The Swedish pop group ABBA had a career that roughly paralleled the seven-and-a-half years that I was a youth pastor.
I was never crazy about their outfits … didn’t know the two female vocalists were each married to a different male vocalist … and wasn’t aware of their history or histrionics.
But regardless, songs like “Knowing Me, Knowing You,” “Take a Chance on Me,” “Super Trouper” and even “Mamma Mia” are superb songs.
And for me, music isn’t about an artist’s lifestyle or love life. It’s about the songs … and if a song is great, I don’t care who sings it.
In times past, some Christians have divided music into sacred music (songs to and about God) and secular music (songs about life and/or love, but not God).
I suppose I once thought that way, but as I’ve gotten older, I find that I only recognize two categories of music: good music and bad music.
A non-Christian can write and perform a good song, while a Christian can write and perform a bad song. It’s not about the faith of the artist … it’s about the song itself.
And when an artist compiles a collection of great songs, they’ve put out a classic album.
Two weeks ago, I presented five secular albums that I think many Christians would like:
https://blog.restoringkingdombuilders.org/2016/08/04/ten-secular-albums-for-christians/
Among secular artists, here are five more albums that I believe Christians can enjoy:
Mary Black: Babes in the Wood
Mary Black is one of the foremost female vocalists that Ireland has produced over the past thirty or so years … and maybe the very best. She’s not a songwriter, but an interpreter of songs.
I first was exposed to her music when I was searching online for songs by The Corrs and someone had mistakenly labeled “Song for Ireland” by The Corrs … but Mary Black was the one who sang it.
If you love Ireland or Irish music, and you aren’t familiar with this song, I encourage you to find it and listen to it. It’s incredible!
There is a spiritual sense to some of her music, especially on this album, where the first two songs – “Still Believing” and “Bright Blue Rose,” set the tone. The latter song ends with these lyrics:
One bright blue rose outlives all those
Two thousand years and still it goes
To ponder His death and His life eternally
I bought all of Mary’s albums used from Amazon, and some came very cheaply. Then I discovered that if you buy music from her website, she will sign what you buy for free if you ask. I bought two items and ended up with three signatures!
As I’m getting older, I’m looking for artists who are talented but sing about things that I can relate to, and Mary Black’s music fits the bill. I encourage you to check out her music!
Ray Davies: The Kinks Choral Collection
The Kinks are the most British of all British Invasion groups. I was never a big fan, but sometime last year, I read a review of The Kinks Anthology: 1964-1971 in, of all places, World magazine (an evangelical Christian print/online magazine).
I started poking around some of The Kinks’ music online, and found myself thoroughly enjoying much of it. Ray Davies – chief songwriter and vocalist – writes witty observations about life. Sometimes the music is on the raunchy side (remember “Lola?”), but most of the time, The Kinks’ songs provide insight and perspective on everyday life experiences.
The Kinks Choral Collection consists of many of the band’s most famous songs. Ray Davies does all the lead vocals, but this time, he’s backed by The Crouch End Festival Chorus … and most of the time, it works.
The album contains songs like “Celluloid Heroes,” which is my favorite Kinks’ song, and one I played for my mother-in-law a few years back. (She loved it.) It also includes “Waterloo Sunset,” named the 42nd greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone, as well as “You Really Got Me” and new song “Postcard from London,” a nostalgic look back at the City on The Thames featuring a duet with Chrissie Hynde.
Roughly half the songs come from one of the best albums you’ve never heard: The Village Green Preservation Society, an album that came out on the same November day in 1968 as The Beatles’ White Album. Rated 5 stars by The All Music Guide, Davies and company look back at the England of their childhood with sympathetic portraits of fascinating people.
Although he doesn’t claim to be a Christian, a lot of songs on this album sound like hymns, such as “Village Green,” which contains this lyric:
I miss the Village Green
And all the simple people
I miss the Village Green
The church, the clock, the steeple
I miss the morning dew
Fresh air and Sunday School
The Kinks aren’t for everybody, but almost anyone can listen to and enjoy this album. It’s a lot of fun.
Neil Young: Comes a Time; Harvest Moon; Prairie Wind; Silver and Gold
Neil Young can rock out as hard as anybody, which is why many people consider him to be the godfather of grunge.
But out of all the music I own, nobody does slow, thoughtful, and simple acoustic music better than Neil Young … so much so that I have an entire playlist devoted to his acoustic songs.
I’m sure the critics can distinguish between these albums – done nearly thirty years apart – but for me, the songs all blend together, which is why I didn’t choose one album above the others.
Memorable songs include “Four Strong Winds” (a song by Canadians Ian and Sylvia from the mid-1960s), “One of These Days,” “Buffalo Springfield Again,” and surprisingly, “When God Made Me,” which again, sounds like a hymn. Some of the best songs from these albums were done on the DVD “Heart of Gold” which is a top-notch concert from the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.
Neil Young is intentionally unpredictable, which is part of his charm, but if you want some great background music while you’re working or driving, any or all of these albums will work.
Paul McCartney: Back in the U.S. Live 2002
Back in early 2002, Paul McCartney announced that he was going out on tour … his first one in many years … and opening night was just ten minutes from my house.
I thought it unlikely that I could buy tickets, especially because they were going on sale Sunday at 10 am, and you had to call the ticket outlet on the phone … and, of course, I had something else to do during that time.
But my wife got sick and had to stay home from church, and she called at precisely the right time, because when I came home from church, she had purchased three tickets to the concert. When the show started, I broke into tears because I never dreamed I’d be able to see Paul McCartney in concert.
Paul McCartney is my favorite singer for many reasons, but one is that I can actually sing along to most of his songs. I’ve now seen him in concert three times and he puts on a phenomenal show.
This album, in my view, has his best selection of live songs, including the song he wrote after 9/11 called “Freedom,” which begins this way:
This is my right
A right given by God
To live a free life
To live in freedom
I remember when many adults and most Christians hated The Beatles, and now everybody seems to love them. Whatever one thinks about their beliefs or lifestyles or influence, their songs will live on long after the last two remaining Beatles are gone.
Bob Dylan: Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006
In my view, Bob Dylan is the greatest songwriter of the twentieth century. He broke all the rules for songwriting in the mid-1960s and is incredibly prolific. I have more albums by him than by any other artist.
One of my best friends is a pastor and quotes Dylan often in his sermons, and every time he does, I smile because my friend first introduced me to Dylan nearly 50 years ago.
I know, I know … some people can’t stand Dylan’s voice … but nobody sings Dylan like Dylan, and it doesn’t take that long to become accustomed to his style.
Dylan hasn’t officially put out a lot of his best stuff, so Columbia started the Bootleg series in 1998 to clean up the sound from many of his unreleased or live recordings … and to put some bootleggers out of business.
When this album came out in 2008, I listened to it repeatedly. It has alternate versions of already released songs like “Mississippi” and “Dignity” as well as a smattering of never released songs.
The best song on the album is the last one, the incomparable “Cross the Green Mountain,” a song about the Civil War sang by one of its participants. It’s one of the most powerful, raw, and brooding songs I’ve ever heard, and you’ll never forget it if you hear it, either. Just a masterpiece.
I could include many additional albums, but these readily came to mind … and if you noticed, I tend to prefer artists who are roughly my age because we’ve had similar life experiences.
Thanks for letting me indulge my passion for music!
More about pastors and conflict next time.
Restoring Kingdom Builders 
The Pastor Point System
Posted in Conflict with Church Antagonists, Conflict with Church Board, Conflict with the Pastor, Pastoral Termination, Please Comment!, tagged evaluating a pastor, pastoral termination, terminating a pastor on August 25, 2016| 4 Comments »
During my last pastorate, a senior couple – who were both very supportive of my ministry – lived in a local retirement home. The man eventually died, and his wife asked me to conduct his memorial service at the retirement home so the seniors wouldn’t have to leave the premises.
I had agreed on a time for the service with the widow, but then we spoke a second time on the phone, and she wanted to change the time. On the day of the service, I became confused about when I was supposed to be there, and showed up 30 minutes late … to a packed room of anxious seniors. Fortunately, the widow was an incredibly gracious person, and she smoothed things over for me, but my mistake could have been disastrous had she been vengeful.
Dr. Leith Anderson (one of my professors in the Doctor of Ministry program at Fuller Seminary), in his book Leadership That Works, discusses the concept of “parish poker.” Although Anderson isn’t a gambler (and neither am I), he states that at the beginning of every poker game, each player is given a certain number of chips.
In the same way, Anderson claims, a pastor is given 50 to 100 chips when he comes to a new church. After that, he either gains or loses chips depending upon that church’s unique value system. Anderson cites a few examples:
*Preach a good sermon (+2 chips)
*Preach a bad sermon (-8 chips)
*Visit sick person in the hospital (+7 chips)
*Sick person dies (was expected to recover) (-10 chips)
*Sick person recovers (was expected to die) (+40 chips)
*Bring cookies to monthly board meeting (+1/2 chip)
*Lose temper and shout at board meeting (-25 chips)
In his book, Anderson tells the story of a new pastor who was called to a conservative mid-western church. He came a few weeks early to settle in, and on the Saturday before his initial Sunday, the pastor gave away the pulpit to another congregation … without asking permission. According to Anderson, that decision cost the pastor 2,000 chips, which means he’d have to preach 1,000 good sermons just to get back to zero … which would take 20 years!
That pastor was done before he even started.
Here is why “parish poker” or “the pastor point system” matters: because as a pastor’s total points nosedive, he’s increasingly likely to be terminated.
There are two ways to be terminated using the point system:
First, you lose a massive number of points at once. Examples:
*Tell your church that everyone will be saved (-5000 points)
*Have an affair with a board member’s wife (-5000 points)
*Embezzle funds from the children’s ministry (-5000 points)
*Hack into the associate pastor’s computer (-5000 points)
Second, you stop gaining points but steadily lose points over time … eventually plunging toward zero. Although this isn’t easy to do, some pastors have mastered the art.
To switch the analogy to banking, they are great at making withdrawals … and poor at making deposits.
Based upon the 36 years that I served in 9 different churches, let me add some events/incidents that involved me as pastor:
Failure to use the Scofield Reference Bible (-3o points)
Visiting seniors at home to shoot the breeze (+20 points)
Letting youth attend Christian rock concerts (-100 points)
Holding a missionary conference (+25 points)
Discovering your son peed on the church lawn at the conference (-25 points)
Having a band during Sunday worship (-200 points)
Baptizing a new convert (+10 points)
A longtime family leaves the church (-40 points)
Conducting a funeral for a longtime member (+35 points)
Confronting a staff member about misbehavior (-75 points)
Earning a doctoral degree (+5 points)
Failing to say hi to someone one Sunday (-15 points)
Raising almost a million dollars one year (+80 points)
Falling behind the church budget the next year (-300 points)
Let me make five observations about this point system, especially as it relates to pastoral termination:
First, as I did this exercise, it was simple coming up with minus points, but challenging to come up with plus points.
Maybe I forgot all the good that I did … or maybe it’s just easier to remember the criticisms than the compliments.
When a pastor first comes to a church, it seems like he can do no wrong. But a few years later, it can feel like he can’t do anything right.
I don’t think a pastor can do much to acquire a lot of points at once, even if he wins the mayor to Christ. You build your points slowly.
But if you mess up, you can lose a lot of points quickly … and it’s usually not what you did or didn’t do, but who you offended that matters.
Second, value systems vary – sometimes wildly – depending upon the church or the person.
In my first pastorate, I was expected to visit all the seniors in their homes at least quarterly … just to talk. But in my last three pastorates, nobody expected me to visit anybody in their home.
In my second pastorate, the head of the deacons as well as the head of the deaconesses (they were married to each other) both left the church because I wouldn’t forbid our young people from attending Christian rock concerts, which were still in their infancy. In the churches I served subsequently, that was never an issue with anyone.
If a young pastor grew up in a church, and only knows one way to do ministry, he may have a hard time in his first or second pastorate if he tries to impose the value system of his home church onto his new one. The point system in every church is different, and it takes a while to learn what’s commendable and what’s condemnable.
In fact, one of the wisest things a new pastor can do is to get to know those who know the history of the church, and to discover what will get you applauded … or assaulted.
In my second church as a youth pastor, an entire family opposed my ministry because the previous youth pastor – whom I knew – had painted the youth room orange without permission. Since we both had gone to Biola, this family assumed I would operate as he did.
Third, a pastor needs to accumulate a lot of points up front to survive his inevitable mistakes.
My father-in-law, my first and best ministry mentor, told me that when I first became a pastor, I should (a) work very hard my first year and develop a reputation as someone industrious, and (b) choose a Bible book with a positive message to preach from. (He suggested Philippians.) In other words, he was telling me, “Slowly acquire lots of points … and don’t do anything to lose points.”
Then the wife of one of the deacons announced she was divorcing him, and no matter what I did, I was going to lose points … and I did … but not that many.
I know there are people on both sides of this issue, but I really believe that a new pastor has to take his time and get to know people before he starts making changes at the church. He needs to amass hundreds of points before he begins to say and do things that are guaranteed to lose scores of demerits.
Fourth, double the minus points when you’re dealing with a church bully.
If the pastor hurts Bill, and Bill is a kind and quiet man, the pastor will only lose a few points.
But if the pastor hurts Joe, and he’s loud and opinionated, Joe will tell his network what the pastor did … act like a victim … try and turn others against him … and the pastor will lose many points quickly.
In one church, I suggested going to lunch with a bully, but he didn’t want to know me because he wanted to keep me at arm’s length as a scapegoat. Whenever I was around him, I kept our conversations brief because I didn’t want to give him any ammunition he could use against me. I probably acquired a few minus points from him by doing that, but that was better than losing scores of points by opposing him outright.
Most people in a church will give a pastor the benefit of the doubt if they witness or hear about something that concerns him. But a church bully won’t cut the pastor any slack.
Finally, a pastor may never know when he’s lost enough points to be terminated.
This is because the scorekeeping is never public. Points reside in the head of a church bully … the wagging tongues of a faction … or secret meetings of the official board.
Pastors inherently know that if they are guilty of heresy, sexual immorality, or felonious conduct, their days in a church are numbered.
And pastors often know who the scorekeepers are in a particular church, but pastors usually don’t know the point system the scorekeepers are using.
A pastor might think, “Okay, I didn’t say hi to Jane … that’s probably only a loss of 3 points.” But if you offend Jane, she might debit you 100 points.
This is why pastors are shocked when the board suddenly asks for their resignation. By the pastor’s reckoning, he’s up 2,472 points. By their reckoning, he’s 2,472 down.
Obviously, a pastor can take this point system to ridiculous lengths. You can’t have a positive, influential ministry if you’re walking around mentally adding and subtracting points all day.
Ultimately, a pastor has to try and please the Lord, and let the point system go. We aren’t saved by our good works … we are saved by God’s grace.
But sadly, pastors are employed by good works … a point system … and over time, they can lose so many points that they’re toast.
What are your thoughts about the pastor point system?
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