One of the books I read during the trip is one I'd already read, really.
Among the reasons I like to keep books is that, especially as I grow older, I don't always get as much out of them the first time through as I might were my mind a fresher slate. Second and third readings often hammer points home for me that I missed before.
Besides, I've always regarded good books as good friends. The thing about good friends is that no matter how much time passes between your visits with them, you can pick right up where you left off and still have those feelings of closeness you so value.
Back in 1986, I read a simple little book by two Lutheran pastors. It was called The Penguin Principles: A Survival Manual for Clergy Seeking Maturity in Ministry. At the time, I'd been a pastor for about a year-and-a-half, wrestling with the enormity of the task of leading a church and feeling some frustration that the reality didn't match my previous ideals. (And I had those feelings in spite of the fact that I still think my first congregation was and is among the very best churches I've ever experienced or known about!) The good humor and common sense of authors David Belasic and Paul M. Schmidt came as gusts of fresh air and reassurance for me. The Penguin Principles was a reality check and a confidence booster.
For some reason, my wife also read the book back then and told me, "You should read this little book once a year." Being a typical husband, I heard what she said, but didn't heed it.
Eighteen years later, I decided to re-read the book and I have to say what most husbands probably should get around to admitting eventually: My wife was right. Reading it as a seasoned pastor serving my second parish, I can says that The Penguin Principles, is still a reality check and a confidence booster.
Early on, Belasic and Schmidt say:
The Penguin Principles are the results of many failures and a great deal of "slow learning" to determine what actually works in the parish ministry as it is. Through the years the Penguin Principles became the means by which God gave us a new maturity and joy in the ministry.
I like the honesty in that statement and the implicit recognition that we learn and grow more from our failures than we ever do from what are regarded as successes.
The principles in this book--six in all--are rooted in the assurance that no matter how things look, God is still in control of the Church, God loves imperfect people (including pastors), and that over time, no matter the indications to the contrary, God's will is done. The two-thousand-plus year history of the Church seems to confirm Belasic's and Schmidt's notions.
The principles include the following.
(1) The Five Percent Principle:
Despite the pious things we say, at any given time, less than five percent of any group of people in the church is operating with purely Christian motivation. The other ninety-five percent is asking, "What's in it for me?"
Stifle your horror for a second. This principle is nothing more than a simple recognition of the Biblical doctrine of original sin. We are born in sin and those of us who receive Christ are never anything more than recovering sinners. Any honest pastor will acknowledge that they are sinners--forgiven sinners, but sinners nonetheless. So, it should never come as a surprise to pastors when their parishioners act from less than pure motives. (Nor should it surprise us when we act from less than pure motives.)
Rather than horrifying me, this principle causes me to stand slack-jawed before the Lord when I realize how many wonderful things He accomplishes through imperfect pastors and church folks. That's clearly attributable to what we Christians call "grace," God's undeserved favor and acceptance.
(2) The Inverse Insight Principle
Most of the time, in the world of the church, things are not what they appear to be.
Belasic and Schmidt explain, "People don't always say what they mean! If you watch what they do, you will have a better idea of how they really feel."
Does that mean that people are liars? Not intentionally so, no. But people have good intentions and because of their humanity and the circumstances that can push all of us around, they don't always do what they intend to do.
Years ago, a couple came to our congregation, anxious to get involved. Their intentions were good and I was excited. They were capable people, full of enthusiasm and great ideas. They were with us for about six weeks. But right after their child was baptized, we never saw them again. They weren't liars, just human beings. My guess is that they'd really wanted to be involved with our congregation, that they were earnest in their desire to take part in its mission. But having missed a few weeks and then a few weeks more, the chances are they felt a sense of embarrassment about not returning. That's sad. But the worst thing I can do as a pastor is villify people struggling already with embarrassment and guilt. I can pray though, that the experience of grace and love that good-intentioned-but-poor-performing people experience in our congregation will incite them to want to know the God Who loves and accepts imperfect people. Maybe it will even incite them to find another congregation where they can confidently enact some of their good intentions.
(3) The Ecclesiastical Friction Principle
There is a friction in the church that burns up enormous energy, consumes endless hours, smothers creativity, impedes progress and often creates little heat.
The local church can be a cumbersome machine, a Rube Goldberg-concoction that seems devised to prevent the fulfillment of Christ's mission for the church. Church members are usually well-meaning. They have notions of what the church should be and shouldn't be. New ideas, however rooted in Scripture, throw them off. And Belasic and Schmidt imply that the more the church tries to organize itself, the more paralyzed it becomes.
Again, the wise pastor is the one who rejoices when good things do get done by the church.
Say Belasic and Schmidt:
Despite human efforts to impede it, the church seems to plod onward at God's own speed. It pays not to take human efforts too seriously. It's the "shove from above," not the "blow from the below" that makes God's churches go!
(4) The Creative Ignorance Principle
In the ministry it is better not to know some things, even if you have to forget them forcefully.
Recently, I was chatting with the volunteer youth minister of our congregation, a dedicated Christian who wants to serve Christ and the church. From my perspective of twenty years as a parish pastor, I lectured him---lovingly, I hope---about the importance of not doing everything in the church.
The fact is, just as surely as we can always find people who do things better than we can, there are also others who do things less ably than us. Just because people are not as capable as we are at certain tasks doesn't mean that we pastors shouldn't recruit them to do them. I love what Pastor Rick Warren says: "Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly."
When pastors and other church leaders do everything, it leaves the rest of the church with nothing to do. We turn our congregations into spectators, rather than fellow servants of Christ. In spite of incessantly proclaiming that through Christ, God accepts us just as we are, we pastors seem to undermine that proclamation by playing omnicompetent super heroes (without the tights). We leave no room for others to exercise their gifts from God. We deny people the opprtunity to do the one thing that will most help them grow as followers of Christ: to fail.
Belasic and Schmidt say that it's particularly important for pastors to be less-than-good at things that aren't central to their duties. They write:
Being selectively dunce-like is important and very healthy in the long run. Parish Penguins stand tall. You were not called to your profession to know it all or to do it all!
(5) The Tweaking Principle
They'll only do it to you if you let 'em.
Pastors tend to be "pleasers," nice gals and guys. We confuse being Christian with being nice. We forget that the Bible counsels us with advice like, "Be angry...but do not sin." It tells us to "Speak the truth in love." Jesus assumed that people might disagree in the church. That was why He gave us, in the Gospel of Matthew, guidelines for handling disputes.
But we pastors usually bend over backwards to avoid conflict. Say Belasic and Schmidt:
Short as he is, the penguin stands straight with dignity. A courageous way pastors can stop others from treating them unfairly is to stand tall with dignity and "ask for what they want."
(6) The Pastor Principle
The ultimate principle for pastors is "tough love" that looks beyond the irritation of the moment and in the strength of Christ loves people as they are.
If there are times when pastors must tell their churches what they want, they mustn't be selfish and they must always remember that the people of their congregations are children of God who, above all, need love.
To achieve anything worthwhile, pastors must exercise patience. This has been the hardest thing for me to learn in my twenty years as a pastor. And I've learned also that the only way God can teach patience to us is to force us to be patient.
This is a wonderful book! But why Penguin Principles? Belasic and Schmidt explain:
The more we studied about penguins and their life in the Antarctic, the more apt the comparison seemed to be.
Penguins seem to have that unique dignity that many people expect of the pastor. Yet, as dignified as penguins seem to be, they look so ridiculous as they waddle around on the ice. Something of that same absurd dignity applies to the pastor's ministry as it really is. The task is so "glorious," but we are so laughable as we blunder through in the work of the kingdom!
Re-reading this book brought me back to my work with a renewed patience with myself and others, a renewed commitment to love others as I am loved by my Savior, and to do my work with humor and goodwill.
No comments:
Post a Comment