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After working on staff at a church for awhile you will usually end up in one of four situations…

1) I am aligned with my pastor, I like my job

2) I am aligned with my pastor, I don’t like my job

3) I am not aligned, I like my job
4) I am not aligned, I don’t like my job
What do you do?

#1’s Life is good! When you find yourself in situation one thank God for the ministry he has placed you. If you are new to church work it may take a few months to settle into number one. You may find yourself going through all four of these feelings as the honeymoon of church membership ends, yeah that’s right it ends. More and more these days church staffers are coming on board as second careers. They have spent time in the business sector and want to shift gears to ministry. By far some of the greatest men and women i have worked with are in this category but they show a few bumps and bruises as they enter church life. I will talk more in future post about the frustrations associated with every job, including church jobs. For the time being if you are new on staff give it six months and you will probably level off to a one. Most of us work the majority of our careers as ones.

I know i should be writing something about thriving not surviving, but let’s be honest if you have been on staff at a church for more than a year you know we all go through times of just holding on. It’s likely if you reading this you have either gone through those times, or are currently in the mix of just trying to survive. Here’s a few key phrases those in survival mode use…

“I want to go, but God won’t release me.”
“I don’t agree with the church but i am staying for the kids.”
“I am broke and majored in history, what the heck else am i going to do?” (more of a thought)
“God hooked Job up eventually, right?”

There are really dark nights in ministry when what you thought would be the greatest job on the planet turned into just existing. When your current reality causes you to doubt your calling and maybe even if we are really honest, if God is checked in on your story at all. So what do we do? If we are going to turn the ship around we need to move from a place of frustration to excitement. The journey starts with surviving… then we get to thriving.

Rule #1 Alignment
“If your bosses reality is your reality then your reality isn’t reality.” – Unknown

I wish i could remember who wrote those words. Every time i revisit this issue of church staffing those words flow to the forefront of my mind. There are far too many crusaders in the church today, those people who think they are going to join a church staff where they don’t really agree with the pastor or the doctrinal statements and they are going to change it from the bottom up. It doesn’t work. Confession… i am speaking from experience. I beat my head against the walls of a mainline denomination for over a decade. There were tons of us working from the inside. Sure, every now and again God calls a guy out for this specific kind of ministry, but for the most of us we are just wasting the precious years God has given us to minister to people. For me it came down to a simple conclusion… i wasn’t called to save denominations, I was called to love people.

So rule #1 is alignment. What is your senior pastors vision for ministry? What’s your vision for ministry? Do they line up? I can hear some of you right now, “dude that’s the problem my senior pastor doesn’t tell us his vision.” Remember we are talking survival, you may have to dig a little. In fact, getting to know the heart of your pastor is one of the most critical decisions you can make in the turn around. If you don’t already spend one on one time with your pastor book some. Ask him about his calling to ministry; what his favorite part of ministry is; what’s been his greatest victory as a pastor; and what does he think is the most critical thing for your ministry. Listen to his heart and then spend some time praying through how you can align your ministry with his heart.

Our greatest frustrations arise when we labor against what God has called our leader to do. If we will tune our ear to our leaders heart then we will begin to celebrate similar victory and understand the ebb and flow of our church because we know the man in charge.

Nebuchadnezzar responded and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants who put their trust in Him, violating the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies so as not to serve or worship any god except their own God.” Daniel 3:27-28

Growing up in the age of Technicolor cinema and THX surround sound I have never experienced a silent film. The closest I have come is in little flashbacks during documentaries I watch, on the history channel (which I watch because after you turn 30 it’s mandatory to watch boring documentaries so you have stuff to talk to the other old guys about). It seems every time the show the old films either Charlie Chaplin is doing a little dance or some woman is getting tied to train tracks. Apparently in the old west the only sure fired way of knocking someone off is with a train. Thank goodness for the nine millimeter, otherwise movies like the departed would have gotten really lame… some how Mark Walberg dragging Mat Damon out of his apartment down the stairs across the park and tying him to the “L” track and then waiting for the five o’ clock commuter train to come through would have been lame!

The reason the train was and I suppose is so scary is because the one thing everyone knows about trains is they don’t stop… they can untie the girl but they can not stop the train. You can get on the train, you can get out of the way of the train, but if you stand in it’s tracks you will get squashed. “You say yes sensei, or no sensei, maybe sensei and squashed” – Karate Kid

The scripture from Daniel is Nebuchadnezzar’s response to watching Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego survive the hottest fires of Babylon. You know the story. The refused to bow down and were sentenced to death. After being thrown into the fire the people looking on saw all three men alive and well with a fourth watching over them. The moral… God’s plan was for those men and their friend Daniel to lead the nation of Israel through the captivity. The train, God’s will, was on the tracks and no one was stopping it.

As you go about your day ask the Lord to speak to you about His will. Ask the Lord to bend your heart to what He is doing. Even the hottest fires of Babylon will not thwart the plans of God… “The most high God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men.” Make sure you are on the train.

And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And they began to weep aloud and embraced Paul, and repeatedly kissed him, grieving especially over the word which he had spoken, that they should see his face no more… – Acts 20:36-37a

In Acts 20 Paul gives a lengthy farewell to the Elders of the church at Ephesus. Here in the end of the chapter he is leaving. The Elders are grieved over their spiritual father leaving. You can sense their agony with his departure. This small insight to the depth of relationship between the church Elders and Apostles leaves me wondering, are we missing something?

While our churches are becoming increasingly practical we must take note of the breakdown in real relationships. Have we institutionalized the church to the point it’s a series of transactions where we stock up bible knowledge, prefer not to be known, and jump from fellowship to fellowship as the wind changes? The scriptures portray a group of men and women committed to one another passionately pursuing the spreading of the gospel to the world. Their lives are intertwined so much they are willing to give up their own comforts for the needs of others in the fellowship.

Are we just too big?

I heard it coming so why not throw it out there. Mega church critics will turn their nose up @ the big church on the corner insisting there is no way to be known, no way to have real Christian fellowship. That may sound logical but it is not biblical… “so then, those who had received his word were baptized; and there were added that day about three thousand souls.(Acts 2:41)” Acts 2, one sermon, the first mega-church. The church has been big since it’s inception. There’s something else going on.

Are we just too busy?

This sounds good up front. We work 60 hours a week and try to squeeze in a little recreation along the way. Who has time to know anyone besides their families, there are enough challenges just in those relationships. Big problem here is we make time for what’s really important.

Somewhere along the way we have devalued true Christian friendships and decided our lives are better off just breezing into church and not really knowing anyone. This system has resulted in a lack of spiritual maturity and God inspired leadership in the body of Christ. We need to learn from the men who were co-laborers in Christ and built the church. We need to learn to give ourselves to one another beyond surface friendships and live life together. The connection of the Apostles, Early Church Leaders, and Deacons should serve as a model to us as we lead the church into the future.

This is where the church stops being a business
We make a ton of comparisons between the church and business these days. Most of these comparisons are very helpful. We can learn a good deal from business leadership models, marketing, and customer service. However, where we should be pulling away is in our leadership teams commitment to one another. The very core of the church should be led by people who are deeply connected to one another. The bond of the Apostles needs to be echoed in our Elders and leadership teams. Outside of true Christian fellowship we will miss the leading of God’s spirit and the transparency needed in those who lead the body of Christ.

I recently signed up for yet another social networking service, twitter. Unlike My Space, Flickr, AIM, bonjour, and my blog post twitter is devoid of any sincere sentiment whatsoever. Twitter is a tumble-log. You create a friend list like AIM and then you and your friends answer the question, “what are you doing right now?” We will post upwards of twenty times a day, just five minutes ago I wrote, “500 wording.” As ridiculous as this may seem you have to admit your addicted to something as well. Some of us can’t go an hour without checking our Facebook or MySpace page. Others of us keep AIM running @ all times.

The amazing thing about Twitter, and the real reason I am writing, is they have effectively removed the networking from social networking. Dr. Phil may be working on his own tumble-log where we are supposed to answer, “How are you feeling right now?” But until then Twitter allows you to ramble off your day without saying anything significant.

Is this community?

My generation lead the way toward using e-mail as a tool for business and social networking as a way of being connected. Our first IM screens were terminals with green writing. Early in ministry I was adamant about using the PC (those were bad years for Apple) for communication and web sites for advertising. I was wrong!

There is a new cutting edge communication.
It’s part of the low-fi revolution.
it’s retro, re-modern, happening now.
FACE TO FACE

As our parents generation is signing up for MySpace and checking their e-mail’s constantly we are sensing the need to unplug. Some thought the microwave would replace the stove, but still to this day the best way to cook a steak is on a ridiculously hot flame. We aren’t throwing out the microwave, just using it when it makes sense. Here a couple of ideas…

Relationships- Meet on-line, date in person. Go crazy with e-harmony of www.heavenlyhook-up.com but once you meet you have to date face to face (not too close now). And any of you who think breaking up on-line is acceptable feel free to schedule an appointment with my admin so I can smack you upside the head.

Business- Do not conduct any significant conversation on e-mail. If you are selling a project, working a deal, or confronting a problem it should always be face to face. You have no way of reading emotion over e-mail.

Conflict – DO NOT ever argue or criticize over e-mail. This is a sure fired way to have a situation blow up in your face.

Affirmation – If you really want someone to know you care don’t send an e-mail. We all know just how easy it is to write an e-mail. It basically says, “You are great, so much I wasn’t willing to get up from my desk, buy you a card, or look you in the eye.” A quick thank you is fine, but if you have something you really need to say… FACE TO FACE.

So what does this have to do with the bible? I am not sure, but when I read if the disciples earnestly longing to be with one another it strikes a contrast where we seem to be heading.