It’s been forever since I’ve blogged about the debacle known as the Romeo School Board. Since I’m not a homeowner, resident, or parent of kids in the district I really don’t care all that much about what is going on.

But this news raised my eyebrow:

Recall efforts may proceed against three Romeo school board members, but two others were granted reprieves Friday by the Macomb County Election Commission. story link

What is going on is classically simple. Unions, who have completely bankrupted the district, are upset there there simply isn’t more money to steal from the children of the district. In 2006, they even forced a bond on the community to cover up to 103% of the budget so their employees could get guaranteed raises dispite diving home values, diving tax revenue, and diving test scores across the district.

Three individuals stood up to the unions and did their best to balance the budget. Yes, this involved letting some union employees go and hiring non-union contractors.

And now unions are leading a recall effort.

The joy of being a reformer is that you will be called a heretic. Hopefully, the people of Romeo will stand up and not see these three reformers burned at the stake.

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There have been many days when something like would have come in handy. Can someone please put this on my Christmas list?

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For a variety of reasons I know a lot of people in church transition. Some were on staff at a church which has let them go for budget reasons and they need a new church home. Others have moved to new states for a job. Still others just can’t stand their current church situation anymore and are looking for a new church home in their town.

So the question presented to me, as a friend is: What do I look for in a church? (We’re talking about believers looking for a new church, not people brand new to the faith.)

I like to immediately rephrase the question to be about the pastoral staff. You simply cannot go visit a church and make a judgment on whether or not you want to be a part of it based on a site visit and observation of programs or even the weekly service. The quality of a church is determined by the quality of leaders. If you want to see the heart of the church and get exposed to what is really going on– you will need to meet senior leaders. If the church is so big that you don’t get to meet the senior leaders if you request a meeting… decide for yourself if that’s the type of church you’re OK with being a part of. Me personally? That tells me everything I need to know. If I can’t get a meeting for a cup of coffee with the pastoral staff they don’t want me to be a part of their church, got it!

Things you are trying to figure out when you meet a pastoral staff member.

1 Timothy 3:1-7 outlines the Biblical qualifications for being a pastor. (overseer) This becomes the basis for my bullet points below.

Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.

• Above reproach- Do the senior leaders have a good reputation? When you talk to other church leaders in the area do they know who they are? Do they show up to local pastor network stuff? Do the people of the church have nice things to say after the first cup of coffee?
• Husband of one wife- I don’t think this means divorce and I don’t think this is exclusive to men… so it could be “wife of one man” in my eyes. But I do think this means… are these people true to their spouse? Are they working so hard that the church is really their spouse?
• Temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable- If you want the inside scoop on this talk to the secretaries. They will tell you flat out if the pastoral staff are a bunch of jerks or not. “Does he ever blow a gasket?” If you really want to dig into this, talk to the vendors who service the church. The computer people, the copier salesmen, or even their insurance broker will know if these people just put on a happy face for parishioners but are otherwise jerks.
• Not a drunk- I’ve actually never met a pastoral team member who was a drunk. I’m sure they are out there. I just wouldn’t worry about this one too much.
• Gentle- You need to trust your gut on this. This is one of the most important qualities of being a pastor. So even the jerks can “put on gentleness” as a survival skill. But you need to determine if the staff are gentle when it counts or just gentle for the church show. You can test this out by bringing them an absurd idea. If they aren’t jerks when you tell them that you will only go to a church that uses free trade communion wafers… you know they are gentle. 
  
• Not quarrelsome, not a lover of money- We’re getting somewhere now! If you talk to your pastor and you sense that they are in the church to build their kingdom instead of the Kingdom of God, walk out of the meeting. Based on my years of experience this is about 1:5 pastors. It’s an American epidemic. Why flee these pastors? They will be a bull in a china shop. They will do whatever it takes to grow/build the church. That’s fun for about 2 months but gets old real fast. In short, those people tend to love a good rumble. But if the church is doing a reluctant building campaign because they have clearly maxed out their current space… this isn’t always a bad thing.
• A good family- This is tricky as it might take a while to figure out.  You can sniff it out by asking how they manage their time. Every church will say they encourage their staff to put family first. But are they backing that up? Is it OK for a staff member to miss a Sunday for a key sports tournament with their son? Is it OK for a staff member to go home early or go late to get the kids to school? Do they punch a time clock with strict office hours? Does the church limit the number of evenings a staff member can be out working for the church? If you see inconsistencies here you know they aren’t managing their families well. And a church that permits this is not a church you want to be a part of.
• Not a new believer- It’s all the rage right now to hire new believers as church staff. This is tied to a theory that it’s more important what you do for a church (worship leading, marketing, executive leadership, etc) than that you have a strong theological education. (seminary) Paul was wise to make it a requirement that someone not be a new believer. If you meet the executive pastor and he has an MBA, was converted at the church 3 years ago, and left an accounting firm to be a part of the church, RUN!

If you want me to get even more practical than this, leave me a comment! We’ll start a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” voting system!

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We’re having a crunch month. It seems like during every calendar year there is one time when the vacuum cleaner has been attached to our accounts and we suddenly find ourselves going from “feeling comfortable” to “How much do they give for blood these days?” That’s about how things are for our family right now.

• Semi-annual and annual bills just got paid.
• All the regular bills paid, but were higher than budgeted.
• Bought a car. (paid cash, huge win!)
• Silly kids are growing and needed clothes!
• Travel expenses, haven’t been reimbursed yet.

Even as a family who lives rather simply we come on tough financial times from time-to-time. In this case, we got through it because we had budgeted for it to happen and had the cash on hand to make it through. We’ve had times in the past where we didn’t plan so well and literally had to depend on the kindness of our church to eat. You live a little and you get a little wiser, I guess.

In some ways I wish we felt this crunch more often. These times in the calendar are refreshing! I rest in our routine. I rest in our budget. I rest in simple things. I rest knowing that when we make things even simpler it is better for our family. I rest knowing that we’re not touching our long-term savings to ride out a short-term crisis. I like wincing when we give to our church. I like scrutinizing what we spend. Actually, I kind of like even noticing what is being spent because all-too-often I get into habits where I don’t see how much we are spending.

Of course, I’m really thankful because I know three things are true. First, I know that things will go back up from here. We have an annual low point, this is it, and we can budget ourselves out of it again. Second, I know who provides for me. God sustains us no matter what. Kristen and I will never forget the mystery bags of vegetables we received in Oroville. God is our provider. Third, while we have less cash than we’d like we also have less debt than we had a year ago.

• September 3, 2009 -- 3 Positive Effects of Recession on the Church (1)
• October 13, 2009 -- Is God Still in Charge? (3)

For big parts of the country, it’s bowlin’ season. Next time you are at your league try this!

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I had a great weekend in Cincinnati. I had lots of time to connect with old friends, meet tons of new people, and got into a multitude of deep conversations about life, work, ministry, and family. Over and over again themes came into conversation. These weren’t things I brought up… it just seemed like everything came back to these things eventually.

• Mentorship, tutoring, education: Apparently, I am not the only one thinking that if youth ministry needs to be Good News to students it needs to somehow involve education. It seems like this is a youth ministry-wide tribal reaction to the realization that programmatic stuff isn’t as effective as it was just 5 years ago.
• Calling: Living on the West Coast I’m a bit insulated from what is going on in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio churches. My friends would say, “it’s bad, real bad.” And I think that means giving is way down, they are taking pay cuts, and they are having to go back to God and say… “Are you absolutely positive I am called to this?“
• Ministering to gay and lesbian students: When Andrew Marin came to NYWC last fall and talked about the big rainbow elephant in the room… it opened up a can of worms! One of the things I’ve learned is that while teens were coming out of the closet to youth workers EVERYWHERE, the youth workers were still closeted about it. I can’t tell you how many times a conversation brought this up.
• Dependency. I think this is related to calling– it’s just the theological “aha” so many are embracing. We all know God’s got this. We all know that no matter how bad things look for the church, the church will be fine. But this weekend I ran into a bunch of people who literally are putting their life out there and depending on God. Even during the convention I ran into people who told me they had been let go that weekend. But they aren’t giving up. They aren’t freaking out. They are depending on God.
• Fun! Even with the heavy stuff right under the surface. This is a tribe of people who loves life and wants to have fun. Check out what they did on Halloween.

• October 16, 2009 -- Remember what it was like when this was fun? (1)
• October 28, 2009 -- Headed to Cincy! (2)

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

—Emma Lazarus, 1883

With another NYWC kicking off this morning, this is exactly how it feels. Youth workers are the most misunderstood tribe of church workers. Maligned, misrepresented, dispatched to the corners of the building these resilient men and women endure a lot to be in youth ministry. They do it because they’ve answered a calling to minister to the tribe of people often cast aside as lepers in the church, teenagers.

And they come to convention looking for rest, ideas, and encouragement. Convention is a place of shared known where we can laugh, cry, and celebrate what God is doing. As they come today, I hope to pour what I can into them.

This is a homecoming for them and I intend to welcome them home!

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Dang. Pastor John should spike his Bible at the end of this. I needed to hear this today. I pray you do as well. Let’s reject the ways of this world and go another, more impossible direction.

Who’s in?

HT to Travis

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Thursday morning I head out to the beautiful state of Ohio for the second NYWC of 2009. After a year’s worth of planning, preparation, and trying to get people to come– I am beside myself ready to get on site and do my job! The Midwest version of NYWC is always my highlight as “these are my people.”

Thirty days ago I wrote this, it summarizes my feelings today, as well:

I may have the best job in youth ministry. Sure, I’m not on stage or writing books or in any way famous. But, I am doing work I love. I get the unique job of meeting lots of people– practitioners of youth ministry, researchers, authors, speakers… And loads of folks who do they day to day work of reaching this generation for Jesus Christ.

I still believe I have the best job in youth ministry. I am thankful for the opportunity to encourage and invest in this group of heroes.

Will you join me in praying for a fantastic convention for this group of youth workers? It’s been a tough year to be in youth ministry all-around. But especially in the Midwest.

• September 3, 2009 -- NYWC is Gonna Be Fun (0)
• November 4, 2009 -- Themes from NYWC (1)