Church Wisdom Inspired by March Madness

March Madness is over and temperatures are climbing and trees are blooming and the LORD is risen. And as congregations continue to seek resurrection for themselves, I am inspired by the basketball cheers of my favorite team:

When I say TAR, you say HEEL!

tar. HEEL! tar. HEEL!

A few reminders for Eastertide:

When you say WE WANT A YOUNG PASTOR WITH KIDS, I say: Do you really?

Young pastors with kids will not guarantee that you will “get new members” who are young families with kids. Also, today’s “young pastors with kids” are not like 1950-1970s “young pastors with kids” in that – these days – both moms and dads attend Parent-Teacher Conferences, soccer games, choir performances and pediatrician check ups. If your “young pastor” happens to be a single parent, you will be expected to offer additional support. When you say you’re looking specifically for a young pastor with kids, I see a red flag. Do you really want that?

When you say WE CAN ONLY PAY A MINIMUM SALARY FOR A PART-TIME PASTOR, I say: This means you will have to adjust your expectations.

Part-time means part-time. This pastor will need to find additional employment, perhaps in another church unless they are independently wealthy. No one can afford to live off of a minimum part-time salary. Actually sharing a pastor with another congregation also seeking a part-time pastor is an excellent idea in that one pastor can lead the same Zoom Bible Study for more than one congregation and congregations can trade off special services (Ash Wednesday at Church A and Good Friday at Church B). This makes for more community, more connections, more opportunities.

When you say WE ARE CUTTING DENOMINATIONAL SUPPORT, I say Can you show me in the Bible where God said, “I’m calling you to be lone rangers”?

Even the Big Steeple Churches that “don’t need the Presbytery” find spiritual growth in partnering with small congregations. (I remember a men’s quartet from a “big church” singing one summer Sunday in a “small church” and one of the singers told me that visiting that small church changed his life when he witnessed how they loved each other in ways he hadn’t seen in his own congregation.) In my own Presbytery we are one church with 93 locations. We share our resources to provide grants for each other. We partner for events because we can do more together.

When you say OUR PASTOR WON’T KEEP OFFICE HOURS, I say This means your pastor is out in the community where they should be.

Some pastors spend time in their offices. Some pastors work from home. All effective pastors spend most of their time connecting with the community beyond the walls of church and home. It’s a pastor’s job to meet with community leaders, high school kids, parents, and local McKinney-Vento Coordinators. (Seriously pastors: find out who your local public school homeless liaisons are and become best friends with those people. There’s at least one in every school system in every county of the USA.)

If any of these statements are regularly expressed in your church, please know that you need to remember that this is the 21st Century and church is not the same as it was even ten years ago much less twenty-five years ago.

When I say CHRIST IS RISEN. You say CHRIST IS RISEN INDEED!

What boulders are still blocking the possibility of resurrection in your congregation?