and anything else!

Category Archives: Church