Week 7: People - Campus vs. Church

1.  More choices for friendships: One thing that I have discovered at my time here at IWU is that if I want to I can surround myself with people that I have "hand picked" to be my friends.  There is a larger number of people and personalities to choose from here at school than there are in most churches.  The church I attend while I'm here at school has about 150 people in it and I see most of them every week while I am at church.  

2. Theological Issues: I think it's easier to get along with people at school because the issues that people have to face in church are sometime much deeper than issues faced a school.  Theology is one of those things.  People can form opinions about the university and what it stands for but when people begin to form opinions about a church it hurts more.  This is what they believe with all their heart and soul.  What they believe, in some circumstances, should not and can not be changed.  

3.  More Involved in Decisions:  At church, the congregation is a lot more involved in the big decisions that are made, whereas in a university there are a smaller number of people involved in making big decisions.  Churches seem to have a greater number of people who get involved in the deepest of levels and when something goes wrong or someone doesn't agree it can cause great division.  In a university setting, people are not as involved in the decision making process and that takes responsibility out of there hands and therefore when decisions are made, usually the community is not as greatly offended or affected.  

Week Seven Essay: church vs. campus

Week Seven Essay

People – Church vs. Campus

I think that there will be many differences between getting along with people on this college campus and getting along with people in the church you are working at. Some of these differences are.

1. At the campus you can avoid people if you want to, in the Church, as a pastor, you cannot avoid the people of your church so even if you are annoyed or clash with someone else you cannot avoid them

2. At the campus you can be respectful and courteous to the people you disagree or clash with, in the church you cannot just be respectful and courteous to the people of the church but you have to actually like them and carry on conversations with them and be involved with their life.

3. On a campus it is easier to get away from everyone by going home for a weekend or getting off campus for a day, in the church this is harder because it is your job to daily be involved with the people in your church. It is harder to take a weekend or a day off just because you want to.

4. There are usually less hurtful arguments or disagreements on a campus compared to the church. If someone on campus does something you don't like or disagree with then you can just choose to hang out with different people or just not do something with that individual, in the church disagreements are usually taken more personally and feelings are hurt and if people want to do something else they will usually have to leave the church and a lot of people get hurt through that.

Church Conflict Story

I interviewed Pastor Jared about this story.
Even though he hasn't had that much ministry experience, he has already heard a couple spiffles that have not ended very well. One in particular stuck out to him. There was a girl named, he called her Megan, and she was the type of girl who would back out at any sign of trouble. She was a youth staff member, so she was one who was helping out at her own leisure. Within the church they had specific training of how to deal with students when they are disrespectful. The way this was communicated to me made me feel as if she was sort of new at dealing with students.
There was a student who was from a very troubled home and it affected the entirety of the student. There was another student who was described as a pest, and would get on everyone's case about everything. On this paritcular instance, the pest was just annoying the troubled kid, to the point of the troubled kid hitting him in the face. Now, Megan, thought she was dealing with them in the right manner, but she wasn't. She grabbed the pest and the troubled boy both by the arms and began to raise her voice at them, both. This continued to frustrate the both of them, and she began to yell at them. Eventually the Pastor came over to see what the loud noises were about.
Long story short, the pastor had to then tell Megan that she did not properly handle the situation. He then told her that if the kids wanted to, they very easily could press charges against her for holding them back and grabbing them without their permission.

Week 7: Church Conflict Story

1.  I interviewed Pastor Matthew Trexler on Wednesday February 18th at Starbucks

2. This happened while Pastor Matthew was working on staff at his last church.  A pastor (Phil) on staff became aware of another assistant pastor who's actions with a parishioner who was a part time office worker were beginning to cause concern among people in the congregation and members of the staff.  The pastor was having one on one lunch meetings and behind closed door meetings with this parishioner.  The pastor was single and the part time staff person was married, regardless of this fact however they were not acting above reproach.  Phil, other staff members, and members of the church congregation began to notice this issue and so Phil approached this other pastor on staff to enlighten him to the issue.  Phil was told by the pastor that there was no issue and that none of his actions were a cause for concern.  Due to the lack of desire to change his actions, Phil then approached the senior pastor.  Phil informed the senior pastor of the issue and also included that the issue was causing disunity among the pastoral staff and among the church congregation.  Although Phil stated these issues to the senior pastor, no confrontation was made.  Phil then re-approached the senior pastor saying that the issue with the pastor who was not above reproach in his actions must be resolved today.  Phil laid out how to handle the situation with the other staff member but still no actions were taken by the senior pastor.  Finally, Phil began to realize that no actions would be taken by the senior pastor.  A response to the issue finally came when the local church board got involved and eventually told the district superintendent.  This issue caused pastors to realize that their leader was not willing to take necessary steps to protect the church and its members and Phil realized that it was time to resign.  This issue caused relations to be strained between staff members and the senior pastor.  

Week Seven Motivating Volunteers

Week Seven

Motivating Volunteers

I interview Pastor John Klotz of New Life Community Church on 02-02-2009 at 10:00 A.M.

The following is the list of five tips for motivating volunteers.

1. Go directly to a person and ask them to volunteer. A pastor usually has an idea of who they want working with what.

2. Have many mass announcements in the Church to let people know you need volunteers.

3. Let people know how long they are volunteering for. Many people think that when they volunteer they are volunteering forever, but that is not usually the case.

4. Give the specifics for what they are volunteering for. For example don't just tell people that they are volunteering for the youth ministry, but tell them what you need volunteers for and what they will be doing.

5. Assure volunteers that you will equip them to do the job they are volunteering for. Support and encourage people that are volunteering and don't just leave them out to dry. Give them the tools and equip them to be able to do the job and do it well. Don't just leave them out on their own.