Rev. Goodpastor

Everything has a life cycle.  We think things will live forever.  We think that nothing will ever change, but everything has a lifecycle.  My dog Lou is now ten years old.  That is 70 in dog years.  The handwriting is on the wall for him.  My grade school was built in the 50’s and torn down in the 90’s.  That is a sad moment when your grade school is gone.  Some of you come from small towns that are dying.  Some of you grew up in churches in small towns that are now closed.

Churches have life cycles.  Lets visit about this for a moment.  First lets talk about what happens when the church lands Rev. Goodpastor as it’s minister.  Rev. Goodpastor is loved by many and under his leadership the church thrives.  Rev. Goodpastor is seen as the only one that could ever be there for the people.  Many cannot imagine their church without him.  [Maybe there is a picture of him in the foyer.]  Everyone enjoys the ride, but then one day Rev. Goodpastor retires.  Then there is a huge vaccume in the church.  In their grief, people get unhappy. The next pastor can never replace Rev. Goodpastor and many leave the church.  The church goes through a downturn. 

Sometimes churches find a new Rev. Goodpastor and things pick back up after a while, but often, no replacement is found and the church continues to decline until it finally closes.  Such churches tend to talk a lot about the good old days – "remember when", opens almost every story about the church.  Their best days are in the past.

Now, no one wants this to happen to their church, but without an alternative way of looking at the church and church leadership, this is hard to avoid.  To keep this from happening we first have to understand that the church is more than Rev. Goodpastor.  Second, the church needs to find strong associate pastors that can develop a healthy following, and everyone needs to allow and encourage this.  That way when Rev. Goodpastor goes out to pasture, the church may miss him, but they will also be able to say, “thank God we have our other pastors still here.”

 The church also needs to get used to the preaching styles of other pastors.  Different from Rev. Goodpastor, but good in their own right, healthy large churches have several pastors that deliver the message.

 Such practices set up the church for continued cycles of health.  Good planning and big picture thinking helps the church thrive from generation to generation.

 [I hope this little parable helps you to understand what I am trying to do as your Pastor.]

It’s a beautiful day in God’s world, be sure to see the good.