Fishing Advice from the Disposal
The following article was written in the car on my iphone the day an article I'd written was rejected by a popular pastor magazine for not being practical enough, not giving enough answers and therefore being negative. My publisher thought that since I don't care for practical easy steps 1, 2, 3, that I should write an article about it. The second article was rejected for the same reasons as the first. So I thought I'd put it here for your reading pleasure.
Fishing Advice from the Ministry Disposal:
Practical and Easy Steps to Being a Pastor and Supervisor for your Staff
"Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth." - Baz Lurman
Step #1: Stop reading articles with any kind of practical steps for advice or decision making. Depending on a stranger for one, two, three, step advice may be helpful for assembling a new bookshelf or entertainment center, but will always mislead you when it come to ministry. Always. You can know your ministry better than some writer in a coffee shop in another part of the world. Spend your time listening to the people in your community and less to experts in magazines. You might be better off.
Step 2- Stop depending on or looking to experts for answers. Looking to experts is actually subtly running from the problem. It assumes there's a right way to do things. It takes the responsibility off your shoulders and your congregations shoulders and put it on a stranger who knows nothing about you of your church. Let me tell you a secret about practical advice. It's generic. Generic sells. Which is nice is you own a publishing company. But really unhelpful and borderline addictive if you are a church leader. Remember Mr. Lurman’s quote above. The answers to your problem might come from the people you already have in the room, especially if these are the people responsible (with you) for causing the problem in the first place. Great solutions come from great conversations that explore the issue fully by people who see themselves as part of the problem and the solution.
Step 3 – Stop playing the expert. You aren't one. Certainly you are very good at some thing, adequate at others, and horrendous at others. Everyone is good ad something. Great leaders form environments in which each member seeks to raise up the communities skills, abilities and gifts. Being a pastor often means you feel like you should have answers to problems people have. Marriage issues? You provide answers. Raising kids? You provide advice or you hire a children’s pastor who will. Of course if you take this line of thinking to it's full extent it's pretty arrogant isn't it? As a pastor myself I remember when I realized my mentality. That if everyone did what I told them to do or needed them to be then all would be well. Marriages would be better. Families happy. Missions, evangelism everything would be wonderful of they just listened. I'm finding the need to be the expert for my community comes from others and from me. And this is a subtle temptation to manipulate others or worse, take the responsibility of someone’s life and faith from them and make it my own. Unintentionally enabling is the nature of experts with practical advice. So you relieve others of responsibility for their marriage by answering questions and giving advice. For taking responsibilities for raising kids and putting it on a staff person like yourself who can be the expert. Thus, letting people outsource the spiritual formation of their kids. So here's some more practical advice that might be true for you. Stop reading experts easy and practical steps to great leadership. Stop being the expert for your church and empower people to own their faith by not putting it on your shoulders. Stop asking your youth pastor to be the expert. Instead be a pastor. It's a forgotten art in a culture of CEO’s leaders and execs.
Freedom awaits. Freedom to be yourself. Freedom from the oppressive voice that says you need to fake it. Freedom to love people where they are, not as they should be.
Fishing Advice from the Ministry Disposal:
Practical and Easy Steps to Being a Pastor and Supervisor for your Staff
"Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth." - Baz Lurman
Step #1: Stop reading articles with any kind of practical steps for advice or decision making. Depending on a stranger for one, two, three, step advice may be helpful for assembling a new bookshelf or entertainment center, but will always mislead you when it come to ministry. Always. You can know your ministry better than some writer in a coffee shop in another part of the world. Spend your time listening to the people in your community and less to experts in magazines. You might be better off.
Step 2- Stop depending on or looking to experts for answers. Looking to experts is actually subtly running from the problem. It assumes there's a right way to do things. It takes the responsibility off your shoulders and your congregations shoulders and put it on a stranger who knows nothing about you of your church. Let me tell you a secret about practical advice. It's generic. Generic sells. Which is nice is you own a publishing company. But really unhelpful and borderline addictive if you are a church leader. Remember Mr. Lurman’s quote above. The answers to your problem might come from the people you already have in the room, especially if these are the people responsible (with you) for causing the problem in the first place. Great solutions come from great conversations that explore the issue fully by people who see themselves as part of the problem and the solution.
Step 3 – Stop playing the expert. You aren't one. Certainly you are very good at some thing, adequate at others, and horrendous at others. Everyone is good ad something. Great leaders form environments in which each member seeks to raise up the communities skills, abilities and gifts. Being a pastor often means you feel like you should have answers to problems people have. Marriage issues? You provide answers. Raising kids? You provide advice or you hire a children’s pastor who will. Of course if you take this line of thinking to it's full extent it's pretty arrogant isn't it? As a pastor myself I remember when I realized my mentality. That if everyone did what I told them to do or needed them to be then all would be well. Marriages would be better. Families happy. Missions, evangelism everything would be wonderful of they just listened. I'm finding the need to be the expert for my community comes from others and from me. And this is a subtle temptation to manipulate others or worse, take the responsibility of someone’s life and faith from them and make it my own. Unintentionally enabling is the nature of experts with practical advice. So you relieve others of responsibility for their marriage by answering questions and giving advice. For taking responsibilities for raising kids and putting it on a staff person like yourself who can be the expert. Thus, letting people outsource the spiritual formation of their kids. So here's some more practical advice that might be true for you. Stop reading experts easy and practical steps to great leadership. Stop being the expert for your church and empower people to own their faith by not putting it on your shoulders. Stop asking your youth pastor to be the expert. Instead be a pastor. It's a forgotten art in a culture of CEO’s leaders and execs.
Freedom awaits. Freedom to be yourself. Freedom from the oppressive voice that says you need to fake it. Freedom to love people where they are, not as they should be.
Labels: Writing
posted by mark at
12:22 PM
2 Comments:
great advice. no seriously.
WOW, brutal honesty, true rebellion from your editor. I think the "expert" label says as more about my needs than the needs of those around me.
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