An Open Letter (that gave me a good chuckle)

Dear Disgruntled Church Member;

You are an important part of the Body of Christ.  You are a part of the Royal Priesthood.  But you have not been chosen to be the pastor of this congregation.

I know you have been trained by our denomination to think that your input is as valuable as anyone else's.  But it's not true.

Next time God gives you a call to the pastorate, please take it.

Sincerely,

A Pastor

How to Start New Ministries

We all want church members to find their spiritual gifts, their passions, and their place in building God's kingdom and reaching the community. Or do we?

If we really want these things to happen, we need a process (or processes) for making them happen. If the members have the "what" and "why," we should readily give them the "how."

Let's say a church member comes up to you and tells you God has given them a "burden" for a new ministry for the youth of the community. And the more you listen, the more you think this ministry would actually be valuable to the community. And then you start thinking that it could mesh very well with your church vision.

Do you have a process to empower this person? Do all the members know (or have access to) that process? They should.

Here's just a sample process for how to start new ministries:

How to Start New Ministries

Because the church is the Body of Christ, each member is interdependent. No one should try to start a church-based ministry without (or in spite of) church support.

At each step of the way, you'll need to find support and buy-in:

1. be clear on the community need and your spiritual gifts
2. talk to your pastor about your ministry vision
3. ask your pastor if it fits the vision of the church
4. find at least one potential ministry partner
5. write out a proposal, including...
• ministry need and vision
• who would do what (spiritual gifts, roles)
• who would this ministry report to?
• resources (time and money) required
• how/when could it become self-sustaining?
• start-up timeline
6. show your plan to your pastor
7. ask for your plan to go to the church board
8. church board would give final approval (or disapproval)
9. be willing to try hard and fail a lot

My advice is to print this up on a brightly-colored piece of paper and put it on bulletin boards, in the literature racks, and in every ministry process playbook (you use playbooks, right?).

Once people know they're allowed to start new ministries, they might actually try. And someone might be successful. You may have the birth of a new leader. And the world might be changed for Christ.

Mind Like Water

As pastors, we should be caring mostly about higher-level stuff - seeing God’s vision for our churches, understanding our unique calling, roles and goals, balance, priorities, meaning, and purpose. We should be reaching our communities with the undeniably attractive gospel and a unique message for these last days.

But I think a huge barrier to understanding and implementing the “higher-level” stuff is the clutter we carry around in our heads every day. I was once told that pastors basically get paid to carry the details and needs of the church around in their heads 24/7/365. That made sense to me. It made sense because it resonated with my experience.

David Allen, in his book Getting Things Done, talks about all of the little things we have to do every day as the “runway” things. They are the current reality of things on the ground. Most of us never see things from “10,000 feet,” “20,000 feet,” or “30,000 feet” because we have so much clutter on the runway that we can never really take off.

That clutter on the runway is the same clutter in your brain that you carry around 24/7/365. You reason, “if I don’t think about it all the time, who will?”

The beauty of the Getting Things Done process is that it captures all of those things - duties, expectations, goals, appointments, plans, projects, tasks, hopes and dreams - into a leak-proof organizational system that you can trust completely.

If you know the organizational system will remind you of everything you need to know exactly when you need to know it, you can take it out of your brain and stop worrying about it all the time. Your stress level (and blood pressure) will go down. You’ll quit being constantly overwhelmed by all of the “stuff” you have to deal with. And you’ll be able to think about the more important, “higher-level” things.

David Allen (borrowing a zen image) refers to this sense of peace as having a “mind like water.” Just like water in a pond, your mind should be at peace most of the time. And it should only react when something is thrown into it. Water reacts exactly in proportion to the object thrown into it - with a big splash for a big rock, or a little ripple for a small pebble. And when the reaction is over, it goes back to a state of peace.

If we all had a “mind like water,” I believe we would be better able to listen for God’s voice, discern His leading, do better strategic planning, truly enter into a Sabbath rest, and ultimately become the pastors God wants us to be. So before you can really get into the “higher-level” stuff, you need to really learn to manage all of the “runway” stuff.

You do that by getting all of your open loops out of your head and onto lists, where you can see, analyze, plan, and do them.

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This week I'm guest blogging over at JustPastors.com. They've asked me to write about Time Management for Clergy - specifically GTD. This entry is from that series (even though some of the information is a repeat of what I've written here previously).

Church Planting, Moving, and Getting Things Done

Okay. Now there aren't enough hours in the day!

Last Tuesday I accepted a call to start a new church in the southern suburbs of the Twin Cities. For years, I've turned down other job offers. I believe in staying as long as I'm being effective (read my pastoral longevity rant). But this job is different.

Over the past three years, I've sensed a growing call to start a new church with my friends Matt Segebartt and [name redacted because he hasn't yet told his church]. Matt is amazing at Worship Leading and Team Building. [Name redacted] is incredible at Community Transformation and Discipleship. And they both have an exciting breadth of vision for starting new churches, transforming lives, and reaching communities for Christ. I can't wait to be in team ministry and concentrate my efforts in the areas where I'm most effective!

Over that same three-year period of time, the Minnesota Conference has been looking for a church planting team to do exactly what God has put on our hearts.

When our paths crossed last Spring, all of us really felt like God had been working on both sides of the equation the whole time.

So we accepted the call and will be moving in June.

Now we have to clean, pack, sell our houses, look for new ones, find part-time jobs, transition our churches to new leadership, etc., etc. Who has time to move and live and have a job at the same time?

I am so thankful that I've been using GTD now for 9 months. I think I would be a total wreck if I didn't know how to sort and file and turn projects into next actions. Just the initial ubiquitous capture helped me to declutter and feel good about getting rid of stuff. Exactly what I need for this moving process.

To see my personal vision statement, which includes the initial vision for this project, go here.

To hear this week's sermon, "Obedient to the Vision," where I tell my congregation, go here.

Pastoral Longevity

Okay. So this blog is about time management and personal productivity for pastors.

Today's time management tip is really a part of my big soap box rant about pastors staying long enough to make a difference in a local congregation.

The average tenure (meaning "ten years") of a pastor in North America (across all denominations) is less than five years.

Back in 1954, a pastor could walk into a new pastorate and have all of the respect and "positional authority" to make a difference. Pastors were authority figures, often with much more education than anyone else in the congregation. They were recognized leaders in a trusted profession. They could make a difference in just a few short years.

That was then. Times have changed. Pastors no longer walk onto the job with positional authority. Pastors must earn that authority. Pastoral ministry is no longer a trusted profession. Because of this, it now takes much longer to become a productive pastor than it used to.

On average, it takes about 4 years until you get that kind of trust and authority in a local congregation. At year 4, leaders in the church will start testing your boundaries, seeing if they can really trust you, seeing if you'll buckle (just like two-year-olds do with their parents). They don't even know they're doing it. But they're trying to figure out whether they can trust you to become the real leader of the church.

Unfortunately, most pastors sense this pushback as an attack. So they start looking for other jobs. And they take the first one that looks half-decent (emphasis on half).

If you'll just stay put for a year, you'll get through the testing point. And you'll finally have all the authority you need to start being productive.

Here's a quote from the George Barna Group:

"Our work has found that the typical pastor has his or her greatest ministry impact at a church in years five through fourteen of their pastorate. Unfortunately, we also know that the average pastor lasts only five years at a church - forfeiting the fruit of their investment in the church they've pastored."

So, if you want to be a truly effective pastor, you must stay put long enough to earn enough authority to actually become effective.

Not only that, just think of how much time you waste preparing your house for sale and finding a new house to buy in a new community. Think of the time you waste having to just get up to speed in a new congregation or new community.

That said, after seven years at Cornerstone, I will be leaving in June.

Getting Things Done - Car Capturing

Last week, I posted about not capturing my ideas. One of my biggest issues was not capturing thoughts, ideas, and to-dos while in the car. I can't write while driving and I don't have a voice memo recorder.

Veggiegrrl left a useful comment:

I use my cell phone to call and leave a message on my voicemail at work. Then I don't have to remember to retrieve anything from the car -- it's waiting at my desk when I get there.

Since then, I've called maybe 15 capture items in during my drive time. Problem solved! No more lost ideas! Thanks, Veggiegrrl!

Keeping a Time Log - How Depressing

When I was going through the Ministry Advantage Pastor's Coaching System, my personal coach wanted me to do a 1-week time log. For five consecutive work-days I set my timer to go off every 15 minutes (during "at-work" time) and wrote down what I had been doing during those last 15 minutes.

Then, in a second column, I had to categorize my time by roles - "pastoral," "administrative," "visionary," "evangelistic," "secretarial/notmyjob," "janitorial/notmyjob," "rescuing/notmyjob," "games," etc.

I did not like what I found. But they tell me that awareness is the first step to recovery.

I must say that the point of this exercise was NOT to show the utter disaster of my time management skills (although that was a healthy side-effect). My coach was really trying to help me figure out my pastoral role. Was I doing the things I was hired to do, or could these things be done by someone else?

It was really easy for me to rationalize it out from day to day and say, "I'll just do it myself. I want it done right. I don't have time to train anyone, anyway. Who else would do it?" And then I end up mailing out the weekly sermon CDs. For a year! What was I thinking?!!

Do a 1-week time log. You may be surprised at what you find. But awareness is the first step to recovery.

Personal Vision Workbook - 8. Personal Calling Statement

The following is from my Personal Vision Workbook. Read the introduction and legal stuff.

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What is God calling you to accomplish for His glory? As we’ve already noted, God has a plan for your future.

“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born I set you apart.” - Jeremiah 1:5

Sometimes, this calling will unfold slowly, as it did for Nehemiah. Other times, the calling will suddenly knock you off your horse, as it did for the Apostle Paul. It might be a miraculous calling, or just a gut feeling about what God wants you to do.

Schedule at least an hour of uninterrupted time for this section.

Prayerfully look back over your past [link] , your mentors [link], your identity [link], and values [link]. A picture should be starting to emerge about God’s vision for your future. On a separate sheet of paper, write down everything that may be a clue to your calling.

How has God used you in the past?

What events or people inspired you to give your best to God?

What calling did you have that you pushed away?

Write a rough-draft Calling Statement:

I believe God is calling me to…

Test the calling:

Can you see it? Is it bigger than you? Would you do it even if you didn’t get paid? Will it make a difference for God’s Kingdom? How is it different than what you’re already doing?

Write a rough-draft Calling Statement on Personal Vision Statement.pdf

Personal Vision Statement - Purpose, Values, and Vision

My Personal Vision Statement was developed over a few days of intensive prayer, reflection, and directed personal and group work at a CRM ReFocusing Leaders training event in 2004. It has changed very little over the last two years. This document has provided considerable guidance and accountability for my priorities, keeping me on track for the things I know are really important in my life and ministry.

If you'd like to go through a similar (simplified) process to come up with your own Personal Vision Statement, you can buy and use my Personal Vision Workbook.

My Purpose
I exist to live in childlike dependence on God, growing and maturing every day, letting people see His hand at work in my life.

My Core Values

• Excellence – honoring God and inspiring people
• Authentic Relationships – intentionally deepening with family and a few close friends
• Visionary Leadership – listening, dreaming, obeying, mentoring, and leading the charge
• Team Ministry – completing gifts, sharpening, challenging, inspiring, holding accountable
• Pioneering – trying new things, starting new ventures
• Church Planting – expanding God’s kingdom through new, mission-driven churches
• Practicality – doing only those things that work
• Worship – publicly and privately honoring God as Creator, Redeemer, and Lord

My Vision
My vision is to live a balanced life of love and service to God, my family, and my community.

I am called to place my family above my vocation, to be a loving and accessible husband and father, ministering to my family’s needs and demonstrating God's love in tangible ways.

I am called to lead a team of pastors to plant a growing church in a North American city and to facilitate a healthy, growing network of church plants that glorify God and prepare communities for Christ’s soon return.