The day after…

 The day after…

So I’m writing Monday’s blog post on Tuesday morning. Why? 

Because Monday did not go as planned. It frequently does not in the pastoral world. Partly because every pastor is a little bit different and so we all try to tackle Monday in those differences. 

Why is Monday a day to tackle?

Well, in the business world, Monday’s usually your starting point. So you have to fire up from downtime and get to work. That’s a challenge in its own right, getting started progressing through what the new week will bring, seeing what someone might have done over the weekend, restarting on this week’s deliverables, that kind of work.

In the church world, though, Sunday is the main day. Now, for some of you, this is going to sound less spiritual than you’d like, but the big “deliverable” for churches is typically the Sunday activities. There are a lot of other things that go on, that are important, crucial, parts of being the body of Christ in our current context.

But Sundays are a big part of what we do. It’s also become the habit, over the years, of being the one time some folks in the church try to talk to each other or ask about happenings in the church that may be months away. Any way you slice it, there’s a lot going on in the typical Baptist church on Sunday morning.

Monday, then, is a combination of recovery and action based on what happened during that Sunday time. As a result, it’s one of the most unplannable days on the calendar. Sure, I am heavily in favor of schedules and planning. Those make the days turn out functional.

Mondays, though, just don’t fit that. 

Which means that what you schedule on Monday may not get done until Tuesday.

Like this blog post.

Or plans for committee meetings.

Why does this matter? It’s a good reminder of a couple truths.

The first is that the more one can distribute responsibility, the better off an organization is. That applies to the big moments—I know some churches that have only 2 or 3 people handling everything that goes on during Sunday morning, and it’s exhausting—and to the every day. Organizational leaders have to find, develop, empower others to handle the work of the organization. It’s crucial.

The second is to hold plans loosely. You don’t want to have none, thus losing your time into the void. But you also want to know which times are hardest for you to hit with stability and keep your options a bit more open in that timeframe.

Those are the Monday thoughts…that had to flow over into being shared on Tuesday.

Sermon Recap for April 3

 Here is what you’ll find: there is an audio player with the sermon audios built-in to it, just click to find the one you want. You’ll also find the embedded YouTube videos of each sermon.

If you’d like, you can subscribe to the audio feed here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DougHibbardPodcast

Audible Link is coming soon! Search "Doug Hibbard" to see if it's there yet

Spotify is here: https://doughibbard.libsyn.com/spotify

The video is linked on my personal YouTube Page here: https://www.youtube.com/user/dheagle93

Sermons are stockpiled here: http://www.doughibbard.com/search/label/Sermons

Chaos Comes to Town

 Second day of April. Where are we now?

Well, there should be a useful, thought-provoking post that I can put up but instead I’ve got this: there’s always something that’s going to go wrong.

Look, I hate to be the bearer of that bad news, but it’s fundamentally true. Something is going to go wrong. You just cannot prevent it. You cannot out-think it. You cannot out-prepare it. You cannot simply wish it away as if, by keeping a positive outlook, the bad won’t creep in.

So what do you do with that?

Three steps:

1. Recognize the inevitability of chaos. Chaos comes in; therefore it is likely not your fault that it hit. Did you plan the reasonable things? Did you prepare for normal issues? Were you ready for one injury but not four? Were you hiking in the woods and therefore not expecting electrical shocks? That may sound like an appeal to absurdity, but look—that type of thing does happen and it’s not your fault for being in the woods. Did you plan to rely on someone normally reliable?

See, when you add others in, there’s a chance for chaos there: a reliable person isn’t exempt from flat tires or dead batteries. It happens. The world is not stacked toward easy street; it’s stacked toward chaos.

That means: do not blame yourself if you have prepared for reasonable situations. And use someone else’s definition of reasonable, Overthinkers of the World! Yes, asteroids have hit the earth before but it is not reasonable to expect it again during your golf game.

2. Start with a simple purpose that can be recovered when things go wrong. What was your purpose? For a church event—was it eat perfect food or have fellowship time? Have a defined purpose for what you are doing and when the chaos hits, focus on recovering the purpose not the plan. 

Say that with me again: focus on the purpose, not the plan.

Tomorrow morning, we gather with the church family for our weekly time of worship. Our purpose is to speak to one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, feast on the Word, pray together, and have fellowship time. It is not to accomplish the bulletin points—though those fit that purpose. If it goes off the rails, the purpose can still be recovered.

3. Remember that blame is cheap but learning is priceless. Why do you want to know whose fault anything is? To blame them? Lazy move. Almost useless.

To learn and to help others learn? Invaluable move. It helps alleviate the chaos and provides a purpose going forward. One can find fulfillment even when it goes wrong.

Oh, and if someone claims to take the blame but doesn’t take responsibility for learning? Then they are not getting the point.

Chaos happens. Things go wrong. Survive it and thrive with it as best you can. 

Things I have learned since I started blogging…

 February 26, 2008, I started this blog. At the time, blogging was all the rage in both social media and as a side function in church ministry. Several folks made money blogging, a few even got books deals based on their blog popularity. Some are still quite famous for putting together a blog and keeping it going.

Me? I haven’t garnered any money from this project. There for a time, I was signed up for Google AdSense, a program I don’t even know if they still have, but I made exactly nothing and so just deleted that. (If you see an ad here, it’s from the blog-host company, not me.) What I have done, though, is learned a few things. I thought I’d attempt a re-start into this habit by considering those.

To get there, though, let’s review some changes since that February…

First, when I started this, I lived in Southaven, Mississippi, with my wife and three small children (oldest was 6!) We owned a house. I worked for UPS and had just resigned from a bi-vocational (part-time pay) pastorate in Northeast Arkansas. 

Now? We live in Southeast Arkansas. Our youngest child is 15, the oldest is a junior in college, and we don’t own a house anymore. We learned in 2008-2010 the chaos of a bad housing market and in 2021 what a seller’s market looks like. We’ve passed through all the potty training and are almost done with driver training. I don’t work for UPS anymore and now am a full-time pastor.

Second, when I started this I had given up on formal education for me. I was about a third done with a Master of Divinity and thought that was all I would do there. Maybe I would stay with UPS and get a business degree and make lots of money.

Now? I finished the Master of Divinity and learned a lot about the differing educational environments in Christian seminaries. I am one dissertation and presentation short of a Doctor of Philosophy in Christian Heritage and also have two probable next degrees after I take some time off.

Third, wow, did I mention the kids have grown up a lot?

Fourth, we have moved and are on our fifth home since 2008. It’s a lot. Probably too much, to be honest, but you go where you need to and when you need to.

So, what have I learned?

I have learned that even with a broader depth of experience than many of my peers over the years, there is still a lot that I didn’t know. I personally would love to delete every website comment I made prior to about 2015 because I just don’t know if I agree with them anymore—and maybe half the ones since then! I might say the same things; I might say the same things in different ways; some I might completely disown.

I have learned that you can do the best you can and it will still fail. You will still fail. That does not make me a failure, or you one. It means you failed, yes, but what you do is only part of you who you are. 

I have learned that I talk too much and don’t listen enough. And still do.

A key thought, though, is this: I have learned that some folks do not accept that others are allowed to keep learning. It is important that we all keep learning, and it’s important that you let other people learn. Across those last 14 years, I have been rejected for jobs that I am glad I didn’t get; rejected for some I wonder if would have been good; but it’s all water over the levee at this point. There’s only one that still stings: a church in 2010 called a church I worked for in 2000-2002 and took that pastor’s word that I was immature, as if I hadn’t learned or grown in the life experiences across the 8 years since that time.

It bugged me that they then didn’t ask me about it. 

Here’s the rub, because I don’t really want that job (I like the one I have): I wonder how often I’ve done that? Judged someone based off of a long-ago portrait? Now, some character traits show easily and you it’s hard to change, but do we evaluate a person at 40 based on whether or not they were mature at 22? 

Do we in Christian circles judge someone’s theology based on papers they wrote at 24 and before they even knew Greek or Hebrew or what “homoiousious” means? 

Make space in your life to learn, but keep at a close second this truth: allow for the possibility that others have learned, as well. You are not who you were 14 years ago; make no assumptions that the other person is, either.

(Oh, and I haven't learned how to make anything but a flat text blog post.)

Sermon Recap for March 6 2022

Here’s the sermon from yesterday, along with the audio player that has all the sermons for a long, long time archived.

Sermon Recap and Weekly Wrap-Up for February 20 2022

Sermon Recap and Weekly Wrap-Up for February 20 2022 

Good Afternoon! Here's this week's recap. Remember that you can find the previous week's materials through the same links, in case I forgot to post last week🙂 

Here is what you’ll find: there is an audio player with the sermon audios built-in to it, just click to find the one you want. 

You’ll also find the embedded YouTube videos of each sermon. 

If you’d like, you can subscribe to the audio feed here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DougHibbardPodcast 

Audible Link is coming soon! 

Search "Doug Hibbard" to see if it's there yet Spotify is here: https://doughibbard.libsyn.com/spotify The video is linked on my personal YouTube Page here: https://www.youtube.com/user/dheagle93

Sermons are stockpiled here: http://www.doughibbard.com/search/label/Sermons 

 Sunday's sermon was from Exodus 5  

 Books this week: 

 Digging up Armageddon by Eric Cline: this is a great look not only at the archaeological finds at the site of Megiddo but even more it's a look at the ins-and-outs of a dig. All of the personnel matters, administrative matters, and even the "figuring out how to do archaeology as we go" that was happening in the 1920s/30s. (For those who haven't taken a class in the field, that's the era where archaeology tries to shift from the treasure-hunting type of digging into a true scientific discipline. Even those who weren't treasure-hunters were still often seeking something specific: "I'm looking for evidence of Greek siege of this city in 1300 BC" and the discipline has since morphed more into "Something was here, we'll figure out what it was." Much of that shift happened in the 20s and 30s.) 

The Discovery of Grounded Theory by Barney G. Glaser. Look, folks, I'm also an academic historian. This is a book in academic sociology. It's good for what it is, but if you're reading a mediocre pastor's blog, you're probably not looking for how to develop social sciences theory from incomplete data. It's on the list because I read it, not because you should. Unless this is your kind of thing. 

Mending a Fractured Church: How to Seek Unity with Integrity by Michael F. Bird. This is good--probably a necessary read for most church leaders (both "official" like the pastor and "unofficial" ones who typically actually direct a Baptist church). Bird and his contributors highlight the need for church members to pay attention to their own hearts, the means attempted to work on church issues, and the end goal of follow Jesus. Honestly, it makes me wish we had standards of required reading for ministers and church leaders in Baptist life. 

 Extra video:

Sermon for February 6 and Week-in-Review

 

Here is what you’ll find: there is an audio player with the sermon audios built-in to it, just click to find the one you want. You’ll also find the embedded YouTube videos of each sermon.

If you’d like, you can subscribe to the audio feed here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DougHibbardPodcast

Audible Link is coming soon! Search "Doug Hibbard" to see if it's there yet

Spotify is here: https://doughibbard.libsyn.com/spotify

The video is linked on my personal YouTube Page here: https://www.youtube.com/user/dheagle93

Sermons are stockpiled here: http://www.doughibbard.com/search/label/Sermons

Other updates from the week:

Last week’s book is short and simple: The Apostle’s Creed from Lexham Press, written by Ben Myers and illustrated by Natasha Kennedy. It’s a younger audience-oriented introduction to the Apostle’s Creed from history and it’s in the Lexham Press FatCat series, so there is a cute cat throughout! It’s fun. And easy to read.