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Happy churches tend to have happy pastors.  Happy pastors tend to be creative human beings who crave fresh ways of doing ministry.

There, I said it.

I increasingly see ineffective pastors who haven’t learned or done anything new in years.  Interestingly enough, some of them think they are learning something new when they read books or attend workshops, but the books they read or the events they attend only make them “smarter.”  The information doesn’t translate into fresh ways of doing ministry.

According to Shawn Achor human happiness is less determined by genetics, environment, or a combination of the two than by the commitment to develop new habits.   Exercising our brains makes us better – and happier – people.  When we develop new habits, our brains literally re-wire themselves.

The Church needs more re-wired pastors.

I serve a denomination with many talented pastors.  They are smart, well-spoken, creative, and compassionate.  But they are also – sometimes – lame.  Some of us haven’t allowed our spiritual practices to evolve since seminary.  Some of us haven’t preached a fresh sermon – or delivered that sermon in a fresh way – for decades.  Recently heard in a sermon:  “Maybe you’ve heard of the new play Cats . . .”

The brains of  digital natives who have never known life apart from computers are wired differently from those of us who went to high school equipped only with typewriters.   We can become digital immigrants, but we have to be willing to go there.  Immigrate.

A truly great conference or a truly excellent book moves us to a new place.  Before spiritual communities can move closer towards the Kingdom of God, spiritual leaders have to be willing to move first.

I still believe that the meaning of life is To Glorify God and Enjoy God Forever.  This involves some re-wiring.

The Preaching Roundtable

Bad things happen.

In my first 5 years of marriage, both my parents and my only grandparents died.   We moved.  We changed jobs.  We had a couple miscarriages.  And we also had three healthy kids – which was good – but not easy.  But we were blessed with a sense of okay-ness, if not joy, in those first five years.  We were happy.

HH and I  are still happy after many more years together, but this is not a post about married life.  It’s about life.  My hope is that I’d also be happy (okay if not joyful) even if I’d remained single.  I know life would be different but I suspect it would still be good.

One characteristic that increases happiness is resilience.  There have been studies, in particular on the resilience of clergywomen which say we can learn how to be more resilient which makes us happier.  One tool:  community.

Much of what adds to our happiness involves the support systems we have around us.  Daniel Gilbert, who teaches psychology at Harvard,  wrote this:

If I had to summarize all the scientific literature on the causes of human happiness in one word, that word would be “social.” If I wanted to predict your happiness, and I could know only one thing about you, I wouldn’t want to know your gender, religion, health, or income.  I’d want to know about your social network – about your friends and family and the strength of your bonds with them.

Whatever you do for work and life, what communities have made it better?

“My wedding day will be the happiest day of my life.”

“He/she always makes me happy.”

“If only I was with someone, I would be happy.”

Get these good people a (pre-marital, marital, individual) counselor.

I, for one, love Valentine’s Day.  But love can be hard.

I’m back from a church event in Sterling, VA and – when I’m doing a work trip with lots of ideas swirling around – I usually buy the current issue of The Harvard Business Review.  It’s not the kind of journal I read regularly, but there’s something about stepping away from my usual context that inspires me to read something apart from my usual context as well.  The January-February 2012 issue features several articles about Happiness.

I absorbed and highlighted chunks of this issue like I was reading the latest Rob Bell book.  And there’s probably more in this HBR issue for church leaders than even Rob Bell might offer in one of his books.  And I’m not at all talking about treat-your-church-like-a-business articles – which I usually disagree with.

So on this Valentines week of many (eye-rolling) Happily Ever After stories, I’d like to have some conversations on Happiness.  Reading the Harvard Business Review on a plane makes me happy.

What kind of reading (and where) makes you happy?

Please share:  which spiritual/Christian/worship/churchy conferences or events are you attending this year?  (See yesterday’s post.)

I especially want to know if you are registered for this Mime Conference.

Everyone:  please share what conferences you might be attending related to your field in the secular world too.

I’m in Sterling, VA this week for a Cool Event even though not many folks have signed up.  It’s about shifting meetings (which have become the business equivalent of breathing) from deadly wastes of time to spiritually energizing gatherings.  That’s not the official name of the event, but that’s what I’m calling it.

I could spend my life attending events:

Next Church 2012

Wild Goose 2012

Festival of Homiletics 2012

Church Planters Academy

Heck, I’d like to go to Burning Man once in my life although my family frowns upon this idea.

Many of these spiritual/church events feature the usual talented leaders.  You know who they are.  The energy among participants is contagious.  The FB and Twitter feeds buzz with comments.  People leave refreshed and dizzy with cool ideas.

Of course I have limited time to do these things.  There are events I pretty much have to attend (Board of Pensions Benefits) and those I really want to attend (Q1012).

Like meetings that go nowhere, I hesitate to attend events that I fear will go nowhere in terms of solid tools for change in the church.  Yes, some events are meant to enliven us and offer sabbath, but events that promise to point us to A New Way actually point us to not so new ways.

What conferences/events are you attending in 2012?  And why?

Image source.

I almost drove off the highway on the way home from work Monday while listening to this interview with Libertarian author Charles Murray about his new book – Coming Apart: The State of White America 1960-2010.  

He casually said  that The Rich Are Better Church People Than The Poor.  Really?

Don’t get me wrong.  There are very faithful wealthy people who often serve as patrons supporting 21st Century evangelists, apostles, teachers, etc. much like Paul and others were supported in the 1st Century Church.

But Charles Murray seems to ratchet this up a bit.  He says that wealthy Americans are more likely to be good church people than their less educated, poorer fellow citizens.

First this made me angry.  And then I think I got it.

Wealthy, established people benefit the most from institutions:  schools, clubs, churches, etc.  They are better at being institutional because they have benefited from institutions: universities, fraternal organizations, social clubs, and so on.

It used to be true, he said, that civic institutions attracted people from a variety of socio-economic groups.  The Moose Club, The Elks Lodge, the Kiwanis Club enjoyed memberships that included rich, poor, and everyone in the middle.  But today, Murray asserts that the Upper Class and the Lower Class have segregated themselves.  (This sounds a lot like The Big Sort.)

Upper Class Whites generally watch the same TV shows, eat the same foods, and rear their children the same way as other Upper Class Whites.  Lower Class Whites basically watch the same TV shows, eat the same foods, and rear their children the same way as other Lower Class Whites.

Among the activities that Rich People Life is church.  Or synagogue.  Or mosque – again, according to Charles Murray.  He would argue that this means that the wealthy are more committed to religious institutions.  

But this doesn’t mean that The Rich are most committed to Jesus.  Two different things.

Again, there are both rich and poor who are Good Church People and there are both rich and poor who try to follow Jesus.  These groups are not necessarily the same but sometimes they are the same.

(Side note:  when HH and I saw The Book of Mormon in January, I was struck by how much more church talk there was compared to God talk.  The missionaries were most concerned with bringing people into the church, building the church, obeying the church.)  In my theology, the church is a body that brings people to God, builds God’s kingdom, tries to obey God.

Are the Rich better Church People?  Maybe.  Are they better disciples of Jesus?  Maybe.  But the poor in our world and all who hunger for purpose and relief are more likely to call God’s name in the night.  Those who’ve experienced the living God, who’ve known resurrection in this life, who’ve acknowledged God’s grace are the ones more likely to be disciples.   They could be financially rich and serving within institutions.  Or they could be financially poor and connected by less formal relationships.

What have you seen concerning wealth and faith?

Image source.

Inspired by  Landon Whitsett . . . 

My name is Jan and I was a High School Cheerleader.  I’ve thought many times how well those years of jumping with pom poms prepared me for professional ministry.  Here are The Top Ten Things I learned:

1- It’s good to be flexible.

2- Sometimes you have to yell “A little louder now.”

3- Sometimes you have to yell “A little softer now.”

4- Keep your hair out of your face.

5- Standing in front of crowds can be unnerving, but pick a focal point and keep going.

6- It helps to have rhythm.

7- One word:  teamwork.

8- Sometimes you have to smile whether you feel like it or not.

9-All of us stand on the shoulders of others.

10- Sometimes you fall on your backside.

This weekend, even as you read this post, there are  boys, girls and women being forced into sexual activity by sex traffickers in Indianapolis.  They will have traveled with their captors for Super Bowl Weekend, while throngs of sports fans have planned a big weekend of professional football and partying.

“Partying” for many of these men will involve sex with children and women who have been taken against their will by human traffickers.

Because of eleven congregations of Roman Catholic women, many of these traffickers will find their unholy efforts confounded.  But we can help as well:

• Learn about human trafficking in the 21st Century.  Did you know that there are more slaves in the 21st Century than in any other time in human history?
• Know the signs that someone is being held against her/his will.  Here are some of the signs for school children who might be victims.
• Donate time or money to organizations like The Polaris Project and the International Justice Mission.
• Pray this weekend.  Don’t pray that God will bring victory to the Giants or Patriots.  Pray that people will keep their eyes and ears open, that they will speak up, that they will step in.  This is what it means to be the eyes, ears, and voices of Jesus in a crazy world.

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“We’re Big Deal Church on the Hill.  We don’t need to reach out to the
neighbors.”

Reality:  The neighbors don’t know this church exists.

“I won the preaching award back in seminary.”

Reality:  You haven’t preached a fresh word in years.

“Our church is very friendly.”

Reality:  A person can come and go with nobody noticing.

All of us need a reality check from time to time.  One of the marks of an authentic Christian community is that we hold each other accountable and tell each other the truth.  And before we can hold each other accountable, we need to trust each other.  And before we can trust each other, we need to love each other.  And before we can love each other, we need to remember that God that loves us even in our imperfection.

Too many of our church communities are filled with people who are not held accountable, don’t trust each other, don’t love each other, and don’t know that they are loved by God in spite of their imperfections.

This is not what God intends for the church.  We can’t be the hands, feet, voice, ears, and soul of Jesus on earth if we don’t live in reality.  But when we do live in reality, we see what needs to change.  People will attack us for telling the truth.  But we need to be real.  This is part of our calling.