My friend Bruce Mitchell needs to write a book about his funny experiences as a pastor. In a recent blog Bruce tells what happened shortly after the bishop had appointed him to his first church. I will let Bruce tell it:
"Within a day or so someone in the church passed away and I had never conducted a funeral. I told the funeral director I didn't have any experience in funerals and he replied, "Don't worry, we've trained a lot of pastors and haven't lost one yet." With the Pastor's handy dandy funeral guide - and smiles from the funeral director - it worked out fine - the first of many. Another funeral went well until the interment at a small country cemetery. It was on a hillside and there had been rain. As the casket was moved into place a voice came out of the grave, "Don't worry, I'm fine." One of the attendants had slipped on mud and had fallen into the hole. We retrieved him just before the family and friends arrived."
Friday, January 7, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
Funny things happen to preachers
My longtime and dear friend Bruce Mitchell tells some funny stories from his days as a United Methodist pastor. I love this one and just have to share it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
"There was another surprising event early on in the pastorate.I was deep into an early part of a sermon when a cat came in through an open window behind the choir, and scooted over choir member shoulders, across the chancel, and down a flight of stairs. The choir was unnerved, and the congregation was amused. And there was a time when I offered a spirited altar call hoping for some seeking soul to come forward to accept Christ. I knew I was in trouble when I saw a tail wagging in back of a pew and our collie came down the center aisle, sat down at the communion rail,
and smiled. Yes, I can assure you, dogs do smile! And there was the day I offered a profound prayer aand asked the congregation to join in the Lord's Prayer (the Our Father in a Catholic Church). Just as we concluded this prayer, the public address system sounded out: "That's a big 10-4, good buddy!" A neigbor of the church was a hardline CB'er and his strong signal somehow was received through the PA system."
"There was another surprising event early on in the pastorate.I was deep into an early part of a sermon when a cat came in through an open window behind the choir, and scooted over choir member shoulders, across the chancel, and down a flight of stairs. The choir was unnerved, and the congregation was amused. And there was a time when I offered a spirited altar call hoping for some seeking soul to come forward to accept Christ. I knew I was in trouble when I saw a tail wagging in back of a pew and our collie came down the center aisle, sat down at the communion rail,
and smiled. Yes, I can assure you, dogs do smile! And there was the day I offered a profound prayer aand asked the congregation to join in the Lord's Prayer (the Our Father in a Catholic Church). Just as we concluded this prayer, the public address system sounded out: "That's a big 10-4, good buddy!" A neigbor of the church was a hardline CB'er and his strong signal somehow was received through the PA system."
Eleven Ways Leaders Can Serve the People They Work With
Recently Scooter Leonard, a great servant leader and the Business Manager of our church, Saint James UMC in Montgomery, shared the following excellent ways that a leader can serve the people he or she works with. I felt this list would be helpful to us all as we began a new year. You may want to share them with your friends.
11 Ways A Leader Can Serve The People He/She Works With December 16, 2010
I read Mark 10:35-45 the other morning and made a list of eleven ways that a leader can serve people (after all, Jesus said that is how to be a great leader.)
#1 – Adopt the mindset that these people work with me and not for me.
#2 – Provide enough margin for the people who serve with you to be creative and brainstorm ahead. (The pastor that works “week of” in regards to his message really does a great disservice to those who support him in regards to creative elements.)
#3 – Make sure that the people you serve with have the resources they need to do the job they are expected to do.
#4 – Say “thank you” and “great job” A LOT instead of just pointing out all of the areas where a person came up short.
#5 – Try your best to make sure that if an area of the church is going to be impacted by a certain decision that someone from that area had input in the decision making process. (Learned this one from Andy Stanley.)
#6 – Make sure the expectations for the people you lead are both spoken and realistic. (We cannot hold people accountable for unspoken, unrealistic expectations.)
#7 – Don’t confuse personal preferences with conviction from the Holy Spirit…if you tell the people you serve with that “God told me” then you had better be willing to bet your last Bible than you heard from the Lord!
#8 – Model what you consider to be important…in other words, when you are walking into the building and see a piece of trash on the ground…pick it up.
#9 – Listen to them!!!
#10 – Understand that your words weight 1,000 pounds…choose them carefully!
#11 – Understand that WHAT you say and HOW you say it matter…the people you serve with are human beings with hearts, minds and souls…they deserve to be treated as such.
Recently Scooter Leonard, a great servant leader and the Business Manager of our church, Saint James UMC in Montgomery, shared the following excellent ways that a leader can serve the people he or she works with. I felt this list would be helpful to us all as we began a new year. You may want to share them with your friends.
11 Ways A Leader Can Serve The People He/She Works With December 16, 2010
I read Mark 10:35-45 the other morning and made a list of eleven ways that a leader can serve people (after all, Jesus said that is how to be a great leader.)
#1 – Adopt the mindset that these people work with me and not for me.
#2 – Provide enough margin for the people who serve with you to be creative and brainstorm ahead. (The pastor that works “week of” in regards to his message really does a great disservice to those who support him in regards to creative elements.)
#3 – Make sure that the people you serve with have the resources they need to do the job they are expected to do.
#4 – Say “thank you” and “great job” A LOT instead of just pointing out all of the areas where a person came up short.
#5 – Try your best to make sure that if an area of the church is going to be impacted by a certain decision that someone from that area had input in the decision making process. (Learned this one from Andy Stanley.)
#6 – Make sure the expectations for the people you lead are both spoken and realistic. (We cannot hold people accountable for unspoken, unrealistic expectations.)
#7 – Don’t confuse personal preferences with conviction from the Holy Spirit…if you tell the people you serve with that “God told me” then you had better be willing to bet your last Bible than you heard from the Lord!
#8 – Model what you consider to be important…in other words, when you are walking into the building and see a piece of trash on the ground…pick it up.
#9 – Listen to them!!!
#10 – Understand that your words weight 1,000 pounds…choose them carefully!
#11 – Understand that WHAT you say and HOW you say it matter…the people you serve with are human beings with hearts, minds and souls…they deserve to be treated as such.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Sharing gracious comments by my friend Matt O'Reilly
Matt O'Reilly is a dear friend and fellow United Methodist pastor serving at Jay, Florida. In his stimulating and excellent blog, Incarnatio, Matt recently wrote these kind words which I am taking the liberty to share with my readers:
NEW BOOKS WORTH A LOOK
I wanted to point to a couple of books that I was pleased to see published as of late. The first is Commentary on Selected Passages in the Four Gospels: Searching the Scriptures for Grace and Guidance; the second is Commentary on Selected Passages in Paul's Letters: Searching the Scriptures for Grace and Guidance; both are authored by Walter Albritton and will certainly be worth a look. I'm pleased to see these books come out because Walter is to me not only a mentor, pastor, teacher, and colleague but a very dear friend. I was privileged to sit under his preaching for 13 years, and to this day he is at the top of my call list when I'm in need of wise counsel. In fact, I actually started this blog after some advice he gave me on becoming a better writer. I'm excited about these books because I know that so much of his wisdom will fill their pages. Indeed, these two books (available from Amazon.com or from the author) are the product of nearly 60 years of pastoral ministry and reflection. Walter has always been able to draw insights from the scriptures and apply them to the life of the people of God in accessible and encouraging yet challenging and edifying ways. All who read will benefit from these books. I'm looking forward to reading them myself. Keep an eye out for a review or two sometime in future. If you'd like to get to know Walter a little better, you can check out his blog.
NEW BOOKS WORTH A LOOK
I wanted to point to a couple of books that I was pleased to see published as of late. The first is Commentary on Selected Passages in the Four Gospels: Searching the Scriptures for Grace and Guidance; the second is Commentary on Selected Passages in Paul's Letters: Searching the Scriptures for Grace and Guidance; both are authored by Walter Albritton and will certainly be worth a look. I'm pleased to see these books come out because Walter is to me not only a mentor, pastor, teacher, and colleague but a very dear friend. I was privileged to sit under his preaching for 13 years, and to this day he is at the top of my call list when I'm in need of wise counsel. In fact, I actually started this blog after some advice he gave me on becoming a better writer. I'm excited about these books because I know that so much of his wisdom will fill their pages. Indeed, these two books (available from Amazon.com or from the author) are the product of nearly 60 years of pastoral ministry and reflection. Walter has always been able to draw insights from the scriptures and apply them to the life of the people of God in accessible and encouraging yet challenging and edifying ways. All who read will benefit from these books. I'm looking forward to reading them myself. Keep an eye out for a review or two sometime in future. If you'd like to get to know Walter a little better, you can check out his blog.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Lessons in Hope
Nothing less than the kindness of God has enabled me to prepare for publication my commentaries on the books of the New Testament this fall. The third and final volume is titled Commentary on Selected New Testament Passages Offering Lessons of Hope. Amazon.com will release this book for sale shortly after Christmas. The first commentary published earlier this fall is titled Commentary on Selected Passages in the Four Gospels. The second volume is titled Commentary on Selected Passages in Paul's Letters. Lessons in Hope will contain lessons drawn from the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Letters of James, Peter, John and Jude, and the Revelation of John. What is my audience in these books? My audience has always been ordinary disciples of Jesus Christ, the good people who are the strength of the local church. In my writing and my preaching I have sought to motivate people to fall in love with Jesus and to realize that the entire Bible is about Jesus Christ. The Old Testament says, "Someone is coming!" The New Testament says, "That Someone is here and his Name is Jesus!" My fervent prayer is that readers of these commentaries will be encouraged to dig more diligently in the Holy Scriptures and find joy in meeting the Christ who is "cradled" on every page. The books are available from Amazon.com or an autographed copy may be obtained by contacting me at walbritton@elmore.rr.com.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
AUBURN WINS SEC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME!!
Auburn finished strong and beat South Carolina 56-17 to become the SEC Champion! Already ranked number one in the BCS standing, the Tigers now should face off against the Oregon Ducks in Glendale, Arizona on January 10! Cam Newton is the most awesome football player I have ever seen in a football uniform! What a season to be an Auburn die-hard fan who bleeds orange and blue!!! Now the Tigers have a chance to become the national champion team in college football. Wow! It is hard to believe. I had predicted a record this fall of 10-2 but I am happy to have been wrong! Go Auburn!!!!!
So far, so good!
Well, it is halftime in the SEC Championship game in Atlanta and Auburn is leading 28-14. The Tigers are doing well and I hope this will not be another nail-biter like so many have been. If Cam and the boys win this, they will play in the national championship game in Glendale, Arizona on January 10. WOW! War Eagle!!
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