Isaac Newton’s first law of motion also applies to our Lay Pastor/Shepherd Ministry: A body at rest tends to remain at rest; a body in motion tends to remain in motion.
Enthusiasm, commitment and zeal peak at the time a Lay Pastor is called forth, equipped and commissioned. He or she is in MOTION! The energy level is high!
How is that level maintained or, if it dips, how is it brought back up? The answer is fourfold:
- Good “Pastoral Supervision”(see pages 73-78 in CAN THE PASTOR DO IT ALONE?).
- Occasional or frequent scheduled meeting of the troops (One Lay Pastor: “I’m glad for these meetings. They are a deadline for me to make my contacts”).
- Reports (respond to the reports and follow up on those not turning them in).
- Name-calling affirmation at every possible opportunity by those who lead the ministry (lay and clergy).
Once a Lay Pastor/Shepherd slows down or stops, Newton’s law is a painful one. It is very difficult to restart a stopped Lay Pastor/Shepherd. So the best strategy is to keep him or her in motion. God, who designed the law Newton discovered said through Paul,
‘BE NOT WEARY IN WELL DOING’ (Gal. 6:9)
JESUS ALSO SAID, ‘NO MAN, HAVING PUT HIS HANDS TO THE PLOW AND TURNING BACKWARD IS FIT FOR THE KINGDOM.” ●
DIGEST by Byeong
Why Melvin wrote this? I guess he found that, as I do, many Lay Pastors are doing P.A.C.E ministry only for a short period of time. They start big, but slow down soon. Especially at one of his Monography, he wrote “When the Honeymoon is over.” That’s the people. Honeymoon is, to the lay people of ministry, short as all we know.
Lets go back to his writing above. He started with the excitements of lay pastors in the “launching moment” of the ministry. That is important moment. Without launching, the ministry could not fly to the destination. I really have this experience once I had Equipping Seminar for one local church. It’s Samki First Presbyterian Church at very countryside in Korea. The senior pastor, Rev. Myungsang Kim, came to Conference which was held at Hallelujah Church. So soon after I have visited the church and have done Equipping Seminar for two nights, Wednesday and Thursday. Mostly Korean churches are having Wednesday evening service, so I introduced to whole congregation on Wednesday evening, and after the service 19 laypeople left to listen, learn PACE from me, with PACE Training Manual that each people has their own manual.
They were surprised and shocked about my teaching on the concepts of Lay Pastors Ministry which means they have to change paradigm shift, and then they were ready to be Lay Pastors through two nights equipping, and I found that next following weeks just as Melvin said “Enthusiasm, commitment and zeal peak at the time a Lay Pastor is called forth, equipped and commissioned.” That was true. And their energy level was high. So Samki Church became one of Model churches in Korea.
I may now retrospect how they maintained that level for next many years. I can say there were two major reasons: 1) Senior pastor’s confidence and full participation in the ministry, 2) My (Byeong) concentration on that church.
1) Rev. Myungsang Kim committed fully in this ministry at his Lay Pastors, so later he became one of staffs of LPM Korea Institute and also belong to National Leadership Group, and further he taught and trained many occasions and even went to the States to participate in the International Conference with me. I think almost 80 percents of his total ministry was on the LPM/PACE ministry. LPM/PACE ministry covered all of his ministry, so senior pastor’s participation is the critical element to success.
2) My role as a national leader was excellent to help his church with this ministry. I have visited his church more than 20 times in a few years so re-equipped them whenever I visited. Even not only for LPM/PACE, they invited me to join their special events all the years. And he introduced me to the new churches, around 20 churches in the district, so most of his denominational (presbyterian) churches got to know this ministry and also me. Then I have visited many churches and talk and equipped churches around there. It was successful and actually expand this ministry to the far way.
Here, lets look at Melvin’s four-fold suggestions on ‘how is that level maintained’
mentioned above: 1) pastoral supervision; 2) scheduled meetings; 3) Reports; 4) Affirmation. Lets go back to Samki Church and think with these four-fold elements:
1) Rev. Myungsang has done very well on the supervision in the ministry. He has already talented on the pastoral supervision so he used it to the ministry. Today we can learn about ‘pastoral supervision’ from many training in the church or out there, formally or informally, or even privately. So need to pick up those concepts, and we may read the section of ‘supervision’ in the Melvin first book (pp.73-78). 2) Scheduled meetings, occasional or frequently. Lay Pastors meeting formally scheduled once a week and also Leadership Group (4-6 people) those who lead ministry need to meet every week. 3) Reports are really requirement, and also leader’s feedback is critical. People don’t report anymore if there is no feedback. It’s the same when we send email or text from our phone, it here is no respond we tend to stop sending anymore, because we concluded they are not interested in me or my contact, so stopped. At LPM, just like CPE, Lay Pastors are reporting and sharing take place in the group. It’s very helpful to use many aspects from others’ comments. 4) Affirmation individually or in public may keep them on going commitments. People want to know their ministry is ok or not. So as much as we can, need to be creative how to make affirmation for them.
Dr. Melvin added that once the ministry slow down or stops, its very difficulty and even hard to make them back. So we have to alert about those symptoms, of course every ministry are going up and down just like roller-coaster, we have to keep handle nicely not to distract and slow down. We may need to collect ideas on ‘ministry circle’ here. I wrote about it another place. My finding was that mostly 6 years of the cycle which means birthing the ministry and dying in 6 years.
FOOTNOTES
How I (Byeong) was the enthusiasm, commitment and zeal level maintained? I questioned myself here. Let me think of it here. I can say 3 major sources that give me commitments continually: 1) Melvin himself, 2) Resources, and 3) LPMI USA.
Melvin helped me from the beginning to the end, even until he died. We, each other, were sharing the ministry all the way. Once I got his book and teaching at seminary (Sungkyul University in Korea, my home school), it kindled in my heart and spirit. Literally he, Melvin, fueled his spirit into my mind with his ministry, so it kept me going on with almost same energy that I had all the way, last 20 years. Without him, I couldn’t reach up to now.
Secondly, I was indulged in the resources that he developed. He developed many training manuals, stuffs including two text books. I have translated most of them, and used it fully for the ministry here in Korea and for the overseas, especially, I made typing in English itself of all his materials, sent them to the two schools, Nagaland PACE Seminary and Kenya LPM Seminary. Through translating and typing all of them, it give me more spirits on Melvin himself, and his ministry… more in details. It became my bones and fleshes in the ministry. It made me stayed in this ministry all the way.
Lastly, team of LPMI USA effected me and my ministry always. They became my friends, my mentors, and ministry partners together. Definitely they contributed my enthusiasm and my success in the ministry. ■