My book is about churches—specifically the million or so of them that populate our planet. It is a familiar subject to most of the two billion people who claim Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and interact with one another regularly on Sundays and, often, through the week as well. As much as these vast numbers of people relate to their churches, we might expect that we would understand these organizations better than we do. At least we would think we would have a firmer grasp of the inner workings of our local congregations. But try as we may, this mysterious organism/organization known as the church still baffles us.
The subject of how churches differ from one another in their ministry style first captured my attention when I became a pastor in 1974. Soon after graduating from seminary I was ordained as an Assistant Pastor in a church of 300 people in the Washington, DC area. The first thing I began to notice was that my ministry style did not fit the expectations of the Senior Pastor nor mesh well with the way he conducted ministry. I had no concepts in those days to help me to understand the differences, but now I recognize that my Inspirational style (chapter 6) was attempting to serve in an Organizer Church (chapter 10) which was his style. As you will see in the charts that follow, my God given way of doing ministry was 180 degrees different from that of the pastor and church I served for those beginning five years.
Predictably, after the “honeymoon” period concluded, I found myself drifting into depression. I never got to the point that I could not get out of bed in the morning but during my second and third years at that church, I functioned most of the time at one half of my capacity. It was not until I began developing and leading small groups—a primary way in which Inspirers do ministry—that I emerged from my depression and started to experience some measure of fruitfulness. I realize now that I had become the victim of what is called the “60-40 rule”. The principle is that unless you are serving at least 60% of your time in your area of spiritual giftedness, talent, heart passion and temperament, then you will “burn out” within 18 months. This is the primary reason why 1/3 of MDiv seminary graduates who go into the pastorate, leave ordained ministry during their first five years. Through the grace of God ministering to me through my mentor, Richard C. Halverson of Fourth Presbyterian Church, and my beloved classmates from seminary who were also pastoring in the Washington area, I was empowered to persevere in this difficult situation for five years.
Then in 1979 everything changed. I heard about six families, one half of whom were from my home church—who wanted to start a new church on the western growth edge of Washington. My wife, three sons (ages 6, 3 and 1) and I leapt at the opportunity even though it meant giving up the financial security we had gained over the previous five years. In those days, I did not understand the principle that a church plant almost always takes on the ministry style of the planter. All I knew was that I immediately felt like a man set free because now I was able to minister in the Inspirational Church that I planted. The next six years were as fruitful as the previous five years had been lean. I felt like Joseph in the book of Genesis who endured with the people of Egypt the seven years of famine preceded by the years of plenty except for me the order was reversed. The difference was that Joseph understood why he and the people were experiencing such radical cycles of blessing and curse and I did not. During those years of plenty, we planted two daughter churches and helped to plant in our region an additional nine churches. In addition, we started ministries that had impact for the gospel throughout our county: a Christian bookstore, a prayer breakfast movement for leaders, a mercy ministry for those who were struggling financially and a youth ministry.
But all of that changed when I was visited by Paul Kooistra, the new President of Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. He was looking for a new faculty member to train his students in the practical aspects of ministry but especially in church planting. On my office wall I showed him a map of the Washington, DC area on which I had placed 100 pins indicating where we wanted to plant new churches over the next ten years. So I said thanks but I was experiencing too much blessing from the Lord doing ministry where I was to ever think about leaving. But no sooner had the man left my office than it seemed that every ministry I touched “turned to dust”. So after what my wife calls our “Job year”, named after the Old Testament prophet who endured such intense suffering, our family—now joined by our infant daughter—moved to St. Louis.
At that time, Covenant Seminary only had 120 students (compared to 1200 students now) and the faculty was seriously divided (which is no longer the case). I began planting new churches in the St. Louis area with our students and the Lord gave us good fruitfulness. However, what I had not counted on—because I did not understand the concepts presented in this book—was that the Seminary’s ministry style meant that I was once again attempting to serve with my Inspirational style in an Organizer/Classroom culture. So for the next six years, I returned once again to functioning at 50% of my capacity—at least during the part of my ministry that was on the seminary campus.
It was not until I began my PhD studies at St. Louis University in the School of Education in 1992 that I began to understand the reasons for my cycle of ups and downs in ministry. Because of my concentration in Educational Theory, I took a course in temperament studies along with a course in educational psychology. These studies introduced me to a new world of understanding regarding the diverse ways in which people learn and serve most fruitfully—which I quickly applied to myself and my students. Those studies provide the foundation for the concepts of my book.
