Today I witnessed something very cool, that very few leaders are ever able to do. Dr. John Greene (my pastor) who pastor's Harmony Hill baptist church in Lufkin Texas admitted something vulnerable today. Dr. Greene is 59, and he admits that by the time he learns a new piece of technology it's old. He expressed his frustration, and admits that he has a hard time staying current on technology. The issue at hand was that our reports were saying that our monthly newsletters were for the most part ineffective. For the time and money spent it was suggested to kill the newsletter. Dr. Greene is a very personal pastor, who wants to be connected to his flock, and this idea scared him. He was worried that the people wouldn't feel connected because they couldn't read his thoughts on the ministry here anymore. Our technology pastor suggested that he start writing a blog. After some explaining he agreed, and he killed the newsletter. This is super big! and I want to explain why.
Most pastors who are over the age of 45 don't ever have another original idea (Andy Stanley). The problem is leadership is often associated with the person who brings the most to the table. The "old school" view on leadership was that the most talented person is the leader. Which as we know if often time not the case. In church leadership is probably even more evident because of the nature of the size of a churches staff compared to a big business. So what happens most of the time is the pastor starts getting older and is more and more out of touch with the general population, and technology. Well anybody born before 1995 has seen drastic changes in media and communication. So most of America's churches are attempting to do things that worked back when the pastor was 45 years old. Now nothing is being taken away from the success that happened 14 years ago (1995), but most pastor's fail to realize that we live in a very different world today. 14 years ago every church member didn't own a cell phone, and they definitely were not connected by the Internet.
So why is this big? what happen today was that Dr. Greene let one of his young staff members bring an idea to the table. The idea met the needs of the current situation, and allowed our pastor to better connect with today's generation. The cool part was that pastor did like the change. This is cool because even though it took him out of his comfort zone, he was more willing to do what it took to reach his people, rather than doing what made him feel more comfortable. Essentially he's doing the same thing; typing his thoughts about the church. The format is the only thing that has changed. But I admired this move because he let younger talent bring something of value to the table and didn't feel threatened because it wasn't his idea, and he was willing to learn and adapt, instead of defending the newsletter. Most pastors would rep remand the younger generation about not taking to time to read anything on paper, or they would complain that were too dependent on computers, but instead of excuses he did what it took to stay relevant.
30 years from now when ministry looks much different than what I am use to, I hope I will have the leadership and guts to do what Dr. Greene did today.
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