Shot in the Back: When Churches Shoot Their Leaders

They call it friendly fire.  On the battlefield it is usually an accident.  A soldier mistakenly fires his weapon and wounds or kills a comrade.  The soldier thought he was shooting at the enemy, but fired directly at one of his own people.  It is a tragedy.  Everyone feels awful, but the soldier that is hit is just as wounded, or just as dead as if he had been shot by the enemy.  Sometimes friendly fire is not so friendly.  It can be intentional to settle some kind of score with an officer or buddy.  Maybe the officer has pushed hard, maybe he has led the unwilling into a difficult place.  Maybe the shooter is just scared or perhaps his intent is evil.

In the church we have incidents of friendly fire. Young Christians, particularly young pastors, are often victims.  We old grizzled veteran pastors have learned to watch out for it, but sometimes even we older ones fail to avoid becoming a target.  Pastors often lead out thinking that their men (the congregation) will follow them, support them, and do everything they can to win the battle with sin and Satan only to find themselves shot in the back, wounded by their own side, with their souls bleeding and no one to help them.  The very ones who should provide help and support are often the ones who have done the shooting.  Is it any wonder that so many of our churches are ineffective in reaching their communities? Is it any wonder that we have a leadership crisis?  Who wants to face an enemy as formidable as Satan when he can’t trust the people behind him to follow and refrain from shooting him or her? 

When a pastor has felt a few bullets whiz by, or has bled because someone who was supposed to be on his side in our battle with Satan shot him or talked someone else into shooting him.  He gets into the habit of looking over his shoulder and sometimes expects friendly fire even when it isn’t coming.  It is hard to do your best as leader when you always have to keep an eye out for shots from behind.

Pastors accept the call from God and work hard to prepare to lead God’s people.  They are full of the Lord and they want to help the church change the world.  I am confident that they are prepared for the battle with Satan, but I also know they are not prepared to be shot at by those that the Lord has called them to lead.  Seldom are they shot because they are not doing God’s will.  Usually it is because some folks in the church are unwilling to follow them in doing God’s will. 

Many people in our established churches are comfortable.  They don’t want things to change in their beloved church.  I sympathize with that.  My hair is gray, too.  I remember a lot of the same things with fondness: large evangelistic Sunday night services, rousing old hymn singing that raised the roof, camp meetings where people came to actually have their lives changed (and not just to be reunited with old friends), and revivals where the Spirit of the Lord moved among us.  I loved those things, too, but these days God is using different things to reach new generations.  Way too often our young ministers are getting shot in the back by the very people that ought to be not only cheering them on, but also following them to reach a lost and dying world.  These young men and women have a heart for God and an impulse from Him to win their generation.  They are often begged by churches to “come and lead us”.  Many times they hear a church say, “We used to be quite large and we can be again if you just come and lead us.  Young couple with families will come and we will grow again.”  That is what churches say, but is that what they really mean?  As soon as the young pastor begins to make the changes in the schedule, in the music, in the program, or in the décor that he believes will help the church reach new people, the shots start coming.  Not shots from the world, but shots from the church!  “That’s not the music we like.”  “That’s not the way dear old Pastor So-and-So did it.”  “That’s not what we built that room for.”  “Why do we need all this video equipment?”  “Those new people you’ve got coming here don’t know how to dress for church.”  Young leaders are just trying to get the Gospel to people in a way they understand, but too many old veteran church people see only that it is not the way it used to be done.  It is the same message of salvation, holy living, and unity among God’s people, but it is packaged a different way.  Like with any new package, some people like it and some don’t.  The thing a lot of older church people don’t realize is that the new packaging is to attract new customers.  Now is the time to present that same Gospel to younger folks who don’t have our background.  This generation of young people that the church now has to reach is not like ours.  Most of them weren’t taken or even sent to Sunday school by their parents.  Lots of them don’t know the Bible stories that were so much a part of our growing up.  To them the church is that mysterious big building that people they don’t know go to.  If the church is to make a difference in the lives of these people, we need to support our new leaders as they reach out to an unchurched generation.

Some of us are probably afraid that we are not needed by these young ones.  That is not true.  They desperately need our prayers, our encouragement, and our understanding.  They need us to get their sense of urgency for reaching people for God.  They need us to love them and understand that they are attempting to build the Kingdom of God and quit accusing them of trying to tear up the church.  Young leaders will make mistakes. That’s when they need us to give them the courage to try again.  Put away your critical attitude and become a cheerleader for your young ministers.  Ask God to give you a new burden to reach the lost.  When others of your generation start to run them down, stand up for these dedicated young people.  Love them.  Be surrogate parents for them.  Love their kids like they were your own grandkids.  Many of them are far from their families, and they need the family of God to be family to them.  Finally, when you aim your gun, be sure to aim at the enemy.  When you do damage make sure the damage you do is to the Satan’s cause and not to our own people.

What Pastors Must Never Forget

The interview was going very well.  The old pastor had regaled the young seminary student with great stories in answer to questions about his long life and ministry.  He told how he began as a teenager in the 1920s, traveling by train, carrying a circus-type tent from town to town with a brother and two sisters to preach and sing at revivals.  When he took his first church, it was in desperate need of painting.  He found a deal on white paint, so they painted the little building white.  When finished, it almost glowed in the dusty central California town.  The whole town noticed, so he took advantage by renaming the church White Chapel. 

Later, when he pastored in a small town in southern Indiana, he put large loud speakers in the church’s bell tower and blessed the whole neighborhood with his sermon each week.  Later he was the first pastor in his denomination to try a weekly radio program.  The only available air time was late on Sunday evening.  He decided that people were preached to enough during the day on Sunday.  He felt that something other than a traditional worship service was needed to end the day.  So, he created a program that included music that was easy to listen to, the Gospel spoken in a conversational voice as if he was visiting with his listeners in their living room.  The program was syndicated and reached millions in the 50s and 60s.  Always an innovator, he was also one of the first pastors to dabble in television.  If he thought a method would reach people with Christ’s message, he was willing to give it a try.

All these things he told the younger man with great humility, giving God all the credit.  It was really quite a story.  The old man had been cutting-edge in the mid-20th century.  The younger man was impressed with his record.  Many people had already reported the great things that this elderly man of God had done: churches built, people healed, broken lives mended. This man had a knack for putting everyone at ease and being able to relate to people from all strata of society.  He had always been a consummate storyteller and his messages were richly illustrated, because he wanted to make sure the people could understand and remember the message God had for them. 

Though he had very little formal education, he read widely and could converse with the farmer and the factory worker, as well as the doctor, lawyer and professor.  Upon his retirement from pastoring, a college awarded him an honorary doctorate. 

Finally, thinking he almost had enough information for the paper he was writing, the younger man asked the finishing question about the growth of the churches the older man had pastored.  “What strategy did you use to produce the growth in your churches?”  The old man thought for a moment, then a smile creased his face as he replied, “Well, you know I only went to school until the fourth grade.  I once passed the tests to get into Bible college, but the week I was supposed to start there, a church begged me to come help them with a revival, and I just felt I couldn’t let that church or the Lord down.  So I just never got around to school.  I was never taught much about strategy.  What I tried to do was just love the people, and do what God led me to do.”  For a moment the student was stunned.  He had become so wrapped up in studying the church and analyzing how it worked, he had almost lost sight of the most important thing, the very thing the older man had never forgotten.  The student also realized that wisdom trumps knowledge.  He had asked a question about knowledge, but the old pastor’s answer was one of wisdom.  

It is nearly 40 years later and that young student is now an old pastor.  I have always tried not to forget the lesson I learned from Rev. Ross H. Minkler all those years ago.  Often, I have had to remind myself what the most important thing is: loving the people and doing what God leads me to do.  Whatever vision and strategy the Lord gives us for his church, and no matter how hard we work to plan, the key remains what Pastor Ross said—Love the people and do what God tells us to do. I don’t want to forget that, and I hope that other pastors never forget it.

Hope For the Church (Part 1) The Price the Pastor Must Pay

The truth is a lot of local churches in North America have a very uncertain future. The state leader of the church group with which I am associated estimates that as many as 90% of our churches are plateaued or declining. He is afraid that many of them are in grave danger. Some of them can’t see it; others see it, but think that somehow it will just get better. These congregations just keep doing things they always have and wish for better days to return, instead they of facing their problems and taking steps to overcome them. It is tempting to give up hope on such local churches.

I think there is a lot of hope for the church, but some things have to change for that hope to be more than a wish. Some prices have to be paid by both the pastor and the congregation. These are emotional as well as financial prices. Churches need to check their priorities and make sure that they are God’s priorities for His church. Even though it’s hard, there has to be a willingness to adopt new methods to deliver the old Gospel. The church needs an agile organization that can adapt to opportunities. Finally, congregations must get an idea of how they are perceived by the community they wish to win for Christ.

I’m going to deal with hope for the church in my next several blog postings. Since he should be the key leader to get the congregation off a plateau or turn it around from a decline, I want to start with the pastor.

The Price the Pastor Must Pay if there is Hope for the Church:

Many years ago C. Peter Wagner said that the first thing a church needs if it wants to grow is a pastor who wants the church to grow and is willing to pay the price. That’s still true. Pastor, do you want your church to grow? Now, don’t answer too fast. Growing churches are a lot of work! New people can bring messy lives into the fellowship. Change is a challenge for long-time members. You may have to learn some things and stretch yourself to lead a growing church. Here is a short, non-exhaustive list of the prices a pastor has to pay to lead the church he serves off a plateau or to recover from decline:

1. The pastor must completely and continually yield himself to being the pastor God wants him to be. Being God’s kind of pastor must be what your heart is set on, and what your life and ministry are built around. Only two things can come before your commitment to God’s vision for the church: your personal relationship with God and your relationship with your family.
2. The pastor must train himself. Even if you have an advanced seminary degree, you may not know what you need to know to lead a church in this crucial time. Fortunately, we live in a day when books, on-line courses, seminars, and other training opportunities abound. Maybe what you need is to get someone who has led a turnaround church to coach you through the process.
3. Get God’s vision for the church you are serving. It’s not as hard as it may sound. You know the outcome he wants: make disciples. To get His vision for your situation, you simply ask him, “Given my gifts and talents and the talents and gifts of our people, how can our church make disciples of people in this community? Who should we try to reach first? What can we do to deliver the Gospel to them in a way that is relevant to their lives and that they will accept?
4. Work hard. You know what I mean. A rut can be comfortable because you don’t have to dig. If you’re leading a turnaround, you will be building some new roads. It takes work!
5. Lead the congregation. Don’t be satisfied with maintaining status quo. Lead the church to fulfill the Great Commission in your local community with your ideas and your teaching. God called you there to be the leader. This may be news to some of the people in your church, so be prepared to deal with opposition. Remember you are doing God’s assignment, not your own.
6. Stay there long enough to see the vision fulfilled. If you start making progress, other congregations will hear of it and want you to be their pastor. Make sure you have completed God’s assignment at the church you’re now serving before you entertain a move.