An Open Letter from a Pastor to His Church June 16, 2008
Posted by illiniphil in Uncategorized.trackback
Brian Jones is the lead pastor of Christ Church of the Valley and has a real heart for leading his church to maturity in Christ.
On a recent Sunday, a pastor named Gene Appel spoke at Brian’s church as a guest speaker and Brian was a little disappointed that more people didn’t attend the services to hear Appel speak. Someone on his staff suggested that maybe people didn’t come to church that week because Brian wasn’t speaking.
As a result, Brian posted an honest and very direct open letter to his church on his blog. (Brian has a great dialog with his church members on his blog. They trust him. And that gives him the respect he needed to pull off this post). Here’s what he wrote:
This past Sunday one of the great pastors in our country spoke at our church. Yet, a significant number of you chose to either sleep in or blow off church to do something else. Attendance on Sunday was 1,062, which is just pitiful for our church.
Many leaders at CCV wonder if people chose not to come because you knew I was not speaking.
Please understand that if that turns out to be the case, honest to God you won’t hear me speak until 2009. I will hire first-year Bible college interns who can barely chew gum and talk at the same time to rotate the speaking responsibilities for the next 6.5 months.
I will not have any part in helping build a church around a person, personality, or particular style of preaching.
So…what are your thoughts on this pastor’s response to his church’s low attendance on that Sunday? Have you experienced this as well? How does it make you feel? I would love to read your opinions.
I have experienced what this pastor felt, particularly when I had made room in the speaking schedule for an outstanding missionary. And it is disappointing when the sheep tend to want only the shepherd’s voice they recognize.
I’m sure Pastor Brian felt his righteous indignation was justified – maybe even noble in not wanting to be the focus of his congregants. And perhaps the sheep do need a little correction if the pattern is confirmed. However I think he may have created the following problems:
1. He only knows by hearsay that some may have chosen not to attend because he wasn’t speaking. And even if it were true that some didn’t, everyone who didn’t attend that Sunday (even for legitimate reasons) may feel they have been brushed with the same stroke of criticism on the basis of hearsay.
2. While I’m sure his threat to capitulate the pulpit to inexperienced preachers was exaggeration to make a point, it usually doesn’t pay us to make our point by threats.
3. Young ministers in training may be offended by his condesending remark that they can’t “talk and chew gum”- and they would be his “punishment” for the misbehavior of the sheep. They would probably die for the opportunity – and bet they wouldn’t chew gum while they were doing it…well, maybe!
If Pastor Brian is this motivated to see change, he might rather invest his energy in a series on discipleship and use, not a single service but a pattern, as an example – not unlike Paul’s rebuke of the Corinthians when he told they that they got “puffed up” when he sent Timothy to them rather than coming himself. Bet he’d get better results for change.
And, if he’s really interested in creating some new patterns in congregational attendanced, he might let them practice their discipleship by sharing the pulpit with his young associates.
Hey – bet I’ve made similar comments – but it wouldn’t be a high point in my ministry.
It may have been a bit presumptuous of Brian to think that was the only reason for a low attendence. (He doesn’t state what his usual is so it’s hard to really gage how bad it was). We all know attendence can vary week to week for any variety of reasons. Although it is commendable of him to not want his church built around a man this is yet another example of measuring ministry success by an attendence number. Maybe that was the number God wanted there that day. Maybe those people who did come were blessed. Like it or not a large number of our members and attendees are there because of who we are and how we preach or lead. I don’t think we can stop that with threats like his. We need to just continue to do what God has called us to do in the city and fellowship that He has placed us in.
Hey Gang, actually the “Brian Jones” mentioned in the artcile is REALLY our very own Presbyter, Phil Anderson, and he is upset that he only had 1,062 people last Sunday when Gene Apple came to speak for him!
With the exception of Hadinger’s, these comments are excellent. Keep ‘em coming!
interesting comments from a pastor that felt like “attendance was low.” Although I admire the fact that this particular pastor had the courage to talk about “the elephant in the room” with his congregation, I agree with Brother Benson on the fact that very little if anything is accomplished through threats. This particular pastor must not be a parent! I would actually welcome the “experiment” of having inexperienced preachers filling this pulpit until 2009. If he thinks that attendance is low now – let’s look at the numbers in January of ‘09. Although i think that open and honest conversation is very much needed in our congregations to address the “issues” that may be plaguing us, much wisdom is needed.
Regarding this article-
If it is true that many of his congregants laid out of church because he was not preaching, then I applaud his moral courage. It took guts to say what he did. Moral courage in short supply today in the American, Evangelical church. Much of the U.S. Evangelical church more concerned about being relevant to numbers than being relevant to Biblical truth. Yes, he took a poke at young, inexperienced clergy, but his point was this- in an era of building churches around a personality, here’s a man who does not want to do that. His threat may have been chest pounding, but his point is valid.
Pastor Jones’s messages are rarely uplifting and inspirational. My family and I attended his church for approximately two years. When I inquired about meeting with him (with someone on his administrative staff), I was told that he “does not meet with people.” They went on to say that if he met with “everyone who wanted to meet with him, he would not have time to teach.”
Bottom line. Pastor Jones is all about writing his books, doing his “teaching” and blogging (although he intelligently decided to give this up). It’s very discouraging when the only way you can have a conversation with a Pastor is by “blogging” him. He does not feed his sheep and is very critical of Christians who claim that they “are not being fed.” See his “WHA- I’M A CHRISTIAN” blog and you will see how his negativity flows. Enough said.