Ministry Nuts and Bolts

What They Don't Teach Pastors in Seminary

Aubrey Malphurs

• Publisher: Kregel Publications
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780825444432
• eBook ISBN: 9780825489488
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Ministry Nuts and Bolts provides the pastor or parachurch leader with a step-by-step guide for developing the foundation for a ministry in the twenty-first century. Veteran church planter, pastor, and seminary professor Aubrey Malphurs examines four foundational ministry concepts—values, mission, vision, and strategy—-and demonstrates how to develop them in local church ministry.Many seminary graduates envision ministry as ninety-five percent sermon preparation and five percent for everything else, as seminaries often neglect these keys to ministry. This essential guidebook will bring clarity to the pastor through Malphurs's wise counsel on leadership principles, illuminated by case studies and sound theology.

Part 1

The Values of Your Ministry

1

The Definition of Core Values

What Is a Credo?

A vital element of pastoral leadership today is to make sure that the ministry organization knows itself. Certain durable core values or beliefs underlie and define every organization—whether it’s a church, a parachurch ministry, or a marketplace entity. Core values are fundamental to all that the organization does. They are ministry defining and have everything to do with a ministry’s distinctiveness. They are what distinguishes one ministry from another, and they explain why some people are attracted to your church while others are repelled. They dictate personal involvement. If an individual’s core values align with the ministry’s, that individual is more likely to invest his or her life in that ministry. Values communicate what is important—the organization’s bottom line. Thus, core values define what you believe is God’s heart for your ministry or church.

Values are responsible for a number of other things as well. They not only inspire people to ministry, but they also enhance your leadership as well as shape the very character of your ministry. Most often, values are key to a church’s success or failure. Consequently, to say that discovering and establishing core values is important might be an understatement—they are critical to the existence of your ministry. In Rediscovering Church, pastor Bill Hybels writes, “In fact, establishing the core principles is so important that I’ll be devoting an entire chapter to the values that Willow Creek’s leaders have identified as central to accomplishing our mission.”¹ Unfortunately for Andy and the church, no one has ever instructed them in the importance of the ministry basics, or in this case, the importance of identifying and understanding their essential values.

Since a ministry’s core values are so important, we must pursue the question, What are core organizational values? The purpose of this chapter is to answer that question. I will begin by defining what core values aren’t. Next, I will provide a foundational working definition of what they are. Finally, I’ll build on that foundation by examining the various kinds of values.

WHAT CORE VALUES ARE NOT

Those who write on leadership and the organizational basics often confuse values with other key concepts. This makes it difficult for ministry leaders who desire to identify and work with these concepts. I draw a sharp line between the God-honoring values and the mission, vision, strategy, and doctrinal statements of a ministry.

Values Are Not a Mission

First, do not make the mistake of equating your set of core ministry values with your ministry mission. As you’ll discover in part 2 of this book, your ministry mission is a statement of what your ministry is supposed to accomplish. Your core values are not the same as your mission. Core values answer the why question for your ministry. They explain why you do what you do, supplying the God-ordained reasons behind what you do. They not only shape your congregational culture but dictate the precise biblical mission that you choose for your ministry.

Values Are Not a Vision

Second, do not confuse your core ministry values with your ministry vision. Like the mission, your vision also addresses what your ministry is, according to the Bible, supposed to be doing. Whereas the mission states in one sentence what you plan to accomplish, the vision paints a picture of the same. And whereas the mission involves the hill your army needs to take, the vision is what your army will look like on top of the hill.

Your ministry values should differ from your vision in at least three fundamental ways. First, like your ministry mission, the vision also answers the what question. It provides a clear snapshot of what the church is supposed to be doing. The central values answer the why question, providing the reasons for your vision.

Second, contrary to what many believe, a church isn’t vision driven. It is values driven and vision focused. On the one hand, when a ministry takes the time to carefully articulate its vision, its future comes into focus. The people who make up that ministry are better able to see the future; they can envision what they’re supposed to be doing. On the other hand, when a ministry has a shared set of values, it knows what is driving that ministry. Values move the ministry. They are the hidden motivators that dictate every decision it makes, every problem it solves, and every dollar it spends.

Third, every ministry, whether church or parachurch, has a set of core values. The ministry may or may not be aware of those values, and the values may be good or bad. Regardless, a values set is present because something drives the ministry. One of the reasons, though, that so many churches sprinkled across North America today are in trouble is because they have neither a vision nor a mission. They haven’t given much thought to what their future looks like; consequently, their future looks grim.

Values Are Not a Strategy

Third, you will confuse those in your ministry if you equate your values with your strategy. While your core values answer the why question, your strategy answers the how question. Values dictate the mission you choose for your ministry. Values will also determine the strategy that you select to implement that mission in your ministry community. Your strategy, though, addresses how you will realize your mission. The early church, for example, adopted Christ’s Great Commission mandate (Matt. 28:19; Mark 16:15) as their mission statement (Acts 1:8). Their strategy for realizing this mission consisted primarily of the three missionary journeys that Luke recorded in Acts 13–14; 15:36–18:22; and 18:23–21:16. The biblical values that surfaced in ministries such as the church at Jerusalem (Acts 2:42–47) deeply influenced this strategy.

Values Are Not a Doctrinal Statement

Fourth, many leaders and laypeople confuse the sound set of core values with that of the doctrinal statement of theological beliefs. When I conduct a seminar on developing a statement of values, called a credo, people often raise their hands and ask if I’m talking about developing a doctrinal statement for their churches. My answer is an emphatic, “No!” Most have a doctrinal statement; few, if any, have a credo or statement of core values.

The credo is the key precept that drives the ministry and dictates what its mission, vision, and strategy will be. A church’s doctrinal statement is a written document of its collected theological beliefs regarding such vital concepts as God, the Bible, the Trinity, Christ, the Holy Spirit, man, sin, angels, salvation, the church and its future state. Some slight overlap could exist between a credo and doctrinal statement, such as the importance of the Scriptures in directing the ministry or the Great Commission as the church’s mission. When comparing a church’s credo with its doctrinal statement, however, the difference is obvious. Consequently, I’ve provided an example of one church’s credo and its doctrinal statement in appendix A. Compare the two and you’ll quickly discern the differences.

WHAT CORE VALUES ARE

Now that you understand what core values are not, I’ll define what they are. I define a Christian organization’s values as the constant, passionate, biblical core beliefs that drive the ministry (see fig. 1.1). Core values are defined by five vital characteristics.

Core Values Are Constant

In the past, some old-timers caustically stated that the only thing you can be sure of is death and taxes. Today, we must add change. Secular writers tell us that change is now a constant—and they’re right. North America is in transition from the modern to the postmodern era. Whenever any country drifts from one era into another, it passes through a white-water change that affects the social, economic, political, and technological dynamics of that country.

The question for the church is How will it choose to respond to this accelerating change? In the 1950s and 1960s, it chose to ignore it. The typical church of that period functioned at a pace that was from five to twenty years behind our culture. Consequently, many a church has been out of touch with the people as well as the technology that could help it conduct its ministry more efficiently. Some churches are convinced that the computer is a tool of the Antichrist, and that a mimeograph and stencil is preferable to a copier.

The key to dealing with change is determining what will help the church versus what will hurt it. But how can churches do this? One way is to discover and articulate your ministry’s fundamental hierarchy of values. In Acts 2:42–47, Luke reveals that the Jerusalem church understood its values (see appendix B). This understanding helped them navigate their ministry ship through the sea of change that was taking place all around them as they struggled to move from an era of law to an era of grace. It also helped the Twelve in Acts 6:1–7 determine and focus their ministry (prayer and the ministry of the Word) during a turbulent time when they could have drifted off course.

If a ministry’s core values are to guide it through difficult times of transition, those values must not be in transition. If the values drive the ministry and if they change every other year, then the ministry will constantly be changing courses. The result will be chaos. At one moment the church targets the believing community, consisting of the already convinced. The next moment, the church has decided to change course and target unchurched lost people—the unconvinced. This leaves followers confused, bewildered, and angry.

Throughout a leader’s growth and development, as well as that of his or her ministry, there will be times of transition during which values formation takes place. An example is when a leader, such as Pastor Andy, has attended a university or theological seminary. Andy left seminary with some values that he didn’t have when he matriculated. He also jettisoned a few. As he continues to stretch and grow as a leader, he will continue to adopt new values and drop others. To a certain extent, Andy and most pastors constantly define and hone the unique set of values that undergird their ministries—here a tweak and there a tweak. It’s imperative, however, that they reach a point in their ministry development when those beliefs don’t change appreciably.

Another period of transition for the leader is a ministry-paradigm shift. The older, preboomer generation of North American pastors are facing this dilemma. They were trained under an older paradigm for ministry that was primarily pulpit driven. People also followed their leadership simply because of the authority of their positions—congregants did what the pastor asked because he was the pastor.

Core Values Are Passionate

Whereas vision is a “seeing” word, passion is a “feeling” word. Leaders feel passionately about their core values. Every leader has numerous values, but they are passionate about only a few. Your intellect will tell you what your values are, and if you conduct a values inventory, you might list fifty to one hundred values. Your heart, though, will tell you which of those values are priority—which ones you are passionate about.

Core values do more than build a fire in your heart and stir your emotions. They move you to action. You can’t walk away from your core values unmoved, or they aren’t core values. Core values are infectious. They leave you with a sense that you must do something about them. They move or drive you toward the vision—from what is to what ought to be. If I value authentic biblical community, then I’ll be in some sort of small group. If I value prayer, then I’ll frequently be on my knees. If lost people matter to me, then I’ll spend time with them. If evangelism is at my core, then I’ll become a contagious Christian.

Figure 1.1. Core Values—Defining Characteristics

Core Values Are Biblical

The core values that make up a ministry’s credo should be Bible based. If you look through the credos in appendix B, you will note that several actually provide biblical references. Saddleback Valley Community Church of Mission Viejo, California, lists seventeen core values. Every value has at least one passage o...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures and Charts
• Introduction
• Part 1: The Values of Your Ministry
• Part 2: The Mission of Your Ministry
• Part 3: The Vision of Your Ministry
• Part 4: The Strategy for Your Ministry
• Appendixes
• Notes
• Index
• Back Cover