Happy New Year!

At the beginning of each year, many of us take inventory of what we are doing and compare it to what we feel we should be doing with our time. We vow to add the “should do’s” to our schedules and eliminate some no-noes from our habits. This tradition of making New Year’s Resolutions stems from the belief that we have control over our choices.

Some have grown jaded through the years and sworn off the practice of making resolutions. “Why make myself feel guilty? I can’t change my circumstances anyway,” they say.

Others march forward. “This year will be different,” they decree. Yet statisticians claim only 15 percent of us keep our new year’s vows.

· Why are habits so difficult to change?

· Is it possible to have too many good priorities?

Selling Vacuum Cleaners, Part 2

So how do business people help the church work?

Imagine Joe, the new dairy manager. Right away he notices ice cream production is way down. He reads Ice Cream Monthly and he knows there’s no shortage of ice cream lovers. Joe rolls up his sleeves and gets to work. He increases milk orders by 20% and begins hiring new staff. There’s only one problem. Joe never discussed his ideas with the senior staff.

Three months earlier, the board of directors had voted to discontinue ice cream production. Although the product was popular, the company planned to position itself as the “healthy alternative” by producing soy products instead. The conversion would take place as soon as the last milk contract expired.

While such a scenario is preposterous to the average business person, similar scenes take place in churches. Business people get to work fixing problems which seem obvious without taking the time to understand why the problem exists or what are the ultimate goals of the church. Rather than helping ministerial staff, they undermine and disrupt pastoral leadership.

Why is this result so tragic? Business people who do understand and embrace a church’s goals are golden. They are the ones who put sails on vision. When they remember that God alone provides the wind propulsion for those sails, their skills become catalysts for rather than detractors from a church’s mission. So here’s my version of A Christian Business Leader’s Guide to Making a Sail:

• Seek understanding. Before making an action plan, pray for open mindedness, humility and the courage to release any agenda. Ask questions, tough questions if necessary. But don’t disguise an assault as a question.

• Become a follower even if you don’t understand. Pastors are human like the rest of us. The sting of past betrayals can create some hesitation to explain every decision. If you don’t understand, try following before fixing. Don’t turn off your brain. In fact, you should be more intellectually engaged than ever as you learn by doing. Believers working together clumsily are far more effective than those who evaluate from the sidelines.

• Invest whole-heartedly or not at all. At some point, you will understand enough of the church’s vision to know if you can embrace it or not. If the answer is yes, roll up your sleeves and get to work, but talk as you go. “This is what I understand the goal to be and this is how I propose we address it.” Working with transparency requires a hefty dose of humility. When we communicate our intentions, we open ourselves to correction and criticism. Those who invest half-heartedly are people whom psychologists label passive-resistant. They create division in the church and render her ineffective. The Bible has harsh words for such people. It’s best to move to a congregation you can support whole-heartedly.

These are my guidelines. What are yours?

Selling Vacuum Cleaners, Part 1

The church has a problem. It’s not what you may think. No, I’m not talking about tumbling attendance rates, financial shortfalls, music wars or the staggering number of our adult children walking away from Christ. The real problem, according to many, is that these pastors are just so darn disorganized.

 “What we need,” say some, “is to look at the church like a business. Of course the church isn’t a business,” they’ll mutter under their breath, “but pastors could learn a thing or two from business people.” And it’s true. Business professionals are trained to develop systems that run efficiently and effectively. What church couldn’t benefit from a little more efficiency and effectiveness? Enter the era of the businessman-pastor.

I’ve visited a number of churches that seem to prefer business skills above preaching skills, spiritual disciplines and even theological training. Here’s the problem. Business people have two primary concerns: (1) develop a customer base; and (2) keep the customer base happy. Now developing a customer base should fit in nicely with the church’s mission. After all, if a church is doing its job (making disciples), then the church should grow (increased customer base).  But is the reverse also true? Does church growth mean the church is doing its job?

I could line my cabinets with the church advertisements I receive in the mail. What I find disturbing is the marketing strategy, “Every other church is boring, money-grubbing and unfriendly so come to ours. We’re different. We’re better.” That’s business for you-destroy the competition. Hmmm. Are we helping our cause?

Trouble is, the strategy works. Those dissatisfied with their current churches come seeking greener pastures. Our customer base increases with much greater speed than when we focus our energy on making disciples out of pagans. As one pastor said, “To ask a businessman to strategize in the area of evangelism is like asking him, ‘how do you sell vacuum cleaners to people with dirt floors?’.”

His answer is usually, “You don’t.” His goal is to find people with rugs. When translated to the Christian subculture, “churched” people have rugs, making them a softer market to sell our church.

As the customer base grows, it’s important to keep the customers happy. The businessman pastor must focus his efforts on internal ministries, services and of course the aesthetic preferences of his parishioners. He leads a church of religious consumers.

Most Christians would agree religious consumerism is not the goal. And yet, here we are. Religious consumers are as common as Costco members. Is the solution to keep business people out of ministry decisions? I hope not. As a business woman, I’d like to think I can contribute to my church. So how do business people support the church’s mission? THAT is the subject of my next post.

The Invisibility Principle

Every kid dreams of being invisible. The power of invisibility is the stuff of science fiction and superheroes. Wouldn’t it be great to enter a room without anyone knowing you’re there? Or would it?

As the newcomer in town, I feel a bit like the Invisible (wo)Man. I walk into my children’s schools, the YMCA and yes even my church and I feel invisible sometimes, as though I’m out of phase with the world around me. It’s not that people intentionally shun me. No, it’s more that their patterns are set, relationships formed, and schedules booked. It’s hard to break in.

It seems there’s profound truth in that Cheers ditty, “Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name . . .” The thing about being invisible is that I'm the only one aware of the problem. Thus, I'm the only one who can fix the problem. That’s the tough part.

Yet as I wedge my way in, I find I’m really not alone. Other invisible souls gradually enter my view. Though I’m out of phase with the mainstream, I find I’m in phase with others I might not have noticed otherwise. So my invisibility is a gift, an opportunity to cling more tightly to my Savior, who is my comforter and who in turn challenges me to comfort others.

~Joyce

Read with Discernment

Walked into a Christian bookstore last week and noticed Blue Like Jazz (Donald Miller) had a tag sticking out from under it. Never one to pass on a sale, I strolled over to check it out. Instead of a 20% off deal, I found a warning label that said Read with Discernment. It read:

We want you to know that the author may have espoused thoughts, ideas, or concepts that could be considered inconsistent with historical evangelical theology.

I start looking around to see who else got nailed. I notice a few other titles I’d definitely consider “inconsistent with historical evangelical theology.” Funny thing though, none of these books sport a Read with Discernment sticker.

Now I’ve read Miller’s book and have to admit he’s not a precise theologian. His expressions are raw, which I concede might warrant a caution to readers accustomed to sanitized language. But I have to wonder – what is it that people find offensive about this book, really?

I don’t always agree with Miller’s conclusions or the ways he tries to flesh out his faith, but there’s one characteristic of this book that I can’t overlook. Miller writes with transparency and an attitude of repentance. The book is not instructional, but rather introspective. He draws us into a world of thought and emotion, not so foreign as many of us would like to pretend. As he lets us into his private musings, we see both the ugliness of the human condition and the enormity of God’s mercy. Perhaps, this reality is what some find offensive. Maybe the problem is not so much theology but that unpleasant issue of repentance.

After all, isn’t repentance what offended the Pharisees? They attacked Jesus for his failure to embrace their rules and traditions. His response was to forgive prostitutes and tax collectors. The Pharisees fought back with a murder plot.

People don’t like others telling them they’re wrong. But they really hate it when those they’ve condemned find restoration. We find such security in superiority. In the end, I guess we should read everything, including warning labels, with discernment.

~John

The Adventure Continues

Today, we celebrate our one month anniversary in RDU, as many call it. We decided to rent a townhome in Morrisville until we feel confident the schools will work out for our children. Question: How do you fit furniture from a 2400 SF, two car garage single-family home into a 1700 SF, no garage townhome? Answer: When you figure out how to fit a gallon of milk into a quart jug, be sure to let us know. Until then, the answer is storage. At least, we didn’t have to unpack all our boxes.

We love North Carolina, but the move was a little more bumpy than expected. Our plan was to rent a furnished place until we saw the price tag. Yikes! We decided we could pay movers to pack and move our furniture again with the money we’ll save from one month’s rent! We moved into our unfurnished townhouse on August 8. On August 13, we learned our furniture was still in Seattle do to a snafu in scheduling. After several more delays and too many nights on air mattresses, our crates were finally delivered on August 28, just in time for the muggiest day since our arrival in town.

John is working hard to establish our business, Team Momentum, in the Raleigh Durham area. So here’s the honest truth – moving is tough. Finding a dentist, a good hair stylist and my way around the grocery store leaves me a little cranky at the end of the day. Have you moved lately? How did you smooth the transition? I’d love to hear!

~Joyce

Wallace Family Hits the Road, Parts 3-5

Finally. I'm posting the conclusion to our cross country trip (two months after the fact) for those who wanted to know. We'll get caught up soon.

Wallaces Do Whitewater?!

Call it a midlife crisis. I was looking for boat rides, nice scenic boat rides when it hit me. I’m not that old yet. I’m not ready to retire to Jungle Cruise status. Let’s go whitewater rafting. So in a moment of unbridled optimism, I made the reservation. The four of us would go rafting down the Colorado River through Arches National Park near Moab, Utah. Not the half-day trip. Nope. We want the full day adventure. Non-refundable . . . we know what that means.

As it turns out, this gamble paid off. We had the time of our lives. Samuel even swam in the 55 degree water. The scenery was breathtaking and the high water level meant we didn’t even have to paddle that hard. Samuel’s ready to make whitewater an annual tradition. We’ll see about that…

The Midwest

We headed for Denver where we celebrated the 4th of July with a day at Water World. “Didn’t you see the warning sign about whiplash?” John asked as I got off the Zoomerang with Hannah.

“What sign?” I answered trying to calm the muscle spasms seizing my neck. Who knew? The ride looked pretty harmless. I decided to watch televised fireworks from a horizontal position while John and the kids enjoyed the live version.

Next, we drove onto Kansas City where we experienced barbecue!! I do mean experienced. The aroma from the smoke drenched building spilled into the parking lot drawing us like ants to a slice of pie. During our tortuous wait for a table, we salivated as plates loaded with steaming piles of beef whisked past. I closed my eyes to enjoy the feast of smells while my stomach moaned, Oh, Seattle you were a desert wasteland when it came to barbecue but relief is two parties of four away!

Our waiter recommended burnt ends. The name and the description didn’t sound particularly appealing but when in Rome . . . What a taste sensation! Add the smoky hickory pit baked beans and my bliss was complete. John and I declared a new life statute. “Thou shalt not enter Kansas City unless thou feasteth on burnt ends.”

The kids enjoyed the day at Worlds of Fun amusement park and we loved the beautiful fountains. But for me, it was all about the beef.

Continuing eastward, we hit St. Louis where we toured the Gateway Arch and the St. Louis Zoo . I’ve never seen penguins so close. We capped off a wonderful day by visiting the Iron Barley. If you’re a fan of “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives”, you may have seen the Schnitzel & Spaetzle episode. No joke, the Schnitzel is to die for. We’re with Guy on this place. A big thumbs up!

Roots

From St. Louis, we headed for my old stomping grounds in Nashville. We toured the campus of my alma mater, Vanderbilt University, where my kids asked, “Why don’t you remember your way around Mom?” Something about twenty years and numerous new buildings left me a little befuddled. Nonetheless, we enjoyed the scenery and a trip to the Grand Ole Opry before heading to Atlanta.

It was the trip of a lifetime but good to finally unpack our van for a week.