Posted on

I Love Pastoring

I didn’t think I would.

As a young person growing up in church I considered the job of the pastor about ‘the most boring I could imagine’. Then I began to appreciate my own pastor.
 
D.L. McPherson was pastor of my home church for about twenty two of my most impressionable years. He was a superb preacher,  a gifted evangelist and a visitor second to none.

He was a man’s man: an outdoorsman, a hunter and a mechanic. It was rumoured that when he purchased  a new car he took it apart and put it together again to ensure that it had been assembled properly. 

He was a diligent worker with a custom of reporting to the congregation the business he conducted on their behalf. I remember a report he shared at an annual meeting. He outlined the number of sermons, Bible studies, visits, and meetings he’d conducted over the past year. I was astounded.

He loved God. One Sunday evening, surrounding events I will never know, he shared a prayer whose sincerity shook me deeply: ‘Father, I pray that you would strike me dead rather than ever allow me to do anything that would bring a reproach to your name.’

He loved people. On the night my grandmother died he sat with my grandfather from two am till seven.  On a weekend it became apparent that a key leader had fallen into sin, he was so devastated that he had to be led from the pulpit by board members. As I remember, it was months before he could return to his duties.
Next year, Lord willing, I’ll celebrate my fortieth year of pastoral ministry. It seems everything I’ve learned about pastoring I learned first from him. 

What have I learned? Love God. Love people. And live with integrity. No matter how impactful your sermons, it will always be your life that speaks most clearly.

Did you have a pastor that powerfully impacted your life? I’d love to hear your story. Please share in the comments below.

 

 

Posted on

Ten Keys to Dealing with Difficult People

A few years ago I was interviewing for a position in a new church when a board member asked ‘How are you at dealing with difficult people?’ Like all churches they had a few. Dealing with them became one of the greatest discipleship challenges of my life.

In the process of dealing with them I learned a couple of things. Some of them are included below.

  1. Recognize that you’re one of them. God hasn’t put you there because you’ll do everything right but He has confidence in you.
  2. Recognize that it will take time. Habits don’t change over night.
  3. Discipline yourself to take the time.  Difficult people, like difficult problems only get worse when they’re ignored.
  4. Deal with problems quickly before they have an opportunity to spread.
  5. Deal with people carefully, recognizing that any thing you say may be used against you, (in a court of law or anywhere else).
  6. Protect yourself. Doctors wear gloves, masks, even hasmat suits to protect themselves. Guard your attitude.
  7. Ask God to show you the good stuff. If He’s there, He’s working.
  8. Affirm it. You’re not the only one tempted to give up.
  9. Confront the bad diligently, lovingly and consistently.
  10. When you’ve done all you can for today, leave them in the hands of God. He cares about them far more than you do and He is able to do more than you imagine. 

Dealing with difficult people is the hard work of discipleship. I’d love to hear what you’ve learned on the subject. Please, leave your comments below. 

Posted on

Are Christians Looking for More Bible?

Or do they just recognize they need it?

In case you’re not on the e-mailing list of George Barna, here are some results from a recent study. He asked Christians to self-assess their spiritual maturity. I suspect that people tend to “think more highly of themselves than they ought to think,” but since each person was asked to rank themselves in seven categories, the relationship of those categories should be accurate.

Here are the seven categories, from the best-accomplished downward:

  • Maintaining healthy relationships
  • Serving other people
  • Consistently living out your faith principles
  • Worshiping God
  • Spiritual leadership of the family (children under 18)
  • Sharing your faith with others
  • Knowing the content of the Bible

Then the participants were asked which category they would most like to improve. Most had not thought about it. (And since they didn’t have a plan, they weren’t planning to improve by their own initiative.)

Those who knew how they wanted to improve said they’d like to . . .

  • Increase their commitment to the Christian faith (13%)
  • Increase their Bible knowledge (12%)
  • Improve their prayer life (7%)
  • Be a better servant to others (4%)
  • Develop better relationships (4%)
  • Understand the Christian life better (4%)
  • Share their faith better (4%)
  • Develop a better character (3%)
  • Forgive others (3%), and
  • Be more spiritually mature overall (3%)George Barna says at the end of his report that it is “quite striking that the aspect of church life that receives the greatest amounts of time, attention and energy—that of teaching people the content of the Bible—is one of the two areas in which people feel least well developed.” He concludes that “most people do not feel as if they are learning enough about God, the Christian faith, or their role in the world—and most of them don’t seem to care.”
    Read the whole article at http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdateNarrow&BarnaUpdateID=200.’… and most of them don’t seem to care …’ ??That’s an interesting phrase. Christians talk seriously about strengths and weaknesses in the areas of their discipleship yet something in the conversation  then indicate that perhaps the problem is in the area of motivation? We know we know we’re not doing as well as we should, can even identify the areas where we’re falling down, but can seem to get ourselves to do the right thing. Kind of reminds you of Paul conversation in Romans 7 doesn’t it.

    So what’s a Christian leader to do?

    As I re-write this article I’m watching a hockey game. The Toronto Maple Leafs have just fired their head coach for his inability to motivate the players to do what they’ve been told ‘over and over again’ they must do to win. Should churches fire their coaches for their inability to motivate the flock? If we ‘fired’ some of our star players would it be enough ‘fire up’ the team? Or maybe we could just engineer a strategic trade?

    I’m a strong believer in bringing in some much needed help. I think its a pattern of scripture. Such studies help us to see the needs so that we can address them. And the good news is that there is help! One of the best sources you can use is Walk Thru the Bible. Up to 85% of attendees of live seminars make commitments that look remarkably like the preceding list of desires—especially the top two. For more than 25 years, these seminars have proven to excite audiences about God’s Word in such a way that 75% of attendees commit to read Scripture daily for at least thirty days

The goal of Walk Thru the Bible is to help Canadian churches, camps, Bible colleges, Christian schools, and parachurch organizations motivate their people to passionately love the Word and its Author, and effectively serve God in daily life. Our seminars and devotional materials are biblically solid and full of applications that make the Word real in life. We’d love to come alongside you to bring the Word’s life-changing truth to your people.

If you’d like to pursue it, this is what we’d suggest:

  1. Declare a “year of the Bible” in your church and to get your church family into daily Bible reading with proven resources from Walk Thru the Bible.
  2. Kick off a daily Bible reading program for your church with The Daily Walk devotional magazine (or one of our other six daily devotional magazines). It contains unique overviews, charts, insights and priceless nuggets of truth, which stay with the reader throughout the day. With its systematic reading plan, lives will be transformed as your members read through His Word.
  3. Then, combine the devotional readings with a Walk Thru the Old Testament seminar at your church
  4. Follow that with a Walk Thru the New Testament seminar when your congregation will be reading in the New Testament each day.

We’d love to talk to you about it.

Dave Heasler
Walk Thru the Bible Canada
dave@DaveHeasler.com

Posted on

Culture

‘Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead to work with what you’ve got.’ – Peter Drucker

Posted on

How to Have a Great Annual Meeting

The Church’s Annual Business Meeting is a great opportunity to …
  • Bring the whole church together
  • Build them up, and
  • Get them all pulling the same direction, going forward.
 Too often its … well, you know what it is.

You can have a great annual meeting!

 I’ve been pastoring for over three decades, in sometimes difficult churches, in sometimes difficult situations. I’ve chaired meetings after pastoral failures, board revolts, church splits and financial crises. Sometimes we’ve cried. Often we’ve laughed. Almost always we’ve seen God do the impossible. He’s brought unity. Where there’s unity, there’s blessing.

1.     It starts with how you define yourselves.

‘We’re just ordinary people trying to do the best we can, trying to do the work of God together.’

2.     Making Clear What you’re asking of them.

‘We’re just asking you show up, to listen and if God gives you anything to share, to share it.’ (I know that kind of statement can be dangerous but we’ll have more on that later.)

3.     And … What They Can Expect

 ‘We’ll start the meeting at _______ and plan to be finished by ___________ .

4.      Atmosphere is Important

 A small church hosted a denominational conference. There were tables on the platform, parliamentarians and a lot of emphasis on Roberts Rules of Order. Having seen ‘how it should be done’ the church began to conduct their business meetings in exactly the same way. The pastor wasn’t an expert in parliamentary order so they appointed ‘a church parliamentarian’ to instruct the pastor as to ‘the way things should be done’ in meetings, and then between meetings. Eventually a group who considered themselves ‘his majesty’s loyal opposition’ rose up to vote out the pastor and the board. It was a mess!

One of the best ways I’ve found to remind the church that we’re ‘the family of God’, conducting ‘family business’, is to hold the annual meeting in the fellowship hall, around tables and after a fellowship meal. Most people are a little easier to get along with on a full stomach.

5.      Preparation is Critical

 I made the announcement on a Sunday morning. ‘The Annual Church Business Meeting will be held Sunday evening in two weeks time. Reports for each department will be distributed a week in advance of the meeting and each department head will be prepared to answer questions on their report. None of the reports will be read in the meeting.’

When I made the announcement I saw heads raise and amazed looks spread across people’s faces. It wasn’t long before I was reminded that it’s always easier to make an announcement than to change reality. The Missions Committee Chair stood up in the meeting a few weeks later and read her report from beginning to end.

6.      Leadership is Key

 A good chair might have reached out to the lady and gently reminded her of our commitment. A better leader might have taken the opportunity to meet with each department head in advance, going through their reports and affirming what was really important.

7.      Questions are Valuable

 The Youth Leader said, ‘If I’m not going to read a report, what am I going to do up there?’

My answer was ‘Well first, you’re going to answer questions.’

 

Questions help you understand where your communication is getting through, where its not and what people think is important. Most questions can be anticipated in advance. If you can anticipate a question you can prepare the answer in advance, thoroughly. Doubters often become advocates when they find you’ve taken their questions seriously.

Sometimes people ask questions you can’t answer. If you don’t have an answer for a question, don’t fake it. If you’ve made a mistake, own up to it. One of the most effective financial presenters I’ve ever seen was shown to have made a mistake in his calculations. It happened in the middle of his presentation to the congregation. His response was ‘You’re right. I’m wrong. I’ll have the corrected figures in your mailboxes Sunday.’

7.      The Focus is on The Future

The Youth Leader said, ‘So,  I’m  just there to answer questions?’

‘Actually, if you’ve done a really good job on your written report and if people read it, people probably won’t have many questions. What you’re really there for is to share your vision.‘

The annual business meeting is the opportunity to tell the congregation, what you want to accomplish, what they can do to help and why they should. Nothing gets the congregation looking forward like having each department head do that, in five minutes or less.

If you’ve cut out the reading of reports you’ll have time for it.

8.     The Challenge is in the Need

 If there’s one message that undergirds every other message surrounding the congregation meeting it’s ‘We need you.‘ We need you to come. We need you to pray. We need you to give.

 

One way to emphasize team work at the annual meeting, after the department leader shares their vision is to have them bring their team forward, the congregation reach out to them and a leader pray for them. If you’re diligent you can do this in just a couple of minutes.

9.     The Enabling is Divine

 One thing most churches could use is a good celebration. If over a year you don’t have anything to celebrate as a church you just haven’t been noticing.

Nothing sets the tone for a great meeting like ten minutes of celebration.

Are there faithful people in the church? Show a picture of them doing what they do. People who could stand recognition? Give them a plaque or a hand. A youth worship team that everyone is proud of? Preface the business part of the meeting with a special from them. A missions trip that went well? Show pictures.

Nothing sets the tone for a great year like a great annual meeting!

10.     You Can Do It!

 With God’s help you can make the annual meeting a highlight of your year.
It starts with prayer.

‘God you know what the annual meeting has been. I don’t think that’s honouring to you. Please don’t let that happen again. 

Help us to prepare well.

Help us to give you glory. 

Help me to share with clarity and passion, what you want to do, so that your people rise up as never before to do what only they can do. 

Make this annual meeting our best ever, for your glory. Amen’

Have you found ways to make your annual meeting a highlight? I’d love to hear what they are. Please leave a comment below and as always, if you’ve found this post helpful, please, pass it on to someone you think could use it.
Posted on

Ten Steps to a Great Relationship with your Board

After thirty five years of pastoral ministry, in sometimes difficult churches, with sometimes difficult board members, businessman_clicking_heels_hg_clr I still love the monthly board meeting.

If you’d like to have a better relationship with your board, try the following:

1. Pray, ‘Lord, help me to see into their hearts, to discern and affirm what you are doing.’ The auditorium is a great place, early in the morning, to pray over the pew they sit in.

2. Spend time with them. Pastors of a different era would visit members of their congregations in their homes, at their work places and in the hospital. In the process they get to know them. If you’re going to influence your board you’ve got to find ways to get to know them. Invite them out to coffee or over to your house to share a meal. Before you leave, ask them how you can pray for them.

3. Appreciate the good stuff. Are we still talking about sharing a meal? Wherever you are, don’t let any critical, fault finding word come out of your mouth.

Instead, cultivate a climate of appreciation in your own life, on the board and in the church as a whole by being diligent to talk about the good stuff.

4. Ask God to help you understand the bad. Everybody has a bad day every now and then. Some people more than others.

Sometimes it’s as simple as asking them about it. ‘You seemed to be having a hard time the other day. Do you mind if I ask, ‘What was going on there?`

One board member I knew had a reputation for being difficult. As I got to know them I discovered they spent many nights up with a sick family member, then worked all day and more often than not came to church totally exhausted. No wonder they were testy occasionally.

Being afraid to talk to someone about their bad behaviour is an indication that we need to go back to steps one and two.

5. Deal with It. Sometimes its as simple as saying, ‘I don’t think we’re handling this as well as we might’ then leading out in prayer or in a group asking someone who prays well to lead out.

6. Be Real. A relationship of mutual trust and support on a board is a wonderful thing but it doesn’t just happen. James said, ‘Confess your faults to one another and pray for one another’. Someone has to take the lead in this.

A statement like ‘Folks, before we start tonight I need to confess that I’ve been having trouble in …. Would you mind praying for me?’ can have a powerful effect.

7. Be Careful. Recognize that if you give anyone a burden that’s more than they can carry they are going to drop the ball in one way or another. Only share the really heavy stuff with folks you know can handle it.

8. Guard Your Heart. As important as a healthy relationship with one’s board is, a pastor who’s closer to his board than to his God, his spouse or his family is an accident looking for a place to happen. Never let your church take the place of your kids, your wife or your God. Have regular dates aimed at gettting to know each better. Do it for the board. 🙂

9. Prepare Well. The people who attend your board meeting are the most influential people in the church. They pay your salary. They set the tone. They will determine, in large part, how long you stay and how effective your ministry is while you are there. Spend as much time preparing for your board meeting as you do any other of the month.

10. Have Fun

I had a friend who used to say, ‘God did not create me to fail. God created me to glorify him.’ Some of us need to be reminded that God didn’t create us to be miserable.

Build some things into the meetings that you know they’ll like: a quarterly meal by the best cook in the church, home made apple pie or even great coffee go a long way toward making the board meeting a great place to be.

Start by talking about something great that happened this month. End by praying for someone who has a significant challenge coming up.

It won’t happen over night but with attention to detail, you can make the board meeting a time every member of the board looks forward to consistently.

Posted on

A Grassroots Movement to Get Canadians into God’s Word

bible_handI’ve been attending church since I was a child, and reading the Bible. A primary Sunday School teacher motivated me to memorize it. By the time I became a teenager and got involved in ‘Truth for Youth’ Bible Quiz movement I was committed. But I have to admit I was always confused.

There was …

  • Genesis, the beginning;
  • Exodus, that told the story of Moses;
  • Samuel, that told about Samuel and
  • Kings that told stories about the kings.But ‘Where did all those prophets fit in?‘ and ‘How did there get to be a ‘Kingdom of Judah’?

I always wished someone would put the whole thing in order. Then I attended a ‘Walk Thru the Bible’ Seminar. Wow!!OT Walk Thru (1)

A gifted teacher telling the story, in the order it occurred, from beginning to end, using the latest techniques. People having fun and learning like they never thought possible. I was blown away.

When the opportunity presented itself to become a Walk Thru the Bible instructor I was ‘all there’. Impacting the lives of adults and kids by creating a hunger for the Word of God. Removing the intimidation factor by making it fun.

Its been great. But it hasn’t been enough.

After fifteen years of working with what I consider the greatest Bible teaching ministry on the face of the earth, I find we’re further behind (in Canada) than we were when I began.

  • Church attendance is on the decline.41917972
  • Christians aren’t reading the Bible. Only 14% of Canadian Christians read the Bible more than weekly. – Canadian Bible Engagement Survey, 2013
  • We don’t know it. 50% of Christians in Canada believe the contains irreconcilable contradictions. – CBES, and, as a result,
  • Too often we don’t live it.

We need a grass roots movement to get people into God’s Word.

That’s why we’re proposing

‘The Canadian Bible Engagement Project’.

Canadian Christians

OT-AreYouReadyCommitting ourselves to …

  • Read the Bible daily
  • Share what we’re learning &
  • Encourage Others to Do the Same
    In 2019

Will you join us?

 

The following resources can help you in your journey to reading and living God’s Word.

  • The One Year Bible available in hardcover, paperback or ebook edition on Amazon
  • The Once A Day Bible: Chronological Edition available in hardcover, paperback or ebook edition on Amazon
  • A free Daily Bible Reading Outline from Walk Thru at http://bit.ly/1d9LFVc
  • A Daily Reading Outline for reading the Bible through in Chronological Order (also free) at http://bit.ly/1d9LFVc

I’ll be reading the Bible through this year myself using the Chronological outline above. If you’d like daily encouragement in your Bible Reading check out ‘Walk Thru the Bible’s Canadian Facebook page at http://on.fb.me/142rj2F

Working together we can get Canadian Christians back into God’s Word.

Dave Heasler
Canada’s Walk Thru the Bible
Dave@DaveHeasler.com
www.CanadasWalkThruTheBible.ca

Posted on

Decision Making In Transitions

Not All Decision-making Should Be Treated Equally
An article by Cam Taylor www.camtaylor.net

Decision-making comes in all shapes and sizes. Some are complex – some are simple. If you use the wrong process for complex decisions, the outcome will be less than ideal. You might even make things worse is you don’t apply the right process to certain decisions you are trying to make. It’s reasonable to assume that decisions will be on a spectrum from simple on the one end and increasing complexity as you move to the other end.
 When you are making a simple decision, you can use a process something like this:*
You pick your topic, hear the various perspectives and diverse opinions, then move to convergence and a decision.

For example, if you are trying to decide on the paint color for the fellowship hall, a committee meets and share their opinions on what color will work with varying opinions. Usually, however, it doesn’t take too long to agree on what color will work and a decision is made. That type of decision is not usually that challenging and you an go from divergence to convergence fairly quickly.

What about more complex decisions? Let’s say you are wanting to articulate the core values for a congregation, or decide on the kind of pastor you should hire, or decide on the changes that should take place to your Sunday service, or articulate your disciple-making strategy be. How will you think about that process?

Complex Decision-making – A Framework to Consider

To make complex decisions collaboratively, you need a process that allows better ideas to emerge in between divergence and convergence. You need a groan zone or a space where emergence can take place. The picture looks like this.
In both scenarios (simple and complex decision-making) you have divergent opinions but if the issues are complex, the vocal and influential people will dominate and most likely, push through towards a decision. Part of the group will feel left out and fail to be given an opportunity to speak to the issues until clarity comes. Without a groan zone (time to feel the frustration, feel stuck, grow tired) the best collaborative decisions will not be reached. If you need a groan zone but don’t allow for it, the best decision will not be made and implementation will be more challenging than you think.

In the groan zone, people are given permission to wrestle with ideas, share without judgment, be listened to, understand each other, and discern God’s will prayerfully. The results of taking a little more time and attentive facilitation during the process will be greater clarity and better decisions.

In the facilitating and coaching work I’ve been doing the past couple of months, I’ve been seeing results from this collaborative approach.
  • Ownership of decisions are broader.
  • Follow through keeps moving.
  • Greater unity in the Spirit is achieved.
  • Appreciation for the differences in others is valued.

Applied to Transitional Work

Churches in transition need leaders who know how to facilitate the decision-making process in a way that fits the issue being addressed.
To facilitate effectively, you need to fill your coaching and facilitating tool box along the appropriate tools for the job at hand. Collaborative decision-making requires tools like asking powerful questions, world cafe, guided small group discussion, harvesting, re-framing, summarizing, and active listening.
As you grow in both the understanding of how decisions are made and how you guide the process, you will see people go from, “I wonder what God would have us do?” to a place where they say, “Now we see together what God would have us do!”
Now back to you
How does this process connect with your experience?
  • Cam Taylor, https://camtaylor.net/  is one of Canada’s Thought Leaders in the area of Transitions, This article is shared with permission, March 29th, 2018