Reflection, Struggles, Vision, And Plans For Our Lives
An old school mate of mine, and someone I consider a dear friend, Jeff Mikels, posted an entry in his blog this past week entitled, "Memoirs from NWBC" in which he details the first five (5) years of his ministry as a Senior Pastor.
I had the amazing opportunity to reunite with Jeff since our days of high school (some 15-odd years ago) back in 2001. I had been in New York for most of the year and soon after 9/11 happened I decided it was time to get back home in California, where the only major things that happen are former movie actors become Governors and big earthquakes happen (sometimes at the same time, too!) On my way back I stopped in at his church in Chicago, IL for maybe an hour or two. For the last year or so Jeff and his wife and child have been working on raising funds to be able to start a church plant in Lafayette, Indiana.
Anyway, back to his recent blog. What Jeff did was recount some of the major highlights (and not so pretty factors) that ministers encounter while being in ministry. As I read through the entire blog (took me forever, it's a long one) I both laughed and cried.
For the ten years that I was in ministry a major part of it was being the right-hand-man to a great man of God who had many more struggles then he did accomplishments. I used many of those years to build and reflect upon how I would approach ministry as a senior pastor, should I ever go that direction in ministry.
Some of my worst nightmares are some of the things that Jeff Mikels details in his blog!
The Church Struggles
A major part of his troubles seems to have come from him wanting to bring the church out of the stone age.
As he put it:
Shortly before I left the last church I ministered at there was a major conflict taking place about something very similar to what Jeff was trying to accomplish. These days it just seems like there are more and more people who would rather have a "convenient church that never changes" then a church that is moving forward and meeting people where they are.
Change Verses Slow Death
We have a local pastor whom I dearly, dearly, love. He is one of my most trusted friends and pastors. A while back this pastor and I got into a discussion about the lack of people my age attending churches around the area were we live.
I made the following statement to him:
After getting into a discussion about what a "real" church is (which is a whole other blog entry in and of itself), the pastor made the statement:
I did not understand what he meant by that at the time. But about a month later I attended his church on a Sunday morning and soon found out. What I experienced (not to criticize or condemn, but to make a point) was a church that could seat somewhere around 600 people, with no more then 150 people in the pews, and of those people somewhere around 85% of them were over the age of 65, and the rest of them were getting close.
Of course, this is not to say that we should not have elders in our churches! For we MUST have elders in our churches. But what it does say is that in the next 10 years this church will (in all likelihood) be closing it's doors because nobody is left alive to be able to attend it.
Getting To My Point In All This
My point here is this: The church that stays the same, dies.
The church that Pastor Jeff Mikels went into had very little desire to change their leadership structure to meet the demands of how a church should operate, if it has any plans to grow, thrive, and survive.
Likewise, unless the local pastor whom I dearly love does something to begin reaching out to those between 20 and 40, he too will be facing a major crises in the next few years.
The Vision Of Life
God's word say that without a vision we die.
This applies to our own life, this applies to our family life, this applies to our work life. This even applies to the life of our churches. Everything we encounter and face in our life should, and must, have a vision.
I tend to feel that the world "vision" scares a lot of people.
My father, shortly after coming back into the church last year (after not going to church for nearly 20 years) called me one day and say to me:
My father went on to really discuss how he knew he should be doing things to help Gods advancement here on earth, but he did not know what that "something" should be.
In the days after our conversation I began to realize what I had called "vision" in our conversation (I suggested to him that he seek the Lord for a vision and direction) was perhaps something that was foreign to him. So often we in Christendom use jargon that only we know (and a lot of us use Christian jargon even without knowing what it means just to sound cool and like we know what we are talking about), so as I sat meditating on it one day I realize that what I termed a "vision" was really just a "plan". You see, my father is one of those guys who likes to have a plan. Before he goes on vacation he plans out a good part of the trip... usually even goes so far as to write down exactly (and everything) he's going to need to get packed before they go. I, on the other had, am one of those guys who does it all in my head... and usually forgets a thing or two after I've gotten a few hours drive from home!
Perhaps if more of us saw the term "plan" instead of "vision", when it comes to the Word of God, our own lives, and the direction God would like for us to have, we'd have a better time at dealing with the facts of reality and approach Christian live with a bit less hesitation and a bit more ambition!
But regardless of the terminology we choose, the facts are simple: We MUST have a plan, a vision, for everything in our lives! A plan that is centered on the will of God for our individual relationships with Him!
So, All That Said
So, now that I've said all that, let me just close by saying this...
I really would encourage you to go read what Pastor Jeff Mikels wrote. If you are a pastor, you'll understand most of what he says and like me, probably laugh a little and go "yep, been there done that". If you are not a pastor, I would still encourage you to go read what he wrote! So many people have not the slightest idea what a pastors life is really like. If you go read his blog and really read what he's saying in his heart, I think you'll approach your pastor a bit differently next time you encounter him... at least, I would hope you would.
And finally, as we approach a new year, I would just like to encourage you to take a look at your own life. How long has it been since you stopped and looked to see if you are getting older and not moving forward, or if you are getting old but experiencing life in greater and greater level's through Christ Jesus our Lord! Please, do not be like the church that just want's to go to church week-after-week, never desiring to push forward the walls of God's kingdom here on earth rather, find the vision, find the plan, God utterly desires for you and just start heading in that direction. I don't think anybody can say they walked through their life without heading down one or two wrong paths. While there is only one in-road to the gates of heaven, we've got a whoooole lot of different paths that will eventually get us to the path that leads home! So, please, find that path... that plan... that will get you from where you are now to the throne room of the Most Holy.. and please, enjoy the way there... otherwise, what's it really all about?
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Author: abelajohnb
Location: California USA
Gender: Male
Age: 36
Blog Entries: 160 (archive)
Blog Comments: 624
raised in a private christian school until his senior year, mr. abela has been around the christian faith nearly his entire life. at the age of twenty-two mr. abela was called to the ministry as a lay-minister where he served as a youth minister for nearly seven years and then...
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