Best Practices
| November 2, 2011
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 I no longer ask the young man's question: How far will I go? My questions are now those of the mature person: When it is over, what will my life have been about? First as Martin Buber taught, life is meeting. We come alive only when we relate to others. Secondly, we are here to change the world with small acts of thoughtfulness done daily rather than with one great dramatic leap in results. Finally, we are here to finish God's labors. One of the sages of the Talmud taught nearly two thousand years ago that God could have created a plant that would grow loaves of bread. Instead He created wheat for us to mill and bake into bread. Why? So that we could be His partners in completing the work of creation.
-Rabbi Harold Kushner
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| Editorial |  Nominating Committee:
Finding the People God Wants to Use
It's nominating committee time for a lot of us - the time when we ask God to help us select new people to lead the church in the coming year. Here are four challenges that I've been pondering as we've been choosing our volunteers this year: - Fruit basket upset. Too often someone who's grown into a position and is doing it very well quits after only a term or two. We select someone else, who has to learn the job from the beginning. For a pastor, a new team every year presents a challenge. Imagine a company where people only kept their jobs for a year! And asking each volunteer every year whether he or she wants to keep the job almost implies that stepping down is expected, even if they're enjoying it. (The Church Manual make allowance for two-year terms - a good idea.)
- The hard jobs. The volunteer positions that take the most work also yield the most value. A good Pathfinder leader or youth leader can have an incredible effect on the life of a child. An excellent community services leader can put a church on the community map. Yet because these tasks are intense, they also burn people out the fastest, and may be the hardest to fill.
- Chop it up. A trend I've noticed in recent years is that no one wants to be in charge. A Sabbath School that used to be run by one person and an assistant now has to be divided among six people, no one of them willing to be named the leader. Then who coordinates? Sometimes no one. Ever have the embarrassment of the scheduled person not showing up to lead a Sabbath School class? This may be the reason.
- Power vs. talent. This is a problem particular to our democratic nominating committee process. Democracy keeps one person from having too much control, but it doesn't necessarily put the right talents in the right places. Isn't our purpose to find the people with the right spiritual gifts to do the job? Voting may be necessary for selecting a head elder, but why, say, Sabbath School pianist? That's why in large organizations, only the top people are elected; the rest are appointed.
Some congregations have addressed these kinds of concerns with a standing personnel committee for selecting volunteers, though I think that may work better in large congregations than in the small congregations where many of us are. You can read more about that here. To move in the direction of a gifts-based ministry, I recommend the NAD's Connections series, available from AdventSource as a way of training your congregation - somewhat dated, but still good material. (The 2005 Church Manual included on pages 67-68 gifts-based methods for selecting volunteers, though this section appears to have been removed from the 2010 Church Manual).
Of course, let's not forget that the essential tool at nominating committee time is prayer for Divine guidance.
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Resources
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Cathy Payne from the GC Ministerial Department shares some GREAT news: "The bulk of our inventory has been reduced by 90%, so there are some great deals going on right now.You can log onto our website and find these outstanding bargains. www.ministerialassociation.com/store. Should you have any questions please let me know."
Pay raise for pastors? Female conference presidents? Guam is part of NAD? What exactly happened at NAD Year End meetings? You would know that answers to those questions if you subsribed to NAD Newspoints. Click here to subscribe. Or click here to view archived copies of the email newsletter.  For those who missed it, Keeping It Real, a Satellite uplink for Ministerial Spouses will be rebroadcast Sundays November 6 and 13 on the Hope Church Channel. One of the featured stories is the remarkable journey of Rick and Cynthia Mercer whose quick romance and marriage took them down an unimaginable road.
This week's Best Idea for Ministry comes from Stan Caylor from the Pacific Union Conference. In this short video clip he shares what happens when an Adventist pastor sets up a local ministerial association.
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| Reading for Pastors | If your church is dying, why not become a satellite of a successful church? That's what happened to the Living Word Church of Pelham, AL, that now beams in sermons by Chris Hodges of Church of the Highlands. Attendance went from 40 to 1300. Would more people come if you and I quit preaching and beamed in Pioneer Memorial or Sacramento Central? (How many small congregations are already doing that via 3ABN or Hope Channel?)
Why house churches are important: US State Department report says there are no Christian churches left standing in Afghanistan.
You've heard of pet-blessing services, but the NYT says that ministry to animals may be a new cutting edge outreach. Quote: "Some Christian thinkers believe animals have intrinsic rights to be treated well, like people. Others hold to the more traditional teaching that humankind was given dominion over animals, so while people should exercise compassionate stewardship over animals, the animals have no 'right' to such treatment."
Could this be a model for church/community cooperation? In Santa Clarita, a church has built the city a park in exchange for shared parking.
Someone has written a computer program to do textual/form analysis of Scripture. to figure out who wrote what. (Don't hold your breath: These things usually promise more than they deliver.)
According to a Washington Post report, tithing has hit a record low, and churches are spending more of their income internally.
Three infographics on technology:Is it true that churches have attendance ceilings that are hard to break through? Here's one analysis of the phenomenon.
From Inc. magazine: Five ways to kill a brainstorming session.
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Resources
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Pastors' DVD Volume 19
 "In the events leading up to and including October 22, 1844 our Adventist forefathers left us with an important heritage. Instead of a beginning of being 'right' about our religion, we began with utter failure and humiliation. Out of this failure and what was indeed a Great Disappointment - hope was born and a movement began." -Rajeev Sigamoney
In 2010 many Adventist Churches began a tradition of reenacting the Great Disappointment Day, and learning from the journey of the Adventist Pioneers. Groups huddled around campfires and stayed up till midnight weaving their own experiences of anticipation, disappointment, and renewal with the experience of the pioneers. These resources are now available on Pastor's DVD volume 19 to be used in planning a life changing experience at your church. Event planner helps include a video promotional piece, a video with discussion questions and a complete facilitators guide produced by the Hollywood Adventist Church. The file is found under Documents\GDD_MASTEER_PDF. The Pastor's DVD is distributed to all pastors in the NAD through local conference Ministerial departments. Others may purchase PDVD19 at AdventSource.
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| To the Point | I cannot believe that God wants punishment to go on interminably any more than does a loving parent. The entire purpose of loving punishment is to teach, and it lasts only as long as is needed for the lesson. And the lesson is always love.
- Madeleine L'Engel
You'll come to learn a great deal if you study the Insignificant in depth.
- Odysseus Elytis (born 100 years ago this month)
The world changed. Hollywood changed. I think we've lost something, and we don't know how to get it back.... Today they're making pictures that I wouldn't want Trigger to see.
- Roy Rogers (born 100 years ago this month)
Until we meet again, may the good Lord take a liking to you.
- Roy Rogers
The stories of childhood leave an indelible impression, and their author always has a niche in the temple of memory from which the image is never cast out to be thrown on the rubbish heap of things that are outgrown and outlived.
- Howard Pyle (died 100 years ago this month)
He who jumps for the moon and gets it not leaps higher than he who stoops for a penny in the mud.
- Howard Pyle
My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind. - Albert Einstein It takes too much energy to be against something unless it's really important. - Madeleine L'Engel With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another.
- Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
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| Upcoming NAD Events |
Do you have an event you'd like to invite NAD pastors to? Send details to BestPractices@Ameritech.net.
Native Heritage Month.
Nov 5, 2011 - Nov 26, 2011, Division Wide.
Stewardship Sabbath.
Nov 5, 2011, Division Wide. Check the NAD Stewardship site for information.
Week of Prayer.
Nov 6, 2011 - Nov 12, 2011, North American Division. Readings will be available in September 22 edition of the Adventist Review.
G.L.U.E..
Nov 11, 2011 - Nov 13, 2011, Cohutta Springs Conference Center, 1175 Cohutta Springs Road, Crandall, GA 30711. The G.L.U.E. (Giving, Loving, Understanding, and Encouraging) conference will provide the steps, as well as the techniques churches can use to assist in discovering how people with disabilities can be included as partners in ministry. Phone: 301-680-6425. For more information, email: ChildrensMinistries@nad.adventist.org
Welcome Home Sabbath. Nov 26, 2011, Division Wide. Let's get serious from the start. Programs don't win people back to church, people do! That's why a contact from someone in your local church is vital to getting inactive members engaged in church life again. Welcome Home is a user-friendly guide for personalizing invitations to Homecoming Sabbaths to reach and reconnect with former and missing church members. Phone: 800-328-0525. For more information, email: service@adventsource.org
West Coast Worship Conference,
February 2-4, 2012, at the Adventist Media Center.
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Best Practices is a Vervent publication of NAD CHURCH RESOURCE CENTER. Editor: Loren Seibold, Ohio Conference. E-mail:
Best Practices. You are free to republish pieces from Best Practices in your own
newsletter or blog, with attribution to the Best Practices newsletter and the
author of the piece. |
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