Charlie Wear’s Notes

There is no doubt that those who are driven to ministry leadership have some issues, is there? I read an article (I think it was by Don Williams, but I can’t say for sure and I am too lazy to look it up) that said that most pastoral leaders have father issues, abandonment issues, were the product of troubled childhoods and dysfunctional families and were in some sort of co-dependent relationship with their congregations and God.

Well, okay, so what? I confess, I fit that description pretty well, the only good thing I can say is that I am not in any sort of formal ministry leadership role, currently. I think I might have come pretty close to drinking from the same poison that made me sick the last time I was a ministry leader recently. It may be God’s mercy that I have “taken a break” from all of that. I can tell you, I didn’t like the range of emotions that I was dealing with, and the fledgling group didn’t really have any congregants yet. Yikes!

I think all of my ministry motivations are pretty bad. Like trying to “please God,” have you tried that one? Like trying to “be a hero?” Of course, the only problem for one like me is that when I am not trying to be a hero, I feel like a zero.

Why all of the true confessions on this Monday afternoon? Well I have been reading Jim Palmer’s Divine Nobodies, and boy, has it been resonating with me. It is a great little book, I recommend reading it as a devotional. One chapter a day. Sort of like the Purpose Driven life reading plan, but without the drivenness.

Everyone should have a friend like Bill Dahl. I mentioned to him the other day that I hadn’t read Jim Palmer’s Divine Nobodies and he had somebody at Thomas Nelson send me a copy.

So, I just took a break from reading the last Harry Potter book (I am sure that Harry has to die, if not, then I will have to kill him for taking so long, to move the plot forward), and I read the "pseudo" introduction to Divine Nobodies. Boy, was it good! I get sent a lot of books to read and review for Next-Wave. It is hard to know which ones are worth reading, and I don’t have time to read them all (remember I have to read the Harry Potters and the Brad Thors, and the Vince Flynns, James Pattersons, you get the idea, right?). But this Palmer, guy, I have to read his stuff.

He commends his readers at the end of the "first" introduction:

"If I haven’t scared you off by now with the vision of me sitting in an old recliner in my garage watching Mr. Holland’s Opus on my little fuzzy-screen TV, fighting off the tears, then you may actually get somethng out of the rest of this. But I’m not promising anything."

Jordon Cooper has some great reflections on Organic Community by Joe Myers. Jordon is a practitioner who understand very well the implications of what he is writing about.

I can’t get no satisfaction
I can’t get no satisfaction
’cause i try and i try and i try and i try
I can’t get no, i can’t get no
                — M. Jagger, Keith Richards

I was thinking about contentment yesterday. This is a state of being that I have difficulty achieving. Part of the reason for this is that I am a "planner" by nature. Much of my effort is focused on the future. Therefore the present contains a certain level of "non-contentment."

Like any good writer, I decided I should look up the dictionary definition of contentment. Maybe then I could discover its path! Contentment is being satisfied. I looked up satisfaction, it is being contented. Satisfied. I am sure there is some great history to these words, something about being satiated or enjoying the content of one’s life, but I am not really interested in the history of the word, I am interested in attaining contentment or as The Rolling Stones, inspired by Keith Richards mid-sleep ramblings, said so well, "Satisfaction, I can’t get no!"

Right now, my son Ben is calling me to help him build a train track. I think this will be satisfaction for him. I am going to go and do it…

Today is a big travel day as I head back to LA and my “day job.” It was a great almost-ten days at home with Loretta and Ben. When I say it is a big day, I mean it is a long day. I have completed the first leg of my journey, from Tampa to Atlanta. Now I have a three-hour layover before I wend my way to Phoenix non-stop! A one hour layover and then I get in to LAX at about 5.40 p.m. PDT. A little over 11 hours invested in traveling. Yikes!

It’s over ten years ago now that I accidentally became the pastor of a church. Nearly the month I took over the area overseer in our network of churches resigned. It was only a few months after that, it seems, that someone decided that I should be the "acting" area pastoral coordinator. First I was an accidental pastor, now an accidental overseer, "Yikes!"

Over the years I have read a lot of books about leadership and management. I have heard experts expound on "positional authority" and "relational authority." I am not sure where I first heard the adage that all good working relationships are based on trust, and that trust is composed of many relational interactions over time. Leadership gurus talk about a "relational bank account" where one makes "deposits."

Now here’s the thing, you don’t get very far faking relationships. It’s kind of like depositing counterfeit money in a bank account. That might work for a while but eventually someone is going to find out and the jig will be up.

So, I find myself in a kind of "denominational" planning meeting. Somehow it comes up, well if we have trouble with a church, we can just "kick them out" of our network. I guess, because I am a lawyer, I pointed out that there was no legal basis for "kicking anyone out" of the network, since they were all independent churches. In other words, there was no legal authority for such an action. One of the other "leaders" in the meeting said, "Well, we’ll just use our Spiritual authority."

Well, I thought then, and I think I even voiced my opinion in the meeting, uh, "What Spiritual Authority?" The only authority we have is based on relationship and trust, if it is to have any meaning at all. The exercise of any kind of authority that exceeds the relational authority between people is abuse. It is the source of much Hoodabada™ in all kinds of organizations. The real source of all of it is the unwillingness of leaders to take the time to know those who they work with. If you say, "There is no way that I can know all of the people who I work with," then my answer is, "You are working with way too many people." Jesus called twelve, and was very close to three. Think about that carefully the next time you are addressing your 75 person "staff," or your 30 person "leadership community." Have you really taken the time to know the people you are talking to?

I think I kind of understand what Pernell Goodyear is saying in this post, "Missional Church? be prepared to lose."
To get the entire context you have to read the entire post. But here is an excerpt:

"It [being a missional church] meant that we would lose two thirds of the people who actually join us (we would lose many more "Christian tourists" who come to check things out, and many of the folks who want the church to be a "self-help" group). One third would leave disgruntled. One third would leave as Jesus called them on to new and exciting missional ventures (often they are some of our brightest and best folks). One third would stay and continue to learn to live out mission as a community."

This is an interesting statistical assertion. It reminds me of those who say that a church budget should be one-third facilities, one-third salaries, and one-third overhead.

Another quote from the article:

"It meant that we would lose money. Lots of money. Many of the people who leave are the best financial supporters."

Here’s what I am wondering. Is it possible to become "missional" and grow? Is it possible that many Christ-followers, who have been "fed" like hothouse plants, would blossom if they were allowed to grow toward their natural inclinations? Is it possible that we might still be interested in budgets, and the number of people involved in a dynamic missional group? Is it possible that there might be even more money attracted to doing the works of Jesus in our communities?

I am really wondering, would it be okay for a "missional" group to be large and making a significant, life-changing, world-changing impact?