Wednesday Planter: Personal Transition #6: From self-focused to Kingdom-focused.

I've worked in a string of several very shallow, very selfish congregations. That sounds harsh, but it's true. It's also true that each of those shallow, selfish congregations had a shallow, selfish pastor at the time I was there. So, honestly, we both got what we deserved. :)

We live in a me-oriented society - so people (including Christians) are trained to be selfish from their first breath. That carries over into the church-at-large, too. Many Christians believe that the Church exists to serve and cater to them, but not to actually grow them or challenge them.

Rather than baptize people when they made their confession of faith, I saved up those baptisms until Sunday when we could do them in front of the church and people could say, "Man, that pastor's sure doing a good job getting those people baptized." You know, it was job security - as I've said before, I didn't see those people so much as additions to the Kingdom as I saw them as job security, the proverbial loaf of bread.

I had to move from fulfilling a perverted personal need (the need to be liked and affirmed) to instilling a kingdom motivation inside me: the desire to be like Jesus. Unfortunately, my unhealthy need for approval was burying the healthy choice I needed to make. I was trapped in a life-paradigm I couldn't get out of.

A pastor friend I admired finally confronted me: "I don't know what to do with you. You're so concerned about what people think. You're so locked into doing rather than being. You wanna do what the apostles did, but you don't wanna be what the apostles were. Ministry wasn't a career for them. It was a lifestyle. It had nothing to do with a paycheck. They would have done it - and did - for free while doing other things. Until you come to that point, you're never gonna get it."

Those were some of the most painful words ever spoken to me, and it took me several more years of professional abuse and quite a few hours with a Christian counselor before I could start to get it. Honestly, I know that I still don't get it, not at the level I should, but at least I've headed in that direction and away from my own phobias and insecurities. That feels good.

Wednesday Planter: Personal Transition #5: They're "people," stupid, not “prospects”.

Here's a dirty little secret most pastors won't share: They keep "prospect" lists - like a potential sales list...a sort of "people I need to get to buy into us" list. I even know pastors who have quotas. For years I believed a statement made by a pastor I respected and wanted to be like: "A pastor who isn't leading two people a week to the Lord isn't worth his hire."

I used to keep Prospect Lists - two of them, in fact: One a short-term list, the other a long-term list. The short-term list had the names of the people I thought I could persuade to join the church within the next six months. Anyone longer than that was on the long-term list.

I realize now that at that point in my life, I had more in common with a hooker than a shepherd. After becoming healthy and returning to the ministry in 1995, I was struck by this verse:

"...for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread (Proverbs 6:26)..."

In other words, the hooker looks at you and says to herself, "If I can entice him to join me for a few minutes, it'll be worth X-number of dollars to me, and with that, I can buy (whatever)." I looked at my prospect lists and knew in the past I'd said to myself, "If I can entice him to come to church, that'll please my eldership and that's job security and financial security for me..." Ouch.

I dropped that list.

I stopped seeing them as "things to be conquered for Christ" and started seeing them as friends at a different point on the same journey as me - friends who will listen to those they trust and love. My goal is now to be that loving, trusted friend who can tell them what was over the next horizon on their spiritual journey - and who could walk with them as they looked at the horizon.

And suddenly, my ministry began to grow. Go figure.

Btw, I don't lead two people to the Lord in a week EVER. The Holy Spirit does that. But I often have the privilege of being there when they "get it." Sometimes that's zero in a week. Other times, it's 15 or 20 people in a week.

It's amazing what happens when ego gets out of the way and God gets to be God on His terms rather than mine. :)

Wednesday Planter: Personal Transition #3: Not everyone worships or learns like I do.

I am from an American home-grown church movement that officially began on the frontiers of the late 18th Century. From the beginning, we’ve often been called "The People of the Book (Bible)" because of our hard-core commitment to Scripture and it's authority. I'm proud of that heritage, and I wouldn't have our teaching do anything BUT rely on The Book.

But ultimately, history has borne out a problem with our approach: We have a lot of seriously book-smart people with lots of head knowledge, but not a fair amount of heart application. That makes for legalists who don't consider the spirit or the context of God's Word.

Back in the 1980's, Leadership Magazine carried an article that talked of how there are basically three kinds of people who attend church (I'm paraphrasing from memory now): Those who respond to auditory stimulation, those who respond to visual stimulation, and those who respond to content stimulation.

Auditory-focused: Those who respond to auditory stimulation don't place high value on what the building looks like or even so much what is taught. They are focused primarily on the sound value: Is the music good? Is the sound good? Are there distracting noises? Can I clearly hear what is going on or being said? Is it pleasant for my ears?

Visual-focused: Those who respond to visual stimulation don't place high value on what they hear or what is taught. They are focused primarily on the visual value: Is it clean? Is it respectfully maintained? Are the colors right? Can I see things being done well and competently? Is it pleasant for my eyes to observe?

Content-focused: Those who respond to the teaching content don't place high value on anything but the content. They will meet in dirty barns and put up with horrible music and sound just to have what their brain considers solid teaching.

It has to do with individual learning methods. God wired each of us differently from many others, yet we all fall into one or more of these three categories.

The challenge? I’m a content-oriented person, but we need to be more concerned about the whole person. Without compromising the content, the church-at-large still needs to be more intentional, more experiential, more engaging on all levels - not just the one learning style we like. Our priority should always be teaching the Word of God skillfully and accurately, but if we can engage the whole person in a multi-sensory experience where what they learn goes deeper into them, why wouldn't we be eager to do that?