LEADERSHIP IN A TIME OF RESET (4 Questions To Move Forward)

 

This last year has presented challenging times for so many people--but especially for pastoral leaders. Those I have talked to or coached with tell me the same story--all during this time, things were constantly changing. It was hard to know what to do, or what a church could do, from week to week. There were so many people taking sides; telling them that the church to too open or not open enough, taking sides and vilifying those they disagreed with. I'm sure you have experienced some of that. It has been hard all around.

Now that things are beginning to change again, back closer to the way things were before, pastoral leaders have to decide how to deal with this next phase; what many are calling "The Reset".

It is both a challenge and an opportunity. A challenge because any inflection point is a chance to make a mistake, but also an opportunity because an inflection point is a chance to make changes that set up your organization for future health and growth.
 
So here are 4 questions I would encourage any pastoral leader to ask themselves and their team as they face their next step into the future:

1. What have we learned? It is a great time for reflection on lessons learned--especially around the issue of "high tech and high touch". What do you know now, that you did not before, about keeping people in touch, doing church and how technology will continue to be a part of that equation. 
   
   
2. What do we need to let go of? What did the last year teach you and your team about what is not working because, maybe, it doesn't fit your ministry model any more, or it is just not something God is calling you to any longer.
   
   
3. What do we need to make sure we hold on to? What did you discover had more value than you realized? What was temporary in this last season that needs to be made permanent? 
   
   
4. How do we make these changes with the least unnecessary fall out? Sometimes we make changes that really need to be made, but we make them in such a way that it alienates people that it really doesn't have to alienate. Make a plan for implementing change that includes copious communication, listening to input and honoring the feelings of those effected.

Change is hard! Would you like to have someone help you navigate seeing your church change, grow, and become more healthy as you grow as a pastor and leader?
Take advantage of a FREE trial session with me as your pastoral coach.
Call/TXT 503-709-4613 or write me at Randall@vision2lead.coach.
We can even go over these 4 questions if that would be helpful.

DO YOU KNOW WHERE BUTTERCUP IS?

Know the state of your flocks, and put your heart into caring for your herds, Proverbs 27:23

This is, undoubtedly, a challenging time for pastors and churches. I hear it from my pastoral coaching clients and church attendees as well. I read about it in Social Media posts, blog entries, and personal messages. I feel it myself. We all just want this time to be over! It is not surprising that pastors might feel like it is a good time to stick their heads in the sand and turn a blind eye to what they, and the congregation God has given them to care for, are dealing with. 
However, as I tell the business clients I work with, a Godly leader knows that it is their God-given responsibility to know the current condition of their people (their flocks) and the assets that they oversee. How can you make wise decisions or set good strategic directions if you don't know how people and things are doing?

Doing this will help:

1. Prioritize Person to Person Communication. The pastors I know whose congregations are doing well during this time, prioritize simply being in touch. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that your weekly online service or even online small groups will serve the purpose by themselves.  Research stays that less than 50% of church members are even watching online. Your people need someone who is calling and asking "How are you doing?", "How can we help?"
   Here is where the small and medium size church has the advantage. They, more often, know who it is they serve and find it easier to get in touch each one of them.
   As the senior pastor, you may not be the one making the calls. In fact, you ought to be keeping up with your leaders and checking in to see how they are doing. Recruit some "assistant shepherds" and have them schedule some time to call through your membership list.
   
   
2. Ask The Hard Questions. It is easy to call and simply say; "I'm just checking in to see how you are doing." What your people need it the gently probing questions, "Are you feeling isolated? How is your walk with God doing during this time? How are you holding up emotionally." Of course, these are questions that assume a level of emotional intimacy that you might not have with ever parishioner. But, if you are doing your due diligence as pastor, and calling your leaders, you should be able to make these inquires.
   When you reach out, most people wonder, "Do they really want to hear how I am doing or are they just 'doing their job'?" When you ask the deeper questions, they know they answer: you really do want to know.
   
   
3. Follow Up. If, in your call or when your assistant shepherds call, you discover a significant, or significant problem, follow up. Call back soon after the original call and offer them resources that can help them. Send them a book. Write an email with a link to something useful for what they are going through. Just don't leave them hanging. Show you care by taking action.
   
   
4. Use a Variety of Methods to Connect. If you can't visit, a phone call is probably the gold standard. However, there are a thousand other ways to connect. Email, Social Media, cards and notes in the mail, dropping something by their front door and so many more, are great ways to keep the connection working. Never opt for the easiest and most convenient when you could be creative and do more.

As with all difficult times that we go through as leaders, this one will end eventually. What we have to ask ourselves now is; "What am I doing to keep the people spiritually and emotionally healthy during these challenging times." It is your call, your responsibility and they will appreciate the love you show.

Do This And Prosper/Do This And End Up In Poverty

How can you and your church or organization "prosper"?

This verse offers two requirements:
1) Plan Well
2) Work Hard.

Some Christian leaders wonder if planning is even a spiritually correct thing to do. Yet, we see it all throughout the Bible. The Israelites planned the taking of the Promised Land. Jesus stayed up all night and planned who and how He would call His disciples. Paul planned, throughly, his church planting trips. In fact, there was careful planning evidenced in all of the ways that the early church spread the gospel.

However, they did not plan without asking and considering what God was up to. In each of these cases they planned, but they also consulted with God and whenever someone disregarded God's input or agreement, they got themselves in trouble. So, plan! In fact, as a leadership coach, I'm here to encourage and help you do just that. But pray as well. Determine what God's purpose and will is and be a part of what He is planning. 

WHAT IS GOD UP TO?

As I write this, we are into our second month of "Shelter at Home". All of my pastoral clients and friends are holding services "virtually" and the questions each one is asking is "What's next?" and "When is next?". Frankly, even before the virus outbreak much of the church was in a weakened state and looking for powerful divine intervention.  

Because of all of that, what we are all wanting to know is, when will God restore His church, bring it back to what He intends it to be--people meeting for fellowship, worship, learning, mutual support, the impartation of vision; believers growing and being sent out to make a difference in the world.

Jesus' disciples had the same kinds of questions. Believing that Christ, the Messiah, was the restorer of the fortunes of Israel, they had been waiting for 3 long years for Him to make it happen--to free them from the control of Rome. 

In Acts 1:6-11 we read

'So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?” He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 
After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!”'

What can we learn from Jesus' response to his disciples?

1. God restores forward not backward. 
   When God the Creator created time He made it to flow in just one direction. Time marches forward, not backward. So it is with God's purposes for us. He always come to us from our future, not from our past. We are moving, always, forward into the new thing that God has for us, not backward to what was.
   Paul said, "Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus." God had a future in mind when He saved Paul--and He does as well for you and for your church or organization. He wants to restore you to that future.
   
   
2. The “new” may not look like the old—even if the old was not bad.
   There is an interesting change in this passage. The disciples ask: "When will you restore our kingdom?" Jesus replies by telling them how to build the Kingdom of God--His Kingdom.
   Often when God is restoring things, it is a restoration from our kingdom to His. He wants to use the time of change, even turmoil, to prune the good branches so they will bear more fruit.
   Times of crisis both call for and facilitate change. It is not just politicians who should "not let any crisis go to waste". We should be seeking to discover what change and growth God wants to use this crisis to bring about.
   
   
3. This kind of restoration brings us back to our vision, mission, calling and values. 
   In the passage, the disciples were looking for political change, Jesus was pointing them to mission and calling. During this time of challenge, so many churches, and their leaders, are being pressed back to the question, "What did God put us here for? What are we supposed to be doing?"
   God has His ways of restoring us back to our original mission and calling but often by a new and more effective means.
   
   
4. Here is the Great Promise—we are not in this alone.
   In Matthew 28—Jesus made this wonderful promise that is so poignant in the midst of hard times: "I am with you always, to the end of the age." We are not in this alone! He WILL restore. He WILL bring about His purposes--through each of us, if we let Him and cooperate what what He is doing.

Let the restoration begin--in His way and in His time.

7 STEPS TO RESOLVE A CONFLICT

'

Never let loyalty and kindness leave you! Tie them around your neck as a reminder.  Write them deep within your heart. Then you will find favor with both God and people, and you will earn a good reputation.' Proverbs 3:3-4

There were times in the past, as a pastor, when I really thought that I had to be rough, tough and demanding. I felt people in my congregation were acting wrongly and I had to set them straight and do so directly.

Or, I felt that one of my staff was coming under unfair attack and that it was my place to defend them--by all means necessary.

None of those motivations were wrong, I was trying to protect the sheep from error or my staff from getting hurt. What I lost in the moment was the admonition to never let "kindness leave you." I have to admit, my reaction, at times, was less than kind. If we, as pastors, are going to have favor with people, as well as with God, we need to watch our reaction. There are, literally, thousands of people, we all have run into them, who have been hurt by spiritual leaders who are controlling, demanding and unkind.

This is not to say that keeping people happy is our utmost goal. It is, most decidedly, NOT! In fact, the Bible warns us against being a "man fearer". If we have to choose between pleasing God and pleasing people, choose God every time.

In fact, if we are doing our jobs right, conflict is inevitable. The question is, how do we handle disagreements in a Godly way? Here are some things to keep in mind when you go to deal with that latest congregational conflict:

1. Enter the conversation with a heart of pre-forgiveness. We don't have to wait for someone to apologize before we forgive. We can enter the interaction with an attitude of grace and having already laid down the personal part of the offense. It is so much easier to love if you have already forgiven someone.
2. Start with love and faithfulness, not the issue. Lay the relational foundation first; "Whatever happens in this conversation, I, first of all, love you and want our relationship to be good. That is more important than this disagreement." It is easy to let the issue become THE issue and have it overrun long standing commitments to covenantal love as brothers and sisters. 
3. Listen, listen and listen some more. Our tendency is to listen while we work to form a response in our own minds. As a result, we may not be fully attentive. We tend to think we know what the other person is trying to say even before they have formed the words. It may be very hard, at the moment someone is confronting us in a angry way, to say the words (and really mean them) "is there more?" How powerful, though, if we can say it. In fact, try asking it twice. When you are sure that have said all they have to say, ask, one more time, "is there more?"
4. Identify with their feeling. There is little as powerful as saying, "I think if I were you and I had experienced what you went through, I would feel pretty upset too." There may be great justifications for what happened. We might have a wonderful explanation to offer but first, we must let them know we understand the feeling.
5. Admit where you are wrong. We may feel like what we did wrong is only 1% of the problem. Admit that part, however small before you ask them to consider their own faults.
6. Ask if you can share your own perspective. It is amazing how much more willing others are to listen when they feel like they have been listened to. We now have the chance to share simply, without accusation, from our hearts how we have perceived the situation.
7. Try to discover what will help. Love means looking for THEIR highest good. We can offer solutions that may not solve everything, they seldom do, but lets the other person know that we heard them and care about them. Ask, "would it help if?" as a way to begin working for a solution.

Bottom line: not every conflict is resolvable--that is why Paul said, "AS MUCH AS IT LIES WITHIN YOU live at peace with all men." The key is, when faced with someone who is upset, even unfairly, still Never let loyalty and kindness leave you! Tie them around your neck as a reminder. 

Write them deep within your heart. And let us allow our response to come from that perspective.

COMMON SENSE IS TOO UNCOMMON

Why does it seem that some of the most "spiritual" pastors are the most lacking in common sense?

'Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding. Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures. Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord, and you will gain knowledge of God. For the Lord grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.'Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding. He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest. He is a shield to those who walk with integrity.' Proverbs 2:3-7

Let us stipulate to start with that God does, from time to time, call people to do things that defy common sense. Going into the desert to fast for 40 days and 40 nights is not keeping with common sense. Demanding that the ruler of the most powerful nation on earth release the slaves his nation depends on for their economic well being isn't either. There are many more examples in the Bible and in our lives when God has called us to engage in actions that defy logic and reason (to move from a place of effective and well provisioned ministry to a place where the future is murky at best, for one common example). 

However, there are pastors who come to equate doing things that are illogical and ill advised with being spiritual. Let me state it clearly, they are not the same thing. A pastor I heard speak recently related how he had taken over the leadership of a church that was 5.5 million dollars in debt and did not have the income to support that obligation. He was relating to us how the pressure of that debt wore him down and wore him out. The pastor before him made choices that I am sure seemed spiritual but were not very reasonable and led to very negative effects.

This passage tells us that God "grants a treasure of common sense". It is not worldly, it is got "giving into a fleshly mindset" it is, instead, a gift from God.

So, how do we know if an idea that we have is inspired, God given, even if it is outside the box? I think it is good to interrogate our ideas with these questions:

1. What do other wise and spiritual people think? Is your leadership team in agreement with it? There is safety in wise counsel. Be sure to include those outside of your usual circle, beyond those whose livelihood depends on staying in your good graces. A clear headed, hard headed outside friend or coach who can give you input can be invaluable and bring you back to common sense.
   
   
2. Is this the right time? A decision can be good, it can even be from God but it may not be the right time to do it. Timing is, indeed, everything.
   
   
3. Is it in keeping with the path God has been taking you and the ministry on up to this point? Sometimes God changes our direction but more often we simply get tired of pursuing the same goals over the long term (the best way, by the way, of accomplishing anything) and start to look for the next, new bright shinny object.
   
   
4. Do you really have a plan, well thought out and reasonable, or just an idea? The difference between a true plan and a simple idea is the difference between a true vision and a "wouldn't it be nice" fantasy.

The wise, spirit directed leader learns to live in the tension between acting with the common sense that God values and grants and being open to those moments when the Holy Spirit directs action, with confirmation, that might seem beyond the bounds of logic. This is how you make good decisions with wisdom AND the Holy Spirit.

WISE PASTORS ARE HEALTHY PASTORS

'Come and listen to my counsel. I’ll share my heart with you and make you wise. “I called you so often, but you wouldn’t come. I reached out to you, but you paid no attention. You ignored my advice and rejected the correction I offered. So I will laugh when you are in trouble! I will mock you when disaster overtakes you— when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster engulfs you like a cyclone, and anguish and distress overwhelm you. . . . For simpletons turn away from me—to death. Fools are destroyed by their own complacency. But all who listen to me will live in peace, untroubled by fear of harm.”' Proverbs 1:23-29,31-33

There is knowledge and there is wisdom and, while related, they are two different things. We live in a world that values knowing stuff--more books, conventions, trainings and educational opportunities than the average pastor can ever take advantage of. But that is not the same as wisdom.
Today there are a lot of smart but foolish pastors. Shepherds who know all about the latest books, techniques, dress codes, catch phrases, and trends but really don't have a lot of wisdom about dealing with people or making good decisions. That is what this blog is all about. 
I have been studying wisdom from the book of Proverbs for nearly 40 years and I pastored churches and congregations for more than 30. I wrote a book called Get Smart on wisdom for your heart, money, mouth, family, and friends and wrote a blog, The Book on Business, that dealt with wisdom for the business leader.
Now that I am in my 60's, I feel a responsibility to pass on what I have learned and what I am learning (and relearning) about pastoring because--it matters! As pastors we face storms, anguish, and distress from time to time. Frankly, it is part of the job. If we learn wisdom, as this passage promises us, we can avoid being destroyed by it--IF we are not complacent. That means learning and integrating wisdom into our lives before the storm hits. Then we can face the tough times "untroubled and at peace" because we know what to do, how to respond (and not to react) and to deal with the problems at hand.
Let's go on an adventure and learn what the wisest man who ever lived--King Solomon of Jerusalem--has to say about this assignment called pastoring, how we can do the best job possible and live to tell the story.