When The New Preacher Comes

June 27, 2010

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Scripture: Ephesians 3:7-12

So much to say....so little time---If you don’t mind, I’m going to jump right into this without a lot of preliminaries.

I have preached sermons where preliminaries were all you got, I’m embarrassed to say. By the time you got to where you wanted to go, the future was already behind you. NOTHING GOOD in that!

One problem this morning, of course, is exactly what to call this thing I want to try to do...what category to put it in. We’re in uncharted waters here, all across the Conference....a new day, a new way.....

What I want to try to do is a kind of sermon, but not exactly... It doesn’t have a text, and a real sermon ought to have a text, even if it does nothing more than give you a point of departure.

I heard Hal Luccock say one time about a sermon he heard: “The preacher sailed confidently away from the text, and neither he nor it ever heard from each other again.”

What I want to do is kind of a sermon, but maybe equally kin to a stump speech, or even a bar-room harangue...(I don’t personally know about those, but I’ve read about them)....

It’s more than a HOMILY—which word I  — but not to the level of a VALEDICTORY--- somewhere there in the muddled middle.

It’s partly exhortation, partly challenge, and includes a good bit of fervent urging. Bishop Arthur J. Moore, used to say, “Brothers and sisters, I need to speak to you today with UNBECOMING EARNESTNESS”...at which point he would rare back and let ‘er fly.

My hope is to do a modified form of that--- something impassioned, but not explosive, sincere, but not strident, plain-spoken, but not blunt spoken, heartfelt, but not heartburn causing.... I just want to share with you a few things I’ve been thinking about, especially in connection with this pastoral transition that is taking place in your midst.

Please know I make no claim of Biblical authority for these comments.... Paul once wrote to the Corinthians: “I have no word from the Lord on this.”

(Paul wasn’t always that reticent...but he was that time)

Maybe that should be the text: “I have no word from the Lord on this”. This is just my word. But it does rest on some experience, and on a good bit of prayer.

I heard Bishop Henley say one time, “No preacher can truly say he’s had a successful pastorate until he’s been successfully succeeded”, and I think that’s right. He went on to say that a departing preacher can, if he’s so determined, UNDERMINE the ministry of the one who follows him, or her, before that person ever gets on the scene.... OR, conversely, he can put that person on second base to start with, at the very beginning of the game.

Now, I’m not the departing preacher, but in a sense I do speak for him, and for you, and for the conference.... Let’s put the new preacher on second base, and start a full blown rally.

I hope you are aware that your pastor has been appointed with care, with thought, with insight, and with an abundance of PRAYER. I know that because I’ve been involved in that process, and I know something of how the Bishop and Cabinet operate. The Methodist appointive system is not perfect, but as Winston Churchill said about democracy as a political system: “It may not represent the absolute ideal, but it sure beats any other alternative

yet offered.”

Appointments in the United Methodist Church are not made casually, haphazardly, or blithely...They are made on the basis of an extensive knowledge of both the receiving congregation and the pastor being sent. They are made only after

serious study.....

They are steeped in prayer, and they are made as an act of STEWARDSHIP.... I wonder if you have ever thought of it that way? The stewardship of PERSONNEL.... We have these churches and these preachers. How can we put them together most effectively for the betterment of all and the glory of God?

That’s not always easy...But it’s why the Bishop and Cabinet make those big bucks....HA! It may not always work out perfectly, but it has worked pretty well for over 200 years.

Your new minister, Mike Hutcherson, comes, not as a name pulled out of a hat, not as a “well-we’ve-got-to-put-him-somewhere”, and certainly not as punishment, either to him or to the Church.... HE COMES AS A THOUGHTFULLY CHOSEN WELL-TRAINED, experienced...and I might add, EAGER appointee.

HE WANTS TO BE HERE. He’s salivating at the prospect (That’s a metaphorical expression...don’t press it too hard).... HE WANTS TO BE YOUR PASTOR. Just that alone is a good beginning.

He brings in his satchel a bag of talents (Here comes some of the exhortation... unbecoming earnestness....) LET HIM USE HIS TALENTS IN HIS OWN WAY AT HIS OWN PACE. Don’t put him in a box of pre-conceived expectations.

No preacher can do well EVERYTHING that EVERYBODY might like him to do. That’s not realistic. If you expect your minister to preach like Paul, and pray like St. Benedict, and visit like St. Francis, and organize like John Wesley, and sing like George Beverly Shea, and look like George Clooney, you’re probably going to be disappointed.

No preacher can have it all—don’t expect that. But every preacher will bring his or her distinctive talents and gifts.... BUILD ON THOSE GIFTS, exploit them, enjoy them and let them be used for the glory of God.

When I look over the list of former pastors of this Church, I see an array of talent which is astonishing in its breadth of diversity...Goodness knows they weren’t all alike, but each one brought something special....

Going way back...Don Padgett...Harold Thomas...those are my contemporaries.... that’s really going back.... and Bill Blair, Don Richardson, Patty Daniels....

Theo Gee...Ben Spivey, to name just some....and Bill Peterson, now, for these past 5 years. THINK OF THE MEMORIES. Each one left an important mark. Your new minister will do the same, and is to be envied for the opportunity that awaits him.

Give him leeway to run, and lace up your own spiritual track shoes to run with him. He may want to do some thing differently. I hope so, don’t you? Please don’t just automatically say, “Your predecessors did it this way.”

I promise you, his predecessors don’t want you to know all the stupid things they did, and sure don’t want him to know all the things they failed to do, or couldn’t budge.

A healthy Church is always in tension between hard earned experience and exciting innovation, between the established and the provocative, between the anchored and the audacious, between the firmly grounded, and the “why not?”

Change, simply for its own sake, is rootless, but the refusal to change, simply because “we’ve never done it that way”, is visionless.

Mike Hutcherson is not going to charge in here and start overturning things the first day, or the first week. He’s smart. He’s experienced. He’s been warned....

Don’t come in and overturn the apple cart overnight.... Play it cool for a while.... Get your feet on the ground. Get the lay of the land.... Good strategy. But help him know it’s all right to make a move when the propitious moment arrives.... Don’t just impede him when in time he wants to tweak an order of worship, or insert a new emphasis, or alter an existing procedure, even establish a new committee. Who knows You might just like it, and find it makes for a strengthened ministry. Give him rein to be himself, and not a pale carbon copy of somebody else.

AND GIVE HER THAT SAME PEROGATIVE. It may well be that the hardest job in any congregation is not being the minister, but the minister’s spouse. Carol didn’t marry a preacher. She married Mike, who became a preacher.

She didn’t leap into the sea of matrimony at the beginning with the idea that it would involve parsonages, and altar guilds, and trustee’s committees.... I don’t know what her favorite color for decorating is, but I bet she could tell you.

SHE’S A PERSON...with her own ideas, her own likes and dislikes, her own self-identity...JUST LIKE YOU.  Why should that be surprising? She’s not a pastoral replicate, she’s not ordained, she’s who she is, a warm, caring, supportive spouse, who also loves the Lord, and is committed to their ministry together. WELCOME THEM INTO YOUR HEARTS AS THEMSELVES, WITHOUT HAVE TO BATTER DOWN STEREOTYPE ASSUMPTIONS.

One of these days somebody is going to write a book, entitled: THE MINISTERAS BASICALLY HUMAN.... AND WHEN IT COMES OUT, You’ll hear a collective, audible sigh of gratitude, emanating from ecclesiastical residences all across the land.

All right, let’s go on. So much to say, so little time. Are there things you can do to help your new minister and spouse hit the road running? I’m so glad you asked....

Two things without much elaboration, Two obvious, but basic things that I promise they will appreciate and aren’t that difficult to pull off....

It’s going to take a while for him---them---to know names. That’s inevitable. It’s going to take some time. BE PATIENT, AND TELL THEM YOUR NAME... often, and with clarity. It wouldn’t hurt to wear name tags for a few weeks. It may seem onerous, but it would pay off. You have to learn two names—Mike, Carol...a snap.

They have how many? 200 or more? Make it as easy for them as possible. Some of you are instantly memorable. Who could ever forget a mug like Champ James? One look will do it. But it will take time to learn everybody.

And please---hold back on game playing...OR TESTING. It’s patently unfair. No preacher likes to hear, “You don’t remember me, do you?” Especially if he can’t instantly conjure up the name out of the abyss.

Old Preacher Gordon in Gainesville one time when confronted with that very question from a sweet, little old lady--- “You don’t remember me, do you?” --- retorted, “Honey, I just had to forget you so I could go on with my work.”

Well, enough about names. The second obvious, but basic thing you can do to help your new preacher and family make an auspicious beginning, is to PRAY FOR HIM...AND FOR THEM.

You’d expect me to say it, and of course it can be a perfunctory thing, but it doesn’t have to be, and when it’s not perfunctory, it’s palpably powerful. You know, no one person comes into a community with more going for him, or her, EVEN BEFORE ARRIVAL, than the Methodist preacher. This is an astounding thing, and every preacher I know is aware of it.

EVEN BEFORE HE GETS TO TOWN... even before the moving van is unloaded, even before his name is known, sometimes, the newly appointed minister has people in town lifting him up to the Lord in prayer.

That’s not necessarily true for a new doctor, or a new insurance salesman, or a new used car dealer, or a new school teacher. But the new preacher and family are on prayer lists all across town ahead of time with church members beseeching welcome and blessing. If it weren’t so meaningful it would almost be a racket.

Now, I know...he’ll begin to pay for it soon enough... There’ll be calls to make and questions to answer....There’ll be hospitals to visit, and sermons to prepare...all waiting on his doorstep.... BUT THOSE PRAYERS.... YOUR prayers...YOUR prayers for him are meat and drink... even as he unpacks.

Believe me, nothing you do for him can get him off on the right foot at the very beginning than your fervent, heartfelt prayers in his behalf.... (Coincidentally, it won’t hurt you, either....)

Well...so much to say, so little time. I think a word about preaching and priorities is in order. You have a right, and, in fact, a responsibility to expect certain things of your minister.

I don’t mean clean socks, or a passion for punctuality, or a preference for a certain kind of church music. Those can be important, and have their reward, but, after all, the essential work of a minister is to be engaged in the essential work of the Church...and that work is, to state it broadly, and baldly, and boldly, TO MAKE DISCIPLES FOR JESUS CHRIST.

All we do, should be, in some way, pointing toward that end. WHAT HE DOES, AS APPOINTED SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR, should be pointing toward that end.

Now, that’s a broad assignment. It has many aspects and ramifications; it takes many forms and goes in many directions.... It includes winning to Jesus Christ new persons who have never really known Him before.... THE CHURCH WORD FOR THAT IS EVANGELISM...telling the Good News.

It includes nurturing the followers in the Faith by helping them learn and grow, THE CHURCH WORD FOR THAT IS CHRISTIAN EDUCATION, in all its many facets. And that’s a lifetime journey.

It includes, training, equipping and sending people out into God’s world, to share and to serve, and to witness.... The Church word for that is MISSION.... By the way, it’s not missionS, with an “s”, as if it were an activity we choose to do, alongside other equally interesting activities. The Church of Jesus Christ doesn’t just have missions, with an “s”, or DO missions with an “s”....

If it truly is the Church of Jesus Christ, IT IS IN MISSION, without an S, in MISSION, ON ASSIGNMENT, IN DEPLOYMENT, OUT THERE ON THE ROAD, singing, and scrubbing, and sweating for God. Those are three big priorities...three chief ones.... AND IT INCLUDES----one more, though we still haven’t run the gamut---- it includes the coming together regularly of the BODY, the family, the people of God for the express purpose of getting something to eat. This is bigger than covered dish dinners, or picnics, or men’s breakfasts, important as those are....

The church word for this is WORSHIP.... AND IT HAS TO DO WITH feeding the soul, with sacramental nourishment, with filling the tank for the journey. We don’t worship because we’re gregariously inclined, or because it’s a fun thing to do, even when it is.

WE WORSHIP BECAUSE WE HAVE TO.... It’s in our DNA...something down inside makes us. God has laid His hand on us, and we have no choice but to praise, and confess, and listen, and rev our engines so we can go out there and do the work for which the gathering is essential preparation. Now, if this is what the Church is, if these, obviously oversimplified, are the Church’s priorities, then they should be the priorities of the leader of the Church.

You have a right, and a responsibility, to see that your minister is attuned to bringing focus to those priorities. Those things are where his talents and energies should be directed.

IF you want him to cut the grass, and change light bulbs, and cook breakfast, there’s nothing wrong with that, and he’s not above doing any of them, but on the whole it’s not the best use of his time, and it smacks, frankly, of shoddy stewardship. In all likelihood others in the Church can do those things better than he can, but others probably can NOT do better those ministerial functions for which he is specifically called and trained.

Be sure your minister has time and takes time to read, and write, and pray, and prepare to proclaim the Word. When he goes into his office and closes the door behind him, don’t think of that as “goof off” time.

Protect those hours for him. You’re doing it not just for him, but for him. You’re doing it for yourselves. W.E. Sangster, the great British Methodist preacher, said a thing one time that has stuck with me. Speaking to a group of fellow clergy, he said, “The most important thing that is said in your community this week, ought to be what is said from your pulpit at 11:00 next Sunday morning.”

That won’t happen without hard work. THE CALL TO PREACH INCLUDES THE CALL TO PREPARE TO PREACH.

So priorities are important, and maybe that’s where we’ll have to leave it. As someone has put it, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing”.... and if both preacher and Church can hold that in place, each will be strengthened by the other, and the real joy of meaningful ministry will shine forth with a luster radiant to behold.

What lies ahead? Well, you have a rich heritage to build on. Some significant things have happened here through the years, some important Kingdom things.

But as rich as that foundation is, there is no reason why the future of this congregation shouldn’t be even brighter than the past. I have an idea that the great days of this Church are yet to come. It could happen.

It would be my prayer that you would commit yourselves to that...and that you would embrace Mike Hutcherson’s pastorate among you with such enthusiasm and dedication that those “great days” will blossom immediately....

Near the tomb of John Wesley, behind the Methodist Chapel in London... maybe some of you have been there...there is a little sign which reads: “God buries His workers, but carries on His work.”

What a privilege to be a part of something that big and that permanent. Carry on! The best is yet to be. And may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.