The new pastor looks out at the congregation. He’s acting confident and looks the part. The search committee did a good job from all appearances. The pastor speaks well and seems to know what he’s doing.
But wait….
Has someone removed the pulpit from the platform? And is that a rowboat the preacher is standing in? What is going on here? Am I in the right church? Have we entered the twilight zone?
I know of a pastor who did that on his first Sunday.
“I planted, Apollos watered, God gave the increase” (I Corinthians 3:6).
“Even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities” (Philippians 4:16).
I have no patience with signs in front of church buildings that read “Independent (whatever) Church.” There is no such thing as an independent church. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ and we need each other.
Some more than others.
The believer or the church that believes he/she/it is independent and has no need of all those others is going against everything Scripture teaches and contradicting what they see happening all around them every day.
We were gathered around the bed where my wife of 52 years lay. We had signed the papers to unplug her from life support. Everyone was in tears. After a time, I said to my family, “Now listen. One of these days it will be Grandpa lying here. And I don’t want all this crying.” Granddaughter Abby said, “Why not?” I said, “Well, good night, I’ll be 98 years old and I will have preached the previous Sunday! What’s to cry about?” They all laughed.
I say a lot of things just to get a laugh. It goes back to childhood so it’s who I am, I suppose. But this one is dead on. I want to live a long time and stay active serving the Lord and loving the special people around me. Ideally, the only people attending my funeral will be friends of my grandchildren since I will have outlived all my contemporaries.
I may or may not do that.
My times are in God’s hands. I know that and I’m good with it.
I go to a lot of funerals. Yesterday, in fact, I went to two. For the first I occupied a pew and I was the officiator at the second.
More and more I give thought to my own memorial service. And in planning it–if that’s what I’m doing here–I don’t want to fall into the trap of thinking I deserve a service befitting the King of England or something. Simple is good. And brief is not bad.
“I implore Euodia and I implore Eyntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord” (Philippians 4:2).
“Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do” (Colossians 3:12-13).
The First Baptist Church of Kenner, Louisiana is bordered on the western side by Williams Boulevard and on the east by Clay Street. In between, intersecting the church property is the wonderfully named Compromise Street. I have no idea why the city planners gave it that name, but I love it. When I pastored that church (1990-2004), I sometimes called the attention of the congregation to this asphalted reminder of how intelligent people are supposed to work with each other.
God’s people are to agree. We are to live in harmony. We are to represent Christ in the world and do His work. By the very nature of who we are and what we are charged to do, we are required to compromise.
God’s people are to compromise. Constantly.
Don’t miss that.
“This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the work of a bishop (literally ‘overseer,’ meaning the pastor or chief undershepherd of the church), he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous, one who rules his own house well….” (I Timothy 3:1-7 is the full text.)
Dr. Gary Fagan was pastoring a church in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. It was Wednesday night and time for the monthly business meeting of the congregation, usually an uneventful period for hearing reports on finances and membership and voting on recommendations concerning programs. For reasons long forgotten, a man in the church–Dick was an engineer and a deacon–chose to stand and berate the pastor. When he finished, he sat down and there was silence.
He was not used to being contradicted and the regulars were not foolhardy enough to take him on.
It took a new believer to do the job.
“No man is a hero to his valet.” –attributed to Madame Cornuel in the 17th century, but probably an old French or English proverb. But true nonetheless.
I’ve been reading Winston Groom’s “The Aviators.” Subtitle: “Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh, and the Epic Age of Flight.” It’s an epic read itself, not one you can whiz through. I’ve probably read a dozen other books while occasionally picking this one up and reading more. I finally finished it. The ending was noteworthy.
Winston Groom, you will recall, is the author of the Forrest Gump tale, a work of fiction. However, he has done a fair number of histories, very readable accounts of the battle of New Orleans, the year 1942, the Civil War battle of Shiloh, the siege of Vicksburg in the same war, and so forth. I’ve read most of them, and met him at a book signing in New Orleans maybe three years ago. I suppose he was tired, because I was expecting a little more from him in the way of an engaging personality, great stories, and witticisms. Anyway….
Here’s an interesting note from Charles Lindbergh. On March 30, 1944–in the middle of the Second World War–he was preparing for a trip to the South Pacific for the Army to check on a number of aspects on the conduct of the fighting war. So, before leaving, he bought some supplies: “At Abercrombie and Fitch he purchased a waterproof flashlight, and from Brentano’s he acquired a small copy of the New Testament, remarking in his journal that, ‘Since I can carry only one book, it is my choice. It would not have been a decade ago, but the more I learn and the more I read, the less competition it has.'”
Personally, while I appreciate Lindbergh’s words, I will not be attaching too much weight to them for the simple reason that in his last decades he kept moving farther and farther toward the bizarre. I will not belabor that point since readers may research his final years themselves if they are so inclined.
For those whose denominational system uses bishop appointments or some system other than search committees, please skip this. And for those who cannot let this pass without reminding us that Scripture has no pastor search committees, we grant that. Neither does it have air conditioning, chocolate, or penicillin, but these are also gifts of grace from our Lord. Thank you very much.
“Lead me, Lord. Lead me in Thy righteousness. Make Thy way plain before me. Amen.” (a choral benediction)
The pastor on the other end of the phone sounded almost upset.
“I had a contact from a search committee in your city. Man, I don’t know what to do. I love where I’m serving and just can’t bear thinking about leaving. Plus, my oldest child is coming up on his senior year of school. What to do?”
My answer is: “Well, the first thing to do is quit obsessing about it. The odds are you’ll never hear back from them.”
When a pastor has felt isolated and forgotten in his little corner of the world for so long, any contact from a committee can bring excitement.
We pastors are an anxious lot. We get excited and nervous when…
God to Jonah: “Do you do well to be angry?” Jonah: “You’re dadgum right I do! I’m so angry I could die!” (Jonah 4:4,9; my silly little paraphrase)
A reader reacted to our article on “How to be fired and come out a winner.”
“I was fired from my position. The work was going well. No reasons were given. What am I to tell the kids and their parents?”
I began with this: “First, it wasn’t your position.”
That must have stung.
I know the feeling, friend. And have witnessed it a hundred times among colleagues. You go in to a church and build the program. You are “in your place,” doing the best work you’ve ever done, and can sense the Holy Spirit has been preparing you for this for many years. And suddenly, they terminate you.
How can that be of the Lord? Surely someone is out of line here. Haven’t I been mightily used of God? Hasn’t He blessed my labors? Don’t the kids love me?
All of that may or may not be true. But it’s almost beside the point.
On our blog, I had given ten suggestions for helping people navigate the transitions of life. Number 10’s suggestion was to laugh every day. And that brought a private note from my friend Anne.
“This reminded me of something I did thirty-three years ago,” she said.
Anne had been pregnant, almost in her sixth month, when the doctors diagnosed the baby with a condition called anencephaly. The news was devastating.
Anne explains that for a fetus to be “anencephalic” means no brain or the brain grows outside the skull. Of course, it’s incompatible with life. Anne explained that it forms very early, often before the woman even knows she is pregnant.
They had named the baby girl Amy. They often prayed for her–still in the womb, of course–along with her two older brothers.
“Such babies are often extra active in the womb,” Anne told me, which only adds to the mother’s pain and the cruelty of the condition. Even so, Anne says, “I relished each time Baby Amy turned or kicked since I knew my time with her would be limited.”
As if that wasn’t enough…
The Lord is my Rock. Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I. Shelter me under the Rock. (found all through the Psalms)
You’ve just been released from one job (position, place of service, ministry, etc) and you are preparing for the next one. What to do in the meantime?
You’ve lost your spouse of many years, whether by death or divorce or something else. What do you do until the way opens up before you?
You’ve moved from the only home you ever knew to a new city/country, and you’re finding it difficult. What now?
Keep your eye on the Rock.
Changes can be hard. But they can be lifegiving and life-altering.
Life is about change. Anyone who does not like change is going to have a lot of trouble in this life. Any Christian who cannot handle change is going to have trouble following the Lord Jesus.
Here are our top ten suggestions to you on how to make the most of the transition time…