Criticism hurts and we avoid things that are hard. It is instinctive to avoid it.

You have to fight your instincts.

Keeping a conversation going with someone else to avoid the critic you see in your periphery.
Seek out extra responsibilities with kids or students to avoid the adults.
Close your office door.
Work from home.
Don’t return the email or the voicemail.

It is a sad, pathetic list. And yes I have lived out all of these more than once.

We know how this ends. We avoid the critic until finally when we do have that conversation they have built a portfolio of issues and are all too happy to deliver them without grace. These type of experiences feed into our fear of criticism putting you into a vicious cycle.

Very simply put you cannot avoid criticism.

My first ministry, like every first ministry, had challenges. I inherited problems that I didn’t begin to understand until things started to blow up around me. As they did I retreated and avoided the conflict.

In the moment I believed that the conflict would blow over and the problems would resolve themselves. Incredibly naive to say the least.

When I finally stopped hiding and had the hard conversations I was avoiding I did face more pain and difficulty but I was leading for the first time since I got hired.

Rookie Pastors not only struggle with inherited problems, but they also struggle with establishing themselves as a leader. If you want to earn respect and be seen as a leader accepting criticism is a great way to start.

Don’t let these folks regret posting something I wrote. Visit the site, leave a comment and check out their advertisers while you are at.

Love the title image by the way.

He calls it “Making the Leap: Moving From Success to Significance.”

Steve is a Rookie Pastor. Unlike most in this tribe he isn’t in his 20′s but he does bring a wealth of experience and ministry experience as a volunteer and as someone who integrated his faith well into his vocation. Steve is an encourager and great leader.

For those of you thinking about making a similar leap you will appreciate how Steve expands on how this process played out in the personal and the practical.

Making the Leap

First, let me say this. I don’t have this figured out. I’m not (1) an example to follow, (2) holier than you, or (3) doing the “right” thing by moving into a ministry career, while you keep doing the “wrong” thing by staying in your corporate job.

Preparing Emotionally

I remember when I had the first conversation about joining staff at our church. I think I laughed. I really thought it was a preposterous idea. I was a successful corporate type, making 6 figures. I loved my work.

Preparing Financially

When I prepared to make the leap from a corporate career into a ministry career, this was an area of concern for me, but even more so, for my wife. How could we make it? Could we afford it?

Preparing Your Family

Like any parent, I was convinced the hardest part of making the leap from the corporate world to a ministry job would be the toll it would take on my family.

Preparing Your Place

Here’s the problem… even when I sold my house and quit my job, there was no job waiting for me.  There was no approved budget.  There was no job description.

When we don’t celebrate wins, no matter how small or big we turn our calling into a job. Once you get on this treadmill you usually end up cynical, burnt-out, or at the worst in some sort of self-destructive pattern that forces you to leave the ministry.

This isn’t an original idea, but it is something we all need. So let’s celebrate a bit.

What have you done recently that you are proud of?

What has happened that you need to sit back and appreciate?

Share this good stuff in the comments. Put links in of online projects you want this community to know about. Give us a photo showing what you are proud of. Tell us about that conversation that you finally had.

Leadership victories.
Finished projects.
Glimpses of growth.

You get to decide but don’t be shy this is the good stuff happening that we get witness.

This isn’t about bragging this is about encouraging others and stealing a few good ideas

Once you comment, be sure to share this post with others!

Spencer is a new youth pastor a year and a half in working with 6th-12th graders in southern Oregon. Like many of you he is also in school while working for the church, as he is working on his masters from Western Seminary.

You can see other work flows from Rookie Pastors here.

General Workflow

Morning (9-12) is my most productive time of the day. I save this time for my message prep and any critical planning that needs to take place.

I save making calendars/fliers/event prep/game prep for the afternoons as the tasks are easily accomplished without critical thinking involved.

What do you (or do you wish you did) delegate to others?

I like doing the stupid stuff like picking a background font or fool around with graphics. I like doing lunches with students and hanging out at the middle schools. I don’t care putting together a lesson, making calendars, or filling out reimbursement requests. I also put off curriculum planning.

I just started delegating paperwork stuff like student contact information to one of our secretaries. I wish I could delegate all little things like that such as someone who puts together game supplies, make copies and fancy handouts/videos/update Facebook page/website etc.

What tools do you use?

I use Ical and my mac. I do most of my email through my phone. I mostly text and never use the church’s landline.

What do you do to be creative?

I get creative when I am at home especially before I go to bed and when I am in the shower. It always seems that is when I get those moments of creativity or brilliance.

Watching this makes me want to go buy another copy. I know what I’m doing on April 13.

Official Website

I don’t agree with everything that my Catholic friends hold dear, but I don’t have to in order to respect, and more importantly, appreciate them and their contribution to the greater faith.

Seeing that I am in a bit of a political mood (a mood that will soon be squashed by an endless stream of commercials and adults acting like children) I hope that you as a church leader won’t act like the typical American voter. Most voters have one issue that they run all their voting decisions through. For most in my church I would guess it would be either abortion or gay marriage. However I wouldn’t be surprised if some were more concerned about deficit spending.

My guess is that even if your community is made up of folks concerned about health care, military action, social safety nets, or education most people have a single issue that is a make or break issue for them.

Pastors and church leaders do the same thing.

This is a problem not because energy is spent advocating in favor of an issue, but spent defending and protecting an issue that isn’t an issue of eternity.

Leaders who are so fearful of something they are against happening paint themselves in the proverbial corner. Being so severely limited prevents leaders from being flexible to continually contextualize the Gospel to their specific communities. The result is a community that is stuck at some point in the past. It is possible that a past position may be appropriate but being stuck leaves you with no choice.

A single issue leader is a leader who is fearful. Their fear results in a culture that is incredibly difficult to change. Besides, what exactly are you protecting? Is it something of eternal importance or is it a matter of preference or comfortability?

As leaders we will have to decide what things for us are black and white and for each of us these are important decisions we have to come to a conclusion on. However as leaders we have to be able to acknowledge that life is full of gray situations that we have to navigate with people in real-time. Our willingness to remain flexible and avoid the easy route of forcing an artificial clarity will be key in putting flesh on the Gospel.

Let me be clear; this isn’t about avoiding tough decisions and embracing some relativistic mush. This is about doing the hard work of fighting comfort and staying ready to lead in any situation.

Don’t get boxed in as a leader.

Attractional. Seeker. Fundamentalist. Missional. Reformed. Emerging. Non-Denominational. Contemporary. Traditional. Liturgical. Bon Iver.

We like labels that is, until we are given one that we don’t want. A lot of time and energy is spent of creating an identity for our churches. Sometimes this can be expressed in a label.

It is appropriate to be concerned with how we are perceived. Earlier today our Creative Arts Pastor was agonizing over how to introduce a song. His question centered on whether or not the congregation knew the meaning of what they were singing. Do you take the time to explain possibly creating a speed bump in the service? Sing it anyway?

Are we a church that sing things we don’t understand? Do we have to stop and explain every song and if so where do you draw the line? There is something about Monday meetings that make you live in hyperbolic extremes.

Being concerned about perception is one thing. Thinking you can craft and present fully who you are as a community on a weekly basis is going to lead to an identity crisis for participants and first-timers alike.

Culturally it is odd to ask someone to suspend judgment. Sure first impressions will be made, but as a local church we have to live in a tension of identity. Like scattered plots on a graph given enough time patterns and a median will appear. Without time and repetition though you have a very skewed reality.

This isn’t very workable for those first-time guests who only give you one shot. It is impossible though, for you and your community to present your full identity in an hour.

Relax and give yourself some freedom to do different things that are in the right zip code but not always the same block.

The political cycle and conversation is turning to matters of faith which means more pastors are going to be talking about politics and who to vote for.

Saw this video from Rev. Franklin Graham’s appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

If you don’t have 15 minutes you can read the basics of the interview here.

Without watching or reading you could probably guess how this thing unfolds. Here are a few things that I don’t like about this exchange:

The non-committal dance on whether or not President Obama is a Christian.
Rev. Graham is attacked from the start and throughout by the panel.
Santorum’s faith is not questioned because of the morals exhibited.
Another non-committal dance concerning Romney and Mormonism
How predictable all this is. They are all actors in the same predictable scene we always have to watch.

At the end of the clip I had a bad taste in my mouth. Rev. Graham has done such incredible Kingdom work in his life but this sort of thing cheapens it.

Don’t give into the temptation to use your authority as a pastor to speak to politics. Well, better yet be political just don’t be political. Jesus had many things to say that had and have political implications. We lose our footing when we become a tool of partisanship.

If you don’t agree with someone or don’t plan on voting for someone fine, but don’t hide behind your faith and play this little game. I don’t think it is helping.

Update: Rev. Graham has clarified his comments saying that he was not questioning the faith of the President but his stance on abortion.