I spent Monday and Tuesday packing up my office and I’m really close to getting it all done.  Doing this chore brought sadness at leaving a place I love but also excitement and anticipation at the place that I’m going.  As this change comes about, here are somethings which I believe can make it a healthy time of change…

• Say Goodbye.  It’s so important to take time to say goodbye.  Remember, there is an element of grief that comes with change for you and for the church (if you are a pastor). It’s necessary to acknowledge that grief and take time to hug, shed a tear and/or laugh together with a special memory.  This includes those outside of your church and in the community you serve.
• Pack Well.  Don’t just throw things in a box at the last moment, the more organized you are now, the easier it will be when you un-pack.
• Pack early.  We are 4 weeks out from the move but packing early helps the reality of moving set in.  It gives more time to allow for the grief to manifest itself and for you to process through it.
• Pack Lighter.  Our family is following the rule that if we haven’t used it in the past year, it goes in the garage sale pile.  Clean out your junk is another way of putting it. 
• Spend Time with the Family.  Being a pastor is pretty hectic and stressful work.  This is a time when the stress should be lessened and the ability to spend some good quality time with the family is needed.
• Pray.  Lift up your current congregation in prayer and also begin praying for your new congregation.
• Don’t Forget Your Own Spiritual Growth.  As you wind down the current appointment, take time to grow yourself spiritually.  Take a Continuing Ed class, read that book that’s been sitting in the “To Be Read” pile, start a new personal Bible study time or begin a new Holy Habit.
• Finish Unfinished Business.  The to-do list, visits, make any apologies, and mend any fences.  Leave any baggage that may be weighing you down so that a new start can be made.

I keep a list in my office to remind me of leadership traits which I want to remember and practice. I have gotten these from some of my favorite leadership people including John Maxwell and Andy Stanley.   There are as follows:

1. Leaders become insulated and Isolated…AND THEY LIKE IT
2. Resist the urge to lead every meeting you attend.
3. A good leader wants the best thinkers and most strategic people around the table with them.
4. What and who you listen to will determine what you do.
5. Leaders never outgrow the need to change.
6. Don’t buy into the notion that mistakes can be avoided, THEY CAN’T.
7. It doesn’t matter how long or how hard you’ve worked if it doesn’t accomplish what needs to be done.
8. Coming together is a beginning and staying together is progress but only when teams sweat together do they find SUCCESS.
9. Teamwork is at the heart of GREAT achievement.
10. BECOME PRE-OCCUPIED WITH WHO YOU HAVEN’T REACHED AS OPPOSED TO THOSE YOU WANT TO KEEP.

Please keep Pastor Michael Stewart, the Stewart family and Hazel Green UMC in your prayers.  Michael had a stroke yesterday.

Thanks,

John

As a United Methodist Pastor, the possibility of being moved comes around once a year.  Most years, we are pretty confident if we are going to be moved or not and so the anxiety level is pretty low…usually.  This year, we are on the move list.  We know we are moving but that’s all we know.  We don’t know where. We do know that Thursday, April 11th, we will find out the where.  So this week is pretty anxiety filled as we wait on pins and needles for the phone call on Thursday. 

I’ve had many ask me questions such as, “How do you do that?” and “What are you feelings about moving?” So, I thought I would try to answer those in this blog:

What are you feelings about moving?

• Sadness:  We will be leaving a place where we love the people and they love us.  We have developed deep bonds and truly care for the flock here at Union.  We love this church and its people.
• Excitement:  The sense of the unknown is exciting to me.  A new challenges, new possibilities, new opportunities, new place to live, new people, new relationships, new starts, and new adventures. 
• Concern:  My son Jackson is going into the 10th grade and will be leaving friends and his high school.  This is the only place Graden and Sophie have known as home and Noah is going to be entering “Big Kid School” at a place where he doesn’t know anyone.  Erica is not making this move with us.  She is going to be going to college and being an adult. I know they will be okay but as a husband and dad, I’m concerned for my family.
• Anticipation:  Goes along with excitement but with a sense of looking forward to discovering what God holds in the new appointment.

Answering the question of “How do you do that?” This is what I’ve found that works for me:

• Don’t dwell on it.  There will be plenty of time to put plans in place.
• Stay focused on leaving well.  Make things as ready as possible for the next pastor following me.
• Prayer for our system, the Bishop and the Cabinet.  For God’s wisdom and discernment to be given to them so that their actions are led by God.
• Prayer for Union, it’s ministries, and the congregation.
• Prayer for the new pastor and pastor’s family coming to Union.  That God will give them all they need to be the leader Union needs to take them to the next level.
• Prayer for the new church that I will be serving.
• And a trust in God and a belief in what I learned from my youth director way back in 1986…”Where the Lord guides, He will provide.”

My wife has a Facebook page for her booth at Chelsea Antique Mall.  We are trying to reach 200 before the weekend and I have assured her we can do it.  We only have to get 13 more people to LIKE this page!  Please go to her Facebook Jillybeez page

I hope you will also go to her web site www.jillybeez.org.

Every church, group of friends, business, relationship, home, etc has a door and a few years ago, the United Methodist Church adopted this as part of their slogan.  As I have been studying Robert Schnase, I wanted to pass along to you some of the questions he ask on “How Easy is it to Come In and Find a Place?”  I hope every congregation member will take some time and truly think about these. I would even love to know your answers if you would share them with me.

• How do people hear about Union most often?  Think of all the ways someone in your community might hear or learn about our congregation.
• How are new people connected>
• In what ways do these new people become ‘regulars’?
• What makes someone feel that they aren’t “new” anymore?
• Can you list 2 or 3 groups of people in our area that are waiting to be invited to the congregation?  What are they like?  What might they need? What could you offer?
• How could we make inviting these people a regular part of how our congregation plans and holds events, small groups, classes and worship?

These are great questions that we need to ask.  Union no longer has the luxury of worrying most about itself and the people who are already here.  We need to be 100% focused on those who are not here; what’s going to get them here; what’s going to keep them here; what do they need when they get here and how can we make a place where they truly feel welcomed…not necessarily by what we say but by what has been done preparing for them before they even knew they were coming.

I know, I know, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted and I apologize and commit to do better. 

This summer I was blessed by my DS Ron Shultz to attend a congregational growth workshop where Bishop Robert Schnase was the keynote speaker.  Bishop Schnase has written the 5 Practices of Fruitful Congregations and his insights have re-invigorated me. 

As I look around, I’ve noticed church attendance and membership decreasing at a rapid pace.  Lovett Weems constantly talks about a “death tsunami” approaching the local churches as the largest generation (the Baby Boomers) reach the age that they pass away.  My local congregation is a perfect example of this.  When you look across our congregation, the vast majority of people are in/or quickly approaching their seventies.  We even have a few blessed saints who are in their late eighties and ninties!  What does this mean? It means we are according to Schnase, “perfectly aligned to get the results we are getting and that means uninterrupted decline for most churches.”  SOMETHING HAS TO CHANGE!!

Schnase states, “People getting mad and leaving is not the cause of our decline.  Members simply grow old and die, and no one takes their places.  The church has a “front door” problem rather than a “back door” problem.  People are not entering into the life of the church at a rate that matches or exceeds the number maturing and dying.”

So what do we do about this?  To become a vibrant, healthy, growing congregation we must have a change of attitudes, change in the way we do things and a change in the way we look at our ministries.  We must ask, “Are the ministries we are currently doing more for the people here presently or for those who are not life long members?”  There’s been a great deal of talk lately about becoming (branding our church) as a “Family Church.”  This is great and wonderful and is quite possible the answer to growing Union.  However, this is very tough to do because it gets us out of our comfort zone. 

Bishop Schnase writes, Good intentions are not enough.  Too many churches want:

• More young people as long as they act like old people;
• More newcomers as long as they act like old timers,
• more children as long as they are quiet as adults
• more ethnic families as long as they act like the majority in the congregation.

We cannot keep doing the things we always done.  We have to make changes and little changes can have great effects. 

Schnase tells the story of “Small churches who have painted their nurseries, trained their nursery staff, replaced the playground equipment and within weeks word of mouth carried the message of their special care for children to others; and attendance grew from 45 to 55 members.  And it all started with a simple paint job.  If every ministry changed a little toward welcoming younger people, the cumulative effect might change the direction of the church.”

This is RADICAL HOSPITALITY.  Being more concerned with the guest than the members.  When I know someone is coming to my house for a visit or dinner, I put out the best.  We clean, use the best dishes, give them the seats of honor and as good host, we make sure everything we do is to make our guest feel at home.  It’s called being a servant.  

Schnase defines Radical Hospitality as churches that strive without ceasing to exceed expectations to accommodate and include others.

As pastor, I’m so excited and proud that this congregation desires themselves to be a “Family Church.”  We can do it.  There is more love in this congregation than I have ever witnessed in all my ministry.  But, we still have a ways to go.  Here are my suggestions:

• Our playground has been dismantled for months now.  This is a bad sign to a young family looking for a family church to attend.  What it says is that we don’t place much value on our children. (that’s before they even turn into the parking lot.)  Can we please find some people in the church who will take on this project and repair or start raising money to purchase new equipment.  Then let’s have a Grand Opening of our new playground.
• To be a family friendly church we have to expect children and infants.  There has to be a nursery provided at every function we have.  A staffed nursery eliminates one obstical or one excuse for someone new not coming to an event.
• We are so close to getting the funds raised for the new nursery!  Let’s push forward and put this on the front burner and get it past us so we can utilize this great addition.

• Kids/children/infants/teens can be disruptive.  They are not adults.  They talk, squirm, whisper, open candy during church and cry.  But at least they’re here.  And if we don’t bring them in now, it won’t be long until it’s really quite on Sunday mornings.

Union has experienced a decline in our worship attendance over the past year.  We’ve got to focus 2013 to outreach of young families.  Here are some of the things I’m doing as pastor.

• I’ll be asking a member of the congregation to serve as Outreach Coordinator.  This person will work with different ministries and explore ways to use events to reach into our community to invite people onto our campus, provide them with info regarding Union and to invite them back.
• I have formed a “kitchen cabinet” made up of the following leaders:  Ernie Shields, Charlie Fulton, Gayle Bradberry, Terry Kelso, Leigh Anne Bussey and will be leading them through a study of the 5 Practices of Fruitful Congregation.
• We will then roll 5 Practices of a Fruitful Congregation out to the entire congregation.
• I have devoted this year to building enthusiasm, empowering, and training our congregation to be outreach ministers.  (this does not necessarily mean knocking on strangers doors) but it does include Radical Hospitality, Passionate worship, Intentional Faith Development, Risk Taking Mission and Service, and Extravagant Generosity.  
• In 2013, Focus on the Five Practices will be a congregation wide initiative.
• We are going to place an emphasis on prayer for our church and our community.  This process must be bathed in prayer.

I know this is a great deal of info to put out to you at once.  Please understand that this will be a process and we will roll it out to the congregation a little bit at a time.  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to drop me an e-mail, call me, or come by my office.  I would welcome any opportunity to talk individually about this next year. 

Not many years ago, all the outreach and responsibility for church growth was placed upon the pastor.  This idea has evolved and has been found to be more effective in the congregation becoming the ministers of the church.  Just by the simple law of multiplication, 100 people can touch thousands of more people than just one pastor.  I am committed to giving you the resources, the training, the encouragement and the empowerment needed to become Ambassadors of Christ and Union.

God Bless,

John

In order to be a leader, a man must have followers. And to have followers, a man must have their confidence. Hence, the supreme quality for a leader is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army or in an office. If a man’s associates find him guilty of phoniness, if they find that he lacks forthright integrity, he will fail. His teachings and actions must square with each other. The first great need, therefore, is integrity and high purpose.
– Dwight Eisenhower

I’ve just returned from the Congregational Development Conference in St. Louis and my head is just about to bust with all the new thoughts running through it.  So, in the next several weeks, I’m going to try and unpack some of the things that are bouncing around up there. 

Believe it or not, 90% of all United Methodist Churches are either plateaued or declining.  Less than 10% of our churches are growing more than 5% in worship attendance each year.  Why is that?  I’m sure there are many reasons but one of the main reasons is that most of these churches are Preference Centered rather than Purpose Centered.  Here is a list of what the two types of churches look like…

PREFERENCE CENTERED

• Most every decision made is made on the preferences on a small group of folks who have the political clout to get their way.
• In an on-going predictable cycle of conflict
• Have “winners” and “losers”
• If you are a part of a church that has an ongoing conflict, the church is very preference driven. 
• Focus on the comfort and preference of the members rather than the Kingdom.

PURPOSE CENTERED

• Most every decision is made on our best, most prayerful, thoughtful discernment driven by asking “How do we best live out the mission of Christ?”
• These churches tend to be collaborative
• The best thinking gets on the table, prayed over and then go in the best direction
• Not about anyone getting their way.  It’s about discovering the best way (God’s Way)
• Has an open and safe environment to put the best ideas on the table
• Is developing a special maturity to remain focused on the purpose of the church.

So, take a look at your church.  Is it Preference Centered or Purpose Centered?

Healthy pastors lead healthy churches.

10 Keys to Being a Healthy Pastor.