~1150 words 3 1/2 self revealing minutes
Welcome to issue number 200. In this issue, I will reveal a bit more about me, as well as questions that usually come about me. Every week, there is a new question, and occasionally, I get a new one.
Here is my multi-part series about ACTUAL Questions asked since I started doing my consulting.
I bet you attend one of those name-brand churches in Atlanta, don’t you?
I get asked this with almost every engagement.
When I tell people I live outside Atlanta and have for most of my life, they assume I attend one of the famous churches here. They usually call out their favorite when they ask me this question.
But the answer is that I have been a part of a small, multiracial congregation for 40 years. I was on staff there right out of college and have stayed, lived, and served there.
When I joined, it was a larger Anglo congregation. As the community has grown and changed, it has become more diverse and smaller. We have more people of color than people of pallor now.
Over the years, I have served as a deacon, board chair, interim pastor, and Sunday School teacher.
Since we have never moved houses, it seemed natural to stay rooted in a place where people know me and my family as “regular folks.”
I have attended a few services at the name-brand churches to see what they were like and visited with some pastor friends, but I make it a habit to be regular and faithful to our home church.
When I give references to potential clients, I always include my pastor so they can speak to my character and faithfulness in serving. (No one ever calls him)
Clients know that I teach a Zoom Sunday School class every week on Sundays. So, if they need me on Sunday, we must schedule around that.
We have talked about moving up to the mountains, but that seems like a lot of work right now!
What is the best church in the country?
This question comes more than you think. The questioner wants to visit to learn from them.
I don’t have a favorite. There are many good churches nationwide; I think you can learn from them.
No church is perfect, and all the churches and their leaders have their foibles and flaws.
But I love local congregations and their ministry's impact on their communities. I have had the privilege of working with over 65 under contract, and from my past days at Leadership Network, I have served over 5,000 congregations in various ways.
There were some clunkers in that latter bunch, for sure. But my posture of trying to affirm, build, and encourage has served me well for almost 35 years in working with larger churches. Call me an optimist.
I know Generis is a Generosity company, so why don’t you also do that? You could probably do well with it.
Well, maybe. But the best strategists at Generis for generosity have been at it for some time.
On the other hand, none of them have my experience in Senior Pastor Smart Succession™ or Building Better Boards.
I decided to give my focus to something I have been working on since 1995 instead of trying to learn new tricks. Call me an old dog.
More odd questions and answers after the ad…
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More questions….
You believe like we do, right?
I never know what to do with that question. I have worked with congregations of all types and stripes from many denominations. Once, at Leadership Network, we counted over 100 different denominations and tribes of “non-denominations” we served.
I don’t make decisions for churches regarding how they interpret the scriptures and carry out their God-called missions.
My convictions could be described as the Apostle’s Creed, traditionally orthodox. I am a member of a conservative evangelical denomination, but I don’t always agree with all the ways it behaves and acts. My pastor is more conservative in his approach than I am, but I still sit under his leadership and teaching within our church because he is a good, faithful pastor to our whole body.
Whatever your theological buzzword is, I have probably served a church that held to that.
I don’t try to change a church’s convictions on these matters. As my friend and former colleague Brad Smith used to say before a Leadership Network forum: “On the things the church has been fighting about for centuries, we are not going to make that an issue here.”
We have been working on a new theological inventory for pastoral and staff candidates. It can help a church have the right conversations to find alignment in those areas. If you are interested, let me know. It’s not quite ready, but we are testing it.
How long have you worked with Linda?
Many of you first met me at Leadership Network and a predominance of you through programs led by Linda Stanley. Linda was at Leadership Network before me but came to work directly with me around 1999. We worked together until she retired from Leadership Network. (Others of you met me through many of the other excellent program leaders we had. I tried to do as little work as possible.)
A short while later, I also retired to enter this consulting practice. She called, was bored, and wanted something to do, so she worked part-time for me.
Greg Ligon and I frequently work together as well. He joined Leadership Network in 1998 but didn’t work under my leadership until around 2002. I had hoped our board would choose him as my successor at Leadership Network, but they went in another direction.
Greg stayed a few more years and then set up his consulting practice. We still work together frequently.
We have around 100 years of combined experience working with larger churches, so we understand them well.
It also means that we are old.
Will this year’s election impact ___________ ? (fill in the blank – our church, our succession plans, our unity, our spirit) And who wins?
It could, but we have had many divided elections. This one looks fierce, but a great number of people, perhaps two-thirds of America, say it has little relevance.
The winners are the media companies.
They make money from fear, outrage, and anger. The more they can rile up the various partisan bases, the more ads they can sell and monetize.
There will be partisans from various parties that want to suck you into their fear, outrage, and anger cycle.
You can choose whether to engage or not.
But I don’t see any winners there.
“As a Christian, you are not a citizen of this world going to heaven; you are a citizen of heaven making your way through this world.” Vance Havner – a preacher of the last century with more insight than some current ones.
I love answering the odd questions. I will do a few more in a future issue, but feel free to send me some. They make me think!