#35
Whenever the “message” of your words and the “message” of your actions conflict, the “message” of your actions will always win out. (Aspiration)
When we reach the end of this chapter, we shall also have reached the conclusion that lay people can really pastor. Our experience of lay people pastoring assigned families over the past eight years answers the question, “Can lay people really pastor?” Yes! they are doing it! Authentically and effectively!
“I remember getting a call from George Becker telling me Charles Fisher had just died,” relates Dr. Jerry Kirk, co-pastor of CHPC. “Charles Fisher had been the superintendent of our Sunday School. He had been an elder in this church. But George Becker had been the Fisher’s lay pastor. Over a period of months when Charlie Fisher was failing, George visited him regularly. He was God’s ‘love with skin on.’ When her husband died, Mrs. Fisher called George Backer before she called me. And it was her lay pastor, George, who called me about his death.
“I remember some months ago on the way home, stopping to visit a family who had just come home from the hospital with a new baby. When I entered the home to be with them, they said, ‘Oh, our lay pastor has already been here.’ then they began to tell me what that had meant to them.
“I know of a lay pastor who had been to the hospital daily, ministering, and was present when the husband died. Again, I learned about the death through the lay pastor.
“I know of other situation of lay pastors helping Mrs. Tucker decide to move into a home for the elderly when it became clear that she could no longer continue in her private home.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO THE CLERGY?
“What does it meant to a pastor to know that scores of his people are reaching out: visiting, praying, contacting, nurturing…his people? Jerry asks. Then he answers his own question: “For me it means freedom; it means gratitude; it means the sense of shared ministry that brings strength and blessing to God’s people.”●
(Audio/Byeong) Dr. Melvin talks about laypeople are caring, so we better call them they are pastor, of course it is in the light ofcaregiver. My 15-years’personal experiences tells this is truth. I have heard from one pastor of PACE network churches. He said one day their ministry leader of PACE, Mrs. Oakja Kim came to pastor’s office and expressed gratitude to the pastor because church gave her to lead this PACE ministry so she felt self-esteem through her leadership, actually she was just ordinary wife of farmer, and of course herself was a farmer all of her life, so she thought her life will end with poor farmer’s wife, but one day she became a leader of significant ministry for her church. So it was a fascinating story to hear. What does it mean to the senior pastors to know that scores of his people are reaching out: visiting, praying, contacting, nurturing…his people? It means freedom; it means gratitude; it means the sense of partners in ministry that brings strength and blessing to God’s people.
COMMENTS
in relation to THEY ARE DOING IT
Youngjae Koh, Korea, said:
Every Sunday afternoon‘s training in lay pastors ministry at PACE International Fellowship is full of fun and joy, and I love attending it. It’s being witnessed that Rev. Dr. Byeongchae Seo (leader) and Dr. Timothy Kim (coordinator) have profound enthusiasm for PACE.
Besides being a beginner in English who makes mistakes and creates laughter and at the same time experiencing an improvement in my English speaking skill, I am witnessing spiritual and intellectual growth each Sunday. I am seeing the blending of curiosity for each PACE module and desire to implement what I learn, which I have come to value so much! After attending the PACE training, I have come to believe that it is more honorable to serve the Lord through showing love to our neighbors and people who are in need of our help, and in practicing this we ourselves will be positively changed sooner than later.
As a person who has a strong commitment for PACE and working for it for a very long time, Rev. Seo always look peaceful yet bold and resourceful. PACE ministry is filled with humility and sacrifice! It demands that we lower our attitude! And Dr. Kim’s witticism and humor is essential for the role as licorice.
God will always open a new era for His people to be trained and ready to go for Him. PACE ministry is now training for this era of the saints. After receiving the training, these equipped saints will carry out Jesus’ command: “Take care of my sheep” (John 21:16). We will have to be well-trained and be filled with joy.
If we participate in this PACE training with joy and peace in our heart, we will surely experience the anointing of God’s Spirit. Dreaming of the day with passion and unwavering faith in God, we hope to go further in our endeavor to serve Jesus Christ our Lord with gladness.■
Byeong, Melvin University, says:
Do you have any lay people in mind those who have caring well for others. Such like that, after starting any ministry definitely need reequipping. So what’s the reequipping? As I found once people have learned something in the beginning stage, they are not satisfied with it soon or late, just like we study a lot of new things at school, but once we graduated we are no more interested in the study of the past even it was very shock and interested in, and also it was nearly new to them, but now they want to more, upgrade knowledge, like that, after basic equipping, the pastor has to think how to reequip them. Reequipping is totally different from basic equipping, startup equipping, but most of pastors are not thinking seriously of it. They think they have done perfectly at startup, and others they leave it in lay pastors’ hands, and think it is their responsibility not pastor’s job to do anymore, so they neglect this part, so start up nicely, but die into the water very soon.
That’s why Dr. Melvin developed three reequipping materials; 13 monographs, Dynamite meetings, and 22 Essay. Of course he had written new ideas and insights at the LPMI USA Network News all the time last 30 years. Because he knows only one time’s equipping is not enough and, it not going forever.■
ADDITIONAL COMMENT
by BYEONG
Need for a sense of urgency: Prof. John Kotter of Harvard University wrote a book called “Leading Change,” in which I learned about beneficial insights and urgency. I’ve never heard of this term, and I find it really useful, so I’ve used it many times. As we know, a sense of urgency is important to move people’s minds. That’s why John Kotter talks about it.
That is a concept that we always need and valuable. Otherwise, people will become sleepy and lazy, and even the initial passion will slowly fade away. Urgency always awakens people. As Rev. Melvin said, if they don’t keep moving, they tend not to move. That is human nature. Prof. John Kotter mentioned some mistakes why some ministries fail, first of all because of the lack of urgency, and in a word, he said that too comfortably and has a problem accepting complacency as a daily routine.
We can maintain a sense of urgency if we are meant to have short-term projects. Therefore, we need to try a short-term project and after completing it, we need to try another project to achieve another result. That will make us tense and achieve. Then people will see the potential for the organization they belong to. What are the consequences of a lack of urgency? Even if the leader says a new idea, it doesn’t work. In short, they don’t try to move because they’re not in an urgency. If this situation lasts for a long time, it takes a long time to recover again, and it is expensive, and in the worst case, it does not develop at all. Because if there is no sense of urgency, in short, people only do what they need, so they don’t make extra efforts.
The same was true of the project to build our Melvin University. Do we have enough urgency? used to ask myself. Especially, it is a necessary question for those who expected to sponsor school construction. Are they feeling a sense of urgency about preparing and sending the promised funds? Otherwise, they won’t.
On the other hand, how can we create a sense of urgency as leaders? This is also a sensible question and needs to be addressed. Sometimes we need to create urgency from ourselves, not from the outside. In my opinion, as already mentioned, a successive “short-term project” is one option. We must achieve the short-term project completely, even if it is small. It is believed that such short-term plans and its achievements can continue to create the necessary urgency.
Another, there is no sense of urgency in a decision without a deadline. Deadlines are necessary for even small things, if necessary. So the decision and deadline (Decision and Deadline) have to go hand in hand. Is that true? Why? Once people hear about a project with a deadline, they are more interested than loosened. If not, they don’t believe it because they don’t think it’s a serious problem. If you are not sure when it should be completed, it gives the nuance that there is no deadline. So a deadline is absolutely necessary if we really want to complete something.
People need to know when to really start, and when to really end. Then, it can give the task and responsibility for completion. Otherwise, it is said that people tend to postpone it naturally and rarely finish it, or eventually become normal, and then mediocre it. It’s natural for humans. However, it cannot be pushed deliberately. So how can you create such a sense of urgency? That is our job as leaders.
I’ve always felt a sense of urgency myself. If I hadn’t approached like that, our ministry wouldn’t have come this far. Maybe some people complained about my style, but it was, and that was me. I believe that God has given me the mission and entrusted me to complete it before I leave this earth.
물은 어떻게 목적지에 도착하는가?
어쨌든 물은 마침내 종착지에 도착한다. 바위가 있으면 피한다. 왜 그런가? 최종 목적지에 도달하기 위해서다. 마찬가지로 우리가 어떤 중요한 것을 선택을 하게 되면, 그것은 우리를 인도하게 되어있다. 그리고 그것은 마치 물처럼 흐르면서 부드럽게 움직이게 된다.
어떻게 물이 최종 지점인, 때로는 큰 바다에 도달할 수 있을까? 사실 물이 원활하게 흐르는데 있어서 중요한 개념은 “피하는 것과 수용” 두 가지라고 생각한다. 두 가지 단어. 회피와 수용 (Avoidance and Acceptance).
여기서 ‘피한다는 것’은 무슨 뜻인가? 우리의 진행에서 그다지 중요하지 않은 것, 그리고 또 불화를 만들 소지가 있는 것은 피하는 것이 좋다는 뜻이다. 앞으로 더 원활하고 효과적으로 나아가기 위해 필요하지 않은 것은 차단해야 한다는 것이다.
다른 말로 하자면, 만약 우리가 모든 것을 우리 마음속에 갖고 있다면, 마음에 담고 있다면, 모든 사람들의 생각, 모든 의견들을 우리가 받아들인다면, 우리는 애초에 계획한 대로 진행시키기가 어렵다. 왜냐하면 그런 것들은 우리를 산만하게 만들어서, 우리의 관심을 불필요한데에 쏠리게 해서 에너지를 낭비하기 때문이다. 그래서 우리는 그런 것들을 현명하게 피하는 것이 좋겠다. 어쩔 수 없는 현상이지만, 요즘의 현실은 우리의 집중을 흩트리는 것이 너무 많다.
그리고 수용한다는 것은 무슨 뜻인가? 우리는 진행을 방해하지 않는 것들은 받아들일 필요가 있다. 물론 다른 생각들과 다른 의견들이 많이 있음은 어쩔 수 없다. 그러나 우리는 그 사람들과 싸울 필요가 없다. 우리의 소중한 에너지를 그런 논쟁에 쓸 필요가 없다. 그래서 우리는 실제로 우리에게 필요하지 않은 것은 수용하면서 물처럼 부드럽게 흘러야 한다. 마치 물이 흐를 때에 나뭇가지라든가 검불 같은 것은 그냥 통과해버리는 식이다. 그리고 우리가 거절할 필요가 없는 것은 받아들인다. 지속적이 되더라도 현명하게 해야 한다는 얘기이다. 작은 일에 너무 예민하고, 더 나아가 그런 것을 확대시켜 진행에 방해물을 스스로 만드는 리더들이 있는데 현명치 못하다고 본다.
우리가 알다시피, 물은 흐르고 마침내 종착지에 도착한다. 그 과정에 바위는 피하고, 그냥 통과해도 되는 것은 그대로 진행해간다.
마찬가지로 일단 사역을 시작하고 나면 물처럼 흘러야 하는데, 많은 지장을 주는 것은 어떡하는가! 원칙: 우리의 진행을 가로막는 것은 피하라는 것이다. 그래야 저항을 최소한으로 줄이는 것이다. 우리 앞에 놓인 선택은 피하든지, 수용하든지 두 가지뿐이다.
멜빈대학교의 설립에도 마찬가지였다. 필요한 재정은 문제가 되지 않았다. 반면에 우리의 마음, 그리고 우리 주변의 사소한 것들, 그리고 우리 개인적인 삶의 문제들이 설립에 어려움을 주었다. 그것이 바로 우리가 물처럼 흘러가도록 해야 하는 이유이다. 그러면 그러한 저항은 점점 줄어들 것이고, 어떤 방해, 반대, 심지어 우리의 가까운 동료들의 저항에서도 쉽게 지나갈 수 있다. 마침내 우리의 비전은 현실로 되는 것이다.●