My family is overwhelmed with gratitude for your prayers. Thank you for lifting us before God faithfully.

Several of you ask us often how you can specifically pray for us. I always look forward to giving you honest and immediate needs because I know your prayers make a difference.

If you ever don’t know what to pray, we always are asking God for wisdom to lead well, spiritual direction and power, anointing to teach God’s word, and protection for our family from spiritual and other attacks.

We truly feel your prayers. Without your prayer support, we couldn’t do what we do.

Thank you for caring enough to pray.

Thank you so much for treating me like a normal person. I feel that you honor the “office” of the pastor but love and accept me as a person.

I don’t take this for granted. Many of my pastor friends tell me that they feel lonely in ministry. Many have explained that other pastors in town are difficult to get to know and trust. Others have expressed deep hurts from friendships-gone-bad with people in their churches.

My family feels loved and accepted and not judged by the church. Some people may act differently around us because they are “with the pastor.” Our family enjoys when you are yourself and let us be ourselves. I’m especially grateful when you don’t put unrealistic expectations on my children and love them as regular kids.

We’ll always try to be a good and faithful example of Christ, but we’re grateful when you love us even though we occasionally fail.

I’d love to hear your perspective of friendships in ministry.

This week I’d like to dialog about how people can truly help and support their pastor. I’ll write from my perspective and would love to hear yours.

Your Words of Encouragement Matter

Dear Church,

Thank you so much for taking time to share how God is working in your life. Knowing that our ministry is making a difference is often all I need to keep going when I’d rather give up.

As your pastor, I’m way more “human” than I’d like to be. In my best moments, I’m fully convinced of God’s calling and presence. In my worst moments, I feel weak, insecure and totally ineffective as a Christian, much less the shepherd of a flock.

Just last week, one of you took the time to tell me how God has used our church to change your life for the better. I didn’t tell you, but on the inside I was wondering if my efforts mattered. God used your words to minister to me in a deep way.

Thanks so much for telling me how God is working in your life!

How has God used your church to minister to you?

I think the United Methodist Church either needs to become united again or intentionally part ways.

Today, there is a huge divide between liberal Methodists and evangelical Methodists. While I don’t pretend to understand all of the nuances of the issues, I know that division doesn’t help anyone.

While conferences are wrestling with questions around ordaining homosexuals and the inspiration of scripture, Methodist churches are dying daily. More importantly, people are dying daily without a relationship with Christ.

While the UMC prides itself in being open, many of my evangelical peers don’t believe that their conference is very open to them.

Being an evangelical, I’m obviously biased. It is my humble opinion that pastors should boldly preach the life-changing Word of God and the new birth in Christ. Without the powerful proclamation of the Gospel, I don’t see any hope of survival. If liberal leaders won’t support evangelicals, the denomination would be wise to allow them a way to gracefully exit.

I pray God will bless and empower the UM Church to unite and share Christ around the world!

I’d suggest that many UM churches consider merging and become multi-site churches. If you have a strong UM church with limited space and a struggling UM church with an empty building, why not link arms?

(For more thoughts on “merging churches,” click 1) here, 2) here, 3) here, and 4) here.)

While I acknowledge that this is a complicated suggestion, the UMC church could also consider partnering with other churches outside its denomination.

Currently, we are partnering with many UMC churches that use our teaching for no charge. The possibilities of these partnerships are enormous. I’d suggest the leaders of the UMC search for other Kingdom-minded ministries and churches to unite with for a greater impact.

I can’t help but wonder how many struggling churches could have a chance for survival (and more than simply survival) if they shared resources with other churches in their communities or from around the world.

When I was an associate pastor at First United Methodist Church, our church grew from about 300 people to close to 700 people (which at the time was considered a very large church).

Each Methodist Church paid their share of “apportionments.” Although I’m not certain where the apportionments go, I’m assuming they support UMC missionaries, hospitals, benevolence ministries, district superintendents, bishops, administrative costs, etc.

It was also my understanding (and my UMC friends can correct me if I’m wrong), that the apportionments also helped support smaller churches that couldn’t make it on their own. I firmly believe that UMC churches partnering together is one of the keys to its future! The denomination’s connectedness is a great strength. But heavy apportionments on larger churches could ultimately hurt the whole. I’ll explain.

At FUMC, we paid approximately 17% of our budget to apportionments. (I was told larger churches paid higher perecentages.) This model could prevent strong churches from growing stronger. If the church has more resources to put toward evangelism, church planting, their own ministry passions, and expansion, perhaps the churches could grow larger and more influential.

If the UMC had more growing and visible churches (like Granger Community Church, in Indiana, Ginghamsburg Church in Tipp City, Ohio and Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City, Kansas), these churches could help attract new leaders and bring a wave of hope and optimism.

To do so effectively would take many fundamental changes. One might include re-evaluating the ordination process.

When I was a UMC pastor, I was an un-ordained “local pastor” for three years, spent four years in seminary (while serving full time at a church) and had two more years before I’d become fully ordained as an elder.

While I appreciate the education and accountability, many younger leaders want to be “in the game” more than they want to leap through lots of denominational hurdles.

Today’s emerging Christian leaders are eager to make a difference—now. Many have already been around the world on mission trips and certainly have a more global and missional mindset than my generation did. If they are tied down to cumbersome process that delays their opportunities to make a difference, they are likely to do ministry elsewhere.

Here is a brief statement about the itinerant system from the UMC:

“The itinerant system is the accepted method of The United Methodist Church by which ordained elders are appointed by the bishop to fields of labor. All ordained elders shall accept and abide by these appointments.”

Basically, once a minister is fully ordained as an elder, the Bishop appoints the minister to whichever church the Bishop (or cabinet/board) believes is God’s best.

This model presents several challenges:

1. The local church doesn’t have much say (if any) in selecting their pastor.
2. The pastor and pastor’s family may hesitate to fully engage in a community knowing their future is uncertain.
3. The people in the church know their pastor could be moved at any time.
4. The length of tenure in the itinerant system is often much shorter than others. This creates problems of building trust, casting vision, and developing long-term relationships.

While this system had advantages and was effective for years, it is largely ineffective today. I am totally convinced that LifeChurch would not be close to what it is today if the staff, the body, or my family knew that any year I could be asked to leave and serve another church.

My family attended various Methodist Churches in Texas and Oklahoma. I did my undergraduate work at Oklahoma City University (a UMC school). After graduating from college, I entered ministry as an associate pastor of First United Methodist Church in downtown Oklahoma City.

Amy and I planned on serving God in the Methodist Church for our full ministry. After experiencing other styles of ministry, God gave us a vision to do church in a different way. We asked for permission to plant a new UMC church. Since I was only ordained as a “deacon” and not an “elder,” church planting, for us, was not an option as a UMC pastor.

Our burden to start a church became greater than our loyalty to a denomination. We left the UMC on good terms with fond memories and many great relationships.

This week, I’ll post six suggestions for my UMC friends. I offer them humbly and in love. I hope one or two ideas are helpful.

Let’s start with the use of Financial Resources. Not long ago, the UMC launched a $20 million advertising campaign called “Rethink Church.” While I wholeheartedly applaud the church’s aggressive efforts to reach people, I don’t think advertisements that promote a denomination are the best plan.

Today’s generation wants to join a cause, not an organization. I would have suggested investing $20,000 each into 1,000 UMC church plants across the United States. Starting new churches is easier than revitalizing old churches. Once a new movement begins, revitalizing the old becomes much more doable.

My thought on this: People are more likely to join a new mission rather than an old denomination.

In our efforts to reach people far from God, some pastors with good intentions are perhaps making messages too shallow.

When people come to church today, I believe they truly want to know what the Bible says. There seems to be a genuine hunger for God’s Word. Even if a curious non-Christian attends church, most want to hear a biblical message rather than a self-help and feel-good sermonette.

Our American churches today are sadly filled with many biblically illiterate people. Many truly want to learn more. Most prefer to be challenged rather than babied.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what people want. If sin separates people from God, we can’t be afraid to preach about sin, the cross, and the resurrection.