Dear Pastor,

I'm not jealous of you or your church. Yes, I am one of the many little churches in your shadow, but that doesn't bother me. There are many good reasons that your church has grown to the size that it is. I'm glad that you are reaching people. I'm glad that so many people are worshiping there and that people are coming to know Jesus because of your ministry. There are many things you do right and that you do well, and I know there's a lot I could learn from you.

But there's one thing you may not know. You may not even be aware. Your people are coming to me for pastoral care. No, they are not leaving your church. They still attend your church; they are still members at your church; they still give their time, talents, money and loyalty to your church.

But they come to me when they need a pastor. When they need a wedding. They call me, or more often they just drop by and ask in person.

When they need a funeral, they call me.

When they need a special service like a baby dedication, or a baptism, or even a quinceañera, they call me.

When their marriage is in crisis, when their children rebel, when they are depressed or just don't know where else to turn, they come see me.

There are two major reasons for this. (I know because I ask, "Why not go to your own pastor and your own church?")

1- Because I am available. They can just drop in and see me. And if I happen to not be available that particular day, they'll be able to see me within a day or two. I know that you may be available too, but at the very least, you are perceived as being unavailable. In most cases, they assume you are too busy and come see me first. Other times, they don't know you, so seeing me is no different than seeing you, since neither one of us knows them personally. Again, the difference, is that I'm available. I also know that you have many pastors on staff that could be available to them. But for whatever reason, your people don't go to them. (I think because the average layperson doesn't see them as "real pastors", though you and I know this is a misconception.) They come to me.

2- Your sanctuary is too big or too modern. They love your church. They attend your church every week and love the services and they love your preaching and they love the music and they love all the programs your church has to offer. But when they need a place for a funeral or a wedding, or a quinceañera, the 100 or less people they are going to have attend would be dwarfed in your sanctuary. They need a small church atmosphere for their service. And yes, rightly or wrongly, they want it to feel like a "church" for those services that are important milestones in their lives.

Pastor, will you please let me offer some suggestions:

1- Be available. I know you are busy. I also know that if you spent all your time doing counseling, weddings and funerals, you wouldn't be able to do all that God has called you to do. Therefore, you need to publish the times you are available. Let people know when they can see you. Say it from the pulpit. Make them feel like you care about them as individuals and then follow through, as much as you are able.

2- Have a good pastoral staff. Make sure there is a pastor, an actual ordained minister, assigned to every member of the church. (One per every 100 members ought to do it.) That pastor should know who his people are, and they should know who he is. He should contact them regularly, so that when the crisis time comes and they need him, there is already a relationship. This pastor should be available for weddings, funerals, hospital visits and pastoral counseling. In short, he should actually do for them what an actual pastor does.

3- Build a chapel. You have a large building. Probably you have multiple buildings on a campus. On your next building project, include a small chapel that seats 150-200 people. Make it look like a chapel. Let people book it like crazy. Make its use available to your people.

Now, here's where I have to make sure I'm not being too fleshly in my letter to you. I'm tired of pastoring your people for you. Don't get me wrong. I love your people. I love pastoring them. And the pastor in me loves the opportunity. But you are not doing your job and I think its hurting your people. They need to be able to count on you and your church, or what are you doing? If you really have a pastor's heart, and I believe you do, I thought that you would want to know that a lot of your sheep are having to go elsewhere to have their needs met. One of my mentors in ministry, a very wise pastor who did nothing but pastor small, hurting churches that needed him for 40 years, said this, "If you are not there when they need you, they don't need you."

I want you to know that I try the best that I can. I try to redirect them back to you. Sometimes I'll even downright refuse to help them, because I'm not their pastor. But most of the time, I do that wedding or that funeral. Most of the time I do the crisis counseling when someone's spouse cheats, or when someone is in the hospital. I do it because even if they aren't my sheep, they are Jesus' sheep and they asked. I do it because I hope that you would do the same for my sheep if I were somehow unable.

But it's a widespread problem. I have someone come to me for help from your church at least once a month, and I have someone come to me from one of the other megachurches other than yours once a week. I know you are busy, but so am I. You would help me be more effective as a pastor to the sheep God has called me to, if you would be more effective as a pastor to the sheep God has called you to.

I'd send you this note personally via snailmail or email, but I'm pretty sure it would never make it past one of your staff members to your desk. I'll try anyway...

Here's my final request, from one pastor to another. Please pastor the people God has given you. And if you can't or won't, please send some of your sheep to my church. I'd love to have them.

If you're heading to the Together 4 the Gospel 2010 Conference in Louisville, KY next month, I hope you will make room in your schedule to join the Band of Bloggers for their annual symposium and luncheon.

The panelists this year are Jon McIntosh, Justin Taylor, Trevin Wax, and myself, speaking on the subject of Internet Idolatry & Gospel Fidelity. A mere $25 gets you lunch, quality speaking, Q&A and discussion with the panel, and a stack of books. Quite a deal, I'd say. :-)

Details:

“Internet Idolatry and Gospel Fidelity”
2010 Band of Bloggers Fellowship
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 :: 11:00am
The Galt House, Downtown Louisville, KY
(in conjunction with Together for the Gospel)

I don't know why, but I received an advertisement in the mail from a megachurch about 200 miles away. They're apparently celebrating the "grand opening" of a new facility.

According to the mailer, here's what you'll find at their church:

- Real direction for people on a real journey
- Non-judgmental atmosphere
- Environments that are relevant, enjoyable, and meaningful
- Small groups to develop meaningful friendships

I love songs based on Scripture. We'll be worshiping to this one Sunday in our College and Young Singles group.

Here are a few of my photos from World Mandate:

Once again I have the privilege this year of photographing my church's annual missions conference, World Mandate.

World Mandate, which is happening this coming weekend, convenes at the Ferrel Center in Waco every year. So if you're in the area, feel free to drop by. You might even meet your future spouse there (I met my wife at World Mandate in 1995 :-).

Let me lay my cards on the table:

1) If you put overturning Roe v. Wade to a popular vote, I'm in line early ready to vote in favor of protecting the near half a million unborn babies killed each year, and if you're a politician, the best way to lose my vote is to align with the pro-choice agenda.
2) Nevertheless, I don't believe laws -- or the protests and petitions and politicking that seek to achieve them -- are how we are going to eradicate abortion.

The emancipation of the slaves was necessary. But it didn't end racism.

I am not proposing an either/or. What I'm proposing is that evangelicals take the harder route, adopt the harder cause, that we aim for Spiritual change of hearts more than we aim for legal stay of hands.

Here are some thoughts on how we may do this:

1. Gospel-centered preaching. You knew I was going to go there. :-) Here's the thing: Pastors who preach culture war receive Amens from the already convinced and almost nothing from everybody else. At its worst a steady dose of this creates an unhealthy "us vs. them" mentality that has us thinking of our enemies in ways the Sermon on the Mount strictly forbids. But pastors who proclaim the freedom from sin and abundant life in Christ lay groundwork for zeal for life, not just for winning political battles. A gospel-driven pro-life agenda means hating abortion because we love women and we love the unborn. That sounds like a no-brainer but so many of our evangelical countrymen just sound like they hate abortion. And preaching isn't just for pastors. In general, more evangelicals need to talk Jesus more than they talk politics, or else we unintentionally communicate that our greatest treasure is "getting our country back" and that our chief message is political. We are great with the good news of the kingdom of the founding fathers. Let's return to the good news of the kingdom of God.

2. Reframing the abortion discussion. Lots of others have said this better than I can, but I think we've dropped the ball on how we frame the abortion issue. It is a matter of human rights, which is a perspective I first heard from my deeply pro-life friend who voted for Barack Obama. (I know, figure that one out.) But this is how we will best win in the political arena, I think. In many cases, this involves merely shifting from arguing against selfish moms (or whatever) and arguing for an appropriate definition of when life begins and becoming advocates for the voiceless unborn, exploited and commoditized. We can steer the discussion into the same rhetoric of the abolitionist and civil rights movements and end up stirring more hearts, I think.

3. Creating cultures of adoption and rescue. Human trafficking is the emerging danger. It's been going for a long time, but the Church is recently (and awesomely) stepping up efforts to combat it, even here in America. My friend Justin Holcomb and his wife lead efforts of Mars Hill Church in Seattle to rescue sex workers, sex abuse victims, and runaways in their city. Others are working hard to rescue young girls from the sex trade. On the other front, the Church is exponentially embracing the beauty of adoption. It has become a bona fide movement, thank God. The reactive culture of rhetoric and protests must give way to these proactive missionary movements. We will begin changing hearts and minds on these matters of life and death as we create cultures of adoption and rescue. But only communities can create cultures, so churches have to buy in corporately. More families adopting, more families serving and taking in pregnant teens, more churches helping families do those things, more churches loving families and kids, more churches finding ways to minister to the exploited and marginalized and to support missions and organizations that already are . . . these are the pro-active, missional steps to creating truly pro-life cultures.

4. Prophets, not pundits. I don't know how else to put this. We need an MLK for the pro-life movement, a unifying and prophetic voice. We need intellectually strong but charming, powerful, winsome statesmen. We need people who aren't just jockeying for time on FoxNews. I don't even know if this is possible today, given the nature of media exposure and the divide between political parties -- whites and blacks, Democrats and Republicans marched with King; I wonder if we haven't so aligned the pro-life cause with conservative Republicanism that that kind of unity would be impossible for our cause -- but we need a peacemaker with a powerful voice. The only guy I can think of who has access to black, white, right, left, Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal, Christian and non, U.S., European, and everywhere else -- and has the respect and listening ear of them all -- is Bono. And I think he's probably pro-choice.

5. Technology, technology, technology. Do you know why the abortion rate is going down? I think it's the increasing advances in technology, particularly ultrasound technology. Women are seeing their babies. Technology is catching up with abortion. Smart churches will support their local crisis pregnancy centers, which are often frontlines on the struggle for the unborn, and help them get ultrasound equipment. No, they're not cheap. But life isn't either.

6. Love. I'm coming full circle, here, but if we were to outlaw abortion tomorrow, we'd still have 500,000 women a year who didn't want their babies. You have probably already had unwed teenage girls get pregnant in your church, and if you haven't you probably will at some point, and besides all that, there are plenty in your community and city. Before and in addition to removing abortion as a legal option for them, we have to love them, welcome them, teach them, serve them. Only the love of God can change hearts. Let that be the ammunition of our war.

(Cross-posted at Gospel-Driven Church)

You don't need me to rehearse the devastation. Haiti is, for all intents and purposes, destroyed.

We have some in our church who have done mission work over the years in Haiti. A nurse who has done medical missions there was recalling large swaths of land void of trees. The poverty is so deep there, they have gone through the vegetation for fuel. The hunger is so desperate there, they have eaten all the birds.

She said there are no songbirds in Haiti, because they've cut down all the trees and eaten all the birds. That is as vivid a picture of the poverty in Haiti as I've heard.

It is materially true, but it is a threat of spiritual truth. Where is the hope in Haiti? How can the trees cry out if there are none? Who will speak into the hopelessness? Who will be the light in the darkness?

The Church will. As she always has. And as she always will. The Church was in Haiti before the earthquake, and the Church will still be there, long after Haiti has dropped off CNN's radar, long after it has conversationally dried up around the international water cooler.

The Church is still in Indonesia, rebuilding after the tsunami. The Church is still in Louisiana and Mississippi, rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. The Church is still in El Salvador after their earthquake. Still in Texas after Hurricane Ike. Still in the furthest reaches of the world.

The Church will be there because the omnipresent God is the one true God and his Son Jesus stands over the earth.

The people of God's missional Church will be the songbirds of Haiti, singing with hearts and hands of love the glory of God into and over that land.

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."
-- Romans 8:15

I hadn't realized this, really, until a couple of years ago, but the church traditions I grew up in dealt heavily in dispensing spirits of fear. I felt an aversion to a lot of what I experienced -- although not to the core doctrine I was taught, which was all solid -- all through my adolescence, but it took me into my thirties to put a label on it: the spirit of fear.

The revivalistic invitationalism reduced the gospel to a bet-hedging spin on Pascal's Wager, hinging on the weekly intonation of "If you were to die on your way home tonight, would you go to heaven?"

It's a great question. It's a valid question. But in the context of the spirit of fear, it didn't just create a tremble at the thought of hell, but a tenuousness in our thinking of salvation. (Was I ever really sure? Maybe I should say the prayer again or rededicate.)

The list of things to be afraid of began when I was young and did not relent.

- The inherent witchcraft in the practice of trick-or-treating or any other recognition of Halloween.

- The New Age infiltration of everything from He-Man action figures to rainbow stickers.

- Nuclear war, which Gog (or Magog -- I can't remember which) was going to wage on us, according to prophecy.

- Catholics.

- Calvinists.

- Basically any non-Baptists.

- People who drink beer.

- Demon stories told by youth leaders at camp.

- Skits about car crashes.

- Youth camp games like Underground Church, which involved "pretend torture," and Sheep and Goats, which involved simulating a mass disaster and sending certain church youth groups to "hell."

- Satanism.

- Backmasking in rock and roll music.

- People and places and works to boycott and/or protest.

- The rapture.

That last one really did me in. The original "left behind" movies (A Thief in the Night and those other classics of 70's Christian cinema) had me so in fear of being left behind, I had ongoing nightmares. I was twelve years old and had to sleep on the floor of my parents' bedroom. I ended up getting saved and baptized again.

I'm a neurotic guy anyway and was plagued with a natural lack of self-confidence. This stuff really messed me up.

Yet I'm not mad about it. I get angry sometimes about the stuff itself, and the spirit that gives rise to it. But I know when pastors and churches deal in this kind of stuff, they basically mean well. There are subtle issues of control and power going on in there, but I know a lot of this stuff was meant to move people to Jesus. And yet the damage it does along the way can leave scars that remain long past salvation. This is not the sort of confidence gospel wakefulness is meant to create in the born again.

I know all my pastors and Sunday School teachers and church leaders loved me. They cared about my soul. But they made me a very frightened, timid, powerless believer. And I was ill equipped for real life, because I had been given the spirit of fear.

Thankfully evangelicalism seems pretty much "over" a lot of this stuff. But we peddle in new fears, and it grieves me. What are we afraid of now?

- That liberals will take God out of America. (As if that was possible.)

- That Democrats will pass bad laws.

- That stores will say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas."

There's a lot more, and most of them are of the culture war variety. Politics and social concerns. You may think these are all valid issues, and some of them are, but the way they grip the evangelical's attention and the way they drive him and her into anxiety, preoccupation, anger, obsession are all evidences of the spirit of fear.

The difference maker is this: Is God sovereign or not? Is Jesus risen and now sitting on the throne or not? If so: Relax.

I know all the fear-spirit peddlers usually mean well. But an imperfect love, even though love, is not the perfect love of Christ which drives out fear. If God is for me in Christ, who can be against me? What shall I fear?

Nobody. Nothing.

(And by the way, it really confuses (and sometimes concerns) people if you don't give a crud if the Ten Commandments get taken out of the courthouse or if "In God We Trust" gets taken off the money. They can't take Christ out of my heart or God out of his heaven, can they? No? Well, I'm all set then.)

The love of Christ is perfect, securing salvation eternally, fostering assurance and confidence in him.

Let the world toil and tumble. My Redeemer lives.

In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
-- 1 John 4:17-18

Please pray for Matt Chandler, Pastor of the Village Church outside Dallas, and for his wife and kids and church. After suffering a seizure and falling last week, he was rushed to the hospital where an MRI disclosed a mass in his frontal lobe. He is undergoing surgery to remove the tumor on Friday. The neurosurgeons are not sure of its malignancy but will perform a biopsy.

Matt's preaching and ministry have impacted thousands and thousands, including me.

His statements reveal his rock solid faith in the sovereign goodness of God and a peace that passes understanding.

Let's pray this is all some huge mistake. Or that God heals him.

Matt Chandler, pastor of The Village Church outside Dallas, gave a powerful message at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary's chapel service this morning. You can watch it here or listen to it here, and I encourage you to do so. It's worth anyone's time, but is especially good for anyone in church leadership or anyone aspiring to be in church leadership.

In his sermon, Chandler quotes from Eugene Peterson’s Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity:

For a long time, I have been convinced that I could take a person with a high school education, give him or her a six-month trade school training, and provide a pastor who would be satisfactory to any discriminating American congregation. The curriculum would consist of four courses.

Course I: Creative Plagiarism. I would put you in touch with a wide range of excellent and inspirational talks, show you how to alter them just enough to obscure their origins, and get you a reputation for wit and wisdom.

Course II: Voice Control for Prayer and Counseling. We would develop your own distinct style of Holy Joe intonation, acquiring the skill in resonance and modulation that conveys and unmistakable aura of sanctity.

Course III: Efficient Office Management. There is nothing that parishioners admire more in their pastors than the capacity to run a tight ship administratively. If we return all phone calls within twenty-four hours, answer all the letters within a week, distributing enough carbons to key people so that they know we are on top of things, and have just the right amount of clutter on our desk—not too much, or we appear inefficient, not too little or we appear underemployed—we quickly get the reputation for efficiency that is far more important than anything that we actually do.

Course IV: Image Projection. Here we would master the half-dozen well-known and easily implemented devices that that create the impression that we are terrifically busy and widely sought after for counsel by influential people in the community. A one-week refresher course each year would introduce new phrases that would convince our parishioners that we are bold innovators on the cutting edge of the megatrends and at the same time solidly rooted in all the traditional values of our sainted ancestors.

(I have been laughing for several years over this trade school training with which I plan to make my fortune. Recently, though, the joke has backfired on me. I keep seeing advertisements for institutes and workshops all over the country that invite pastors to sign up for this exact curriculum. The advertised course offerings are not quite as honestly labeled as mine, but the content appears to be identical—a curriculum that trains pastors to satisfy the current consumer tastes in religion. I’m not laughing anymore.)

Bethany is a missionary sent by our church. She is currently working with Heather Mercer's organization to reach Muslim immigrants in the Nashville area but will be transitioning back to in-field ministry among Muslims in the Middle East in 2010. She is one of the few willing to risk her life -- and that is not an overstatement -- to reach the frequently hostile unreached with the gospel of Jesus.

Bethany's computer recently went kaput and she is in need of a new-to-her laptop. Because she's a missionary she has no money. :-)

Can you help us help her get a "new" laptop?

If you are interested in contributing to our Buy Bethany a Laptop Fund, you can go to PayPal here and make a donation using mscchurch@gmail.com as the "To" email. You don't need a PayPal account; just a valid credit/debit card. Make sure to use the Personal form, click Gift, and include a note in the applicable field that your contribution is for Bethany.

Can you help?

At the new Evangel blog, Russell Moore posts:

An evangelical is a fundamentalist whose kids dress up for Halloween.

A conservative evangelical is a fundamentalist whose kids dress up for the church’s “Fall Festival.”

A confessional evangelical is a fundamentalist whose kids dress up for “Reformation Day.”

An emerging evangelical is a fundamentalist who has no kids, but who dresses up for Halloween anyway.

A revivalist evangelical is a fundamentalist whose kids dress up as demons for the church’s “Judgment House” community evangelism outreach.

A fundamentalist is a fundamentalist whose kids hand out gospel tracts to all those mentioned above.

I'm currently studying generational differences especially in regards to what the different generations prefer in church.

There are 4 generations: Builders (age 64 and older)Boomers (age 45-63), Busters (age 26-44) and Millenials(ages 7-24)

The biggest generation gap seems to be between the Builders and the other three.

Builders prefer hymnals, the other three prefer screens.

Builders want paper in their hands (like a bulletin or Sunday School quarterly), the other three don't.

Older Builders don't believe in co-ed Sunday School, the younger builders and the other three go to couples Sunday School classes.

Builders wear ties and dresses to church because "God wants you to give your best to him." The other three value authenticity and being comfortable.

Builders want to be recognized when they visit a church, the other three want to be anonymous.

Builders value sending their money to support missions. The other three value doing missions themselves.

Builders go to church because that's what you are supposed to do. The other three go because of what they get out of it.

What other differences are there?

But more importantly, tell me about your church. I want to know:

Does Your Pastor Wear A Tie?

Seriously. Tell me under comments. What does your pastor wear on Sunday morning?

Being a multi-generational church is a challenge.

How does your church reach the younger generations without offending the older? Or maybe your church doesn't worry about offending the older, especially if it's a newer church that was started for the purpose of reaching the younger three generations. Be honest. What we want to be doing and what we actually are doing are not always the same thing.

Let me learn from you. I'm listening...

My church, Antioch Community Church in Waco, Texas, celebrated its 10th Anniversary today with a special parking lot worship service (we used to worship in the parking lot in the old days, back when we were finishing our building). I count it a rare privilege to be able to walk with such an unbelievable group of believers, and I can't believe it's been ten years. Here a few photos:

This is hilarious. (And quoth Homer Simpson: "It's funny because it's true.")



I think this is funnier -- and certainly more affectionately accurate -- than that Ignatius, Super Cool Youth Pastor thing.

HT: Matthew Paul Turner

Cross-posted at GDC

Shot and shared by Bill Kinnon, an excerpt from his wife's upcoming documentary on church leadership in the 21st Century.

NT Wright on Blogging/Social Media from Bill Kinnon on Vimeo.

This Saturday I will be at the LifeWay store in The Woodlands, TX from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Come by to say hi or get your book signed (if you're into that sort of thing).

The next day I will be preaching at Kaleo Church in Houston. Service starts at 10 a.m.

Any Texas peeps close to the Houston area, would love to see you at either or both of these places.

Mark Driscoll at Desiring God 08 on God's use of tough words. Yes, it's long! Maybe you can do what I did and watch it in 15 minute bites. It's well worth it.



Quick outline: Driscoll says we should:

1. Feed the Sheep
2. Rebuke the Swine
3. Shoot the Wolves
4. Bark at the Dogs
5. Pray for the Shepherds

I will NEVER forget this message ever. Every minister and church leader should watch this.

God is love, and Jesus loves you, but neither one of them is always nice.

Over at another post, the comment thread is veering off the subject. I decided that this new discussion is worth it's own post. I want to share something I wrote with all of you and get your feedback.

By the way, what I'm assuming here is that you are looking for a new church because you moved, not because you are leaving your previous church for other reasons. That's the subject of a whole 'nother post. There are legitimate and illegitimate reasons for leaving a church. I'm assuming below that you had a legitimate reason for leaving your previous church.

Here's the advice I give to people looking for churches.

First, make a list of all the things that are important to you in a church. List everything you can think of. Spend some time on this.

Second, prioritize them. Spend several days on this. Pray about it. Talk to your spouse. Work on it.

Third, take the paper, and after number 3 tear the list off and throw away everything below. Go find a church that meets the top three, and don't worry about the rest. You'll never find a church that meets all your criteria, but if you find one that meets the top three, you're doing very well.

And never worry (or complain) about the other stuff again.

I know people always say, "I know there is no such thing as a perfect church." Then they proceed to look for one that's as close as possible.

People need to stop that. Find one that has what really matters, and then DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE REST. (Unless it is to help, with a humble attitude.)