Getting to Know You - Wisconsin, Day 2

Thursday was "Meeting" Day and it was a hot one. At least the folks from Wisconsin thought so. Every place we went people commented on the temperature. Even the local news channel commented on how it was about 10 degrees above normal for this time of year. The sweltering temperature? 80. With hardly any humidity. Ron and I would have been dancing in the streets if we hadn't been Baptists! We began the day's agenda with a two hour meeting of BLBA pastors. They have this meeting every month and call it their monthly pastor mentoring meeting. What they do is mentor each other. They sometimes study a book together and discuss it. They always pray together about their personal needs, the needs of their churches, and the association. For some of them, this meeting each month is the only contact they have with another pastor. When you are truly isolated, you realize how important those relationships are. Eight of their pastors were present. There are currently only 19 pastors in this 26 county association, so it was a pretty good representation. I would love to see that percentage of our 57 current pastors at our monthly pastor/staff prayer luncheon (that would be 24 if my math is correct). After the prayer time, Dennis Hansen (BLBA DOM) asked me to share about the partnership. I told them how God had put the pieces in place going back to Henry Blackaby challenging me to pray about God's plan for my ministry in August '08, meeting Steve Melvin (Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention) and Dan Casper (BLBA) in October '08, hearing about the BLBA Vision Tour in Jan '09, and my first trip to Wisconsin in June '09. We spent time talking, discussing, answering questions, enjoying each other's company, laughing together, and just getting to know each other as brothers in Christ and potential kingdom partners. We gained a new appreciation for their concerns that (1) people from Texas would come and try to tell them how to do their ministry and (2) people from Texas would come and do things for them and their churches would become dependent. So, part of our conversation was about how we could keep those things from happening. I believe it was truly a fruitful meeting and we are beginning to put some things in place that will bear longterm fruit for the health of both associations and the benefit of all our churches. After enjoying lunch with several of the pastors, we went back for the second meeting of the day. This one was with the administrative team of BLBA. During that meeting, we talked about some financial arrangements that are being made in both associations and BLBA elected three people to serve on the Partnership Planning Group (along with the three that have been elected from HBA). Again, a fruitful meeting that lasted until mid-afternoon. Ron and I drove back to Green Bay and did a little more driving exploration around town. We found the downtown area, drove across one of the drawbridges that crosses the river, and even found a "Beach" Park on the Bay that had a little amusement park with rides, go-carts, a wildlife sanctuary, picnic area, etc. Should one of our churches bring a youth group up here for ministry next summer, it could be a cool place to spend part of a day. The reason "Beach" was in quotations is because the word was in the name, but there was no beach to be seen, unless the word is defined as the grassy, weedy area next to the water. So, my day two reflections go this way. In my 20 years as a pastor, I had quite a few times when the Lord had given me a vision for ministry. I thought about it and prayed about it and spent a lot of time on it for days ... weeks ... sometimes months. When I shared my excitement with the church, the response was often less than enthusiastic. It was not necessarily opposition, they just couldn't be as excited as I was because they hadn't spent all the time thinking and praying about it and they couldn't see it like I saw it. I think it is the same with this partnership both in HBA and in BLBA. We have a couple of DOMs who are pumped. We have spent months thinking, praying, dreaming and (sometimes) forgetting that those we work with haven't been in on all that. That realization helped me explain things to the pastors yesterday because they know what that experience is like. It is a great reminder that the Lord's work is always about people. It is always carried out in relationships. Getting to know one another and trust one another is not preliminary to ministry. It is part of the ministry. I can't wait to see what God is going to do next.