Straight Talk about Your Pastor

In this weeks article, Straight Talk about Your Pastor from pages 20-21, we are provided an article about ways we can help in supporting our pastor. After providing a few points about the pastor, we are provided 5 things to do and 5 things not to do in supporting the pastor. I welcome your discussion on what is revealed in this article, but I am going to highlight the things that really stuck out to me.

First, from the 5 things not to do, the second point states that we should not be asking the pastor to make announcements at the beginning of the service. He should be focusing more on his sermon at this time. As you know we currently have the pastor present announcements at the beginning of the service. I also realize the validity of this statement because the pastor has stated in the past that before he preaches he does not think about anything other than the sermon. Unless it is written down, he will likely forget the discussion. What do we need to do to change this? Ideas include announcements at the end of the service or having someone other than the pastor give the announcements at the beginning of the service.

From the 5 things to do, the fourth point encourages the deacons and Sunday School to take the lead in pastoral care. I think we do a decent job in this area already, but the key point that I want to make is that the pastor does not need to deal with all the members in everything that goes on. It is asking too much. We must take the lead in these areas and not expect the pastor to be there as well. If the deacons and Sunday School classes can take care of the people, then the pastor should not be expected care for their needs as well. Only in urgent cases would it be necesary for the pastor to be involved.

I liked this article and how it addressed ways you can support your pastor. It actually provides a good description of what it means to support your pastor.

Thoughts and discussion are welcome. Please comment and let's hear your thoughts.

Deacon: Cast a Missions Vision for Your Church

Welcome to the first of a weekly deacon blog series discussing the articles from our quarterly Deacon magazine from Lifeway. The first article just happens to be the first article: "Cast A Missions Vision for Your Church." Located on pages 6-7, this article was one of the more basic articles in the magazine. It is written by the president of the North American Mission Board. In it he talks about how the deacons in his former church were mission-minded deacons and how this lead to what he is leading now as president of NAMB. He provides a website to check out in which we can learn more about church planting and missions and find ways to get invovled. The site is namb.net and the tab is "Mobilize Me." I checked it out myself and found some interesting things not only about church planting, but also disaster relief. For me, this article reminds me of the importance of being mission-minded. Even as deacons we need to lead in the areas of missions and make Waldrop Memorial Baptist Church more outward minded instead of the inward minded tendancies that was revealed in the Discovery Team report over four years ago? How have we done in trying to become more outward minded? Are we better that we were four years ago? I say no. We are still as inward minded as we were back then. It is one thing to say we are going to be outward minded, but it is a whole other thing when we actually do it. Let's begin to take steps this year on becoming more outward as a church.

What are some interesting things you found/learned from this article?

Did it lead you to make decisions/take steps towards achieving new goals?

Please share your thoughts in the comments box.