Picking a New Church in a New City (part 5)

During the last several weeks, we've written about the journey that eventually led Teresa and I to join Covenant Fellowship church. This will be the final post in this series. Our desire has been to share how God has impacted us as we sought a new church in a new city. Our desire has not been to glorify our church or to paint a picture of a perfect church. The church, its leadership, and all its members are made up of sinful people (including us!). But, by God's grace, God changes us in such a way that we now have the power to love Him and other people.

God brought us to Philadelphia so we could attend seminary. We've learned a lot in seminary through books, lectures, and assignments. Being in seminary has felt like drinking out of a firehouse and getting flooded with lots of great theology. But, no one learns to do ministry by only sitting in a classroom. You don't learn to play golf by watching videos, reading books, or hearing lectures. You learn by getting your feet on the ground and taking swings.

If you've been reading our posts on picking a new church in a new city, you may see that Teresa and I have been challenged and grown from our church, just as we have grown through seminary. This last post will focus on the culture of humility that the pastors have developed, which includes working together as a team.

HUMILITY AS A CULTURE: PARKING TEAM?

During a membership classes, one of the teachers shared about an early experience he had with the church many years ago. He was fresh out of college and had served as a leader in campus ministry. He came to one of the pastors and offered to serve in a teaching or preaching role. The pastor said that the church needed people to serve on the parking team or in childern's ministry.

But he replied, “I don't think you understand. I have gifts and experience in preaching and teaching. You could use a guy like me.” The pastor calmly repeated what he had said earlier. Somewhat discouraged, the teacher shared about his hesitation to join the parking team. He was expecting to be up-front in a high-profile speaking role. Instead, he was in the church parking lot directing traffic!

Yet, the teacher told us that what he learned on the parking team completely changed his perspective on what it means to serve. He saw that service was about meeting the needs of others in a posture of humility, rather than advancing his own agenda. He learned the reality of Mark 10:42-45:

But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many

HUMILITY AS A CULTURE: PICKING A NEW SENIOR PASTOR

Another place where we've seen God work out humility in the lives of the leadership is in the area of ambition. We were encouraged by how our church chose their new senior pastor a few years ago when their previous senior pastor (Dave Harvey) changed his role from serving as the senior pastor of Covenant Fellowship church to serving other pastors at other churches in Sovereign Grace Ministries. Our current senior pastor Jared is in his early 30's, which is unusual; typically in churches, whoever has been around for the longest gets promoted to that role. However, during that transition, several of the pastors who had been around for 20+ years went to the senior pastor and said, "I think Jared (who had only gone to the pastor's college a few years earlier) is the one who has been gifted the best by God to lead our church as senior pastor." They recognized that the church would be best served if that role was filled by someone other than themselves, and were willing to give up their rights and ambitions so that the church would be built up.

HUMILITY AS A CULTURE: RAISING UP THE NEXT GENERATION

Another example we were encouraged with was how the more-experienced pastors mentor the less-experienced pastors. The ones with more experience are willing to give the younger ones their best sermon illustrations so that the younger men may be raised up in the church and thought well of, so that the church would benefit and grow in maturity. Even though no one would know that the illustration really came from the mentor pastor, they were willing to invest in the mentee pastor because they knew it would benefit the church. In our own lives, we recently wrote a script for a play for children's ministry, and our mentor Marty was more than willing to give us tips and feedback that really made the skit better, though no one would know about it.

Alex (who has only finished one year of seminary) has also been encouraged by how Marty (20+ years of experience as pastor) asks him for feedback on his childern's sermons. Wherever the Lord leads us to do serve, we want to have the humility to seek feedback and grow from all people at all levels of maturity in the body of Christ.

TEAMWORK MENTALITY

Another major thing we've really been amazed at is the idea of the body of Christ working together as a team for the good of the church. We've been encouraged at how this type of culture is seen not only in the pastoral team, but also in children's ministry, where we are currently serving. For every child that is enrolled in children's ministry, it is expected that one of their parents will serve in children's ministry. As a result, each Sunday, a whole army of parents and other volunteers comes together and shares the load of the ministry.

There are multiple rotations of multiple teams who cover a variety of different functions. There are coordinators for the different ages who make sure the lessons are carried out consistently from team to team. The coordinators also rotate every other week. That way, no one gets burned out and people get to be a part of ministry with their kids. Not one person does the lion's share of the work, and every person is dependent on the other team members in order to succeed. No matter what your experience level, there is a place where you can serve and be a vital part of the ministry, because every person is vital.

Alex and I were challenged at how that would translate into how we live our own lives. Are we willing to help another classmate with something they were struggling in so that they get a better grade? Can we realize that others' gifts and talents are a great fit for a coveted internship instead of our own? Do we recognize how God has created us all differently with strengths and weaknesses, and be content in that and not in fulfilling our own desires and aspirations of glory? On our own, we are helpless, but with God's help and the Spirit's work in our lives, I pray that He would continue to work in our lives more and more in this area.

RESOURCES

Finally, we've learned a lot from others who have thought long and hard about what the Bible teaches about the local church.

One book we highly recommend is “9 Marks of a Healthy Church” by Mark Dever. If you're curious about the content, my friend Geoff Prewett has written a very good summary and review of it here. This isn't a comprehensive list of 9 things that your church must have. According to Dever, it is a list of traits (taken from scripture) that have grown rare in the American church.

Teresa helped revamp the membership class at Austin Chinese Church when she was working as an administrative assistant. The course now uses a book called “What is a Healthy Church Member?” by Thabiti Anyabwile.

Alex also read a book called "The Shepherd Leader" by Tim Witmer, a professor at Westminster. It is an excellent scriptural and historical look at how God calls pastors to be shepherds (and not managers) and will hold them accountable for this. Witmer describes for pastors and elders what this shepherding responsibility looks like in the trenches of the local church.