Restart, Restore, Reboot!

For some reason, people often come to me when they have problems with their technology (I can't imagine why, can you?).

They will run down the list of things they have tried. They are exasperated. The are out of options. And 9 times out of 10, my answer is the same: "Turn it off, then turn it back on."

Sometimes, our technology gets tired. It gets jammed up with too many tasks running at once. And the best thing you can do is restart the device, and let it reboot. More often than not, it is as simple as that. Your laptop, iPad, smartphone, tablet, etc, needs to reboot. The software needs to shut completely down and get a new start.

And your pastor is kind of like your laptop.

I just got back from two Sundays away from congregation that I serve. For one week I was leading / participating in a continuing education event, and for the other week I was on vacation with my family.

For two weeks, I did not preach. I did not attend any congregational meetings, or respond to any crises. My phone did not ring with all sorts of requests for information or time. I focused on the continuing education event while I was there, and I focused on my family when I was there.

On the day I got back into the office I outlined 3 sermons, 5 blog posts / newsletter articles, and started work on the confirmation program for the Fall (and of course, caught up on the email and phone messages). I had more ideas than I could keep up with. My system needed a restart, and once I got that I was back at full speed.

Yup. On vacation we visited churches
What a couple of geeks ;) 

So here's the deal. If you are a member of a church, encourage your pastors to take all their allotted vacation and continuing education time every year. Even to take at least two Sundays in a row at least once a year, in order to fully reboot. When your pastors return, they will be more energetic, creative, excited, and passionate. At the end of the day, it is the congregation that benefits most when pastors take their vacation.

How can you do that? How can you help your pastor to take the vacation time and reboot?

1. Make sure your pastor is allotted enough vacation every year. Don't make your pastor ask for vacation; instead be an advocate for your pastor at congregational meetings and council/board/vestry meetings. 
2. Ask what needs to be done while the pastor is gone. Oftentimes there are a myriad of little tasks every week that can be easily handed off. Make sure that the pastor knows that they are taken care of. 
3. Attend worship. Seriously. When your pastor is gone, make sure to be in worship. Pastors worry about the congregations we serve, because we love our congregations. We want the members of the churches we serve to worship, and it can be hard to leave town knowing that your absence will be a reason for much of the congregation to stay away. 
4. Don't call. Pastor's often do work related stuff around the clock. Phone calls, emails, text messages, and other conversations happen non-stop in the life of a pastor. And it's great - we love to hear from you. We love to hear about your life and everything that is going on. But when we are on vacation, pastors need to unplug from it all and get a little break. If it can wait until after vacation, then wait. 
5. Extra credit! Do you have a vacation home, timeshare weeks, etc? Offer them to your pastor when you aren't using them. For many pastors, cost is a big factor in not taking vacation. If you have a way to help with that, your pastor would most often deeply appreciate it. 

And of course, if you are a pastor TAKE YOUR VACATION. Being a workaholic is not helping your ministry. Go and rest. Go and be restored. Hit the restart button.

Every so often, pastors have to reboot, restart, and be restored. 

Get Rid of Your Crappy Pastor!

(This post has attracted a lot of attention since first published. Thank you. Please check out my follow up post as well.)

I simply cannot count the number of complaints that I get to hear about other pastors. I've responded to such complaints many ways over the years. The simply smile and nod, without actually agreeing -- or conversely, the serious head shake. I've advised the individuals to go and talk to their pastor about their complaint. I've even tried to convince the complainer that their pastor really is pretty good.

But enough of that. I know what most of these complainers want ... They want to get rid of their crappy pastor. The sooner the better. And so, without further ado, six steps to get rid of your crappy pastor and get a better pastor in your congregation.

1) Pray for your crappy pastor. I know, you really don't want to pray for your pastor right now, but give it a try. Pray for your pastor's preaching, for your pastor's life, even for the pastor's family. Prayer was one of those things that Jesus was kind of big on, so go ahead and give it a try.

2) Make sure your crappy pastor takes a day off. Really, you don't want your pastor doing all those things that annoy you any more than absolutely necessary. Make sure everyone knows when the pastor's day off is, and that doesn't call on that day. If there is a congregational event, or an emergency, or a wedding, or a funeral on the normal day off, let it be known that your pastor will be taking another day off to make up the time off.

3) Insist that your crappy pastor take every week of vacation in the contract. Many pastors leave unclaimed vacation days every year. Let's face it - you don't really want your pastor around anyway, so encourage him or her to take all of the allowed vacation. And make it easy decision for your crappy pastor to leave town! Line up volunteers to take care of all the work around the congregation so the pastor doesn't have to work extra hard before leaving and when coming home. Offer up your vacation home, or a gift card for a plane ticket out of town. Make sure everyone comes to worship, so the pastor doesn't feel guilty about leaving for a Sunday.

4) Continuing Education Events. Speaking of getting your crappy pastor out of town, by contract your pastor probably has continuing education time. Make sure that your pastor is attending lots of events with exciting speakers, great preachers, and innovative thinkers (you know, just so your pastor can see the ways in which he or she doesn't measure up). While you're at it, go ahead and increase the continuing education budget - make sure there is no barrier to your pastor getting away from your congregation and to these events.

5) Take over the tasks with which your pastor struggles. We all know that pastors should be good at everything in the parish - from administration to preaching, from visitation with the elderly to youth events. Chances are, your crappy pastor has some places where there are struggles. Hire an administrative assistant. Get the parents and other volunteers to coordinate and host the youth events. Get a group of volunteers together to visit with homebound members. There are all sorts of ways to make sure that your crappy pastor doesn't mess up these tasks that he or she is already struggling with.

6) Encourage your pastor to spend more time in prayer and reading. Now that you have freed up your pastor from all those tasks that were the worst trouble points, there is all sorts of extra time. You don't want him or her to jump right back into those tasks and mess them up, do you? Encourage them to go and read, or spend time with other local pastors, or spend more time intentionally in prayer.

There you go! It's foolproof!

If you do these six simple things, I guarantee you will get rid of your crappy pastor. Get your congregational leaders on board with this plan. Recruit the key people in the congregation to help you with it.

Pray for your pastor, make sure your crappy pastor takes all of the allotted vacation and days off, send your pastor to amazing continuing education events, recruit volunteers (or hire other staff) to fill in your pastor's weaknesses, and make sure your pastor is spending time praying, reading, and dreaming.

Yup, that's it. Do those things, and I guarantee you will stop complaining about your crappy pastor. You will hear better sermons. People will feel more ministered to. Exciting ideas will start to come from your council meetings.

And all these things without having to go through the search process and hire a new pastor!

Take these six steps, and watch your crappy pastor become the sort of pastor you have always wanted.