Like most pastors, I learned early in my ministry that our fiercest battles are seldom fought over theology. More often than not, they are fought over change, sometimes even the slightest change.

There was a time when petty and negative responses to change left me feeling angry and cynical about the local church. But I've come to realize Christians aren't the only ones who respond negatively to change; it is a phenomenon found everywhere.

Here are four steps, then, to smooth the way for change:

1. Test the waters. The first thing I do with a new idea is try to find out how people will react should the change actually take place. I start by asking a cross section of our people—board members, unofficial power brokers, and the average man or woman in the pew—what they think of an idea or possible change.

I've found it's best to ask in small social settings. All I want is a reading on people's initial reactions to the basic idea.

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Recently, I was talking to a couple of lawyers who were lamenting the intergenerational aspect of their work. Things have shifted so much in law offices that the older lawyers are frustrated with the younger lawyers because they did not think they were actually doing any work. The young lawyers were getting the assignments done, but the actual process looked different, and it irritated the older lawyers.

I listened, amazed. So much of what they were going through is also happening within our congregations. Work looks different. And sometimes it pesters the intergenerational tensions like a chigger just below the skin. There is something annoying and wrong, although we can't figure out just what it is. Older generations of people cannot point to anything that their younger pastor is not doing. In fact, the church might even be growing, but there is a difference in the manner in which she is getting it done that vexes them.

What are the shifts that are occurring? What is causing the tensions?

First, our studying looks different. I have a sign on my office that says "Pastor's Study," and when I crack open that door, there is a big desk, a comfortable chair, and a ton of bookshelves. This whole office is a symbol of how ministers are to conduct their time: by spending hours behind that desk in the comfortable silence of their study. For many people in our congregation, if we are there, then we are working. If we are not there, then we are not working.

Yet things have shifted for many pastors now. We don't really need all of those books physically present because we have a Kindle that holds most of our recent theological purchases and we can search Google books for our passages. The busy atmosphere of the coffeehouse just might be a better place for us to concentrate. In fact, I don't know many pastors who can focus in their offices. Although it can cause tension, it is still a wonderful thing for the church. Relationships form in public spaces. People begin to know who the pastor is as he pounds out his weekly thoughts in the corner of the coffeehouse. It allows for people to connect with the pastor in a completely different context, and we begin to make friends that we would have never met in our office.

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I think it was Jack Welch (or was it Jesus?) who said, "The main task of leadership is telling good stories."

A declining system in atrophy (such as my own, United Methodism) tends to squelch those good stories, even though the church is the body of the One who came into Galilee preaching nothing but gospel—good news.

In one of the congregations in which I served, I was afflicted by a church treasurer with a negative attitude (most clergy know that "negative treasurer" is a tautology). A new idea? Some creative proposal for innovative ministry? That treasurer could kill it before it made it to the maternity ward by saying, "We tried that 10 years ago. Didn't work." Or, "There's no money. Drop it."

In despair, I sought the counsel of an older pastor. He said, "Son, there is no way to defeat defeatism except with good news. Bad news only strengthens the stranglehold of the defeatists. You pray to God to give you some true good news, some gospel, and when you get it, ride it for everything it's worth."

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When you become a new leader, a necessary task is to learn the real history of the ministry enterprise you are inheriting. One of the best ways to do this is to sit down with those who work in the ministry and who are served by it and ask a series of insightful questions. One good place to have these discussions is in your home over dinner.

No matter what food you serve, the story is always the main dish. The primary goal is to talk about issues and events of past ministry life. Never pass judgment, instruct, or persuade. Simply ask questions and listen. Some of these questions can include:

• What factors drew you to participate in this ministry?


• What experiences have been the most memorable?


• Has participation in this ministry helped you become a better Christian?


• Is there anything that should have received greater emphasis?

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Your Church magazine asked its Editorial Advisors and Contributing Editors how pastors, business administrators, and executive pastors can lead well amid the changing realities in 2010—and here's what they said.

Guard against the growing risk of embezzlement
One major church insurer logged 32 embezzlement-related claims in 2009, up 12.5 percent from its recent annual averages. "Regrettably, financial misconduct tends to be more predominant in economic downtimes," says David Middlebrook, another Texas-based attorney specializing in church law.

Fraud experts often refer to a three-legged stool for embezzlement risk: opportunity, need, and organizational ethos. Opportunity often is born out of non-existent or poorly managed financial controls. A variety of new resources help churches set proper controls, including The Essential Guide to Church Finances (2009, Christianity Today International—the parent ministry of Your Church), and Weeds in the Garden (2009, NACBA Press), as well as guidance from organizations like the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (http://www.ecfa.org/PDF/BestPractices-Churches.pdf).

In terms of need, church leaders must pay attention to hardships in the lives of their employees. The most common scenario for church fraud involves longtime employees who face an unexpected financial stress—a job loss for a spouse or an extended illness with hefty medical bills for a family member. Some studies suggest the average tenure of a church employee who commits fraud is seven years, Sommerville says, and recent headlines reflect that. "These employees don't start off thinking they're going to steal," he says. "They think they're going to borrow from you and pay you back when things improve."

A strong organizational ethos that encourages transparency and requires high standards also helps prevent financial misconduct. "It really is helpful if churches create this above-reproach, ethical standard, something they continually talk about and include in their code of ethics—'We're going to operate above reproach in every area of ministry from the senior pastor and board on down,' " Sommerville says. "If that's the atmosphere, fellow employees may catch and report them."

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When someone comes to you for counseling, you will often find that part of their problem is that they believe some lie about God and his work. First Corinthians 10:13 provides a helpful framework for a homework assignment that can uncover these lies.

In this verse, Paul here seems to address four common lies about God. I set up the homework this way:

1. Declaration: No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.
   Question: Where have you been tempted to think that your situation is unique and that you have been singled out for particular suffering?
2. Declaration: God is faithful.
   Question: Where have you tended to believe that God has been unfaithful to his promises to you?
3. Declaration: He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.
   Question: Where have you thought that you have been given more than you can handle or that the extreme pressures of the situation have caused you to sin?
4. Declaration: He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
   Question: Where have you felt trapped, with no reasonable way to deal with your situation?

In the hierarchy of church problems, most pastors wouldn't mind figuring out how to handle a congregation that has grown so rapidly that they can no longer get to know everyone personally. The multisite church boom has met this very challenge by leveraging the best teachers with new technology to reach mass audiences at low costs. Motivated by spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, pastors understand the number of new professions of faith as a sign of God's blessing. There appears to be little downside to adding new church sites. There is little of the personal risk and exorbitant cost of church planting. In fact, there are few arguments against multiple sites that can't also be made against multiple services in one church building. And most medium and large-sized churches crossed that line without much consternation some time ago. So if people don't mind watching a pastor on television, what's holding us back?

Maybe some people really do mind. A recent report on multisite churches by Cathy Lynn Grossman in USA Today revealed some concern about the growing disconnect between pastors and their large congregations.

"I do miss having a pastor at the door shaking hands in the 'check-out line,'" Lauren Green told Grossman. Green, a religion correspondent for Fox News, began attending Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City to hear Tim Keller preach. Keller doesn't record his sermons to broadcast in other locations, but he scurries between several different sites in a grueling Sunday ritual that leaves him little time to interact with members and visitors. By contrast, Green and her family shared a close relationship with their long-time pastor when she was growing up in Minneapolis. But she acknowledges that this model appears to be a quaint and outdated one today.

Read the rest of this article at Out of Ur.

For training in pastoral visitation, see our downloadable resource.

Some people ask, "What do I do when I practice solitude? What should I bring with me?" The primary answer, of course, is—nothing.

At its heart, solitude is primarily about not doing something. Just as fasting means to refrain from eating, so solitude means to refrain from society. When I go into solitude, I withdraw from conversation, from others, from noise, from media, from the constant barrage of stimulation.

"In solitude," Henri Nouwen wrote, "I get rid of my scaffolding." Scaffolding is all the stuff I use to keep myself propped up, to convince myself I'm important or okay. In solitude I have no friends to talk with, no phone calls or meetings, no TV to entertain, no music or books or newspapers to occupy and distract my mind. I am, in the words of the old hymn, "Just as I Am"—just me and my sinfulness, and God.

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Paul Borthwick holds a doctorate in Cross-Cultural Ministry from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and teaches missiology at Gordon College near his Boston home. He's the author of How to Be a World-Class Christian and 14 other books. Borthwick has coordinated over 100 missions trips all over the world. He also serves as a senior consultant with Development Associates International. Borthwick spoke with Round Trip Missions about the future of short-term missions and about how to best serve with our Christian brothers and sisters in the Global South.

How would you describe the present state of the short-term missions movement?

When I think about short-term missions, I recall a comment someone made about the People's Republic of China: "Anything you say about China is true." Well, almost anything you say about short-term missions is true, too. On the positive side, is it producing new missionaries? Yes, there are cases of that. Is it giving people a greater vision, and taking people across cultures into places they would never have gone on their own? Yes, absolutely.

But on the negative side, are there places where it's doing cultural harm? Yes. Are there places where people are coming in with incredible cultural insensitivity and maybe undermining the long-term work that's being done? Yes. So short-term missions is all over the place. It's big, it's untamed, and the results, I would say, are kind of random at the moment.

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What makes a great staff meeting? We follow several principles:

Have a regular time and place (and don't cancel!). This builds a pattern that reaps long-term benefits. Most staff teams find it best to meet early in the week. We expect all staff to be there.

Start (and end) on time. Starting late is disrespectful to those who have made it a priority to be on time. The discipline of the end time moves the meeting along and allows people to plan the rest of their day with confidence.

Have an agenda and stick to it (most of the time). Most meetings fail when adequate thought has not been put into what the group should discuss. Place priority items at the top of the agenda.

Be prepared. Those with assignments must come prepared. If this discipline breaks down, participants begin to consider preparation optional.

Have an established leader. Consistent leadership enhances the effectiveness of the meeting. If the senior pastor doesn't lead the staff meeting, some churches delegate it to another pastor skilled at meeting management.

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We're currently putting the finishing touches on a resource called Surviving Information Overload. It includes an original article from Angie Ward, a blog post from Tim Challies, a Books & Culture piece by Alan Jacobs, and a couple of very practical excerpts from Kevin Miller's book of the same title. Great content, and on an issue that affects everyone—I'm excited about it.

We also included a lengthy Leadership journal piece that you should look forward to reading. It's essentially six articles in one, with six different pastors and leaders responding to the question, "How do you select the information that's important and valuable in ministry?"

As I looked this article over, a number of quotes jumped out at me from its 3,000 words. Here are a few:

"The Enlightenment suggested that if we could just get more information, we'd be better people. I don't believe that anymore, which has helped me be less compulsive about my reading… I would rather know a few things well than a lot of things pretty well."
-Ben Patterson

"I'm not reading for information as much as for perspective."
-Ben Patterson

"I mostly read dead people. Reading things that are old delivers me from the feeling of information overload."
-David Hansen

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Likeness courtesy of Monergism.com

10. Small Churches Need a Brand Revival
by Chuck Warnock

9. Book Corner: Pursuing the Gay Community
by Brandon O'Brien

8. Audio/Visual Tips for Engaging Worship
by Branon Dempsey

7. Leading a Small Church
interview with John Koessler

6. 5 Reasons You'll Want to Leave But Shouldn't
by Angie and David Ward

5. J.I. Packer on Restricting Communion
an interview

4. Church Membership? Yes!
by Thabiti Anyabwile

3. Church Membership is Not Enough
by Eric Bryant

2. Porn Okay, Except on Sunday?
by Tim Avery

1. Is This Gossip?
by Kevin Miller

That's Christmas (Short Film) HD from St Helen’s Church on Vimeo.

What unique strengths and challenges does each of you bring to your relationship?

Scotty Smith: One thing Mike brings to our relationship is brutal honesty. He doesn't fake things well. Scott brings the passion. He is a radical, passionate encourager, and God has given him a unique gift that translates not so much into answers, but into presence.

Scott Roley: Scotty brings devotional strength. In fact, one of the glues in our relationship is the gospel that Scotty introduced me to: that it's in our brokenness, weakness, and repentance that we will grow.

Concerning challenges, Mike's a doer, and he can be a loner. He is gifted in a lot of different things and can hide in them. As for Scotty, I've never met anyone who makes as quick a decision—and is right most of the time—as Scotty. The gift makes him a great pastor, teacher, and counselor, but it can also rob him of the need for others.

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1. Leadership Without Easy Answers by Ronald A. Heifetz

Seminary equipped me to do many things, but not to tackle the complex challenges in leading the church. Heifetz distinguishes between problems that can be solved through expertise (technical problems) and problems that require innovative approaches, including preserving a church's unique identity or code and the consideration of the church's values (adaptive problems). For the church, an adaptive problem could include engaging a community whose demographic no longer reflects the church, buildings whose structure no longer meet the needs of today's ministry, or navigating the tension between discipleship and outreach. Heifetz identifies four major strategies of leadership: (1) approach problems as adaptive challenges, and diagnose the situation in light of the values involved; (2) regulate the "heat in the kitchen" caused by confronting issues that increase people's anxiety, by pacing the congregation through change; (3) focus on what is important versus what others say is important to them, and (4) shift the ownership for problems from the leadership (the pastor or elders/deacons or council) to all those affected by the necessary change.

2. Leadership on the Line, by Marty Linsky and Ronald A. Heifetz

Linsky joins Heifetz and gives practical application, case studies and concrete skills necessary for any leader. Through experimentation and constant adjustment leaders can successfully navigate change by using "adaptive leadership skills": "Getting on the balcony" (meaning gaining perspective on the situation), engaging all the stakeholders, orchestrating conflict, giving back the work, holding steady, managing one's own hungers, and staying anchored. An adaptive leader can answer the question of why anyone would choose to lead, and lead from the heart. This is a must-read for any church leader hoping to engage his or her congregation on the journey of transformation.

Read this piece in its entirety at BuildingforMinistry.com.