Sorry for the lack of posts…
Dear Readers,
AT&T is my DSL provider and the local company has been working on the lines in my neighborhood. I have been without internet access for the last three days. Tomorrow morning, they are coming out to figure all that mess out. (I am writing from my office at the school)Hopefull then I will be back on track writing something useful each day. Just want you all to know that I appreciate people reading and commenting on my blog. When it first started, I figured a few friends and family might read it once in a while. After moving to my own domain and being able to use some of those cool gidgets that tell you how many people are looking at your site, it seems that the number is way to high! I don’t have that many friends and family in this world! Some of you out there don’t even know me in real life. Part of me finds that cool, and another part of me finds that a little scary. Thanks for reading and for leaving comments! Have an awesome day!
Sincerely,
Burl Walker
Leading to growth or death?
Filed under: Direction, Fear, Random Thoughts, church growth, creativity, education, leadership, membership
This isn’t really a churchy blog today, but it is on leadership. I am currently the chair of an organization called SCCOL which stands for South Carolina Council on Languages. It is a group that I enjoy that meets a few times a year in Columbia, SC. The problem is that we seem to lack purpose. This results in dwindling membership and less and less attendees. As the new chair, like a new pastor, I see that there are two options. Option one is to find and cast a vision for this group that gives it purpose for being! Adding excitement back into the world of language teachers could be a very good thing! The other option is to gracefully kill off the organization. I am going to attempt the first option, but in the back of my mind, the second one is still there.
I am sure the pastors reading this are thinking, (((Yeah, sure, that is what I want on my resume! This is the pastor we send in to kill off dying churches!))) As one of my students said yesterday in class, “A lot of churches just need to be burned down.” She was referring to those who aren’t doing anything to reach their communities for Jesus Christ. I don’t know that burning down perfectly good buildings is a good idea, but closing the doors of some might be the best move!
Wish me luck as I chair SCCOL, and hopefully, I can let you know later that I didn’t kill of the organization! BTW, my goal is to propose a cooperative inter-institution PhD program. I figure that gives us the goal of doing something new and innovative in the world of education and would not only give SCCOL, but also South Carolina something to be proud of!… I know, small goals. Have an awesome day!
Sin- Who is doing it?
Filed under: Body of Christ, Encouragement, Random Thoughts, accountability, community
I just got off the phone with my mother. We had a great talk about a topic I don’t hear many people talking about lately. The theme of our chat was “true repentance from sin”. In to many churches and thus to many church going people, there is a sense that all we have to do is ask Jesus into our heart and that is it. Our heaven ticket is in hand and off we go through life. Nothing has to change in who we are, or the way we act. Nothing could be farther from the truth! Jesus told us to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. (This post isn’t going to get into the whole whether baptism is part of the forgiveness of sins process or not.) He clearly tells us to repent! That means not only doing an about face away from our sin and turning towards Him, but also that we seek out new life in HIM! That will bring about a fundamental change in our being; in who we are! One young man I am friends with is a great example! Before Christ came into his life, he was a very hard person. Liked to fight, some might even say he was mean. Now, after God has gotten a hold of him 100%, he has softened noticeably. He weeps while he prays. (A man who never shed a tear before.) He is now a very giving person who shares the love of Jesus in word and deed with all who he comes in contact with. That kind of change should not be the exception! It is the rule with true repentance! When we not only ask to be forgiven for the sins we have committed, but ALSO turn 180 degrees away from that sin, then we can live the life of holiness that God intended for us to live.
New Steps…
For those who follow this blog, you know that I have been working as both a Spanish Instructor at North Greenville University and also as the Connections Pastor at 5 Point Fellowship. I have posted before about churches focusing their energies on one thing or a few ministries rather than trying to do everything. The rational is that when we try to do everything, we end up not doing any of it well. While I “preached” that here on the blog, I realized that in my own life, that is exactly what I was doing. Yesterday, I resigned from a job that I absolutely love! The trouble was that I absolutely love both jobs! People may wonder if I was secretly upset about something or if there was a disagreement on vision or whatever. The truth is…there wasn’t any of that. I still 100% support the work that 5 Point Fellowship is doing. I absolutely love the staff and people there! The staff are some of my very best friends! The reason I resigned is simple. I can’t give 110% to both 5 Point and NGU. There are other people who would love to do some of the things I was doing. Human nature tells us that they won’t knock me out of the way to do so. I had to get out of their way so that God can expand their talents. If you are a 5 Point person reading this. It has been great serving as your connections pastor! Thanks!
Church Planting and the First Day of Class
Every semester’s beginning is sort of like planting a new church. You plan for students to come, but then the first day of classes come and you finally find out who is actually going to show up. You know that they are evaluating you to see if they will come back. You have practiced your lecture/sermon. You are also evaluating them. Is there any talent to work with here? Did the cream of the crop come or the bottom of the barrel? (I seem to have gotten a bit of everything this semester, just like most churches.) A million thoughts are in your head: Did I forget anything? Will I remember to put on my pants? (If you have never had that dream about teaching/preaching in your underwear, then I am not sure you are really a teacher/preacher.)
The great thing is that eventually, that bunch that hardly know each other eventually become friends. It is amazing how that happens! Community springs out of nothing! God is awesome!
Praising God for a job I love!
Today is the first day of classes to start another year of teaching Spanish! I absolutely love what God has let me do for a living! Here is my thought for the day. If you hate what you do, start working towards doing something you love and have a passion for! There may be some hard work to get to what you want to do, but it is worth it! Have you ever noticed that pastors of thriving, growing churches seem to enjoy what they do? And pastors of dying or stagnant churches seem to be constantly in a bad mood? Could there be a connection? If you hate pastoring, find something else to do!
Here are some things you may or may not have to give up.
#1 Money – We all know that the love of money is a root of many kinds of evil…but somehow many still pursue it. Doing what you love may not pay a lot in the money category.
#2 Prestige – If you are in a high stress job with a lot of clout currently and you don’t thrive in that environment, you might really love a career that is less prestigious, and lower stress.
And here are some things you may gain:
#1 Peace – Doing what you love brings a level of peace to your life. It doesn’t mean that there will never be rough days, but if you truly are passionate about what you do, the peace will be there.
#2 Joy – You will truly enjoy not only the paycheck, but the joy of a job well done. In my case, I love the product (student). I get so much joy from my interactions with them that it vastly outweighs any frustrations I have.
Colossians 4:2-6 Learn another language!
As I prepare for my students this semester, I was thinking of what Bible verses to have them memorize. Since I teach a language, I liked what Paul had to say in Colossians 4:2-6. “Pray that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ” “Pray that I may proclaim it clearly”, “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders”, “Let your conversation be always full of grace”, “So that you may know how to answer everyone”…maybe I am stretching it, but I see these verses as a great text to support learning another language! I know that most likely wasn’t what Paul had in mind when he wrote the text, but it is much easier to be wise in the way you act toward outsiders if you speak their language and understand their culture! I encourage you to study another language! (Especially Spanish for the Americans who read my blog.)
My other love…
In addition to being the connections pastor at 5 Point Fellowship, I am a Spanish Instructor at North Greenville University. We recently ranked 154 in the Forbes list of best colleges in America. So what does that mean for the future of the school? Seth Godin wrote an interesting piece about the future of education this morning. I recently have been working with online classes and hybrid online mixed with traditional classroom instruction. I have been mixing my own instruction materials, with YouTube, Facebook, Online Newspapers etc. and have gotten great results from students! At what point does education step beyond the walls of my institution? (I usually write about church stuff if you are new to my blog…so you might ask yourself, at what point does the church interact with other churches and institutions in order to more effectively present the gospel to the world?) Back on the subject of education. Why are we all (institutions) set on growing our own programs? Here is an idea I am working on in South Carolina. I would like to see higher ed programs, (MA, MBA, PhD,…) that are cross institutional. For example: We have a phenomenal linguistics professor at North Greenville. The other faculty in that department are ABD or have only a Master’s degree. Because of that, the school would be unable to offer any masters or doctoral degrees in their own program in our graduate school. My idea is that he could still chair a committee for a doctoral candidate working in conjunction with professors in the field from other local institutions. We just need one institution to step up that can put their name on the diploma, and professors who will pour their time into the student knowing that it won’t be his or her institution that will be granting the degree. I do believe that if put into practice, this idea could help end the brain drain that is currently taking place in some fields in the state of South Carolina. In my own field for example there are exactly zero institutions offering a PhD in Spanish in this state. So Seth, there is my addition to your questioning the future of the education system. Oh, and your MBA program was a great idea!
Today in History
Today, I did nothing that will change history…at least not that I know of. Got a load of mulch for my wife’s flower beds, mowed the lawn, did dishes, laundry and other stuff around the house that just needs to be done. When we are leaders in churches, do we spend more time just doing the stuff that needs to be done like making sure the gravesites are cared for in the church graveyard, or do we spend more time reaching out to others with the love of Jesus Christ? Tonight, I am going to an auction with my wife, hopefully there, God will give me the chance to change history, at least in one person’s life.
Competency
2 Corinthians 3:5 “Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.” This verse stuck out to me this morning! Competence is defined as: “the ability to do something well, measured against a standard, especially ability acquired through experience or training” (Encarta Dictionary)
It is so easy to fall into the trap of feeling pride in a job well done, in feeling pride when we think we are good at doing something. Paul reminds us here that our competence in doing anything comes from God! Only through the power of the Holy Spirit is anything really accomplished in the church. Even the most basic missions of the body of Christ are impossible without God. As we strive to do everything with excellence, let us not ever forget that our competence comes from God.
Subscribe to Church Life
Books by Burl Walker
