Which Parking Spot for You?

Among the critical questions every minister and staff needs to ask as we begin a new year is this one: Which parking spot will you choose? Clearly, this question needs to be put in its proper context.

My father was the finest and healthiest minister I have ever known. While that sounds like typical son-talk, many others have concurred, and he had a unique and profound influence on my life. His piety, wisdom, life-balance, integrity and passion for leading a church to both reach out and reach in were unique and memorable. One of his traits that I have come to appreciate more and more across the years has been his humility. As I work daily in congregations and with clergy, I have a growing sense that humility, as Scripture defines it, is a needed and often missing component of a healthy ministry. In Romans 12, Paul makes it clear that pride is the enemy of our ministry. In verse 3 he insists “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think,” and in verse 10 he suggests an alternative to our tendency toward self-absorption: “Outdo one another in showing honor.” Even more forcefully, he reminds the Philippians: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”

One of my childhood memories as a pastor’s son was going to church early on Sunday mornings with dad. We would get there before anyone else, and he would pull into the large parking lot and head to the far end, eventually finding the parking spot that was the longest distance from the building. I would complain every time, about passing by all those good spots up near the building, and he would just smile and remind me that someone else would need that spot more than us.

I knew that not everyone thought that way. At banks, businesses, schools and some churches, the leaders had designated choice parking spots. Not us. We parked in the far country.

That simple act hinted at a fundamental understanding that clergy and congregations desperately need to emulate. Humility is at the heart of what it means to follow Christ. Self-absorption or narcissism will negate and destroy us if left uncorrected.

When I went to seminary, I naively thought every minister was like my father. I had a rude awakening. I eventually found my circle of like-minded friends and graduated full of optimism and hope. Unfortunately, my first congregational experience found me in the midst of a group of clergy who embodied pride rather than humility. I soon found that my clergy colleagues were guilty of embezzlement, theft, adultery, alcohol abuse and habitual lying. On the verge of leaving ministry, I decided instead to try and embody a healthy orientation to ministry for those I would encounter in the future.

Thankfully, I found three wonderful congregations and a host of colleagues across the ensuing years who also wanted to live out a Christ-centered model of ministry. I had seen the dark alternative, and I was convinced that we needed a clear voice for the kind of leadership that chose the distant parking spot rather than the prime one.

All of this personal reflection is intended to lead us back to the original question: which parking spot will you choose?
Congregations and clergy face a daily choice regarding our approach to our ministry. Will this be an exercise in self-fulfillment, or will we lose ourselves in the greater good of helping the kingdom come here on earth as it is in heaven? No clergy or congregation is pure in our motives, to be sure. We all have our dark sides that clamor for attention and resist the light.
However, if we can acknowledge our pride and submit it to the gracious lordship of Christ, there is hope. When we choose to forego the temptation of “me first” and instead practice the radical notion of “outdoing one another in showing honor,” something very special happens in a church. Conflict withers, minor irritants subside, competing views become cooperative and the community senses a fresh aroma (2 Corinthians 2:14) that defies conventional wisdom and is attractive and compelling.
In the end, we accomplish great things for God when we give up our need for attention and acclaim. Some of those will be things others notice and praise us for. But there will be times our actions will only be seen by those who look to the far reaches of the parking lot.

It all starts with a choice by each of us. Which parking spot will you choose?

—Bill Wilson (wgwilson@wakehealth.edu), president of the Center for Congregational Health in Winston-Salem, N.C.

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Linda Blair is a year round volunteer for Operation Christmas Child and is on the local Church Relations Team.

At the request of the state WMU office, she will be at the Mom and Me conference at Eagle Eyrie in April. The Shoebox Lady (as she is known by many) would be happy to present her Operation Christmas Child skit to churches/women’s groups.

You may contact her by calling her at home, 434.528.4649; at work, 434-299-7397; or emailing ldblair09@comcast.net.

Birthdays

Mar 2 Philip Ayers (Glade Creek)
Mar 4 Daren Davis (IMB Missionary)
Mar 7 Rick Mallory (Morgans)
Mar 24 Dennis Moore (Retired)
Mar 31 Harold Lewis (Walnut Grove)
Apr 9 Jackie Carver (Palestine)

Music Minister - Part Time
Hunting Creek Baptist Church
Big Island, Virginia

Hunting Creek Baptist Church is a Southern Baptist Congregation in the reformed tradition. We are looking for someone to lead our Music Ministry. This will primarily include preparation, and the leading of music for three weekly services (Sunday AM, Sunday PM, & Wednesday PM); and seasonal services. The music style of the church is “blended”. The Music Minister must be able to lead, and be excited about leading, the congregation in both older and newer songs. The Music Minister will also be charged with leading the choir, either directly or indirectly. Candidates must also be adept at playing either keyboard or guitar, and be able to lead other musicians, as well as have a basic understanding of audio equipment. In accomplishing the work of the ministry, the Music Minister will work under the direction of the Senior Pastor and with other church leaders. The new Minister and their family will become members of the church and be expected to participate accordingly.

Salary: $15,000
Contact: HCBC Personnel Committee
Contact Address: hcbcposition@gmail.com

Copies of the 2011 Annual Report of the Strawberry Baptist Association may be picked up at the office the middle of March. Please call 540.586.8345 before coming by.

Children’s Summer Music Camp
(Children who have completed grades K-6)
Monday, July 23, through
Friday, July 27, 2012
9:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Bedford Baptist Church

Musical Program, Friday, 7:00 p.m.

“The Lost Boy: Young Jesus in the Temple”

SBA Leadership Team (formerly Executive Board) Meeting
Tuesday, April 17, 2012, 7 p.m.
Quaker Baptist Church

Women on Mission: Radford will complete its three-month ministry of leading weekly devotionals at Oakwood Manor in March. Thaxton will lead them in April. Diamond Hill will host the March birthday party for residents of Bedford County Nursing Home; Palestine will host it in April. In December, Bethlehem sent several hygiene packages to the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women.

The 2012 WMUV Mission Trip to Standing Rock Indian Reservation is scheduled for July 29-August 4. Volunteers will engage in construction, medical, VBS, cooking, adult crafts, recreation, and a traveling fair. The first training session for new volunteers will be Saturday, March 3, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., at the Virginia Baptist Resource Center. To register, call 1.800.255.2428. Items for collection are: NEW shoes, new socks and underwear for all ages, money or gift cards, make pillowcases for boys, girls, teens, and adults.

Shine 2012: April 13-15, especially for teen girls and their adult leaders. Mission Focus: Pajama pants and pillowcases will be collected for teenage girls living on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and an offering will be taken to provide food for families living on the Reservation. Register online at https://eagleeyrie.wufoo.com/forms/shine-registration/.

Mom & Me 2012: April 27-28 and April 28-29, for girls (1st-5th graders) and their moms. The theme is: Heart/Hand/Hope/Haiti. Mission Focus: Each participant will fill a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child and will have the opportunity to give to support a water purification program for Haiti. Register online at https://eagleeyrie.wufoo.com/forms/mom-me-registration/.

Strawberry WMU
Annual Meeting/Prayer Retreat
Flint Hill, Saturday, April 28, 2012, 9 a.m.
(Covered dish brunch)

Our mission project for this year will be to collect household items—blankets, sheets (king/queen), towels, pots & pans, and silverware—for Bedford Christian Ministries. We want to provide the best to people who have little or nothing. So, as you donate, please either purchase brand new items or give gently used items (nothing broken/torn/smelly/stained/rusted.)

The Executive Board will recommend that the offering taken at the meeting (plus enough from our treasury to make a total of $500) be sent to the Metropolitan New York Baptist Association to purchase bed linens for their 50 beds.