When Churches Want a Pastor Who Can “Bring In Young Families†. . . | achurchforstarvingartists.
For those who still follow Wired Jesus, recent months have involved several hacks of the site since “the big one” of a year ago. I’m planning on a relaunch in May/June of Wired Jesus 2.0, complete with podcast and postings.
In the meantime, now that the malware problems seems to be settled, I will play around with WordPress and post articles that I want to remember and are worth sharing to other pastors and people who desire a future for the North American Church, knowing its not going to look like the last forty years.
This article is spot on. Not only has the pastor profile dream wish of “someone who can bring in young families” unrealistic, it really never has been because the reasoning is wrong. Why do you want young families? How does that square with the Great Commission? It doesn’t work in dying mainline congregations that are aging out of existence. It doesn’t work on the pomo dream church that is dying as a monogenerational phase. Frankly, it doesn’t work in the megachurch world, which is losing membership as well.
Word of advice. Congregations looking for new pastors would be well served by reading this article and taking it to heart, particularly the following paragraphs. If you want a future for ministry that serves Jesus, you have to commit to living in the future, not in your past, and not even in your present concerns and complaints. Be the church for broken people like Jesus lived where you now live and know that you are going to have to die – die to what you are now, the baggage you are still determined to carry, the control you still want to have. That has to go to the cross if you want a pastor who will walk with you to resurrection rather than congregational savior that can’t live up to your dying expectations.
Words to ponder for Lent indeed.
Young families are great. Old families are great. Families made up of child-free couples are great. Families of single people are great. Imagine if every church simply wanted A Pastor Who Could Bring In Broken People. Now that’s a church.
Also, the days are gone when Young Families were present in worship every Sunday. The statistics are in about how the definition of “regular worship†has changed since the 1950s. (“Regular†used to mean weekly. Now it means once or twice a month.)
Instead of seeking a Pastor who can bring in those vaunted Young Families, we need to call a Pastor who knows how to shift congregational culture. The culture in which we live and move and have our being has changed, but we are killing ourselves trying to maintain a dated congregational culture.
Tags: american culture, church, dying, engaging culture, Generations, Gospel, Growth, leadership, lent, Lutherans, pastors
