In Defense of $700,000 Crosses

Earlier today, popular blogger Rachel Held Evans posted a story from her hometown of Chattanooga (which also happens to be my hometown). It was about a church in town which is erecting large set of crosses at alongside an extremely busy stretch of interstate. The reaction from the satirical "Stuff Christian Culture Likes" sums up the reaction I saw across my social media streams:

A church in Chattanooga is spending $700,000 on crosses but I'm sure the sick & widowed & orphaned will understand. http://t.co/0SmUfYHgi5
— Stephanie Drury—SCCL (@StuffCCLikes) August 8, 2013

What a waste! What about the poor! What about mission! No one needs that! What a perfect example of what is wrong with the conservative Christianity!

(From the Crossing Church FB Page)

My first impulse was to chime in. But I didn't, I sat on my hands and thought.

I thought about the time I spend helping congregations and other organizations think about communications. And they say to me - How can we spend money on that? It's so wasteful! No one needs a website! Every day, congregations around this country are spending money to share the Word of God. Newsletters are printed and mailed. Advertisements are bought in newspapers and radio. Mailers and invitations are sent out. This congregation may have spent a lot, but I bet you that the cost per impression - given the amount of traffic on that stretch of road - is significantly less than the average church newspaper ad.

One of the things I love about the church is that it has traditionally been the patron of the arts and other projects that would not have been possible in any other way. I am grateful that they church through history has paid artists (sometimes quite handsomely) to create art that tells the story, art that has been passed through generations. And this project - whether you like it or not - is a form of art, and stands in the long tradition of large-scale church-funded projects.

Could the money have been used to help the poor? Of course!
But the same could be said of each and every dollar spent by the church.

In fact this is precisely the argument used against any spending in the church that one disagrees with. It is a strawman argument, used only against those with whom we disagree. Unless a church has zero expenses and zero assets, it could be said that they are using money that should be used to care for the poor. And while there are some of those churches, there aren't many.

Frankly, I think we should become worried when we find the words of Judas in our mouths. "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?" (John 12:5). Or, perhaps, with the Pharisee we pray "I give you thanks O God, that I am not THAT sort of Christian."

At the end of the day, though, it is not about the money. It is not about budgets or about roadside crosses.

It is about how easily Christians find it to criticize one another. The church is every bit as divided as the political sphere. And that is troubling.

There is criticism that comes from love. There is helpful correction within the Body. But that is not what we are doing. Both "sides" believe that the other are not "real Christians." Both publicly belittle, chastise, mock, and ridicule the other. Both are quick with the playground defense, "But they started it!"

In what way is that helping the Gospel?

I don't want to be a conservative Christian or a liberal Christian. I want to be a Christian. Period.
I don't want to criticize the choices of other Christian communities. I want to do what is best for the Gospel here in my context, and assume others are doing the same.
I don't want to try and knock other Christian leaders down a peg. I just want to do my best to care for the flock that has been entrusted to me.
I don't want to sit back and try and judge the orthodoxy of people I have never met. I just want to do my best to understand the God who has loved me and called me to love my neighbor. 

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UPDATE: My friend Aric Clark wrote a wonderful response to this post, which offers some great pushback. Aric is - as always - insightful and gracious in his critique. You should go read it at Two Friars and a Fool.

Thank You

Given all the new people reading this little blog of mine, I feel like I should say something witty and clever. Now that you're here, I should have something witty and ironic for you to read ... something to follow up my "Crappy Pastors" post from earlier this week.

But I don't.

What I have to say is thank you. Thank you for reading these little rants of mine. Thank you for being people who care about your pastors. Pastors, thank you for taking care of one another.

"Get Rid of Your Crappy Pastor" came out of a particular frustration. Over the last few months, I have watched multiple pastor-friends get used and abused by congregations. It was made known that significant portions of the congregation no longer wanted them to serve as pastor, and their lives were made miserable. I have more than one pastor-friend who has been so miserable that they just quit - before having a new congregation lined up to work in.

So I wrote "Crappy Pastors." And it hit a nerve. I have watched it spread over the last two days. For the first day, 600 people an hour were reading my blog. That's right, in one hour more people looked at my blog than are members of the congregation I serve ... In the last week, I have had almost as many pageloads as there are people in Brenham, Texas. I am humbled.

Since writing this post, I had friends from around the country contact me saying, "I want to be a crappy pastor, so people will get rid of me like that!"

Shhh ... Here's the secret: We're all crappy pastors. Yup. I'm a crappy pastor. I regularly fail, let people down, say the wrong thing, forget important things, and hurt people's feelings. I am a crappy pastor. Pastors: go ahead and admit it. Trust me, it is freeing to face up to and be honest about our shortcomings.

And any pastor who can't make that admission is a crappy pastor because they are not aware of their shortcomings. We are all crappy pastors. The perfect pastor is like the Sasquatch: We've all heard of them, but no one has actually seen one.

We are all crappy pastors, because we are all sinful, imperfect, and flawed. We need the love, encouragement, and prayers of our colleagues and the congregations we serve.

And the congregations we serve? Yup, you guessed. They're crappy, too. Filled with sinful, imperfect, and flawed people who need the love, encouragement, and prayers of one another and the pastors who serve them.

The good news? Our God is head over heels in love with flawed, imperfect people. We are just God's type!

So thank you. Thank you for being people who love imperfect, crappy pastors. And thank you for being pastors who love imperfect, crappy people. And thank you for reading. One of these days another one of my posts might just be clever and strike a nerve.

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.