Matt asked me a great question in his comment to my “Vegetables of the Spirit” post below. He queried, “As a "front door" person, go ahead and take your time getting to know your way around and then jump into serving and community. As a "back door" person, the expectations for gift use and leadership increase pretty dramatically. There is a payoff and cost either way, isn't there? That being said, what are your thoughts about bridging the gap between the two experiences?”
It’s a question that’ll become increasingly relevant in his own new ministry – and it is a question my husband and I have had to wrestle from both sides of the welcome mat. On the “inside”, as church staff/leaders in WI and as people who’ve interviewed for staff positions at other churches - and, in the last 3 years, as “front door guests” at a number of churches as church visitors.
Here are some thoughts how churches can bridge the gap between their front doors (guest doors) and their back doors (staff doors).
First, a couple of disclaimers:
(1) Not all churches have front doors and back doors. Home churches, simple churches, church plants and small churches either don’t have two doors, or the doors are positioned so close to one another that you barely tell them apart.
(2) Not everyone needs to come in the back door of a church. Many people choose to simply attend a service and leave, without interacting much with the community life of the church. They may be investigating Christianity and want to sample church life. Or they may be investigating the church and prefer to get to know the church through the church’s formal channels. Or they’re busy in other areas of their lives, and don’t have a need or desire to connect with the church community more deeply. Or they’ve been hurt by the church, and the fact that they’re even at a service is all they can do – and that even showing up in a church has come at a very high price in their lives. In any case, the front door practices of the church (greetings, newcomer packets/gifts/visits/brunches/classes) are designed to welcome these people in.
In fact, the reason these practices are used is because they work. People need to get to know a church, and the church needs to get to know them before the people can be given responsibility. Paul offers some principles to his young mentoree, Timothy, that shape our thoughts on this (not many should teach, and new believers should not be given leadership responsibility).
In practical terms, many churches have a policy that people can not become ministry leaders until they’ve been at the church for a specific amount of time or completed various classes and seminars. Some churches have been left holding the bag when a person is given a responsibility and then the person decides the church isn’t where the he or she belongs after all.
Paid staff go under the microscope, as they should. They’re being given a position of trust and honor in a congregation, and those who are leading the congregation (and those who will be working alongside a potential staffer) need to make sure that gifts, personality and experience are a good fit. People’s tithes/gifts are being used to pay staff salaries.
But when God sends a mature, experienced leader to a church, there ought to be a pathway to service in the church that takes into account that person’s experience. I am thinking of a man my husband and I know who had been a pastor for nearly 30 years. Though some difficult church politics, the man was ousted from his position and showed up at our old church in WI to rest for a season. He soon discovered that the gifts and calling of God in his life were still at work in his life, and almost in spite of himself, he began ministering to those around him. The elders and staff wrestled with what to do about using him in the church’s ministry because he hadn’t gone through our “pathway”. He was limited to ushering, the cleaning or parking crew, helping out in children’s ministry. We had clearly defined pathways to leadership and responsibility in place, and no idea what to do with this kind, gifted ex-pastor who oozed pastoral gifting desperately needed in the church. “If we break the rules for him, then anyone can be in charge of anything,” some said.
Perhaps the rules were artificially stringent. A different discussion about insecurity about one’s position and how the rules were used to keep people out of the inner sanctum might fit here. To the man’s credit and maturity, he served faithfully in the little things and found other ministry outlets (preaching and pastoring at a nursing home) to use his gifts. But several people in the congregation asked questions about why this man was kept at arm’s length for such a long time.
I believe that just as a clearly defined “front door” pathway must exist and be exercised with supernatural hospitality in a church, so must a well-lit, paved pathway to the back door be made clear. If God sends a leader to a church, wouldn’t it be worth cultivating that leader using some of the same methods used to hire a staff member? (Is it a waste of time taking someone through a rigorous interview/courtship process when no paycheck is involved?)
Am I asking this because I think I deserve a position of responsibility in a church? Am I asking this because I don’t have a servant’s heart? Is this just a lack of humility – I am looking for a fast track to a position since I might be back on the “church search” trail again (we’ve been attending a small church for a few months, but its future is very, very questionable at this point), and already know what it means to walk in the front door? Once we find a church, more months of doing nothing – which is a direct contrast to those who come into a church because they’ve been invited to join the church staff. Am I weary because I know that community and meaningful service exists for those who get to use the back door and I am aching to be a part of a team where my gifts and experience fit and matter?
I’ve had a lot of time in recent years to discover that each of these motivations exist in me. God has done a big work in me – and has used the wait to purge and purify me. And if He asks me to keep on waiting, I will. And I will serve Him as I have been, everywhere I can, in the wait – because that’s what He’s asked of me.
It’s a question that’ll become increasingly relevant in his own new ministry – and it is a question my husband and I have had to wrestle from both sides of the welcome mat. On the “inside”, as church staff/leaders in WI and as people who’ve interviewed for staff positions at other churches - and, in the last 3 years, as “front door guests” at a number of churches as church visitors.
Here are some thoughts how churches can bridge the gap between their front doors (guest doors) and their back doors (staff doors).
First, a couple of disclaimers:
(1) Not all churches have front doors and back doors. Home churches, simple churches, church plants and small churches either don’t have two doors, or the doors are positioned so close to one another that you barely tell them apart.
(2) Not everyone needs to come in the back door of a church. Many people choose to simply attend a service and leave, without interacting much with the community life of the church. They may be investigating Christianity and want to sample church life. Or they may be investigating the church and prefer to get to know the church through the church’s formal channels. Or they’re busy in other areas of their lives, and don’t have a need or desire to connect with the church community more deeply. Or they’ve been hurt by the church, and the fact that they’re even at a service is all they can do – and that even showing up in a church has come at a very high price in their lives. In any case, the front door practices of the church (greetings, newcomer packets/gifts/visits/brunches/classes) are designed to welcome these people in.
In fact, the reason these practices are used is because they work. People need to get to know a church, and the church needs to get to know them before the people can be given responsibility. Paul offers some principles to his young mentoree, Timothy, that shape our thoughts on this (not many should teach, and new believers should not be given leadership responsibility).
In practical terms, many churches have a policy that people can not become ministry leaders until they’ve been at the church for a specific amount of time or completed various classes and seminars. Some churches have been left holding the bag when a person is given a responsibility and then the person decides the church isn’t where the he or she belongs after all.
Paid staff go under the microscope, as they should. They’re being given a position of trust and honor in a congregation, and those who are leading the congregation (and those who will be working alongside a potential staffer) need to make sure that gifts, personality and experience are a good fit. People’s tithes/gifts are being used to pay staff salaries.
But when God sends a mature, experienced leader to a church, there ought to be a pathway to service in the church that takes into account that person’s experience. I am thinking of a man my husband and I know who had been a pastor for nearly 30 years. Though some difficult church politics, the man was ousted from his position and showed up at our old church in WI to rest for a season. He soon discovered that the gifts and calling of God in his life were still at work in his life, and almost in spite of himself, he began ministering to those around him. The elders and staff wrestled with what to do about using him in the church’s ministry because he hadn’t gone through our “pathway”. He was limited to ushering, the cleaning or parking crew, helping out in children’s ministry. We had clearly defined pathways to leadership and responsibility in place, and no idea what to do with this kind, gifted ex-pastor who oozed pastoral gifting desperately needed in the church. “If we break the rules for him, then anyone can be in charge of anything,” some said.
Perhaps the rules were artificially stringent. A different discussion about insecurity about one’s position and how the rules were used to keep people out of the inner sanctum might fit here. To the man’s credit and maturity, he served faithfully in the little things and found other ministry outlets (preaching and pastoring at a nursing home) to use his gifts. But several people in the congregation asked questions about why this man was kept at arm’s length for such a long time.
I believe that just as a clearly defined “front door” pathway must exist and be exercised with supernatural hospitality in a church, so must a well-lit, paved pathway to the back door be made clear. If God sends a leader to a church, wouldn’t it be worth cultivating that leader using some of the same methods used to hire a staff member? (Is it a waste of time taking someone through a rigorous interview/courtship process when no paycheck is involved?)
Am I asking this because I think I deserve a position of responsibility in a church? Am I asking this because I don’t have a servant’s heart? Is this just a lack of humility – I am looking for a fast track to a position since I might be back on the “church search” trail again (we’ve been attending a small church for a few months, but its future is very, very questionable at this point), and already know what it means to walk in the front door? Once we find a church, more months of doing nothing – which is a direct contrast to those who come into a church because they’ve been invited to join the church staff. Am I weary because I know that community and meaningful service exists for those who get to use the back door and I am aching to be a part of a team where my gifts and experience fit and matter?
I’ve had a lot of time in recent years to discover that each of these motivations exist in me. God has done a big work in me – and has used the wait to purge and purify me. And if He asks me to keep on waiting, I will. And I will serve Him as I have been, everywhere I can, in the wait – because that’s what He’s asked of me.
P.S. - The chapter "Unbiased Discrimination" in my book Parablelife talks about what it is like to be in the busy-busy inner circle in a church and yet live without true community. Being in the Pluto orbit of the inner circle has some missional ministry advantages, for sure. But what I'm advocating in this post is that some of the artificial ways of org-charting people in the church need to be reevaluated.
1 comment:
I think you're putting good questions on the table. One of the things that seems to be a growing trend, especially in larger churches, is hiring "from within". It's taking place in larger churches because the leadership development strategy is working pretty effectively, where in smaller churches, this tends to be less the case (though not always). The great part of this trend is that it tends to put everyone on the same path into leadership...the paid staff are people who end up giving more and more of their time in areas of giftedness as volunteers.
The people who tend to not like that trend are people like me...who have gone through seminary training and are looking for a place to jump in through the back door.
I'm sort of an anomoly at The Chapel, where I was just hired...most of their staff are people who have been a part of the church for a while. Here's to hoping and praying that their "gamble" pays off...
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