Things Christians in America Worship

1) The Bible
2) Big Churches
3) Marriage
4) Wealth
5) So-called "Conservative" Politics
6) Bumper Sticker Theology
7) Pastors of Big Churches
8) Sermons
9) Heterosexuality
10) Comfort

Coming to Grips with...

One of my favorite books is "Death by Suburb" by Dave L. Goetz. It is really a fantastic read. I put it right up there with "Surprised by Hope" by N.T. Wright and "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams.

One of the concepts Goetz discusses in DBS is the tendency for 21st century North American suburbanites to define themselves by what they do. In part of that discussion he references middle aged pastors of small churches who finally realize that they will never be the pastor of a big church. When that reality settles in, says Goetz, it can make for a dark couple of years.

I can completely identify with this phenomenon. Though I am a bit younger than middle aged (unless I die at 72, in which case I am right smack dab in the middle of middle aged), I still feel the cold fingers of reality slowly clawing at my soul. I will likely never be the pastor of a big church.

I will not be the next Bill Hybels. I will not be the next Rob Bell, Erwin McManus, or Francis Chan. Odds are I will labor away my days in relative obscurity having never been "the man" at "the church."

Coming to grips with your own mediocrity can be cathartic at times, but mostly it's just annoying.

Before you cast stones at me for my steeple envy, and at this point I will remind you of what both Jesus and Demetri Martin have to say about throwing stones, please hear me out.

You must understand that for a small church pastor there is no promotion possible within the organization. Unless you hire someone to be your superior and then replace them a few years down the road, you have already ascended to the pinnacle of your employment hierarchy. You are already the man...lucky you.

This means that the only way to effectively get a promotion is by publishing a book or growing a very large church. This is reality. This means that if I want to ever make more money, I must grow a bigger church. If I want to preach for more people, I must grow a bigger church. This makes it easy for the have-nots to covet what the haves have, doesn't it? You betcha.

Even though I am starting to realize I will never "make it" or "get there" I still desperately want to...I absolutely covet the big church (at least sometimes).

Now here's the rub...

My church needs more people if we are going to make it as an organization. If we are ever going to fix what is broken, do what needs to be done, we are going to need to have more people. Our leaders have decided that we must aggressively try to get more people. We have to.

This puts me in an interesting position. My church really HAS to get more people in the door...and my dark side really WANTS to.

Ministry Journal

The following is a weekly "ministry journal" of the last three months...enjoy.

Week 1: We need more money.
Week 2: We need more money.
Week 3: We need more money.
Week 4: We need more people.
Week 5: We need more people with more money.
Week 6: Came to the slow and burning realization that there are too many churches in town.
Week 7: We need more money.
Week 8: We have plenty of money! Yay God!
Week 9: Oops, accounting error, we need more money than we thought we did.
Week 10: I was attacked by hundreds of fleas which have taken up residence in one of the "buildings" on our "campus"
Week 11: We need more money, or else.
Week 12: Got a dose of penicillin to help me cope with the slow and burning realization that this is small church ministry in North America.

Cheers.

Darkroom Announcement

This post is a slight departure from the high-quality and intellectually stimulating swill my readers are used to reading. The guys from Darkroom have officially announced that they are about to start recording their second full length album. You see the official announcement here: http://www.da.rkroom.com

These gents are friends of mine, you should visit their site and buy lots of swag from their store.

The video on the front page is well-done IMHO, the sound is an instrumental intro to a song I've heard them play live on several occasions. I am not sure which song it is. I think it's maybe off of "Jets that Fly." Anyway, the video was shot and cut by friend and talented local barkeep Andy Clark.

Check it out.

Preach that Sermon, Preacher Man!

My fellow preachers, calling our sermons "talks" doesn't make them something other than sermons. Everyone in the room knows you are preaching to them. The term "talk" may be disingenuous unless you are actually inviting the people to talk back. Otherwise, you are simply talking "at" a room full of people, and who wants to be "talked at"?

A Broke Bloke

Anyone who knows me knows that I tend to chirp about being broke. No joke. It's not that I don't make any money, I do. It's that it seems as though I never make enough. Apparently, according to some perceptive government bureaucrat, my wife and I are what they call "working poor," in other words we live paycheck to paycheck.

Now, I don't want to come off as a total complainer, so let me say there are some advantages to living paycheck to paycheck. For example, the stock market collapse of last year barely affected me, that's an advantage, right?

There are some not-so-good things, like we can't afford to buy a house, but even that negative consequence has some advantages. For example, If my roof leaks, I don't have to worry about fixing it. Or if my water heater, furnace, etc. break down, it's not my problem. It's the landlord's problem. That's peace of mind, right there.

Also there is an upside to the pseudo "poverty mindset" that settles in after living paycheck to paycheck for a few years. You kinda get used to it. I was broke yesterday, I am broke today, I'll probably be broke tomorrow. It can be stressful, that's for sure, but I don't think it's any more stressful than what some people are worrying about these days. You know, imploding mutual funds, collapsing house values, and a President who seems to be pretty convinced that everyone should pay more taxes.

Everyone but me, that is.

Make that Money

When I was in seminary I had a this idea that I would work hard to learn about the Bible, improve my skills as a preacher, develop important leadership skills and then find a church where I could work hard to grow that church into something special.

Then I started full time vocational ministry. More specifically I became the pastor of a small church. Within the first couple of years I realized that my job wasn't so much growing a church as it was maintaining an organization. I was in the ministry maintenance field.

I feel like most of my time is spent figuring out ways to maintain the organization where I work and most Sundays are simply dog and pony shows where I shake my money-maker and hope we make enough scratch to pay our bills that week.

Good morning, God bless, make that money, see you next week.