SUMMER TIME AND THE LIVING IS...

How would you finish this title? ...and the living is easy? ...and the living is no different than it is any other time of the year? For many churches there is an expectation that things will slow down in the summer. For many clergy there is the reality that things just do not slow down in the summer. Here in WNY with only 3 months of nice, warm, sunny weather (hopefully), it is easy to see why we would expect things to slow down. That is how we want them to be so we can enjoy the nice summer days. And many folks take a summer vacation in order to relax and re-create. Some go so far as to take every Sunday off in the summer here in WNY because after all, God does! And yet for the pastor, nothing seems to change all that much except that even more than usual the pastor is the Lone Ranger holding down the fort. I know some pastors who will take an entire month off in the summer and I say BRAVO! It takes 4 weeks to unhook and unwind before gearing up for the Fall program year. I know others whose congregations have a fit if they take more than a week at a time because they don't know what to do without the pastor around. To which I can say with all Christian humility of one who has been there, done that and has the T shirt...GIVE ME A BREAK! Literally and figuratively.

So here's a novel idea. In Christian Century there was an article about a church that is taking a sabbatical year from all committee work! Now if a church can take an entire year from committee work, surely it can take a summer off. Try it and let me know.

Pastor or Reluctant CEO

Remember when you graduated from seminary and you were on fire to bring your new knowledge, skills and passion for the ministry to a local church? How long was it before the fire extinguishers in the congregation were aimed at you and your passion was a smoldering ember smothered by administrative responsibilities? And how long was it before you realized that those responsibilities came with little or no authority? For those of us ordained into a congregational system of church government we soon found that our passion for ministry threatened to pull apart the tightly woven fabric of the business as usual business model so comfortable and familiar to the congregation. Suddenly, you found yourself a reluctant CEO expected to be an expert on finance, strategic planning, management, and conflict resolution. The paradox was that even if you were an expert in one of those areas your ideas were often dismissed because how could a seminary trained person know anyting about real world business issues. And you wondered if you would have better served the church with a MBA or a MSW. The challenge for pastors today is how to recover their passion, kindle the fire in their people and reclaim the scriptural model for church life. This isn't to say that there aren't valuable leadership skills that the clergy need to know. Most definitely they do. That is the challenge for seminaries and denominations to take up. So, here's my question to all the pastors, seminary professors and denominational executives...What are we all pretending not to know as we look at today's church? Stay tuned.