#21
(Your Adventurous Voyage of a Lifetime – Navigating I Peter 5:1-4)
“Hey, I’m only a layman,” Joe replied defensively when Marty, the leader of the church’s Lay Pastors Ministry, asked him to pray about being a lay pastor. “That’s why we hire a pastor isn’t it, to do the pastoring.”
Marty sort of agreed with him, “Our pastor does what we hired him to do, but clergy pastoring is different from lay pastoring. We’re both on the church’s congregational care team, each playing the position he or she is best at. Our pastor has his calling and we have ours.” Joe’s next question may have covertly signaled his interest, “What’s the difference?”
“Very briefly, Joe, because we’ve both got to get back to work. The difference is this: our pastor cares for the congregation as a whole, lay pastors care for the congregation one individual at a time. Our pastor has 450 peo-ple in his flock. My flock has 18 people from five households in it. There’s no way Pastor Tom can even remember the names of 450 people let alone cultivate personal relationships, give unhurried one-on-one attention, know each one well enough to pray for specific needs and celebrate special events. “We call this lay-clergy partnership decentralized pastoral care. The Bible issues the order and gives us a model, and the Lay Pastors Ministry, Inc. – a national organization – gives us help. Thanks for listening, Joe. Let’s get together for lunch sometime next week to talk further, okay?” Marty sensed an encouraging tone in Joe’s reply, “Okay, give me a call.”
When they meet, Marty plans to tell about SAILING THE 7 C’s Pastor Tom taught at the last Lay Pastors Equipping Event: The Called…The Call-er…The Call…The Congregation…The Care…The Chief…The Crown.
Stay on board for the total voyage, it’ll be fun as well as productive because there’s more to lay pastoral care than meets the eye. We’ll need Scripture, the Holy Spirit, our intellect and passion (head and heart) to understand this divine-human adventure. I hope you like to chew because this treatise has more meat than milk. Some readers may not be ready for it. Unlike the TV disclaimer preceding The Hour of Power every Sunday, “This is a sponsored program, KMSP is not responsible for its content,” I take responsibility for the content of this treatise. It’s how I understand lay ministry. Bonvoyage!●
(Audio/Byeong) Dr. Melvin said 7 C, stands for Called, Care, Congregation, and so on. Through these, my attention was that God Called us to do something, maybe some ministry in our lives, and that will be our life ministry. Maybe people talk, this and that is my life ministry, but I often discovered they stopped it too soon. So what I say here to decide life ministry is not an easy job. How can we get life ministry even though we sure believed GOD ASKED ME! Yes God doesn’t make a mistake, but we, ourselves couldn’t keep on going the ministry life-long.
COMMENTS
in relation to DO YOU PRACTICE SIBKIS
Robert Slocum((USA) says:
The Church at Ephesus were similar to those in their city. Most new Gentile followers of Christ had lived and worked in a world-class pagan religious enterprise operated and controlled by the local religious and business hierarchy. Ephesus was a “destination religious resort” featuring the temple to the pagan goddess Artemis. Conversion drew people out of the pagan religion as well as the local economy and society of Ephesus. Paul’s faith in Christ had caused him to lose his job and cut him off from the religious hierarchy that had been his community. In Ephesians 1:1-23, Paul describes for the new recruits the spiritual rights and benefits of members of the Christian community. Paul spoke directly to people who were having hard times in daily life because their conversions cut them off from former sources of income and community. Paul’s list of benefits includes adoption into God’s family, grace, hope for the future and release from sins, but Paul does not list professional jobs in the Church with pay. The People’s Church teaches that these benefits are available to all followers of Christ and are distributed evenly across the whole of God’s people. Would the Hierarchy object to an equal distribution of spiritual benefits and argue for a special allocation of benefits for Church professionals?
This goal is for every person in the body of Christ. Lay Pastors Ministry is an effective model for a partnership between the Church of the Hierarchy and the People’s Church. It follows this positive Biblical model of the first century church developed at Ephesus. It elevates the role of the professional pastor who supports and equips people for this ministry. The laity and the clergy of Lay Pastor’s Ministry are privileged to share a great call to service for Christ in the Twenty First Century.
The truth emerges about the Laity. The Church for the 21st century must recapture the truth about the Laity. Christianity was and is a Lay movement, mobilizing all the People of God. Jesus was a village carpenter and called 12 from ordinary life with the promise that “I will make you fishers of people in the most important work in the world.”
Ministry is not just for the religious professional, but every person has an important role to play in the body of Christ – His Church! Christ had a great vision of his disciples. He saw the great value of every person in his body and he knew the when they are properly trained and equipped; they were ready to GET WITH IT in service and ministry!■
Carolyn Sullivan(USA) says:
Super Storm Sandy’s winds arrived at the Jersey Shore October 28, 2012, ahead of her landfall the morning of the 29th. Her winds blew down trees, that then landed on homes, cars and power lines. She blew the waters of the Atlantic Ocean into coastal communities all along the U.S. East Coast. Flood waters moved sand, houses, rail cars and an iconic roller coaster. They raced toward the lowest points: basements, subways and power sub-stations.
As we continue to pray for recovery, we rejoice in the outpouring of love shown throughout the region. God’s love with skin on it!
Wind moves things. A Holy Wind, the Holy Breath of God moves us. Tom Corbell in his article, states “I believe with all my being that the Lay Pastors Ministry is a movement of the Spirit. As people become equipped they begin to enter into other people’s lives with a spirit of love and compassion. When people experience that kind of care it can make an impression that last a life time.”
This movement was begun by our founder, Dr. Melvin J. Steinbron, in 1978 and the Holy Breath of God has spread it throughout the world! Next year, 2013, we will celebrate our 35 years of ministry of “ be(ing) shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care.” ~ 1 Peter 5:2■
Byeong, Melvin University, says:
Can you read some commentaries about I Peter 5:1-4. Melvin has done well especially named on it 7C. Seriousness: pastor’s attitude is also important here. If the top person, CEO, pastors are serious about this ministry, people will see it and feel that this is serious ministry, but if the top person is not see that way, people will also follow their model, so becoming MODEL of this ministry is important, pastor have two jobs: to be modeling, means PACE first to the people Of course Melvin knows people will resist of this ministry, so he wrote it at one monograph on ‘people who resist.’ These issues also come to the senior pastor, which means he has to solve these, how? He has to explain to the whole congregation that those lay pastors are just like himself, senior pastor, real pastor because they are given spiritual gift on the caring by God, so no question about it biblically, also theologically. Not only one time, or a few explanations are not enough to adapt it, senior pastor has to talk in private and in public, at preaching, at teaching at any occasions, at bible class session.
Look at David Kim, Hallelujah church, said, told, preached every single Sunday about PACE ministry, so every congregation think they have to receive this training, even further they made the policy, without completion of PACE training, people never jump into cell leader. So every people, about 10000 people understood this is the critical mandate to finish. So the church was successful on not only PACE ministry but also effective to the other ministries■
ADDITIONAL COMMENT
by BYEONG
How does change come about?: Change in church or in any ministry is actually a rather uncomfortable term. However, it is a problem that must be dealt with by pastors or leaders. That’s because the ultimate responsibility for change lies with the leader at the top. In fact, if the church members first mention that “change is needed in our church,” the pastor is a little burdensome. So I think it is necessary for a leader to first sense the need for change. There will certainly be signs of that.
However, the word CHANGE usually comes first from the mouths of pastors, but the results are often not good. Both pastors and laity expect changes to occur if the word change is brought up and announced. However, change does not happen just by informing and talking. We already know this. In other words, what process will it take to actually make a change happen after the word change is announced? In other words, how does change come about? This is the key.
There may be several books about change, but I got a lot of help and utilized it in the following two books. One is “Leading Change” (Prof. John Kotter), written by Professor John Kotter of Harvard University. He talked about eight steps, and among them, the term Sense of Urgency and its concept helped me a lot. Change is difficult if we don’t feel the urgency. That makes a sense. The other book is “Managing Transitions” written by Dr. William Bridges, which means to manage changes well. The subtitle is ‘Making the Most of Change’, which I understand means ‘bring change well’. In other words, it seems to be an answer to not bringing about change properly. I’m going to focus on his idea in this column.
Dr. Bridges said that there are two terms of change, and that there are three stages of change, which is the key point of this book. The terms “change” and “transition” are used. The word CHANGE means to change something in a location, but it is said that something changes externally, such as moving out or getting promoted (e.g., Physical change), and that the word TRANSITION is not an external but an internal, psychological meaning. (e.g., Psychological change). For an easy example, when we were promoted as an elder from a deacon in the church, we changed our position externally, so it is CHANGE. But if we become an elder, but still we haven’t changed our thoughts or commitment as a deacon, it’s that the real transition hasn’t changed yet. In other words, it was very helpful for me to distinguish the meaning of CHANGE and TRANSITION.
Then Dr. Bridges’ excellence was that there are three stages to change. It means that we need to forget the past (Ending), and go into and through the middle zone (Neutral Zone), and then we have a (new Beginning.)
But what I’m most interested in here is the second one, the Neutral Zone.
In fact, I had never thought about this step until I came across this book. For example, even when the Israel people left Egypt and to entered Canaan, it was significant that they went through this second stage, that is, the Judean wilderness. In fact, neither Moses nor the people of Israel had imagined that they would have to go through this stage, this process. People are exhausted in the wilderness. However, the leader has to do his duty anyway, and to enter Canaan. People’s reactions were twofold. It’s a group that wants to keep on going, and another to go back to the past, Egypt. It’s kind of a dilemma to Moses.
Furthermore, it’s just like turning on the radio and there’s no sound, or turning on the electric switch and no light on. This is just like what people who follow and look at leaders. This is the real difficulty a leader has. This is why the will and determination of the leader are needed. The word OSCILLATION means swinging of the weight of a large clock. This is the reality that comes to the leader.
First, the leader should be aware that there are these processes and steps. If we don’t admit this, we can’t handle it. It’s a natural reaction from people. However, there can be no major change in whether to quit here or continue. If Moses is also struggling with this problem, it is a lack of leadership qualities. In other words, there should be no [major] Oscillation. [minor] Oscillations are acceptable to everyone. This is what every leader has. The question whether to do this or not is a natural. However, if a leader is contemplating too much whether to go back to the past, or continue forward, people will immediately sense it and begin to conclude, “Our leader is shaking!”
My personal case was when I made a difference from the Institute to the school. When I was in my sixth year at the LPM Korea Institute, I felt the need for a school and began to worry. At that time, I went to Yale Divinity School in New Haven, the U.S., for a while, and I started talking to Korea Institutes and core staff about the necessity of the school. First, I’m talking about the necessity, but it also meant to expect changes.
There were some different reactions when we talked about the transition to school. There were some staff members who looked at it positively, and some people responded that they couldn’t believe it, and even said “the U.S., the headquarters of the ministry, didn’t set up a school, so is it necessary to set it up in Korea?” Furthermore, even some responses, “isn’t the direction of this ministry a school?”
What I felt at that time is that the person in charge of the ministry and the people who help it have different thoughts. The other is that the more I do that, the more I should not be swayed. I also learned that I should not be too shaken while converging the various thoughts of the members with the leader. I was becoming more and more determined to establish a school. Almost no one can’t stop me. Of course, I thought that I was entirely responsible for the failure and success of the school establishment.
As we proceeded, the three steps presented by Dr. William Bridge were working, so moving forward slowly. There were “Ending,” then “Neutral Zone,” and “new beginnings” which is preparing for School Establishment. It was a three-step process: [notification] to them; [giving time] to think; and [new beginning].
However, this three-step process and progress are not marked like a radish, and of course, I felt that it was clear for me to lead the change, but the overall flow was almost overlapping. In other words, Ending, who forgets the past, felt that it was entering the Neutral Zone, which is a little overlapping between Ending and the Neutral Zone. And we went into the new Beginning, but it was also slightly overlapped with the previous Neutral Zone. Namely,
I felt it was the responsibility of the leader to make sure that these three steps were smoothly overlapping, and at the same time, I felt that we had definitely entered the next stage.
It is natural to go through these three stages of change. We can’t go straight from stage 1 ‘ending’ to stage 3 ‘new Beginning,’ and it’s actually pointless to hope so. People must be given an intermediate level of second stage. It doesn’t go straight from the past to the future. No, they can’t move. If we try to go right away, problems arise and efforts to change are likely to end in failure.
We have to give people time. In other words, time should be given to accept new things, to decide whether to do it or not. Doesn’t it take time for mushrooms to grow, and doesn’t it take for bamboo to grow, or even to give birth ten months to a baby! Some could take years. Thus, it is necessary to give people time to think, to embrace change and prepare for new things.
물고기와 연못의 관계
나는 종종 우리 대학교의 직원들, 특히 부총장과 교무처장 셋이서 만날때 “big fish in the small pond”라는 얘기를 하곤 한다. 학교에 새로 온 교수라든지, 학교운영에 동참하게 되는 큰 교회 목회자인 경우에 농담 삼아 표현하는 것이다. 그런 사람들이 학교에 들어오는 것은 문제가 있다는 얘긴 아니다. 학교입장에서 어떻게 대처하느냐가 관건인 것이다.
어느 기관이든, 어느 사역이든 유능한 사람들이 있다. 그들은 항상 “내가 여기에 더 있어야 하는가?“ 라고 생각하는 경향이 있다. 따라서 그들은 조직이나 사역의 확장보다는 자신이 성장할 수 있는지 그렇지 않은지를 늘 확인하여, 그렇지 않으면 언제든지 떠날 수 있다는 생각을 갖기도 한다. 왜냐하면 그들은 큰 물고기이기 때문에 작은 연못에 머무르기가 불편하다. 이럴 때 리더로서 우리가 선택할 수 있는 것은 두 가지이다: 그들을 떠나게 내 버려두느냐, 아니면 우리의 조직을 성장시켜 더 크게 만드느냐. 확실히 후자가 더 현명한 선택인데, 그것은 최고 리더인 우리에게 전적으로 달려 있다고 본다.
우리 연구소의 경우도 그런 순간들이 몇 번 있었다. 처음에는 물고기도 작았고 연못도 작았기 때문에 전혀 문제가 없었다. 그러나 몇 년 후, 정확히 2년 후에 큰 물고기들이 우리 연못에 들어왔다. 그래서 우리 연못은 그들의 도움으로 천천히 업그레이드되고 점점 더 큰 연못이 되었고, 마침내는 국제적으로까지 확장되어 우리 연못의 큰 물고기들은 천천히 만족해했다. 내 생각에 그들은 우리 연구소를 떠나지 않기로 결심한 것 같다. 왜냐하면 그들은 우리 연못에서 자신들이 자랄 수 있다고 생각하기 때문이다. 그리고 연못은 점점 더 커졌다. 마치 큰 강처럼, 그리고 나중에는 바다처럼 되었다.
그런데 또 다른 일이 일어났다. 세 번째 단계이다. 작은 물고기들, 즉 연구소를 최초로 시작한 사람들은 현재의 큰 연못에서 살아남을 수가 없었다. 그들은 의기소침해졌고, 스스로 떠나려고 생각하며, “나는 더 이상 여기, 이 큰 연못에 머물 필요가 없다.”라고 생각한 것 같다. 그것은 슬픈 일이긴 하지만 사실이었다. 그래서 일부는 떠났고 일부는 남아있다. 남아있는 사람들도 옛날과 같이 핵심멤버가 못되고 무대의 뒤편에 머무르고 있다.
최고 지도자로서 나는 큰 물고기와 작은 물고기 모두를 한 연못 안에 있게 하는 것이 쉽지 않음을 발견하곤 했다. 현재의 멜빈대학교에도 이 두 부류의 사람들이 존재하기에 현실적인 숙제이다. 계속 발전을 하여 큰 사람들은 만족할 수 있도록, 또한 좀 부족하지만 초창기 멤버들은 자부심을 가지면서 기분 나쁘지 않도록 해주는 것이 나의 과제라고 생각된다.
이제는 멜빈대학교가 서서히 자리 잡히고 4년제 B.A과정도 시작되고 하니, 이러 저러한 큰 사람들이 들어오려고 한다. 이름을 올려달라든지, 봉급을 얼마 주는가! 라든지 하는 것들이다. 성장하고 발전하는 데에 생겨지는 현상들로 생각된다. 당연한 과정이라고 받아들이려고 한다.
그런데 큰 사람들이 들어오려는 것은 문제가 되는 것은 아니다. 문제는 그들이 바라는 것을 충족시켜주지 못하는 우리의 입장에서 이다. 어떻게 보면 연못은 커졌는데(Hardware), 아직 그런 큰 사람들을 받아들일 내부적인 것이(Software) 준비 안 되어 있는 것이다.
우선 교수로 들어오려고 하는 사람들은 세가지를 우리에게 제시한다: 비행기표, 월급, 그리고 숙소이다. 대개 미국이나 영국, 그리고 한국에서 오려고 하는데, 왕복 비행기표 요청은 이해가 된다. 대학이니 그 정도는 못해줄까 생각들 하는 것 같다. 그런데 월급이 상당히 문제가 되고 있다. 영국에서 오려는 교수들은 대개 옥스퍼드 출신들인데(우리 명예총장을 통해 소개받는 사람들), 영국의 파운드로 계산하여 요구하는 듯하다. 영국 파운드는 미국 달러보다도 훨씬 비싸서 상당한 부담이 된다. 그들이 요구하는 것은 여기 현지인들 봉급의 10배를 생각하는 것 같다. 세 번째는 숙소인데, 그나마 남자교수 같은 경우는 쉬운데, 여자 교수가 올 경우는 숙소준비가 또 엄청나게 부담이 되고 있다.
또 하나 고려사항은 신입생에 대한 것인데, 어쩌면 위의 문제와 직결된다고도 볼 수 있겠다. 여기는 아프리카라는 기본적인 특수성에, 가난한 아프리카에 있는 대학, 그리고 더 나아가 그것도 아주 시골에 있는 학교이다. 여기 학생들도 외부에서 자기들을 black continent(검은 대륙)라고 명명한다는 것을 알고 있다. 그만큼 살기 어려운 곳이 아프리카라는 뜻이겠다.
그래서 나는 외부 사람들에게 우리 학교를 소개할 때, 항상 [아프리카에 있는] 대학이라는 것을 강조한다, 대개 사람들은 멜빈대학교 라고 하면 미국이나 한국이나, 또 다른 나라에 있는 것으로 생각하고 미국 대학들처럼 부자인 것으로 상상하는 것 같아서이다.
학교를 발전시키는 것과, 또 그 반면에 재정적 부담이 있는 것이 우리의 주요 걱정거리이다. 그래서 조금 더 시간이 필요한 것 같다. 여기 현지의 교수들과 학교직원들은 아프리카 외에 다른 나라에 가본 적이 없는 터라, 적은 봉급으로도 만족하고, 감사한 마음으로 근무한다. 왠고 하니 교수나 직원 한명 뽑는데도 20대 1의 경쟁으로 들어오기 때문이다. 그만큼 직장구하기가 힘듣 것이 여기의 현실이다.
큰 물고기 들어왔으면 하고 기대할 땐 언제고, 이제 그렇게 되니 또 다른 고민이 시작되는 듯하다. 하지만 이렇게 된 것은 학교가 그만큼 발전했다는 것도 되는 것이니 감사한 고민이기하다.●