Monday Morning Insights

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    A Dare for Pastors

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    Here’s how it works.

    1. Instead of getting up and going to the office, split your day in half. In the morning you’ll spend a half-day with a first shift office worker and in either the afternoon or evening you’ll pull a half shift with a blue collar worker. Trust me, you’ll find a bunch of volunteers. It’ll be fun for everyone. Repeat this for 5 days so each staff member gets to see 10 of your church attendees in their work environment for half a day.

    2. Run your ministries that week in the most stripped down way possible. Just wing it for a week… you’re professionals, you know you can wing a week. Tell the pastor to talk about his week or something. The preacher absolutely doesn’t get special treatment in this. Heck, download a free sermon from open.lifechurch.tv and tell the band to play last weeks songs on Sunday. This dare will make your ministry better, I promise.

    Intrigued?  You can read the rest of the ‘dare’ here at Adam’s blog...

    What do you think?  Anyone willing to take Adam up on his dare?!


    I got an email recently from Adam McLane with a great idea for pastors. I just wonder if anyone is game to take on this dare:

    Adam writes: I am daring you and your staff to take this challenge. I promise you it isn’t as dangerous as it sounds. In fact, I think it may just fundamentally change the way you interact with the people in your ministry.

    Here’s the dare.

    Lock every staff person out of your church building for a work week. From the senior pastor to the part time guy to the janitor. Instead of going to the office and doing your normal thing for 7 work days I am daring you to put all that “work” aside for a work week and a couple of days to spend that time getting to know 10 people who go to your church in their native environment...

    Comments

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    1. RevJeff on Tue, March 17, 2009

      Haha… Some of us live like that every week

    2. CS on Tue, March 17, 2009

      I like the idea of the pastors and church staff becoming more familiar and spending time with the flock.  This is a wonderful idea, and can help open new doors and expand relationships.  I wish that more pastors would take the time to sit down and get to know people, even putting aside some of the more minor responsibilities.  And then, in the last paragraph, this idea went south…


      “Tell the pastor to talk about his week or something. The preacher absolutely doesn’t get special treatment in this. Heck, download a free sermon from open.lifechurch.tv and tell the band to play last weeks songs on Sunday.”


      Just because the church staff wants to get more intimate with a set of the congregation is no excuse to go lax with preparations of the sermon and services for the rest of the flock.  This sounds like a real, “fast food,” mentality.  “Oh, we don’t have time to pore over the Word of God and see what the Holy Spirit wants to share with the believers.  Let’s just go through the drive-thru and have some leftovers.”  People don’t need to hear about their pastor’s week—they need to hear the Bible being taught.



      CS

    3. Lee Savage on Tue, March 17, 2009

      This isn’t anything new, maybe to spend a whole half day with the member of the “Flock”. I thought it was part of the job description to call on the “flock” and minister to it’s pains. How are you supposed to do that if you don’t know the people and feel their pains. It sounds to me as if some of you need to get out of the office moreoften then setting aside one week to experiment at knowing the people you serve!!

    4. Jeremy Brown on Tue, March 17, 2009

      Adam has a killer point!  Too many pastors have become professional at their job to the point where they no longer understand what it means to work for a living (in the secular sense - I know that what we do IS work… relax… you’re starting to sound like my wife!)


      Remember, the rest of the world has to work and live OUTSIDE of the Christian bubble (it’s starting to sound kind of nice, actually!) 


      It would do us all some good to turn a wrench or swing a hammer for a day or two.


      As far as preaching on Sunday, living in the same world that Jesus lived in (working for a living) would allow time for God to significantly speak to you… let’s face it, the Bible isn’t as difficult to understand as we make it sound… but that’s a topic for another day!

    5. Adam McLane on Tue, March 17, 2009

      CS- I’m not even suggesting you do this habitually. I’m saying, for one week… put getting to know your people better at a higher premium then an awesome message. In fact, I am promising you that you’ll be a better prepared preacher for the rest of the 51 weeks of the year because of this experiment. Go ahead, do it. I dare you.

    6. Will Clegg on Tue, March 17, 2009

      I;m not even slightly challenged by McLane’s idea.  A much better challenge would be to get to know 10 people who don’t go to any church in their native environment.  After all, who are we really to minister to?

    7. Miu Mustard on Wed, March 18, 2009

      i dont think it’s a good idea also.

    8. Lee Savage on Wed, March 18, 2009

      Are we talking about being a better preacher or a better pastor. There is a difference you know.

    9. CS on Wed, March 18, 2009

      Adam:


      I’m not a pastor, so I could not take this dare you’ve laid forth.  And if I were a pastor, I wouldn’t take this dare because I still have issues with the notion of a pastor being recommended to skimp on studying the Word and getting a, “sermon in a box,” or waxing philosophical about his work week as a substitute for diligent study in feeding the sheep.



      CS

    10. Adam McLane on Wed, March 18, 2009

      For those who think this is a bad idea or somehow now good for a church, I’d be curious as to why.


      @CS- please see Jeremy’s comment above. I think he covers why those of us in professional ministry need to be dared to leave the office.

    11. CS on Wed, March 18, 2009

      Adam:


      I’ve got no problem with getting out of the office and interacting with the flock.  If you go back to my original post on this thread, that’s where I encourage the idea.  I wish that more pastors would take the time to go visit people in their homes, at their work, and in hospitals (contrary to Perry Noble’s rant, but that’s another story).


      My problem is the forsaking of the dissemination of the Word of God and in taking what sounded like a, “fast food,” and irreverent solution for the church. 



      CS

    12. Adam McLane on Wed, March 18, 2009

      CS- yes, that does make sense. And that’s why I’m saying 1 week of a slightly less prepared or even canned message isn’t going to kill anyone. Conversely, lets say a staff of 5 spent time with 50 different people that week in their jobs??? Those 50 people will listen to every word you say for the next 51 weeks simply because someone took the time to get to know them on their turf. Not to mention, in those 50 encounters your church staff met tons of co-workers… which addresses another major problem of church staff; many don’t know non-church people!


      In this instance, I don’t think its devaluing the message. Instead, I think that the dare may deeply impact the message going forward and make an overall ministry stronger.

    13. Andrew Marin on Wed, March 18, 2009

      I actually think this is a fantastic idea!  And I think for many of the people who don’t, might be the exact people that should be challenged by such a thing.  Yes, pastors should know their “flock”, but especially in the larger church setting, how many actually do? I think it’s an innovative way to force interaction in the local community - what a church body should constantly be doing anyway.  Thanks for your thoughts Adam.

    14. DYU on Wed, March 18, 2009

      What is some non Christians walked in the church the same week as the challenge was done.  It would suck if they thought the pastors would wing the sermons and not be prepare for anything…


      there are some flaws to this

    15. Adam McLane on Wed, March 18, 2009

      DYU- I’m not following your logic. Can you explain? What I’m sure any visitor would experience that week is “man, these people love their church people enough to spend time with them?” Speaking as the preacher who now sits in a pew… preachers overvalue their message prep too much. Now that I go to a church that cares more about living out the message then it does preparing the message, I see message prep as something I wasted a ton of ministry time on. My goal of this dare is for pastors and ministry leaders to rediscover their passion for the people. We all went into this for the people… undergrad, seminary, internships, training, ordination… but soon enough we fall into this idea that church isn’t about people at all, it’s about programs.

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