Experience.FellowshipOne.com

If you enjoy listening to sermons on-line I would highly recommend John Piper at http://www.desiringgod.org/ especially the sermons on the book of Romans, the sermons cover a span of several years so it might take several months to get through them all, you will be richly blessed by them. At the end of every (on-line) sermon there is an announcers who says “Thank you for listening to this message by John Piper, Pastor for Preaching…”. Pastor for Preaching? What does that mean, does that mean that his job is to preach preach and only preach? Does he run the church also, does he make the big decisions? I am a member at Gateway Church in Southlake Texas and Pastor Robert Morris seems to follow the same model, I have heard him say that he spends 20 hours per week praying and preparing his sermons and with 6 services on the weekend the rest of the time seems to be spent preaching. I’m rather new to the whole mega-church scene so I am used to a small congregation of maybe 100 members and one pastor who did everything from preach to mow the grass, with the exception of the little old lady who cleaned the church, the pastor took care of everything. How many churches out there are struggling because the pastor or preacher is stretched so thin that the sermon is prepared at 10:00 PM the night before the church service?

And what about the model that Jesus left for us, yes he performed miracles, cast out daemons and healed the sick but he spent most of his time preaching and seeking God in prayer. Jesus did not try to do all the work himself, instead he appointed disciples to "Go into all the world and preach the good news” Mark 16:15. Jesus preached using words and gave us an example by his actions to provide us with instructions on how to live our lives.

Now lets take that same model and apply it to technology, specifically data. The people at the church could take the initiative to learn effective ways to manage data, or they could use their currently level of computer knowledge and create a spreadsheet with all the kids names, addresses, parent name, allergies, attendance. They could hire someone internally who has experience in the area of managing data, or they could hire the services of a company who specializes in managing church congregation data. Would you ask the person you hired to do lawn maintenance come in and run the youth ministry? Or would you ask the person who cleans the restrooms to prepare someone’s giving statement? Then why is the person who was hired to run the children’s department in charge of managing the data for that department?

I know that the people who are doing ministry have a heart to serve God and further the Kingdom, and they manage things to the best of their ability but would that task be better suited for someone who specializes in it? I work as a database administrator and managing data is my job, that is what I have done for the last 9 years. In the past I have worked for various companies and there have been departments like sales or human resources that were bound and determined to manage their own customer data or employee information. Then the next problems that they faced was how to share the data, how to keep it secure, how to handle the backups, how to maintain the data, how to merge the data together when 10 people are all working on their own copy of the data, which copy of the data is most current, the list goes on and on, perhaps you have seen some of these same problems in your organization.

In Mark 10:45 the Word tells us that the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus came to bare the burden of sin for us; Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." Galatians 3:13. What would have happened if Jesus had gotten caught up in administrative tasks? Or what would happen if you and I tried to be our own savior and bare the burden of our own sins? In summary, (I love it when preachers say that) let the preacher do what he is called to do; preach and to minister to the needs of the congregation, let the people in [Insert ministry here] ministry do what they are called to do, let the database guy handle the data, let Jesus bare the burden of your sin instead of trying to be your own savior.

Forget the staff - how do you get the church body as a whole to read this?  :-)

Seriously, this issue gets to me in general just because of people who feel that their job is to come to a meeting of the local church body, drop $10 in the plate (seems that they remember the Bible says something about 10 and money), and go their way.  The work of God for them just seems to be missed.  The idea that we are to serve other people (and not necessarily inside of the church) is missed all too often.  Life change? Rarely unless we're looking for it.  My pastor has a phrase that is his theme at the moment - "One more time."  Serve one more time; share the gospel one more time; praise God one more time.  There is no retirement from the Christian life. When even one person decides that their place is to sit idly by while others work, the whole body is not operating at peak efficiency.

In regards to Mark's point on technology, I agree - put people who know computers and data in charge of the day-to-day data operations.  Have them work closely with the people who know the ministry and people.  Like anything else, Church Management software is a tool, not the end goal.  It's great to hear when a pastor can take a look at a report and know at a glance that his body is healthy or not healthy.  When a ministry leader can know that a family is going through a rough time and needs some extra love and care, they can really make a difference.  When people who were introduced to the local body through an outreach are contacted and slowly integrate into your local church, growing in a walk with the Lord that was not there before - that's a cause to rejoice.

However, if we tie up ministry leaders to work "the system" rather than do their jobs, that defeats the purpose.  The staff members should do what they do best - ministry.  If they are good with computers, great.  If not, find someone who is talented in that area to help out.  Give people an opportunity to serve.  I think this could be a great way of serving for those who are gifted in technology-related areas, but not so much in areas that would require constant interaction with people.

Mark, this was a great post - well thought out and something I think more people do need to hear/read.

-Pete