People in Print - Christianity Today

DREAMS OF GLORY

“Ambition in Ministry” by Robert Schnase Abingdon, $11.95 Reviewed by Dave Wilkinson, pastor, Moorpark Presbyterian Church, Moorpark, California.

“I came across a new book,” said Ed, looking straight at me, “that would be good for our pastor’s group to read and discuss. It’s called Ambition in Ministry.”

Everyone in my accountability group nodded. Why does he want us to read a book about ambition? I wondered. How does he know about my secret desires?

Then I read the book and discovered Ed knew my inner thoughts because he is a pastor and, like me, has an itch for recognition, advancement, and power. So does Robert Schnase, pastor of First United Methodist Church in McAllen, Texas, and author of “Ambition in Ministry.”

Schnase confesses this book grew partly out of his own needs.

“I wrestle with these issues as do all conscientious pastors,” he writes. “This is my attempt to sort out for myself all of the influences upon me, and the motivations within me, and to reflect on the spiritual and theological commitment I have made as an ordained minister.”

EMBRACING THE TENSION

In Chapter 1, “Achievement and Appetite,” Schnase lays out his theme: “This book has grown from two convictions: first, that tension is an inescapable feature of ministry; and second, that from this tension can come life and growth.”

Ambition, says Schnase, is not inherently wrong. A person can be ambitious for the good, driven to excellence by a desire to improve their gifts. “It is not wrong,” Schnase explains, “for a person who preaches an effective sermon to 100 people to desire to preach that sermon to 200.”

But ambition can easily go awry. The desire to be better can turn into the competition of being “better than So and so.”

“When James and John decided to move closer to Jesus,” Schnase writes, “it was a commendable and inspired ambition. But when they decided to sit closest to Jesus, their focus changed. Rather than looking to Jesus, they furtively glanced over their shoulders at the other disciples, anticipating that their own spiritual accomplishments had markedly overshadowed every one else’s. Pride redirects ambition.”

In a phone conversation, Schnase told me that the people who worry him the most are those who don’t seem to struggle with their own motives.

“That’s an indication,” he said, “that they are blind and are likely to be blind-sided.” Someone maturing in ministry, he believes, is will ing to embrace the tensions rather than deny or ignore them.

That means being more reflective about what we do.

HARNESSED AMBITIONS

Each of the six chapters is followed by questions for personal reflection or group discussion. Schnase specializes in poking the fleshly drives of ministry for career- driven pastors.

“If we break free of the ‘up is better’ metaphor,” writes Schnase, “we realize that other questions should determine whether we make a move. Maybe the operative question is not, ‘Does this move me up?’ but, ‘Does this move me closer?’ “

Closer, that is, in terms of the usefulness of our talents in the new position, the satisfaction we find in our work, and the effect moving onward and upward will have on our family.

And what about the church family? How does our ambition affect the body of Christ?

“The last thing our high-strung, workaholic, career-driven suburbanites need,” Schnase writes, “is a high- strung, workaholic, career-driven pastor. Families suffocating under the anxieties brought on by their materialistic drive for success do not need their compulsive behavior applauded by their spiritual leaders.”

So the key chapter, believes Schnase, is the final one about accountability. “Perhaps career-conscious pastors,” he writes, “need to admit, ‘I must watch my ambitions. I could easily drag my family across the state every two years, chasing the shadows of my soul, pursuing higher salaries and larger churches.’ “

Schnase calls pastors back to, among other things, grace, the Sabbath, and autonomy. “[Autonomy] is the capacity,” he says, “to balance and resolve opposing demands within ourselves and between ourselves and others.

“Autonomous pastors enjoy an inner confidence that allows them to risk and grow and provide fruitful and challenging ministry without an over riding fear of failure or disapproval.”

I couldn’t help but ask Schnase, “How did you feel seeing your name in print? Is it your goal to become a world famous teacher on humility?”

Schnase laughed. (Whew!).

Aware of the paradox, he said, “As a genre, though, these books don’t have a wide appeal. Pastors don’t pick them up in front of other pastors unless they are in a close, covenant fellowship with them.”

Even if you have to go out of town to get a copy or order one in a plain brown wrapper, I encourage you to take the risk.

IN NEED OF DETENTION

“Why Nobody Learns Much of Anything at Church: And How to Fix It” by Thom & Joani Schultz Group, $22.99 companion video, $24.99 Reviewed by Craig Debinski, pastor, Temple Baptist Church, Perth Amboy, New Jersey.

The sickness of American public schools has metastasized to the church. The result–nobody learns much of anything.

Second-rate Christian education is the subject of “Why Nobody Learns Much of Anything at Church: And How to Fix It.” Thom and Joani Schultz of Group Publishing in Loveland, Colorado, believe for too long church education has followed the secular model, which has lost sight of the real goal of education: “to help prepare kids for the real world and inspire them to become lifelong learners.”

The book’s companion video, though too brief, interviews children and teenagers about their Sunday school experience. Their two main criticisms: “Boring” and “We sit in chairs a lot.” The video shows the simplistic teaching methods used by many teachers–crossword puzzles and dot-to-dot drawings.

THAT’S THE PROBLEM.

Fortunately, the book is not short on solutions, and the video shows several teachers creatively helping their students learn biblical truth. A class, for example, is studying Ephesians 4:29, which commands, “Do not let any unwholesome thing come out of your mouth.” The teacher hands to a circle of junior high students a paper cutout of a person.

“Say something insulting to the man,” the instructor says, “and then tear off one portion of his body.” The students do so, passing the cutout around the circle. Then, the group is told to say something kind to the now- torn-up cutout. As the cutout is passed around again, they’re supposed to tape the torn body part back on. This proves much more difficult than tearing it off. The application is obvious.

During the subsequent debriefing, the teacher asks open-ended questions like “How did you feel when you insulted the man?” and “In what ways does the Bible passage relate to your actions?”

The result: they actively learned about the effect of their words.

Now that’s education!

THE ROCK OF CALVARY

“Starting a Seeker Sensitive Service” by Ed Dobson Zondervan, $9.99 Reviewed by Chuck Stober, pastor, Coal Creek Community Church, Louisville, Colorado.

Ask yourself three questions: Do you believe your church is trapped in its subculture? Do you view yourself as a missionary in a non-churched land? Do you have a passion for evangelism?

If you answer yes to all three, you are ready to target the unchurched. A good place to begin is by reading “Starting a Seeker Sensitive Service.”

In this how-to book, Ed Dobson, pastor of Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, details his reasons and methods for targeting seekers. He has done so in the most unlikely of places: a traditional, midwestern church.

Dobson and his team of “Ditch Diggers” combine topical messages, rock- and-roll music and live drama ala Willow Creek with a new twist: a question-and-answer time at the end. The service is called “Saturday Night–A Place to Answer Questions.” While seated on a bar stool, Dobson delivers relevant messages, and then answers written questions (related to that night’s topic) from the audience.

Dobson doesn’t just trumpet his successes.

He reveals some growing pains over the past five years: being picketed by those opposed to rock music in church and his nearly disastrous proposal three years after the service was created to make Saturday Night as traditional as Sunday morning.

He also tells how growth in the ministry forced the development of a singles ministry, discipleship programs, Bible studies, and a Wednesday night indepth-teaching service. As Dobson describes things now, Calvary’s combined “Saturday Night” ministry is close to being a church within a church.

All in all, Dobson casts a great vision. But, I must admit, when he listed the resources with which he started–a large church from which to recruit a highly talented supporting cast, an initial six-week budget of $15,000 (now it’s $50,000 a year including $27,000 for advertising) and full support from the church board–my dreams for the same were deflated a bit.

Yet he does offer help for the church with limited resources. He recommends several “starting small” ideas: Don’t hold a seeker-sensitive service every week. And, instead of media advertising, teach churched people to mix with the unchurched and invite them to the service.

These are methods any church with a heart for evangelism can implement.

MANAGING GOD’S EMPLOYEES

“Behavior Mismatch” by Rebecca B. Mann AMACOM, $19.95 Reviewed by Chuck Stober, pastor, Coal Creek Community Church, Louisville, Colorado.

It’s not easy managing God’s employees.

During a training session with a volunteer worship leader, I asked him to plan several weeks in advance and lead weekly rehearsals. The result, I explained, would be twofold: quality worship and a God-honoring pursuit of excellence. He interpreted my worship philosophy, however, as the pursuit of (in his words) “slickness and glitziness.” His expectations for worship–unrehearsed, spontaneous, folksy–didn’t match mine.

Eventually he left the church.

Rebecca B. Mann, professor of management at Maryville University in St. Louis, has written “Behavior Mismatch” to help managers with their people problems. She writes for the business community, but I found her advice easily transferable to the corporate side of church life.

Mann steers clear of the “bad boss/ problem employee” scenario. Instead, she introduces the concept of a “behavior mismatch.” This occurs, she says, “when the actions of one person do not meet the expectations of another–often, when a supervisor looks at the world in one way while the staff member takes a different view.”

The main benefit of Mann’s analysis is her help in clarifying the underlying problems when conflict erupts. Three major factors–Individual, Psychological, and Organizational–she says, can create a behavior mismatch.

Take, for example, the Psychological Factor–issues like employee self-esteem, personality type, and motivation. She suggests reflecting on the problem by asking, “Does the job description fit the person’s temperament? Is the problem one of self- esteem (global belief about one’s self) or self-efficacy (particular belief about one’s ability to perform a task)?”

That last question was pertinent to the conflict of expectations between the worship leader and me. Instead of feeling threatened, I would have been wise to try to understand the hidden dynamics creating the frustration. I didn’t. Perhaps the worship leader didn’t believe he could perform up to my expectations. Consequently, we parted ways.

“Behavior Mismatch” offers pastors a way to oversee problem volunteers–professionally and compassionately.

THE FUTURE OF MILKING AND MINISTRY

“21 Bridges to the 21st Century” by Lyle E. Schaller Abingdon, $12.95 Reviewed by Robert Morgan, pastor, The Donelson Fellowship, Nashville, Tennessee.

Only Lyle Schaller could relate the amount of milk produced by “the average dairy cow” in America to the growth of the nation’s churches.

Yes, he actually does that, and much more, in 21 Bridges to the 21st Century.

This book speaks to those of us who fear we’re caught in a society whose fast-forward button is permanently pressed. Schaller explains why we feel that way, and he warns that the sudden acceleration of change in our world is rapidly altering the way churches, denominations, and seminaries minister.

“The third millennium will bring a radically different context for ministry,” Schaller cautions, “and numerically growing congregations and denominations will be those who make the changes necessary to respond in a meaningful way to society’s religious needs.”

He couches his implications in superlatives.

The most significant single change is the movement from low-expectation to high-commitment churches. High-commitment churches, Schaller told me over the phone, are those that model a Christianity with expectations. These churches expect their adherents to grow in discipleship and in the allocation of their resources–time, energy, and money–to the ministries of that congregation. Prospective members must complete orientation courses, and church attenders are called to an ever-deepening religious pilgrimage.

The most startling change in church ministry involves the amount of property needed for thriving churches. “If possible,” Schaller suggests, “acquire twice as much land as your most optimistic and farsighted policy-maker believes is necessary.”

The most divisive issue in thousands of congregations is the changing practices of music and worship–from passivity to motion and emotion. Schaller compares it to the shifting popularity in juvenile sports from baseball, “a relatively passive, slow, and low-energy sport,” to soccer, a “fast-paced participatory game in which most of the players frequently touch the ball.”

The biggest cloud on the horizon? The increasing legal restrictions many communities are placing on local congregations.

And the dairy cattle? Less and less of them are producing more and more milk. “One result has been the closing of hundreds of farming community churches.”

Nothing, it seems, is lost on Lyle Schaller.

NEW AND NOTEWORTHY

By Steven D. Mathewson

Dry Creek Bible Church

Belgrade, Montana

“Exit Interviews”

by William D. Hendricks

Moody, $17.99

Meet Diana, Robert, Vince, Julia, and an assortment of disillusioned ex-church attenders. These are people Bill Hendricks, a consultant in communication and media, interviewed to discover why people give up on church.

The main problem: people crave spirituality and can’t seem to find it in the institutional church. But Hendricks doesn’t stop with the problem. He dispenses ideas such as dispatching a team of lay people from the church to scout out and listen to the disenchanted. The hope is that less than perfect churches can better minister to less than perfect people.

“Play It Safe”

by Jack Crabtree

Victor, $8.99

Youth ministry is a matter of life and breath. Too often, student safety is not taken seriously until someone gets seriously hurt, believes Jack Crabtree, a veteran Youth For Christ director.

His book is for youth group leaders who want to keep their lively teenagers alive–and safe. Crabtree covers issues like insurance, vehicle safety, camping and retreat hazards, and high adventures such as bicycle trips and backpacking. Since most accidents happen at home, he reminds youth group leaders to “safety-proof” their facility.

“Accountable Leadership”

by Paul Chaffee

ChurchCare Publishing, $12.95

Ministry on the brink of the twenty-first century presents a legion of legal, financial, and ethical issues. How can a busy leader do justice to these inescapable realities?

Paul Chaffee can help. Ordained in the United Church of Christ and editor of The Pacific, Chaffee guides church leaders through the blizzard of laws, procedures, and standards of conduct. He gives, for example, the steps for submitting payroll taxes and suggestions for screening prospective employees.

“How Your Church Family Works”

by Peter L. Steinke

The Alban Institute, $14.75

When church people gather, emotions happen–and organize. But emotional systems are inherently anxious, observes Peter Steinke, director of the Interfaith Pastoral Counseling Center in Barrington, Illinois.

That anxiety can bring out the worst in church people. Especially when a pastor leaves or change is introduced. During upheaval, the most effective leaders, believes Steinke, are those who stay true to their beliefs and act on them. This keeps them from becoming part of the anxiety–and the problem.