The Wandering Shepherd

This will take the form of a bit of a rant, so, thou hast been warned…

I am said to have single handedly taken away the family feel of our church.

Yesterday we had a friend visit us from out of state.  She came in with my wife, but they quickly separated and she stood over by the coffee pots where all the people were.  She was greeted by exactly 5 people.  Talked to by exactly 5 people.  2 staff members, 2 staff members wives and an unknown person.

Our visitor was from the church we were at previously.  Unprompted, she said, “This is a nice church, but they are not very friendly.  Even though C_______ Church is a lot smaller, we have a lot more hand-shaking, smiling people.”

I guess I could have sucked the family feel from this place, but one would think that a few of the family-feel people would at least say, “Hello,” to a visitor.

We are making some much needed changes around here.  Hopefully, we can help people be friendlier.  I don’t guess I care if it feels like a family.  I think I would rather us feel like friends.

For our friend, yesterday felt like crashing a family reunion.

We have been feverishly working on a plan to help our church move forward.  We have been sitting stagnant so long.

The elders and staff decided to move forward with an intinsified small group ministry.  We are actually making it the primary adult ministry in the church. 

One of the ways we are stepping up the game in the small groups is through video.  Each week, I will film a discussion starting video that will be distributed to all of the leaders.  We think this will be key in keeping our groups on track as well as in recruiting leaders.  It makes leading a group doable for almost anyone.

The cost of the equipment we need to get it off the ground?  $3,000.

We are now wondering if we can do it.  Are we crazy?

We spend $15,000 on a secretary that can’t operate MS Word.  We spend $10,000 on lawn maintenance every year.   We spend $9,000 on a copier.   We spend $3000 for an annual Halloween party.

Somehow we have gotten off target.  When we can spend money for all of the piddly things that happen around ministry, but can’t spend it on the ministry itself, something is wrong.

It is like a grocery store that stops carrying milk, but still carries fruitcake at Christmas.

We need to figure out what is important, or soon all we will have around here is fruitcake.

Today we found out we have misfigured our taxes the last few years.  We owe more money.

We owe more money than we have.

Pretty discouraging.  Time to go ask relatives if they want to loan us money to build roads for the government.

Some pretty exciting things happening around here.  They are happening right along side of some of the silliness.

We have some new stuff coming up in the fall.  I am excited about it and it should be good.  I think it will make a difference.  But that is not the biggest thing.

this week, the elders asked another guy to join them.  He is R.  R is a godly man who is a theologian and everyone who knows him would say he is a man of compassion.  All of my reads say the same thing.

I had coffee with him last week and it seems like we are of one mind.  He will be a great addition to the eldership.

Real light.

Sunday I was talking with a guy from church.  He was talking about how when he clocks out from his job, he doesn’t think about it again until he clocks in.  He was joking a little about people who check their email in their off time.

I think I want that kind of job.  BTW…he makes a stinking lot of money at it too.  :)

Oh well, it is a calling.

This church is crazy with control.

Two weeks ago, I received an email from a man at church that he and his family were leaving.

TD is a man who likes to putter around the church fixing stuff.  He was a carpenter and general handyman by trade and does it well.  He has an eye that sees whatever is amiss and he generally pulls the parts to fix them out of some box he has at home.  When his magic box doesn’t have what he needs, he picks it up and turns in the receipt to the church, as he has been told to do.

An elder saw him changing the ballast in a light down stairs in a dark hallway.  The elder told him that without elder approval, he was not able to spend more than $20.  TD said, “Then I will pay for this out of my pocket because there needs to be light in this hallway.”  The elder told him not to do that.

I guess we prefer darkness.

T on our staff talked TD out of leaving and talked to the elders about it.  They passed the buck to the guy in charge of house and grounds (even though they had been the ones to impose the arbitrary $20 rule.)

The man in charge of house and grounds, MM, is a 50% attender and is pretty disengaged with building maintenance (hence all the need for TD to putter around.)   Today I received an email that MM had spoken to TD to chastise him for changing out lightbulbs and to say, “We are not reimbursing you for the gas you used in your pressure washer to wash the crud off the sidewalks and building.”

I don’t get it.  Why do we have to squabble over who controls things all the way down to lightbulbs?

TD is leaving.  How can I blame him?