3 Things I've Learned in a Year

I can't believe it has gone by this fast, but today marks the one year anniversary of my first day as a Senior Minister.  Although I've been working in churches as a staff member for the past 18 years, what I have learned in the past year could only be learned through the experience of being in the Senior Minister position.

Although I've learned a TON about myself and about leadership, there are three things that stand out as being the most significant and important things I have learned in my first year in this position.

1) When I accepted this position a friend told me that my first 100 sermons would stink.  He said It takes that long to learn how to prepare, study, and deliver good messages on a consistent basis.  This Sunday, Nov. 4th, will be sermon #50 as a Senior Minister (sermons as a youth minister just don't count).  I am finding my friend's assessment to be true.  Coming in I thought I was a decent public speaker, but now I'm learning that preaching is MUCH more than being good at talking.  I think after another year of doing this on a weekly basis, I will start to really preach well.  Although I do record and post my messages, I'm afraid I will want to hide all evidence of these first 100.  There are already a few for which I hope my congregation and God will grant me grace and mercy.

2) It is fairly easy to manage people.  It is much more difficult to lead them.  I started managing on day one.  I'm still earning the right to lead.  The transition from managment to leadership started when I realized the people in my church are not "members", they are not "numbers", and they are not "projects".  The people in my church are my family.  They each have a life of experiences to share.  They each have a story that defines who they are.  They each have concerns, hurts, doubts, struggles, and pain.  They each have things that bring them joy, peace, and excitement.  Each one has lost people they love and has been hurt by someone else along the way.  As I am getting to know them, I am growing to truly love them.  Even those who are difficult to love!  The right to LEAD them comes when they see that I really do care.  Management is a job.  Leadership is when real ministry begins to take place.  I have a long way to go with this, but I'm learning.  The only way I can convince people that I love them is with my time and attention.  I need to be with them.  I must listen to them.  I must care enough to hurt with them and understand them.  I must be there with them in their moments of greatest need and comfort.  I must be there in their moments of joy and celebration.  When they see that I love them, they will allow me to lead them.

3) I've heard several ministers describe their influence in terms of "equity" or "capital".  In other words, a new minister is given some freedom to make the changes they want to make, but there is a limit to how much freedom they get and how long it lasts.  Once they have spent that "capital" it becomes much more difficult to initiate and lead people into and through change.  I am learning this is not completely true!  Your influence "capital" is spent quickly if you try to initiate change without a clear and compelling vision for why the change is needed or beneficial for the people who are impacted.  It is also spent quickly when you don't give others a chance to capture the vision and make it their own vision.  However, NO CAPITAL IS NEEDED when you begin with a clear and compelling vision; you communicate it well and allow other influencers in your church to have input and take ownership; and they become catalysts for the change instead of resistors.  If my vision advances the Kingdom and our church's mission; if I can communicate that well to my key leaders and influencers; if they get it and get excited about it and begin sharing it in their circles within the church; and if the changes are clearly a step to accomplish that vision - there is NO LIMIT to what we can accomplish.

There you have it.  Three of the most crucial things I have learned in my first year as a Senior Minister.  I certainly don't have all of them mastered yet, but I'm learning and growing every day.  I am certain there are other lessons my sophomore year will bring and I look foward to learning those as well.

Thank you, First Christian Church of Monroe, for being patient with me and helping me learn these lessons as we go and grow.  I am more convinced than ever that we are becoming the church Christ has called us to be in Walton County, Georgia.  It is truly an honor to serve with you as we advance in our mission to "make disciples who make disciples"!

Jesus was NOT a Capitalist

To say, "Jesus was not a Capitalist", tends to raise a few eyebrows.  Especially here in the good old southern Bible-belt of America.  Guess what.  He wasn't a member of the "Religious Right" either!  As a matter of fact, Jesus had very little to say about the politics and economics of his day.  He was not at all interested in discussing people's retirement plans.  He didn't seem very interested in what political system was in control or who was pushing the buttons of executive, legislative, or judicial leadership.  I doubt he cared anything at all about liberal versus conservative philosophies in a fiscal or a social sense.

Jesus was on a mission.  He came to earth to save us from certain death apart from God.  The rest just didn't seem to matter all that much to him.

Here are some things that Jesus and the early church did care about:

1) Making sure the poor and the widows were cared for.  If the church were doing its job today, we wouldn't even need to worry about whether or not the government was practicing social redistribution through taxation.  It wouldn't be needed.  The church would be meeting the needs of people who genuinely needed help and love.

2) The Christian inherits everything in the end.  Jesus told the rich young man to go and sell everything.  Not exactly a financial planner's best advice for retirement, but Jesus didn't care about retirement.  He cared about helping people see that eternity was a much more secure place to store up treasure.  Work until the day you die and do it for God's glory.  You can rest for all eternity after that!

3) Love people into a relationship with God instead of trying to legislate morality through politics.  Boycotts, lobbists, and protests by the "religious right" have always bothered me.  Didn't Jesus have some strong words for the Pharisees about forcing rules and religious morality on people without acutally loving them and helping them come to know a merciful and loving God.  Shouldn't we guide people toward God with love and service, THEN allow the Holy Spirit and scripture to convict and guide them into the life God wants them to live?  Isn't that the example Jesus sets for us in the New Testament?

4) Community was modeled over individualism by the early church.  As Americans, we are taught that God gave us freedom in this country so we could pursue the "American Dream".  Whatever we want, we can achieve.  Capitalism and freedom are assumed to be granted and blessed by God.  However, I see the early church focused on living together, sharing everything in common, and looking out for each other's needs.  Not exactly the creed of the great capitalist, Alex P. Keaton!  I'm not saying that Jesus is anti-capitalist.  I'm just saying that he didn't CARE about our economic system.  He just wanted to make sure we loved each other and took care of each other's needs.  It isn't a political or economic system.  It is just the way Jesus and the early church modeled life for us!

Being a disciple of Jesus is hard.  It goes against our natural instincts of self-preservation and selfishness.  It goes against much of what we are taught as red-blooded Americans.  The more I study who Jesus was and what it means to be a disciple of his, the more I realize that I need to start living in a very counter-cultural way - ON PURPOSE!  The deeper I get in my relationship with God, the LESS I find myself caring about "right" or "left", Democrat or Republican, Conservative or Liberal, Capitalist or Socialist.  The world can have its lables and philosophies.  As for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord.  His mission was to save as many lost people as he could by loving them and helping them.  His mission was to make disciples.  I want that to be my mission too!