The Innovative Pastor

Growing Old and Watching Others Do The Same

As I look back over my years of ministry, I think I’ve spent more time with people who are older than me than those that are younger than me.  AT 51, that might start to change, but the aged still seem to garner more of my time.

I’m not unhappy about it or complaining, only wondering what it all means.  Sometimes I forget that I too am growing older.  A recent read from Calvin Miller about his life, before, during and after pastoring, is a great reminder that the pastor’s life is over all too soon.  He too spent a lot of his time with older folks, I’m sure.

Maybe older folks just have more problems, at least that they will admit or talk about.  I know enough young people to know that they too have a lot of challenges.  Maybe their youth leads them to think that they need less help and encouragment along the way.  They are more self sufficient.  Yea, I remember feeling that way myself.

But sometimes, others, young and old is all you’ve got.  And we ought to protect that and cherish it.

Quite a few years ago, a retired pastor’s wife asked me to visit her husband at home.  He was ill, even a little tired of life itself.  He had served his churches with every ounce of breath in him.  Few pastors could keep up with him.  His members knew that he worked as hard as anyone in the church.

As I visited with him, tears, even sobs filled his bedroom.  He told me how much he did with his churches, how he visited at all hours of the day and night, how hard he worked and then he told me how he regretted that he did not really care for his own family.  His own son had rebelled against him and the church.

I was kind of stunned.  I had little to comfort him, could say little to get him to stop recriminating.  One thing I did though was to take a deeper interest in his son.  And I’m glad to say that his son had the chance to reclaim his faith.

Another thing I did was to begin to correct my own failures as a father and husband.  I began to think of my family as a gift, not a tool to use in ministry.  I still rely on them to help me serve our church, but now they set the pace and direction of their service, not me.  The truth is, my ministry depends on God, not my family.  I’m so glad for their help, but I’m more glad for their love.

I get to grow old with them.  I am fortunate indeed.

ABC's of Kingdom Networking

Check out the basics of Godly networking.  From Mark Begly at BuildingChurchLeaders.

RIME #2

Innovators take something that is new and put it on the table.  It might be an idea, a plan, a strategy, a technology, or some other form that is not the same as it has been.  This can be in appearance or in reality.  It might appear to be new, when in fact, it has been around a while.  But for the participants in the innovation, it doesn't matter.  To them it is new.

On a fundamental level, any time the innovator brings a change to the way things are normally done, he is bringing innovation.  It might seem small, but the reaction to the innovation may not be proportional.  The reaction is not based on the size or requirements of the innovation itself, but on the imagined requirements that it will take to accept the innovation.

That is why people want to know all they can about changes that are coming.  They then have time to process the changes.  This is no guarantee that the changes will be easy or even acceptable.  But without knowledge of and time to accept innovations, resistance is increased.

It could be argued that every change made to the normal routine is an innovation.  This seems extreme, mostly because we don't see an aggressive response to every change.  But sometimes, a change that is made brings about a very aggressive response, all out of proportion to the change itself.  We scratch our heads and we go into self-talk mode, asking ourselves, what's the big deal.  It's only five minutes, or the color is almost the same or we just said what someone else said, but they didn't find it funny like that other group.

What makes innovation work or fail?  The rate of Diffusion for innovations is of primary interest to anyone who does something different.  Next post, some of the elements of what makes innovation easier.

Good Tips on Video Storytelling for Churches

From Christianity Today, Your Church magazine.  Click here.

Writer Test

Test one

The Adventurous Pastor

Batterson says it well.

Writing in the Future

Check out this article from Futurist and Tim Oreilly about writing in the digital age.

Inspiration on Life

Randy passed away last Friday from Pancreatic cancer.  Here's a recent, short WSJ video from him.

Decisions, not Divisions

I know how sweaty my palms can get when we have a major decision to make at church.  I know how tough it is to get every one on your side.  And I know how it feels to get into a fight over values conflicts.  I've been learning to do better at this things over the years, not easy though.

This article packs a lot in to a short space with an excellent foundation for working through these conflicts born out of the decision process.

Networking Tips

Check here for some Networking basics.