Those old enough to remember the 1960s do not need a reminder on how divided this country was. The war in Vietnam was tearing us apart as surely as the Civil War had done a century earlier. This time, however, it tended to be a generational thing, with the oldsters defending the government’s handling of the war and the young ones marching in the streets against it. Related to this was the entire generational rift in the culture, with the clothing, the music, the hair styles (beards!), drugs, sex, and the list goes on.

Everything not nailed down was coming loose.

On October 22, 1968, former Vice-President Richard Nixon brought his campaign for the White House to Deshler, Ohio. There, Nixon spotted a 13-year-old girl named Vicki Lynn Cole holding up a sign that read “Bring Us Together.” He mentioned that message and later adopted it as the theme of his administration. The Cole family was even invited to the inauguration. After that, Vicki Lynn faded into obscurity.

Sadly, so did the concern for national unity.

The Nixon administration was one of the most divisive in American history, ending, you will recall, with the president resigning in disgrace, Vice-President Agnew resigning earlier because of kickbacks he had taken as governor, and a number of the highest advisors going to prison. It was a shameful period in our nation’s history.

Unity was a clever idea, Nixon thought. But only that and nothing more.

We’re back at a time when our nation is divided. Hopefully not as severely or as deeply as in the 1960s, but the rift between the “reds” and the “blues” is drastic.

Within religious denominations, division is a constant threat. Doctrinal differences are a constant, social trends inject themselves into church life, and the world exerts its pressures for churches to conform. Personalities complicate negotiations and division often results.

Within your own church membership, the enemy is always at work, looking for wedges to drive between members and the leadership. He walks to and fro, to paraphrase the Apostle Peter, looking for an opening in the wall he can enter to create havoc.

In our never-ending concern for unity within the body of Christ, let’s make a few points here.

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In a typical Southern Baptist church–if there is any such animal!–the pastor and other ministers handle most of the pulpit duties. The times when a deacon can be counted on to lead in public prayer is more likely to come before the offering and in the Lord’s Supper.

When a layman approaches the pulpit to lead in prayer, there is no telling what will happen then. If it’s true that most pastors have never had training in public praying, it’s ten times as sure that the laypeople haven’t.

What we get when the typical layman comes to the microphone to lead a prayer is some or all of the following:

–trite statements he has heard other people pray again and again

–vain repetitions

–awkward attempts to be genuine and fresh

–awkward attempts to admonish the congregation about some issue, usually their laxity in giving

–a total unawareness of the time element. He/she may be too brief or go on and on and on.

The typical layman feels out of place doing this. There are exceptions, thankfully, and some wonderful ones. But in most churches, the deacons and other lay leadership would rather take a beating than to pray in public.

A pastor friend announced to his deacons that they would no longer be leading offertory prayers. He expected resistance and was prepared to respond to it. Instead, without exception, they cheered the news. “They felt like a burden had been lifted off their shoulders,” he said.

I understand that. But I regret it. In truth, this could be a wonderful time for a man or woman of the Lord to render service of an unusual nature to the congregation and indirectly to the Lord.

Here are ten suggestions on how any of us–preachers, staffers, deacons, laity–can improve our public prayers.

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I pray that they all may be one…that the world may believe that You sent Me.(John 17:21)

I have a strong suspicion that the Lord is almost the only One among us who truly knows the value of unity within His Body.

To put it another way: Even those who love the Lord with all their heart, who treasure His word and work to obey Him, seem not to place a high enough value on unity within the Body.

Mr. Burger King pulled into town one day and decided to check out his franchises. Driving up Route 45, the business district of the city, he spotted one of his fast-food restaurants. It seemed to be doing okay, so that pleased him.

Something was badly wrong. Some district manager was in bad trouble.

One day, the Lord Jesus came to our town. He spotted the First Baptist on one corner, First United Methodist on the other corner, the Presbyterians across the way, and the Assembly of God down the block. In the next block was the Catholics, the Latter Day Saints, and the synagogue.

And of course, each one claimed to be using the original recipe.

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Okay. Don’t anyone tell the preacher we’re all going to encourage him.

Let him think it was spontaneous on your part.

What I want you to do is something you’ve almost quit doing. No, I’m not talking about praying for him, although there is that.

Write him a letter.

Handwrite it. Make it two pages, no more. Make it positive and uplifting.

And when you do, I can tell you several things that are true of that letter once it arrives at the pastor’s desk….

—It will be a rarity. He gets very little first class mail these days. Everything is done by computers.

—It will bless him (and possibly his family members) for years to come, particularly when he comes across it years from now.

Case in point. Last night, I ran across a letter from Christy dated July 15, 1997. Here is what this young lady–perhaps a high school senior–wrote to her preacher.

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“Grandpa,” little Leigh Anne asked, “How do I know when it’s God talking to me and when it’s just me talking to myself?”

Pastor James Richardson told his beloved little one, “Honey, that’s one of the hardest questions you’ll ever face in this life.”

Someone asked me the same question the other day.

Here is my attempt to answer it.

First, let’s identify the wrong answers. I know it’s of God because of the warm feeling inside me. I’ve had several Mormons tell me that. Bad answer. A dangerous one, even.

Some of us remember the Debbie Boone hit from a generation ago. “This can’t be wrong; it feels so right.”

All over the world worshipers in a thousand religions read their holy books and come away with warm feelings. Doubtless, many interpret the inner emotional reaction as a verification of their faith’s validity. They go forward into the day, assured that their faith is solid, their belief well-anchored, their lives well-lived.

I know it’s of God because it fits my convictions. This hardly deserves comment.

I know it’s of God because it’s something I was wanting to do anyway. Ditto.

There has to be a better way.

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Compassion: the ability to feel what others are feeling, especially pain.

As far as I can tell, we cannot teach compassion. The source for this capacity to identify with others in sorrow and in joy seems to have its roots in the Holy Spirit. The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:5)

What we can do however–those of us called to be leaders of the Lord’s people–is to teach our people to act with compassion.

I suspect you have noticed that a large percentage of those calling themselves followers of Jesus turn a deaf ear to the cries of the needy, reacting to requests for help with callousness. Selfishness is innate, no doubt part of our original sinful nature. However, to react against that self-centeredness and go out of our way to help another person is Christlike.

For followers of Jesus, this can be taught. Pastors are ideally situated to show their people and instruct them in how to act with compassion when faced by people in need.

First, the pastor teaches God’s Word. Scripture abounds with such stories and instructions.

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Pastors have to lead their leaders.

There is no other way. Someone has to teach church leaders how to be people of faith, of compassion, of courage. And, as the shepherd of the flock, that falls to you, the preacher.

This is the first of three articles. What follows is the first one, “Teaching the leaders to be people of faith.” Next will come “Teaching the leaders to be people of compassion,” and then “Teaching the leaders to be people of courage.”

I’ve preached in churches which were rich with Godly and mature leaders, people who supported their pastor and led their people by example in matters of faith, compassion, and courage. And, I confess that I have sometimes envied those preachers. Any of us would give a year of our lives to shepherd a congregation that is solidly Christian and faces problems calmly in faith.

I see it all the time. With this country’s economy still struggling to recover and with a lot of churches hurting financially, congregational leaders start to panic. The offerings are declining, the bank balance is dwindling, and fear moves in, unpacks its baggage, and takes over.

The pastor who is a non-leader will sit back and watch as the most fearful of the church’s elected leaders rule the day. They will recommend cutting programs, laying off staff, and trimming next year’s budget to the bones. They will do this from strong convictions–and honorable ones, too–that the church should be solvent, responsible, and exemplary.

But they are missing a key element that should be standard equipment in every church leader: Faith in Christ. What does the Lord want His leaders to do with His church?

A carnal leader who has found his voice now that the church’s finances are hurting (in most cases he had nothing to say when the congregation was giving well, but now that the church is hurting, he finds a ready audience for his lack of faith and his fears) will sound forth on the foolhardiness of stepping out on faith. “We have to be responsible, pastor! All that high-flying rhetoric about living by faith is all right for you preachers and missionaries. But for those of us in the real world, we have to pay our bills. And if the money isn’t there, you can’t do certain things.”

Don’t miss the condescension in that. As a pastor for over four decades, I assure you I’m not making this up. I’ve heard those actual words spoken by church treasurers to their idealistic pastor who had said they should be asking the Lord what He wanted done in this financial crisis with His church.

The solution is not an easy one, and definitely not a quick fix. The pastor should teach his people–all of them, but particularly the leaders–what it means to exercise faith. This will require that he remain at the church for a number of years in order to earn their trust and establish his credibility.

Teaching God’s people how to resist their fears, face the problems, and step out on faith is one of the key responsibilities of the shepherd of the Lord’s flock.

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The best kind of pastor is not one who has always had it all together.

The best shepherd of the Lord’s people is one who knows what it is to go astray and be found, to fall and be picked up, to be wounded and to heal, to sin and be forgiven.

If you have ever sat in a congregation where the pastor is without sin, where his sermons show no indication that he knows what it is to be tempted, and where no allowance is given for the human condition, then you know that is no place for a sinner like you.

As a sinner–one whose heart is a rebel, whose mind strays from the paths of righteousness more often than you would like to admit, who constantly needs to repent and receive God’s mercy–you have no business in a church made up of perfect pastors and sinless members. You stand out like an invalid at a body-building contest.

The best pastor is one who has sinned and been taken to the Lord’s woodshed for a time of discipline and chastisement. He will know how to warn the children from straying and to bind them up in love after they have learned life’s lessons the hard way.

The best pastor is one who has been in trouble and doubted and came close to slipping, but at the last minute was rescued by the hand of God. He will value the Lord’s mercy.

The best pastor is probably not the kind your pastor-search-committee is looking for. But it should be.

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Few things disturb me more than hearing a pastor admit that he refuses to preach on money because so many preachers do that to manipulate people.

The main reason it disturbs me is that I do not believe that. The pastor is not being honest.

He fails to talk to his people on money because he does not want to be criticized. It’s a fear factor, and he has decided to cave in.

Consequently, he is failing his people in one of the most important areas of their lives. He is failing the Lord who expects His shepherds to lead the flock to be faithful stewards. He is failing every missionary whose support is growing weaker and weaker because of the lack of stewardship education back at home. And, therefore, he is failing every unsaved person who will not hear the gospel because of a lack of missionaries.

That pastor’s failure reverberates across the world like a tidal wave, bringing all kinds of bad consequences in its wake.

I wish such pastors could have heard my preacher, Dr. Mike Miller, last Sunday. Preaching in the First Baptist Church of Kenner, across the street from the New Orleans airport, and in his third year, Mike used the best common sense I’ve ever heard from the pulpit in this matter.

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You help your wife unpack the boxes and hang the pictures, then drive down to the church office and put your books on the shelves and say hello to the staff. The other ministers and office workers gather around and look expectantly in your direction, “hoping to receive something” (Acts 3:5).

What do you do now, pastor?

If you are really, really green or a veteran but stupid (sorry for the plain-spokenness!), you will do all the talking. You will act like a newly-elected-politician-with-a-landslide who thinks he has a mandate.

You don’t have a mandate. You have an opportunity.

What follows is merely my suggestion on what the new pastor should do in his first few days and weeks at the new church. Disagreements and additional insights are welcome in the comments section at the conclusion.

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