musings on life and leadership by randy and joleen willis.

Last night was pretty wild. It was draft night for third season of fantasy football for some people from Centre Grove (and beyond). We had 12 players (or “teams”) the first year, 14 last year, and this year, we’ve gone to two leagues of 12 teams each! (I wrote about my first season of fantasy football in December 2008, and I wrote a post on Life Lessons from Fantasy Football last year.)

I’m playing in both leagues to give “everyone a shot at the pastor” and both drafts were conducted at the same time, which means I had a pretty intense 90 minutes last night (15 rounds and up to 90 seconds per selection). Making it even more challenging was the fact that I had to watch Sarah as well.

I set up “draft central” in the kitchen so I could stand at the counter, limit Sarah’s movement to one room, and hang out with Sarah in between selections (while also planning my next moves). I also brought in several toys to keep her busy.

During the 30 minutes before the draft(s), Sarah showed signs of tiredness/fussiness but actually did very well once the draft started. She must’ve sensed the importance of situation!

The big concern going in to last night was keeping the two drafts straight. Also, if I was on the clock at the same time in each league, that could’ve been a problem. But it went pretty well. Conducting two drafts at the same time, though, prevented me from paying too much attention to what other “owners” were doing; I had to focus so much on my next draft picks.

It was pretty intense. I’m curious how I’ll like playing in two leagues. Conceivably, players who help me win in one league could, at the same time, cause me to lose in the other league. But it’s fun to interact with others from the church and some new friends outside the church that I might not connect with otherwise.

It should be interesting!

Last week, while returning from State College, I listened to “Holy Discontent,” a message by Bill Hybels presented at the Willow Creek Association Global Leadership Summit a few years ago (I need to listen to it a few more times!). Hybels wrote a book by the same title, which I reviewed in 2008.

I love listening to Bill Hybels. As I tweeted afterward, “Hearing @billhybels always makes me wanna charge hell w/ a water pistol!”

In the message, Hybels talks about how witnessing the beating of an Israelite by an Egyptian soldier wrecked Moses (it changed his life forever). When God went looking for someone he could use to deliver the Israelites, he looked for someone whose heart was wrecked like his own. Hybels talks about the importance of knowing the one thing that wrecks your heart.

As I reflected on the message, I wondered how many of us are motivated by wrong, or at least, lesser, things. Perhaps we’re leaders because we want to be great leaders, or we want to lead growing churches, etc. We may couch it in spiritual language (we want to build God’s kingdom, etc.), but I wonder how much of it is personal ambition.

But, what would it look like, if we were driven to be (God-called) leaders because something had so wrecked our hearts that we couldn’t do anything else?

Hybels asks, Do you know what wrecks your heart?

At the beginning of my sermon this past Sunday, I said that we limit God (that is, we, the hands and feet of Jesus, limit God’s work in the world).

That’s a sobering reality.

I’m sure there are many ways we limit God’s work in the world. I talked about four ways in my introduction on Sunday …

• Lack of surrender
• Lack of faith
• Lack of obedience
• Lack of growth

You can probably add other ways we limit God to the list.

When we’re not living fully surrendered to God or exercising our faith, when we’re not doing what we know to do or following the Spirit’s promptings, and when we’re not growing as disciples of Jesus Christ, we are limiting God’s work in us and the people and world around us.

What would it look like if we fully surrendered our lives to God, became full of faith, obeyed God’s Word and Spirit, and continually grew deeper in Christ?

It’s been a while since we’ve posted photos. Last month, we posted a “photo of the day” each day of our vacation in West Virginia. Here are a some more photos from vacation plus a few taken since then.

Three years ago, I wrote Praying for Pastors, a post that includes a 7-day prayer guide for pastors (I encourage you to print it and use it to pray for your pastor, including those of you who are part of Centre Grove or West Side).

I’ve been thinking about the prayer guide for a few reasons: Joleen and I appreciate those who pray for us, prayer is a focus of my ordination project, and I’ve been reading a lot lately about the struggles pastors face.

In fact, I encourage you to read the following articles:

Yesterday, Ron Edmondson posted a brief list of things that describe some of the struggles that many pastors face: 10 Things You May Not Know About Senior Pastors.

Taking a Break From the Lord’s Work appeared on the New York Times’ website on August 1, 2010. Here’s the first paragraph …

The findings have surfaced with ominous regularity over the last few years, and with little notice: Members of the clergy now suffer from obesity, hypertension and depression at rates higher than most Americans. In the last decade, their use of antidepressants has risen, while their life expectancy has fallen. Many would change jobs if they could.

The article goes on to describe the current situation and what some churches are doing to encourage care of clergy and clergy self-care.

This past week, Eugene Cho wrote Death by Ministry?, a sobering look at the challenges of ministry with a ton of scary statistics.

Last April, Thom Rainer, author of Simple Church, which we’ve been working our way through with our covenant groups (see 1.0 and 2.0), wrote a pointed piece for church members called, Straight Talk to Church Members about Their Pastors.

Rainer offers a list of things to do and not do for pastors. I want to include them here (words in brackets added for inclusiveness) …

From Rainer’s article …

What Not to Do

1. Don’t criticize or make critical suggestions to the pastor unless you have spent much time in prayer over the matter. Pastors have to deal with criticisms every week. It drains them. Also, don’t criticize the pastor’s family.
2. Don’t ask the pastor to make announcements right before the worship service. He [She] needs to be focused on his [her] sermon. Similarly, don’t say other things to him [her] that may distract him [her] before he [she] preaches.
3. Don’t tell your pastor how he [she] compares to other pastors.
4. Don’t expect the pastor to be at all the church events and functions you think he [she] should attend. Most of the other church members want him [her] at “their” events as well.
5. Don’t expect the pastor to be the primary pastoral care giver to all members, their relatives, their distant relatives, and the rest of the community within a 30-mile radius.

What to Do

1. Do pray for your pastor. Send him [her] an email to let him [her] know you are praying for him [her].
2. Do encourage your pastor. He [She] needs it because he’s [she's] human, and he [she] needs it to balance the criticisms he [she] hears.
3. Do work with the leadership of the church to make certain the pastor is getting sufficient rest, time off, and family time. Most pastors are on call 24/7.
4. Do encourage the rest of the church to take on pastoral care responsibility, particularly through small groups and Sunday school classes. The pastor should be the primary care giver for the most urgent and serious of needs. The rest of the church should do the bulk of the ministry.
5. Do be faithful to the ministry of the church. Few things encourage a pastor as much as committed church members.

These articles offer some good practical advice as well as sobering statistics on the need to pray for pastors.

I often think of Terry Teykl’s book, which encourages people to pray for pastors, Preyed On or Prayed For. We’d much rather be prayed for than preyed on, so we’re asking for your help (again, check out this 7-day prayer guide)!

Thank you for your prayers!

Joleen and I have been married 16.5 years. Looking back, we can list at least three financial practices that have proven valuable.

1. Honor God with tithes and offerings.
Tithing wasn’t a new practice for either of us when we married, but we did develop a new system for the way we’d do it. Even though we were seminary students at the time and money was tight (money was still tight after graduation!), we set a percentage (10%, at the time) for the tithe (which means “tenth”). Within a year or so, we set another percentage for offerings, that is, special offerings beyond our basic giving (2%, if I remember correctly). Our plan was to increase these amounts over the course of our lives, which we have done, slowly.

Everyone has to develop their own system. Currently, we calculate our tithes/offerings on pre-tax income, monetary gifts (including gift cards), credit card cashback, interest, and the fair rental value of the parsonage in which we live. The bottom line is, determine what it means for you to honor God with your finances. And do it.

This, by far, has been our best stewardship practice!

2. Tracking Expenses
During the first couple years of our marriage, I kept a hand-written copy of our monthly expenses by category. The idea was to know where our money was going, in case we need to make adjustments. Now, I keep monthly and yearly spreadsheet files on my computer by category. The spreadsheet also automatically calculates our tithe and offering amounts.

Interestingly, because we’ve tracked expenses, we know that our grocery expenses (which were very low when it was just the two of us) increased 32% in 2008 from 2007 (Ethan joined us in February 2008) and another 24% in 2009 (Sarah joined us in October 2009). In 2010, our first full year with two kids, we’re on track for a 14% increase from 2009. Stated another way, our grocery expenses in 2010 may be 87% higher than they were in 2007 (our last year without children).

Yikes. That explains a lot!

3. Budgeting Expenses
Most financial advisors would probably tell you to start here. But for us, our budget really flowed out of our expense tracking. That is, after a couple years, we pretty much knew how we spent money, so we developed a budget based on what we were already doing.

One area where the budget helps us is clothing expenses. Joleen and I have separate budgeted amounts for clothes. This helps because we know how much we can spend and don’t have to have a financial conversation every time one of us (usually Joleen) wants to buy something.

A funny thing happened a few years ago at a Macy’s department store. Joleen handed a pair of pants to the cashier who she thought she’d try to get a reaction out of me by telling us total was $90. The cashier was surprised when I didn’t react. I told Joleen later that it doesn’t matter to me how much she spends. The faster she spends her budgeted amount, the less time I have to spend in the store!

Another area where we budget is our “offerings” amount (a small percentage of our income beyond our tithe+). Our offering total is equally divided between us and we each support ministries/special offerings of our own choosing (we occasionally support some things together, as well).

Budgeting is a good idea. You’ve probably heard (or perhaps know by experience) that finances are one of the leading causes of conflict in marriages. Budgeting expenses helps minimize conflict by dealing with it ahead of time!

4. Guard against impulsiveness.
This practice is a last-second addition to the list. As I thought about our spending habits, it struck me that we generally do not make impulsive purchases, especially major purchases. In fact, just the opposite, we sometimes take too long (if that’s possible) to make decisions about larger purchases (days, weeks, months, if not years, in some cases).

Do your research. Shop around. Sleep on it. Sleep on it again. Make the best God-honoring decision you can (which may mean not buying the item at all).

These are some of our best practices. What are yours?

Following up on previous posts (1.0 and 2.0), here are some of the latest Ethanisms we’ve recorded.

Several weeks ago while pulling into the church parking lot at Centre Grove, Ethan said, “That was bumpy. It made me wiggle.”

You have to watch the use of idioms, which don’t always make sense when taken literally, the way kids understand them. Once, while finishing up dinner, I said to Ethan, “Wrap it up!” He said, “What, wrap me up?”

Ethan has picked up on the current phrase, “How cool is that?” (sometimes inserting other words like “pretty” or something).

When Ethan needs help, he will often say, “A little help, please!”

While riding in the stroller a while back and walking toward the setting sun, Ethan said, “The sun is being mean to my eyes!”

And a couple days ago, Ethan closed the gate at the bottom of the stairs and said, “I’ll close this gate so no Sarahs can come up.”

Fun to listen to. It should be even more fun once we start adding Sarahisms!

One of the requirements in the the final year of our ordination process is to complete an ordination project.

The ordination project is the newest part of our conference’s ordination process, added (actually it replaced another requirement) earlier this year (as a result of the formation of the new Susquehanna Conference). In the future, ordination candidates will have a full two years to plan and execute projects, but due to the mid-year change, our class of candidates will only have a few months.

According to the written instructions, it’s pretty wide-open, although (according to the unwritten instructions) it’s expected to be something fairly innovative and in line with the the UMC’s latest emphasis, Rethink Church.

Basically, it needs to be something we’d be doing anyway and we’ll just need to add some layers — writing a spiritual reflection paper and preparing and giving a 15-minute multimedia presentation to the Board of Ordained Ministry (due January 2011 and presented in March).

After submitting my proposal and receiving approval, I’m posting it here. One of the things that’s important to me is that it be a project that naturally flows out of where we’ve been and is the next faithful step at Centre Grove.

In that light, here’s the background I wrote for this project …

I arrived at Centre Grove in July 2008 with the initial goals of (1) getting acquainted/acclimated and (2) building a shared vision. To build a shared vision, I began leading Council on a 2-year journey through Bishop Schnase’s Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations in January 2009 (I began 2010 with a sermon series on the practices). As we finish up our engagement of the Five Practices, the next step is to rethink prayer in the life of a disciple-making/transformational church!

Here’s the purpose of this project …

The best way to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world is to be a prayer-saturated church. A prayer-saturated church is mission-driven and outward-focused. My goal, as a transformational leader, is to cultivate a place where prayer informs, guides, and empowers mission and ministry!

By the way, I’ve wrestled with a number of terms — praying congregation, prayer-centered church, prayer-based church. Prayer-saturated, which comes from a book title (below), is my favorite. More than being a “praying church” (prayer *can* be self-focused) I want to communicate the idea of prayer as foundation for mission and ministry (therefore, prayer-based is currently second on my list).

With all of that in mind, here’s the plan for executing this project …

1. Deepen my own personal prayer life through greater focus on spiritual disciplines (especially prayer, Scripture reading, journaling, and fasting).
2. Recruit prayer partners to pray for me and the mission/ministry of the church.
3. Develop a missional prayer guide based on the Lord’s Prayer.
4. Equip leaders to lead groups/committees in missional prayer.
5. Engage in missional prayer in Council meetings, particularly as we discuss Risk-Taking Mission and Service and create new ways to engage our community with the good news of Jesus Christ (fall 2010).
6. Equip people for missional prayer through preaching (fall 2010 series on the Lord’s Prayer, “What Would Jesus Pray?”) and teaching (emphasize missional prayer in new First Steps class, which grew out of our Five Practices discussion; open to all, required for membership).
7. Provide opportunities to model and/or engage in missional prayer (e.g., make prayer during worship more missional by praying intentionally for mission and ministry, in addition to personal needs) and prayer-walking/driving in our neighborhoods.

The project involves identifying the fruit/results of the project. While shaping the culture of a church is a long term effort, there are some short-term goals I’d like to accomplish in the next few months:

• Equip people to pray missionally (i.e., to saturate the church’s ministry in prayer).
• Be more intentional about praying missionally in worship gatherings, ministries, and meetings.
• Experience greater fruit from our mission/ministry.
• See more people get involved in the mission and ministry of the church (this one may take longer to see fruit, but it’s an important, if not long term, goal).

There are a number resources I’m planning to use, including resources by Bishop Rueben Job (Becoming a Praying Congregation; official site), Terry Teykl, Jim Cymbala, Bill Hybels (Too Busy Not to Pray), and Cheryl Sacks (The Prayer-Saturated Church; see BridgeBuilders; as a parent, I’m interested in Sacks’ Prayer-Saturated Kids).

While my time is limited, I am hoping to connect with and learn from other prayer-saturated churches (churches that saturate their mission and ministry in prayer).

So, as we jump more deeply into this project at Centre Grove, I am excited about its impact on our mission and ministry. And I’m excited about the project itself — reflecting on what God will do during the next several months and presenting it to the Board of Ordained Ministry.

But with the excitement is a little trepidation. I *could* have chosen an easier project — something a bit more easily defined, something easier to measure, something I might have a little more control of. But, alas, I’ve never been one to take the easy way!

If you have any resources to recommend that would help this project or if you know any churches that saturate their mission and ministry in prayer, please leave a comment and let me know. And if this is something that interests you, watch for a report later.

Finally, I would appreciate your prayers for this effort (not just the “ordination project,” but more importantly, the initiative at Centre Grove!).

Lately, I’ve been reminded about a fairly common idea/phrase — leading/ministering out of the overflow.

This is why preparation — ongoing personal growth — is so important. Last fall, I wrote about preparation in one of my posts on “The Nines” (specifically The Nines Marathon; see also More on the Nines) and continued the reflection in another post after the Provisional Membership Retreat.

Preparation is most productive when it’s consistent, over the long haul. Preparation is a value for me, but it’s also an area that I want to grow in. That’s why I wrote Daily Must-Dos (for ongoing preparation).

Preparation also helps to keep our “tanks” full (see Tank-Filling Activities). When my tank is running low, ministry/leadership can be a chore. But when my tank is full/overflowing, leadership is much more productive/effective.

In other words, in order to give, we must first receive. We receive in order to give. And the more we receive the more we’re able to give!

Are you living / serving / leading / ministering out of the overflow?

Ipicked up a copy of The Future of the United Methodist Church: 7 Vision Pathways at this year’s annual conference. I read it a couple weeks ago (just before vacation) and now that vacation is over, will blog some quotes and reflections.

The book was edited by Bishops Scott jones and Bruce Ough with contributions from eight other United Methodist bishops.

In a previous post, I listed 4 Talking Points about United Methodists, which the book expands on. As I understand it, the four areas of focus came out of the “seven pathways” (for simplification, apparently), as follows.

Focus Area 1: People: Creating New Places for New People by Starting Congregations and Renewing Existing Ones
Path 1: Planting New Congregations
Path 2: Transforming Existing Congregations

Focus Area 2: Leaders: Developing Principled Christian Leaders for the Church and the World
Path 3: Teaching the United Methodist Way
Path 4: Strengthening Clergy and Lay Leadership

Focus Area 3: Poverty: Engaging in Ministry with the Poor
Path 5: Children and Poverty
Path 6: Expanding Racial/Ethnic Ministries

Focus Area 4: Health: Stamping out Killer Diseases by Improving Health Globally
Path 7: Eliminating Poverty by Stamping out Disease

This framework is an attempt to help the UMC live out its mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Bishop Gregory Palmer writes …

No matter how well stated the mission of any movement or organization, it must also have a way to be embodied (ix).

The beginning of the book talks about the state of the church. Bishop Palmer laments …

… our United Methodist internal struggles are diminishing our capacity to offer hope for the world (xvii).

The editors note that the UMC has tremendous assets, specifically …

… there are United Methodist congregations in more than 95 percent of the counties in the United States … But too many of them are declining (2).

A key point in turning around the declining denomination is clarifying and recommitting to our God-given mission. Bishop G. Lindsay Davis uplifts the value of reaching unchurched people, a task he says we have been “neglecting,” writing …

Clearly reaching out to more than 195 million unchurched people in the United Stated must be a priority again for us. In fact, many of us believe it is the number one priority (4).

Bishop David provides a lot of good content on church planting and the kind of leaders needed to plant them. Bishop Robert Schnase, author of Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations (which we’ve written several posts about), writes the chapter on transforming existing congregations. While transforming churches is no easy task, and “[t]here are no easy answers, quick fixes, or simple formulas (31), Bishop Schnase reminds leaders that …

Transforming existing congregations is possible (19).

Bishop Schnase discusses the role of the church, stating …

As we grow in grace and develop our interior life (what Wesley calls ‘inner holiness’), we discern the call of God prompting us to make a positive difference in the lives of others through service, mission, and generosity. … By God’s grace, we are a changed people seeking to change the lives of others and thereby transform the world. (20)

Bishop Schanse contends that leaders who transform congregations …

… know that the principal mission field is ‘out there’ and not ‘in here’ (24).

Bishop Schnase offers several points of description about churches that experience transformation. One point is that each church …

… has experienced a radical change of attitude, a new clarity of mission, and a taste for excellence; and they follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit toward the fulfillment of that mission wherever it leads (24).

Bishop Schnase also discusses the role of the conference in renewing existing churches. One observation he makes is that …

… conferences that promote transformation foster a culture of learning. The greatest difference between declining congregations and those that are growing in fruitfulness is their attitude toward learning. Thriving churches develop a culture of learning. (26)

Focus area 2 deals more specifically with leadership. Bishop Scott Jones writes about the role of teaching “the United Methodist Way” (see Living the United Methodist Way).

The editors write …

At our best, United Methodist Christians seek to evangelize, nurture, equip, and send forth disciples of Jesus Christ to transform the world (33).

I want to spend more time processing what Bishop Jones writes about the United Methodist Way (especially as we will be preparing for Board of Ordained Ministry interviews over the next several months, working toward ordination). He concludes the chapter, stating …

United Methodist Christians believe genuine human happiness comes from growing in holiness—toward being the men and women God intends us to be (46).

One of my favorite chapters is written by Bishop Hee-Soo Jung (who also shares a bit of his story from Korea). The pages of this chapter are largely yellow, thanks to my highlighter!

Bishop Jung writes about strengthening leadership in the UMC building on the foundation of the call to discipleship. Bishop Jung writes …

To be leaders in the church today, we must first identify our call to be Christian disciples. Disciples make other disciples. … The credibility of our leadership grows from our modeling as we claim our call to discipleship first. (48)

Bishop Jung specifically sounds a call for visionary leaders. He describes visionary leadership as …

attentiveness to God’s leadership. Leaders are asked first of all to be open to where God is leading. … The church, after all, has a mission—to share the good news of Christ with the world. Leaders are asked to discern what it means for their particular context to share the good news. (50)

Addressing the current condition of the UMC, Bishop Jung laments …

We have forgotten that the church is a vehicle from which to offer Christ’s love; it is a tool in our mission, not the end product of our work (52).

Building on the foundation of call to visionary leadership, Bishop Jung talks about the role of pastors in congregations. Page 53 in my book is almost completely yellow but I’ll whittle it down to this …

Though it may sound oversimplified, the primary role of the parish pastor … is leadership of a congregation. Every other task that a pastor might perform is secondary. Leadership is the core of who a pastor is called to be. (53)

Bishop Jung states that pastors have three major tasks …

1. “to lead the congregation in perceiving the particular mission and ministry to which it is being called by God” (53).
2. “to develop leadership in that congregation that is able to assist the congregation in responding to its call” (53).
3. “to work with lay leadership to assist and equip every member in perceiving and carrying out his or her own particular ministries” (53).

I love these points. It’s about leading people in our God-given mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world!

The problem, however, Bishop Jung contends, is …

Many congregations have expectations of pastors that are in conflict with the call to pastoral leadership. … [T]he congregation expects a chaplain. Congregations who want a chaplain want to be left where they are—untouched by the demands from God—with members ‘ministered to’ by a professional staff. … Congregations who seek a chaplain do not want to be led anywhere. … [C]ongregations do not need chaplains; they need leaders.” (53)

Great words!

It’s going to take transformational leaders to turn around our declining denomination. The process of transforming an institution back into a movement will be no easy task. In fact, there will be many scars. But it’s necessary, if we’re going to be faithful to who God calls us to be!

Well, there’s a lot to process, and a lot I haven’t even touched on. But I’ll finish with a quote from Bishop Minerva Carcaño …

Unfortunately, we are living in days in which too many of us United Methodists have lost our way, substituting a comfortable, self-focused, and false understanding of discipleship for kingdom-building discipleship (84).

May God have mercy on us. May God help us to be who God intends us to be. May God empower us to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world!