Matthew is originally from Nova Scotia, Canada. He has a beautiful wife named Charity. Matthew has two wonderful children, Gabrielle and Noah. He has graduated from the Brown Trail School of Preaching, Heritage Christian University with his Bachelors of Arts in Biblical Studies, Lipscomb University with his Master's of Arts in Biblical Studies and Freed-Hardeman University with his Master's of Divinity. Presently, he is working on his Doctorate of Ministry at Harding Graduate School of Religion. His articles have appeared in the World Evangelist, the Highway to Holiness, The West Virginia Christian, The Christian Echo, The Firm Foundation, Church Growth, and the Gospel Advocate.
Loading ...What Will Get You Fired?
Posted By Matthew on July 30, 2010
This week I had a interesting conversation with my friend Colin Packer about what will get you fired in a congregation. Of course, there are certain things that will get you fired, and most of you know what they are, like moral sin, or teaching false doctrine, but this post is about the differences between what will get you fired in a 200 member church compared to a 600 member church or larger. It is a contrast of a middle size church to a large size church. Colin has predominantly worked with larger size congregations in his past while I have been more involved with middle size congregations in my past. In a middle size congregation, if you do not bring growth to the congregation, typically you will not get fired, in fact, I have had friends who were fired for doing the opposite and bringing a ton of growth to a church, and the elders asked them to leave. In a middle size congregation, you maintaining means that you are relationally connected to the church. Do you have a good relationship with the elders, do you have a good rapport with the long standing members, and mostly do you provide the relational aspect to the membership. This means do you visit enough. Your preaching has to be sound, but does not have to be great. Mostly, you will not be fired in a middle size church because you are not providing growth.
In contrast to this, in a larger size congregation, if you are not providing growth to the church, you will be asked to leave. You have to be a leader more in this situation, and help a large congregation move the attendance up. If you do this, you will be hired away quickly in a 500 member congregation to a larger one, but once you are in the 1000 member congregation, mostly you need to continue to provide an increase in numbers. The relational aspect declines a lot in the large church, and moves to a great speaker format. This is because this is all most members will judge you by. Can you bring down the house?
What do you think of all of this? And how do elders or congregation make a bad hire because of these differences in outlook in congregational size? Love to hear your thoughts.
In 1 Corinthians 15:24-27, the theocentric focus of Paul becomes more in view. This section emphasizes the post resurrection work of Jesus in which Christians participate in overthrowing the rule and authority of this present age. Jesus will deliver up the kingdom of God when “He has abolished all rule and all authority and power.” 1 Corinthians 2:6 “…nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away…” is the present tense which means that this overthrowing of the powers of this world is a continuing work of God and Christ.
Sometimes I hear about churches that would rather have a congregation of 150 truly faithful over a congregation of 350 of weak Christians. This is really a funny situation or desire. First of all, can you really have a church of one or the other. Can you have the entire church full of mature Christians and can you have a church totally full of weak Christians? Probably not.
Throughout my ministry, I have received some pretty awesome gifts. Sometimes I feel like the best treated minister in the Churches of Christ. People are always doing amazing things for me and are always giving me over the top presents. But this latest gift has been the best, by far, ever. When I say this, you need to realize that I have been given a car before, I was given a ton of money before, and I was given a Kindle DX for Christmas one time, and I was given A signed Sidney Crosby autograph of him after the game winning goal. I have received some super nice stuff but none of these compare to what was sent to me in the mail. It is the most special gift I was ever given so far in my life. Of course I am not saying this is better than eternal salvation, my kids, and my wife, but hopefully you see the point. This past Friday, I went to the mailbox and opened it. There was a package from Linda Wesbrooks, she is the wife of my mentor who passed away last year. There was a little note in the package explaining the gift. She said, “Burnice would have wanted you to have this.” It was his preaching bible. The little New Testament that he carried into the pulpit with him. It still had sermon outlines in it. Of all the things I have ever received this was the most dear to me. It meant so much because my ministry is such a reflection of him. He mentored me, loved me, encouraged me, believed in me, and helped me with everything. It is so hard sometimes these days to know what to do, I feel so alone in this work, because he is no longer with me to bounce ideas off of, or how do I do this in the church, and how do I work out this situation. How I miss this so much. But his Bible sits in my office, as a reminder of his influence in my life.
This is typically not the problem with a minister. You might not have any close friends, but you are always invited to all of the parties. There is always a standing invitation for you at the door, unless it is a sinful party then you will not be invited, which is fine with you. Most people want to be nice to the preacher and his family. Everyone will talk to you. But for the average member, just the normal happy family, how do you make friends at church? This might seem easy but from what I hear from church members, this is one of the hardest things to do. How do you get into a church?
“Behold, the sower went out to sow;” and some fell on the rocky soil, and some on the thorny soil, and some fell along the road, and some fell on good soil. This sower has really bad aim. If this guy was working for me, I would have fired him. He cannot get the seeds to where they belong. He is throwing those seeds everywhere, and seems to be wasting them. Does he know that there is just a limited supply of seeds, does he not watch where he is throwing, maybe he has no aim. Seems like this guy will put a seed anywhere. Seeds are money, and this seems to be a huge waste for the farmer. Maybe we should fire the sower?
Everyone who understands system theory knows that “change is always resisted.” This is a rule that will never be broken. This rule is even more solidified in a church setting. People will refuse to change. If in the little stuff, change can cause some serious anxiety in the congregation. And sometimes, it is warranted. One prominent congregation in the churches of Christ once made huge changes to the congregation and printed, “if you do not like it, you can leave.” Wow, now this was a great change strategy.
Our natural tendency is to focus on the negative in life. This is seen in marriages, churches, and jobs. It is a powerful force of negativity in life. It can start to take hold of a person and cause some serious problems. In the church, this is especially true. People general look at the negative or the problems in a congregation. From my experience, no congregation is problemless and no congregation is perfect. In most cases, you have to make the mental choice to focus on the positive or the negative.