Christ’s mission

Ministry model vs Business model — Part 3

/ The Pastor

Ministry model vs Business model — Part 1

Ministry model vs Business model — Part 2 

I have appreciated the discussion that has taken place around this “new” model for my church council and I want to highlight comments/suggestions that were submitted.  If you have any thoughts about encouraging a church council to be more mission minded please submit them.

Scripture
One thing that I suggested is that after the assigned council person for the month lead devotions, that I would lead the council in reading scripture; maybe the texts assigned for the upcoming Sunday.  Then Carolyn stopped by and suggested that after the first month of doing this I should encourage a pair of council people to lead the reading of scripture instead of the pastor doing it every month.  Scripture is something that all people are encouraged to engage and is something that anyone can read.  Carolyn is right.  Even though I did not intend to communicate that the pastor has be the one to read scripture the unwritten message was just that.  We are indeed the “priesthood of ALL believers”.

Prayer
Unlikely left a comment where he suggested starting the council meeting asking people what they are praying for.  At first people were a little hesitant, but after a few years Unlikely is filling up an 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of paper.  I believe this is also a great way to connect people with one another.  When you know what/who someone else is praying for, you get a glimpse of that person’s heart.  It also makes the assumption that everyone is praying (and as Christians we should be).
 
Then Eric left a comment just recently about prayer and scripture.  He said, “Can you imagine the apostles of the early church getting together to make decisions without prayer and Scripture?”  That seems unheard of, yet we need to make an effort to include prayer and scripture more when we meet as a church council.  I have found that many people are just not comfortable praying in front of others, yet they are comfortable talking to their best friend.  I/We need to help people understand that prayer is not something that has to be done a certain way but rather it’s simply talking to your best friend.  Maybe this could be a devotional topic/discussion for an upcoming council meeting.  Maybe Unlikely’s suggestion about prayer will help here.

Thank you for the comments that have come thus far.  They have definitely given me (and hopefully you) something to think about.  If you have anything else you would like to contribute to this discussion please leave a comment.  This series will be continued…

God bless!

-edh-

Coffee shop ponderings — My A/C dreams out the window

/ The Pastor / 7 Comments

I always feel humbled when I talk to someone who says they read my blog (I am usually READING comments from people not HEARING comments).  And that was especially true last night at our church council meeting.

At the beginning of the meeting I lead a brainstorming session with the crew (which included a number of newly elected members) do devise some goals for the year.  The catch was that they needed to think in terms of Christ’s mission in the world.  Too often we get caught up in our own agenda and not with Christ’s agenda.  I wanted this group to be more than a group of people meeting to talk about money and little projects around the church.  I wanted them to think of themselves as a ministry team…working to advance Christ’s mission in the world.  I want to move away from a business meeting model to a ministry meeting model (I am still trying to formulate this new model).

Anyway…after the brainstorming session the small groups choose their top 3 or 4 goals they came up with and shared them with the whole council.  The goals that the groups came up with were great.  Some of them include:  (1) Reach out to the inactive members and the new people moving to town; (2) get more people involved with worship (especially the children); (3) pray more; and (4) read the Bible more.  There were other good ones as well, but these jumped out to me…with the addition of one other…

…one of my parishioners/council members said as a goal “Install an air conditioner in pastor’s office” (currently I am without A/C).  Of course I thought that was a great idea.  Then the person who was writing these goals on the white board asked (with a smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye) “How does that advance Christ’s mission in the world?“.  To that question another responded, “It helps with pastor’s sermon writing process.”  [The next comment made me laugh] To that response, my parishioner writing on the board said (with still a smile on her face and a larger twinkle in her eye), “Sermon writing…I read his blog, he writes his sermons down at Coffee Choices.” Everyone laughed.  I guess I had that coming…bye bye, A/C 🙂 

Oh well…that is a small price to pay for the privilege of working with such a great and talented group of people with a mission focus and a heart for Jesus.  And I hope this doesn’t sound like I am sucking up to get my A/C because what I said is true.  What is important is Christ’s mission.  But if my comments help get me A/C, then so be it.  Who am I to say that A/C in the pastor’s office is not part of Christ’s mission 🙂

-edh-
P.S.  Did I tell you how AWESOME my church council is 🙂