Notes From Jon

I’ve been taking a class in Richmond at the Virginia Baptist Mission Board, and one of the friends I met there is an intentional interim pastor.  He’s currently at a church in Virginia that seems to be in decline, with around 150 regularly attending and EIGHT full-time staff people.  I’ll let you do the math.

Anyway, this guy makes me want to be an interim minister.  He gets away with stuff some pastors only dream about.  For instance, he said his newsletter article at the end of last year was “Are We A Church Or a Nursing Home?”  He reviewed the characteristics of a church: People come voluntarily, they come with a primary objective of taking care of others, and a good portion of the group’s money goes toward helping others.  Nursing homes, however, are places where people don’t really want to go, where people let others take care of THEM, and places where most of the money is spent on taking care of themselves.

Just as a matter of reference, he called the local country club and asked them what percentage of their yearly budget was donated to outside charitable causes.  The answer was surprising in light of his current church’s budget: 15%.  As a closing statement, he said, “We don’t even qualify to be a Country Club.  So what ARE we?”

Please know that my current church is NOTHING like this, but it sure would be nice to feel like you could say something like that.

Maybe I WOULD have the courage to write something like that… with my letter of resignation copied on the opposite page.