Nu Generation Leaders

What’s in your churches DNA?

DNA: The genetic code of a church that is displayed in the mission, vision and values of the church and lived out through its ministries and members.

Every organization has communication patterns, behavior expectations, and language codes that determine the culture of the organization. The urgency of their mission or compliance to the status quo is determined by the organization’s culture. How members communicate with peers vs. leaders in the organization is determined by the organizational culture. Congregations are no different.

Each congregation has DNA that allows them to be unique in the expression of their purpose yet connected to the Body of Christ. For the purpose of this blog I would like to suggest that DNA exists on two levels. The macro level is what connects the entire Body of Christ and the micro level is the local churches expression of their God given purpose. For those congregations that exist within a denominational structure a third level of denominational DNA certainly affects how you express your God given purpose.

Some congregations serve the poor, homeless and those marginalized by society while ignoring the popular trends to build new buildings and engage the latest technology. Some congregations are awesome at reaching seekers and unchurched people while and other churches are fantastic at discipling believers toward maturity. Some congregations reach into the community and provide meaningful services for residents and other congregations excel at ministry to care for their members.

A healthy church is balanced in all of these areas. Based on the Matthew 5:3-16 every Christian Church that holds the scripture as their primary source of inspiration should have some basic DNA which connects us to the mission, vision and values of Jesus Christ.


Value
Vision
3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 "Blessed are those who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.
5 "Blessed are the meek,
for they shall inherit the earth.
6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be satisfied.
7 "Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy.
8 "Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God.
9 "Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called sons of God.
10 "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake
, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 "Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.

13 "You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored?
It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men.
14 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. 15 Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Labels: leadership

Called to Pastor and Lead with Excellence

Pastors can quickly become ineffective in their ministry if they are not clear about their gifts. Congregations tend to believe that a pastor should be a great preacher, great comforter, great administrator, great with the youth and children, great with nurturing, great with teaching and just about anything else that goes on in the life of a congregation. This expectation is unrealistic. God has given each person unique gifts, passions and abilities. Attempting to be great outside of that realm is frustrating to anyone in any profession. How should we deal with these conflicting multiple expectations?

1. Take the time to prayerfully discern your call. Not all ministry takes place in the office of pastor. Being clear about your call will help to eliminate some of the frustration. Community capacity building and social justice ministries go hand in hand but you do not have to be a pastor to fulfill your call in this ministry.
2. Be clear about the unique gifts and personality that you bring to a congregation. Congregations go through cycles and a different ministry skill set is necessary for the congregation to thrive depending on the season. New churches need pastors who are entrepreneurial and relational. Healthy churches need nurturing pastors with depth in identifying weak ministry systems and strengthening leaders to maintain their healthy behavior. Revitalizing churches need visionary pastors willing to restructure, challenge and build relationships without taking the criticism personally. Older congregations need a pastor with chaplain qualities able to walk with people through quality of life and end of life issues. A pastor who is not clear about his or her ministry skill set will be frustrated trying to live in the wrong paradigm and this will also cause anxiety throughout the congregation. The congregation will have unmet and unfulfilled needs while striving to live out their DNA that is active within the life cycle of the congregation.
3. Work on your strengths and build ministry teams in the area where you are weak with people who are uniquely gifted with the passion to fulfill the demands of the ministry. Take your top three areas of strength and commit to excellence in these areas. Simultaneously you must develop lay leaders to fill in the gaps of your weaknesses. If there is not a clear understanding of team ministry within the congregation this will be difficult. If team ministry is not inherent in the DNA of a congregation then if must be grafted into the DNA.
4. Prioritize in private but plan in public. Once you know the areas that you are going to focus on developing through prayer and consultation with your elders then you plan for the ministry shifts, changes, realignments and team deployments in consultation with your Vision Team or Leadership Council.
   

Being a results oriented pastor of excellence is contrary to most pastoral paradigms today. Many congregations, especially in mainline denominations, want pastors to be great generalist but resist their pastor excelling in one area and empowering lay people to fill in the gaps. I think that this is contrary to the teaching found in Ephesians 4:10-13.

10 And the One who climbed down is the One who climbed back up, up to highest heaven. He handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts, 11 filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher 12 to train Christians in skilled servant work, working within Christ's body, the church, 13 until we're all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God's Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ
The Message

Called to Pastor
Called to Lead
Called to Excellence

Pastor William T Chaney Jr
West Baltimore UMC
5130 Greenwich Ave
Baltimore, MD 21229

wbumc.pastor@verizon.net

Labels: leadership