One my top posts of all-time is 10 Things That Drive Me Crazy About Working for a Church. I had no idea what a nerve I would hit with it when I posted it nearly 2 years ago. It has made rounds around the interwebs and was even featured on The Christian Post. Recently, my friend Tyler Braun asked if he could add to my list. I gladly obliged, so here are 10 other things that drive someone else crazy about working for a church.
Tyler Braun is a 27-year-old INTJ living in Portland, Oregon with his wife Rose. He works full time as a worship leader, while also finding time to study at Multnomah Biblical Seminary in pursuit of a masters degree. Currently Tyler is living the Portlandia dream of commuting to work on a bike while paying off school loans. He has plans to release his first book in August of this year through Moody Publishers. You can find Tyler on Twitter, Facebook, or his blog.
A couple years ago Tim wrote a post I’ve read several times since it was posted. I appreciated Tim’s angst and love for working at a church because I find myself often waffling between the two. I love working at a church but it is filled with things that drive me crazy. Almost two years since Tim’s original post, here are 10 more things that drive me crazy about working for a church.
We often value programs over relationships.
I’m sure I’m not alone in this experience at church. As a worship leader, I spend an enormous part of my week on a stage either practicing music or playing it in front of people. As a pastor, I know I’m in danger when I start to count those times as cultivating my own pursuit of God in relationship with Him. I also find it incredibly difficult to create space in my schedule to just hang out with some of the people who help make the ministries I serve in flourish. Too often, I’m caring more about making sure the show goes on without caring about the people who make it happen.
Programs do a great job of gathering groups toward beginning a pursuit of God, but they cannot be the end of relationship with Him.
We are used to doing the fundie dance.
What is the “fundie dance” you ask? In the eyes of others, everyone is either too conservative or too liberal. In Portland, my home, the worst possible thing you could be labeled is “fundamental.” When I visit my grandparents in the heart of the Midwest, they have great despise for the people who are “liberal.” This could be politically or theologically.
In church, many people are more concerned with labeling you than really getting to know what causes you to think the way you do. Conversations with church members often become doing the fundie dance of trying to figure out how they’re perceiving your views and making sure you don’t turn them against you too quickly.
We think being relevant means having an electric guitar and drums on the stage.
If I had a dime for every time a pastor told me they were starting to go really “cutting edge” because they added drums to their stage, I’d be a rich man. Some of the most “relevant” music in today’s culture doesn’t even use drums or electric guitar. Maybe we’ve misunderstood relevance. In all our pursuits of relevance we do a great job of being something we aren’t, cheapening the message of the Gospel by trying to spice it up through a better show.
We are known for copying, not creating.
I’ve been plenty guilty of this over the years by doing songs from large churches the exact same way they did even if they had twice as big of a band.
Examples: The discipleship program at the church across town is working well so we try to do the exact same thing at our church even though it never works out like we want it to. Another church is known for great music so we just start playing all the music they play.
We rarely think about the needs of our own communities enough to create something that will work at reaching them. In the midst of the constant flow of church ministry, it’s easier to copy instead of creating, but the downside is copying is rarely effective.
We allow people to be the center of attention.
I’m fairly comfortable with churches being focused in vision for who they want to reach with their ministry, but most church members want their church to be exclusively focused on reaching people like them. They all want to be the center of attention.
Rather than people coming to church and finding Jesus to be the center of attention our “focus” on certain people groups tells them that churches are about pleasing people not seeking God.
We want our pastors to be experts and have opinions on everything.
Pastors must know the ins and outs of the upcoming election, read all the latest headlines on ESPN, have an opinion on all the latest articles ran in Relevant Magazine and Christianity Today, and spend their evenings watching Fox News, CNN, and Bloomberg TV so as not to get a biased understanding of the news. Oh and of course we need to make sure they have opinions on all these matters. All the while we want them to prepare messages that will challenge us and they must be rooted in a strong understanding of the Bible.
We believe family comes first except when it doesn’t.
Family comes first except when the elders have to meet with you for the third time in a week. Family comes first except when a longtime member of the church has a daughter getting married and no one else can perform the wedding. Family comes first except when the singles and seniors ministries want you to come speak at their gathering. Family comes first except when you’re needed for speaking at an all-weekend conference twice in one month.
We think our pastors must keep up appearances.
“The college ministry would really love to have you come visit during one of their next few gatherings. They feel disconnected from the church but having you come would go a long way toward changing that.” I’ve been in plenty of conversations like that. I usually start to wonder where a line must be drawn. Is being involved in and caring for the people in three different ministries too much? Is being gone at church four nights a week too much? Churches often care more about the ministries of their churches than the long term health and sustainability of their pastors.
We’re used to the dreaded “My money is leaving if you don’t change…” conversation.
Need I say more?
We do a great job of disconnecting discipleship and evangelism.
I’m as guilty as anyone else for usually considering a church to be discipleship or evangelism focused. After all, it is difficult to do both. We often think caring for the members of our churches means we’re not focusing enough on the community around us. Or, if we’re doing outreach events, we think we’re failing the church members who need to be cared for.
A few final thoughts…
Church work is messy because people are messy. We’re all a mix of sin and righteousness through Christ. We’re all constantly trying to navigate through life in a way that honors God while fighting against our bent toward selfishness.
The problems I’ve outlined here with the church are really no different than the problems I see within myself. The church is something I am a part of, through the good and the bad. I’m also a part of creating both the good and the bad of it.
Jonathan Edwards famously said, “The Church is a whore, but she is my mother.” It is both with angst and love that I come to and work for the church. The angst keeps me pushing to make the church a healthier, more Godly place, and the love keeps me continually embracing its brokenness.
What are the things that drive you crazy about church?
