What I Expect from Senior Leadership

Being in a staff position for nearly nine years, alongside an amazing team of pastors and leaders, has been both a demanding and rewarding experience that has kept me challenged and growing. Over the course of that time, I have come to learn what to expect and what to value from my lead pastor, Jim.

1. Leadership – As a member of staff, I look to my lead pastor to set the spiritual climate of the church, establish direction and objectives, help clarify the mission, and to ensure that I am traveling in the right direction with the rest of the team. This includes timely evaluation, correction, envisioning and re-envisioning that is collaborative and inspiring. From time to time, this also requires the lead pastor to shuffle staff position focuses to meet the changing demands and passions of the church. A healthy team will likely have its job descriptions continually in flux. This benefits the church and mission as well as benefiting the team so as to have the right people in the right places doing the right things.

2. Teaching – Besides the ongoing mentoring, sermons, and lunches at the pizza-by-the-slice place, my favourite part of each work week is our Monday morning staff meeting. Here, our team engages in a learning environment led by Jim that often comes through the outflow of what he has recently been learning, wrestling with, or interacting with. It has been of tremendous worth to have the influence of a lead pastor who is well read and who loves to teach us young guys!

3. Care & Protection – Over the course of time, it is not unlikely for a few of us staff to catch a few cheap shots from well-meaning church folks. Any time the Gospel is proclaimed there will, undoubtedly, come opposition and bullets aimed at one or all of us. I have had my share of hate mail, blog campaigns, and even a court case to know the immense value of a lead pastor who has my back. Not only does he protect me when I need protection, but he continually comes alongside of our team in thick and in thin to care for and love us. During family crises or celebration, through ministry success or failure, and in our extra-curricular activities, it has been empowering to know the care and protection of my lead pastor.

Staff people, be it youth, worship, children’s, outreach, family, etc., must learn how to openly and honestly work towards sustainable and engaging relationships with their lead pastor. As we allow ourselves to be led, we will be led well. When we submit ourselves to our leaderships’ teaching, we will learn to learn well. And finally, the care and protection we receive must be reciprocated towards our lead pastors who often find themselves in lonely, vulnerable, and vital positions of influence. Thank-you to all our hard working lead pastors for the good work you do.

LEADINGforward

Howdy yo. For any of you PAOC people who occasionally lurk around here, there is a new collaborative leadership resource that is being published online. It is called LeadingForward and is administrated by our new district officer, Dave Solmes. Go check out some of the video and other leadership resources posted. Before you leave, add it to your blogroll.
Grace and Peace,
-Jer

Leadership Journal

I came across this short little leadership thought in my journal recently. I'm not sure where this thought came from - a book or conference - but I'm pretty sure that I didn't originate it! Hopefully it is helpful.

In identifying a leader ask:
1. Do they have influence?
2. Is their influence good or bad? What is their character?
3. Do they have good people skills and a high social/emotional intelligence?
4. How driven are they? Are they action-oriented people who are comfortable taking initiative?
5. Are they good thinkers?
6. Do they have street smarts?

::Charlatans and Saints::new green day.

The new Green Day album hit stores, ipods, and stereo's this weekend asking listeners to walk down another punk rock opera. Similar to MCR's Black Parade and Green Day's previous work, American Idiot, this rock opera delivers thoughtful lyrics, angry guitars, and classic Green day chord progression while exploring Americana fundamentalism. The main character, if you're wondering, is named Christian. Go look in the mirror.

Go Bouldering.

The last couple of weeks have finally begun to feel a little bit like what summer will be. I love spring, the forest, and bouldering. The Hunter Creek boulders near Hope, BC are seeing somewhat of a revival of activity this spring with more traffic and problems being scrubbed and climbed.

A quote from Teddy Roosevelt's April 1910 address delivered at the Soronne, Paris sums up some of my climbing thoughts of late:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

The Role of Pastor

A version of this hit news stands yesterday. In 600 words or less - enjoy.

The occupation of Pastor runs deep in my family. My grandpa was a pastor, my dad is a pastor and church planter, my youngest brother is a pastor, and I, while growing up, firmly decided that I would not be a pastor. Ironically enough, I am now nearly a decade into the life and work of a pastor and thankful that my family heritage didn’t include heavy lifting or things that smell bad.

Upon learning that I am a pastor, people often ask, “What is it that you actually do?” or state “It must be nice to only work on Sunday.” To be honest, working only one day a week would be great for my rock-climbing schedule but horrible for the life of the Church. The reality is that being a pastor is not a clock-in/clock-out job; it is a lifestyle job that requires much from the pastor on an ongoing and continual basis.

So what does a pastor actually do besides drink coffee and play the churches’ Xbox?
I believe that there are four basic roles that a pastor fills in doing their job well; they lead, teach, care for, and protect their church.

First, pastors lead through organizing, gathering people, and setting the church in order. In addition to serving, this part of the pastors’ role requires that they multiply their leadership, study extensively about good leadership, and continually evaluate their leadership. As their church grows, they will need to build systems, becoming more precise in and reproducing their leadership so that it is both accountable and decentralized.

Second, the pastors’ role in teaching includes one-on-one conversations, teaching in small groups, and preaching to large groups, such as on a Sunday morning. This responsibility to teach requires a couple of things: one, that pastors spend long hours in Biblical study; and two, that they learn to clearly articulate that which they’ve studied. This means they should be students of both culture and communication, studying the great communicators of our time including politicians, comedians, writers, and even talk radio hosts. Sadly, many great teachings go unnoticed or unheeded not because of a lack of good content, but because of poor communication.

Third, a pastor functions as a caregiver. A good pastor is known for actually caring for the good and well-being of people. They respond to peoples’ needs through prayer, support, care, and counselling often networking with other local caregivers such as Cares Counselling here in Abbotsford. As pastors and churches, our intent should be to come alongside hurting people and journey with them through the mess of life, providing both hope and restoration.

Fourth, as protector of the church, a pastor defends orthodox doctrine and refutes heresy, false gospels, and deceivers. However, shielding the church also assumes advocacy for those unable to advocate for themselves such as in the cases of spousal or child abuse. This is why churches put in place safety and security procedures for their children and youth ministries and why churches need to take great care when publishing personal information of its members. Pastors, like our great Advocate, Jesus, must defend and protect the church from those who intend to deceive or harm it.
Though a pastor should be quite competent in each of these four areas, there will inevitably be seasons and circumstances where a pastor and church need to give more focus and attention to a particular area. For example, an untimely death in the church requires an intense season of care. While leading, teaching and protecting do still continue, the primary focus becomes one of compassion for the health, well-being, and good of the hurting.

Finally, if you know a pastor – whether you attend church or not – ask them what they do with their week. You might be surprised that spring golfing doesn’t make the list.

I'm Over This Band.

Donald Miller, who has a new book coming out soon, writes a funny post on his blog. It is easily worth 3 minutes of your time! What are you over?

The Church Product

Follows is a great quote from Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death on the state of advertising and our cultures appetite for personal value.

What the advertiser needs to know is not what is right about the product but what is wrong about the buyer. And so, the balance of business expenditures shifts from product research to market research. The television commercial has oriented business away from making products of value and toward making consumers feel valuable, which means that the business of business has now become pseudo-therapy.

A re-phrase of the quote as it concerns pastors and churches may, at times, be both an accurate and alarming statement of many of today's churches.

What the pastor needs to know is not what is right about the product, but what is wrong about the buyer. And so, the balance of church expenditures shifts from product research to market research. The television commercial has oriented church away from proclaiming products of value and toward making church people feel valuable, which means that the business of church has now become pseudo-therapy.

Jesus the Advocate

I forgot to post my last Abbotsford Times column...I'll get it for you sometime soon. Anyhow, a version of the following article hit newsstands today. Enjoy friends.

The creation story, as told in the book of Genesis, tells of how male and female were uniquely created and shaped by God’s hand to enjoy four significant relationships with God, others, ourselves, and the environment. Unfortunately, all four of these relationships have been about as stable as an unchaperoned junior-high prom date. A quick survey of any news media outlet will easily confirm the truth of these broken relationships as Abbotsfordians are forced to deal with gangsters, brownish chicken air, urban sprawl, domestic abuse, homelessness, and hypocrites of every stripe.

The first relationship we are meant to enjoy is with God who we are to trust, love, honour, and serve as King. This requires our humble submission to His rule and reign, doing what any good servant would: report for duty, demonstrate loyalty, wait for direction, and complete the task.

Secondly, our relationship with others is meant to be that of mutual respect ruled by an ethic of love. This is why the picture of humanity painted at the end of the Bible is one of every language, nation, gender, and race joining together to worship God around His thrown. With Abbotsford being the third most ethnically diverse city in the nation, behind Toronto and Vancouver, it would seem natural to look around at the City’s diversity for a sneak peak of what Heavens’ languages, culture, and restaurants might sound, feel, and taste like.

Thirdly, mankind’s relationship with himself is to be that of a sound mind in which we can think, feel, and act in ways that are good and beneficial for all other relationships. This is why counsellors, self-help gurus, and Dr. Phil are in such demand as people hope for a renewed mind, emotion, and will.

Fourth, the Biblical view of creation is not that we worship nature as god or goddess as some do, nor that we strip mine, dump chemicals in our streams, or recklessly drive gas-guzzlers to the corner store when we could just as easily have walked. Our relationship with the earth is meant to be one of gardening and tending to, as good custodians of something created for our pleasure, enjoyment, and sustenance. For every tree-hugging-organic-wearing-bicycle-riding-recycling-hippie in a 1970’s diesel van, this should come as great comfort to you.

God’s response to these four broken relationships is both of anger and sadness. Anger that we destroy or allow to be destroyed our environment, our selves, our human relationships, and our relationship with God, and sadness over the results. Further, if pollution, addictions, social and economic injustice, or people’s separation from God angers or sadness you, you are agreeing with and, to an extent, feeling the heart of God. For most caring, socially responsible, environmentalist atheists, agnostics, and neo-pagans, this might come as quite a shock. You, whether you realize or care to admit it, agree with God’s anger and sadness over sin, evil, and injustice.

Finally, one of Jesus’ names and functions is that of Advocate. Jesus, the Advocator, is advocating for clean drinking water, sustainable cities, and places for fawns to frolic. Jesus, the Advocator, is advocating for the renewing of our minds and is pleased with the mental health’s field of work. Jesus, the Advocator, is advocating for the good and ongoing relationships of all people regardless of skin color, creed, age, gender, language, or opinion. And Jesus, the Advocator, pulls double shifts as the Mediator mending the broken relationship between man and his creator, the God of the Bible.

Gender Relations

Some form of this article hits the Abbotsford Times this week. Enjoy.

Among the most explosive issues in Abbotsford of late has been the subject of a banned high school class dealing with sexual orientation and gender identity. In the next few hundred words I want to dig into some explanation of how men and women relate which should prove to be as popular as running your nails down a chalk board and drinking battery acid. Please buckle in as we look at three gender-relation positions that must be rejected as being unfaithful, unbiblical, and, ultimately, hurtful to men, women, children, and the cause of the Gospel.

Chauvinists insist that men are superior holding the power to abuse, misuse, mistreat, and manipulate women to do their will asserting, essentially, that women are not equal to men. These spineless men often abuse their wives, are addicted to porn, selfishly abandon their children, try to control women through the threat of violence, anger, and by withholding finances. Simply, we can not live like this and should confront men who do.

Feminists maintain the opposite position suggesting that women, not men, are superior in every aspect and should, therefore, be out front ruling and manipulate the world around them – especially men. These women are often single or in a bad relationship, watch The View, are stubborn and pushy, malicious gossipers, and are submissive to no one but their own plans and desires often guising their feminism under the slogan of ‘freedom from male tyranny.’ This woman is not the Biblical view of femininity.

Egalitarians essentially believe that men and women are equal to each other with no difference or distinction. This view upholds the value and worth of everyone while maintaining equal rights, opportunities, and roles for male and female alike. And, while we do believe that men and women are equal, we must reject this position because, unlike egalitarians, we must hold to the Biblical idea that men and women are equal but distinct. Unfortunately, too many have confused distinction with inequality; difference as discrimination.

Finally, we come to an acceptable view which we call complemtary. This view holds that, male and female – while being equal in value, worth, and dignity – are distinct from each other in both role and responsibility. This is much like Luongo and the Sedin twins who, though they are on the same hockey team, have different positions and functions while working towards a common goal. Another especially evident example is the parent-child relationship: while the child is equal to his parents in dignity, value, and worth, the parents still must make decisions, teach, provide for, discipline, hold responsible, and direct the child as they see fit. Obviously, it is very unhelpful to assume that ‘distinction’ is synonymous with ‘inequality.’

The complemetary view insists that all human life is equal in value, dignity, and worth while maintaining that men, women, and children are different and distinct from one another. Additionally, in no way do male/female distinctions belittle or give superiority to either man or woman, but rather encourages the faithful response of both to live lives worthy of their calling, duty, and responsibility. Finally, men and women are not meant to duplicate one another but rather to complement each other recognizing that both are created equally and uniquely in the image and likeness of God.