The Good Samaritan and The Church -- A Parable from Leonard Sweet

Image by Tom Haymes via FlickrThere was once a broken-down old mainline/sideline/offline church traveling on the road from yesterday to tomorrow when it fell among postmodern culture. It was stripped of its place in society, leaving it beat up, left behind, and more than half dead.

Now by chance there was a doctoral student going down the road who passed by on the other side. “I’ve got papers due, and besides, that dead old denomination hasn’t got any life left in it.”

In the same way a prophetic pastor came to the place, saw the broken-down church, and whispered to himself, “O Lord, let me retire before it finally dies.”
 
But then a complete nobody, who didn’t know enough not to get involved, and who had failed the Jesus course, found the church and had compassion on it.  She/he bound up its wounds, pouring on the oil of hope and the wine of Christ’s blood, poured out the oil of forgiveness of sin; then set it on his/her own beast and took it to a place where it could re:flect and re:fresh and find healing. He/she said to the keeper, “This poor old church is almost dead. It may or may not have anything to say to a new world; but make it as comfortable as you can, spend whatever you have to, until I come back…”

Found in Leonard Sweet, So Beautiful

HT:  NextReformation

#pastors24 Twitter Results

Jeremy, who planned this Twitter Feed, has posted some results from the exercise to show what pastors do on a pretty random, non-Sunday day.

First, when all of the Tweets were made into a Wordle and this is what came out:

That's cool.

Also, the following is Jeremy's comments on this:

• Meetings are one of the top words pastors used. Whether it is meeting with a student, parent, committee, teacher, youth…we are meeting a lot.
• There’s a lot of “youth” mentions which is powerful. It may be a bit swayed since at least 2 of the participants are in children’s and youth ministry, but still neat.
• A lot of pastors do work on meetings, worship, bible studies the day-of. A large number of pastors were actively working on their evening programs the day it was to happen. This isn’t a criticism just something I noticed.
• Many pastors worked 12-13 hour days, even if the first/last hours were doing computer work.

Go Check Out More over on Jeremy's Blog, HackingChristianity.net.

This Pastor's Day -- Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Twitter Feed

Worked out to be about 8.5 - 9 hours of church-related work...plus the whole "community involvement" time spent in two different play practices. You can see the whole Twitter Feed from the #pastors24 experiment on Twitter. What this worked out to be is a time-tracking exercise via Twitter and I think it was good for me to see the various things I do throughout the day...but also to see just how many times I was interrupted as I was trying to get something done. Particularly with the building-related issues there are a lot of distractions. This is something I might do every once in a while to give an account of what my day looks like. I think Twitter is uniquely suited for this.

"Pastor Appreciation Month"-- Pastor's 24 Tweetup

Pastor Appreciation Month is coming to a close this week.  While the consecration of our facility made me feel appreciated, nothing formal was done at Girdwood Chapel (although I did drop some hints that lattes are always appreciated).  And, the important thing, regardless or any "month" is to recognize that us clergy-folk are most likely engaged in a whole lot more activity than the one hour a week that may be assumed...or, in my case, three hours per week (2 in worship and 1 in Sunday School).

One of the reasons clergy work is misunderstood is because much of our job can happen at odd hours...like my Bible studying last night from about 10:30 PM to 12 Midnight...or my financial work for the church from then until 12:45 AM.  So, I can spend some quality time with my kids and family or go on Bike Rides or hikes during the sunny hours of the day...if there is any sun.

I know there are some who joke about the amount of time I spend writing blog post or updating Facebook statuses.  But, in my defense, I'll say that I have found these activities spiritually and socially rewarding and a tool for connecting people that I'm still learning to use.  And while I seem, as of late, to spend a great deal of time in play practices, for the Alyeska Resort's "Halloween Train Murder Mystery" and for the Girdwood Community Theater production of "Once Upon A Mattress," these are ways for me to be involved in the community, something I preach repeatedly to my congregation.

And, yet, maybe among some persons, the assumption remains...pastors do very little work.

Well, we'll show them!!!!!

Jeremy, over at Hacking Christianity has an idea which he took from the Manchester (UK) Police who tweeted their activity over a 24 hour period just to show that police work was more than eating donuts.  What if pastors tweeted their activity so their congregations could see what they're involved in?

Here's how it's proposed...

• Pastors or people in ministry work would have twitter accounts that they would update with every single ministry-related thing they do in a 24 hour period, from the big to the mundane.
• Obviously, details would be kept to a minimum. If a meeting is over a sensitive topic, the tweet might just be “met with parishioner” or “finance meeting”
• Try to post as close as possible to the time it completed, either by the twitter web interface or a cell phone (you can setup tweeting by text message here).
• Do this for 24 hours so the world has a better idea of the (1) complexity of pastoral issues and (2) the diversity of our ministry contexts!
• Use the hashtag (say what?) of #pastors24 at the end of the update so we can follow everyone’s work.

You can sign up at Jeremy's site.

I'll do it.

I know I'll have a meeting, a Bible Study to prep for, and two play practices.   We'll see what else will be done.

Don't Entertain Goats -- Feed the Sheep

Image via WikipediaGot this great quote from over at DashHouse.com.   It's from William Still's book, The Work of the Pastor:

It is to feed sheep…that men are called to churches and congregations, whatever they may think they are called to do. If you think that you are called to keep a largely worldly organization, miscalled a church, going, with infinitesimal doses of innocuous sub-Christian drugs or stimulants, then the only help I can give you is to advise you to give up the hope of the ministry and go and be a street scavenger; a far healthier and more godly job, keeping the streets tidy, than cluttering the church with a lot of worldly claptrap in the delusion that you are doing a job for God. The pastor is called to feed the sheep, even if the sheep do not want to be fed. He is certainly not to become an entertainer of goats. Let goats entertain goats, and let them do it in goatland. You will certainly not turn goats into sheep by pandering to their goatishness. Do we really believe that the Word of God, by His Spirit, changes, as well as maddens men? If we do, to be evangelists and pastors, feeders of sheep, we must be men of the Word of God. 

So, how much of what I do on a Sunday...or on a daily basis...is feeding sheep?

Am I a slave to worship as entertainment?

How immersed in the Word of God am I?

Loving the Congregation

Image via Wikipedia

Jared C. Wilson's posts feed my soul.  I love his words on "gospel wakefulness" and, frankly, sometimes I feel as if I'm so asleep to what God--the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Jesus, and Mary, and Peter, and Paul--is saying to me. 

And, I must also confess that sometimes this whole pastoring thing is a lonely job.  I can feel like I have all of the answers and I have the one true vision for the church, and we'd get to God's preferred future for us if everyone would just get their own opinions out of the way and listen to me.  It can be easy to get frustrated with congregations.  After all, why won't more people step up to teach or to lead or to even attend?  Where is the help when you need it?  Why won't persons give more than a measly 2% or their income or 3% or whatever it is?  In my own head, I can hold myself up as a an example of a saint that my congregation should aspire to become more like in their own lives--occasionally forgetting just how sinful this fallen pastor has been and remains.

But, I must also confess that the above is somewhat of an exaggeration right now.  I have found more support among the people of Girdwood Chapel than I have at other places in my life.  God oftentimes moves more slowly than I wish he would, but it has seemed like we've been moving forward.  That "preferred reality" is still a long ways off, but step by step we're getting there.  Perhaps some of this is not what God is doing through the congregation, but what God is doing through me.  Perhaps, more than at the two other stops along my ministry journey, I am loving my people more fully, more completely, in a more godly way.  Perhaps.

Jared Wilson writes about what it means to love a congregation, taking words from Ray Ortlund in The Gospel Coalition's Themelios Journal:

When the risen Lord of the church sends you to a people as their pastor, he is not sending you to them as their critic but as their friend. They may be immature. They may be bogged down in tradition or dazzled by neomania. But they are yours by the gracious appointment of Christ, and you will know them forever. If you hope for the gospel to work in their hearts with power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction, as of course you do, then don’t just preach to them; desire them. Desire not what they can do for you but what you can do for them. Love them, enjoy them, delight in them, honor them. When other pastors gripe about their churches, you set another tone. Lift your people up. Be their champion and defender. They are your glory and joy at the Second Coming.

I will continue, at Girdwood Chapel, to "love them, enjoy them, delight in them, honor them."  I am and will continue to be "their champion and defender."

How to Have Power in Your Life as Pastor -- Quote

To have power in your life as a pastor, it is supremely important that you make it a first order of business for the rest of your life not to do things to impress people or gain a reputation or protect your reputation. It is very clear from the Gospels that Jesus is calling us to deny some basic things in our personality–things that need to die. Jesus says in Matthew 16:24 to deny yourself; take up your cross and follow me. And I think that means dying to our fleshly love of impressing people in this way for glory for ourselves. (Jack Miller)

(This has been passed around several blogs that I read and apparently originates from a now defunct blog called "Dying Church" by Darryl over at dashhouse.com)

I Have Been Appointed To Girdwood Chapel UMC For Another Year

Today at Girdwood Chapel it will be announced that I, Jim Doepken, have been appointed to Girdwood Chapel United Methodist Church for another year.   This will not come as a surprise to anyone.  That makes 11 times. I have now, officially, lived in Girdwood, Alaska longer than I have lived anywhere else. Heck, I've now lived in Girdwood, Alaska longer than I've lived in any other state. This will be my 14th year in Alaska -- after making a 4-year commitment back in 1997!

For those who don't understand the "Methodist System" -- United Methodist pastors are not "called" by local churches. Instead, they are "sent" by Bishops. So, the church does not form a "search committee" and audition several different clergy for the role that has opened up. Instead, at the time of a pastoral change the Bishop & Superintendent meet with the local church to determine what it is they are looking for in a pastor and then try to discern what available pastor meets those perceived needs in the local congregation. The implicit assumptions here are that the Bishop and Superintendent are removed from some of the internal struggles at the local church and can see with more disinterested eyes what God might be calling to that local setting. Also, it is assumed that the Bishop and Superintendent will have a greater sense of the gifts and graces of available clergy.

Now, in the "old days" there was very little give and take. No clergy spouses worked...so that didn't need to be taken into consideration. There was very little dialogue. And, at Annual Conference, the list of appointments was read and, for some, it was a complete surprise. I've been told that, as the list was read in some conferences, you could hear the screams of clergy and spouses who were distressed to find that they were moving.

It's different now. There is give and take. I think both clergy and churches feel that there is an ongoing dialogue. It doesn't mean everyone's happy all of the time. But I believe most parties feel like their concerns are heard and their hopes and dreams have been listened to. A benefit of the whole system is that, when it's just not a good appointment, it can be reassessed within the year. Every appointment is on a year-by-year basis...something we clergy have to ingrain in our United Methodist Congregations.

That said, last Sunday, on June 6th, 2010 it was read that it is the intention of Bishop Grant Hagiya to appoint me to Girdwood Chapel. This will by my 11th year here. It is not a surprise. And I'll work hard to make it something that's not about me, but about what God can do in our time here over the next year and then beyond.

The above cartoon is from David Hayward over at nakedpastor.   I got it from Michael Krahn. I think it's a good reminder to make sure it's not about me...or at least not about "Bob" as it says in the cartoon.