Religion

Ministry model vs. Business model — Part 2

/ The Pastor / 6 Comments

Ministry model vs Business model — Part 1

…I’m alright.  My mom called me this morning thinking something was wrong.  I did not post my usual “Sunday morning prayer” yesterday and had not posted my usual “Monday morning check in” yet today.  Sorry mom (and little sis)…I didn’t mean to worry you two.

Anyway…I am here.  Yesterday morning got a little busy and this morning has been the same.  It is hard to believe that September is right around the corner so that means Sunday school, Release Time and Confirmation is upon us.  Wow…where did the summer go?

Council meeting update
Last week I resumed talking about the business meeting model vs. ministry meeting model for my church council (See the above link for part one of this series).  In July we did some brainstorming on how we can better advance the mission of Christ.  I was very excited and encouraged about the outcome of that meeting.  I then mailed out some “homework” for the council; encouraging them to continue this ministry planning.  My hope was to discuss what they did at out August.  Unfortunately we did not get to do what I wanted to do.  It didn’t work out to start the meeting with mission planning and by the time we got to that agenda item it was getting late and people were getting restless.  I need to sit down with my president and make sure we are on the same page here.

Then today I got an email from a council member on how we need to spend more time in scripture and prayer at council meetings.  She felt we need to start our meetings reading the Bible together and praying more.  She must have been reading my mind these past few weeks and months.

So here is part of my plan to transform the Salem church council into a ministry meeting model over a business meeting model. Let me know what you think:
(1) On a piece of poster board that is hung in our meeting room, I have a list of our ministry priorities that we feel will advance the mission of Christ (this is our brainstorm list from July).  This will serve as a reminder each and every month why we really are taking time out of our busy schedules each month.

(2) The assigned council member for the month will lead the group in devotions as always.

(3)I will then lead the group in reading scripture.  Maybe the focus texts will be the lectionary texts for the upcoming Sunday.  Discussion and prayer would follow.

(4) Begin the “business” meeting portion of the ministry meeting.  This way, if the meeting starts running long, whats really important will not get the shaft.

So one of my priority do-to items this month is to sit down with my council president and share with him this plan and make sure he is on board.

What are your thoughts on this plan so far?  What would you add or do differently?

Series to be continued…

Take care and 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 🙂