To the Point:
Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward. - Kurt Vonnegut
I've often said, if Billy Graham had been born mean, we'd be in terrible trouble, because he had so much power, so many gifts, and so on. One of my distinctions in religion is not liberal and conservative, but mean and non-mean. You have mean liberals and mean conservatives, and you have non-mean of both.
- Martin Marty
We cannot then take a position that the unity of the church
consists in viewing every text of Scripture in the very same light. The
church may pass resolution upon resolution to put down all disagreement
of opinions, but we cannot force the mind and will, and root out
disagreement. These resolutions may conceal the discord, but they
cannot quench it and establish perfect agreement. - EGW, MS 24,
1892; The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials 3:1092-93
Thomas Jefferson once said, 'We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.' And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying.
- Ronald Reagan
When I was born I was so surprised I didn't talk for a year and a half.
- Gracie Allen
Got a favorite quote? Send it to BestPractices@ameritech.net. |
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 Effective Ministry:
Team Up, Reach Out
Marty Thurber, Fargo, ND
Years ago our church leadership team attended an interdenominaional leadership conference. At one meeting the nationally known pastor wanted to get acquainted with the group, so he asked who was there by denomination. When he got to Adventists, he asked us what we were doing there? Everything we needed to know, he said, we should have read in a book called Gospel Workers!
When I came home I read Gospel Workers again with new appreciation.
Do you remember this parable?
"I read of a man who had a company of workmen over whom he placed an overseer, whose duty it was to see that the work was done to the best advantage. One day he came along to where his overseer, in charge of twelve men, was digging a trench. He found the overseer down in the trench digging away, with the sweat dropping from his brow; but the twelve men were above, watching him in his labor. The overseer was called up and asked what he was doing there. 'I ordered you,' said the man, 'to keep twelve men at work; why have you not done this? There you are, doing the work of one man, while twelve are idle. Here are your wages.'" EGW, Review & Herald, Nov. 6, 1888.
It's all about the team, isn't it? As a pastor I need to be a team leader and a leader of team leaders. When I read in one of Eugene Peterson's books that his church treasurer asked him what he was doing at a finance committee meeting, I understood that at the heart of teams is letting go of control. Our egos and insecurities may work against us; among other things, we don't need to be at every meeting.
I think our members want to be empowered to grow a healthy church. Keeping them going in the same direction and working together for the good of God's kingdom can be very challenging. But Jesus never let that stop Him from building teams. His teams changed the world and still are. You're on one of them.
Adds Ellen White, "The minister should not feel that it is his duty to do all the talking and all the laboring and all the praying; but he should make it a part of his work to educate workers in every church. Let different ones take turns in leading the meetings, and in giving Bible readings, and in so doing you will be calling into use the talents which God has given you, and at the same time educating workers." Ibid.
Teamwork is the strategy to finish God's work!
Thoughts on team leadership? Write BestPractices@ameritech.net. |
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Reading for Pastors
by Best Practices Editor, Loren Seibold
- The Church Conversation: faith-based initiatives.
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