October 2004

Free Online Training Designed Especially for Church Volunteers

A pastor was making his rounds to visit people on a bicycle when he came upon a little boy trying to sell a lawn mower. “How much do you want for the mower?” the pastor asked.

“I just want enough money to buy a bicycle,” the little boy responded.

After a moment of consideration, the pastor said, “Will you take my bike in trade for the mower?”

The little boy asked if he could try the bike out first, and, after riding the bike around a little while, said, “Mister, you’ve got yourself a deal.”

The pastor took the mower and began to pull the chord to try to start it. He pulled on the rope a few times but got no response from the mower. The pastor looked at the little boy and said, “I can’t get this mower to start.”

The little boy said, “That’s because you have to cuss at it to get it started.”

The pastor said, “I’m a minister, and I can’t cuss. It’s been so long since I’ve been saved, I don’t even remember how to cuss.”

The little boy looked at him happily, started to peddle off, and said, “Just keep pulling that chord. It’ll come back to ya.”

As this humorous anecdote subtly suggests, pastors ARE human. While many of us would rather continue to live in denial and view our pastors as modern day ecclesiastical super heroes (like Bible Man) who always have the answers and never falter or fail, the truth is pastors are painfully human… just like us! Just like us, pastors sometimes make unwise—even sinful—decisions. Like us, they sometimes bring problems on themselves. Like us, they love God intensely, but are vexingly vulnerable. That’s why we need to take seriously what the Bible says about our responsibility to support and encourage our pastors. So please go on to read, "Seven Ways God Wants YOU to Support Your Pastor--Part 1 of 2" in this special edition of Cadre Connection--and feel free to share with others. Imagine what could happen in our churches if we really started to encourage and support our pastors...

 

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As rewarding and fun as it is to serve fulltime in a church, pastoring is challenging, demanding, and discouraging. The church is often a place of conflict—sometimes healthy conflict (conflict that is dealt with directly in the spirit of Galatians 5:22-23)—but more often it is a place of unhealthy conflict (see Galatians 5:19-21)! I’m sorry to say that over the years, I’ve had the unfortunate experience of being in the presence of some knock-em-down-and-drag-em-out church meetings. The behavior displayed at these meetings was EVIL (Galatians 5:19-21)! When in the middle of such a melee, I have often thought of Paul’s statement to the most messed up church in the New Testament: “…I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good” (I Corinthians 11:17)! Indeed, ministry would be great if it weren’t for people! And the people who ought to be loving pastors the most are often the cause of the pastor’s greatest headaches and heartaches!

Facing Emotional Terrorists in the Church
One of the primary challenges pastors currently face is an incredibly unhealthy pattern in many churches across denominations in North America where key lay-patriarchs and matriarchs of the church have taken on the role of adversary to the pastor. Instead of working together with the pastor to impact their community and the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, there often seems to be a small but very powerful pocket of long time lay-church leaders who are engaged in an ecclesiastical battle—not with the devil—but with the pastor—whom they see as very dispensable and ephemeral. The primary weapon of ministerial destruction these “well-intentioned dragons” use on a pastor is, in my opinion, emotional terrorism: gossip, a constant stream of petty complaints (I’m not talking about sin issues—but issues of personal preference that get unjustifiably elevated to biblical importance), surprise votes of confidence at congregational meetings, unsigned letters spewing hate and negativity, secret “prayer” meetings by church power brokers that happen when the pastor is away on vacation, and looks of disgust and contempt while the pastor preaches just to name some examples. If there ever was a “gift” of discouragement, these people have it! Like the Devil himself, these people seem bent on making life and ministry an emotional hell for the pastor.

Before I go any further, I need to clarify that I’m NOT in any way trying to imply that all pastors are blameless and that if the laity would just get their act together everything in the church would be fine. I’m NOT saying that pastors never create any unnecessary problems for themselves and others—they do. I’ve seen vocational Christian leaders implode—and it had very little if anything to do with the people they were leading. What I am saying is that the emotional terrorizing of pastors and their families must stop! If emotional terrorism was an occasional happening for pastors in our churches, I wouldn’t even bother to mention it here. However, emotional terrorism in some form or another is often the mode of operation for how many churches deal with their pastor—especially after the first or second year of the pastorate in a given church. From over twenty years of ministry and loving the local church, it is my observation that the church that loves and emotionally supports its pastor—like the Bible clearly teaches—is in the minority!

Your Pastor Probably Won’t Tell YOU This
Make no mistake about it: Emotional terrorism over a long enough period of time is a very effective tool if one—like the Devil—wants to discourage a pastor. And according to Dan Webster of Authentic Leadership Inc., discouragement is at epidemic proportions among pastors! It is no surprise then, that when surveyed anonymously, pastors will candidly talk about how they feel about the pastorate. According to one study of pastors commissioned by Focus on the Family:

50 percent feel they are unable to meet the demands of the job.
90 percent feel they were inadequately trained to cope with the demands of ministry.
33 percent have seriously considered leaving the pastorate.

My experiences with pastors confirm the statistics above. Frankly, the words that describe many of the pastors I know and love are tired and discouraged—and in more than a few cases—defeated.

Revolving Door Pastors
Consequently, the average pastoral tenure in a given church is anywhere between three to five years depending on which statistical sources you consult. Ironically, research indicates that a pastor’s most fruitful years of ministry at a church tend to happen between years five and fourteen (Barna). Think this through with me. About the time a church and a pastor start to establish trust and are able to begin moving forward in the cause of Christ, the pastor (willingly or grudgingly) moves on to the next church—often to repeat this dysfunctional pattern. Some of the misguided lay-leaders of these sick churches—after having chewed up and spit out so many pastors over the years—have erroneously deduced that their God ordained role in the church is make life miserable for the pastor and to let the pastor know when it is time to go. One man, a Sunday school teacher for over thirty years, actually told me, “It’s my ministry to pray pastors out of our church.” Talk about confused!

Dr. Thomas Rainer, Dean of The Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism, and Church Growth at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, speaks directly and concisely to this lamentable state of many churches when he poignantly writes, “A church cannot attain health with a series of ‘revolving door’ pastors. Such is the plight of the great majority of churches in America. The constantly changing [pastoral] leadership engenders inconsistency of vision, undeveloped leaders, regular programmatic changes, and a power vacuum that is often filled by some of the biggest troublemakers in the church.”

Again, at the risk of being redundant, let me offer this clarifying caveat for the third time: This is not to excuse the poor leadership decisions and methods of some pastors. To be sure, more than one pastor has unwisely brought about his own undoing. The point I am calling your attention to so far in this article is this: Being a pastor is incredibly challenging, demanding, and often discouraging—much more than the average church attender truly understands—and instead of emotionally terrorizing pastors, we should take seriously our God-given responsibility to encourage and support pastors as much as we can.

Your Church Is NOT Your Church…
So You’d Better Be VERY Careful
For the sake of the testimony of Jesus Christ in our communities, we MUST allow God to change how we think and interact with our pastors. After all, the church you attend or are a member of is truly not “your” church—it’s Jesus’ church (I Peter 5:4). (Think about how this could change your board meetings where everyone sits around saying, “I think we ought to do this or that.” The question is not what you or I think the church should do. The biblically informed question is: What does Jesus want this church doing?) Some day we will all stand before Him to give an account—and many will have to answer some very serious questions about the counter-productive way they conducted themselves to the detriment of “God’s” church. Do I sound too serious? Since the eternal destinies of those in our communities are literally on the line—and God’s tool for reaching people in our communities is us via our local churches—I’d say the stakes couldn’t be higher! Therefore, we must let the Bible challenge, question, and correct the imbedded dysfunctional norms and unbiblical traditions that plague our thinking and mode of operation when it comes to the church—especially in our relationship with a pastor.

It’s time for you to get on the solution side of this problem. Instead of embracing the role of pastoral impediment—or allowing others in the church to adopt this demonic disposition, I want to challenge you to throw yourself with wild abandon into the ministry of encouraging your pastor! Instead of neglecting or emotionally terrorizing your pastor all year long and then getting him a $5 gift certificate to Krispy Kreme for Pastor Appreciation Month—give your pastor the tangible gifts of your prayers, support, and love. (Besides, what is Krispy Kreme but a place where the donut batter floats in a river of grease and goes under a waterfall of sugar—waiting to be consumed to clog the arteries of the masses?) Starting now, I CHALLENGE YOU to be a blessing and to encourage your pastor by covenanting together with God, others in your church, and your pastor to substantively and practically put into practice seven biblical ways God wants you to support your pastor.

Seven Biblical Ways God Wants YOU to Support Your Pastor

I. Pray
1) I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— 2) for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3) This is good, and pleases God our Savior (I Timothy 2:1-3, bold mine)

The Bible teaches us to pray for ALL those in authority. Since the office of pastor/elder is the highest office in the church, God wants us to pray for our pastor. If we prayed for our pastors as much as we talked about them or complained about them, our personal spiritual lives and our churches could be off the charts healthy. Wouldn’t that be great? So, based on this biblical principle, I challenge you to pray for your pastor specifically and consistently.

Pray Specifically: Pray for you pastor by name. Pray that your pastor would flourish in his relationship with God, spouse, kids, unbelievers, and the church. Pray for your pastor to be sexually pure, humble, and highly effective.

Pray Consistently: Pick a “pastoral prayer marker”—and every time you drive past it—lift a prayer up for your pastor. Not long ago, I had the honor of partnering with a pastor to train the elders of the church. I was challenging this group of about sixteen men on this very prayer point —to pray for their pastor specifically and consistently. The good natured pastor who is younger than I but with much less hair, pointed to his bald head and said, “Every time you pass a bowling alley—remember to pray for me!” It doesn’t matter what pastoral prayer marker you choose—just choose one and start praying specifically and consistently!

Can YOU honestly say, “I pray specifically and consistently for my pastor”? If not—you need to take seriously the command to pray for those in authority—and that certainly includes our spiritual leaders. It may be something as simple as every time you pull onto the church parking lot—you lift up a specific prayer for your pastor! Just do it!

II. Volunteer Your Time, Talents, and Spiritual Gifts
17) The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor… (I Timothy 5:17, bold mine)

Generally speaking, the job of pastoring can be summed up in the broad phrase: “direct the affairs of the church” (I Timothy 5:17). To “direct” means “to be over, to superintend, to preside over, to manage.” God gives pastors to churches—not so the pastors can do all of the ministry themselves—but so they can superintend and manage the mobilization of the entire church in the work of the ministry.

• A school superintendent does NOT normally teach in a classroom, discipline students (except in the most extreme cases), or get involved in the loads of paperwork. Superintendents oversee the running of the entire school via managers called principals. Organizational havoc would ensue in a school if the superintendent thought he/she had to do everything necessary to operate a school effectively. Thus, nothing would get done.
  
• While business managers are often expected to be able to do what those under them do—if the entire business depended on managers to do everything—the business could not function.
  
• The same oversight idea is implied here in I Timothy 5:17 when it comes to pastors and the church. To be sure, pastors should evangelize, give, serve, etc., but if all of us watch on the sidelines while our pastors do all of the work of the ministry—God’s work will never get done because there’s not enough of them!
  
  The implied imperative for us in I Timothy 5:17 is that we must throw our time and talents into the work of the church—and pastors must direct, superintend, and manage the endeavor!

According to church life pundit George Barna, pastors are expected to master sixteen major tasks as a part of the pastoral vocation—whereas other professionals are expected to master three or four major tasks required for their work. The current and unbiblical definition of the pastoral role—including some sixteen major tasks and responsibilities—results in the self-implosion of the pastor and eventually the church—as some of us can personally testify! God did not create the church to function so that the spiritually fat, unexercised masses complain about all of the work not being done by the exhausted and depleted few! In The Volunteer Revolution, Bill Hybels says, “I’ve learned that you can’t possibly build a God-honoring church with a congregation full of consumers.”

This is why one of the most important ways a pastor can be freed up to direct the affairs of the church is to train and equip regular Christians--volunteers like you and me--to do the work of the ministry. According to Ephesians 4:11-12, God gives a whole spiritual arsenal to the church—in addition to just pastors—for the purpose of equipping God's people (that's YOU and me) to do the work of the ministry: “It was he [Jesus] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (bold mine).

• Popular traditional unbiblical American thinking goes something like this:
I give money so the pastor can do the work of the ministry.

• Ephesians 4:11-12 biblically correct thinking is this:
We hire a fulltime pastor so the pastor can train me to do the work of the ministry!

I can hear your American objections right now: "Wait a minute! Are you saying that I am to give money so my pastor can take a salary—to train me to do the work? I give money AND do the work?" CONGRATULATIONS! You have just discovered God’s Ephesians 4:11-12 plan for the function of your life and church!

So based on this biblical principle, I challenge YOU to answer this question. Can you honestly say: “I give freely of my time, talents, and spiritual gifts so that my pastor can be freed up to direct the affairs of the church—rather than doing the entire ministry alone”?

Read Part 2 Now >>

RESPONSE: If God used this article to speak to your heart in some way to encourage you or to remind you of an important ministry lesson, please take a quick moment right now to share it with us at   info@cadreministries.com

Will YOU Take the Pastoral Covenant Challenge Right Now?


What would happen if we REALLY took our God-given responsibility to our pastor seriously? What would your church be like if you seriously entered into a covenant with God, each other, and your pastor to apply seven biblical ways to encourage your pastor? Why not start a movement in your church encourage and support your pastor right now? Here is how you can get started...

1. Download the covenant of seven biblical ways God wants YOU to encourage and support your pastor (they are both one page long).

WORD DOC http://www.cadreinternational.com/download/CC--PastorCovenant.doc
ADOBE PDF http://www.cadreinternational.com/download/CC--PastorCovenant.pdf

2. Study the Scripture verses one by one to discover what God has to say to YOU about encouraging and supporting your pastor.

3. Sign the Pastoral Covenant and give it to your pastor.

4. Share this article and Bible study with people in your church.

5. Consider having a service where the seven biblical ways to encourage your pastor are taught and explained--and then offer a challenge to the entire congregation to sign the covenant. You could have a signing of ONE covenant--and then frame the covenant and put it in the church foyer!

6. Then hold each other accountable to living out the seven ways God wants YOU to encourage and support your pastor!

7. Expect some to disagree--but speak and live God's truth in love anyway!

In Honor of Long Haul Pastors:
My Encounter with “Moses”

Did you miss last month's Cadre Connection? My Encounter with Moses:

CLICK TO READ:
 http://www.cadreinternational.com/training/0904.php

Did You Miss the Cadre Training Festival?

1) Bring a Cadre Training Festival to your area (contact info@cadreministries.com)

2) Experience last month’s Cadre Training Festival vicariously through our online photo album… you’ll see some people you know! Click here for fun photos:
http://homepage.mac.com/billc323/PhotoAlbum13.html

Resource and Train Volunteers in Your Church with Cadre’s Kit and Caboodle!

One of most everything Cadre has developed to make you wildly successful in training volunteers to do the work of the ministry effectively!

For more info or to order online, click here
 http://www.cadreministries.com/store/packs.html#kit

To order via regular mail, click here for printable order form
 http://www.cadreministries.com/store/mail.html

Two AWESOME Volunteers!

Meet Glen and Rita Rittenhouse—two of the best servant leaders I have ever known. In addition to serving in a variety of capacities in their local church, Northwoods Community Church in Peoria, IL, Glen and Rita have not missed a single time of helping Cadre host the Peoria area training workshops over the last four years! And God knows we couldn’t do it without their friendly smiles and attention to details such as making and serving coffee, setting up and tearing down rooms, making sure the food is good and plenty, and all of the pens and fun give-aways they have donated to those who have taken our training workshops! In addition to serving on the Cadre Board of Directors, Glen serves as President of Pekin Savings Bank www.pekinsavings.com and Rita leads and manages Pekin Travel Company www.pekintravel.com. Glen and Rita, thanks for your diverse, quiet, dedicated servant leadership in the Central Illinois area. You are two of the best volunteers we know!

A Call for You to Brag on an AWESOME Volunteer in Your Church!
Use the electronic megaphone of Cadre Connection to brag on an AWESOME volunteer in your church. Send a picture and short paragraph or two explaining specifically why this volunteer is AWESOME and we’d LOVE to champion him/her in the next edition of Cadre Connection! Send a picture and explanation to info@cadreministries.com.

A Strange But True Josey Story:

Jacob or Esau? Teaching My Five Daughters How to Pick a Good Man

 http://homepage.mac.com/billc323/Personal16.html

Cadre is a not-for-profit ministry [501(c)(3)] that exists to make you wildly successful at becoming what God has called you to become as you serve others in your local church and community. We serve as support-based, God-dependent missionaries to come alongside volunteers and those who care for volunteers in the church (globally) to help accomplish their God-given mission. Eph. 4:10-17

We provide free monthly online training for volunteers in the church (Cadre Connection), for volunteer Jr. High Youthworkers (Batteries Included), and for Student Leaders (Spiritual Caffeine). Visit www.cadreministries.com to preview our recent free training or to sign up to receive training in your email-box monthly.

For more information about bringing a certified Cadre trainer to coach and train the volunteer teachers, leaders, and youth workers in your church, contact info@cadreministries.com

For Cadre training sources visit http://www.cadreministries.com/store

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