Page 973 – Christianity Today (2024)

In one telling of the myth, Prometheus attempts revenge on Zeus by aiding human revolt in three ways. First, he erases each person's knowledge of the day of his or her death. Up until then, humans, according to Greek lore, were born knowing the day they would die, a built-in sense of limitation. Then, having removed their sense of finiteness, Prometheus filled their heads with dreams larger than what they could achieve. Finally, to complete his mischief, he gave them fire, the power, so it seemed, to achieve these dreams.

It's also a modern tale. We can lose our sense of mortality or limitation. We have been raised with the lie that we can be anything and achieve anything we desire. With the power to broadcast our message, our self—in a video, a tweet, a picture, or a blog—we can build our brand, enlarge our platform, and amplify our voice. Like creatures in the Promethean myth, we have illusions of limitless possibilities, ambitions of greatness, and the fire of our own giftedness in our hands.

There is a certain irony in being asked to write about how to determine the "size of our footprint"—the scale of our influence on the world—and how to decide which opportunities to say yes or no to. How I responded would itself be a test if I had anything to say! As I struggled with whether or not to accept the challenge, I could not shake the conviction—shaped, undoubtedly, by my own ongoing wrestling over these questions—that we must look deeper than tips and strategies for "stewarding our influence." We must face our fallenness.

3 Confessions

First, we must confess the lure of the platform. The more time we spend on a platform, the more we seek out greater platforms. Leaders tend to dismiss this as a temptation because the speaking opportunity / book deal / interview / TV show is a "platform for the gospel," not for our own vanity. But we are easily fooled.

The Jesus of the Gospels tended not to capitalize on platform opportunities. After performing a miracle, he often warned the healed to not tell anyone except the proper officials to validate their new state of ceremonial cleanness. If Jesus had our PR strategists, he would have relocated his ministry hub from the Galilean countryside to a proper city, like Jerusalem or even Rome. Jesus seemed more interested in settings that were personal than settings that afforded the widest reach.

When Jesus said that if he was lifted up he would draw all people to him, he was speaking about being crucified, not being on the conference circuit. He set his face toward the cross, a place of sacrifice, not a platform to pad his influence. Even the empty tomb was witnessed not by Caesar but two fearful, grieving women—people low on the strategic influencers list but dearly loved by our Lord himself.

One other note: over time, the platform becomes part of the person; the message is absorbed into the medium.

We may tell ourselves that this opportunity is simply a platform, that it won't really change who we are or the way we proclaim the gospel, but eventually our environments shape our habits, and our habits order our loves. Keep putting yourself in certain places (whether inspirational conferences, argumentative blogs, or narcissistic social media) and you will be led to love the wrong things or to love the right things wrongly.

Second, we must confess we tend to love our own gift wrongly. From Augustine to Dante, Medieval Christianity saw sin as disordered love. Our gift—for leadership or speaking or teaching or singing—is a good thing; it comes from a good Father. Our gift was meant to help us be a light that shines like stars against the dark sky.

Yet stars can become black holes. NASA says a black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot get out. A star has turned inward to the point that it ceases to shine. This happens when too much matter is squeezed into too little space.

When we make decisions based on getting more attention for our gifts, we over-invest meaning into our gift. We attempt to squeeze the ultimate into the finite.

When we over-invest meaning or significance into our gift, we attempt to squeeze the ultimate into the finite. We begin to make decisions based on whether it will get our gift more attention, or what will make our gift flourish. We are dissatisfied with our church because we aren't sure if this little work is worthy of our grand gift and high calling. These are signs that we've turned our good gift into a god, making it the orienting center of our life, the organizing force for our decisions. When we do, we are no longer able to shine with the glory of God. We become dying stars.

Finally, we must confess the limitations of our life. Let me put it bluntly: we cannot do it all. When Moses—the greatest prophet of the Old Testament—prayed in Psalm 90 that God would teach us to number our days, he was praying for an awareness of our limits. How far Moses had come from the young man who thought he could break the bonds of injustice one taskmaster at a time! He had finally realized what every leader must learn: we are finite.

There are things we cannot do, things beyond our control. Technology can amplify our influence beyond what we can actually sustain. As the old saying goes, "Just because we can, doesn't mean we should." We carry this treasure, after all, in jars of clay. There are hints of glory even in our aspirations. But for now, we must learn to number our days and pray, as Moses did in the Psalm, that God will establish the work of our hands.

The Right Community

Our hearts have an enormous capacity to deceive us; our vanity can fly beneath the radar. We need to invite others into the process, but it is crucial that we invite the right people. 1 Kings recounts how Rehoboam sought the advice of his father's counselors—men who advised Solomon, the wisest man on earth!—and then solicited input from his peers. He decided to go with the advice of the younger, angrier men, and the nation was torn in two. You can be teachable and still be wrong because you've listened to the wrong teachers.

I've learned the hard way to process the opportunities in my life with people who know me well, who love me and want to see me flourish, and who are willing to tell me no. All three of those qualities must be present.

Here's what it looks like for me. I have circles that widen as the opportunity increases in scope. I talk through every opportunity with my wife. When something involves, travel, the circle widens to include my senior pastor, Brady Boyd. When I considered becoming a post-graduate researcher at Durham University in England, I knew it would involve several trips over the first year. Brady encouraged me to do it but asked me not to accept any other ministry travel during a six-month time frame. I had already submitted myself to him before he gave any counsel—and this turned out to be very wise counsel.

When an opportunity is more partnership-oriented and carries the potential to be long-lasting, the circle widens again to include my close friends and often my parents.

Questions that Guide Me

Having a clean heart and the right people around you goes a long way toward discerning which opportunities to seize and which to release. But in addition, a few questions have been helpful. These are wonderful to discuss with trusted community.

1. Is this the right work for this season? I was a sophom*ore in college when I was invited to join a travelling worship band and play at large youth events around the country. I had come to America from Malaysia with dreams of "raising up worshipers in Spirit and in truth"—this had to be a fulfillment of that call!

"Why don't you be the kind of team member now that you'd like to have one day?"

My parents, still living in Malaysia at the time, gently tried to redirect my excitement. "Remember what this season is for," my dad said. "This is the time to finish your studies and be diligent in it." I didn't like it, but he was right.

The Teacher in Ecclesiastes reminds us that the task must fit the time in order for it not to be totally futile. There are good things that don't fit the season we are in, and we must carefully discern that.

2. Am I being co-opted into someone else's cause? I was once invited on a trip to a war-torn country with a group of high-profile "leaders and influencers." Flattered by the invitation, I booked my ticket and was ready to network for the kingdom. But the more I discovered about the trip, the more I realized they wanted us to come back and be a voice for a particular cause. I'm not against causes. In fact, I think there are many causes worth lending my voice to. But I have learned to be leery of people who are trying to co-opt me into their cause without bothering to discover my calling and sense of vocation.

3. Am I making the most of today? When I first began to identify the call on my life to be a pastor and made the shift from worship ministry to being in a primary pastor role, I went to my senior pastor about it. He was encouraging and affirming of the call but suggested I take some time to develop. He offered me the chance to start a Sunday evening service at our church. Because a few details of his proposal didn't match my ideals, I almost turned him down. Like many young leaders, I wasn't going to "settle" for anything less than my dreams, or what we're tempted to call "God's best for me."

But wisdom prevailed. Once again, it came through my dad. He asked me if I thought I was going to leave and plant a church immediately. I replied that I might in a few years. Then he said the words I'll never forget: "So why don't you be the kind of team member now that you'd like to have one day?"

Sometimes we get so focused on our ambitions, our angling for opportunities in the future, that we can forget to be faithful in the moment, faithful with each moment.

There it is. How do we weigh opportunities to enlarge our ministry boundaries? Confess the lure of the platform, the easily distorted love of your gift, and the limitations of your life. Surround yourself with people who know you, who love you, and who are willing to tell you no. Reflect on what task fits this season, on whether your vocational identity is being co-opted for someone else's cause, and on how you can be faithful with the most precious thing you've been given: today.

Glenn Packiam is pastor of New Life Downtown in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Editor's note: The following piece appears in the fall issue of Leadership Journal. It's one of many features taking a look at the current state of the pastorate. For more on pastoral training, see Steve Norman’s "4 Surprising Benefits of Seminary." Subscribers can read Josh Harris’s piece on why he decided to step down from his pastorate to attend seminary full-time.

Brian McNeilly plans to pursue full-time ministry. But he's not quite ready for the pulpit, and maybe not even the postgraduate classroom. Instead, McNeilly, 23, a U.S. Army First Lieutenant, decided that he wouldn't jump straight into a seminary program.

"[Growing up,] I saw all these pastors that had done something before ministry," he said, referring to one mentor who was a former ESPN announcer, while another had practiced accounting. "Those experiences gave them a broader view and a broader base to relate to people. It taught skills you couldn't learn from ministry. I'm always trying to figure out where I can be better, what can make me more valuable to the church."

McNeilly's path is not unusual. While completing an undergraduate degree and two to four years of seminary is by far the most common path to the pastorate, many current pastors say that finances, marriage, or unexpected life circ*mstances have resulted in paths other than the traditional one. Even those who take a "secular" path to the pastorate, by first pursuing non-ministry careers, are deeply shaped by their involvement in the local church.

Many successful ministers find themselves pursuing postgraduate education later on in their career, if at all. Here are four common alternative paths for those entering pastoral ministry today.

1. Secular vocation

McNeilly is currently based at Fort Campbell, on the border of Tennessee and Kentucky, where he lives with his wife, Beka. At age 15, he felt a tug to pursue full-time ministry and immediately began considering "how to chase the pulpit," he said, landing on the military as an ideal route to not only fund college, but also provide discipline and an ultimate "real-world" experience.

For two years, he enrolled in Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) at Gordon College near Boston, studying biblical studies and philosophy. For personal reasons, he transferred to Biola University in Southern California, where he graduated with a bachelor's in biblical studies and theology.

"Formal education is helpful," McNeilly said. "Books, papers, and discussions are good for forming worldview, but you have to seek conversations with people who aren't Christians."

Although he lacked mentors despite searching for them throughout high school, McNeilly found one at Gordon College, while starting to contemplate heavier issues of death, persecution, and how to live a set-apart life.

"A lot of pastors are really novices at life," McNeilly said. "Infantry lets me see human sin not just theologically, but acted out in the world. We're supposed to be light in a dark place. Infantry is a great place to explore that and also meet people from all different walks of life." He'd like to pursue seminary eventually. But for now, he's ministering where he is.

Tom Wright, 59, works as the teaching elder at Community Bible Church, a congregation of about 250 members near Dallas, Texas. He has pastored at the church for less than four years, after a more than 20-year career in a secular industry.

Wright felt the call to vocational ministry in undergrad, and immediately pursued a master of theology degree at Dallas Theological Seminary. However, after his first church plant opportunity fell through, he and his wife decided that God was calling them to be faithful at their current church.

"I had long believed that God calls all Christians to minister," Wright said. "I knew that God could use me no matter what I was doing."

In fact, Wright used his job in the pool cleaning industry to pay for seminary and support his family, all while teaching Sunday school classes and occasionally filling in to preach at church. When an IT job came along at a software company, he accepted.

Even those who took a "secular" path to the pastorate were deeply shaped by their involvement in the local church, even as they pursued non-ministry careers.

After 16 years of lay ministry, Wright was asked by the elders at Community Bible to become the pastor when the previous pastor retired.

"When the opportunity was presented to me, I knew I would love doing it on a full-time basis because I had already been doing it part-time.

"I benefited greatly from in working in the public sector all those years and ministering in that mode. I got to experience firsthand what it's like to be in the congregation, called to use your gifts and to fulfill your calling while working another job."

2. Internships

Pastoral internships are frequent means for a future church leader to earn a position at a church and gain practical experience. Many churches have formed their own internship programs, including Capitol Hill Baptist in Washington, D.C.

Mike Law, 33, the senior pastor at Arlington Baptist Church outside of D.C., a church of about 100 adults, was an intern. Although he felt the Lord calling him to ministry his junior year studying criminology at the University of Maryland, he was encouraged by a mentor at Capitol Hill to not make a rash decision but to experiment with his gifting while at the church.

"Who knows if you're really gifted and qualified for this," Law recalls his mentor saying. "Why don't you stick around here and let us help figure out if you're called."

So he did. Capitol Hill pastor Mark Dever hired him halfway through the program to become his personal assistant, where he served for nearly four years.

He sat in on elder meetings, premarital counseling sessions, and witnessed the pastor's daily work. When he was offered chances to teach, he received feedback and constructive criticism. But the program is different than many internships.

"Rather than deploying you in active ministry, it's putting a hold on you for six months to understand the structure and mission of the church," he said. "If you don't have that clear in your mind before you lead the church, you're really going to struggle."

Now, while pastoring at Arlington Baptist, Law is slowly working his way through a master of arts in religion at Reformed Theological Seminary. The program is structured so that if he decides to step up to the master of divinity, he can.

"Who knows if you're really qualified for this? Why don't you stick around here and let us help figure out if you're called."

"I want to pursue as much education as I can; it's good for my soul," he said. "But one class a semester is what I can do if I hope be a faithful pastor and father and disciple men in the church."

In Raleigh, N.C., Imago Dei Church guides about a dozen students annually, most from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, through its internship program. Seth Brown, 29, graduated from the internship program and now serves as a lay pastor for the congregation of about 400.

After completing a two-year associate's degree in drafting and design technology, he entered William Carey University in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, for biblical studies and philosophy. He also worked as a youth pastor.

He finished seminary with an MA in Christian studies in 2013, but in talking with Tony Merida, the pastor at Imago Dei Church, who was moving forward with planting the church, he learned an internship program would be started "from day one."

"The internship opened up a whole new world for me," Brown said. "My thinking began to shift from academic preparation for ministry to being part of this core team that would actually teach me a lot about pastoral ministry." He still plans to do seminary in nearby Wake Forest.

3. Mentorships

Not to be confused with internships, a mentorship is an opportunity for a future church leader to learn under a current pastor or theologian.

Brian Croft, 40, has pastored Auburndale Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, for the past 12 years. Yet Croft has never completed a seminary degree.

While studying at Belmont University in Nashville, and later finishing his undergrad at Indiana University, he realized the call to vocational ministry. He bounced around at four churches in eight years in positions from youth ministry to music ministry.

"At all four churches, I desired to be mentored," Croft said. "But the senior pastors didn't feel that that's what they were supposed to be doing. I made a lot of dumb rookie mistakes."

Another pastor, however, saw his situation from afar and met with him over a 10-year period.

"He bought me thousands of dollars of books," Croft said. "He would meet me at the bookstore, he would go, 'Have you read this?' and I'd say no, and he'd grab it off the shelf. I would leave every time with my arms full of books. I became a reader … for 10 years I devoured every book he bought me. He taught me what a pastor is, what a church is supposed to be."

Croft said that because of the man's mentorship and guidance, he felt strongly equipped for a pastoral position even without a degree. His mentor affirmed that assurance, adding that Croft should pursue language study as one missing piece.

"He knew that I had read most of what's in an M.Div. program and more," Croft said.

While beginning his pastorate at Auburndale, Croft met a gifted language student at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who singlehandedly taught Croft Greek over a five-year period, using the text Croft preached from each week.

While "seminary education is good," Croft said he would rather spend his time reading books than writing papers, and avoid going into debt for the degree. Although he recommends seminary to those who are able, he has also set up a program at Auburndale, where he mentors up-and-coming church leaders.

4. Alternative education

Bauer Evans, 52, is a pastor of Crossway Church, a 115-member church in Franklin, Massachusetts, that's part of Sovereign Grace Churches. Although Evans helped plant the church in 2001, the transition from his former career as a public school teacher to become a pastor "was dramatic," he said.

When he converted to Christianity in high school, the public school setting was so significant to his spiritual walk that he felt becoming a public school teacher would be his most impactful role.

While he was teaching, a pastor asked Evans whether he would ever consider pastoral ministry.

Although Evans dabbled in seminary at first during his nine-year teaching career, he realized during a summer seminar that the Lord was calling him to vocational ministry in the Boston area.

"That began a three- to four-year dialogue with the pastors," he said, "which culminated in my quitting teaching and going to the pastor's college."

Sovereign Grace Churches hosts a 10-month training program in Louisville, Kentucky, for future pastors. At the time, Evans' fellowship was in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

"It's the equivalent of a year and a half of a traditional seminary," Evans said. He studied Greek, systematic theology, hermeneutics, and other typical seminary topics. "It's an obscene amount of reading. I don't think we slept the entire year." At Pastor's College, classes are taught primarily by pastors with guest-lectures from visiting theologians.

"The balance of learning in the classroom is not only learning the content, but how you communicate that content as a shepherd among God's flock," Evans said. "We were sharpening our character to care for God's flock in a way that's appropriate to the role and office of pastors."

Even the culture is different than seminary, according to Evans. The focus was on discipleship, family, and practical leadership, with an emphasis on the local church.

What do these paths to ministry have in common? In each case, these paths require and revolve around active involvement in a local church.

"If [future pastors] are serious about pastoral ministry, then it should first be reflected in their active membership with a local church," Evans said. "If they're not involved in the local church, they've got no business in pastoral ministry."

Kara Bettis is a Raleigh, North Carolina, reporter and a regular freelancer for Relevant Magazine, Christ and Pop Culture, and others.

Copyright © 2015 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

For first-time visitors who are at least thirtysomething, driving into Plains, Georgia, brings back memories of TV news images in the late 1970s. They see the green-and-white Plains city-limits sign, the late Billy Carter’s gas station, and a giant, smiling peanut statue reminiscent of a Carter-Mondale campaign button that read, “The grin will win.”

Visitors carrying mental images of state dinners and Secret Service escorts may take one look at Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s home—modest, but obscured by a compound fence, guard house, and separate quarters for security personnel—and wonder if they have made their trip in vain. Is it really possible for just anyone to attend church with a former President of the United States?

At the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, the entire church is tailored, with the Carters’ help, to cater to just such an experience. Pastor Daniel Ariail and the church’s board of deacons have fashioned a ministry of hospitality around their feature attractions, Jimmy and Rosalynn. Nearly 3,000 people visited Maranatha in 1992 alone.

Visitors attending the President’s Sunday school class crowd early into Maranatha’s fellowship hall, which seats about 90 on folding chairs. They share seats with regular attenders, including Millard and Linda Fuller, founders of Habitat for Humanity; Betty Carter, the President’s aunt; and Hugh, the President’s cousin. There is a folding partition on one side, a podium in front, and a standing map of ancient Israel. The walls are bare, the décor plain, but first-time visitors are not paying attention to any of it anyway. As the clock approaches 10 a.m., they glance at each new person entering the room, wondering if it might be Jimmy.

Ladies and gentlemen, the President

Conversations stop abruptly, flash cameras pop, and everyone looks up to see a smiling, relaxed Jimmy Carter (jacket but no necktie) enter the room. “Welcome to our church,” he says, with open arms. I’d like to start the class by knowing where the visitors are from.

At this moment, Carter stands among a curious mix of visitors and tourists; childhood playmates and friends; two Secret Service agents wearing blue jeans, boots, dark jackets, and facial expressions that balance intimidation with uninterest; and political supporters who can spit out the word Republican like an olive pit. At this moment, Maranatha’s main attraction—the man who made born again a household term—is about to introduce the Bible to some people for the first time.

Representing ten different US states, Canada, and South Korea, the visitors, some in suits, some in jeans and sneakers, take turns talking to the President, while others continue snapping photos, smiling broadly, and whispering to one another:

“That grin really brings back memories!”

“Where is Rosalynn?”

“Fourth row at the opposite end.”

Carter asks if there are any ministers present, and when one South Korean interpreter raises his hand and identifies the man next to him as a United Methodist minister and seminary president in South Korea, the President asks if the pastor will open the class in prayer. The minister does so—in Korean.

“I understood three words,” Carter confesses. “Jimmy, Carter, and amen.”

By his own admission, Carter is no theologian, though he avidly reads Reinhold Niebuhr. He seems gifted as a teacher and serves on Maranatha’s board of deacons. “I’ve been teaching Sunday school since I was 18 years old,” he says. He taught as a midshipman in the navy and as governor of Georgia. “I taught Sunday school when I was President, though it didn’t get a lot of publicity. I still teach Sunday school.”

Following a 45-minute lesson based on Isaiah 6, everyone filters from the fellowship hall to the sanctuary, several visitors stopping to introduce themselves to the Carters with comments like, “You know, I voted for you—twice”; or, “We’re Habitat volunteers in Michigan, and it’s such a pleasure to meet you.”

In the receiving line, where the Carters regularly pose for photos with visitors after the worship service, people often confess to Jimmy and Rosalynn that they have never even been in a church before. Such comments help explain the church’s special calling.

“It is a unique ministry,” says Pastor Ariail, “in which the mission field comes to you. Our mission is to see to it that visitors get more than a thrill when they come to our church.”

Sanctified Southern hospitality

Maranatha’s pastor for ten years, Ariail began looking years ago for other congregations in the United States that drew hundreds of visitors because of a celebrity member. “I found no other church where people go more or less as tourists during a worship service.”

The closest approximations were Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, Westminster Abbey, and the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. “But tourists aren’t usually there at times of worship,” he said. “If they come to see Jimmy Carter, they attend our worship.”

Ariail wrote his doctoral dissertation, “Ministry of Hospitality,” specifically to address the unique of his own congregation. Ariail’s sermons focus on welcoming everyone, preaching Christ, and calling people to serve Christ through serving others. To help visitors, the Maranatha congregation has created a church bulletin that can be followed by anyone who reads English, even those who have never attended a Christian church service. Members also wear badges identifying themselves.

It is common for visitors to be approached after worship by at least 5 of the church’s 137 members with messages such as “It was really good having you today” or “I heard you say you made the drive from Clearwater. We have friends down there.”

“I think we have a wonderful ministry, because we have people coming to our church who are really dedicated Christians, such as those who work with Habitat for Humanity, and then we have a number of visitors who have never been in a church before, so it makes for a wonderful witness,” says Rosalynn.

“We have had some very special visitors,” she adds. “I remember Jimmy and I were out riding our bicycles one day, and we rode past a migrant camp and stopped to invite them to our church. And they came.”

The workers entered the church, and, as was their custom, the men sat on one side and the women and children sat on the other. President Carter stood up at the beginning of the service and, speaking in Spanish, explained that they could sit together if they wanted. One of the migrants stood to introduce the group (another Maranatha custom) and said, “We came because we were told we would be welcome here.” The moment put a lump in many people’s throats.

Jimmy and Rosalynn do more than attend church on the Sundays when they are home. Rosalynn, a former youth Sunday school teacher at the church, is among a group of volunteers who clean the building, and she and the former President take their turn mowing the grounds in the summer months. The two also have presented Maranatha with a number of handcrafted gifts, including wooden collection plates they made together.

But perhaps the greatest gift the Carters give the church is the visitors they draw, visitors who get a sanctified dose of Southern hospitality from, of all people, a former First Family of the United States.

By Cheri Heckler-Feltz, a freelance writer and former newspaper editor living in Urbana, Ohio.

Ever since Carly Fiorina’s forceful criticism of Planned Parenthood during CNN’s Republican debate, Americans have been paying more attention to the former Hewlett-Packard CEO.

Fiorina saw her numbers rise in the polls over the past three weeks, as media continue to parse her remarks about watching a “fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating” against footage released by the pro-life Center for Medical Progress.

The 61-year-old has gone from being viewed as the Republican foil to Democrat Hillary Clinton to a serious contender on her own. Like several other Republican candidates, Fiorina never held public office, having lost a 2010 Senate campaign to California’s Barbara Boxer.

The sharp-spoken former executive has offered voters glimpses of her personal life, including her battle with breast cancer in 2009 and her stepdaughter’s tragic death after struggling with drug addiction. It was her Christian faith that sustained her through the pain, and continues to strengthen her as she sets her eyes on the White House, she said in an interview with CT.

Fiorina spoke at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit in 2007, two years after being ousted from HP. Through her connection with Willow Creek pastor Bill Hybels, she revisited her beliefs and felt God deepen her convictions. She shares her testimony in this video for Opportunity International, a Christian non-profit that works to empower women and fight global poverty. Fiorina was involved with the organization as an ambassador and board chair up until her presidential run.

Raised Episcopalian, she has carried a mantra from her Sunday School days into the campaign: “What you are is God’s gift to you, and what you make of yourself is your gift to God.” She spoke with Her.meneutics editor Kate Shellnutt about her beliefs and background.

One of the most-talked-about issues in your campaign has been your criticism of Planned Parenthood. What shaped your pro-life views?

I was raised that way, but I didn’t really think about it all that much until I took a friend when I was in my early 20s to a Planned Parenthood clinic to have an abortion. She decided to have an abortion, and she asked me to go with her. I did, for moral support, and I watched while basically she was given no options. I watched what it did to her physically, emotionally, spiritually.

I later met my husband and learned that his mother had been told to abort him. She was a woman of great courage and faith; she chose not to. He was the joy of her life; he’s been the rock of mine. I’ve thought often about how different my life would be had she made a different choice. Several years later, I learned I was not able to have children of my own, so I learned in a whole other way that life is a precious gift. I’ve learned over and over again in my life that every person has potential, that everyone has God-given gifts regardless of their circ*mstances—usually far more than they realize.

To me, the thing that is most shocking about this controversy is that Planned Parenthood keeps talking about birth control, women’s health, pro-life, and pro-choice.… this is not about any of those things.

What did you learn from your involvement in Christian microfinance with Opportunity International? And how do you think that will influence your views on foreign policy?

First, Christian microfinance works. Fundamentally, what Opportunity International does is take a chance on people. Opportunity International has lent $6 billion, $100 at a time. It has lifted millions out of poverty—mostly women because women in the developing world make very good credit risks and very good investments. They invest in their families and their communities. It’s a demonstration that everybody has potential. Instead of assuming that someone cannot live a life of purpose and dignity and meaning, as so many progressives do, this program assumes everyone has potential and everyone can be lifted up. To me, that is the core of what this nation is built on. And it’s the core of what’s slowly being drained away by a government that’s overreaching in every conceivable way, tangling people’s lives up in webs of dependence instead of giving them a helping hand.

I’m not sure that Opportunity International has shaped my view of foreign policy, but certainly my experiences with world leaders and with military and intelligence leaders have. You know, there’s evil in the world. And there are tyrants in the world—Putin, Khamenei in Iran, Bashar al-Assad. The Chinese are a rising adversary. There are adversaries, tyrants, evil in the world that does not believe that life is valuable in any way. When you don’t believe that life is valuable, you are capable of unbelievable horror, and that’s what we see going on. It’s why the United States, which was founded on the notion that each life is valuable, we have to confront our adversaries. It doesn’t mean rushing to war every time, but we can’t lie down while evil is perpetuated all over the world.

Part of your personal testimony is how you experienced a renewal in your faith after meeting Bill Hybels and speaking at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. Could you tell me about what your faith practice looks like now, and what it’s been like to deal with the emotional and spiritual demands of the campaign?

I begin every morning with a daily Scripture. I’m one of those people who has to spend the first time in the morning with silence, quiet, contemplation, Scripture, and prayer. It’s how I get ready for the day. In a way, daily Scripture is even more important now. It’s interesting. I read this morning Psalm 27, “The Lord is my light and my salvation—then whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid.”

The campaign is wonderful and uplifting in many ways, when people embrace and support you. As this Planned Parenthood controversy has revealed, a campaign is also an experience of indiscriminate attack sometimes. For heaven’s sakes, the media is saying I wasn’t a secretary! I have members in the media harassing my daughter and granddaughters. It would be easy to be scared off by that kind of opposition; in fact, it is what they hope. The people who get on television and call me a liar hope that I will be scared off. So it’s really important to get centered in the love of the Lord and get centered in the reality of, “Of whom shall I be afraid?” and “The Lord is the stronghold of my life.”

A lot of women agreed with you when you dismissed the idea of putting a woman on US currency as a merely gesture and called for better opportunities for women in general. What does that look like? What changes need to be made for American women?

It starts with the acknowledgement, the reality, that we cannot be the nation we should be unless every single American, man and woman, has the opportunity to fulfill their potential—whatever that means for them. Not every American has that opportunity today. The burdens of poverty and parenthood frequently fall most heavily on women. We just have to start with the acknowledgement that women are half the potential of this nation.

Secondly, I think women fulfill their potential when they truly have the choice to live the life they choose, whatever that life is. Maybe the life they choose is to be at home with their children and homeschool them. Maybe the life they choose is to become chief executive. Whatever life fulfills their gifts, that’s the life they should have the opportunity to live.

Third, we need to build meritocracies. There are so many settings today where merit, contribution, is not what’s actually valued. The government should take the lead not by mandating practices for other organizations, but by demonstrating how much difference a real meritocracy makes. Government is not a meritocracy. It’s based how long you’ve been in the job. It’s based on, “Can you go along to get along?” It’s clearly not based on contribution because we know that there’s no consequence for dereliction of duty in government—literally zero. And we also know, from Inspector General reports, that if you’re a woman working really hard at a federal government job, there can be a guy sitting next to you watching p*rnography on his desk all day long, and he’s going to earn the same pay, pension, and benefits as you do. That’s not fair. When you create a meritocracy, you will get a diverse workforce in which women do better.

The final thing is that technology is a wonderful tool for empowering everyone, but particularly for women. Technology gives us all the opportunity to be in two places at once in a lot of ways. A mom can be on the soccer field, watching her kids, and be engaged in an important discussion about something else. I think workplaces that want to promote and celebrate and value women are workplaces that use technology aggressively. And of course the government is aggressively technophobic.

What has formed your view of leadership?

I think leaders are made, not born. Absolutely anyone can lead. When I was typing and filing, these two men came to my desk and said, “We think you can do more than type and file. Do you want to know what we do?” That was an act of leadership because they took a chance on me. They gave me a helping hand. They unlocked my potential. That’s fundamentally what leadership is. People think leadership is about title and position, but loads of people with big positions and big titles don’t lead. Some of the women I’ve met with Opportunity International are leaders because they’re making a positive difference for someone else as well as for themselves. They’re making a positive difference in their family, in their community, in their workplace, or in their place of worship.

The thing about leadership is, it isn’t easy. To unlock potential, you have to challenge the way things have always been, and that’s hard. When you challenge the status quo, you make enemies because there are people who benefitted from the status quo, and they don’t want it to change. A lot people get scared off from leadership.

People ask how I went from secretary to CEO. I didn’t have a plan. Every time I ran to a problem, I found people who knew what to do, it’s just they’d never been asked. No one had have ever listened to them. No one had ever had the courage to say, “You know what? We actually are going to challenge the status quo and do things differently and finally solve this problem.” I did that over and over and over, and fundamentally, that’s what leadership is. It’s about running to problems instead of running away from them. It’s about using every ounce of potential in situation to finally solve the problem. It’s about not being afraid to challenge the way things have always been.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

No, not Christmas. I’m talking about fall, a season awash in hoodies, pumpkins (the orange plants, not the faux flavor), and cracking pads. Fall brings football, and football is the ruler of the land. It’s a cultural staple, a social connecting point, a trigger for rivalries, and big business too. From September through the bleak winter months, football drives the rhythm of television and media as well as millions of households.

What does this mean for pastors? It means you probably ought to know what’s going on. Your entire church does. And the closer you live to Tuscaloosa, Tallahassee, or anywhere in Texas, the truer this is. For five months out of the year sermons are littered with football analogies, allusions, and stories. In some churches Vince Lombardi or Bear Bryant are honorary deacons in memoriam. In other churches pastors seeking to “relate to the folks in the pew” wedge a reference or two into the sermon hoping they make sense.

In some churches Vince Lombardi or Bear Bryant are honorary deacons in memoriam.

Even though football is wildly popular, just throwing out football references from the pulpit isn’t sure to result in a touchdown. Football should be used with care in a church context.

Here are six examples of how to (and not to) effectively use football in your ministry. And they apply whether a pastor loves football or not.

Right: Using football as a means of gathering people together.

The Super Bowl is the best example of this, but any Saturday college football game serves as the perfect excuse to gather neighbors and friends. Pastors can encourage their people to do the same. It is common ground. It is safe. It’s low pressure. Football is a gateway to friendships, and it’s just plain fun. Unless it’s a rivalry game. Then it might be more like Luther vs. Tetzel.

Wrong: Going all Jon Gruden

Don’t turn into Jon Gruden on Monday night football. A useful football analogy relates to people and makes a point. Talking about “QXY banana slant left trap option B gap 9 route” adds exactly nothing to a message—and alienates parishioners who aren’t fans. If a pastor loves football and knows it inside and out, that’s wonderful. It’s like knowing Greek and Hebrew; it’s useful to inform your message, but not for showing off publicly.

Right: Pointing to the benefits of teamwork and the need for unique positions.

Looking for a great analogy? A football team’s defense fits the bill. Each player is tasked with a specific role on every play. They have certain responsibilities individually, and as a unit those responsibilities, if executed properly, will stop the offense. One player cannot do the work of two or the whole thing breaks down. So it is in the church. Each member is uniquely gifted to serve and has a role to play. People are at their spiritual and ministerial best when serving in the right place, and the church begins to function as it should. If people quit, or some members are asked to do the work of many, things break down. See where this is going? It’s a good football analogy, and you don’t even need to know about Gap-4 blitzes or Cover-2 man defense.

Wrong: Guilt-tripping congregants for their involvement with football.

Haranguing church members for prioritizing football over church, or for watching games instead of spending time with family, only annoys them and causes them to tune you out. Do many people idolize football? Certainly. Does it hold priority in the lives of many each weekend in an unhealthy manner? Undoubtedly. Should pastors address such issues? Yes, but in a better way, like this …

Right: Use football to clarify and exemplify principles and priorities.

A social phenomenon like football season is the perfect litmus test for spiritual and familial priorities. Pastors can pose thought-provoking questions that nudge congregants to examine their lives and reevaluate the principles that guide them. Instead of blasting people for over-valuing football, we can ask them why they do so. Rather than sending them on a guilt trip for missing time with family, we can acknowledge that maybe they love enjoying football with family. It’s important to kill idols and properly arrange priorities, and football can be a tool in the hands of a skilled pastor to do just that.

This time of year football is on a lot of people’s minds. But let’s use football wisely. It can enable people to hear you—or alienate them. You don’t need to love the game, just know it well enough. You don’t need to be a fan, but don’t forget that your pews are full of them.

Barnabas Piper serves as the brand manager for Ministry Grid at LifeWay Christian Resources. Piper blogs at The Blazing Center and is the author of the newly released Help My Unbelief: Why Doubt Is Not The Enemy of Faith.

My husband and I have been married for 24 years—and happily married for 20. Those first few years were awful. Sex was awful. School was stressful. Money was tight.

Yet after years of tears and clenched fists and wondering, Why doesn’t he just get me? I finally figured out an important truth: My husband can’t make me happy. And I’m not sure God ever designed him to.

That’s because happiness is based on circ*mstances. Yet circ*mstances are the one part of our lives over which we have virtually no control. Even if “the pursuit of happiness” gives the impression of lacing up those running shoes and training for a marathon, it’s actually quite a passive endeavor. Since you can’t control circ*mstances, pursuing happiness means constantly scanning your surroundings to see if they make you happy. And as soon as you start doing that, you’ll find all the reasons why your circ*mstances don’t measure up.

God never intended us to be passive. He made us to actively engage this world and to shine in it. So perhaps we need another route to happiness in marriage—one that is far more likely to get us to the finish line. And it starts not with fixing our husbands but with fixing our own hearts.

Pursue Joy

I think of happiness as quite distinct from joy or contentment. Joy looks upward, contentment looks inward, and happiness looks outward. Joy says, “How great is our God!” Contentment says, “It is well with my soul.” And happiness says, “All things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.” But you can’t appreciate what’s outside of you until you’re at peace with what’s inside. And that requires focusing on God first.

Psalm 37:4 gives a similar roadmap: “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (ESV). This doesn’t mean that when we delight ourselves in God he gives us everything we want; it means that when we delight ourselves in God, he actually changes what we want. Instead of saying, “I’ll be happy as soon as my husband ____________ (fill in the blank),” we start looking with gratitude at what God has done for us. That makes us see our husbands with different eyes too.

Take Responsibility for Your Own Happiness

Running after God first was a lesson that Julie, now 43, had to learn in her early days as a mom. She wasn’t prepared for life with two active, health-challenged little boys who didn’t sleep. She was desperate. But her husband was just as out of his element as she was!

In Men Are Like Waffles, Women Are Like Spaghetti, Bill and Pam Farrel explain that one of men’s motivators is being able to fix things. But what if his wife has a problem he can’t fix? Too often he’ll retreat because no guy likes to feel inadequate.

As Julie’s mood deteriorated, her husband did indeed pull back. One day Julie realized nothing was going to change until her attitude did.

She jumped on the Joy track and started looking for ways to bring God into her daily life. She began to conversationally pray “without ceasing.” She turned to Scripture not to fix her problems but just to see Jesus. And she began to fill her life with things that refreshed her that she had let slip since she had become a mom. She started going for bike rides again. She began to write. And these things helped bring that even keel she craved.

Most of all, she realized this: My happiness is a gift I can give my husband. When she pursued joy and found happiness, she handed him a gift because she was saying to him, “You don’t have to fix anything. You’re off the hook.” When we look to God first, we free our husbands to be who God made them to be, not who we want them to be. And that changes the whole dynamic in the relationship.

Deal with Sin

Julie learned that happiness was out of reach until she dealt with her own stuff. But happiness is out of reach until we deal with our marriage stuff too. Jesus wants to bring wholeness to our lives and our marriages, and that wholeness can only come when we deal with our issues honestly.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9, NIV). We’re to make peace, not just keep peace. And in our marriages, too many of us keep the peace. We’re so afraid of conflict that we try to keep issues from reaching the surface. Yet lack of conflict is not the same as real peace—where we’re united in thought and mind (1 Corinthians 1:10). Real peace only comes when we stop hiding from reality and we bring our mess to God—even if that means rocking the boat.

When Anna found p*rnography on her husband Paul’s computer on the night of their seventh anniversary, she could have ignored it. But she didn’t. She called her brother, and he came over and helped Anna talk with Paul. They arranged for Paul to find an accountability partner. And Paul, who had been struggling with a secret sin for almost two decades, was finally put on the road to healing. As he found freedom from p*rn, Anna finally found that thing that “she couldn’t put her finger on” that was missing from her marriage.

Our culture teaches that “love should last a lifetime” with relatively little effort on our part. If we have to work at it, then it’s not true love, right?

Yet Jesus gives us a different route to happiness. It’s not to aim for it; it’s to aim for him instead. That’s not passively waiting for someone to make our life better; it’s actively pursuing God’s best for us, for our husbands, and for our marriage. Even if it’s hard. And even if it rocks the boat.

I learned a long time ago that my husband can’t make me happy. But I have a very happy marriage. And so I’ll keep running after Jesus because that’s the only way I can really experience my husband’s love too.

Sheila Wray Gregoire’s latest book, 9 Thoughts That Can Change Your Marriage, challenges some of the Christian pat answers we often hear about marriage and points us to Jesus in the midst of our mess instead. A prolific author and speaker, she blogs at ToLoveHonorAndVacuum.com.

Copyright © 2015 by Sheila Wray Gregoire and Christianity Today

Preachers are getting in shape. Social media is littered with pictures of preachers exercising to get or keep their weight under control and live healthy lives. Way cool!

But even as I cheer them on, there's a twinge of jealousy. In the crucible of my schedule, I often neglect to maintain a healthy diet and exercise regimen. The jealousy becomes guilt when I go online and view the workout accomplishments of exercising preachers who challenge me, as they say, to "get it in."

It's a challenge I need to hear. I once read about a preacher who worked himself to death. On his deathbed, he lamented, "God gave me a message and a horse. I have killed the horse! What will happen to the message?"

Of course, the message will continue to go forth without us. But we should be faithful stewards of our bodies to be faithful stewards of the opportunity we have to herald the Word of God. Paul wrote, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body" (1 Cor. 6:19-20).

Who's calling us to holiness of lifestyle, fidelity of doctrine, and unity of fellowship?

These words are often cited to impress upon us the priority of physical health. This is an appropriate application of Paul's words. Yet it is not the primary point of the passage. 1 Cor. 6:19-20 exhorts us to be holy, not just healthy.

Physical exercise has its place (unless it is done out of personal vanity). But the larger context shows the priority is on holiness. "Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come" (1 Tim. 4:7-8).

I am jealous of the #HealthyPreacherMovement. I see preachers encourage one another to get in shape and celebrate healthy lifestyle choices. It motivates me to do better. It also makes we wish we did more to encourage one another to holiness of lifestyle, fidelity of doctrine, and unity of fellowship.

Friends push me to take care of myself so I will have many years to preach the gospel. I appreciate the concern. But for every preacher you hear about dying from obesity, there are scores more stories of preachers who lose their pulpits because of the destructive forces of sex, money, and power.

There are stresses and struggles in ministry we cannot share with members of our churches. We need other preachers we can be honest, share our hurts, and pray with. (This should come after spiritual partnership with our wives, of course.) May the Lord help us to be better friends to one another. And remember, your best friends are the ones that make you better.

This kind of fellowship, counsel, and accountability should transcend ministry issues. We need people in our lives to ask us tough questions about our personal lives and then look us in the eye and ask, "Is any part of the answer you just gave me a lie?"

A #HolyPreacherMovement does not need to be posted on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. But we do need a movement to challenge one another to live our message so we do not become ministerial casualties that give the Bride of Christ a black eye.

"Practice these things; immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers"(1 Tim. 4:15-16, ESV).

H.B. Charles, Jr. is pastor of Shiloh Metropolitan Church, Jacksonville, Florida.

Copyright © 2015 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

Tiffany stood behind the counter waiting for the next customer. I stepped up and we talked. She told me she had just moved to Jackson, Mississippi, from a tiny town in the Delta. She was a single mother with one child and had been raised in the church. I mustered up all my evangelical boldness and invited her to our congregation.

"The preaching is great," I said. "The pastor sticks to the Bible. The people are welcoming and would love to meet you." Then I felt compelled to explain a bit more. I didn't want Tiffany to show up and be unpleasantly surprised.

"I just want you to know," I began, "Our church is intentionally multiracial." She stared back at me with a blank expression. I quickly added, "The pastor is black, and the music is excellent. It may not be what you're used to, but just come for a visit."

Members don't put their deeply embedded cultural beliefs away when they attend a multiracial church on Sunday mornings.

Tiffany is African American. So am I. Why, then, did I feel sheepish about inviting her to my church, where I am a small group leader and pastoral intern? We rejoice over what the Lord has done. Our congregation is a blend of ages, races, and ethnicities in a beautiful preview of Revelation 5:9 and 7:9. Our elders are an almost even mix of black and white leaders. Even great Civil Rights leaders like James Meredith and John Perkins had given their nod of approval to our efforts at racial integration.

But I had to give my new friend a heads up. Because Tiffany had been raised in a predominately black church context; if she came to my church, she would be giving up a lot of what makes church feel like home.

The black church has developed beloved and unique characteristics over the past several hundred years. It has a canon of songs that stir the soul. There are meaningful roles like ushers and junior ushers, signifi ed by their white gloves. Preachers speak in familiar cadences. Topics are relevant to black experiences. The people are family, and they know firsthand the challenges and blessings of being black in this nation. But a multiracial church sheds most of these distinctives or presents them in a less robust form.

Many of us see multiracial churches as a place where racial reconciliation and understanding can fl ourish, but does racial understanding and reconciliation automatically happen in a multiracial congregation? Not necessarily.

United by Faith?

In a study, "United by Faith? Race/Ethnicity, Congregational Diversity, and Explanations of Racial Inequality," researchers at Baylor University, the University of Southern California, and the University of Chicago asked people of different races to explain the main causes for socioeconomic differences between blacks and whites in the United States. Typically, African Americans point to structural issues (e.g. racial discrimination and lack of access to quality education) to explain the differences, while whites attribute them to individual choices and personal morality.

Interestingly, the perspectives of blacks in multiracial congregations tend to resemble those of the dominant white culture. White attitudes remain static whether or not they are a part of a multiracial congregation.

In practice, multiracial congregations tend to refl ect one culture, and that culture is typically white. Rather than demonstrating the value of every culture, the very congregations attempting to deconstruct harmful ideas about race and culture may unintentionally promote them, conveying white culture as "normal."

Why does this happen? Either the dominant culture is so strong that blacks adapt to the attitudes of whites, or multiracial churches attract blacks who are already predisposed to accept those attitudes. I suspect both reasons apply.

Even in a multiracial church, minorities end up sacrifi cing more for the sake of diversity than whites.

In her book, The Elusive Dream: The Power of Race in Interracial Churches, Korie L. Edwards writes: "The cultures and structures of interracial churches emulate those more commonly observed in white churches. Interracial churches tend to cater to the predilections of whites. The worship styles and practices mainly suit the desires of whites."

Change Begins With Relationships

Despite these challenges, multiracial church leaders should be encouraged. The number of these churches has nearly doubled in the past 10 years, and in spite of white cultural dominance in multiracial churches, they do have an impact. Efforts at racial reconciliation are needed and these churches are an important fi rst step toward cross-cultural understanding and reconciliation.

But pastors and other church leaders have an opportunity to cultivate churches that are not only multiracial but truly multicultural.

While there is nothing wrong with white cultural preferences, the dominance of white culture means that even multiracial churches tend to be more accommodating to whites than minorities. Simply attending a multiracial church does not ensure multiracial thinking. Members don't put their deeply embedded cultural beliefs away when they sit beside people with different skin colors on Sunday morning.

In order to address these concerns, churches will need to actively pursue opportunities to acknowledge and discuss racial concerns. Many church leaders are still uncomfortable talking straightforwardly about race. They don't want to say "white" or "black." They don't want to talk about "privilege" or "structural" explanations for inequality. But without open conversations, perspectives aren't shared, and mindsets remain unchanged.

Church leaders can facilitate dialogue by encouraging members to gather in small group settings to discuss issues of race and culture, or using a Wednesday night series or Sunday school class to talk about race in places other than the pulpit. Make sure these events are interactive. Give people the chance to process, whether in writing, with a partner, or in conversation with a small subset of people.

It helps to start with existing content, a book or a short article on race, to spark conversation. Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America by Emerson and Smith is a short and essential introduction accessible to people of all levels of racial awareness. Even a discussion prompt like, "Describe your earliest memory involving race," can get people started.

Naturally, these conversations involve some risk— hurt feelings, rancor, misunderstanding are all possible outcomes—but all important discussions do. Whatever you do, always start with unity in Christ as the foundation for any conversation about race among Christians.

Ultimately, the most reliable way to transcend white cultural dominance is by cultivating relationships. Deep, authentic friendships with people of other races provides the opportunity for deep interaction with their culture.

Dave McMurry, a white senior pastor of Grace Bible Church in Killeen, Texas, knew his church needed a formal, programatic diversity effort, but he also knew he wouldn't have credibility unless he cultivated diverse personal relationships. He started seeking out friends of other races. "I began to pray that I could establish relationships where I could listen, learn, and understand."

His initial attempts were frustrated, but the Lord intervened. "I tried, and tried, and tried, and it didn't seem like it was working. Nobody wanted to be my friend. After a couple of months of praying, a black church planter walks up to my front door, and we started a friendship."

Building cross-cultural relationships isn't as intimidating as it seems. Alex Shipman, an African American and church planter of the Village Church in Huntsville, Alabama, says, "Look at your contacts. Look at where God has you, and the practical reality of where you function. Are there minorities in your kids' school, or your soccer league?" You can start nurturing cross-cultural relationships right where you are.

Pastor Shipman also urges pastors to just be themselves. "If you don't normally speak slang, don't speak slang to African Americans." Instead, fi nd a common interest and simply pursue a friendship. "Be friends with them, not so they can come to your church, but just so you can be friends," Shipman advises.

Although it might take some time for Tiffany to feel comfortable in our congregation, I believe the gospel transcends even our cultural preferences. Still, there's something to be said for taking baby steps. Maybe I'll start by inviting her and her son to dinner with my family first.

Jemar Tisby is president of the Reformed African-American Network and director of the African-American Initiative at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi.

Copyright © 2015 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

There's a cultural and economic storm underway. Unless we respond to this coming tsunami, churches like mine will soon be as rare as printed newspapers, landline phones, and brick-and-mortar bookstores.

Churches like mine—small to mid-size denominational churches with a mortgage and a pastoral salary in a large metropolitan area—will start disappearing in the next couple of decades. Sorry to be the bearer of ill tidings. But it's happening.

Churches don't need to be more cool. They need to be more real.

Fifteen years ago, my church was less healthy than it is today. It had half the attendance it has today. But we could afford to pay our mortgage, upkeep on the building, and two full-time salaries, while giving a good percentage to missions and funding all the ministries.

Today we have double the attendance, more volunteers, and a healthier mission and ministry. But we have to do more with less every year. Why? Here are three reasons.

1. People's financial realities have changed. We've gone from one person's salary paying the family's bills, to both spouses needing to work. And now we're heading into an era in which each adult in the household will need more than one source of income. This reality is already hitting highly populated areas like mine.

2. What people are willing to give to has changed. People no longer want to give their increasingly hard earned money to pay for our salaries or mortgages. But they will give to causes they care about.

3. How people relate to god and the church has changed. People used to trust churches until given a reason not to. Now they don't trust us until we prove that we're worthy of it.

What Won't Save Our Churches

Church growth. Not every church is destined to become big, not even in large population centers, because not everyone wants to attend a large church. The answer is to become a healthier and smarter small church.

Teaching on giving. We can teach on giving until we're hoarse, but members won't give if we're not showing them good stewardship of what they're giving. They may be more right on this than we are. Poor giving by church congregations may be a lesser sin than poor stewardship by church leaders.

Being relevant. There are more "cool" churches now, and I'm okay with that. But we don't need churches to be more relevant. We need them to be more real, more contextual and, dare I say it, more counter-cultural. Coolness won't last.

What Might Save Our Churches

Pay off the mortgage. Churches with debt won't last. Extravagant buildings and programs must give way to practical methods under strong budgetary stewardship.

Bivocational pastoring. The apostle Paul was bivocational. Most pastors in history and today globally are bivocational. But here they're still looked at as not-quite-pastors. That has to change. Not as many churches will be able to afford the luxury of the full-time pastor.

Partnering with other churches. The go-it-alone church won't make it. No, this is not about denominations. Many churches within denominations are still going it alone, while many nondenominational churches have healthy partnerships with other churches. We need each other.

It's not all bad news. Whether or not our churches survive in their current form or a new one, the church will survive. And individual churches that see the writing on the wall, and make the necessary changes, will not just survive, but thrive.

The trend may actually force the church towards a more sustainable, possibly even more biblical, model. One where there's less dependence on buildings and professional clergy and more dependence on genuine community, discipleship, and direct reliance on God.

Karl Vaters is pastor of Cornerstone Christian Fellowship in Fountain Valley, California.

Copyright © 2015 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

For years, dinners consisting of granola bars or peanut butter crackers on the run were good enough for Pastor Ross Varney.

He'd munch them as he sped off to one evening meeting or another. He saw it as putting the church's needs ahead of his own. The habit seemed harmless until he couldn't sleep at night, couldn't concentrate by day, and felt just plain lousy much of the time. Acid reflux exacerbated by late-night ice cream binges to, as Varney put it, "soothe the day" was keeping him awake and wreaking havoc on his ministry.

"I always feel a bit guilty in self-care pursuits, be it rest or exercise or time with food," said Varney, pastor of Belleville Congregational Church in Newburyport, Massachusetts. "My calling as a solo pastor is to maximize my time caring for and serving the people. It's a mindset I have, which I know is extreme. With any extra time or energy I have, I should be out serving somebody."

Pastors consistently suffer from weight problems and hypertension.

Varney's situation is far from unique. The demands of ministry are taking a toll on pastors' health. Their lifestyle tends to be sedentary during office hours, with a diet marked by potluck dinners that would make a cardiologist blush. Though the joys are many, stress is continual, and outlets tend to be few. As a result, clergy suffer from chronic diseases such as hypertension at such alarming rates that it's become a mark of the profession.

"Clergy feel called to serve God's will," said Rae Jean Proeschold-Bell, research director of the Clergy Health Initiative at Duke University. "They work extremely hard and would perceive any kind of failure as devastating. [In this mindset,] it's better to put one's health at risk than to fail in this larger sacred mission."

Mounting evidence points to eye-opening patterns. Forty percent of North Carolina United Methodists clergy are obese, according to survey research from Duke University's Clergy Health Initiative, which tracks the state of clergy health over time. That's 11 percent higher than the rest of North Carolina whites. (Whites comprise the comparison group because more than 90 percent of North Carolina Methodist clergy are white). They also report significantly more cases of hypertension, arthritis, asthma, and diabetes.

Other denominations have unhealthy pastors, too. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America compares health statistics for 12,000 church workers, most of whom are pastors, with the general population insured by Blue Cross Blue Shield. Pastors and their colleagues experience far higher rates of illness in certain categories: 54 percent higher in hypertension, 69 percent higher in high cholesterol, and 100 percent higher in cancer. And at the Southern Baptist's national convention, GuideStone Insurance's health screenings find SBC pastors consistently suffer from weight problems and hypertension.

That pastors would suffer from stress-related health problems is nothing new. From the 16th century to the early 20th century, clergy lived longer in European nations and the United States than did non-clergy. But even then they tended to suffer disproportionately from coronary disease, diabetes, and digestive problems. The vocation seems to come with inherent health risks that must be managed, not entirely unlike coal mining, commercial fishing, and other lines of work that come with unique dangers.

In the 21st century, pastors' stress is heightened by their smartphones. In generations past, a parishioner would phone the pastor, sometimes get no answer and need to try again later. Now pastors are always reachable. Today's pastors face more stress-and the negative health repercussions that come with it-because they are bombarded with messages. They must constantly respond to delicate matters and pressing issues whether by text, email, or voice, according to Bruce Epperly, author of A Center in the Cyclone: Twenty-first Century Clergy Self-Care.

"That's changed the whole nature of ministry," said Epperly, a former seminary professor and now pastor at South Congregational Church in Centerville, Massachusetts. "Ministers are really available 24/7."

The heightened stress level that comes with constant connectedness, coupled with the fallout from poor diets and inadequate exercise, creates an uphill health challenge for clergy. But pastors also have some advantages when it comes to health, and they're learning to leverage them.

No pastor wants to build a reputation for immoral behavior. Thus pastors are seldom linked to certain risky behaviors that are highly stigmatized, such as smoking, illicit drug addictions, and promiscuity. As a group, they consequently do better than the general public in terms of avoiding lung cancer and sexual transmitted diseases, according to the Clergy Health Initiative and other research.

With this insight into driving influences on the pastoral lifestyle, some suggest it might be time to broaden the list of behaviors unbecoming to a man or woman of the cloth to include overeating and physical inactivity.

"If it were suddenly to become stigmatized for a pastor to be overweight, in the way that it would be if they were using drugs, then there would be far more attention to that by the pastors," said Proeschold-Bell, the Clergy Health Initiative researcher.

Pastors also have broad flexibility to interpret how to live out their callings on a day-to-day basis. That they should preach the gospel is a given, but how they go about preparing a sermon or being a witness in their communities can vary widely. With intentionality, it can be infused with healthy habits.

Tipping the Scales

Some pastors are making changes that have them feeling much better, without compromising their ministry. Varney, the Congregational pastor who used to eat meals on the fly, is part of this group rethinking the pastor's lifestyle.

At age 57, Varney has bid adieu to acid reflux and dropped 20 pounds. He did it by changing his eating habits (no more wheat or dairy) and making room for healthy meals on a regular basis. In the process, he changed some of his thinking about his calling. Theologian Henri Nouwen's book The Wounded Healer was inspiring for Varney when he first entered ministry, but now Nouwen's words sound almost masoch*stic to his ear.

"I still remember the language of it: the healer binds his wounds just enough to get back out into the fray and gets wounded all over again," Varney said. "That's a big difference for me now. I can allow myself the occasional power nap after lunch and feel totally justified." An afternoon nap helps him to be alert at night meetings, he said, and serves as an example of how he uses rest as an investment in ministry longevity.

Gayla Collins, a 64-year-old United Methodist pastor who serves two yoked congregations in eastern North Carolina, makes a point to never take a call sitting down. With phone in hand, she strides through her neighborhood, walks laps around the church building or paces in the sanctuary until she hangs up. She logs more than 10,000 steps a day, largely just by moving in the course of getting her work done.

When it comes to food, the Collins gets invited to many lunches where she's expected to dig into rich foods lovingly prepared by members of her congregations.

"Every time I'm in a new church, people look at me and say, 'We're gonna fatten you up!'" Collins said. "That's one of the problems clergy face."

She's learned how to navigate the potluck terrain, though. If a dish is homemade, she's glad to partake. By sampling the casseroles and pies, she enjoys a tasty treat here and there while reassuring her congregations that she is "one of them," she said. But later in the day, she offsets earlier indulgences by having just a yogurt for dinner, for example, and/or going for a bike ride, which has the added benefit of boosting her mood.

"I work it off," she said. She feels good knowing she wears the same size as she did in her 20s. And good health has given her longevity in ministry. She's lasted 39 years in the pulpit and isn't ready to retire.

Varney now makes eating well a part of essential ministry tasks. If he needs to meet with a lay leader, he often does it over a healthy breakfast or lunch. When time comes for sermon prep, he frequently goes out for lunch by himself at 1 or 2 p.m. when the crowds are gone. He brings study materials along.

Help From The Congregation

Congregations can encourage pastors' health by recalibrating expectations and reinforcing healthy habits, according to Jeff Thiemann, president and CEO of Portico Benefits Services, which handles wellness programs for the ELCA. Pastors can cultivate these congregational traits by stoking the collective imagination and responding well when parishioners try something new.

"Every time I'm in a new church, people look at me and say, 'We're gonna fatten you up!'"

Don't tempt a pastor's weaknesses, Thiemann says, by inviting him or her to meet and talk over donuts. Instead, bless the pastor by suggesting a walk outdoors together to discuss the topic at hand. Pastors who plant such ideas or respond enthusiastically to such invitations can nurture their own good health in the process.

Still, ingrained church habits need not be entirely disavowed, even if they've had an unhealthy effect on pastors in the past. Such dynamics might just need to be redirected toward healthier ends. That's possible even in the many congregations whose elders take pride in doting on the pastor by preparing his or her favorite dish or dessert for the church potluck meal.

"If the pastor just told the one the person who's getting the news out that, 'I'm really committed to eating healthy, so I'm going to be looking for healthy vegetable dishes at the potluck,'" Thiemann said, "then it would almost be like a healthy competition to provide the pastor with the healthiest stuff."

Congregations can help the pastor be physically healthier by sharing the workload. Pastors feel stressed by the fact that they can't please all their "bosses" in the pews, Proeschold-Bell said. The strain mounts when congregants lean on them to be involved in virtually everything at the church. Taking a few responsibilities off the pastor's plate can help free the mind, as well as slots on the weekly calendar for healthy habits that pay dividends.

It's a lesson Michael Kurtz learned the hard way. Now senior pastor of Oak Ridge United Methodist Church in Oak Ridge, North Carolina, Kurtz used to serve in smaller churches where he played noontime basketball for years and sustained a jogging regimen. But he took it upon himself to lead just about everything from Bible study to every committee meeting.

"I didn't avail myself of the ministry of the laity and the priesthood of all believers to engage people and trust in people," Kurtz said. "I was instead getting some kudos, I'm sure, consciously or unconsciously, saying, 'you're doing such a great job pastor.' I was not sharing the ministry."

When Kurtz moved to his current church, his hands-on leadership style became unsustainable in a congregation of 1,500, and his body made the message clear. Though he thought he was getting enough sleep, he was sleeping only lightly and not getting enough deep rest. He found himself tired by day, unable to focus at meetings, and irritable at home. He was suffering from sleep apnea, a condition that had him gasping for oxygen as he slept. The many things weighing on his mind, including a $5 million capital campaign, compounded the issue and made clear that he needed to share more of the load.

"I could mask it before," Kurtz said, "but it caught up with me."

Along with getting fitted for a mask that helps him breathe better at night, Kurtz made sure to delegate at the church and let others help lead activities. He now takes Thursdays off, swims three times a week, and reserves part of every day for non-work activities. If he has a night meeting, for instance, he takes either the morning or afternoon off that day.

Finding Rest

Healthy adjustments in the pastoral lifestyle need to be theologically sound and rooted in Scripture. Otherwise, experts in clergy behavior find, the adjustments don't last. Thus the concepts of grace, Sabbath, and stewardship are beacons for pastors revisiting what faithfulness entails for someone entrusted to tend both a flock and a physical body.

Kurtz invokes the Jethro Principle from Exodus 18, where Jethro tells Moses he can't do it all himself and needs to let other leaders play a role. Epperly turns to Mark 6, where Jesus and the disciples withdraw in a boat for a while before returning and having compassion on the crowd.

The notion of personal sacrifice, which has led many a pastor to subjugate care of the physical body to higher spiritual goals, isn't apt to fade quickly or easily. But those urging a new pastoral lifestyle say it doesn't have to disappear entirely. It can be redirected to support health via the idea of stewardship.

Concepts of grace, Sabbath and stewardship are emerging as beacons for pastors.

In recent decades, seminaries have promoted the idea of "self-care" as an important practice for clergy to cultivate as they reserve time for friends, hobbies, recreation, exercise, and rest. But the ELCA has stopped referring to "self-care" in its Portico wellness literature and programs because it wasn't resonating with pastors' self-understandings as servants in discipleship to Christ. The denomination is in effect rebranding self-care as "stewardship of the body."

"Some people, when they hear the word 'self-care,' it sounds to them like selfish care," Thiemann said. "Some people think about [ministry] as a sacrifice. They think, 'I've chosen this as a sacrificial calling, and so I'm willing to live that out.' And we're trying to help people see that bigger picture: we need them to be healthy in order to be able to serve well."

Those motivated by a sense of noble sacrifice can still find ways to do without for a higher purpose. They might get by with fewer sweets, as Kurtz has done to combat a pre-diabetic condition. Or they might invest some time on the treadmill.

One way or another, those who feel self-denial is fitting for a pastor are finding they can do so in ways that ultimately build up, rather than tear down, the body God has given them. And that can be life-giving for more than the pastor.

"It's a lifestyle change," Thiemann says. "Folks in the congregation that may be sensing a call to go into ministry will see that joy and that sense of fulfillment. And it will draw new people into it with eager hearts."'

G. Jeffrey Macdonald is a journalist and ordained United Church of Christ minister living in the Boston area.

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