Yesterday evening I shared with our deacons the essential elements of the intentional interim ministry. We had a, as diplomats often say, “frank and cordial” exchange. As I explained the five elements of an intentional interim, I suggested areas that (in my opinion) we need to deal with as a church before we call another pastor.
Three areas of concern have remained unaddressed by our church. First, we were borne (in 1979) out of a prejudiced womb. Our church (like many throughout the south) decided to leave a neighborhood that was changing from white to African-American. In the early eighties we apparently developed a reputation as a church that was unwelcoming toward minorities.
But our most recent pastor, for thirteen years, has preached strongly from the pulpit a gospel message that was open to all races. We now have several African-American families in our church. In fact, on Sunday night we licensed an African-American friend for the first time in the history of our church. (A fact uncommented upon and even unrealized until I looked into it this week). This transformation in racial attitudes is an important and positive element in our church’s history that has been ignored.
A second area that remains unaddressed is a decision made about eight years ago to build a recreation center. This decision was made when we ran about 150 more people than we currently have in attendance. Its $1.2 million mortgage represents a heavy financial burden upon the church. We’ve established no long term strategic approach for dealing with the debt. Our most common response has been to complain about the lousy so-and-so's who signed up for the debt and then left the church. We need to lay out a long term plan for addressing this issue.
A final area of concern has been our staff turnover. Although we’ve had a pastor for thirteen years, during the last six years (since we’ve joined) we’ve had three youth ministers, four music ministers (really five because we’ve had one twice) and six children’s ministers. From my perspective, we need to examine our policies and procedures for dealing with staff. But from the perspective of our lay leadership, God has simply called some people to our church for a “season of healing,” and then called them on elsewhere.
I mentioned these three areas to the deacons and there were differences of opinion on each of them. Some simply told me I was wrong and that these issues didn’t exist while others agreed with the diagnosis, but not the treatment. As our time together closed, they told me that they would pray about our church’s options for the interim time.
I left the meeting in much better spirits than I did a few Sunday nights ago. Not because there was a greater agreement with my position, but rather because I felt prompted by God to share this information with them and I was obedient to that prompting. Now it is in God’s hands.
Where it has been all along.
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3 comments:
I'm just saying, if I was black and I joined a mostly white church, or if I were the first black person licenced by the church, and no big deal or mention was made of it... and THEN LATER a mention was made of it, I would feel awkward. Why not just let that one keep growing without making it a "concern." The alternative seems self-congratulatory and obliquely condescending. I feel strongly about this.
Bobby,
I apologize for the lack of clarity in the original post. My point was simply that we (as a church) have no concept of our own history. Thus momentous moments (racial and otherwise) pass unacknowledged. This was simply one example of a larger pattern. I'm not concerned (at this point anyway) with righting past wrongs, I'm simply advocating that we need to be more self-aware.
Oh. I'm not usually that knee-jerk. Sorry bout that.
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