Next up…the pastor

Good morning to the Trinity Tribe!

I hope you are somewhere safe and dry and not out and about. I almost got trapped in the Piggly Wiggly with the storm and lack of power. Luckily, I was able to get my milk and apple and head to the office!

Today is day three of the discussion of characteristics of vital United Methodist congregations.

Here's the data, if you would like to see it:
http://www.umc.org/atf/cf/{db6a45e4-c446-4248-82c8-e131b6424741}/CV_PRESENTATION.PDF

According to the study, the four main drivers of vitality are:

A mix of both traditional and contemporary worship services
Small groups including programs for children and youth
Inspirational preaching and length of pastoral appointment
Lay leadership
Today I am going to think about how the pastor affects church growth.

The pastor is certainly the most visible face of the church. I got a front page story and photo thanks to Terry at the Citizen. When I go somewhere I often have people know who I am because of that or because of the grapevine. And no matter the organization or group, the leadership matters. We have all worked for someone who was not a good leader. Either the person was passive aggressive or maybe he was too busy climbing the corporate ladder or a million other things that made him/her a poor leader.

This study points out two factors of healthy churches' pastors. They do a good job inspiring people through preaching and they stick around a long time. (I will talk about the first point tomorrow.) I have been a United Methodist since about 1980. I remember the deal: the pastor is at a church for four years, then they move. That usually happened whether you wanted him or her to or not. That was just the way that particular bishop operated, from what I understand. If you look at the Trinity Hall of Fame outside the parlor and look at the tenure of some of the pastors, you might gasp. Some of them were here only a year or sometimes two.

What sort of impact could someone have in 365 days? Granted, I have only been here 5 weeks, but I do not know everyone's name. I don't know everyone's story. We haven't gone through a liturgical year together and celebrated Advent and Christmas and Lent together. I hardly know where the copy paper is, much less what the DNA of the congregation is.

There is no way that I could be an effective minister here for a year or even two. It takes years for us to learn each other. It takes years for us to build deep trust in one another.

That being said, I am here intending to stay until I retire. (I am a realist and know that may or may not happen. However, I do know that I am not using Trinity as a stepping stone to some place else.) I want to stay here and learn your stories and be with you during good times and bad. I want to invest in you, and I want you to invest in me. We may not always agree on everything. We may even get mad at each other. Yet, in Christ, we will come back together and forgive one another.

It is kind of like when you get married and join a family. At first you are nice and polite to your in-laws and they are polite and kind and welcoming to you. But there will come that point when you don't feel embarrassed that your mother-in-law sees you with unwashed hair or in a grubby yard-working t-shirt. There will be that point where your father-in-law becomes a trusted friend. You aren't family by birth, but you become family by choice, by time spent together, and by the blood, sweat and tears of life.

So, I pray that we become that to one another. I pray that we can work together to bring Christ to Red Springs. I pray that we continue the decades of wonderful ministry that Trinity has already accomplished. I pray that we grow into one another like family.