September 2, 2018

When Church Members Keep Second-Guessing Your Pastoral Decisions

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What do pastors, politicians and major league coaches have in common? A whole lot of people who’ve never done their job are convinced they could do it better.

The less experience they have the more certain they are, because those who’ve actually done it know how hard it is.

I can’t speak to how it feels as a politician or coach to constantly be second-guessed by everyone who’s ever watched a game or (not) voted in an election, but I do know how pastors feel when we’re constantly criticized by people who don’t have enough information, but still give lots of advice.

In fact it may be harder on pastors because, unlike politicians and major league coaches, most of our critics aren’t strangers in the stands, they’re people we know very closely.

If this is something you’re experiencing as a pastor in your church today, let me offer a few words of comfort and advice.

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Why The Public Salvation Call Is Harder In A Small Church (And A Couple Alternatives)

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Introducing people to faith in Christ is a central component of what it means to be the church. Like me, many of you were raised and still minister in an environment where the Great Commission is followed by a public call to salvation at the end of every church service. The Altar Call is such

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Celebrating 50,000 Baptisms – No Matter How Many Churches It Takes

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Last week, Saddleback Church celebrated an amazing spiritual milestone. Since their founding 38 years ago, they have baptized 50,000 new believers.

That is something the entire body of Christ needs to pause and thank God for. 50,000 people making commitments to Christ in one local church is an amazing and beautiful thing.

It’s also amazing and beautiful when 50,000 people come to Christ and are baptized across 10, 100 or 1,000 congregations.

As I considered those numbers, I started wondering what equivalent stats would look like in churches of those different sizes.

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Why We Stopped Taking Attendance At Our Church For A While

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For many years, I kept track of church attendance numbers very carefully. As the church grew, I calculated growth patterns, percentages, demographics, you name it. I found that counting wasn’t just important and helpful, it was fun. When we were growing.

Then we stopped growing.

Soon we started shrinking.

So we stopped counting and did what we could to douse the fire before we lost everything.

And we didn’t start counting again for a long time after we corrected the slide and got things stabilized. By then, I was just grateful to be balanced and healthy. The numbers didn’t matter any more.

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