First Step: Revitalize Toward Health
Getting to Know Them
My wife and I started dating and it wasn’t love at first site. We played softball on opposing teams and she was very good at the game. I noticed her and then wondered about her. A mutual friend of ours kinda started working the matchmaker role and then we finally met. Our team was short a girl that night and she agreed to play with us through my coach. She played first base and at this point, I was playing third base. We talked and had a great time that night playing softball together. After the game, she left and I wondered who the lady was that had played with us that night. Later that week I found out that her church affiliation was an opposing belief system than mine. Her doctrinal stance was that you must be baptized to be saved. I on the other hand believed that grace through faith was the key to having a relationship with Christ. The process of beginning is just that the beginning. Within ministry, there is always a learning curve and process to achieving leadership that will be needed to lead the congregation. Then there was the eternal desire to bring her to the truth.
So, I finally mustered the courage to ask her out, intending to broach the subject of faith. She agreed, I think she had the same intention, and we went out together. Our first few meetings were a little rocky. She was arguing from her biblical, traditional perspective and I did the same. She says to this day, “We didn’t date, we argued” and the truth is she is correct. Our “dating” (only three months total) consisted of biblical discussions. Through these times together our relationship was built upon Christ. She does still have the opinion that Christians should be baptized, but now that is a symbol of what has transpired within the heart of the new believer. I do not look at it as though I won the argument, because all husbands everywhere know there will never be a victory with their wives in “those discussions” rather we take the event more seriously of baptism to this day.
Leading a congregation can be the same. There has to be the introductory phase, the growing phase, the dating phase, the marrying phase, and the existing together with love and a vision for moving forward. This will be the explanation of starting a new work as a pastor and aiding the small church to health.
The first stage should be a relational ministry with evaluation and repentance from the past. The first six months to a year should not be much or any vision casting by a new pastor or leader. “This point of challenge can be for us a unique opportunity, embodying a process in these instances that allows us to grow in our relationships and in our understanding of what it means to be faithful in times of change.”[1] There must be an evaluation of the current ministry and an observation of what is effective and what needs attention, so far as the ministry is concerned. “The process of deciding must begin with a clear understanding of the entire organization, its people, and its programs.”[2]There should be a call to the restoration of relationships and unconfessed sin or generational problems that are plaguing the church in the current state during these few months. “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother…Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven (Mt. 15, 18-19).” There must be an evaluation and call to God to understand the past and to have the ability to turn toward the future of health.
Knowing and building relationships are a process and not instantaneous. Loving people comes with time invested. The number one piece of advice to be given and highlighted in this blog is to spend some time getting to know your people. Become part of the congregation’s lives and minister in the middle of the messiness. It would be impossible to walk with a congregation without knowing the needs of the people and the community. The suggestion would be to know both the church and the community before doing anything else. New physicians take the Hippocratic oath to “do no harm.” The suggestion would be to do the same as the new pastor of the church.
[1] Tim Conder and Dan Rhodes. Organizing Church: Grassroots Practices for Embodying Change in Your Congregation, Your Community, and Our World. (Saint Louis, Missouri: Chalice Press, 2017), 97.
[2] Kathleen M. Immordino. Organizational Assessment and Improvement in the Public Sector. 1st. (London, ENG: Routledge, 2017), 32.