New Jersey

Don’t forget about associate pastors

Last week I spoke to a group of associate pastors at a continuing education program with the American Baptist Churches of New Jersey. This group of associates was very diverse demographically, but they all shared the same challenges.

I started speaking on the topics of identity, calling, and role of the associate pastor. Then, several folks brought up other associates books, “Leading from the Second Chair” or “Second Chair, Not Second Best”. Though I’m pretty enamored with “The Work of the Associate Pastor“, I spoke about how those other books fail to see one thing: the power dynamic in the analogy of “second chair” is fundamentally flawed.

As I shared with this group of associate pastors that the power dynamics of #1 verse #2 pastor is not helpful. Ordering pastors with numbers frustrate associates into seeing themselves as lesser instead of seeing themselves into a different calling than their senior pastors. The relationship between the senior and associate pastor should be one of mutuality. Obviously, there is a supervisory role that the senior pastor must take, but that doesn’t mean that pastors cannot treat one another as equals.

Churches

Reverse Offering as a Spiritual Stimulus

Almost every church has some form of an offering or a way for people to give donations. Most churches pass offering plates to congregants while music plays or a soloist sings. A church in New Jersey is trying a new approach to the offering: a reverse offering where congregants receive money from the church instead of giving.

CNN reports on a Morristown, New Jersey nondenominational church that collects $30,000 in weekly offerings from three church locations. About 2,000 people its services and plans to give about that same amount – $30,000 . Attendees receive envelopes containing $10, $20 and $50 bills.

The idea of this reverse offering came from the church’s pastor Tim Lucas of the Liquid Church:

People are cynical about religion and expect to come to church and be shaken down, but really, it’s all God’s money. Every bill in the U.S. economy says ‘In God we trust,’ and we’re going to put that to the test. We’re not a rich church. We don’t own a building. We don’t hold a mortgage, but we’re trying to teach our people to be rich in good deeds.

This ‘spiritual stimulus’ package is geared to encourage people to use the money to help others. New Jersey experienced crippling flooding recently because of Hurricane Irene. Also, the church encourages people to invest their funds and then donate the proceeds to the church to rebuild a homeless shelter.

What would you do with a reverse collection? How would you spend the money?

Don’t forget about associate pastors

Reverse Offering as a Spiritual Stimulus

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