a question for you...

Last week, I got a phone call from a friend of mine who leads an international ministry for Pastor's Wives. She regularly travels all over the world talking to PWs and their PHs, finding out their needs, listening to their concerns, and praying with them.

In a ministry like this, she keeps realizing the incredible need to provide some kind of resource to new PWs. A kind of "how-to" manual to get them oriented into life as a PW. Not every woman gets married knowing she's going to be a PW. Some pastors enter ministry later in life, others marry girls who are brand new Christians and are still learning about the gospel. But even those who grew up in ministry-oriented families can get overwhelmed when they put on their PW shoes!

So she asked me if I would be interested in helping her develop some resources to help young PWs get off on the right foot. I said "Absolutely!"

And now I'm coming to all of YOU for input. Dontcha love me? Here goes:

What do you wish that someone had told you about how to be a PW when you got started? 
Or, if you're new to this gig, what do you wish someone would tell you right now?

Leave me a comment below, or if you don't want to share with the world, send me a private message at clutchtalk (@) gmail (.) com. And please leave your name on your comment, for research' sake... if ya don't mind?

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what makes a church healthy?

A few days ago, beliefnet.com published an article about a recent study of 32,000 congregations, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to conduct. The article, "Methodists Study the Hallmarks of Healthy Churches" shares some of the study's conclusions. They were careful to point out that there is no guarantee that the study's findings can apply to any other denomination, but it's likely that there is plenty of crossover.

Top two challenges churches are facing:

• economic pressure of the cost of the infrastructure, which is increasing at a rate that is greater than the giving
• a creeping crisis of relevancy, (the number of) young people not growing as a percentage of the participants

The article says that the study found four "key areas that fuel vitality:

• small groups and programs; 
• worship services that mix traditional and contemporary styles with an emphasis on relevant sermons; 
• pastors who work hard on mentorship and cultivation of the laity; 
• and an emphasis on effective lay leadership.

These four factors 'are consistent regardless of church size, predominant ethnicity, and jurisdiction,' the study concluded. "

Interestingly, the study also found that "it did not matter whether ministers held seminary degrees; whether pastoral ministry was a first or second career; or how long the minister had been engaged in pastoral ministry."

In other words, effective pastoral ministry results from following a calling, not from pursuing a career.

© CLUTCH, 2010 unless otherwise sourced.
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the flip side of the research

I recently came across this fascinating research on Ed Stetzer's blog. It described how much time Protestant pastors spend in a typical week on various aspects of life, including work and family life. I wonder what you think of it. Where does your PH fall in the spectrum? Is the bulk of his time really spent with his family? Is there something missing? Online time, maybe?

Just last night, I was making an ... observation... to my PH that even though he's here (@ home) in bodily form, he's not necessarily HERE. The phone is always ringing, or he's attending to church business via email or his mind is on all of the church things that need to get done. I wasn't complaining, really. I understand. But I wonder how many of these pastors, who say they're with family, are really working from home.

But that wasn't really the point of the study, really... Here's what they say:

Protestant pastors in America are working long hours, sometimes at the expense of relationships with church members, prospects, family and even the Lord.

A telephone survey of more than 1,000 senior pastors indicated a full 65 percent of them work 50 or more hours a week – with 8 percent saying they work 70 or more hours. Meetings and electronic correspondence consume large amounts of time for many ministers, while counseling, visitation, family time, prayer and personal devotions suffer in too many cases.

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I would love to hear your thoughts. What would your PHs graph look like?

© CLUTCH, 2010 unless otherwise sourced.
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