Monthly Archives: March 2014

Anyone who has worked in a Board governed organization will know how much a Board can make a difference.  Particularly in churches, the tenor and direction of a Board gives direction for ministry.

Yesterday I met with our new Board of Elders.  To call them elder is a misnomer – particularly as I age!  There is one who is half my age, another who is one third my age, and another  who is a little older than I.  Not a bad mix.

And mix we did.  This was really a get to know each other time.  The minutes reflect that we did set up things like officers and read minutes.  But the real benefit was coming together, listening to each other, agreeing and disagreeing and walking away with a sense of anticipation.

How a Board will function depends over time.  But when the time begins with a sense of hope, you are in a good place.

And we are in a good place.

As we have moved into our marriage, things have settled.

Enough that we are now able to feel like patterns are emerging.  One area of patterning is our finances.

We came together with a good sense of budgeting and the worth of  money.  For the first few months the spending patterns were a bit out of whack.  A wedding ceremony was paid for, moving costs expended and even new items for the house were bought.

These are not usual expenses. 

But now we are into a few patterns.  Life is much easier, in some senses, when you can plug a few numbers into an EXCEL spreadsheet and see some patterns. 

So, that is what is emerging.  Another day or two of inputting and analysis . . . and we shall see what we shall see!!

On Monday I received a phone call.  Another pastor in town is unable to provide the devotional for a seniors home.  He will be away on Wednesday.  Can I take the devotional?

We switched and today I have a morning time together with a number of my friends.  We will examine favorite verses and look at a thread of thought that talks of God’s care and his saving grace.  Thoughts were running to these areas in the last few days.

As the morning dawned, I also turned to other thoughts.  One area that I am so thankful for is comfort and sustaining strength.  Another is family.  My sister is headed in for hip surgery in May. 

There is a certain sense in which my thoughts stray more often to ending well as compared to pushing into the future.  Where vision and mission consumed much of my early years of work and marriage, now I am concerned to have clarity (fixing my eyes on Jesus) and to find what it means to rest.

These are not easy topics, and I’m not sure I am finding the road easy to travel.  But I sense that this is the way that God directs.  As Proverbs 3:5-6 says:  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.  Don’t lean on your own understanding.  In all  your ways acknowledge him.  And he will direct your paths!”

One of the trends that church watchers are seeing:  The solo preacher is being replaced by the team of teachers.

I sort of see this in the way of retail.

The preacher is like the sales person.  In many ways they have a product.  The application at the end of a sermon is always towards buying into the product.  That might be salvation, morality, spirituality, wholeness, . . . whatever.  We used to say the altar call was the end of the sermon.

The teacher is like the service technician.  When all is said and done, they come along and make sure that all gets said and done.  In a day and age when discipleship is being featured in churches, there is no wonder that teachers are becoming more prominent in church services than preachers.  We now would say the climax of understanding is the end of the sermon.

Of course, as my younger brother would dispute:  Is there really a difference between the preacher and the teacher? 

Yes, if you take my definitions. 

How would you see the changing face of “preaching” in the church?