Maybe we can best answer this by noting what it does not change. The motion passed does not change any of the youth, children, or preschool activities of our church. It does not change the possiblity of people meeting to pray with a prayer list, or no prayer list on Wednesday nights at 6 p.m. It does not change any of the schedule for Sunday afternoon. So what does it change?
The priority of Sunday evening worship will now be prayer. That does not mean that we will not sing. It does not mean that there will be no scripture, or even a limited "sermonette". It simply means that all ages will meet in the worship center at 6:30 p.m. with an emphasis on praying corporately to God. We may have testimonies of answered prayer. It is not for us to tell God what we plan to do. We are desiring to "protect" the priority of corporate prayer at a time when a significant number of people can choose to participate. Some might wonder if we are going to keep some people away because it will get dark and some cannot drive at night. If one of our church family has this problem on Sunday night, they would also have that problem on Wednesday night. We need to respond to their need by providing them transportation if they ask. Some anticipate that this change will "kill" the Sunday night service. I believe that is why a provision has been included for the church council to evaluate in July and make a reccomendation to the church for continuation, revision, or reversal. What is to be gained by all of this?
The people who work with our preschoolers, children, and youth, on Sunday during discipleship time will be able to attend a discipleship class. People who desire to continue the Wednesday night prayer emphasis will be able to do so, and we will discuss this in prayer meeting before the January 1st transition. Those who pray on Wednesdays as a group are encouraged to be a part of the Sunday evening corporate prayer time. This would increase the number of people who pray, as well as the time spent in prayer throughout the body. One comment was that some who do not know how to pray might learn through active participation or listening to others. No one will ever be required to pray aloud; not even in a small group. Another potential addition would be those guests mentioned that would come to Wednesday night dinner and then stay for a class. One might hope that the music ministry would benefit by more people staying on Wednesday night who could be prospects for the adult choir. One has asked whether there could be a Wednesday evening worship service. The answer is yes, if the church sees the need in out biblical priorities for those who are shift workers, for example. The service would be attended by those not participating in other groups. This provides many new options, but are there concerns?
One concern would be an "every man for himself" mentality, where people feel free to just do what ever they please. We had to deal with this during Sunday School over the years. There was the Hall class and the Burnt offerings class of years gone by. If we are going to be honest about biblical priorites, we cannot set up little visiting sessions (see gossip in the Bible), or 'Bible studies' that have not been approved by the church council. In years gone by, we have had groups establish themselves to teach the latest fad theology or a renewed ancient heresy. If there is a legitimate need, then those involved can enhance its legitimacy by presenting it to church council. As pastor, my job description has always included Adult Education. I will be happy to meet with anyone to help them with a perceived need for our church.
One last note. As a Southern Baptist church, we can have motions made in new business in any regular conference, to change anything but the Constitution and By Laws. We could vote to paint the church purple. We could vote to require everyone to wear blue jeans. When we make a motion for consideration by the body of Christ, we must do it with as much care as we would expect to show if we were responsible for writing and preaching the sermon next Sunday morning. The unity of the church is not a matter to take lightly. Having one's way with church policy or scheduling is never the goal. We are supposed to seek the mind of Christ for His church. He is the head of the body. We should not be shy about the process of discovering His will as a church family. If you are still uncomforable with the parlimentary process, that is designed to maintain peace in the process of working through change, please let me know. I will be happy to present to any group or individual the 'basic' process which all orderly SBC churches use. I love you all and continue to pray for the Lord's leadership as we walk down this road together.
Your Pastor,
David Turner
P.S. I have sensed that some believe the motion that was presented may have been coached in advance, by me, or someone on the staff, who also wanted these changes made. I assure you that this is not the case. There would be judgment on anyone who spoke of allowing God to lead, who then manipulated the situation to make it turn out as they pleased. Christian maturity should drive us all away from 'church politics'. God bless you all.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Special Church Conference Schedule Changes from November 2013 Blog #1
It always unsettles me when there are changes in the church schedule. Many people do not choose to participate in church conference where things can be changed significantly at any time. This is certainly not the case with our most recent conference. Let's examine the lead up to conference.
In our October conference there was a discussion of potential schedule changes that would provide more options for adults on Wednesday nights. A change in the schedule effects all of the other activities throughout the week. We agreed in conferenence (which was running long) that we would pray for two weeks and come back to discuss a way forward on the issue. At this point I personally distributed a multiple page evaluation on the issue from three years before. That is right, we were examining this issue three years ago, even before Dan Calkins was on staff. The issues discussed in that piece were related to the priorities given the various activities of the church.
That document reminded everyone that we "protect" the priority of worship by allowing no other activities during worship and by discouraging people even cooking and setting up during worship for a lunch that is to follow. We "protect" the Bible study of Sunday School from other activities. We "protect" discipleship time from the over reach of committee meetings which begin an hour earlier than discipleship. We "protect" outreach on Monday nights by prohibiting the calendaring of church events in conflict with visitation from 6 to 7 p.m. This makes perfect sense because these are biblical priorities. It makes as much sense to "protect" the biblical priority of corporate prayer. We have accomplished this for many years by setting aside the time from 6 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday nights. So why was there a motion to change the schedule as we have it?
Wednesday night is a time that the church family thought we could help each other make it to the evening events by having a dinner. Pastor Woody Jackson started the dinner and even cooked it for some time. Eventually others took a shift to relieve him of this work. For the last several years there have been adults who said they would like to invite others to the Wednesday night dinner and activities but did not think that unbelievers would appreciate the prayer meeting. Since we were "protecting" the time slot, they did not see an alternative. Some took it upon themselves to create alternate activities and even prayer times without the approval of the church. Ultimately, this needed to be a matter of prayer so that we could discover the mind of Christ on this scheduling issue.
After encouraging the church to pray through this period of time, and discussing it on Sundays including the multipage document that was distributed, I hoped that serious prayer was going up to God on this issue. As your pastor, I know some of you prayed carefully about this matter. We did not need the best of our opinions, but the very best direction we could receive from God to maximize our schedule and protect biblical priorities. But the last church conference had displayed a weakness in our ability to communicate clearly.
Because there were several people who did not understand the parlimentary process of creating a motion to accomplish business in conference, I offer a special training this past Sunday at 3 p.m. before the called conference to make certain that anyone with questions could learn the process. We displayed the time on the media slides before the service and published the time in the Cypress Heart. We wanted to make certain that no one was intimidated by the parlimentary process. This must not have been an issue because only six people attended and two of them already had a pretty good idea of the simple process. So, when the called conference began the first person to address the chair presented a motion that was corrected and was finalized to say, "I move that we move church-wide prayer meeting to the Sunday evening worship time beginning January 1, 2014, allowing the children and youth to participate, for a period of six months when it will be evaluated by church council." One question for clarification resulted in a description of the change being like the special prayer events we had on Sunday nights previous to the last election. After the amendments were final, there was the call to vote first by voice and then by a show of hands for greater accuracy. The motion passed. But, what does it mean? What will now change? Have we discovered a way forward that protects the biblical priorities and reflects the mind of Christ. That is what will unfold in the days to come. I will outline some possiblities in my next blog.
Your Pastor,
David Turner
In our October conference there was a discussion of potential schedule changes that would provide more options for adults on Wednesday nights. A change in the schedule effects all of the other activities throughout the week. We agreed in conferenence (which was running long) that we would pray for two weeks and come back to discuss a way forward on the issue. At this point I personally distributed a multiple page evaluation on the issue from three years before. That is right, we were examining this issue three years ago, even before Dan Calkins was on staff. The issues discussed in that piece were related to the priorities given the various activities of the church.
That document reminded everyone that we "protect" the priority of worship by allowing no other activities during worship and by discouraging people even cooking and setting up during worship for a lunch that is to follow. We "protect" the Bible study of Sunday School from other activities. We "protect" discipleship time from the over reach of committee meetings which begin an hour earlier than discipleship. We "protect" outreach on Monday nights by prohibiting the calendaring of church events in conflict with visitation from 6 to 7 p.m. This makes perfect sense because these are biblical priorities. It makes as much sense to "protect" the biblical priority of corporate prayer. We have accomplished this for many years by setting aside the time from 6 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday nights. So why was there a motion to change the schedule as we have it?
Wednesday night is a time that the church family thought we could help each other make it to the evening events by having a dinner. Pastor Woody Jackson started the dinner and even cooked it for some time. Eventually others took a shift to relieve him of this work. For the last several years there have been adults who said they would like to invite others to the Wednesday night dinner and activities but did not think that unbelievers would appreciate the prayer meeting. Since we were "protecting" the time slot, they did not see an alternative. Some took it upon themselves to create alternate activities and even prayer times without the approval of the church. Ultimately, this needed to be a matter of prayer so that we could discover the mind of Christ on this scheduling issue.
After encouraging the church to pray through this period of time, and discussing it on Sundays including the multipage document that was distributed, I hoped that serious prayer was going up to God on this issue. As your pastor, I know some of you prayed carefully about this matter. We did not need the best of our opinions, but the very best direction we could receive from God to maximize our schedule and protect biblical priorities. But the last church conference had displayed a weakness in our ability to communicate clearly.
Because there were several people who did not understand the parlimentary process of creating a motion to accomplish business in conference, I offer a special training this past Sunday at 3 p.m. before the called conference to make certain that anyone with questions could learn the process. We displayed the time on the media slides before the service and published the time in the Cypress Heart. We wanted to make certain that no one was intimidated by the parlimentary process. This must not have been an issue because only six people attended and two of them already had a pretty good idea of the simple process. So, when the called conference began the first person to address the chair presented a motion that was corrected and was finalized to say, "I move that we move church-wide prayer meeting to the Sunday evening worship time beginning January 1, 2014, allowing the children and youth to participate, for a period of six months when it will be evaluated by church council." One question for clarification resulted in a description of the change being like the special prayer events we had on Sunday nights previous to the last election. After the amendments were final, there was the call to vote first by voice and then by a show of hands for greater accuracy. The motion passed. But, what does it mean? What will now change? Have we discovered a way forward that protects the biblical priorities and reflects the mind of Christ. That is what will unfold in the days to come. I will outline some possiblities in my next blog.
Your Pastor,
David Turner
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)