About two weeks ago I attended a Pastor/Teacher conference sponsored by the Potomac Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Potomac conference is the conference that I work for. The theme was “The Mission”. There was sense of passion and urgency that I have rarely seen at a workers meeting. The conference president, Bill Miller, talked about something we all know but do not talk about publicly. Many of our churches are dying or are at best plateaued in terms of growth. Over seventy percent of our conference churches are in this category! This is a grim reality.
Our conference has some radical (not necessarily new) ideas about how to return our churches to health and thereby growth. We should become mission focussed rather than focussed on our needs and wants as churches. The pastor should operate more as a leader rather than a manager. I can say amen to that one. Many of the new ideas come from the approach that Paul Borden, takes. Here’s what he has to say about the role of the pastor:
The primary challenges relate to the pastor’s role. Seminaries have historically trained pastors to function as chaplains, responsible for preaching, counseling, and pastoral care. As a result, one of the reasons so few churches grew past 300 prior to the eighties was because that was the most a person in that role could deal with. The church growth movement, however, began to change the paradigm of the pastor’s role. If the church is going to be focusing outward, touching an un-churched culture, then the pastor has to take on a different role:the role of leader.
Well, “nothing radical there” you might say. How about changing the organistional structure. How does a church board of ten people sound? What if that board only dealt with issues of policy rather than the color of the new carpet? What if the ministries only met to talk about ministry? What if pastors were coached on a regular basis in order to help them meet their goals? This is the direction Potomac conference is going. Many pastors I talked to were exited. It is exiting. I’ve just given you are snapshot. I’ll try and post more when I get it.
Filed under: A Pastors Life, Church stuff, News, Sharing, what's going on?
I’m looking forward to seeing how things end up working out. We had an Intern’s meeting last week and Bill came to talk to us a little bit. He said that at the executive committee the night before, they unanimously accepted the direction and focus he is trying to lead us down so it looks like everything is coming together.
I still need to read some of Borden’s books to get to a deeper level with his concepts but I like the general overview he shared that weekend.
I’m exited about it too! Its pretty radical for the SDA church. The challenge will be to convince some of our more traditional members to accept those things that differ from what the manual prescribes.
Its good to see a president who is serious about growth, discipleship etc. I haven’t read any of Borden’s stuff but like you I like what I’ve heard so far.
As an SDA I am concerned. I “have read” the book and “I have listened” to the audio tapes from the Teacher/Pastor Conference held in Williamsburg, Virginia is 2007. If you will read Paul Borden’s book with a Biblical perspective in mind you will see that there are many process, procedures, (whatever you want to call them), that are not Biblical. Why are we going to a Baptist to teach us what our “Prophet” has been given directly from God? I encourage you to pray earnestly, read the book and listen to the audio tapes and then see what God is telling you (Tape one sounds pretty good but it goes down hill from there). There are some things we can gleam from Borden’s book but most of it I would trash. Go to pcsda.org/pc-communication/audiovideo.asp and select 2007 Pastor/Teacher Convention and the tapes are at the end of the page. I will be praying for you.
Thanks for taking the time to post a comment.
I think it’s a good thing that you are concerned. The shift that the conference is planning is a significant one. I’m interested to know from you what you think not biblical about the ides that Borden is suggesting?
Why is it wrong to seek counsel from a Baptist? They are Christian aren’t they? Are you saying that we can learn nothing from someone from another church?
I’m interested to know how what the Bible and Ellen White says differs from what Borden says?
What would you trash?
Borden’s ideas are not unique. Our own Russell Burrell echo’s much of what he says, using quotes from EGW.
I have been praying earnestly about growth in our churches.
I was at the Pastor /Teacher convention by the way.
Look forward to seeing your responses.
Peace