We have just scraped the surface of stewardship culture in the church. The issues of time/talent/treasure is nice and helpful, but what we have done is created a culture of renters. Part of this goes back to our wonderful Catholic friends and the idea of a priesthood that we as protestants have never really gotten away from. However I think in the Adventist church, along with others who have a structure like ours where the church does not choose it's pastor, we have aided and abbeded in this renter culture.
Think about it...it is only recently that pastors even think of staying in a church more than 3-5 years. How can a pastor really be an owner of that churches vision to fulfill the Great Commission in a community when they are constantly thinking of their exit strategy and the congregation knows that what ever ideas a pastor pushes on them are going to change when the next guy comes anyways. This creates a culture of both renter pastors and renter congregations that are never allowed to have a long term strategy for reaching the lost in their community because of the revolving door of leadership.
So how do we fix it? I don't know about you but as I look at many of the challenges I have at my church many come down to this issue. It truly is an issue of stewardship. How do we get rid of a patriarchical top down system and replace it with one that is more empowering, one that creates a heart of service and one that has the customer (i.e. the people we want to see in our church) in mind.
Random thoughts post by
Benji
p.s. Couldn't post without adding a Dylan picture, this was taken at the Madison Zoo and this lioness had her eye on Dylan...it was actually a little disconcerting.
p.p.s. I finally broke down and got a facebook page, Stephanie is on Myspace, if you know us please check out our pages!
2 comments:
So how do you fix it?
- Create an environment that doesn't lead to burnout in 3-5 years.
- Reduce the ridiculous expectations levied upon most in the ministry and TALK about them frankly.
- Pay pastors well and give them... nay make them take time off.
- What about having a strong firm purpose but a more fluid mission?
- Become Adventist.
Hi Benji:
I felt impressed to answer to your post. I agree with what the previous commenter said. In addition, I really believe that we should take a leaf out of the book of other churches and let our pastors stay longer in one place. This will be good for the congregation since they will have a pastor who knows them more intimately and can therefore be a better leader. Equally as important however, it will benefit the pastor because he will not have to keep himself distant from his constituents, and can therefore form truer relationships. This will make the pastor less lonely and depressed and give him a greater impetus to help his congregation.
I know many pastors feel isolated from others except for their immediate family. They are afraid to make connections since they know they can be leaving any month. They are always planning their "exit strategy" as you say.
It's hard to truly invest in the spiritual futures of the church and the community if you aren't first invested in the earthly futures of said church and community.
I like to compare this to a baseball player who gets traded from team to team every year. It is hard for him to be successful on the field if he is not comfortable of the field with his clubhouse and coaches.
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