Twenty Years and counting....

This past weekend I had the opportunity to celebrate a very unusual anniversary celebration.

My father-in-law and mother-in-law have served for the past 20 years as Senior Pastor of a church in the town of Peru, Indiana which incidentally is also known as Circus City, USA!

They have done an incredible job in the face of some serious odds.

The biggest of course being the fact that the statistical average tenure for ministers at any one church here in the United States is less than four years... what an incredible testament to both that church and to my wife's parents!

In a really weird way, we were celebrating and remembering both their twenty years there and how much of our life as a couple and family has been shared with that same church. For example, that same church has witnessed their Senior pastor and his wife's son graduate from High school, the marriage of their oldest daughter and then that same son's marriage, they have witnessed us move to Canada, our return to the US, a move to Indiana and then a move back to Illinois, they have also witnessed the arrival of their six grandchildren and more than likely will then watch as the oldest of the grandchildren graduates from High school and heads off to a Christian college with plans to enter the ministry and serve the church just like his grandfather!

It has by no means been an easy twenty years, I know my father-in-law (just like all of us) can be a handful and (as you can probably gather from last week's post) churches can be filled with "prickly" people as well but all things considered (and that is a lot) this pretty cool!

I guess the thing that has amazed me recently is that this church of around 200 people, recently purchased, completely renovated and updated a Civil War era firehouse in their town. The Firehouse has quickly become the place locally for catered wedding receptions, retirement parties, birthday parties and just like we did last weekend, anniversary celebrations. On top of all that the second floor of the building is a Student pastor's dream space with pool tales, video games and flat screen TV's. The entire building is a WiFi zone as well!

So while I shared my frustrations last week( So You Think You Can Lead A Church Huh?), let me also say that there are quite a few churches that do allow their leaders to lead and quite a few leaders (like my father-in-law) who when all is said and done, lead quite well.

So You Think You Can Lead A Church Huh?

i may tick some people off with this post but that's life...

As a guy who has worked with churches over the past few years, i can safely say i don't think i'll ever see a day when seemingly normal people ever cease making bone-headed decisions or saying completely unintelligent, foolish things! These same people (for the most part, not always but almost) typically blame the ministers, pastors and/or church leaders for all the problems in their lives or in the lives of others.

i simply don't get it.

i am especially intrigued by people who seemingly make it a habit to inform the pastor or minister of what they (the pastor) should "really be doing if they really cared about people..."

Truth be known the authority that comes to pastors and ministers does not find it's origins in other people (which is a theological discussion for another day) but for some reason there seem to have been a decent number of people i have come into contact with over the last 20 years who have managed to convince themselves that they truly know how to do everything in the life of a local church better, more effectively, with more compassion and with superior results than anyone in the leadership of that same church! (i know that was a very long sentence... but hey that's how i roll...)

Can i just say something in response to that kind of "thinking"?

Get a life!

Most people who fall into the "let-me-tell-you-how-to-do-your-job-better-Pastor...." camp, have no clue what they are talking about! Not only that, they are arrogant, wounded, bitter people. They are people who need to be on a counselors couch (or at least in a counselors chair) figuring out why they take pleasure in pounding on the spiritual leaders of their church. Instead these people seemingly go from church to church wreaking havoc and leaving in their wake a trail of dazed and hurt church leaders who while filled with hurt, wonder after such an encounter... maybe i should leave church work and go "fill in the blank"!

i think i am past the point of patience for people who regularly do this sort of thing. There are few things like having a parent sit across the room from you, point their finger at you and ask you why you don't do more to to keep their kid out of trouble or from becoming pregnant or from getting someone else pregnant or get them to come back to church, blah, blah, blah.
Then there is the person who asks why you haven't done more to help this or that particular family with this or that issue when in fact, the person making the accusation often is not even fully informed on exactly what the situation is! Give me a break!

Now i understand that there are certainly those churches that can be considered abusive, but the number of whack job church leaders is not as significant as it maybe presented in our pop culture. Most of them are like me, we just want to make a difference but if every time we turn around people publicly second-guess, undermine and question why we do what we do it's no wonder that the number of ministers leaving their churches' pulpits all across our nation is considered by some to be of epidemic proportions.

Anyway, i hope i do tick some people off about this issue then maybe we can settle it once and for all.... or at least until the next time something else comes up.

Back In The Saddle!

Well, i owe you all an apology, i haven't forgotten to get back to my blog, i simply have had quite a bit on "my plate" so to speak! It's all good stuff just a lot of it since we came back from our time in Florida, Now THAT was nice! But this week i am committed to doing whatever I need to in order to get "back in the saddle" again!

One of the things that Ruthie and i (along with several other key "leader" types in our church) are truly thrilled about is an opportunity that we believe has been given to us to influence others families that are considering Homeschooling their children. We (more accurately Ruthie), have taught our kids at home for the past almost 13 years [doesn't seem that long] and as we began to talk about ministries that perhaps we could do as husband and wife, helping to encourage and "coach" if you will those families interested in (but intimidated by) Homeschooling seemed like a natural.

Interestingly enough on the heels of our discussion we received an email from HSLDA (The Home Schooling Legal Defense Association) that encouraged its members to consider hosting an open house for people we knew who might be interested in Homeschooling! They even offered to supply all sorts of informational material that we could give away to any families or individuals who want to Homeschool! How sweet is that!?!

So we began talking about it with a few other families who are currently Homeschooling their children as well and began to plan a Open House at our home. As we worked the "grapevine" and chatted this possibility up a little bit we began to see that there wasn't just a little interest but a lot of interest!

Just this past weekend we hosted this event in our home complete with curriculum displays from all different age groups, curriculum catalogues, Homeschool veterans whose children ranged in age from preschool through recent High school graduates. We had some great food and just let people get to ask questions and share their experiences... it was so very cool! We did an unofficial head count and had somewhere between 55 to 60 people participate in this event and i think they all had a great time! i loved it! My wife was such an incredible encourager as soon-to-be Homeschool parents and rookie Homeschool parents asked her all sorts of questions about what it takes to do this Homeschooling thing!

So what does the future hold for this new group of potential Homeschoolers at Westbrook? Well, based on who was at our home this past weekend and checking into it... i'd say the future is very, very bright!