Joseph Clifford, Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas, highlighted in today’s teleconference the value of knowing your church’s story. He illustrated the way he had gleaned a lot of useful information for his leadership from the official history of the church. One interesting story — in 1905, the new pastor of the church received a note from the treasurer pointing out that out of 700 members only 245 contributed to the church, and suggesting that “the church officers” needed to do something about this. A classic triangle, as Joe pointed out.

Joe talked about the way he’s tried to exercise self-defined leadership in a church which has always been highly anxious about money. Joe emphasized the importance of self definition in the pulpit around money and other issues, and the challenge of doing it in a way that tells a story and doesn’t become willful. One example: he shared in one stewardship sermon his own journey of giving, beginning with his own realization as a young man that what he thought was a lot of money was only 1% of what he made, and their own challenge as a family to move toward 10%. He was honest with the congregation about the fact that they didn’t always make it.

Joe also talked quite frankly about his own family story and his ministry. His story was to me a terrific example of grace at work through our families with their strengths and challenges — I’ll let you listen to the recording for details.

The recording of the teleconference is available. E-mail me at Margaret@margaretmarcuson.com, and I’ll send you the link.

Join me this WEDNESDAY, March 24, at 9:15 Pacific/10:15 Mountain/11:15 Central/12:15 Eastern Time for a one hour conference call conversation with Joe Clifford on the topic, “Do You Know Your Church’s Money Story?”

The Rev. Dr. Joseph Clifford is Pastor and Head of Staff, First Presbyterian Church, Dallas, TX. A long-time student of family systems theory, Joe’s D.Min. thesis at McCormick Theological Seminary was entitled “From Fear to Freedom: Self-differentiated Preaching in an Age of Anxiety.”

E-mail me at Margaret@margaretmarcuson.com with your interest, and I’ll send you call-in information. If you can’t make the call, a recording will be available.

This is the next of a series of conversations with leaders on money and ministry, the topic of my forthcoming book. There is no charge for the teleconference or the recording.

I hope you can make it Wednesday!

New Zealand Baptist blogger Mike Crowl posted here a great summary by Australian Baptist Rowland Croucher of my book Leaders Who Last.

Are you wondering why your church does what it does around money? Some congregations never believe they have enough. Other churches have a crisis in December year after year. They always come out all right in the end, but they have to panic first. Patterns which don’t make sense, and even those that do, but still never change, often have their roots deep in the past. In a recent Christian Century article, “The Past Isn’t Past,” Margaret Bendroth points out how the events of the past can repeat themselves, sometimes almost mysteriously.

Instead of tearing your hair out, do a little research. Make friends with the church historian. Read the annual reports. One pastor read through the reports for his church and noticed every pastor tried to make the same changes, going back before he was born. He realized the chance of him shifting those patterns significantly — as he’d hoped to do when he arrived — was small. In a way, this takes the pressure off.

You may say, “We’re facing a huge budget crisis here, and you want me to waste a week digging through old papers?” Well, there may be clues in the papers that can help in the present. James Lamkin, in January’s teleconference, said that he found in his own research that his church also dealt with recessionary times in the 1970s. He says, “When the anxiety rises, tunnel vision also comes about. It feels like we’ve never been here before, the sky is falling, this is the end of life on the planet. I made a copy of our church newsletter from 1975 about budget cutbacks and layoffs, etc.” He asked his leaders, “How in the world did the church handle this crisis? It looks worse then than it is now.” He used this to remind leaders of the resourcefulness the church had shown in the past, that was still available in the present. He adds, “It’s kind of like sliding Grandpa’s picture in front of the family and saying, you know he was a rascal, but man, he had tenacity, don’t you think?”

Every church story, like every family story, has its strengths and weaknesses. When we are honest about both, we allow room for shifts to happen — but don’t try to make people face their own patterns or their past history. It’s a way to open the door. You might say, “Hmm, I noticed this — what do you think about it?”

Here are some questions to ask along the way:

* How did the church get started? How was it funded at the beginning?
* What has been the pattern of support over the years? Annual giving? Endowment? Denominational subsidy?
* What financial crises has the church faced? How has the congregation weathered them?
* Are there particular areas of ministry, now and in the past, that become the focus of people’s anxiety about money: the building? Staffing? Mission/outreach giving?
* Who knows what about the money? Has that always been the case?

Bendroth says “Critical reflection on all the stuff of history, the good as well as the bad, is a source and a sign of institutional vitality.” It’s not a dusty past; it’s alive and well right now in your church. This reflection can help you lead more calmly in the area of money. It can give you perspective on your role and the overall strength the congregation has to maintain its ministry into the future.

It’s not always easy for pastors and church leaders to make thoughtful decisions about what information to share about money in congregational life, and how to share it.

Here are some questions I’ve been thinking about:

What is the purpose of the financial reporting of the church?
Who needs to know this information? President/moderator? Board? Staff? The congregation at large? Why do they need to know it? When do they need to know it?
What do our polity and structure tell us about how to answer these questions?
What does our history as a congregation tell us?
How can we make these decisions with the best long-term interests of the ministry in mind?

I’d like to know, how do you make these judgments in your church?

Have you ever read Homer’s The Iliad? My book group is reading it this month. I’ve wanted to read it my whole adult life, and I knew I couldn’t do it without a deadline. I met a man on a plane last fall who never travels with any other book — it’s all here, he said, human violence and struggle, all the themes that are still present today. He recommended Robert Fagles’ translation, and that’s the one we’re using.

So I’ve just started it, and it’s fantastic already. The language is amazing. The story is riveting. And truly, it really does make the challenges of church look easy. For one thing, while we may have questions about God sometimes, we’re not talking about the irrationality and capriciousness of the Greek gods as Homer depicts them. And church battles, while difficult, do not usually draw actual blood. The victor doesn’t steal someone’s woman (who was already considered the spoils of battle). It’s good to keep perspective.

What helps you keep your perspective on church?

Charles Hambrick-Stowe, pastor of First Congregational Church, Ridgefield Connecticut wrote an excellent piece this week on Duke Divinity’s Call and Response blog, entitled Is There a Christian Way to Do Performance Reviews?”. Well worth a look.

Today I met with a group of Presbyterian ministers here in Portland, Oregon. We’re going to spend a few months discussing my book, Leaders Who Last. We spent some time today talking about overfunctioning. One of the group members, Susan Grewe, co-pastor of Savage Memorial Presbyterian Church, quoted an important mentor of hers, David Steele. He said, “the art of ministry is knowing what not to do, and not doing it.”

There are really two parts to putting this counsel into practice: first of all, we have to figure out what not to do. What is our job, and at least as important, what isn’t our job. Then, and what may be harder, we have to discipline ourselves not to do them. For us overfunctioning types, this creates anxiety (what if no one steps in to do this essential thing which I know is not mine to do?) I have to be honest and say sometimes I know what not to do, and do it anyway (reminding my husband of things falls in this category).

Do you know what not to do? Can you not do it?

I finally saw the movie Invictus yesterday. It stars Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela. My colleague, Michael Nel, suggested it to me. He’s from South Africa, and said it was historically accurate as well as a great leadership story.

The intentionality of Mandela’s leadership is truly impressive. And it’s fascinating to see the way he uses something that might (to some) seem trivial — rugby — to connect with people who might be afraid, angry or resentful of his leadership. Freeman’s performance is also riveting. Don’t miss it, even if you don’t care about rugby, or sports. You’ll learn something about leadership.