One Rural Pastor's Journey

Pulling Double Duty Can Be a Heavy Burden

In the fall of 2002, my father-in-law passed away.  I was responsible for the funeral and also for trying to comfort my wife and her family.  Following the graveside service, I found myself standing beside my wife after delivering the benediction when I noticed her father’s family.  They were still seated in front of the casket when I realized that normally the pastor usually gives some final encouragement at this time.  It then occurred to me that I WAS the pastor and immediately went to them to offer more condolences and words of peace and comfort.  It was hard pulling that double duty, but fulfilling.

My grandfather died the week after Thanksgiving in 2009.  He had a stable church home and a wonderful pastor who ministered to him until the end.  I was grateful to share in the service, but not in the same types of pastoral responsibilities that Rev. Honea did.  I was able to be a minister and also be ministered to.

Here we are in the Winter(?) of 2012.  Both of my mom’s parents are in terrible health after suffering debilitating strokes.  It has been years since they have been able to attend church and while they have had a pastor friend stop by every now and then there hasn’t really been a church supporting them.  I know that in mere days, or weeks, or months that I will be called upon(and am ready, willing, and able) to perform the ministerial duties for the funerals.  It’s an honor to be involved.  Their pastor friend will share as well, but I know that my family will look to me for strength.  I’m also thankful everyone in my family will have their own pastor there to walk with them through this time of grief.

I try to put some words to paper daily in preparation.  It’s easy for a pastor to speak well and memorialize people who’s faith has been passed down as far as their great-grandchildren.  It’s easy for a grandson to remember fond stories of trips to Cherokee and Johnny Carson jokes my grandmother didn’t get.  Doing both…that’s tough and requires a unique strength.  Luckily, that passed that down too.

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What's on your preaching calendar?

In this podcast I discuss the why’s and the how’s of planning a yearly preaching calendar.  I also share how our rural church, Oakway United, is using this through nine sermon series in 2012.

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As most of you know, I co-host the Techology Show every Wednesday morning.  Today, we had the privilege of interviewing Pastor Mark Batterson about his latest book, The Circle Maker.  It was a great time of sharing and speaking with one of my heroes.  If you want to win a copy of the book then @mention @techology before January 11, 2012.  The drawing will be held January 12, 2012 on a special edition of the show when we interview another great author, Kem Meyer.

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It’s been a great blessing to be a part of the Good Morning Show on 760 AM in Nashville, TN. David Gould and Rachael Sain are the co-hosts and I have known David through the Wesleyan Church for some time. He’s a frequent viewer of The Techology Show and from that “Tech Talk Tuesday” came about.  On December 28, 2011 we talked about how church’s can use technology in the coming year.  There are lots of challenges rural churches face in the use of technology.  I’m a rural pastor who believes technology is a gift to reach the world.  Here are a few things we talked about this week:

• Just this week our church created our new website using WordPress(and BLUEHOST.COM).  We including a link to our Twitter account and Facebook Group.  It’s still under construction, but our main goal was to get directions and sermons up initially.
• We are also utilizing YouVersion to provide interactive sermon notes during worship.  This week I could access the notes online, but not through my phone which was a bit of a let down.

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Last Sunday, Oakway United started a new sermon series entitled “One Day…Some Day.”  This was inspired by a blog post from Pastor Steven Furtick.  For week 1, New Year’s Day, the topic was procrastination elimination.  As a rural pastor, one of my goals is help people achieve their God given dreams.  Here are some great quotes I found on procrastination elimination:

“Until you value yourself, Continue Reading…

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Last week was the 2nd annual community Trunk or Treat that our church puts on with 6 other churches in the community.  Last year, we had around 2000 people come out to the elementary school so we moved to West-Oak Football stadium this year.  Around 400o people came out for the event!  It was a dream come true for me for several reasons:

1.  I have always believed the Church is at it’s best when the church works together.  None of the churches could have pulled off an event this size on their own.  By pooling our resources we were able to create an unforgettable event.  Size the day God called me into ministry I have desired to be a pastor that see’s other pastor’s as partners instead of competitor’s.  Great to see that in action last night.

2.  My wife has always dreamed of us being Johnny and June Carter Cash for Halloween and we pulled it off last night with the duet playlist playing.  People seemed to like our singing.  Most people knew more of the movie “Walk the Line” than the actual couple.  It was stressful, but a lot of fun for us to pull off.

3.  People from Oakway Wesleyan and Common Ground Community Church were involved.  We even shared candy as the crowd grew and the supply shrank!  As we move toward a merger between these 2 churches I see more events like this in our future.  It’s about the Kingdom.  As part of this merger discussion we distributed a vision packet.  If you’re a pastor and haven’t read Church Unique I recommend it highly.  There are also lots of free resources from the author, Will Mancini, at ChurchLeaders.com.  The book walks you through all the aspects of discovering your church’s unique place in the community.  It’s powerful and challenging.

Over the next few days(weeks, months) I will be taking you through the process from excitement about vision to frustration when you can’t find the vision to receiving the vision to sharing the vision to building the vision.  I’m no expert, but I’ve been on the journey.

To the future….

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Modern Day Circuit Rider

As I mentioned before, I am now pastoring two churches.  One is 118 years old and the other is 6 years old.  They are 10 miles apart.  On Sundays, I drive to Common Ground Community Church at 8:30 am to hang out and speak at the 9:30 am service.  I greet people before the service because as soon as the message is over I drive back to Oakway Wesleyan to speak in the 11 am service.  I want to thank my man Kristoffer Fox for his great advice and saving my voice.  His tips have helped me make it through each Sunday with a strong voice.  My wife has been amazing through all of this as she has to get our kids ready, pick up a family for church, teach Sunday School, and then take them all home after church.  We are firm believers in the “Wesleyan Hour”-a good Sunday afternoon nap.  Later I’ll post my weekly schedule and how I’m trying to balance all of this.

Back to the churches.  You could not find two churches more different or similar.   One has transitioned to a more contemporary worship style while the other was planted as a contemporary church for the community.  One meets in a traditional church building and the other doesn’t.  For all the differences there are important similarities.  Both are filled with people who love Jesus and desire to see the community transformed by his power.  This was evident on August 7 as we held our first joint service together with 102 present( Both churches have between 45-60 people for a Sunday service.)  There is a spirit of cooperation to see where this “partnership” takes us.  My desire is to see healthy Christians and healthy churches.  Over the next few months we will initiate some things to bring us all closer to Christ and each other as we strive to show His love to Oconee County.  This “circuit rider” deal wasn’t a scheme they had planned for me when we moved to South Carolina a year ago.  No, I volunteered.  I saw a church that would be needing a pastor and I sensed God opening the door for something amazing.  With Oakway’s approval I became a dual pastor to Common Ground.  I see this as my “for such a time as this” part of my life.  So far, only a few people have told me I’m crazy to my face.  The rest of them told my horse.

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Church Yard Sale?

This week, my wife, Karen, has been hard at work getting things ready for our church yard sale.  I have done my fair share of yard sales for youth fundraisers.  Some have done quite well and some…haven’t.  There was one where I had to sit on a block of ice for 15 minutes because people put more money in my jar than the other pastor’s(this was of course rigged).  I don’t think there’s anything wrong with youth fundraisers as long as it doesn’t take away from the ministry.  If you’re doing a youth car wash every weekend then…you may want to re-think that.

In the last year, I’ve heard of 2 churches(both Wesleyan) having monthly yard/hot dog sales to pay the mortgage on their new buildings.  Before I go off on a rant let me say that both of these buildings were built in better economic times.  I’m sure the church leaders never foresaw having to use valuable church space to store yard sale stuff year round because they wouldn’t be able to keep up with the payments.

Now, church yard sales can a be a good thing because they get people on your campus in a non-churchy environment.  It’s a great way to meet new people and for people to check out your church.  On the other hand, Continue Reading…

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The Worship Wars

Rural Pastor Podcast

Episode 2 Show Notes-The Worship Wars

What are the worship wars really all about?

Traditional or contemporary is a matter of style or preference.

What works at one church won’t work somewhere else.

The thought that only contemporary worship can reach younger people is not true.

• Bluegrass worship

• Growing church with a growing choir.

There’s more to worship than music, but that’s our focus today.

Contemporary can become traditional when it becomes predictable.

Traditional can become contemporary when it utilizes other elements.

1. Passion-Does your worship leader, choir director, music leader, minister of music love Continue Reading…

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I should not see this during Summer Vacation.

Today is the first day of summer vacation.  My girls just finished second grade.  I know there’s an age where “sleeping in” becomes the cool thing to do, but I guess my kids aren’t concerned with being cool.  They were up at the usual time of 6:50 am this morning.  And so, for the first of 100o times this summer, I got up and put a movie on for them and tried to keep their decibel level down since my wife is in bed sick.  Don’t get me wrong.  I don’t want to waste the summer.  I want to invest in my kids and prepare the girls for 3rd grade.  I’m thankful for their great teacher who kept us in the loop with the things they struggled with.  Is it weird that twins struggled with the exact same things?  In a few weeks we’ll head off to youth camp in NC and one of my goals if for us to learn Spanish this summer.  I’m sure we’ll get to it later.  Today, however, I wanted to sleep in.  That’s one thing I don’t like procrastinating about.

Attend a Rural Church? Try the Rural Pastor’s Podcast for encouragement, tips, and trends to lead your church to a whole new level!

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