Thom S. Rainer's Blog, page 187

Ten Tough Pieces of Advice Pastors Have Trouble Receiving

The last thing pastors need is someone to offer them advice.

I know. They receive “advice” every day of the week. Some of it is well intended. Some of it is not. All of it cumulatively is overwhelming.

It is thus difficult for me to pile on. But I do want pastors to hear those pieces of advice that are really difficult to heed. And they are difficult even if pastors know they are true.

Love your members unconditionally. That’s all of your members. Even that deacon who told you that you had no business being in ministry. Even that ministry director who told you God told her it’s time for you to leave. We are to love as Christ loves us. Unconditionally.
Don’t focus on your critics. This one is really challenging. They are the constant ringing in our ears. They are squeaky wheels. Enough of the metaphors. It’s hard not to jump when a critic barks.
Make the tough personnel decisions sooner rather than later. It won’t get any better. It won’t get any easier.
Accept that you won’t be loved by everyone. I’ve gotten to the point in my life that I’m okay with a simple majority. I’m just not sure I have it!
Put those things on your calendar that you often neglect. You know what I’m talking about. Family. Devotional time. Gospel conversations. Don’t neglect the best for the good.
Accept the lows of ministry as normal. If you haven’t been attacked by critics, you probably aren’t leading. If you haven’t been torn up by a family tragedy, you need a heart transplant. You will have lows. It’s a part of ministry. It’s a part of life.
Don’t compare your church to others. Your church is not that other church. Bigger is not better. Newer is not cooler. God has you at your church at this time for a reason. Find joy in that reality.
Learn to be content. That green grass is someone else’s brown grass. Unless God clearly, very clearly, calls otherwise, be content where He has placed you in ministry. Even be excited about it.
Learn to rejoice always. It’s healthy. It’s biblical. Philippians 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” I’m glad the translator added the exclamation point.
Have fun. Life is too short to stay in the doldrums and focus on the negative. Our ministries are a brief but incredible time to make an eternal difference. Love it all. Have fun. Lighten up. Learn to smile.

Such is my counsel. Such are my admonitions to you pastors.

By the way, you who serve the churches are my heroes. I hope you know how much I appreciate you, admire you, and pray for you.

Pray for First Baptist Church of Potosi

Location: Potosi, Missouri

Pastor: Jim Ainley

Weekly Worship: 10:00 AM, Central

Fast Facts: First Baptist Church of Potosi is a thriving body of believers, working hard to grow in relationship with Jesus and in community with one another. Founded in 1832, FBC Potosi is engaging its community through youth basketball leagues as well as through recovery ministries. Pray for their upcoming Kids Club events starting September 6, as well as for their follow-up from VBS this summer. Finally pray for the church as they begin a new series in home-based community groups this fall.

Website: FirstBaptistPotosi.org

“Pray for . . .” is the Sunday blog series at ThomRainer.com. We encourage you to pray for these churches noted every Sunday. Please feel free to comment that you are praying as well.

If you would like to have your church featured in the “Pray for…” series, fill out this information form..

Notable Voices and the Week in Review: August 5, 2017

Earlier this week at ThomRainer.com:

Seven Common Reasons Churches Have a Dramatic Decline in Attendance
How to Leave a Legacy as a Leader – Rainer on Leadership #350
Five Reasons Church Organizational Changes Fail
Six Small Tweaks That Make Big Differences for Your Church Website
Five Really Bad Reasons for Entering the Ministry – Rainer on Leadership #351

 

Mentoring Relationships that Make Sense — Marty Duren

As I’ve grown older in ministry, younger pastors sometimes ask if I can mentor them, even if for a limited period of time. These relationships are always a blessing. But, there are mistakes pastors make when seeking a mentor. Three such mistakes are 1) thinking your mentor has to be a celebrity pastor, 2) that mentoring is always one person teaching the other, and 3) that only young pastors need mentors. Not. True.

 

9 Reasons Some Leaders Don’t Like Confrontation — Chuck Lawless

Leadership sometimes demands confrontation, but I don’t know many leaders who simply like doing it. Here are reasons some leaders struggle with confronting even when the confrontation is necessary:

 

Do Visitors to Your Church Really Feel Welcome? — Jared Wilson

I don’t know of any church leader who wants visitors to their services to feel unwelcome or uncomfortable. And yet it still surprises me that many churches still don’t think through some of the ways, both obvious and subtle, that work against making visitors feel “at home” with the congregation. If you’re a church leader who cares about the experience of hospitality for those who visit your church services, I hope you will work through the following questions with eyes open to the impression your church may be leaving visitors.

 

The Worst Ways To Evaluate Your Church (And The Best One) — Carey Nieuwhof

Rather than seeing things through the lens of an outsider, you begin to evaluate church based on other factors which probably make it hard for the church to accomplish our mission. Here are some bad ways to evaluate your church experience, and one good one.

 

How ‘Facebook Infidelity’ Can Sabotage Your Marriage — Zack Carter

The evidence that many married men and married women are using Facebook as a means to communicate emotionally and/or sexually outside of their marriage is overwhelming. Massive amounts of research pertaining to Facebook infidelity and related topics have been conducted by other researchers as well as myself. To bring you up to date, below are some key bullet points of what’s happening on the Facebook-infidelity front:

 

8 Tips to Help You Disciple Your Kids — Brian Dembowczyk

Discipling our kids is far too important to hand off to others—as godly and loving as they may be. And that takes us back to our primary concern—we know we need to disciple our kids and we want to do it, but how do we actually do it? Here are eight tips to help you disciple your kids:

 

Five Really Bad Reasons for Entering the Ministry – Rainer on Leadership #351

Podcast Episode #351

SUBSCRIBE: iTunes • RSS • Stitcher • TuneIn Radio • Google Play

Vocational ministry is not the cake walk many make it out to be. And sometimes men or women enter ministry for the wrong reasons. Today, we discuss those reasons and issue five cautions.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

Vocational ministry should not be an escape route for your secular job.
Vocational ministry is one of the most difficult jobs you can have.
Being a good public speaker is not the same as being a good preacher.
It’s important to have theological preparation when you are going into ministry.
Ministry is not an easy job.
Ministry is a high expectation and high demand job.

The five reasons we cover on the podcast are:

Escape from a secular job.
Fulfilling family expectations.
When your spouse is not supportive.
Not theologically prepared.
Skewed views of the demands of ministry.


Episode Sponsors

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Vanderbloemen Search Group is the premier pastor search firm dedicated to helping churches and ministries build great teams. They’ve helped hundreds of churches just like yours find their church staff and are uniquely geared to help you discern who God is calling to lead your church.

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Feedback

If you have a question you would like answered on the show, fill out the form on the podcast page here at ThomRainer.com. If we use your question, you’ll receive a free copy of Who Moved My Pulpit?

Resources Mentioned in Today’s Podcast

Discerning Your Call to Ministry

Six Small Tweaks That Make Big Differences for Your Church Website

By Jonathan Howe

Earlier this week, I spoke with a worship pastor about his church’s website. He has just been hired to lead the music and media ministry at his church and is new to web work. He was looking for some low-hanging fruit on the website to fix and make an immediate improvement.

What I found on the site was good information, but poor presentation. The site had been cobbled together over the past few years and had a lot of info. But the homepage was a bit of a mess, the graphics were dated, and the navigation was confusing. I recommended the six changes below for the site. The more I thought about it, the more I realized these are problem areas for other churches as well. So, here are six little changes you can make to your church website that can make a big difference.

Get your menus set up correctly. The navigation menu for your website should be simple. Menus typically include the following: about, plan your visit, ministries, media, giving, and contact. It’s best to use drop downs for other items under each main menu tab. Keeping the most important information in the main menu at the top of the page makes it much easier to navigate for users and also allows you to place priority on where you’d have your website visitors go.
Make sure your content is correct and updated. On the site I was reviewing, the sermon information from this past weekend was still on the home page. This is easy to fix with a weekly website checklist. It’s just a matter of getting it done each week. A weekly website checklist allows you to keep track of needed updates.
Use the best possible graphics. Your church likely does not have a graphic designer on staff. So how do you improve the graphics on your site? You have three main options: contract out your graphics work, join an online design community, or use a design program. Thanks to online programs like Canva and Open-Edit-Print, it’s actually quite simple to design professional-looking graphics on your own.
Activate online giving and label it properly. With technology as ubiquitous as it is, online giving should almost be a given for churches. If you do have online giving, please make sure you label it properly. “Donate” or “Tithe” can confuse website visitors. “Give Online” or simply “Online Giving” are the easiest and most obvious labels to use.
Make it easy to contact your church. If you have a contact tab in your main menu, you should have a contact page for website visitors to use. On the contact page, be sure to include the address, phone number, and email of the church. And if at all possible include a contact form to make it easy for those looking to contact you immediately.
Use your homepage wisely. One of the biggest mistakes churches make on the homepage is cluttering the homepage with things that aren’t important. Keep the homepage as clean as possible and include the most important information you can.

Does your church’s website need some of these corrections? What might you add to this list?

Jonathan Howe serves as Director of Strategic Initiatives at LifeWay Christian Resources as well as the host and producer of Rainer on Leadership and SBC This Week. Jonathan writes weekly at ThomRainer.com on topics ranging from social media to websites and church communications. Connect with Jonathan on Twitter at @Jonathan_Howe.

Five Reasons Church Organizational Changes Fail

It is one of the most common questions I am asked.

Essentially, the question, in one form or another, deals with organizational change. The church wants to change its staff structure. The leadership wants to reconsider the roles and functions of elders or deacons. The lead pastor wants to have different people reporting to him.

To be clear, organizational change is absolutely necessary . . . some of the time. But much of the time, we lead organizational change for the wrong reasons. And the results are often frustration, exhaustion, and loss of momentum. Here are five clear reasons church organizational change fails:

The change is a substitute for dealing with people issues. There are one or more people in the organization who are problems in their current roles. They may be over their head, lacking people skills, lazy, or incompetent. Instead of having the courage to confront the people directly, we organize around them. This erroneous move is sometimes called a “work around.” You are working around the real issue instead of dealing with it directly.
The change becomes a substitute for execution. Work is not getting done in some areas. Ministry is languishing in other areas. The church tries to create an organizational structure to get the work done. But the greater need is simply for people to roll up their sleeves and do the work, as messy as it can be. Organizational change is not a solution for poor execution.
The change gives a false sense of comfort and security. Sometimes leaders make organizational change and declare the work done once the changes are made. But the work should only be beginning after the change. The new organizational structure gives a false sense of comfort and security that the challenges have been met.
The change does not keep up with the pace of other changes. Many organizational structures are so rigid or complex they cannot adapt to the fast pace of change. The new structure thus becomes a hindrance for future and greater health.
The change is a copy of another church. There is nothing wrong with emulating another church’s organizational structure. But if we fail to discern if the new structure is really best for our context, the change will do us more harm than good. Unfortunately, too many church leaders contract emulation fever and it makes the whole church sick.

Change done for the right reason is good. Change done for the wrong reason or for the sake of change itself can leave the church in a more difficult position than keeping the status quo.

Lead change well. Lead organizational change well. Learn what is best for your church rather than copy another church. Seek wisdom before action.

How to Leave a Legacy as a Leader – Rainer on Leadership #350

Podcast Episode #350

SUBSCRIBE: iTunes • RSS • Stitcher • TuneIn Radio • Google Play

Leaders should desire to leave their church or organization better than when they arrived. Today, we tackle eight characteristics of leaders who leave a legacy that lasts.

Some highlights from today’s episode include:

One of the most important aspects of leaders is what happens after they are gone.
Biblical faithfulness is foundational for Christian leaders who leave legacies.
Continual short-term pastorates will hurt the health of a church.
A leader who lacks confidence will not lead well.
When you’re wrong, admit you’re wrong.
There will always be people in the church who don’t like you, no matter how great a pastor you are.
Persistence is one of the distinguishing characteristics between good leaders and great leaders.
Don’t get so immersed in doing the good that you fail to do the great.

The eight keys to leaving a lasting legacy as a leader are:

Fierce Biblical Faithfulness.
Tenure.
Confident Humility.
Acceptance of Responsibility.
Unconditional Love of People.
Persistence.
Outwardly-Focused Vision.
A Desire for a Lasting Legacy.


Episode Sponsors

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So if you’re a Lead Pastor or an Executive Pastor looking for peer roundtable coaching, check it out at vanderbloemen.com/coaching. It’s limited to 16 folks, so apply today before it fills up.

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Visit them online at MBTS.edu and start your ministry training today.

Feedback

If you have a question you would like answered on the show, fill out the form on the podcast page here at ThomRainer.com. If we use your question, you’ll receive a free copy of Who Moved My Pulpit?

Resources Mentioned in Today’s Podcast

Breakout Churches
Five Terrible Reasons to Enter Vocational Ministry

Seven Common Reasons Churches Have a Dramatic Decline in Attendance

“Where did everyone go?”

A business executive asked that question when she returned to her church after some extended international travels. In the four weeks she was out, the attendance at the church had declined from nearly 600 to under 400. The attendance had plummeted in that short time by 35 percent!

To be clear, such rapid declines are aberrations. Most declining churches go through incremental, not dramatic, reductions.

We consider a church to be in dramatic decline when the average worship attendance drops by 20 percent or more in three months or less. What causes such unusual declines? Here are seven common reasons:

A scandal in the church. The two most common are sexual and financial scandals. Either of those can cause immediate erosion of trust and send members out the door.
Sudden departure of a pastor or staff person. I am familiar with a church where the average attendance dropped from 1,250 to 850 in just a few weeks when a malevolent power group in the church forced the pastor out. The congregation never heard a reasonable reason for the departure because there was none. The church has not recovered.
Closure or decline of a major employer. Some communities are highly dependent on one or a few employers. When any one of those employers close, people who are members of churches in the community will often depart rather quickly. I saw this reality transpire many times during the great recession and when several military bases closed.
The church changes its position on a major biblical/moral issue. When a church makes a major doctrinal shift, many members often exit quickly. That exit is often exacerbated if the doctrinal change is related to a moral issue.
A power group continues to wreak havoc in a church. The story is not uncommon. The same power group opposes any change again and again. Pastoral tenure declines due to the leaders’ frustration with this group. At some point a large group in the church declares, “enough,” and departs en masse.
Another church moves close by. The new church or newly located church offers ministries and programs the affected church does not have. Often these ministries are particularly appealing to families who still have children at home. Those families move to the new church to try to keep their children interested and excited about church life.
A highly contentious business meeting. These churches have typically experienced conflict for some time. The conflict comes to a boiling point in a business meeting. Large numbers leave due to anger, weariness, or both.

Admittedly, this level of decline is not common, but I am seeing it more frequently. It is my prayer that these seven reasons can also serve as seven warning signs.

It is incredibly difficult for any church to recover fully from such a massive exodus.

Pray for The Corner Church

Location: Aberdeen, South Dakota

Pastor: Talmadge Hobbs

Weekly Worship: 10:30 AM, Central

Fast Facts: The Corner Church is a 2013 restart of a church that had seen difficult times for several years until their district leadership decided a fresh start was warranted. The church offers Alpha for the spiritually curious in its town and goes into the addiction services portion of Avera St. Luke’s Hospital to meet those who desire contact. They are actively seeking those in their city of 27,000 who feel hopeless. Please pray that their vision is caught and the participation in Alpha continues to rise. Their next session of Alpha begins September 10. Also, please pray for a spirit of forgiveness toward those who were hurtful in previous years. Jesus’ reputation and that of this church have been damaged because of previous sins, many of which the pastor had no knowledge. The church desires healing both inside and outside the body of believers.

Website: TheCorner.Church

“Pray for . . .” is the Sunday blog series at ThomRainer.com. We encourage you to pray for these churches noted every Sunday. Please feel free to comment that you are praying as well.

Notable Voices and the Week in Review: July 29, 2017

Earlier this week at ThomRainer.com:

Seven Dangers in the Last Few Years of Your Ministry
Seven Personalities of Sick Churches – Rainer on Leadership #348
The Top Ten Surprises New Pastors Have
Five Reasons to Consider Online Registration Forms for Guests
Keeping an Inner City Church in the Inner City – Rainer on Leadership #349

 

Pastors, We Need To Stop Expecting Worship Leaders To Do Our Job For Us — Karl Vaters

If your church is relying on the choir or worship team for your theology, you’re looking in the wrong place. Sure, a great song can teach or reinforce good theology, and songs with bad theology should be abandoned, but teaching theology is not the primary mandate of the worship leader.

 

Why Sermon Preparation Is Not Devotional Time — Sam Rainer

Sermon preparation is not—and should not—be used as devotion time. Sermon writing is devotional to an extent. Both involve prayer. Both elevate Scripture. Both require the work of the Holy Spirit. But they are different.

 

4 Painful Results of Insecure Leadership — Eric Geiger

Insecurity must not be confused with humility. Insecurity, like pride, is a focus on your self. Humility comes when you have a proper view of yourself in light of the Lord who is holy and above all. Humility comes from understanding that we are not God but we are loved by Him. When leaders lead in an insecure posture they don’t lead effectively. In fact, insecure leaders can damage the organization or ministry they are leading in at least four ways:

 

The Pastor as a Church Member — Jared Sparks

It is imperative – the pastor must have an identity in Christ if he is to embrace being a shepherd and a sheep. Pastor Paul does this well. The characteristics of the Philippian church reflect this truth about him. The Macedonian churches were taken care of by Paul and they, in turn, gave back. Paul lived as a shepherd and a sheep.

 

5 Passages Your Pastor Wishes You’d Stop Taking out of Context — Kyle Rohane

This isn’t surprising to most church leaders, who often see verses plucked from their homes to serve other purposes. To better understand these tricky situations, I asked several pastors to share the misused passages that make their skin crawl and how people in ministry can model healthy biblical interpretation.

 

A Brief History of the Altar Call — Thomas Kidd

By the mid-20th century, altar calls had become a staple of evangelical and Baptist life in America, especially in the South. Many evangelical and Reformed-leaning churches in recent years have stopped doing altar calls, for a variety of reasons. Critics of altar calls have pointed out that they have no strong biblical basis, and that they were part of the “New Measures” introduced by Charles Finney in the later stages of the Second Great Awakening.