What should you know about a church if you are considering a pastoral or staff position?

I had an interesting call today from an old friend. He is interviewing for an associate pastoral position (in this case a campus pastor) and his question was a good one. How do I determine the health of the church since what is seen on the outside is often not what one finds on the inside. This last truth can become a source of real pain when one realizes the level of dysfunction that exists - in many churches.

The first thing I suggested is that he read A Church Called TOV which is the best book on what dysfunctional and healthy churches look like. In fact, if I were a potential candidate I would be interested in knowing whether the senior leader and the board had read this book, and if so, what their observations or learnings were.

In general, I would want to scope out the following information.

• What is the health of the board? Congregations and staff cultures rarely rise above the health of the church board. How would they describe their board health? Is the board unified and healthy in their relationships? Does the board have a written board covenant that delineates how they do their work and that hold board members accountable?

• If you are applying for a senior pastoral position, what is the relationship of the board to their senior leader? Is it a permission granting leadership paradigm or a permission withholding paradigm? Is the senior leader a colleague on the board or simply an employee of the board? Are there any powerbrokers on the board who have the power to determine what does or does not happen? 

• What is the vision/preferred future of the ministry? What you want to learn here is whether the senior pastor and board have clarified what it is that they are chasing after. Or, if they are simply doing accidental ministry. If they have a picture of the preferred future, what is their plan for getting there and how would they evaluate their progress?

• How does the board, staff and congregation deal with conflict? Do they bury it or deal with it and if so how? Do they have healthy conflict resolution practices? Are there any elephants in the room, areas of conflict that exist but are not being addressed?

• What is the health of the staff. Often you need to talk to other staff people about this. I would want to know how the senior leader treats staff, whether he/she empowers or controls and whether there is an open and candid culture where any issue can be put on the table with the exception of hidden agendas or personal attacks. I would ask other staff if there are issues that one cannot put on the table. They will know. I would want to know from other staff the positive side of the culture and the negative side. I ask want permission to speak with a number of staff to understand the culture from their perspective. If a senior leader is unwilling to give you that permission it is a sign that not all is well.

• Regarding staff culture, is there significant alignment of staff around common values, ministry direction and priorities? Or, do individual leaders simply do what is right in their own eyes? 

• I would want to understand the vision of the leaders for disciplemaking, staff culture, local and world outreach, diversity, generosity, community impact and those things that I believe are important for a church to pursue. 

• What is the history of the church? What have the high points been and the low points? Where are they in the life cycle of an organization today? On the decline, plateaued or moving forward?

• What is the leadership style of the senior leader? Do they empower their staff to do their work or do they micromanage, change and control what staff does? Are they secure in themselves, generous in giving opportunity away and treating staff with dignity, respect and appreciation? Or, are they ego driven, insecure and threatened by other strong and competent individuals.

When you ask questions like this you quickly determine the level of clarity that the church has regarding its priorities, direction and alignment. Speaking with multiple individuals allows you to determine how reality compares to stated answers. When looking for a pastoral job it is way too easy to overlook issues that will impact you down the line. You want to go into the role with your eyes open. You may choose to take the role in spite of issues you discover but at least you are doing so with a healthy level of clarity.

China continues its relentless assault on Christianity

 

See this article from the Christian Post on China's continuing assault on Christianity

China shuts down Bible App, Christian WeChat as new crackdown policies go into effect

Minister to India today through prayer

 

God's heart is deeply grieved today as He watches the pain and suffering in India due to Covid. Imagine having a husband, wife or relative who is desperately sick and there are no hospital beds - anywhere! Imagine watching your loved one struggle to breath and there is no oxygen to be had! Imagine that there is nothing you can do as you watch your loved one die with no hope, no medicine, no oxygen, no pain relief. 

CNN reported the following:

"India on Saturday reported 401,993 new coronavirus cases for the previous 24 hours -- the first time the country has surpassed 400,000 cases in a single day.

That brings the country's total Covid-19 caseload to more than 19 million since the pandemic began, and marks the 10th consecutive day of more than 300,000 daily cases, according to a CNN tally of figures from the Indian Ministry of Health. It's the first time any country has recorded more than 400,000 cases in a single day.

India also reported another 3,523 related deaths, taking its total death toll to 211,853. It is the fourth day in a row the daily number of deaths has exceeded 3,000. 

As of Friday evening local time, 154,854,096 vaccine doses had been administered. A total of 27,889,889 people had received their second doses -- equal to 2.1% of India’s population of 1.3 billion people, according to a health ministry news release.

India launched its vaccination drive on January 16, and expanded the program to everyone above the age of 18 on Saturday."

Pray for India because God's heart is with the hurting. And our hearts should be like Jesus. Pray for the church there that is struggling to meet its own needs and at the same time minister to people around them who have no hope. Pray that in this time of hopelessness that many would find hope in Jesus. 

But above all, pray. As we care about those things that God's heart cares about, we become more like Him. Perhaps as you pray, God will show you ways that you can make a difference. If not, prayer is still the main thing.

The pictures above were taken by me as I travelled in India many times. A wonderful, beautiful people with a vibrant church that lives in many places with great persecution.

Francis Chan on divisions within the Christian church

 

CNLP 413: FRANCIS CHAN ON ESCALATING DIVISION, ASIAN HATE, AND WHY INFLUENCE IN THE CHURCH CAN’T COME FROM SELF-PROMOTION

By Carey Nieuwhof

Thanking God for the ministry of John Stott

 

It would have been John R.W. Stott's 100th birthday yesterday. He was a man who impacted by own life significantly. I met him in 1971 when he did a "mission" at the Anglican Church in Hong Kong where I lived. I was 15 years old at the time. Before and after those services he would chat with those who were present and I will always remember his warm smile, rosy cheeks, warm demeanor as well as the cogent and clear way he presented the gospel.

Those messages inspired me to read the Scriptures from cover to cover with I did in a two week span not long after and in many ways he taught me by example how to communicate the text. 

His books over the years fed my soul and caused me to think deeper. But his character was what rubbed off. He was one of the most humble theologians we have had. Perhaps not correct on all counts but which theologian is? He cared deeply about the gospel and about people and had a pastoral heart. It was not simply truth but it was truth with love and grace.

His books continue to challenge me. And his heart. And his humility.

Here is an excellent article from Christianity Today on John Stott.

John Stott Would Want Us to Stop, Study, and Struggle

As his study assistant, I saw how the steadfast suffering of careful thinking resulted in balanced biblical Christianity.

JOHN W. YATES III|APRIL 26, 2021

The sin of slander, an evangelical preoccupation

 

Slander is to speak something untrue of another individual and it is a common way for believers to hurt those who they don't agree with. Recently I was intrigued by an interview with a well known evangelical leader, Francis Chan, who talked about the things that he had heard over the years about other Christian leaders, repeated those things to others and now has found many of them to be untrue.

This is what Jesus says about slander. "For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander." Matthew 15:19. To slander is to lie, besmirch the reputation of another. If, as Jesus says, we will held accountable for every word we speak, many of us will be sorry for words we have said about people we don't know based on information we have heard second and third hand. 

Think of gossip we hear and repeat. Think of innuendos we drop about other people. Think about assumptions we make about people based on things we have heard or assume but do not personally know. When you think about it, each of us have been guilty of slander! It is so easy to assume that which we don't know, pass on that which we have heard but have no personal knowledge of and make statements to others which have no basis in fact. And it destroys the reputation of others.

If you want examples of this, look no further than social media, or think about information you are told by friends or acquaintances about others. Think about those things we tell others about people we don't like. Things meant to hurt their reputation. Things meant to pull you into their (or our) unhappy or bitter orbit. We love to hurt those we don't like and we do so with sharing information meant to hurt their reputation. If you have been on the receiving end you know how painful it is. 

What is the Jesus way? Consider these words from Paul in Ephesians 4:29-32. "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."

TOV is the Greek word for goodness. A church called TOV is making the rounds in evangelical circles and is long overdue. One of the practices of a TOV congregation is that we don't slander others, speak the truth and those things that build others up. Think of the pain that would be avoided and the culture that would be developed if we simply lived by the words of Paul. Or Jesus.

A person of goodness does not slander to speak to issues they don't know of. They don't repeat information that they are not clear on. They build others up and resist tearing them down.

A willingness to reconcile is a sign of Christ in us

I have written recently on the propensity of people to cancel out those they disagree with, the lack of kindness and love among church board members and evangelicals at large. It is as if the church has lost the ability or desire to be peacemakers in the midst of conflict. To be willing to take on the humility of Jesus who "made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:7-8). All for our benefit

How often we are unwilling today to initiate a conversation to say "I am sorry." How often we are unwilling to enter into a conversation to resolve conflict and differences. We would rather walk away - and in that act - we carry our animus and bitterness or sense of offense with us. How often we are unwilling to take the first step toward reconciliation. Instead we insist that the other party do so. How often we refuse to forgive one another and instead carry our offenses with us.

In doing so we drop friendships, leave churches, leave conflict unresolved, carry a burden Jesus never intended us to carry and deny the power of God who came to reconcile us to Him and then to one another. In fact we are told that we are ministers of reconciliation just as Jesus was with us (2 Corinthians 5:11-21). And, He took the first step when we didn't deserve it. Otherwise there would have been no reconciliation with Him. "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).

Yet, too often we refuse to reconcile and hang on to our pride. I have done it and you have done it and it is a denial of the One who chose to forgive us when we didn't deserve it. So we cancel one another, split congregations, leave churches, refuse to talk to those we have differences with (unless they repent) and in the process deny that Jesus is Lord in our own lives. 

I am sad for the church today with its conflict and strife. I am sad for my heart when I contribute to the same. In fact, in my Easter journal entry I wrote down these commitments regarding how I want to treat fellow believers:

In my relationships with other believers,

• My goal is to understand and seek peace
• To refrain from judging when it is not necessary or productive
• To think the best rather than the worst
• To forgive freely even when I am hurt
• To ask forgiveness when I have hurt others
• To pray God's blessing on those I would rather cancel
• To ask God to change me before I ask Him to change others
• To be as gentle, patient and kind with those who irritate me as God is with me
• To seek to apply the Fruit of the Spirit with those who I don't like as well as those I do like
• To think about my relationships in light of eternity
• To give up my "rights" to my attitudes, judgements, harsh words, gossip, hard feelings and desires for retribution in pace of the attitudes of Jesus

In several conversations over these issues, people have said to me. "I am not ready to do that," or "that is too hard." Or, "I don't want to do that and don't intend to." There have been times when I have said that as well so I do not and cannot cast stones. 

But whenever we choose the route that is easiest rather than the route that Jesus calls us to and which reflects His character toward us we choose a life of bondage over freedom.

Here is the thing. The evil one comes to steal, kill and destroy - and that includes our friendships, relationships, the unity in the church and our own well being. The good shepherd on the other hand comes to bring life and life abundant (John 10:10). This includes reconciliation of relationships, something that is often difficult without the help of the Holy Spirit. 

Years ago, I held on to an offense that I felt justified about. Another brother in Christ said to me, "you are the more mature one here, go and make it right." It made me angry because I was the one who was wronged. But he was right and I eventually did so. Jesus said, Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall see God." Why? Because that is the nature of who God is and He calls us to the ministry of reconciliation.

Who is it that we need to be reconciled with today? Are we willing to act and encounter His freedom in our lives, or will we refuse and live with a burden of our own making? It is always our choice.

But it is a choice! Either way it is a choice!