Unhealthy Congregations and Ineffective Clergy

A comment to the blog "Thoughts of Resurrection"...

First, the one I posted to the blog...

Regular COR attender, wildly overeducated layperson here and I just found this blog by accident (I googled 3 simple rules...) and I am really enjoying it! This group of four posts on unhealthy congregations and ineffective clergy (and the comments that followed) are just fascinating and excellent. The way churches work, the interaction of our planning and God's Holy Spirit, is an area that I've thought about regularly. We are about the business of building God's Kingdom and telling a world that is woefully short on grace and love about the source of abundant grace and love--our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ--and I am always wanting to know how we can do this better and better. May God bless you richly in the internet ministry.

And me, unadulterated, still very Nazarene, and a total believer in the ability of God to change lives...

This collection of four posts about unhealthy churches and ineffective clergy is absolutely fascinating to this way overeducated layperson. What makes churches grow, and pastors effective, is still a bit of a mystery. Now, isn't that just like God? To leave us a bit baffled?

This fact has to give thoughtful District Superintendents the worst headaches and the most nightmares. To look out over a landscape of 70+ churches in communities of various demographics and sizes, to see some grow, some stay steady, some get smaller, some make their budgets every year, some always falling short, some able to keep pastors easily, some having pastors leave/quit/get fired on a regular basis, some just steady and trustworthy, others causing the DS to look up the "Church in Crisis" interventions in the Manual...

The trick is to know when to do what to whom. What clergy need to hear the hard news that they may not be in the right place for their gifts, or that they lack ability and when do you tell them that? When can you tell that God is making it clear that they are not in the right place? What church needs to close/relocate/merge and when? Could you be cutting off a major move of the Holy Spirit in a given place by nixing a struggling congregation too soon? Great wisdom and discernment is needed by all parties in these situations.

I think the 10-70-10 idea has some validity. But all churches and all clergy don't stay in one category forever. That makes it tricky, because it's like hitting a moving target. Further, there are other questions, like the use of resources of time and money. Again, the District Superintendent needs great wisdom from God. If a church keeps chewing up and spitting out pastors, it may be the church needing help, not the individual clergy people. A minister may prosper as an associate, and be death to a church as a senior or solo pastor. These are just two examples of the quandaries involved.

Which is why we need discussions like this, open and frank. It's hard to tell someone they are not measuring up. It's hard to tell a church they are acting carnal or frankly, that they are DEAD. Sometimes it is not news to them, sometimes it is (and those are the cases when the screaming shall commence). The Church material, (that's us, the people and buildings you see, and our affiliations, and connections...) have only so much resource, so much money, time, emotional capital. We need to know where to put it. The problem is that we are not just trying to read people, groups, capabilities, conflicts, and the tea leaves of a certain area or culture. We are also trying to get a hold of God's Will, to find out where we should be, and what we should do, that we can strengthen/enable/get out of his Holy Spirit's way and allow for sinners to be saved, the hurting to be healed, and the Kingdom to be built.

Goodness, you'd think Satan himself had something against this blog comment and post for all the troubles we encountered...