What I’ve been learning…

I’ve been on leave from call (That means I’m not pastoring a church right now) since November. And during this time I’ve made it a point of visiting several different congregations and have been supplying (filling in for pastors and leading worship and preaching). These have been wonderful experiences. I have been able to go to many different churches over these months, talk with people, observe what is going on, and learn. Sometimes I’ve been specifically invited to congregations to observe specific things they are doing.

Here’s a couple of observations.

1. There’s some amazing things going on in the synod. Some really great, healthy things. I wish more people knew about these things. This is the benefit of traveling around — you learn. You observe. You start to question why? I don’t want to get caught up on the techniques, or the specific programs or anything like that, because honestly, I think those are just outcomes of something much deeper — the culture, attitudes, beliefs about the church, the past, the present, and the future, interactions, and more. These are core and foundational. If you have these in place and they are healthy, then I’m convinced the outcome will be programs and techniques and more that are working well. It’s not the programs or techniques that are the key — it’s the people, the leadership, the culture, and more. All the abstract things that are really hard to measure and reproduce. There isn’t a nice easy 10 step checklist that a congregation can pick up and copy because every congregation is unique. That’s…