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American Baptist

Christianity

Live Video Podcast: The Christian Citizen – Justice, Mercy, and Faith

Photo credit: David Van Brakle

I had a chance to sit down at the American Baptist Biennial Mission Summit in Virginia Beach, VA on June 22, 2019, with Editor Curtis Ramsey-Lucas of The Christian Citizen. I was part of a panel which included the Rev. Dr. Debora Jackson and the Rev. Dr. Corey Fields, talking about our recent articles. It was fun, serious, and thought-provoking.  

Be sure to watch the beginning when we are actively discussing the topic. I decided to invite some onlookers to our audience. Give Alan the mic? What could happen?

Millennials

Stop saying Millennials are lazy

millennials

“Millennials? They live at home with their parents!”

“When I was their age, I had a job, spouse, and a car!”

“Young people today… these Millennials are just lazy.”

Those are comments I have heard in coffee shops, restaurants, and surprisingly in churches. Many of the people making such comments are Baby Boomers, who are known for experiencing historical gains in post-war job growth and increased standard of living. Frankly, it is disturbing for me as a young adult to hear such comments. As a younger Generation Xer or older Millennial pastor (depending on how you measure the generations) it is extremely vexing to hear negative comments about young people.

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blog, stewardship

Stewardship: Raising more with less stress

stewardship

Stewardship does not have to be the hardest thing you do at church. Pastors and leaders often lament pledge drives or stewardship campaigns. Fundraising in the church is difficult.

There is an alternative to non-stop fundraising, convincing people to give more – or simply cutting the budget. It’s what you bring to stewardship that you already have and not about learning the latest technique.

Register for this FREE webinar for Monday, May 5th @ 3:30 PM EST and you will be able to:

  • become more thoughtful about the financial challenges you and you church face
  • see money – and the process of stewardship– from a different perspective
  • bring more calm and creativity to recurring and unexpected problems in funding ministry
  • concentrate on long-term ministry goals and strategic persistence to get financial support for those goals.
  • focus on yourself and what you can impact directly rather than trying harder to convince others to give more
  • enjoy the stewardship process rather than dreading it each year

Leading this webinar is Rev. Margaret Marcuson works with churches who want to create a ministry that lasts and clergy who want to have more impact on the people they serve best. She speaks and writes on leadership and works with church leaders nationally as a consultant and coach. Margaret is the author of 111 Tips to Survive Pastoral Ministry, Leaders who Last: Sustaining Yourself and Your Ministry and Money and Your Ministry: Balance the Books While Keeping Your Balance (just released). Margaret is an American Baptist minister and was the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Gardner, Massachusetts, for 13 years. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband, Karl, and belongs to First Baptist Church of Portland.

Spots are limited for this webinar! Sign up today.

clergy burnout, pastor

Proof being a pastor is a tough job

pastor

As the pastor, I’m shaking hands with church goers after worship one Sunday, I talk with a congregant about meeting him during the week. His reply?

“I thought pastors only worked one day a week!”

Truth be told, we full-time (and part-time pastors) do not work one day a week. I work anywhere between 35 and 75 hours a week. My congregation expects a full-time, ordained, college educated, graduate school 90-credit hour trained, and spiritual pastor to lead the congregation. And so, I provide that. However, there are unspoken and unwritten expectations:  my wife and children share in the full life of the congregation, I give 10% (and more) of my income to church, I’m available 24/7, be an excellent preacher, sound teacher, be a chaplain, be a theologian, providing counseling, give financial leadership,  bring people to church, and sometimes even clean up a mess in a common area.

If you ask me or my colleagues, it’s tough being a pastor.

If you think I’m just complaining and think I have cushy job, don’t take my word for it. Take Forbes Magazine’s top 9 toughest leadership roles into consideration:

  • #9: CEO, lots of pressure for profit
  • #8: Congressman/Congresswoman, everyone (sometimes including your mother) hates you
  • #7: Newspaper editor, sorry that your job is almost extinct
  • #6: Mayor, “Unlike most politicians, you actually have to make sure that garbage gets collected, snow gets shoveled, and things get done.”
  • #5: Pastor/minister

Other than #1 on the list, Forbes collected the most cons of being a pastor:

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Christianity

Coalesce lava lamp Christianity

lava-lamp

I am not a word smith.  A friend of mine who helps me write better blogs reminds me often, less is more.  In other words, my writing is too wordy and too long. Authors and poets have a great gift for using just the right combination of words to create powerful images.  And they do so with very few words.  The trick is using words powerful enough to convey large concepts.

 I like words that can do that.  Words like; love, redemption, restoration, forgiveness, and Red Sox.  Each word carries with it weight and meaning, history and hope.  I came across a couple words recently that I am working on making into a concept for ministry.

Coalesce and disperse.

Coalesce means to come together to form one group or mass or to unite for a common end.  Disperse means to spread out over a wide area.  I like this idea for ministry.  The body of Christ comes together for a time to do a specific task with Christ, we serve, then we disperse to coalesce elsewhere and continue the work of Christ.

I like to use the image of a lava lamp for this.  Lava lamps work through the Archimedes principle.  Basically lava lamps are made with water and wax (lava).  Both have very similar densities, but the wax is more dense.  As a rule it should always sink.  However, when heated by the lamp or coil at the bottom, the wax’s molecules speed up and become less dense and become more buoyant and float to the top of the lamp.  Once there it cools and sinks again.  The cycle repeats itself over and over.

What does this have to do with coalesce and disperse?

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American Baptist Churches, biennial

Baptists and BBQ in Kansas City

I’m here in Kansas City for the American Baptist Church USA Mission Summit Biennial. That’s a mouthful. American Baptists get together every two years for meetings, worship, share resources, and attend to the needs of the denomination (elections, motions, etc…).  You can read about the last biennial info here and here.

I’m also here for the famous Kansas City BBQ… well, that’s just a bonus. I’m also here for meetings as a Board of General Ministry director. For the last few days we met to attend to the business of the denomination and also met collectively with the boards of Home Mission, International Ministries, and Ministers and Mission Benefit Board.

We spent some time getting out of the meeting room and visited several American Baptist supported ministries.  Our breakout group went to Bethel Neighborhood City in the Kansas City Area. This 100-year-old ministry is a vibrant American Baptist ministry that has helped thousands of people find community, learn job skills, and find meaning in life. As a Board, it was very helpful to see our efforts and historic support working for the Kingdom of God. We met folks who started in the program as children and then went on to become staff and board members.

On Thursday the second American Baptist Theologians conference at Central Seminary. Break out sessions and papers were presented. My friend and fellow board member Jonathan Malone present a paper on denominational life. It was exciting to see so many American Baptists talking about the future of the church, theology, and ABC life.

Check back for more updates on Baptists and BBQ!

Also, please follow me on Twitter for updates @alanrud and use the hash tag #missionsummit2013

Church Leadership, Pope

Why the Pope’s resignation matters to Protestants

Surprise and shock are an understatement when it comes to Pope Benedict XVI‘s resignation. Only a handful of Popes have called it quits. The Pope’s decision continues to spark speculation about who the next leader of the Roman Catholic Church will be. This decision will have far reaching impact for Catholics around the world… and certainly for Protestants.

As most readers know, I’m not Catholic. I’m an American Baptist clergyman. I come from a tradition that fought to continue the reforms of the Church of England. Baptists were one of the many English separatist groups that wanted to go further than breaking ties with Rome. Separatist movements during the Reformation were, in general, about freedom of religious expression, freedom to interpreted the Scriptures, and to free themselves from Rome’s hierarchy.

Some 400-500 years later, the Church in Rome and it’s Pope still matter to Protestants. Though we Protestants are free from persecution, this new Pope’s election will impact the way we Protestants interact with our Catholic brothers and sisters. As much as we protestants distance ourselves from the Catholic Church, we are connected common belief and ministry.

In recent years, ecumenical relationships formed between Protestants and Catholics have strengthened. Beyond sharing common basic doctrinal beliefs, (The Trinity, Salvation, etc..) Protestants and Catholics are getting better at how we treat one another. Mostly because of leadership within both traditions. Much of how this new Pope leads the Catholic Church will set a tone throughout Christianity. Protestants will wait to see if this new Pope will begin a period of transformation. Will we see more ecumenical acceptance of marriage, sacraments, membership, and ministry like the Catholic agreement with Reformed churches on Baptism?

If this next Pope leads Catholics to more common ground, we could see a new wave of Catholic and Protestant relationships. Think about it our challenges are the similar: shrinking memberships, public perception, changing church demographics, declining evangelism efforts, and diminishing financial giving. If more could be done together our common challenges, we could share common success. Measurable success could be made globally and nationally with ministry among the poor, basic health care access, developing nation building, fighting injustice, and access to education. The cause for the common good could something that we could work together on.

This is not without problems. There will always be groups within our own traditions that will fight against such “togetherness”. We Baptists are known for our exclusionary behavior when it comes to differences in theology with other Protestants. However, if leadership from our Protestant groups can commit to working with this new Pope and his leadership, our challenges can begin diminish.

This new Papal change is an opportunity for transformation for Catholic and Protestants. If both Catholic and Protestant leadership  plan to work together in our common struggles, a new chapter could be written for Christianity. A new Pope could lead his faithful to turn their attention to breaking down our separation instead of seeking to build more doctrinal walls.

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