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You Already Have Enough

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

The Holy Spirit calls, gathers, and enlightens the church. The Spirit gives us all, individually and collectively, the gifts we need to do God’s work. We already have what we need and do not need to look elsewhere. 

This simple theological statement is in practice revolutionary. In seminary, I was taught to identify my “growing edges” and work on developing them. The term was simply a nice church way to talk about my weaknesses. In interviews I have been often asked to name my biggest weakness, which functions like a gotcha question. In school, teachers would likewise assign extra work or help in the subjects I struggled with. What if this approach is completely wrong?

I believe a far more faithful approach to development is to focus on gifts and strengths rather than weaknesses. The fact is God has given us certain gifts, passions, and talents. God then called a group of people together in particular congregations. The place of discernment should then be, how can all the gifts present in this group be best utilized? Rather than comparing our congregation to another church, or lamenting what we do not have, it is far more life-giving to figure out what can be done with what you have.

When churches become fixated on what they do not have or exhibit church envy, they can develop an inferiority complex which cripples their imagination for ministry and mission. The truth is we have been given the light of Christ through baptism. Sometimes we simply need to let our light shine and appreciate all the other lights too.

You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:14-16

At NOT DEAD YET we believe the local church, no matter how small, can make a big difference. Let us know if you would help discovering your congregational gifts and making an impact in your community.

To learn more about how to conduct a listening campaign, build a justice team, or for clergy coaching, contact NOT DEAD YET!
The consultation is free, and we are ready to help you make a difference!

Speaking Out or Speaking Together?

As our nation is on the verge of inaugurating a new president, the country is deeply divided. There are many who have taken as truth that November’s presidential election was “stolen” and have committed or supported acts of insurrection in Washington D.C. Amid such turmoil, what is the role of pastoral leader? How shall we share God’s Word with our people in such a time? Is now the time to speak a prophetic word of God to our congregations or seek a path of unity and reconciliation? 

In the past few weeks I have seen many clergy members struggle with this question. We may feel the need to speak truth to power but how will our members respond? For those who serve in politically mixed congregations this is not an easy decision. Speaking out carries the cost of hateful emails and threats, not speaking means potentially compromising deeply held theological beliefs. For most pastors, this decision centered around their sermon and what they would preach. As a pastor, I am fully convinced and committed to homiletics, but I wonder sometimes about the importance and efficacy of the sermon.

What do we hope to accomplish through the prophetic sermon? What change do we expect to see as a result? Now while I fully support the prophetic sermon in situations of current events, a sermon on its own will not create transformation. The prophet Isaiah was given this exact instruction during his call:

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!” And he said, “Go and say to this people: ‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.’ Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed.”

Isaiah 6:8-10

God sent Isaiah to speak a message to God’s people they would not hear or respond to. In Isaiah’s case the people’s hearts had turned away from God and grown complacent. Today, we have been so deeply divided that people only listen to messages that confirm their own positions. As such, the prophetic sermon is a necessary but not sufficient step toward transformational change.

Build Your Team

If pastoral leaders truly want their congregations to be part of realizing the Beloved Community, they must do the deeper work of building a justice team in their congregation. A sermon on its own can be moving but is fleeting. When pastors work with lay leaders in the congregation to build a team of people committed to God’s justice in the world then progress toward lasting change will result. In addition, when a pastor has built a team of fellow leaders, they have the support to ward off the naysayers and voices of resistance. With a justice team in place, the prophetic sermon becomes the spiritual supplement to the ongoing work, rather than a one-off lightning rod event.

To build a justice team begins with conducting a listening campaign within the congregation. Leaders can connect one-on-one with their people to hear their experience, passion, and pain. From this process, leaders will discover others who are interested in the cause of God’s justice who can be invited into the process. It is empowering for pastors and congregations and it can make a world of difference! 

To learn more about how to conduct a listening campaign, build a justice team, or for clergy coaching, contact NOT DEAD YET!
The consultation is free, and we are ready to help you make a difference!

Remember

We are living in an unprecedented time in our world. Each day we learn more and more the seriousness of the Covid-19 outbreak. My congregation, like many others, has suspended in-person worship and moved online. We have also suspended youth activities, music groups, bible studies, fellowship events and more. We do this out of caution and care, but it is also with a cost. The question for leaders during this time is: how do we best serve the spiritual and physical needs of the congregation and community? How can we continue to hold fast to hope we have in Christ and realistically deal with the challenges we face?

At such a time as this I recall Moses’ admonition to the Israelites to remember. Moses tells them to remember over and over. Remember what God has done for you. Remember you were slaves in Egypt and God heard your cry. Remember God delivered you from Pharaoh and into freedom. Remember God provided daily manna and water from the rock. God has been there for you and will be there for you. We need to remember and trust, and we need to be reminded repeatedly.

No one knows how long this will last. No one knows what the loss of life will be. No one knows what the economic impact will be, especially for those who barely met their family’s needs before this crisis. No one knows. What we do know is God’s love and presence are still with us. We know God has provided for us and God will provide for us. I share this with you and share it for myself. We are in a time of uncertainty and suffering. Let us endure with hope, love, and compassion.

And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

During this tumultuous time, NOT DEAD YET is offering a free consultation for church leaders trying to navigate important decisions. Just let us know!

Equipment Failure

It will take practice for pastors and church leaders to become adept at empowering and equipping lay leaders for ministry. It requires an ongoing transformation for leaders and members as each discover the life-giving partnership of working together for God’s kingdom. This has been a journey of discovery for me and I have learned, through mistakes, some lessons along the way. In the next two NOT DEAD YET newsletters I will share key principles centered around the practice of empowerment and delegation.

Facilitate Process, Not Results

I have come to understand a leader cannot control both process and product. A pastor cannot design or implement a process and work toward a pre-determined outcome without alienating and disempowering congregational leaders. I know this because I have tried! There have been a few times in my ministry when I really wanted the congregation I served to make a particular stand or decision. I have learned that facilitating good process is far important than arriving at particular outcomes. Good process allows all to have input on a decision and provides options. For example, a decision on whether to support “black lives matter” should not involve a process which simply frames the decision as one where we either support people of color or are racist. This would not be a helpful process. On the other hand, my congregation engaged on whether to become a sanctuary church for immigrants fearing deportation. Our leadership board discussed the issue, called a congregational forum, and allowed all people to speak. While there was no consensus on the issue and we did not become a sanctuary church, we did allow all people to speak and were able to reflect on our values. This led to an immigration task force being formed, where interested members could learn about the issue and they took many subsequent actions. Even though I wanted the congregation to do more for the immigrant community, the process helped the congregation move forward at the pace it was ready for. I have to continually remind myself of my pastoral commitment to who my people are, not whom I wish them to be. Facilitating good process and allowing the people to decide is good, empowering leadership.

Make Room for New Leaders

The church kitchen is where the knives comes out. I have observed, from afar, that those whose domain is the church kitchen can be quite territorial. It is true in other places in the church as well. Established leaders have established ways of doing things. They work hard at their often-thankless tasks. They will often mention how they need more help to accomplish the work. As a pastor always on the lookout for new people and new gifts, I have sent a few unprepared souls to the church kitchen. It doesn’t always go very well. The conundrum is people want control more than they want help. They would rather complain about needing help, than make the changes that allow new people to integrate into the system. This can be particularly troublesome with long-standing established committees. Sometimes it is better to start something new for the new people rather than connect them to a closed group. Ideally, leaders would be continually providing on and off ramps for committees or task forces. Term limits tend to make committees overly bureaucratic which stifles creativity and agility. There are also times when over committed volunteers need to take time out from serving to allow new people to emerge.

Equipping the Saints for Ministry

For the ordained pastors, like me, looking for biblical justification for their career…there is some bad news. The word “pastor” is used once in the entire New Testament. Jesus never calls for pastors, bishops, deacons, or clergy of any kind. His only leadership structure was the apostles who were chosen by him and sent out to start new faith communities. The one reference comes from the letter to the Ephesians, and while it is the only occurrence, there are important insights for leadership in the church today.

The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.

These Roles, Embodied

In this text Paul, or whoever the author might be, reaffirms both the unity we share in Christ and the diversity of gifts within the church. The leadership roles identified included: apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher. Each of these leadership positions are necessary within the church and all have a unique role. The apostle is a leader who helps establish new communities of faith and exhibits innovative and entrepreneurial gifts. The prophet is a leader who speaks God’s word to God’s people, providing both words of encouragement and words of repentance for the church. The evangelist is one who is primarily concerned with helping individuals come to faith in Jesus Christ as differentiated from the apostle who seeks to establish faith communities. The pastor is one who provides spiritual nurture and care for the congregation they serve. The teacher is a leader who helps transmit the foundations of the Christian faith and build up faith. Each of these leadership positions are important and despite their differences, they all serve the same ultimate purpose: “to equip the saints for the work of ministry.” This Ephesians model of church leadership sees the role of church leaders to equip the people to do ministry. They are to facilitate ministry rather than primarily do it themselves.

For the Body of Christ to fully mature, the leaders of the church should focus on equipping and empowering the people to do God’s work in the world. In order to equip the saints two necessary conditions must be operational: all leadership gifts must be present, and the leaders must allow the people to serve. For the church to become NOT DEAD YET, it would be well advised to recover these foundational principles from the early church.

As a pastor, I was primarily trained to preach well, administer the sacraments, and care for the people. These tasks are embodied in both the pastor and teacher role. These are good and important gifts that must be affirmed. But these are not all the gifts needed for the church. We also need apostles, prophets, and evangelists. In my tradition, it is not uncommon to find some with a prophetic ministry focused on social justice, but it is much rarer to find the gifts of an evangelist or apostle. This might explain why many churches and denominations are in numerical decline! The solution is not to neglect the gifts of pastors and teachers for evangelists and prophets, rather to ensure each faith community seeks gifts in these areas. This may mean that an ordained leader may need to find lay people with gifts in the areas that are missing. Pastors must both understand their own gifts and limitations and seek to surround themselves with others who display gifts in areas where they are lacking. This requires deep humility and the heart of a servant.

We Have More Than Enough

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

The church is constituted by the Holy Spirit. It calls, gathers, and enlightens God’s people together to serve God’s kingdom in the world and the local congregation plays a key role in this work. Within each congregation, God has appointed an abundance of gifts, talents, and passions apportioned for the work the congregation is called to. Too often congregations and leaders adopt a mentality of scarcity and believe they no longer have adequate means to carry out God’s work. The truth is, God has provided more than enough for all. The answers and solutions we seek for the future of our congregations lies within them. We already have the resources needed to carry out God’s mission. The first step is to deeply listen to God and one another, and the second step is to equip and empower those with gifts to use them for God’s work.

A Call for All

The early church, like today, was plagued with internal division. For the church in Corinth this meant tension between the powerful Jewish Christians and the less powerful Gentile Christians. Paul addresses this conflict by encouraging everyone to see the gifts God has allocated within the church to all people and to call people together around a vision for the common good. He reminds the more powerful Jewish Christians of their new identity through baptism and to see their need for the gifts of their Gentile Christians brothers and sisters.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.

The Body of Christ becomes a central image for the church. The body has many parts, all essential to work of the body. Each part of the body, while different, contributes an essential function to overall health of the body. No one part of the body is sufficient on its own but requires all of the different parts of the body working together. 

This image of the church is far more than a call for superficial unity based on tolerance. Rather, it affirms the inherent worth and dignity of each person as needed for the functioning of God’s church in the world. To do God’s work we need everyone working together and fully utilizing their gifts for the common good. In order to achieve this holy calling, the church must summarily reject any doctrine or practice that marginalizes or subjugates any part of the Body of Christ. This leaves no room for arrogance or boasting; no space for one gift to prioritized to the detriment of another. We all have something to offer and we need everyone working together to achieve the kingdom work that God has called us to.

Paul’s call for unity amidst diversity is essential but elusive for the church. It is a continual challenge to always seek to include all voices and make room for new leaders, particularly when one group or type of gift has been historically valued more highly. This encompasses issues of racial and LGBTQ inclusion, but also around issues of education, class, immigration status, and more. In any given congregation there will be a wonderful diversity of gifts, personalities, experience, background, and viewpoints. God brought them together by the power of the Holy Spirit. Pastors and church leaders must seek ways to utilize and include all gifts and in so doing will unlock the purpose God has called it to.

Is your church’s council or leadership board seeking renewal or a visioning process?
NOT DEAD YET is here to help!
We can serve your community by facilitating a leadership retreat. Contact us to learn more.

How to Conduct a Community Listening Campaign

The listening team should be assembled by the pastor or leader who conducted the congregational listening campaign. The pastor would be wise to choose individuals for the team who are already proven leaders, have an openness for community work, and have the time to commit to the project. The team could consist of 8-12 members of which the pastor should be included. I strongly discourage randomly selecting team members or asking for volunteers. Constructing and supporting the listening team is one of the most challenging aspects of this process. The people you organize can make or break the process of revitalization so please contact us at NOT DEAD YET to get setup for success in your campaign.

Doing the Work

The listening team members should undergo training on how to conduct 1-1 interviews and be given an orientation to the project. Each interview should include an agreed upon set of interview questions compiled by the team ahead of time. Each interview would also conclude with a referral question: who else should we speak with? Will you help make a connection for me? This allows new interviewees to be discovered beyond the relational network of church members and avoids the ineffective cold-call strategy. At the end of each round of interviews, the team members should gather together to share their findings, discover patterns, and support one another. After 25-30 total team interviews patterns will begin to emerge, but each team member will deepen their understanding and commitment to the community as the team continues it work in subsequent interviews. The concrete result of community listening is the beginning stage of a transformed congregation. Patterns of opportunities and need will emerge from a process of community listening. Even more importantly, the team itself will emerge as a knowledgeable and empowered group of lay people with a high-level commitment to the community. The pastor and lay leaders will have listened, both internal and externally, and are prepared to be equipped to God’s work. If you and your congregation are ready for revival let us know! We can directly facilitate the process in your congregation or provide clergy coaching. Check out the NOT DEAD YET website for more information. If you sign up for a Congregational Renewal Process (which includes congregational and community listening campaigns) by the end of 2019 you will receive a 10% discount.

Listening to the Community

Listening within the congregation is essential for leaders in the church. It is however as my college logic professor told me: necessary but not sufficient. For congregations to truly live out their God given purpose they must also be connected to the community in which they are found. Many established congregations, like my own, have found themselves after decades long numerical decline focused on internal concerns and away from the concerns of the community. Indeed, the biggest temptation for struggling churches is to turn inward with their energy and resources, focusing on survival rather than reaching beyond it.

Beyond Survival

The survival instinct of struggling churches to turn inward actually accelerates their decline. As dwindling congregational resources are utilized for maintenance of the building and to support existing staff, the disconnect to the community often increases. Without a missional connection, demonstrated by financial support and ministry resources to the outside community, congregations lose their larger reason for existence. A congregation finds its purpose when it balances the need to serve its members and giving itself away in acts of mission and service. Congregations do not turn inward overnight and cannot be turned outward quickly either, but through a process of intentional listening they can be reformed as a community church.
A strategic listening campaign undergone by a congregation in the community can be instrumental in reconnecting to the community and creating pathways for future viability. The community listening process utilizes 1-1 interviews as the foundation. A key to this process is the pastor does not do the work alone but employs a team to participate in community listening as a group. This allows the learning to be shared among the group and positions lay leaders to have a better grasp of needs and opportunities in the community, rather than having the pastor alone be the sole expert. The goal of community listening is two-fold: learn from community members the needs and opportunities that exist and form congregational lay leaders into individuals with a heart for the community.
Lay leaders and pastors also must have clarity about what a community listening campaign is not. It cannot be an evangelism campaign or a ploy to attract new members. Not only will people be suspicious of any church doing community work as a ruse for future members, it is also not effective. The focus of community listening should be on learning from residents their concerns and hopes, and to begin to ask how the church can accompany residents in their hopes and dreams. This may indirectly draw interest to the congregation, but if that is the goal it will surely fail.
Are you ready to listen to your community? Not Dead Yet can help! We offer a everything from clergy coaching to comprehensive community engagement packages customized for any context.

May God continue to bless the journey,

Pastor Ben Sandin

Being Busy v. Being Productive

I know very few pastors who are not busy. Sure, there may be some pastors or leaders who are milking the clock and coasting toward retirement, but not many. Most pastors have a genuine sense of calling to the church and the people they serve. They have a servant’s heart and are willing to go above and beyond to serve God’s people. There is however an important distinction between being busy and being strategically productive. The short-term, day-to-day demands on a pastor’s time can, if allowed, be overwhelming. But if the long-term challenges are not addressed adequately then pastors and leaders will be busy each day until the church closes its door. Simply put, being busy is not a sign of faithfulness for a leader. It is far more important to balance the short-term needs of the congregation, while working toward long-term strategies that create a viable pathway for the future.

Begin with Listening

The beginning of working for long-term effectiveness begins with a strategic listening campaign within the congregation. This can be done any time during a pastor or leader’s tenure, but it is most effective at the beginning. There is no way to sugarcoat the reality: a listening campaign is a lot of work. Each 1-1 interview will take 45-60 minutes and depending on the size of the congregation this could take up to three months. This is time taken away from all the other pastoral duties and from one’s family. Some will try to substitute town hall meetings or small group discussions for 1-1s, but this is in vain. The level of vulnerability and openness generated through 1-1 listening cannot be replicated in any other form, and the breadth of input from the congregation will be narrow rather than wide. A strategic listening campaign will build genuine trust and provide high levels of information that is deep and raw. The good news is no one expects the new pastor to do much in the first few months anyway except fumble their way around the building. Preach well, do 1-1s, and the rest will be fine.

We’re Here to Help

Not Dead Yet has conducted countless listening campaigns and can equip pastors and leaders to lead campaigns in congregations. Contact us for more information.

May God continue to bless the journey,

Pastor Ben Sandin

The Perils of Selective Listening

“Pastor, what’s your vision for the church?”

This was the one question asked during my interview I struggled with. I was thirty years old and about to become the senior pastor (through a series of unusual circumstances) of a mid-size congregation with lots of challenges. To this point in my career I had only been ordained for three years and had only been an associate pastor. My vision for the church? How would I know! Yet here they were, asking me to provide for the congregation an inspiring and over-arching vision that would propel the congregation into the future. What I know now but had to learn was the practice of listening. Too often pastors are put into positions of leadership and authority and not yet well equipped enough to navigate (of which I was a textbook case). Listening is the key to leading well, but how we listen makes all the difference.

Exercise Listening

There are wrong ways to listen in order to lead. When asked to provide a vision for the future of the church I was about to be entrusted with, I fumbled with my answer. I felt inadequate because I didn’t have a good answer and I felt it reinforced the prevailing view of me at that time: I was too young and inexperienced to lead. So, I did what many have done, I over-compensated. I went off on my own, climbed the mountain and God spoke the vision to me. It was a good, biblical vision but it was mine. The people responded well at first because most just wanted to know which direction to face. Some remained silent which I took for agreement. Based on their acquiescence, we re-oriented our ministry and mission work around the new vision. When this new vision called for members to reach out to new people and share their faith, the results were disappointing. The vision sounded good from far but was far from good. I had listened to God but not the people, and when the people were asked to move, they could not and would not.

As bad as it is to not listen to the congregation it is just as bad to only listen to the wrong people and overreacting to selective input. Every congregation has those who fashion themselves as power players who like to voice their opinions. Pastors, who are generally conflict averse, tend to over-react to the complaints and opinions of these loud voices. When others fail to speak up, leaders assume these power players have the backing of the congregation, when in most cases they speak only for themselves. The fact is, there will always be 5-10% of the congregation that is mad at the pastor for something. These loud voices are definitely within the range where they can be withstood. Too often, pastors respond to these critiques and substitute listening to the people for hearing from a few loud voices. They will often claim to speak for a group of “people” but refuse to name any, because there are none or very few. It is a power play pure and simple. Pastors should balance these loud voices by intentionally creating room to hear from a fuller, more representative sample from the congregation.

Navigating these dynamics is challenging and often soul crushing work. If you are interested in clergy coaching check out our website for more information. You are not alone!

May God continue to bless the journey,

Pastor Ben Sandin