Moving at the Speed of God

In the first blog of this series, I spoke about the crossroad that many churches find themselves at, a crossroad that requires many churches to examine their fundamental approach to meeting the needs of a quickly changing congregation and society.

As a society, we are very wary and afraid of change. We become accustomed to the way life unfolds for us, get into comfortable routines and look down our noses at anything that disrupts the easy flow of our lives. We schedule our time to maximize its use and fall into complete panic when elements of our planning go awry. We become accustomed to the tools and aids at our disposal and dismiss anything different as not robust enough to meet our needs. The only time we openly accept change is when it makes life easier or more comfortable for us. For many of us, the only way we tackle difficult change is to have it forced on us. With no choice and as an unwilling participant, we struggle to find the flaws in whatever is being thrust upon us. The passage of time is often the only cure for our hesitation and fear, as change becomes routine and a new pattern of life is born.

I have witnessed and been a part of a number of efforts in our church over the last few years to change our focus, all in the name of making the church more effective. About three years ago, the US Army started announcing plans for huge troop realignments across the country, with a large number of troops moving from Fort Hood to Fort Carson. Thousands of people would be arriving in the area and we decided that we needed to be prepared to welcome these troops and their families to our church. After all, we have a number of active and retired military families already worshipping with us. What church could be better suited for these families than us?

Let me take a couple of minutes to describe our church to you. It is a Southern Baptist Church located in a conservative town just south of Colorado Springs and its location away from the major throughways makes it physically invisible to most who live in and travel through the area. The church was founded about 45 years ago and is still attended by a number of the charter members. The largest demographic of the church can be described as retired. The next largest group of folks would be described as parents under the age of 35 and their young children, many of them active military. We are blessed that the younger crowd respects the elder crowd and the elder crowd appreciates the younger one (to an extent). The generational challenges of leading a church with such varying demographics are daunting and the decisions made can cause strife. The physical facility is nice and in good physical condition, but in need of some updating. We are not a rich church financially, but very wealthy in terms of faith and belief. In short, it is a church like many others.

So, back to the influx of troops. As church leaders, many of us started looking at how we could modify our programs to reach out to these families. There stated being talk about taking some of our ministries directly on post. We did some holiday advertising in the post newspapers, convinced that folks would flock to us in response to it. We had church material included in the Welcome Packs they received. We were doing everything we could to draw attention. All we had to do was sit back and wait for them to find us. And so we did. Sit back, that is.

This ended up being a very discouraging time for the church. Due to war in Iraq, troop deployments were delayed. Church attendance started to decline, giving was down and frustration took up residence. As a part of getting ready for the troops, we had examined many of the current efforts of the church. We were asking ourselves if we were doing things because they came up on the calendar every year or if we were doing them because they were important to the church. Some were poorly attended and the decision was made to "retire" activities that didn't seem important enough to continue. Despite clear and frequent communication with the church family, these decisions upset segments of the church family and rifts started to appear in the congregation. Rumblings that the "young folks" were trying to take over the church permeated the building. Casual conversations about the feasible longevity of the church were happening. I even participated in a discussion one evening of a potential church split over the generational differences that were starting to appear. But the troops never did come.

We were experiencing a low point in the church. So, we did what any good church would do and went to God for the answers. The leaders prayed and the pastor preached about the need for prayer and hope. And somewhere along the line we started to understand where we strayed. I say this because God had a surprising answer to our prayers. I don't claim to have heard the voice of God itself, but I believe this is what he was telling us:

"Oh, faithful and loving children of My Church. For many months, you have toiled and prepared for the arrival of a new harvest field. You have made plans to watch over and lead a new flock. Your dedication to this is noteworthy, but I have a question: what makes the new flock so much more important than the old one? For I have already provided you with a bountiful harvest field, one that has been ignored and not cared for. It withers to its very roots because you are preparing the empty fields for the next season. Take heed and harvest the fields I have prepared for you, for in those fields are the answers to your prayers."

In our rush to prepare for a group of people that had never seen the city of Fountain, we had completely ignored the needs of the people living in the city of Fountain. God was telling us that the harvest we were preparing for was not the one he had prepared for us. Unknowingly, we were trying to get a step ahead of God and provide the harvest. We forgot:

"Then He said to His disciples: "The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest."" Matthew 9:37-38

While we wanted to give God the glory of bringing people to know Him, we ignored the indisputable fact that it is God who decides where He wants us to find those people, as it is His harvest and not ours.

This message was slow to gain momentum at the church. One by one, ministry leaders started to refocus their energies to areas of the community that we had neglected. It was a slow and painful transition, because not everyone was able to see the error of our ways at the same time. Some thought that we needed to continue focusing our efforts on the military. For a few months, the same generational splits we were seeing continued to grow, but for different reasons now. Instead of an older generation being upset by the changes being put in place, we now had a younger generation upset by the change in focus to a group of people they were not familiar with.

The changes that we made to programs in anticipation of the troops were now used to interest neighbors and fellow townsmen. New ministries started popping up and some of the old ministries that had been neglected and put aside were once again thriving and growing. The community still may not have known where the church was located, but they were quickly coming to know and remember the name as "that church" that was providing programs and services to the community. People of all ages were coming alongside each other to serve in ways that we never experienced before. The energy and excitement was palpable. Attendance started to rise. We were starting to see new families just about every week, many of which were military families. The splits within the church slowly started to heal. By focusing our time and energy in the areas the God intended for us, prayers were answered and blessings received and nobody could deny the wonderful work that God was performing in the church.

This is a classic example of how churches can get lost by trying to get out ahead of God, instead of following God's lead. With the very best of intentions, churches can lose sight of the possibilities that exist just outside their property line. God had a very specific plan for our church- evangelize your community and be a beacon of hope to our neighbors and friends. We still have a lot of work to do to really glorify God and the list of programs we would like to put in place grows by the day. But we have learned not to rush any of it. He will show us the way and give us the timetable. We will move at the speed of God.

The Heart of the Matter

"For as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body- so also is Christ." 1 Corinthians 12:12

As church leaders, we can often find ourselves thrilled beyond words when we hear about a church member's hidden or unknown talents. Knowledge of a hidden musical talent or previous teaching experience conjures up visions of new ministry ideas. We thank God for the gift he has provided us. We can even be so bold as to approach folks, telling them of the great places we seeing them serve and how great an addition they will be to the ministry efforts of the church. After all, most folks just need a little encouragement. Or do they?

I have the experience of serving at my church in a variety of roles over the last six years. My first position at the church was as church organist. For those of you that don't know, I am a professionally trained musician and for many of my teen and young adult years I was known as such. For all those years, my life revolved around music. But as the years rolled along, it became less practical and a smaller and smaller part of my life. As a result, I allowed the gift that God had blessed me with to deteriorate and become a relic of my past. Imagine my surprise when I was approached all those years later by a member of the church who told me that I would be a wonderful addition to the Music Ministry in our church. Over the next couple of months, the nudging became a little more energetic and I ultimately agreed to take position. After all, I'd be serving the church and doing my part for the ministry. I was reliable and was there every Sunday, faithfully playing away. I took on additional responsibilities in the church, and before too long I was involved in number of different ministries, many of these positions I was approached about because of the "great fit" I would be. From the outside, I appeared to be an energetic and faithful servant of the church. It's too bad that the inside had a different look.

Over time, the music became a chore. My gift had declined to the point that I was embarrassed by what I was not able to do anymore, despite the many compliments I received about my work. But I persevered, because I figured that at some point God would step in and show me the way to fulfillment. So I played, and played, and played, and played… The one thing that had once represented the single biggest joy in life had turned into my biggest discouragement. I kept plugging along because I was now engrained in the ministry and it had become an obligation to me. Instead of relishing the thought of playing the next hymn, I was looking at the bulletin and calculating how much longer I had until my service was done for the day. Toward the end, I was finding that I wasn't feeling "well" enough to make it to church some Sundays. I started making excuses to avoid projects and committees- too much work, the need for family time, just too tired after a busy week, etc. For those of you familiar with the symptoms, its true- I was burning out. Unfortunately, I was oblivious to the signs for months and just plodded along. By the time I saw what was going on, it was too late.

Many times, we find ourselves in a position where the tasks being performed are mundane, unchallenging and personally unrewarding. For many people, you have to look no farther than their job or career to find this pattern. Many people look at their job as nothing more than a paycheck to survive on. They may demonstrate some level of enthusiasm at work and do everything asked of them. However, if asked outside the workplace they willingly admit that the job holds little joy and that there is no sense of true accomplishment. It is just a part of the routine, because their heart is not in it.

My problem was that I allowed this attitude to extend to my faith. Because my heart was never in it, I allowed myself to make it mundane and routine. My "paycheck" was the misguided notion that I was honoring God by simply serving in His church. As I said, all outward signs would indicate that I was a joyful servant. The truth is that I was rotting a little bit on the inside, because my service had become an unrewarding burden that outweighed any spiritual joy I was experiencing. I started to drift away from my church.

After we lost my wife's dad to cancer late last year, we found ourselves dealing with a spiritual unsettledness. We felt it was big enough to merit a voyage to find a new church. Our hope was that we would be able to rekindle the fire and reconnect with God. The discussion between my wife and I became the focal point of our conversations over a few nights. We prayerfully considered our options and decided to go church shopping. We let our pastor know our decision and that it had nothing to do with the church itself. We were not angry or discouraged about any element of the church or its family. We felt God leading on this journey and we were bound to take it. And within an hour of leaving the church that evening, we realized that we had made a huge mistake. That was our church and God had placed us there for a reason. We just hadn't figured out what that reason was.

Despite knowing that we would end up back at our original church, we elected to go on the journey anyway. We hoped to prove that we were moving in the wrong direction. We knew that we would have the very same doubts six months down the road if we didn't make the trip. More importantly for me, I was looking forward to going to a church where I could just sit and worship, a church where there was no pressure to serve. My burnout had progressed to the point where I was convinced that I would never serve in a church again. I wanted to know what that felt like.

If I were to end the story here, it would be a sad and depressing story of a man who lost his way and that was so disillusioned with church that he would be ineffective at best. But I can't end it here, because God is involved and He was far from done with me.

After a seven week sabbatical, we made the decision to rejoin our church family. Unbeknownst to everyone but me, I had been praying. I was asking God to show me what a truly effective service life for me would consist of. Through those prayers, I found myself going back to the same point- service for the sake of service was not what God commands us to do. I had to search my heart to find those special gifts that God was telling me to use. There was no way that I could go back and not serve. I simply knew that my service life would have to change if I were to truly glorify God.

About a week before our return, I eagerly emailed our Pastor, Associate Pastor and Chairman of Deacons to let them know that we would be back. The email outlined many of the blessings we had rediscovered about our church and that we were so excited to get back. I went on and on about how God had blessed us with a wonderful church that we were crazy to leave in the first place. But then the tone changed a little as I went on to describe the lessons I had learned about serving in the church. I told them all that I was eager to jump back in and start serving again, but that my service would have to look a lot different than it had previously. In order to glorify God, I had to do a better job of choosing the ministries I would serve in. While I never mentioned it in the email, I had already decided to resign from my role as organist and focus my energy on the Sunday School ministry, which I had lead for a number of years. True discipleship was the ministry that God was leading me to.

And so on that following Sunday, my wife and I made our return. There were many hugs and "welcome backs" and life was good. We knew we were home and nothing was going to tear us away from our church. We comfortably settled back into our routine. Part of that routine for me includes showing up at the church on Wednesday nights. We have strong children's ministries on Wednesdays, but not a lot of adult participation. As a result, Wednesday evenings had become a time for my pastor and I to talk about the many things going on at the church- not a gossip session, but more of a brainstorming session to tackle problems, celebrate blessings and expand the role of the church in the community. On this night, Pastor took the time to catch me up on the things that had transpired in our absence and I took the time to tell him of the fire that had rekindled in my soul. And we both ended up catching each other off guard in the process.

As we were talking, he told me that there was need to name a new Sunday School Director (my old role) to address some issues that had come up while we were gone. The reasons he laid out for me made perfect sense and the person he had put in place was an outstanding selection. I felt like I had been punched in the gut, because I had really come to the conclusion that it was the one area of the church where I could serve and lead with my heart. My pastor then went on to ask me where I wanted to serve and that he was sure that the Music Ministry was one of those areas. Imagine his surprise when I told him that that was the one ministry that I knew I would be putting aside. I explained that it had become an obligation instead of service from the heart. And while he understood what I was saying, I could see that it was the one answer he was not expecting from me. Without explaining that he had pulled the carpet out from under me by replacing me in the Sunday School ministry, I told him that I needed more time to figure out where God was leading me to serve.

A week later, we sat down and a discussion began. We had both been praying about where I would fit in. Pastor started by laying out a vision for me that had come to him, one where I would not lead Sunday School, but all of the discipleship ministries in the church. I would become not a dictator of methodology, but a central clearinghouse to assist the many talented ministry leaders with their discipleship programs. As he spoke, the smile on my face grew bigger and bigger. It wasn't a case of approving of the expanded role of my position. The words coming out of his mouth went directly from my ears to my heart. You see, a few years ago I had a pipedream of where my service could eventually lead in the church. As I sat there listening to my pastor speak, I was hearing that dream being vocalized for the first time. And for the first time a long, long time I was excited.

Here I sit four months later, putting all of this on the computer. I have been serving as Discipleship Director during that time and the experience has been so rewarding. My time commitment to the church has expanded by a factor of three, and yet I find myself energized and eager to do even more. The balance of work, family and faith is better than it has been at any point in my life. I have people coming to me almost every Sunday morning with ideas and plans to expand the ministry efforts of the church. In short, I'm living the dream and loving it.

Most of the lessons learned here are pretty obvious. My newfound excitement comes from serving from the heart, instead of trying to please people. I am putting skills to use that God intended me to use in service to Him. As a church leader, the lessons are even more profound. While I continue to let people know of our ministry needs, I do it to see if interests exist, not to create the interest. I never tell someone how well they would fit a particular role in the church. I pray for individuals to serve, but my prayers are for God to put a ministry on their heart instead of praying for them to serve in a particular role.

As the church transforms itself into the 21^st century church, we need to pay great attention to these lessons. We need to equip ourselves with people who are serving from the heart. The church gives God more glory by doing without ministries than offering a multitude of programs that are staffed with people who are doing it out of obligation. And as we go out to minister to the world, the enthusiasm that comes from true service will always be more appealing than a bunch of programs run by robots. We have to get out of the way and let God staff our ministries.

Standing at the Crossroads

Crossroads

In the life of any church, intersections in the spiritual road appear. Many times, these crossroads require the church to choose paths that do not converge at the other end, but lead to different destinations. Churches struggle to make what they believe to be the proper decision, knowing that whichever road is chosen will have a profound impact on the future of the church.

However, both roads can often lead to the same place, where one path meanders and slowly winds to the end while the other takes a more direct route to the final destination. Sometimes, the "scenic" route allows us time to reflect on the beauty and magnificence of everything God provides for us, while the more direct route forces us to focus on the task at hand. There is rarely a "bad" choice when both paths lead to the same place. It becomes a matter of deciding whether timeliness is essential to the task at hand. In either case, God has provided us with the free will to decide which road will be taken.

As a church body, there are pitfalls involved in haphazardly choosing one road over the other. More importantly, the body itself can be harmed if church leadership individually chooses different paths without any clear overarching vision for growth and prosperity. While the end goal may be the same, taking different approaches in reaching that goal can lead to confusion, hurt feelings and an inability as a church to reach the final destination. Success is based on the essential elements of having a united vision to move forward and choosing the same path for all aspects of the ministry.

However, there is another decision that a church can make. Many times, the easiest choice is to simply stand in place, therefore negating the need to make a choice of direction. The decision that is made is to stick with the status quo- "if it's working for us now, it will meet our needs for the immediate future." In previous generations, this would have been an acceptable approach, as lifestyles and spiritual needs evolved at a much slower pace. Communities were more self-reliant and isolated because the technology of the day was not as robust as it is today. Values and morals were consistent because the standard was based on faith and tradition, not on influences or trends originating halfway around the world.

We now live in an "always on" society, where public opinions can change from day to day and the influences on our lives can come from any corner of the globe. We see a move towards the secular and away from the sacred. Political correctness has replaced societal morality as the measure of social acceptance. Separation of Church and State has devolved into Denial of Church by State. Today's church has to demonstrate the ability to overcome society, instead of simply fitting into society. More importantly, church leadership must demonstrate the vision and courage to take the church to a place where it positively influences society and changes lives.

The Struggle against Modern Society

As I reflect on my fifty years of life, I am often blown away by the myriad of changes society has undergone in that time. I grew up in rural New England in a middle class family, living in what we thought to be a big village of about 8,000 people. Locking the front door at night was optional. My mother's challenge was not figuring how to get us out into fresh air, but how to get us inside for dinner and bedtime. Our choices on the one television in the house consisted of the 3 or 4 grainy channels (depending on how strong the wind was blowing) we were able to pick up from the Albany, NY region. To this day, I can name almost every family that lived within a two block radius of our house, and they knew me as one of the Stephenson boys (if not by full name). The only businesses open on Sunday were the few restaurants that served breakfast and lunch. The only computer in my high school was one that was rolled out by the Science Department at the annual Science Fair- it was the size of a bar refrigerator and ran off punch cards (I still don't know what it actually did, but it looked real cool).

Fast forward to today. I lock my house tighter than a drum, not only to protect my family from the unknown threats in our lives, but to also deter some of the people we know and love from making bad decisions. I am thrilled beyond words when one of the kids announces that they want to play a sport, because I know it means that they will get some form of physical activity and fresh air. I stopped counting at 100 channels when trying to figure out the television options available on any one of the half dozen TV's in the house. I've lived in this house for over eight years and can name most of my immediate neighbors, but can't tell you the name of the family living directly across the street (let alone anybody living even a few houses down the street). Any hour of any day, I can now find a multitude of businesses open to provide me with anything my heart desires. And we have almost as many computers as televisions in the house that allow us to work and play in ways that used to be the things of science fiction movies.

Let me make it very clear that I am not saying that life was better then or now because of the things I've listed here. Life has changed. I grew up in a much simpler time and now enjoy a much more convenient lifestyle. I have thanked God on more than one occasion because I was able to get medicine at 11:00 in the evening to help fight a sudden fever with one of the kids. The ability to follow my beloved Red Sox and Celtics from more than halfway across the country is one of my special pleasures. I am better connected to friends and family now than at any time in the last twenty years thanks to the wonders of the internet. But there is a part of me that wishes for a blend of the two lifestyles- a blend that takes of advantage of today's conveniences while returning to a value system based in scriptural foundation and where God is loved and not loathed.

The problem with my dream for a more spiritual society is that the very conveniences I have described are what get in the way for many people. Who needs God when everything a person could desire is at their fingertips? The answer, of course, is that everybody needs God. Nothing we have is the result of man by himself. Everything we have is the result of God's love for us. He provides the computers and internet, the cell phones and cable channels, Wal-Mart and McDonalds. But for many, it is easy to lose that perspective because it all comes so easily to us in today's society. Why would I consider myself a broken sinner in need of a savior when all I have to do is push a couple of buttons to see the latest episode of "Desperate Housewives?" We have it all. Or so we think.

A Return to Faith

Growing up in the sixties and early seventies, everyone went to church, if for no other reason than you didn't want to be known as "that family" that didn't. This is not to say that I am a proponent of forced worship, but to this day I am convinced that the mere existence of church as a staple of life contributed to the higher moral standards we were exposed to as kids and teenagers. However, the Church of that generation was able to serve the community-at-large in a much different way than it does today. The memory I have of church in that era is one of great bible stories. I remember that through my teens, I was exposed to some of the greatest biblical teaching around. I knew the books of the Bible. As I look back, it was very fitting for the times. However, if I were to ask for a "do-over" in preparation for my life today, I would most certainly demand more life application of those stories.

There was nothing wrong with the church upbringing I had. Because everyone went to church, there was no need to convince anyone that there was a real life need to apply the Holy Word to their lives in a way that had completely escaped them. The problem (as I see it) is that life became more convenient and society changed, but the church didn't. Or at least it didn't change quickly enough.

Many of us have seen the numbers. At a business meeting of the local Southern Baptist Association a couple of years ago, our Director of Missions stated that in the mid-70's, over 75% of the people in the Pikes Peak region regularly attended church. Today, on any given Sunday there are 500,000 people in the same region that do not attend church. Professional football and car racing are more important to most than the need to reach out to God. Churches now find it important to find ways to draw people in and even more vital to show them how the teachings of the Bible apply to their modern life. What was so obvious and easy thirty years ago has become a daunting challenge for today's Church. Many churches now stand at the crossroad of discovering how they can be more effective.

There is Hope in the Crossroads

The Bible teaches us that the battle is far from over and that the best is yet to come for those who believe. My personal observation is that a younger generation is finding their way back to faith and God. This younger generation is one that doesn't remember a simpler lifestyle. Life has always been "always on" for them. And yet they show up at churches, hungry for God and looking for ways to build their faith into their lives. They bring their young children and an enthusiasm that somehow skipped my generation. But they bring new needs to the church. This is a generation that is media-centric and technology-savvy. They require more energy in worshipping God and focus less on tradition for the sake of tradition. In short, they are the first generation to seek life application to show the way through a very hectic and chaotic life of conveniences.

For many churches, this is a crucial crossroad. How can a church blend the need to be relevant in today's society with the church upbringing of an older congregation? How does a church cross generational lines without offending one or not meeting the spiritual needs of another? The answers to these questions are actually quite simple. It falls upon church leadership to bring the flock along at a pace that soothes the anxiety of the older generation while showing the younger generation that their needs are recognized and being addressed. Churches can be too quick to change without realizing that the younger crowd started attending services and programs before any changed occurred- they are there for a reason. Finding a comfortable transition can be lot easier than people realize. Through thoughtful prayer and dialog, picking the right path becomes as easy as placing it all in God's hands.