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Good News for Imperfect Pastors

Years ago, I was talking over breakfast with a young man. Between bites of bacon and eggs, he was telling me about his disappointment with his dad.

Having had a dad who paid little attention to me, spent no time with me, and was really only “dad” in the strictest biological sense of the word, as I listened I struggled with how to respond. The complaints I was hearing sounded to me like the description of a normal human being trying his best to be dad; occasionally preoccupied, often not sensitive enough to his son’s needs, maybe not as spiritually dialed in as he could be…

I knew telling him my own story of a bad dad might help give him some perspective, but I didn’t want to make it a contest. At the core of his disappointment was the idea that his dad hadn’t modeled the loving character of God in quite the way he wished had been done. And as I looked down at my own plate of (quickly disappearing) bacon, something occurred to me.

“Well, it’s a good thing your dad wasn’t perfect. If he was, you wouldn’t have needed Jesus,” I said.

What followed was a good conversation on the way fathers (and others) point us to God both in their successes and failures in their roles.

I was thinking of this conversation recently as I reflected on a recurring theme among many of the pastors I coach. It probably won’t come as a surprise to anyone that pastors often struggle. They struggle with the things that every human struggles with, but added to that, they struggle with the odd idea that they shouldn’t encounter struggles at all as spiritual leaders- that by the time they reach a position of leadership, they ought to be beyond all that. And worse, because they aren’t beyond all that, they are somehow imposters or frauds who will eventually be outed as flawed and failing by people who expect… more.

While there are standards of ethics and conduct for ministry that are vitally important, most pastors I work with aren’t dealing with the kinds of sin that would disqualify someone from ministry, but rather the everyday ups and downs of following Jesus. Everyday ups and downs like spiritually dry spells, the very human struggle with lust, envy, ambition, worries about the future, and regrets about the past.

And to those leaders, I would say “It’s a good thing you aren’t perfect. If you were, nobody in your church would need Jesus.”

“Follow me as I follow Jesus” was written by a pastor who himself was not beyond the spiritual struggles of an imperfect human following Jesus. Those words weren’t meant to say “emulate my perfect spirituality,” but rather “emulate me in both my successes and my failures.” Follow me as I walk in the footsteps of Jesus AND as I deal through repentance with the times I stumble off the path. See me in both the highs and the lows, and in that be pointed to the ONLY one who ever did it perfectly.

Pastor, you do well when you allow others to see how you deepen and grow in your discipleship. You would do equally well to allow people to see the harder parts of that journey as well. You aren’t perfect, and no one (at least no one whose opinion you should care about) believes you are or even could be perfect.

We’ll settle for someone who’s trying– someone who shows us what it really looks like to follow Jesus.

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Leader Profile: Paul Hill

Paul, and his wife Calana (pronounced – kuh law nuh), have led the Wheatland Mission Church since its founding in 2006. Having journeyed with the church through many ups and downs, they are grateful to see God’s work in this corner of his Kingdom. Married 27 years, they have two children, Savannah recently graduated from Kansas State, and Harrison who is a senior at Wichita State.

In addition to pastoring the Wheatland Mission, Paul enjoys teaching courses in Bible and Christian Spirituality at Friends University. Paul and Calana have made the most of this COVID season by planting bigger and bigger gardens and very slowly re-modeling their home.

How would you describe the area your church is in?

Wheatland rents space from an American Baptist Church (Sunnyside Baptist) in the central part of the Wichita. We are one block from a large African-American congregation and the neighborhood is a mixture of Latino and White working class families.

How would you describe the journey of pastoring Wheatland Mission? What have been some of the milestones/different seasons?

Wheatland has been around for fourteen years and it feels as if we have been three or four different churches over the years. In our earliest days Wheatland followed the typical attractional model of church but on a small scale. However, we realized not long into our journey that that model wouldn’t work. We gathered a nice sized group very early on but most of that group disappeared near the one year mark. It was both devastating and clarifying. We realized that we had to retool our ministry.

For the next few years we tried to understand what God was calling us to do. In time, a path became clear to us. People who had been burned by the church often found us. Individuals who were struggling with belief but weren’t quite ready to give upon Christianity found us too. We saw ourselves as one of the last options that people gave themselves before giving up on church all together.

We rethought the process of spiritual formation. How do people become grounded in the faith, especially in a context where they have lost faith? This led us, in part, to adopting a more liturgical, Anglican-ish, approach to our life together.

Today we jokingly refer to ourselves as “feral Anglicans” or as “casually liturgical”. Neither term really describes who we are as a community but we have found a foundation in the Book of Common Prayer liturgy that has helped many of our people stretch themselves in faith and come in contact with Christ through the Spirit.

Most recently, Wheatland has been marked by this liturgical approach to life in our weekly worship as well thrice weekly prayer gatherings from the prayerbook. But, we have also been greatly impacted by our partnership with Hilltop Urban Church, a congregation of and for Wichita’s urban poor. Our friendship with Hilltop is changing our attitude about participating in God’s work in the world and seeing ourselves not as saviors, or as project managers, but as friends of God’s people wherever we find them.

Looking back, what do you know now you wish you had known when you first started Wheatland Mission?

On a personal level, I wish I understood the power I had as a leader in the church. Influenced by Anabaptism, and also being a bit naive, I didn’t exercise the power that I had as the pastor of our congregation and some division and heartache was the result. Looking back, I failed to exercise the power and authority I had as pastor of the congregation in a way that would have helped us avoid some of the division. I considered my inaction to be patience. But, looking back I think I was just afraid of creating conflict and division. My avoidance created the very thing I was trying to keep from happening.

As shepherds of our flocks we have the responsibility to care for them. That will sometimes mean hard conversations, strong stances, and inflexibility in regards to sinful divisiveness.

As you think about what you’ve been able to do so far in ministry there what are some things you have done/tried that have worked well?

As I mentioned above, employing liturgical elements from the BCP has been a great experience for us. We’ve also embraced the liturgical year by observing Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent and Easter. We are encouraged because there are children in our church have always known Advent and Lent as part of their walk of faith.

We’ve also seen significant success in partnering both with Hilltop and with three different churches that we have rented from. We have had numerous shared worship services and special events. Currently, our youth minister and other leaders, have created a youth ministry in cooperation with Sunnyside Baptist the church where we rent our meeting space. It has been a mutually positive experience.

What hasn’t worked so well? What have you had to rethink/reimagine/rework?

Wheatland used to be involved in a mobile medical ministry in the city. It started off as a good experience but we soon discovered two things. First, the medical professionals from our church that staffed the clinic grew concerned that they were providing care that was superficial and kept patients from seeking more thorough care which was available in the city. Second, the clinic, while a good thing, did not lead to building friendships with people who were in different socio-economic and ethnic spaces than we were. We entered as professionals who provided services. There is nothing wrong with this on its face but as a church, we have discerned that our responsibility is relationship with the poor where from whom we learn and grow and find relationship.

This has led us to our strategic partnership with Hilltop Urban Church. We worship together a few times a year (mostly on special occasions) and we provide back-up help with worship and teaching. Above all, we seek to become friends who are blessed as much as we bless.

What is something you’ve been hearing from or learning from God in this last season of leading?

Before Wheatland I was a part of a large church staff. I am confident that Wheatland is where God wants me to be and the church he wants me to serve. However, I sometimes feel that Wheatland is “not really” a serious church because of our size, the fact that we don’t have a building, we meet on Saturday nights, etc. As a pastor I sometimes suffer from an inferiority complex.

Wheatland is unique and important and I think that God is saying, the Wheatland Mission is what the Wheatland Mission is supposed to be. Not perfect, with lots of room for improvement and growth, but, who Wheatland is essentially right. Don’t be ashamed of it. Don’t run away from it. God is with us and God is at work.

What do you dream/hope/pray Wheatland Mission looks like in five years?

First, I hope our strategic partnership with Hilltop increases and improves. My hope is that most of our middle-class educated congregation would be meaningfully connected to people from our sister church.

Second, we need to re-develop our small group ministry. In earlier years this was a central part of our shared life. But, in recent years this part of our ministry has suffered and we are working at creating a rhythm of life at Wheatland that includes not only corporate worship and service but smaller communities of more intense and purposeful growth.

NOTE: the photo above is of our staff, Nathan Hansen, Shawntel Shirkey, Devin Withrow, and myself.

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Leader Profile: Stephen Redden

Stephen Redden is one of the founding pastors of NDC and oversees our church multiplication efforts. He is also the director of The Church Cooperative of Denver, the local church network NDC helped launch in 2017. He is a graduate of Mississippi State University (B.S. Computer Engineering, M.B.A.) and Dallas Theological Seminary (M.A. Biblical Studies). Stephen also does a variety of projects outside of NDC. He is the founder of Third Circle, a consultative coaching practice, where he works with individuals and organizations to maximize their effectiveness.  Between 1996 and 2000 Stephen worked as an information technology specialist at IBM Global Services before leaving to work on a project with Mission Aviation Fellowship in Kazakhstan and Russia in 2000-2001. After returning to the US in 2001, Stephen joined the staff at North Point Community Church to help lead the Community Groups ministry. Stephen married Kate in 2002, and they welcomed their first son, Ethan, in 2004 and were blessed again in 2007 with the arrival of their second son, Andrew. Stephen loves football (Go Broncos and Hail State!) and futbol (Go Rapids and Gunners!), snowboarding, and considers himself a closet redneck and a geek at heart.

How would you describe the area your church is in?

Urban neighborhood

How would you describe the journey of pastoring New Denver? What have been some of the milestones/different seasons?

We started the church 10 years ago, and I was one of the founding pastors. In that time there have been a number of seasons and milestones along the way. The early years were marked by a lot of work to slowly build relationships and patiently serve our fledgling community as it grew slowly. In time, somewhere around year four, we hit a point where momentum began to build and we began to feel more stable. We had a steady self-sustaining community and focused on the tasks of growing our roots deeper. In some ways that season continues today in our main location, but four years ago we committed to making significant investments in multiplying our influence. We built on the momentum of our existing ministry residency and started a church planting residency as well. Two years ago we helped our first church planting resident launch a new church – Westside Church Internacional – a bi-lingual, multicultural church in west Denver. Today we continue to look for opportunities to grow and expand our influence at New Denver, but we are also exploring opportunities to bring on another church planting resident or work with an existing church to replant or revitalize a community.

Looking back, what do you know now you wish you had known when you first started New Denver?

Perseverance is the key to longevity in ministry. Everyone faces challenges and adversity, and things rarely go the way that you expect. If you can hold your expectations open-handed before God and believe that he is always at work in ways that you cannot fathom or understand, it allows you to persevere through the inevitable highs and lows of pastoral ministry.

As you think about what you’ve been able to do so far in ministry there what are some things you have done/tried that have worked well?

From the beginning, we sought to be a values-driven church. Our values have changed over time, but our commitment to discerning the few things we want to focus on as a community has remained consistent. This clarity of values helps us to know who we are and how we focus our limited energy and resources. In pursuit of living out those values, we never get too attached to programs or methodologies. One of our values is community, and to date, we’ve tried a variety of different approaches to living that out. The goal remains the same, but we hold loosely to our strategies. Lastly, I think one thing we’ve done well is to try and steward the people who come through our community well. Our city is very transient, and it has been easy at times to get cynical about how many people come and go. But the more we remain open-handed – celebrating people when they come and when they go and making the most to guide them and develop them while we’re here, we seem to see God bless and multiply our efforts.

What hasn’t worked so well? What have you had to rethink/reimagine/rework?

We’ve had to re-think evangelism over and over. In the early days, we were so desperate to “get the word out” and make new connections that it was difficult to be patient to see and appreciate the slow work of God. We were always pushing people to invest in others and to invite them to church. As we have been able to grow slowly, it has allowed us to be patient and see that in very post-Christian contexts like Denver, it may be years to see people open to engaging somehow in the life of the church.

What is one failure you experienced and what did you learn from it?

In the early days, we were trying to create gatherings to build relationships and get some momentum going. I remember we did an event at someone’s house, bought a bunch of food, and invited 20-25 people. Three people showed up. It was so disappointing, but I tried to value and appreciate those three people well. It prepared me for the coming years when there would be low-attendance Sundays or seasons when attendance and participation would mysteriously drop. We developed a mantra – “Love the church you have, not the church you want to have.”

What is something you’ve been hearing from or learning from God in this last season of leading?

I turn 49 this year, and over the last few years, God has been impressing on me that innovation and leadership to engage coming generations doesn’t come from 50 and 60-year-olds. It’s time for me to start getting serious about moving from the “front” to the “back” – to get behind younger leaders and use everything I have to push them forward. This is not something that I’ve seen done particularly well by the church leaders in the generations ahead of me, but it’s something I’m convinced we need to do better.

What do you dream/hope/pray New Denver looks like in five years?

In five years I’d love to see us continuing to grow and engage people at our current location. We currently share space with the aging and dwindling congregation that owns the building where we meet. It’s been a great relationship, but over the last few years, we’ve felt constrained by their refusal to make space for us to grow by adding additional Sunday services. It would be great to get that resolved. But I’d also like us to continue to engage with reaching people through church planting and looking for ways to invest outside our current community.

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Becoming a Distributed Church without Becoming a VIRTUAL Church.

One of the things I have thought a lot about over the last two decades is the intersection of technology and church, particularly as it relates to how church communities are formed or mal-formed by their use of technology.

The current crisis of quarantines and social distancing has led to nearly all churches developing an online presence and streaming their worship and teaching. Many were prepared because they have been doing so for years, developing digital congregations who’ve never been a part of a live gathering, or “podrishioners” who have connected to the church via the medium of podcasting. Others have been scrambling to figure out how to be the church when we can’t be with each other.

In this time of upheaval and racing to figure out how to keep the basics of community together without physical presence, there is an opportunity for formation, but also a danger of malformation.

1st, Christianity is an incarnational faith, an embodied vision of the advancing Kingdom of God.

That’s not to say that spiritual impact can’t be made from a distance, but it should shape how we interact over distances. In other words, if the ecclesia is the “gathered” group of believers, then during this time substituting watching a video of a church service for the actual fellowship, accountability, touch, and sacrament of gathering is just virtual church… just church enough to be dangerous. Dangerous because it cements people into patterns of passivity, of watching rather than participating, of judging the quality of the service as they are serviced by religious professionals rather than experientially joining with others in listening to the Spirit of God.

But… If during this time, our preaching becomes more interactive, and more voices are heard, not less (1 Cor. 14:16), if we see people who would normally enter and exit a church service without speaking to others now discussing the Word in breakout rooms, getting to know others, praying for others, people sharing their requests and thanksgiving with the whole body, becoming more mindful of the needs of others in their church, the ecclesia will be closer to what it was meant to be after this crisis than it was before. More of the Body of Christ using their gifts for the good of others, not less, more people feeling connected and cared for, not less, and more people invited into the Kingdom and folded into the body of Christ because they went online looking for some encouraging content to consume, but instead found a community of people ready, willing and able to use digital connection as a bridge to real-life connection and companioning.

2nd, the choice between walking down the road to virtual church or distributed church is a choice being made right now, this minute.

As you are thinking and planning (and hopefully praying about) what you are planning for the next few weekends, the question is not “How do we do everything we normally do on Sundays in the same way we normally do it- just digitally and with increasing excellence?” The real question should be “What opportunities does this crisis and this medium, in particular, offer our church for growing deeper and broader? What does the Spirit want to do in us during this time?” One thing I’m fairly certain God is uninterested in doing is making you into a fantastic producer of digital church service shows for people to passively consume.

In fact, my prayer during this time is that God will use this crisis in North America to break us of our consumerism, to deepen our hunger for real connection, to disperse more and more of the Church from mega-gatherings of people there for religious goods and services to smaller groups of Christians, equipped by their leaders, blessed and sent to do the work of ministry themselves in their particular contexts of neighborhood, schools, and work.

3rd, understand that when life begins to go back to normal, people will be back at work long before they are “back at” church.

My suspicion is that restriction of gatherings of 50+, 100+, 1000+ will continue for a while as we deal with waves of infection rising and falling. That means that the future of the church (at least in the near term) is found in distributing itself, not in creating clever workarounds for a couple of weeks until we can get back in the building.

Many churches will not survive the coming months. That’s a harsh reality we’re going to have to deal with. The ones who don’t aren’t necessarily big or small, young or old. They are the churches for whom the Sunday gathering is the irreducible minimum without which they cannot survive. I suspect the churches that do survive are the ones who right now are ramping up their equipping efforts, not their production values. They are driving hard toward a vision of a distributed church, where they may gather to worship together (digitally or otherwise), but everyone knows the majority of the work of ministry is happening throughout the week, because discipleship and nothing else, is their highest value.

Churches that focus on digital excellence and producing a virtual version of their Sunday gathering will find only fewer people in the seats when they are able to reopen their doors, because they’ve shown people a more comfortable alternative to getting up and getting dressed on Sunday morning- a way to “get their church on” without leaving home, speaking to another person, or being asked to serve in any meaningful way.

But, churches that focus on becoming more distributed during this time will find themselves with new life after this crisis is over- fresh expressions of church being birthed out of the connections that have been made, by the people who have been encouraged to step up and lead out in ministry to others, in places that will be open to smaller gatherings long before mega-churches are able to reopen.

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Becoming a Distributed Church: Why It’s Worth the Shift

If the government restricted your church from gathering each Sunday, what would your church look like? 

If your church was unable to gather in groups larger than 50, or even 10, what would your church look like? And how would it shape the way you think about your church in how it joins God’s mission? 

Over the past several years I’ve posed these hypothetical questions to numerous groups of church leaders. In light of the COVID-19 global pandemic, these questions are no longer hypothetical; they are our new reality, whether we like it or not. 

As we’ve already felt – and will continue to feel for quite some time – the myriad effects of the coronavirus, the Church is in unprecedented times. How shall we respond? Despite the difficulties, uncertainties, and setbacks this has brought (and will continue to bring) to our global village, there are many reasons for hope as we think about what localized distributed expressions and extensions of the Church could look like.  

But this will necessitate an un-learning and relearning, which will require large doses of wisdom, courage, and compassion. American futurist Alvin Toffler said,  “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”And so, it is with courage that we must lean into these unprecedented times by being prepared and ready, while also remaining full of hope and expectancy for the Spirit to work. And it is our calling to follow that Spirit. 

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Leader Profile: Adam Avery

Adam Avery is one of the Pastors at Church At the Well in Burlington, VT. Asie from having been once punched in the arm by Bernie Sanders, he’s also the newest member of the Ecclesia Board.

How would you describe the area your church is in?

All of New England has a strong “town hall” vibe to it. Slow is valued here because anything worthwhile will take time and need to be talked out and walked out. It’s a fun contest for ministry because it’s interactive and very thoughtful. When people decide to follow Jesus here, it’s legit. They’ve taken the time to process it and think it through and when they’re ready, they’re ready.

How would you describe the journey of pastoring Church At the Well? What have been some of the milestones/different seasons?

So many milestones and monuments have been built over the 11 years I’ve been here. The one we’re celebrating most these days is financial sustainability and increased staffing. We’ve done so much with so little for so long that we’re blown away at God’s provision during this current season. It’s been 10 years in the making and God has been faithful at every turn.

Looking back, what do you know now you wish you had known when you first started Church At the Well?

I wish I had known that God is never in a hurry and it’s ok for a church to go 2 steps forward and 1 step back. Owning that from the get-go would have been extremely helpful. Losing & finding new worship space, saying goodbye to friends who moved away, financial ups and downs, seasons of transition, etc. are all part of the dance called ministry. It isn’t a comfortable dance to learn, but when you figure it out it feels more graceful than it used to.

As you think about what you’ve been able to do so far in ministry there what are some things you have done/tried that have worked well?

Team ministry and collaboration. I always believed in it conceptually, but I’m sold on it through and through now. Plurality of leadership is tricky at times but well worth it.

What hasn’t worked so well? What have you had to rethink/reimagine/rework?

Ha! Almost everything! We’re constantly debriefing and tweaking things around here. One of our mantras is that structure must submit to spirit, so we even rework and rethink the things that are working!

What is one failure you experienced and what did you learn from it?

Not asking for help. There have been numerous occasions when Ian, Abby and I (staff pastors) have stepped into roles and responsibilities that we should have invited others into instead of taking them on ourselves. We’ve succumbed to micro-managing on more than one occasion and have learned that it robs us and our community of opportunities to serve God and others faithfully. Paying your taxes hurts a little, but it builds infrastructure and more opportunities for growth and discipleship.

What is something you’ve been hearing from or learning from God in this last season of leading?

How important consistent communication is. Sometimes I fall prey to the notion that if it’s clear in my own head and I’ve talked about it once or twice, everyone else is right there with me. “Town Hall meetings are valuable and worth the time, Adam” – that’s what God has been saying.

What do you dream/hope/pray Church At the Well looks like in five years?

We’re praying that Church At the Well will become more of a place (we’re currently renting space only on Sunday morning and want more of a physical presence) and a community where people are invited to practice the way of Jesus with us and thirst for the life that he alone can give.