By Editor Bob Terry
The name of the church is unimportant. It could have happened anywhere. The church scheduled a weeklong winter Bible conference and invited a well-known seminary professor to lead the conference. The professor was to teach the letters of John Sunday morning through Friday night. Each weekday morning, he was to teach a doctrinal study.
Not many churches devote that much time and energy to January Bible study anymore. But this church wanted to make a statement about the importance of the Bible by the weeklong emphasis.
The week started well. There was a larger than average Sunday morning attendance, and the professor did a sterling job in the pulpit. It promised to be a great week. Only a few questioned the announcement that a meeting for all the youth going on the spring break missions trip and their parents was scheduled a half hour before the Sunday evening service.
As one might fear, what was supposed to be a 20-minute meeting to hand out information expanded to more than an hour. Parents had one set of questions; youth another.
By the time the meeting broke up, the professor was 30 minutes into his presentation. Some in the youth meeting just went home. Those who stayed were in no mind-set to listen and learn from the teacher. They sat there rehashing what had taken place in the youth meeting.
That was just the beginning. Monday night was the regularly scheduled deacons meeting. The pastor planned to start the Bible conference and then slip out for the meeting. He had considered rescheduling it, but the business meeting was the next Sunday evening and there were issues that had to be handled. He concluded that no one would miss him or the deacons, and if someone did, they would surely understand the necessity of the deacons meeting.
Tuesday night was the associational Vacation Bible School (VBS) clinic. It had been set for months. The church expected all its VBS workers to attend the clinic in order to be trained in the curriculum and the various responsibilities necessary to make the VBS successful. The church regularly reminded members that more children made decisions for Christ during VBS than any other activity the church sponsored. That meant preparing for VBS was important.
The Wednesday night Bible conference session started earlier than normal so the seminary professor would have more than the 30 minutes usually allotted for prayer meeting. However, no one told the Sunday School director who held the teachers and officers meeting to its regular schedule. The finance committee chairwoman didn’t get the message either. She planned a finance committee meeting to finalize the quarterly report for the upcoming business meeting. The Bible conference was well underway when each adjourned.
The seminary professor did well in every session, but attendance for Thursday and Friday was not what the pastor had hoped for. In truth, the winter Bible conference had not been supported as the pastor had anticipated. Instead of having a major impact on the church, it seemed to be just another event on the church calendar. The pastor even sensed some unhappiness, some frustration among church leaders that he did not understand.
During the next few days, the pastor got an earful of complaints about the week. The VBS director was upset that only about half the workers attended the associational training clinic. Now the church would have to do its own training sessions or have a substandard VBS and no one wanted that. The Sunday School director and finance committee chairwoman complained about the schedule. They needed time to do their work, but other things were scheduled on top of them.
Parents were upset that they did not have time to work through all the issues related to the youth missions trip. A couple of people even made remarks about noticing that Bible study “wasn’t important for the pastor and deacons.” Of course, the comments were made in a supposedly humorous fashion, but everyone knows humor is a good way to hide anger.
And there was the round of people who complained that the church got a great Bible scholar for a whole week and the people did not come. To this group, it just proved that a lot of people in the church really did not love the Bible.
In a conversation with a longtime friend and adviser, the pastor realized the church had failed at a basic leadership principle. By the way the church set its calendar, it had undermined the importance and success of all that went on that week.
The adviser reminded him that the church calendar is supposed to help people know what is important. When more than one event is scheduled at the same time for the same group, the calendar says that neither is really important. The events become activities to fill up time rather than things the church considers important. If something is really important, the church will schedule itself so everyone can participate.
To the pastor’s surprise, his friend expressed understanding for the VBS director. The training clinic was set before the Bible conference dates were finalized. The pastor’s decision to schedule on top of another important event not only created extra work for the VBS director, it communicated a lack of appreciation for what he did.
The way a church schedules its calendar can either encourage church leaders or undermine them. When time for organizations, programs and meetings is protected, the schedule conveys appreciation and encouragement. When competing events are scheduled on top of one another, the message is negative.
In hindsight, the pastor saw that church communications broke down. There had been too many assumptions, particularly on his part, about what people would do. He acknowledged that he should have made sure that all the people impacted by the schedule of the Bible conference had been contacted before everything was finalized. He would not let that happen again.
Perhaps the thing that stung the most in the conversation with his longtime adviser was the reminder that members are always watching — even imitating — what the pastor and other church leaders do. “If the January Bible study is not important enough for the pastor and deacons to participate in, why should I worry about it?” many will think. What the pastor does, his friend said, often times is more important that what he says.
Already plans are being made for next year’s winter Bible conference, but the pastor is determined not to repeat this year’s mistakes. In fact, the pastor reviewed the entire 2007 calendar to see if the church had similar minefields waiting to explode, and he has some changes he plans to suggest.
The pastor now recognizes that planning a church calendar is more than putting dates on a calendar.
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