The 7 Worst (and best) Things I Did in Traditional Church Ministry

by pastor Smith

I recently left a twenty-five year pastorate and the professional ministry. The move came after a two year struggle of conscience where I tried to do what Wolfgang Simpson describes as “trying to cross the river without getting your feet wet.” After a year of reflection I offer to you the seven worst/best things I did as a conventional  church pastor.

1. Took a full-time salary. Until I left the ministry I had no idea how corrupting a compensation package is to the church. It changes the way you think about yourself and changes the way people view you. You become a sort of professional  Christian that floats above the unwashed masses of laity. It affects your decision-making almost every day. The Trinity becomes Father, Son and Holy Cash Flow.

2. Defended tithing as a principle. This is closely related to the first point. By “defended” I mean that I never really believed that tithing was a  New Testament requirement but I kept the clergy conspiracy of silence in order to protect the finances of the church. By “principle” I mean a nicer word for “law.” No one in our congregation had to  tithe but if they wanted to be in any leadership role…well…

3. Preached every Sunday. This was a surprising one for me because like most pastors I had a high degree of (over) confidence in my ability to inspire, entertain, and transform lives from the pulpit. Now, of course, I realize that being the  voice of God week after week creates a group of listeners who have no confidence in their own ability to hear God let alone teach others.

4. Promoted music as worship. Anyone attending our church for very long would come away with the idea that the half-hour music concert at the beginning of every Sunday morning celebration was the high point of praising and worshiping God. Presenting yourself as a living sacrifice each day came in a distant second.

5. Marketed the church. I spent an inordinate amount of time and money through the years keeping the church in the public view of our community. Advertising, signage, and special events, took the place of signs, wonders, and miracles in practice if not in doctrine.

6. Established an equipping track. The equipping part is classic discipleship. It’s the “track” part that crossed the line. Trying to systematize spiritual growth is not only inorganic and unscriptural, it is also impossible. Much time, energy, and emotion blackmail was expended pushing people through artificial, inflexible programs that at the end of the day puffed up more than they built up.

7. Purchased a building. My crowning achievement as pastor was saddling my congregation with 20+ years of debt and maintenance costs.

Life isn’t all bad, however. Here are the seven best things I did as a pastor:

1. Established cell groups. Beginning in 1994 we spent more and more time and emphasis on small groups. Routinely we had more people involved in cells than were attending Sunday mornings.

2. Taught people how to have devotions. I spent two years equipping the congregation how to journal their way through the Bible. People still contact me to tell me how much it has meant to them.

3. Became a police chaplain. In a desire to reach out beyond the congregation and model evangelism, I acted as police chaplain of our city for 16 years.

4. Reached out on campus. The church I pastored is located in a college town. With several others in the church I reached out regularly doing surveys with students. Some of my best ministry memories happened during these outings.

5. Made disciples. The longer I pastored the more time I spent building relationships with people and the less I spent preparing for Sunday. Ironically the less time I spent on “quality control” the better the services became.

6. Never stopped praying or learning. I have always viewed prayer as the R&D department of the church. It was prayer that launched me into the ministry, prayer that sustained me in the ministry, and ultimately it was prayer that led me out of the ministry.

7. Pastored bi-vocationally. The first two years and the last two years I worked part-time outside the church. The first two out of necessity and the last two out of choice. The last two also prepared me to support myself in the simple church ministry role I have now.

I can summarize these two lists this way: Most of the worst things I did as a pastor I did promoting, protecting, maintaining, and leading Sunday morning services. Most of the best things I did as a pastor I did during the course of living life during the week. Hopefully these lists will help equip others to avoid the same mistakes.

Pastor Smith was a conventional church pastor for 25 years in the Northwest. He now lives with his wife in Las Vegas, NV coaching simple churches, reaching out to the lost, and ministering bi-vocationally.

Originally published here:
http://www.story.house2house.com/2011/03/18/the-7-worst-and-best-things-i-did-in-traditional-church-ministry/

Also found here: http://on.fb.me/Uc4Ie7

2013: Sink or Swim . . . Together!

Statistics may tell us many things, but they do not always tell us the truth. God’s redemptive action in history always trumps statistics. The ten spies reported the facts. God had  a higher reality.

However, to deny trends or to deny what statistics indicate is like playing in the band while the Titanic is sinking. Denial of the obvious is a particularly unique form of spiritual blindness. All the false prophets promised Israel that things were not that bad, and that their captivity wouldn’t last long. Their message found willing listeners. They were wrong.

All indicators are that the church in the West is in decline, not only numerically but also in substance and influence. Some might argue that if we are talking about “institutional” forms of “Christendom”–the nineteen or seventeen hundred-year-old counterfeit of Jesus’s kingdom–”good riddance” might be an appropriate response. Alas, the problem is unrelated to the structure of our gatherings, the quality of our theology, or the effectiveness of our practices, but rather the condition of our hearts.
Every time I point out a negative fact or trend, regarding our true state, I am met with: “but our church is not like that,”  “you shouldn’t criticize the church,” “there’s no such thing as a perfect church,” “we are the pure remnant,” “you should come and hear my pastor,” and other canards of denial. Funny, how a collection of wonderful churches, full of wonderful people, doing wonderful things for Jesus, results in overall spiritual and societal decline. Of course, MY church is wonderful,  the “other guy’s” church has problems.

Shiloh was a place of many wonderful interactions between God and Israel. However, it was reduced to a pile of rocks and overgrown vegetation when the substance of the life of God was lost in favor of much talk about God. External conformity to God’s demands without corresponding internal transformation is the DNA of decline.
A fire unattended and unfueled inevitably goes out. There’s a reason Paul exhorted Timothy to “fan the flame” of his faith: it’s prone to going out! An irrelevant pile of ashes of historical glory provides neither heat nor light. Real Christianity is always present. It’s hot. It’s alive. Anyone who actually lives like Jesus is really alive from the dead, will be a threat to people (and the institutions to which they belong) who have a philosophy of resurrection based on the Bible. We can handle a baby in a manger or a dead man on a cross. A baby and a dead man are not threats to how we want to do “our religion.” Let anyone actually live out of His resurrection life, well, that won’t be tolerated.  It’s a bush that doesn’t burn, and a fire that needs no fuel. That will not be allowed. It’s unmanageable.

Occasional, isolated, and cheerful exceptions at a local level, do not negate the overall trend in the West.  As leaders, we need to sound a clear alarm. The Church Universal, the Bride of Christ, is an eternal, unstoppable force. God’s redemptive reach is uniquely effective when impossibility and brokenness produce a cry for deliverance within hearts humbled by unpleasant circumstances. God’s hold on the future, and His determination for His bride, are not in question. Our participation with Him in it, is another matter.

Any local expression, regardless of how “wonderful our pastor” is or how “dynamic our worship team” is or “how relational we are,”  is not guaranteed existence and continuity: Ephesus–gone; Thessalonica–gone; Sardis–gone; churches in North Africa–gone; Europe–secularized, etc. You and I, and our “wonderful assemblies”  are not immune any more than our predecessors. When the talk of God exceeds the life of God, we are on the pathway to extinction, not withstanding our pious rhetoric and prayer for “revival.” God is not interested in reviving Bible philosophy clubs that happen to have a great lecture, great music, and a nice meal once or twice a week.

You can have a lovely private stateroom on a cruise liner, but if there’s a hole in the hull, the pleasantries of your stateroom will not save you from going down with the ship. Any of our local situations might be quite positive. However we will sink or float together in this matter. There is ONE Body. Daniel went into captivity with Israel. Jeremiah was not spared the rigors of Israel’s “divine chastisement” at the hands of a Babylonian invader.

Incarnational living in Christ does not exempt any of us from the travails of the culture we may worship or live in.  Rather, we will be the representative agents of God as we go into captivity together. God will “seed” us among the captives. The first Son was seeded into earth’s darkness and captivity, and all subsequent sons and daughters will be also.

Let each of us, in our assigned spheres of life and ministry, be sober and more resolute than we have ever been. Let’s burn. Let’s be hot. Let’s be light. Let’s remember that the ultimate act of spiritual warfare is not prophetic intercession or a spiritual warfare conference. It is a converted/transformed, soul who lives a transformed vibrant life in right relationship with God, one another, and humanity.
I pray God give each of us divine energy for every day that we have breath, that our lives may count for something other than American creature comforts and perpetuation of a way of life that may be filled with material blessings, but does not reflect Jesus’s kingdom interests.

In it together with you to the end . . .

Copyright 2012,  Dr. Stephen R. Crosby

http://www.swordofthekingdom.com.
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