Paul Clark

What would I be willing to do?

On a recent vacation in Maui, Kay and I passed this mobile church parked in a lot across from the ocean.  It's name was spray painted, "The Purple Palace of Prayer." As I pulled into that lot and looked it over (no sign of the driver--maybe he was surfing across the street), I was struck by the question of whether I would be willing to drive around a purple van like that and conduct ministry out of it.  Aside from the fact that it was on a tropical island in the Pacific Ocean, which would have been a strong argument for the affirmative.

I remember 27 years ago telling God I would go anywhere and do anything He asked me to do. It's been an exciting journey. I've done ministry on four continents and enjoyed most every minute. But something about this purple van made me wonder if that declaration to God still stands. I think it does. But it's a worthwhile question to wrestle with: Have I settled in?  Am I completely open to what God wants to do in my life, no matter the circumstances?  Would I be willing to pastor "The Purple Palace of Prayer"?

Fairhaven at Northmont- here it comes!

Yesterday, our congregation voted overwhelmingly to launch our first satellite campus through acquiring a smaller church on the far north end of the Dayton area.  It's actually a detour from our original design for launching our first satellite, but it seems to be God's Plan A. The church is a struggling congregation in our denomination, having gone through several pastors, dwindling members, and loss of vision and identity over the past decade.  We were asked to consider taking legal responsibility of all assets and liabilities by our District Superintendent.  The only alternative was to sit by and watch a sister church heading for bankruptcy.

Here are a few of the challenges that will make this an interesting journey:

• We need to transition from the current Senior Pastor to a new Host Pastor and hope to pass the baton in a healthy way.
• We'll initiate a new system of leadership based on our Senior Pastor, our Board and our vision. The existing church leadership is on the "mature" end of the age spectrum.
• We must put our own procedures and processes in place using many of the same people who have been steeped in a different, more conservative church culture than our own.
• We'll plan to close the facility for a period of five months while preparing for a fresh start in September.  We'll try to do this without losing the core believers that call this church their home.
• We're going to be looking for the right blend of part-time ministry leaders to lead worship, students and children's ministries.  Finding great people who can begin part-time is a challenge.
• We'll need to redesign their ministries and facility with an affinity to our own branding, while allowing some sense of unique personality. That's a tough balancing act.
• We'll hope to nurture the existing people already there, but not cater to them.  Something bold and new is coming and everyone has to be willing to adapt.

I'm looking forward to the new challenges and working closely with David to see God do something awesome! Like I said, it wasn't on our initial road map, but it's coming at us nonetheless. Life with God is always an adventure, and I'm blessed to be on the journey.  Any suggestions?

Life is overwhelming enough. Don’t add to your members’ load

Great little article from Church Executive via an interview with communications guru Kem Meyer from Granger Church...

You’ve seen the billboard of two pair of feet sticking out of the covers of a bed, advertising a message series on sexuality. “We don’t set out to create a flurry of activity, but to create a helpful series about real life dangerous topics for people who aren’t hearing the truth from anyone, anywhere else,” says Kem Meyer, communications director at Granger (IN) Community Church.

 “We try a few things that people don’t expect from a church, hoping people will be curious enough at least to come check it out.” Meyer is author of the new book Less Clutter. Less Noise: Beyond Bulletins, Brochures and Bake Sales (Thirty:One Press, 2009), and responded to questions:

Where do churches most go wrong in internal communications?

Life is overwhelming enough as it is. Churches shouldn’t be piling more on top of an already mounting problem, especially when people are looking for answers that will make a difference. But, typically that’s what they do. They say too much and make it hard for people to find the answers they’re looking for. If the church is looking to be a credible source for those answers, it should be looking to help reduce that information overload and helping people find ways to process the information they already have.

Read the rest of the article here.

Earning Commissions on 'The Great Commission' - WSJ.com

We're doing lots of Business as Mission stuff these days.  It's attracted the best and most successful business people in our church to the cause of missions.  Read the article below and see if this might work for you.

"Christian missionaries have always brought institutions from home and planted them in foreign lands. Schools, hospitals and social services are staples of missionary activity. But recently those who spread the faith overseas have realized that it's not enough to educate and provide health care. In the midst of a world-wide recession, people need jobs, and a growing number of missionaries—many of them working outside traditional missionary organizations—are taking their business skills and starting for-profit companies in the mission fields..."

via online.wsj.com

Can an MBA instill ethics?

Having earned an MBA at a school with a nationally-ranked MBA program, I was interested in the Fortune article, “MBAs Get Schooled in Ethics.” With the problems in big business and Wall Street mounting, many people are looking at the training of individuals responsible, and concluding that their education ill-prepared them for making good, ethical decisions. As if Harvard Business School is somehow at fault for the ethical collapse of so many corporate icons.

Is it the job of a secular university to instill ethics and morality in the hearts of its' students? Can a business-school curriculum accomplish heart transformation? What is at the core of a person’s soul that allows him or her to do the right thing even when it’s unpopular, difficult or goes against self-interest? Let’s be honest, capitalism is founded on every person doing what is in their own self-interest. Although Adam Smith called it “enlightened self-interest,” it’s self-interest none the same.

The truth is that the great cultural divide between a God-centered world view and a man-centered world view is coming home to roost. People with no religious anchor in their life will have a much more difficult time making “enlightened” choices that are in the common good, rather than their own. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” isn’t on too many walls in corporate America.

I would guess most professors would find themselves unprepared to teach a course on ethics, not because they themselves are unethical, but because the very nature of ethics and morality is underpinned by religious beliefs. We do the right thing because we love God, because God tells us to love our neighbor and because we hold ourselves up against a divine measuring stick—the Bible. As western civilization moves farther from Judeo-Christian values, it’s going to struggle more with questions of ethics and morality in everyday life. Wall Street is symptomatic of a much greater problem.

It’s the people of God--the Church-- that should lead the way. We have the Truth that can set people free from the greed and self-interest that so easily controls us. We won’t do it by a corporate takeover, but by capturing one person at a time through the Good News of Jesus Christ. The vision is the same as it was over 2,000 years ago:

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matt. 5:13-16)