Category Archives: Ministry

John Piper With More Reflections on Leaving the Pastorate After 33 Years

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John Piper

John Piper writes:

People continue to ask me how it feels. “You were a pastor non-stop for 33 years. Now you’re not. How does it feel?”

I have been tongue-tied too many times. So I have tried to come up with the shortest possible sound-bite answer. And the second shortest. The shortest is “Leap and Weep.” The second shortest is “Burden Lifted, Blessings Lost.” They refer to the same paradox. When a burden is lifted, you leap. When blessings are lost, you weep.

Paul said to the elders of Ephesus, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). I have lost a lot of steady-state giving. Weekly preaching is weekly giving. Weekly staff-meetings are weekly giving. Regular elder meetings are regular giving. Frequent funerals and hospital visits are frequent giving. Praying daily as a shepherd for the sheep is daily giving.

All of that pastoral giving is gone. And with it massive blessing. Weep.

And giving is not the only blessing. Shepherds get as well as give. It may be “more” blessed to give than to receive. But there are kinds of receiving that are also blessed. Being in heart-felt partnership with much-loved staff and elders is precious receiving. Looking out on familiar, hungry, eager, thoughtful, thankful, affirming sheep during sermons is powerful receiving. Reports of answered post-service prayers is sweet receiving. Seeing the regular ministry of the word lead people to salvation is unparalleled receiving.

All of that pastoral receiving is gone. Weep.

But paradoxically, there are moments of leaping. Burdens lifted make a light heart. And light hearts leap. Leadership is a sacred burden. It is worth all the costs. But it is heavy. It is meant to be. Jesus’s leadership cost him his life. Senior leadership means that, in one sense, all the bucks stop here. Imagine Jesus coming to Bethlehem and seeing some things he disapproves of. He would knock on my door first. That is what it means to be a leader.

Don’t misunderstand. God gives special grace for senior leaders. I was never left alone. So even in the burdens, there was the closeness of Jesus making it all worth it.

For me the heaviest burden was the ever-increasing challenge to develop, biblically faithful, pastorally fruitful, culturally appropriate, financially wise, Christ-honoring, consensus-building organizational plans and practices and structures that sustained and mobilized 5,000 people for vital Christian impact in all of life. I did not feel very effective at this organizational challenge in my latter years, and that made the burden all the heavier.

That burden is gone. Leap.

Now the challenge is: Lord, show me the new configuration of giving and getting and burden-bearing. I do not assume that in this life there is ever a season when these are gone — not if we trust God and love people. They just change. There is too much lostness and pain and ignorance in the world for coasting. I would value your prayers, during this next year especially, as I seek the Lord for the new pattern of joyful giving, receiving, and burden bearing.

Read the rest.

Do We Have To Pick Between Church and Family?

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Bob Johnson blogs:

Seventeen years ago I went on a two-week trip to India and Korea to teach in a Bible college and some churches. Security at the airport was not as tight pre-9/11, so my family accompanied me to the gate. As I left my wife and three young children in the midst of a Michigan winter, my youngest daughter cried out “NOOOOO!” so long and so loud that the echo followed me down the jet way into the plane itself. She wasn’t the only one who cried that day.

As I sat on the plane and tried to catch one last glimpse of them, I wondered, “What was I doing to my family? Was this trip really worth it? Was I right to do this? Couldn’t someone else have taught this course and preached these messages?” It was not the last time I would ask those questions.

Serving the church is not merely a job; it is an all-consuming responsibility that can threaten a family. The emergency hospital trips and the frantic calls from a heartbroken spouse never come when you are sitting at home, caught up on your to-do list, bored stiff, and hoping for a crisis to break the monotony. For most of us, our bodies may be home, but our full attention is slow to arrive.

There are always more visits to schedule, more people to counsel, more calls to make, more meetings to attend, more functions to pray at, more books to read, more emails to answer, more blogs to write (and read), more classes to take and teach, more work for the sermon(s), more degrees to finish or pursue, more, more, more, meaning that your family will get less, less, less. How many times have you come home late knowing that while you were trying to save your church, your wife was left alone trying to save your kids?

Can we really be effective pastors and good husbands and dads? Do we really have to choose between the church and our family?

Read the rest here.

It’s Easy To Criticise

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criticism

Stephen Altrogge on criticism:

Admit it: it’s so much easier to criticize people than encourage people. There’s just so much fodder for criticism! We’re all sinners, and we regularly sin against one another. Every day we sin against our families, coworkers, friends, etc. And then there are those annoying habits we all have. Your husband can’t seem to remember to put his towel away after he takes a shower (guilty!). Your wife is a chronic key loser. Your kids are constantly breaking your valuable stuff. And the guy in the cubicle next to you is constantly clearing his sinuses in a loud, wood chipper-like, fashion. Because we are constantly interacting with frail, human, silly sinners, it’s so easy to be a constant critic.

Because it is so easy to criticize, we must take extra effort to encourage, build up, and affirm other believers (I’m preaching to myself here). We must go the extra mile to encourage and refresh others. We must work hard to overwhelm our relationships with encouragement.

Read the rest here.

Good Youth Work Management Research

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Amaze logo

Leon Coates, the director of Amaze is doing some research into the management of youth work in the church. He writes:

“I am doing some research in management practice in Christian youth work. I’ve had a low response to my request for contributions to my research, any chance you could spread the word about my survey (its short!): http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QT2DVS3

My hypothesis is that where there is good management (in terms of specific activities and behaviours / competence of those doing it) that employed youth workers are engaged and perform well. Therefore I expect an outcome to be something along the lines of “these guys do great youth work that gets results because they are managed well. This is what these managers do and this is how they do it, therefore if you want good youth work please do the same!”
I’ve worked with Leon for a number of years together on We love our youth worker and his heart is so much to improve the working conditions for youth workers – if you’ve got a few minutes please do fill his survey in.

Church Should Be A Place of Undistracting Excellence

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Stephen Altrogge wrote an excellent blog post on striving for excellence in the church:

When it comes to doing church we can tend to gravitate toward one of two extremes. The first is the over the top, “everything must be awesome” extreme. The band should sound like as much like U2 as possible, and the worship leader should have that “I’m cool, but I’m not trying to look cool” look. Worship should feel similar to a rock concert, except, of course, we’re singing to Jesus. The lobby should feel like a fair-trade, organic only coffee shop, and the children’s ministry should resemble Chuck E. Cheese. If all these things coalesce at the same time it’s quite possible that the Third Great Awakening could take place.

The other extreme is the “it’s all about the heart”, don’t try to manufacture God’s presence, extreme. The worship band sounds like a steel pipe being put through a wood chipper? It doesn’t matter, it’s all about the heart. The children’s classrooms smell like vomit, playdough, and goldfish crackers? So what? The sanctuary is dingy, cold, and drafty, and the coffee served in the lobby tastes like peat moss? It doesn’t matter, because we try to attract people through the things that really matter, like preaching, and the gospel.

Neither one of these extremes is right.

Read the rest here.

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