Andy Rowell | Church Leadership Conversations

Learning the Craft of Pastoring: Six Practices for Cultivating Excellence in Pastoral Ministry term paper

I have posted below the paper I wrote for a reading course I did with Ken Carder on the Theology of Pastoral Ministry based on his two courses in which I was his teaching assistant. 

See Ken Carder: Introduction to Christian Ministry books (Fall 2008)

and Ken Carder's course The Local Church in Mission to God's World books (Spring 2009)

I had asked for feedback June 1 on which direction to go: Would welcome your advice on my Theology of Pastoral Ministry paper

I wrote it June 1-17, 2009. 

It is 51 pages and 18,000 words.  With the 2 appendixes and bibliography it is 65 pages and 22,000 words.

This was my 12th and last course to finish for the Th.D. (Doctor of Theology) program at Duke Divinity School.  Yeah!

In some ways, this represents a synthesis of many of the things I have learned thus far in the Th.D. program.  Someday some of this will be a book but I have lots of other things to work on right now: pass my German and Spanish language exams, then do preliminary exams, then dissertation proposal and then dissertation. See My Th.D. program progress update The book will have to wait. 

So on the one hand, I feel like this is good stuff that could help people.  On the other hand, this is a paper I wrote in about two weeks and it could use lots of refining and editing.  Because the topic--what is pastoral ministry about--is so gigantic, I treat all of the issues and theologians in eclectic fashion--sampling a bit here and a bit there.   It is much more responsible scholarship to dig deep into one thinker like I have done in most my previous term papers: The Ecclesiology of John Howard Yoder paper and  The Missional Ecclesiology of Rowan Williams, both of which I posted; and a number of papers I haven't posted: missional ecclesial practices in Apostle Paul, the ecclesiology of Matthew and Paul compared, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's ecclesiology, church and world in Alasdair MacIntyre and Nathan Kerr, ecclesiology of Miroslav Volf, and preaching in Karl Barth.  In this paper, I consciously and unconsciously draw on a lot of that but try to put something forward more constructive. 

As always, I am happy to receive feedback in the comments (or by email).  I will take it into account as my views continue to evolve. There is much I still need to learn. 

Here is the paper:

Download Theology of Pastoral Ministry Paper Word 2003

Download Theology of Pastoral Ministry Paper PDF

I have pasted below the table of contents and introduction.

Duke Divinity School

Learning the Craft of Pastoring:

Six Practices for Cultivating Excellence in Pastoral Ministry

submitted to

Ken Carder in partial fulfillment of

CHURCMIN 399: THEOLOGY OF PASTORAL MINISTRY

by

Andy Rowell

June 17, 2009

Contents

Introduction: Why we need to understand pastoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	1
The six practices that form the craft of pastoring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	4
1. Becoming a neighbor to the suffering: learning about human suffering from artists, social-scientists and the sufferer . . . . . .	7
2. Becoming a master pastor observer: learning about different styles of pastoring from sociology, historical exemplars, fictional and real life exemplars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	16
3. Becoming a student of the body of Christ: learning about the function of the church leader in the New Testament. . . . . . . . . . . .	23
4. Becoming an equipper for holy living: learning about the marks of the church from historical theology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	36
5. Becoming a believer in the missionary nature of the church: learning about the church’s purpose through biblical theology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	41
6. Becoming a lover of the missionary God: learning about the triune god from prayer, Scripture, and systematic theology. . .	45
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	50
Appendix A: Bonhoeffer and Barth both moving toward the center from the realist and idealist poles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	52
Appendix B: The discipline of “practical theology” is also attempting to do this integrative work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	56
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	59

Introduction: Why we need to understand pastoring

Is pastoral ministry a troubled profession, perhaps even one in crisis? Or is the profession a deeply satisfying calling to which it is worth giving one’s life? Jackson Carroll, who oversaw a national recent survey of pastors, concludes,

Most of America’s pastoral leaders—represented by the sample that we surveyed—are deeply committed to their calling to ordained ministry. If they consider a change, it is more likely that they would pursue their call in another church-related occupation rather than dropping out. They are likewise generally satisfied with most aspect of their work. In short, they echo Eugene Peterson’s comment with which we opened this chapter.[1]

Peterson reflects,

I’ve loved being a pastor, almost every minute of it. It’s a difficult life because it’s a demanding life. But the rewards are enormous—the rewards of being on the front line of seeing the gospel worked out in people’s lives. I remain convinced that if you are called to it, being a pastor is the best life there is. But any life can be the best life if you're called to it.[2]

Pastoring is difficult but for many pastors it is deeply rewarding.

But of course there is more to pastoring than finding job satisfaction. We also want God to be satisfied with what we are doing. Perhaps we are most aware of this while trying to communicate God’s Word to the people of God. Karl Barth felt this keenly as a pastor and as a theologian. At age 28, on September 4, 1914, he wrote to his friend and fellow pastor 26-year-old Eduard Thurneysen,

Here are two sermons from me; they are simply the last two. You will look at them not as though they were finished products but only as experiments. We are really all of us experimenting now, each in his own way and every Sunday in a different way, in order to become to some degree masters of the limitless problem.[3]

If preaching is a limitless problem—trying to convey the God of the universe to a sinful and holy group of human beings in twenty minutes, then the pastoral task as a whole is even more overwhelming. If we just had to deliver one sermon a week, that would be difficult, but pastoral ministry has never been characterized as simply that.

The 24 or 30 course sequence in the Masters of Divinity (M.Div.) degree attempts to cover the necessary ground but students often have difficulty seeing how it all fits together to form a holistic pastoral ministry. “Why do I need to know this?” is not just asked in junior high math classes.

After entering the pastorate, many new pastors are overwhelmed by the tidal wave of demands and discouraged that their own expectations seem so frequently thwarted by bureaucracy, tradition—in short, other people. Their questions are often desperate, “How do I sort through the chaos to find what is most important? How do I know if I am doing a good job?”

Eventually pastors, if they hang in there, settle into a routine. This is of course a relief compared to the chaos of the first year in ministry. But Will Willimon worries that it is often then that settling into a routine turns into complacency and mediocrity.

In a small, rural church, alone, with total responsibility in your shoulders, in the weekly treadmill of sermons and pastoral care, if you are not careful there is too little time to read and reflect, too little time to prepare your first sermons, so you develop bad habits of flying by the seat of your pants, taking short cuts, and borrowing from others what ought to be developed in the workshop of your own soul. Ministry has a way of coming at you, of jerking you around from here to there, so you need to take charge of your time, prioritize your work, and be sure that you don’t neglect the absolute essentials while you are doing the merely important. If you don’t define your ministry on the basis of your theological commitments, the parish has a way of defining your ministry on the basis of their selfish preoccupations and that is why so many clergy are so harried and tired today. Mind your habits.[4]

Wanting to continue to grow in skill and wisdom, pastors are increasingly returning to school in Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) programs which shore up one aspect of pastoring. But without a broader framework, these programs may simply ossify pastors in their ways. I often hear pastors say, “I’m a preacher, not an administrator.” Their D.Min.degree in preaching reinforces their desire to focus on just one aspect of pastoring. Meanwhile that pastor’s congregation needs a leader willing to learn enough about administration and care for the poor so that they can at least delegate and oversee those areas adequately. Their congregation members complain that even in meetings, “the pastor is in preaching mode” or “using their preacher’s voice.” Meanwhile, the pastor’s preaching is becoming increasingly ineffective as they see it as their primary focus.

Similar negative consequences result when pastors conclude, “I’m a pioneer, not a maintainer” or “I’m an evangelist, not a theologian.” A string of broken congregations often lie in the wake of this “self-aware” pastor who trumpets, “I know what I’m good at and I know what I’m not.” Admitting that I am only one part of the body of Christ is indeed important but this realization should inspire me to appreciate and learn from the other parts of the body. Fascinatingly, Paul does not say, “Once a foot, always a foot.” Rather, he encourages mobility and growth. “Now eagerly desire the greater gifts” (1 Cor 12:31). Yes, “we have different gifts” (Rom 12:6) and we are to exercise them diligently (Rom 12:8), but there are no biblical grounds for specialization in one area and total neglect in the rest.

I argue in this paper that pastoring consists of six areas. The pastor seeking excellence ought to cultivate their abilities in all six areas. Pastors never arrive at excellence. The church is a sign, instrument, foretaste, and herald of the reign of God. We point, we never arrive. We become better signs, instruments, forestastes, and heralds. We grow closer to excellence but pastoring is an art, a craft—consisting of a series of demanding practices. We can never cease learning.

But a comforting thought is that we can do it with others. We can learn with and from others.

And an even more comforting thought is that we do this work with God. The church is God’s idea. The Spirit of God empowers the work. One can never get over the stunning designation—the church is the body of Christ.

Seminarian, take heart. New pastor, press on. Veteran pastor, continue to sharpen up. These are the six practices of our work.

---

[1] Jackson W. Carroll, God’s Potters: Pastoral Leadership and the Shaping of Congregations (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006), 185.

[2] Carroll, God’s Potters, 159. David Wood, “Eugene Peterson on Pastoral Ministry” ChrCent 119, no. 6 (March 13-20, 2002): 18. Cf. 18-25.

[3] Karl Barth and Eduard Thurneysen, Revolutionary Theology in the Making: Barth-Thurneysen Correspondence, 1914-1925 (trans. James D. Smart; Richmond, Va.: John Knox Press, 1964), 26.

[4] William H. Willimon, “Between Two Worlds” in From Midterms to Ministry: Practical Theologians on Pastoral Beginnings (ed. Allan Hugh Cole; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 284. Cf. 274-286.

Why pastors should be both goal-setting fanatics and cynics

I decided to post this again because today I came across a vigorous debate in the business world about "goal setting gone wild."  The post below originated as a lecture to Christian ministry students at Taylor University about the benefits and dangers of goal setting. 

 Original post: June 24, 2006

 

Part I: Four reasons why goal-setting is indispensable to pastoral ministry:

1. Without clear goals, we will often end the day having accomplished nothing important.

The youth pastor textbook Youth Ministry Management Tools includes this nugget of wisdom:

“You’re almost guaranteed trouble if you come to the office without a plan for the day. It’s amazing how time slides by and, to your dismay, you discovered you haven’t accomplished anything close to six hours’ worth of results from your day’s activities. Ministry is not about us simply putting our time in at the office” (Ginny Olson, Diane Elliot, and Mike Work, Youth Ministry Management Tools. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001. p. 73).

Without thinking through goals, we will have no criteria by which to sort through the demands upon us. We will need to instantly analyze whether we should do what someone asks us to do. These rushed decisions will produce mistakes. I often feel angry at myself for not accomplishing more in a given day.

2. Without clear goals, our fellow workers in ministry will not know which direction we are going.

Have you ever tried to “caravan” – drive with a number of different vehicles to the same location? What happens is that people have to go through red lights to keep up with each other. The lead car often has to pull over in unsafe places for the other vehicles to catch up. Safety experts say the safest approach is to give each car a set of directions and to communicate by cell phone if someone gets lost. In the same way, it is very difficult for our fellow workers to keep up with us if they don’t know where we are going. It is better to give them the map ahead of time. Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, authors of the book First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently (Simon & Schuster, 1999) which is based on 80,000 interviews, believe one of the most important things managers can do is “define the right outcomes” for the people they are working with. We don’t need to supervise every little detail someone is doing if we have described to them the final destination.

3. It makes sense to focus on a few things because we can’t do everything.

Rick Warren gives this illustration in his book The Purpose-Driven Church: Growth Without Compromising Your Message & Mission (Zondervan, 1995, p. 157).

“Imagine what would happen to a commercial radio station if it tried to appeal to everyone’s taste in music. A station that alternated its format between classical, heavy metal, country, rap, reggae, and southern gospel would end up alienating everyone. No one would listen to that station!”

Pick something and do it well. Every 6 months, I need to articulate a new set of challenges to keep me motivated. You probably will too. I often list a whole bunch of ideas and then have someone help me to narrow them down to a few that I should focus on.

4. With clear goals, extraordinary things are possible.

Practice makes perfect. It really does. If you work at something steadily, you can accomplish extraordinary things.

Anders Ericsson’s work, “compiled in the The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance, a 900-page academic book that was published last month [June 2006], makes a rather startling assertion: the trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated . . . ‘I think the most general claim here,’ Anders Ericsson says of his work, ‘is that a lot of people believe there are some inherent limits they were born with. But there is surprisingly little hard evidence that anyone could attain any kind of exceptional performance without spending a lot of time perfecting it’” (Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, “Freakonomics: A Star Is Made,” NY Times Magazine, May 7, 2006).  See also How to Grow a Super Athlete in Play Magazine, February 2007.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a major league baseball player. I loved throwing a ball against the back of our house. It would bounce back to me and I would practice fielding it. I would even try to throw the ball to my right and left and practice diving plays. I did this thousands of times. From the time I was six, I was known as a good infielder. The more I was affirmed, the more I practiced. I ended up playing baseball through college. On the other hand, I disliked playing the piano. I would practice the 15 minutes per day that my mother required but not one minute more. Because of my minimalist approach to practice, my recitals were traumatic. I was always surprised at how badly I did. When I would sit up there on stage, I would expect to do well but I would always get lost and mess up. The point is simple: what we like to do, we do often and thus get good at it.

Pastoral theology author Eugene Peterson entitled one of his books, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society (InterVarsity, 2000), based on Friedrich Nietzsche’s quote which reads: "The essential thing in heaven and earth is . . . that there should be a long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results . . . something which has made life worth living" (Beyond Good and Evil, 1907, section 188.)

When I reflect on these reasons for goal-setting, I am inspired to dream a little. What do I want my life to look like in 10 years? What kind of person do I want to be? What do I hope my ministry is doing? . . .

Now, how can I break that end goal into small parts? And what can I do today to take a small step toward those goals?

Goal-setting keeps us focused, effective, inspired, and fruitful. Four cheers for fanatical goal-setting. And now . . . why we should be very suspicious of goal-setting.

Part II: Four reasons why we should be suspicious of goal-setting in pastoral ministry:

1. We are often fooling ourselves to try to set long term goals.

“Precise long range planning isn’t difficult. It’s impossible!” says Jim Plueddemann, professor of missions at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School at his blog. My 21 year old students often have trouble picturing what ministry they will be doing in ten years. I’m sympathetic to them because I don’t know either. I like being a pastor and being a professor. Will I be doing one or the other or both or neither in ten years? What should I be planning for?

Consider again Rick Warren’s quote that we cited above.

“Imagine what would happen to a commercial radio station if it tried to appeal to everyone’s taste in music. A station that alternated its format between classical, heavy metal, country, rap, reggae, and southern gospel would end up alienating everyone. No one would listen to that station!” (The Purpose-Driven Church: Growth Without Compromising Your Message & Mission. Zondervan, 1995, p. 157).

What Warren does not say is that there are huge ramifications when one narrows one's audience--many which are unintended.  [I have written more about Warren's approach at: A wider target: Deconstructing and redeploying the Seeker Sensitive Service planning of The Purpose Driven Church and Strengths of the Purpose Driven Church and Sober Advice For Those Considering the Megachurch]. When we specialize too quickly, we may miss the richness of learning a bit about the other genres of music. People donate to NPR (National Public Radio) stations precisely because they are not driven by commercial interests but rather play a variety of jazz, classical, news and talk in an attempt to edify the listener.

When a church decides to “target” ministry to married upper-middle class businessmen, often the poor (or “underresourced”), single, and disabled are subtly treated as inconvenient to the programming. A church may be better off intentionally having a more general focus.

Similarly, a student may be better off cultivating a number of ministry skills in a small church (including teaching, administration and pastoral care to a variety of age groups) as opposed to immediately specializing in a large church by being the director of small groups to single men who are between the ages of 21 and 25.

Setting goals helps us to focus and narrow down. But sometimes intentionally keeping a broad scope reflects the fact that we cannot know the long-term. Sometimes it is better to keep our options open.

2. Goals that focus on the A, B, C’s, (attendance, buildings and cash) are not God’s primary goals.

I tease my students that anyone can come up with an instant “vision” for any ministry. If they say they are interested in inner-city basketball ministry, I say: “I have a vision of (a) thousands of kids streaming into a (b) gorgeous 20-court basketball facility in downtown Chicago and (c) hundreds go to college with money donated by NBA players.”

Another student is interested in family wilderness ministry. I immediately throw out a “vision” of (a) thousands of families going to a (b) 500,000 acre park where they can whitewater raft and mountain climb and (c) there is a staff of 300 full-time trained Christian guides.

In each case, I am illustrating that anyone can articulate “a vision” in terms of attendance, buildings and cash. Jim Plueddemann says it this way: “If you have precise, predictable goals you are aiming at something of secondary importance.” There is nothing wrong with these ABC goals but we must realize that they are secondary. Pluddemann goes on to say: “The most important goal is to glorify God and help others come to Christ and progress in their pilgrimage toward Christlikeness. Such goals are imprecise.” Glorifying God and helping people grow in him are our primary goals. It is also difficult to precisely measure them.
Therefore, if we have accomplished our ABC vision, but have not glorified God, we have not accomplished anything. If our goals are ABC-oriented, let’s make sure they don’t get in the way of our primary goals.

3. Written vision statements are overrated. You can still have vision without them.

Thom Rainer did a study of churches that went from “good to great.” He calls these churches “breakout churches.” He and his researchers found that formal “goal-setting” and “strategic-planning” processes did not play a role in these churches becoming more effective.

“Our research team did not hear any of the leaders of the breakout churches mention any efforts to discover vision. Yet they all have a clear and compelling vision today . . . What these thirteen churches had in common was a vision that ‘discovered’ them rather than a painful search to find out God’s specific plan . . . The Vision Intersection Profile is when the Leadership’s Passion, Community’s Needs, and Passion/Gifts of the Congregation intersect” (Thom Rainer, Breakout Churches: Discover How To Make The Leap. Zondervan, 2005. pp.112, 113, 114).

Some people are already focused and inspired. They don’t need some goal-setting mechanism to get them going. These bureaucratic processes can sometimes drain energy from the really passionate people instead of inspiring the unfocused. Writing down your personal goals or articulating a mission-statement may actually lead to a subtle feeling that the work is now over!

“We found a lack of written vision statements among the breakout churches. Conversely, we found written vision statements in more than 70% of the comparison churches. The leaders of the comparison churches seem to think that, if they could just get an idea in writing before the congregation, the people would follow. The breakout leaders discovered vision long before any statements were written, if they were ever written.” (Thom Rainer, Breakout Churches. p.115).

4. It is more important to fan your passions and riskily attempt action than to articulate your goals.

Tom Peters, author of the book In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies, writes:

"Plans? Goals? Yes, I admit that I plan and set goals. After I’ve accomplished something, I declare it to have been my goal all along. One must keep up appearances: In our society “having goals” and “making plans” are two of the most important pretenses. Unfortunately, they are dangerous pretenses -- which
repeatedly cause us to delay immersion in the real world of happy surprises, unhappy detours, and unexpected byways. Meanwhile, the laurels keep going to those mildly purposeful stumblers who hang out, try stuff with reckless abandon-- and occasionally bump into something big and bountiful, often barely related to the initial pursuit” (Peters, T. The Bookstore Journal. Feb. 1991 quoted by Plueddemann).

The secret of an effective life is not how to do SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely). Rather, it is closer to what Rainer discovered in studying great church leaders.

“Breakout church leaders understand the incredible brevity of life. They desire to make a difference for the glory of God in this short period. And they trust in a God of miracles for whom all things are possible” (Thom Rainer, Breakout Churches. p.127).

Conclusion:
So do we set goals? Yes! We use goal-setting to keep us focused, effective, inspired, and fruitful. But goal-setting must be done with humility, depth, passion and trust.

This should be our prayer. God, show me what kind of person you want me to be in 10 years. God, show us what kind of church you want us to be in 10 years. We want to glorify you. We want to see people grow to know you more. We will risk because we trust you. What step do you want me to take today?

Update May 20, 2009

There was a lively debate about goals in
The Academy of Management Perspectives
Issue: Volume 23, Number 1 / 2009
(Not available for free online).

There were two dualing articles:

"Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Overprescribing Goal Setting" pp. 6 - 16
Lisa D. Ordóñez, Maurice E. Schweitzer, Adam D. Galinsky, Max H. Bazerman

"Has Goal Setting Gone Wild, or Have Its Attackers Abandoned Good Scholarship?" pp. 17 - 23
Edwin A. Locke and Gary P. Latham

Now you can read one of the camps' response.

"On Good Scholarship, Goal Setting, and Scholars Gone Wild"
Lisa D. Ordóñez, Maurice E. Schweitzer, Adam D. Galinsky, Max H. Bazerman
Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
Working Paper 09-122

This group wants to be cautious about goal-setting.  Here are two good quotes from their working paper.

"There is mounting causal evidence linking goal setting with a range of behaviors including a shift in risk taking (Larrick, Heath, & Wu, in press), greater unethical behavior (Schweitzer, Ordóñez, & Douma, 2004), and a narrow focus that draws attention from other important elements of the problem (Staw & Boettger, 1990)." p. 5

"As financial crises, Ponzi schemes, and the collapse of the automotive industry demonstrate, the combination of unethical behavior, risk-taking and poor judgment can be toxic. We are not implying that goal setting was the primary cause of the current crises. Instead, we suggest that we should develop and sharpen our understanding of those contextual factors that produce harmful behaviors." p. 8

Advice on applying for a pastoral position

I received an email from a man in his 40's who is interested in a pastoral position at a church of 85 attendance.  He has done a lot of leadership in Christian organizations but hasn't been a pastor.  Here is my quick response to him this morning.  I did not post his letter to me but in my response I work through the main questions he asked me: (1) approaching the process, (2) salary, and (3) church growth.  He wanted me to post my response in case it might help others.

Dear __________,

First of all, I would not share with the congregational search committee about the setbacks or problems in the churches and parachurch organizations you served unless you are talking about how you positively addressed the situation.  Emphasize ways you contributed that turned out well.  "I noticed this . . . this problem came up . . . and this how I addressed it."  That shows them how you would address problems.  If you talk about "the whole story" about the decline of the organizations you were involved in, that will be discouraging for all and is unnecessary.  I just don't think the details of all those situations matter to the congregation and I think they unnecessarily muddy the waters as this church is different from those past organizations.  I have attached two resumes (one of me and one of my wife) we did a while back.  It demonstrates a bit of how we highlight things we accomplished.  You also want to do this in interviews.  You want to focus on positive accomplishments.  When they ask you a question, say, "Well here is how I addressed something like that in the past . . . " 

Most churches are looking for a good preacher and someone with integrity.  Perhaps you have a tape of a good sermon you've preached or you can do a great one when they ask you to come interview ("candidate"). 

Hopefully you also have a lot of people in your past who can speak to your integrity, honesty, hard work, and compassion--usually three good references--ideally people who were colleagues or in official positions in the church or parachurch organizations you were involved in but you can have someone who was a volunteer leader. 

They want to know that you are a good listener and care about people (like elderly people) and can speak to them with interest, laugh, ask questions and empathize.       

My How to Search for a Christian Ministry Job which I wrote for graduating Christian ministry majors in 2006 might also be helpful as far as the job search.  

I think the Presbyterians are right in talking about the pastor hearing a call to the church (feeling like it is a good fit) and the congregation hearing a call to the pastor (this is the right person God has for us now).  The process should be thought of as "discerning the call"--not "hiring" and "finding a job."  This is your prayer, "God, help this to be a good match for both the congregation and our family." 

Second, on salary, sometimes pastors salaries are thought to be similar to teacher's salaries in the area.  Perhaps that is a place to start.  There are a few surveys out there like the LifeWay Compensation Study: 2008 Southern Baptist Convention Compensation Study.  I don't think you shared what state you are in but I did a calculation for Senior Pastors in Missiouri (a good swing state!) attendance 75-99.  Average compensation: $33,856.  Average pay package: $41,232. 

Do not mention salary until the very end when they have offered you the job and present to you what their offer is.  Of course, don't say "yes" until you have heard what the package is.  My hope is that with home prices as high as you mention, they will pay you ok.  Churches will want to make sure that they are paying you a fair salary.  My bet is that it will be in the ballpark of these averages mentioned above.  You should be thrilled if they are 10K higher.  If they are lower, you are welcome to say, given my three kids and the cost of living in this area, and what is typically paid to pastors of other low-paying denominations like the Southern Baptist Convention in this state, I was thinking $__________.  If they like you, they won't let you go over a difference of 5-8K; they will cough up the money.  But if you mention it early, they will think you are all about money and no one likes that. 

Third and last, as far as vision-casting and church growth, I would be slow about that as I mention in the my post you read: 8 pieces of advice for a new pastor.  Your main jobs will be adequately preaching and leading worship and getting to know everyone's name and the stories of the congregation in the past.  Eventually you will be able to identify the key leaders in the congregation (perhaps 15) and have casual and then gradually more focused conversations about focus and direction.  In general though you should not expect much major change for 5 years!  If you are doing great preaching, you will be able to stay around 75-85 attendance and at least pay to heat the building, a 15 hours per week church secretary, 10 hours of janitorial service, and your salary.  I like David Hansen's book The Art of Pastoring for encouragement about small congregations and getting by.       

May the Lord strengthen and guide you as you seek to serve the church. 

Grace and peace,

andy

--
Andy Rowell
Th.D. Student
Duke Divinity School
Durham, North Carolina
Blog: www.andyrowell.net

8 pieces of advice for a new pastor

A friend asked for advice in his first month as a pastor.  He writes,

So tomorrow I begin and lead my first staff meeting and begin my first week of being a pastor. What are the things you all think I should make sure I do.

Here is my take:

1. Study the Scripture text you are going to preach on. Read 2 commentaries on the passage. If you and the commentators agree, you are on the right track. Preach it!  Get this reference to help you find some good commentaries: Commentary and Reference Survey: A Comprehensive Guide to Biblical and Theological Resources by John Glynn (Paperback - Feb 15, 2007)

2. Take walks just for the purpose of praying.

3. Learn everyone's name (first and last name) including the kids and janitor. Make your own photo directory or flash cards if you need to.

4. Schedule as many meals and coffees with people as possible. Go to their workplaces and pick them up and take them to a place nearby that they often go when they go out to lunch. These meetings should be 45 minutes to 1 hour 1/2--no longer.  Pay and turn in the receipts to the church. But only order very basic (as opposed to extravagant) things at the restaurants--equivalent to the price of a burger and soda. No dessert or alcohol on the church's bill. I'm tempted to say on this one, "It is better to ask forgiveness than permission" because I think you should do it even if the church does not typically pay for these sort of things.  You will not get fired for meeting with lots of people. It is difficult to do it if you don't meet at restaurants and coffee shops in this day and age. People don't have time to go to your house and people often don't host people in their homes often. Every day meet with someone. Please! This is crucial. There is a book called:
Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time by Keith Ferrazzi (Author), Tahl Raz (Author)   It is a good motto.

Questions to ask when you meet with people:
a. Where did you grow up? Where are all the places you've lived?
b. What is your job? Can you tell me enough about it so I really understand what you do? Is it terrible or great or just so-so? Why? How is your relationship with your boss?
c. What is your church background? Why did you come to our church?
d. Should I just lift up these things we have already talked about to the Lord or is there something else I can pray about as well? (In other words, you will know enough already to be able to pray for them). Do a quick prayer for them.

People will be surprised at how pleasant and interesting and good it is to meet the pastor and you will be relieved not to get into all the church politics until you get to know people. This person is more important than their complaint about the church.  When you get to know people, you will understand where they are coming from. The person who is passionate about missions grew up in Africa. The person who is passionate about pastoral care, works in a nursing home.  They are passionate for legitimate reasons!

As you can see from my questions, I would urge you to have low expectations for those first 1on1 meetings. The point is to get to know people. You will get close to some of them eventually. You will need to have difficult conversations with some of them eventually. But at this point, just enjoy people and get to know the basics. This is critically important to eventually ministering deeply to them.

Pastoring is 1/3 preaching (study, prep, reading), 1/3 administration (meetings, email, phone calls, mail, chaos), and 1/3 pastoral care (meeting with people). But you will have to initiate and be intentional to meet with anyone. Very few will reach out to you.

5. Read books by pastors for some sympathy.  Read Eugene Peterson's books The Contemplative Pastor and Under the Unpredictable Plant. Just read the stories if you get bogged down. Ditto - David Hansen's The Art of Pastoring. I would also recommend the Mitford books (fiction) by Jan Karon to get a sense of warm personal pastoral ministry practiced by Pastor Tim.

6. Eventually, read some leadership books to help you analyze the organization.  "Pastors overestimate what they can accomplish in one year and underestimate what they can accomplish in five years." Sandy Millar, former Vicar at Holy Trinity Brompton, London, England. Next year, when you get madly frustrated by the disfunction of the organization of the church, you can read leadership books like Five Disfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni and his book Death by Meeting; Good to Great by Jim Collins; Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman; First, Break all the Rules by Marcus Buckingham; Seven Practices of Effective Ministry by Andy Stanley; Simple Church by Thom Rainer and The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done by Peter Drucker. In addition to these books, the article (available online for free) entitled "How to Minister Effectively in Family, Pastoral, Program, and Corporate Sized Churches" by Roy M. Oswald, former Senior Consultant, Alban Institute, was helpful for me.  At a minimum, these books will help you realize that disfunction in churches and other organizations is the norm but that there are some things you can do to start positive movement in the right direction.  Will Willimon reports in his post, "Non-synoptic church leadership in church" that he was given the following advice as a young pastor which he now shares with others, 

"I am sure someone has told you that you shouldn't change anything when you go to a new church for at least a year," he said to me.  Indeed, someone had told me just that. "Well, forget it!  Don't change anything in a new church unless you become convinced that it needs changing! Change anything you think that needs changing and anything you think you can change without the laity killing you.  Lots of churches are filled with laity who are languishing there, desperate for a pastor to go ahead and change something for the better.  Lots of times we pastors blame our cowardice, or our lack of vision, on the laity, saying that we want to change something, but we can't because of the laity.  We ought to just go ahead and change something and then see what the consequences are."

7. Get 8 hours of sleep. Get to bed the same time every night and get up the same time.  You will thus have more resources of patience to keep your cool as you encounter all kinds of craziness, disfunction, and beauty. The sleep will help you from getting too discouraged. Expect the organization to be terrible! Expect the people to be great . . . once you get to know them.

8. Learn the history of the church.  You need to be able to tell the old, old stories as well as anyone. 

How to meet with your supervisor

The problem: You work at a church but you do not meet regularly with your supervisor or your meetings with your supervisor are ineffective. 

A study has shown that liking one's supervisor is the number one factor related to job satisfaction.  You can put up with a lot if you like your immediate supervisor.  Here is the summary quote from the book:

"The talented employee may join a company because of its charismatic leaders, its generous benefits, and its world class training programs, but how long that employee stays and how productive they are while they are there is determined by their relationship with their immediate supervisor" (Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, First Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999, pp. 11-12). 

If your satisfaction and fruitfulness depend largely on your relationship with your supervisor, it is pretty important that you have good meetings with them. 

Below I have listed two main points about meeting with your supervisor. 

1. Ask to meet with your supervisor for 1 hour once every two weeks or 1/2 hour once per week.  The "open door policy" (My door is always open) isn't concrete enough and either wastes too much time or doesn't provide enough meaningful interaction.  Conscientious followers often don't want to waste the supervisor's time so they wait to ask questions until a problem has grown into a full-blown mess.  Instead set up a time to meet regularly. 

Jim Collins writes,

"If you have the right people on the bus, the problem of how to motivate and manage people largely goes away.  The right people don't need to be tightly managed or fired up; they will be self-motivated by the inner drive to produce the best results and to be part of creating something great" (Jim Collins, Good to Great. New York: HarperCollins, 2001, p. 42).

As a good follower / employee / church leader, you do not need help on every single task, but you do need to be pointed in the right direction.  If you are working 40-50 hours per week, having a 1/2 hour of direction is not too much to ask and makes a lot of sense.      

2. Have a numbered agenda of 5-10 questions that you wish to raise with your supervisor.  Provide the supervisor with a copy when you begin the meeting.  These items should include things you feel the supervisor should know, questions you have related to current projects you are working on, and hopefully something you can affirm your supervisor about.   Save most of your questions for that meeting rather than sending your supervisor a million emails throughout the week.  My supervisor would acknowledge each question and reflect more deeply on the questions he felt were most important or he was able to answer. 

The list of questions emphasizes that you are prepared and that you value the person's time.  It also gives them an idea of the issues that are on your mind.  They need not all be strategic, task-oriented issues.  You can also ask the person questions that are not urgent but are important.  Here's a sample one I remember asking a mentor: "what do you do when you hear that someone from the congregation has died - can you walk me through that?"

Perry Noble, pastor of NewSpring Church, has an excellent post today entitled:My Five Rules For Meeting With A Mentor. My comments above particularly resonate with this quote from Perry's post:

I remember John Maxwell saying to me once, “I will mentor you, but you have to ask the questions. I am not preparing a lesson for you…YOU guide this meeting. If you want to know something–ASK. If you don’t ask anything then we don’t really have anything to talk about.”

Conclusion:

David Swanson notes the importance of meeting with mentors for your own productivity and satisfaction. 

"Those of us who itch for change are faced with the fact that, in most cases, it is the senior leadership’s prerogative to initiate those changes. This can be a frustrating reality for a young leader. Our options are to give up on large-scale change, disconnect from the church to attempt our own new thing, or drink a lot of coffee. Tea works too.

A couple of years into my time as an associate pastor I began scheduling regular breakfasts, afternoon coffee breaks, and evening conversations with some of our church’s Boomer leaders. These conversations were agenda-free. It was a chance to talk about past experiences, current challenges, and future possibilities for our church. The only measure of success was that coffee was consumed and good conversation was had.

Over time, as relationships developed, it became apparent that my ministry ideas were being met with more acceptance. Some of my new ideas even became conversation topics among our older leaders. It was deeply satisfying to participate in a strategic vision for the church that had begun as a conversation over coffee. Don’t underestimate the importance of investing in relationships" (Leadership Journal's blog Out of Ur Disarming the Boomers (Part 2) from January 17, 2008).

As the book title Never Eat Alone implies, relationships are key for getting things done both in the business world and in the church. 

Examples

I have listed a couple of examples below of agendas I made before meeting with mentors and supervisors. 

Example 1: Agenda for meeting with a senior pastor of a neighboring church that I had never met  in 2004.  I had scheduled the meeting to learn from him.

• Where are you from? When did you start pastoring? What did you do before that?
• What do you feel is going well at _________ Church?
• What are the challenges?
• Since we share the same neighborhood, what are the neighborhood issues for you all like parking, etc.?
• How has your seminary experience prepared you for ministry?
• Why the “team leader” title?
• What “direction” is your church moving in?   

Example 2: Here is another example of a weekly meeting from 2002 with my supervisor (which I handed him a copy of)

1. How are you? 
2. Additional agenda items?
3. I am beginning Family Camp planning for next year this week.  Do you have any advice?
4. I received an email from D.T. about his concern about incorporating new people into worship teams.  Comments?
5. We are furthering Ensemble Leaders Song Selection Criteria.  Is that proceeding well in your opinion?
   
6. Family Carol Service.  We are ordering from a script to adapt (19.99-24.99 US) Group Publishing.  Just wanted you to know.   
7. We have received two estimates on IT service maintenance. 
8. I am thankful to G.R. for his major assistance these last few weeks.
9. I tried a new strategy last week for announcements and it seemed to go well.   Input?
10. J.S. is no longer attending our church.  He is attending ________ Church.   
11. Prayer item: I need ________. 
12. K.V. will be back visiting January 22.

Jack Welch: Most pastors could never make it in the business world

I have a new post today on Leadership Journal's Out of Ur blog entitled

Are Pastors Competitive Enough?

A CEO says pastors would never make it in the business world, but is that bad?

by Andy Rowell

I comment on a BusinessWeek article by Jack Welch regarding people trying to move from the non-profit world (i.e. church) to the business world. 

Make your comments there!

How Pastors Should Dress

Listening to NPR today, I learned of the blog "Beauty Tips for Ministers" run by Victoria Weinstein who calls herself "PeaceBang" on the blog.  The Boston Globe also did a story in February about it.

PREACHING FASHION: Minister advises clergy on style
Boston Globe - Feb 18, 2007
See especially the audio slideshow with photos of some do's and don't.
And the interactive graphic "Preaching fashion" where you can put clothes on the clergywoman.

The following series of five posts on "Beauty Tips for Ministers" from August 2006 are particularly interesting because they begin to get at the philosophy/theology/rationale behind "how we dress." 

PeaceBang's philosophy is that "if we do not project an image intentionally, we will project one unconconsciously."  She argues for responsible, well-dressed clergy in order convey respect for other people.  Rev. Bluejeans writes to her arguing that "If I could wave a magic wand, I’d institute mandatory casual dress at every church in the country."  He wears jeans so that he can relate to common people. 

1. PeaceBang’s Friendly Nemesis (Part I In a Series)
2. My Response To My Friendly Nemesis (Part II In A Series)
3. PeaceBang and Rev. Blue Jeans Continue (Part III)
4. So Then I Said (Part IV In A Series)
5. And Then He Wrote Back… (Part V Of A Series)

Rev. Bluejeans writes,

The entire thrust of the life and teachings of Jesus is away from religiosity and toward an interior life of faith . . . whatever he wore was low-key enough that fit in just fine with lepers, prostitutes, and a ragtag bunch of fishermen from the Galilee. And then there’s that whole “life is more than food, the body more than clothes…consider the lilies of the field” thing.

PeaceBang's summary comment:

Because to me, dressing all humble when you have the means to afford perfectly swell clothes is an expression of false piety — but my correspondent there is saying that dressing UP is an expression of false piety.

Interestingly, dress was a hot topic of discussion after I wrote "Image Isn’t Everything: the uneasy conscience of a GenX pastor" on Leadership's Out of Ur blog in April 2006.  I argued that emerging church pastors intentionally try to convey an image. 

People were agitated by these lines in my article:

[Emerging church pastors typically] . . . plan and prepare like crazy late into the night with the most talented people they can find (musicians, technical folks, presenters, set designers, chefs).  When it is event time, they put on their jeans (frayed and faded when purchased), mess up their hair, stick on their tight t-shirt, have a coffee in their hand, and saunter into the room as if they didn’t have a care in the world. When people are amazed at the profundity and power of what they experience, the pastor just shrugs and tells them, “I guess it worked. It just happened.”

I wrote this in the comments:

People’s comments have mostly focused on “what pastors wear.” People agree that we should spend more time caring about people than picking out our wardrobe. However, there is a range of responses about how seriously to take image management. On the one side, there are people who think that church leaders should simply “be themselves.” Your green plaid jacket may initially repel people but eventually people will be won over by your sincerity. These people suggest that trying to do “what’s cool” is bound to backfire because cool changes so quickly and people will be turned off by what they perceive to be “fakeness.” Furthermore, promoting a certain image will subtly communicate to people that cool people are more welcome in the community. They contend that Jesus and Paul were truth-conscious not image-conscious.  

On the other side, we have heard from an image consultant and many other pragmatic voices. They have argued that we have no choice but to project an image. We might as well be aware of what we are communicating. They argue that some people are naturals at fitting into their surroundings but most need a spouse (or an image consultant) to help them pick out what to wear. They would probably advocate researching your target group and trying to take small steps towards a more attractive image. They would admit that what is “appropriate” (perhaps a better word than “cool”) changes. And so this target image will probably continue to evolve and so you will probably have to keep changing your image to fit. They would contend that Jesus and Paul were certainly truth-conscious but were also image-conscious in adapting their outreach to their hearers.

 

Two conclusions:
First, I think most agree that we should at least try to manage our image by trying to keep body odor in check with regular showers and deodorant. Most of us also agree that we should not use thousands of church dollars to hire image consultants to conduct polls about whether people perceive us to be “hard-working” if our sleeves are rolled up. (I heard President Bush’s image consultants told him to do that). It is not wrong to be image-conscious. But the key question is resources. How much time, money and focus are we putting into our image projection? How much is too much?

 

Second, I think we should think long and hard before picking our “target.” Typically, we pick high school youth, punks in a club, or the golfing business owner. This is where we often make the mistake. We tend to change our image to look younger or cooler or richer. God may actually have intended us to reach someone else who we are now alienating by our new image. We need to ask ourselves, “who has God put in my life to reach? How can I serve them?”

A few interesting posts from PeaceBang's "Beauty Tips for Ministers":

• Special Designated Minister Duds: PeaceBang's advice on basics a male pastor should have
• PEACEBANG’S FALL FASHION TIPS: From Fall 2006.
• Ministerial Attire: Conclusions from a discussion with women seminarians in April 2006. 
• Here are her "Greatest Hits" articles.

Two other resources:

• Men's Health: I have occasionly read the magazine Men's Health at the gym and have enjoyed hearing their take on "style."  Here is the link to their style page. 
• ChurchMarketingSucks.com has a similar function to "Beauty Tips for Ministers" in that they try to help churches promote themselves more effectively.  Like PeaceBang, they believe that pastors sticking their heads in the sand about image backfires longterm.  Churches who resist thinking about image still promote themselves but just poorly. Both blogs hope to alleviate that. 

Final editorial comment:

Jesus writes in Matthew 6:25-33 (i.e. So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things . . .)  But Jesus saying we shouldn't worry about these things does not mean that there are not no ethical and theological considerations involved in eating, drinking and "wearing."  There are.  For example, dressing like a prostitute would not be appropriate.  We see in 1 Corinthians 11 women not wearing a headcovering in that culture which was like coming to church topless.  (See 1 Corinthians commentary by Richard Hays.  Gordon Fee agrees).  Or what about 1 Timothy 2:9 "I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes." 

There are better and worse ways to eat and drink and yes get dressed in the morning.  Now, these are not essentials of the faith but they are part of living this human life well.  How do we in our culture dress "with decency and propriety" (1 Tim 2:9)?  It is ok to talk and think about it.       

Clergy are the most satisfied in their jobs

Check out this excerpt from an April 2007 article in the Chicago Tribune:

According to the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, clergy ranked by far the most satisfied and the most generally happy of 198 occupations.

The worker satisfaction study, set for release Tuesday, is based on data collected since 1988 on more than 27,500 randomly selected people.

Eighty-seven percent of clergy said they were "very satisfied" with their work, compared with an average 47 percent for all workers. Sixty-seven percent reported being "very happy," compared with an average 33 percent for all workers.

Jackson Carroll, Williams professor emeritus of religion and society at Duke Divinity School, found similarly high satisfaction when he studied Protestant and Catholic clergy, despite relatively modest salaries and long hours.

"They look at their occupation as a calling," Carroll said. "A pastor does get called on to enter into some of the deepest moments of a person's life, celebrating a birth and sitting with people at times of illness or death. There's a lot of fulfillment."

Source:

Money really can't buy happiness, study finds
Clergy are the most satisfied with their jobs; lawyers, doctors down on the list

By Barbara Rose
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 17, 2007
Chicago Tribune

But it would be naive and misguided to think that pastors are having an easy time out there.  For a more complete picture, check out some of the resources below that have looked at why clergy leave the profession.  Loneliness, conflict with denominational officials, difficulty managing change, burnout, lack of mobility in rural settings . . . these are significant issues.  The authors conclude that seminaries need to do a better job preparing students for practical issues, clergy need to continue to monitor self-care issues, and real issues that plague clergy need to be addressed in the open as opposed to being hidden.   

See some good clear research that has been sponsored by Duke Divinity School's Pulpit & Pew: Research on Pastoral Leadership. 

Reports.  Summaries and full reports available at links below. 

Factors Shaping Clergy Careers: A Wakeup Call for Protestant Denominations and Pastors
By Patricia M.Y. Chang

Assessing the Clergy Supply in the 21st Century
By Patricia M. Y. Chang

Book.  Reviews available at link below:

Pastors in Transition: Why Clergy Leave Local Church Ministry

By Dean R. Hoge and Jacqueline E. Wenger

For another article on the job satisfaction survey see:

April 20, 2007
Service to others not just a job
Clergy happiest in U.S. work force, survey indicates

By KRISTINA HERRNDOBLER
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle