I Have Lots Of Time To Deconstruct Now

It's been awhile since I've written down any of my thoughts in this journal. One reason is that I've been really busy.

Well, now there's another reason. I resigned from my job.

Anyway, this gives me a lot of time to hang out with my daughter - since now my wife has to work more hours at her job so that we can survive for awhile - as well as continue to "de-church" and consider what's next. Before I think about that, however, let me write down the things that bugged me about the senior pastor, so you, my journal readers few and far between, can understand why this guy was such a pain to work for.

1. He never planned ahead - at all. Every decision was last minute, which meant that the rest of the staff had to scramble to get everything done at the deadline. He also was week-to-week with sermon preparation.

2. He is such a poor communicator. He never communicated with me or the rest of his staff on anything. We were supposed to get together once a week to iron out the details for the upcoming Sunday and to deal with conflict, but he would cancel all the time. Also, he would make a decision and tell someone on staff or eldership, but would never communicate it with everyone, which was very frustrating.

3. He is a positional leader. What I mean by that is that he operates on the lowest level of leadership - using his position to lead others. It's his way or the highway.

4. He makes poor decisions and then the staff has to cover his butt. For example, the commercials.

5. He really only cares about himself. One time at a staff meeting, he and I got into an argument because our services are only an hour long, and we only have 15 minutes in between, and he was consistently going over. When I confronted him on this, he told me that he had decided that he was a 40 minute preacher. I told him that was great and all, but he didn't have 40 minutes. I then laid out all of the ministries that were suffering because he was going over - and he still didn't care. What a jackass.

6. He has set up the church in such a way (since he is the one who planted it) that no one can hold him accountable for anything. The eldership is a joke - 3 of his best friends and one new guy. He can do anything he wants and no one can challenge him on it. I tried and I got too frustrated and left.

7. He doesn't really want to know staff on a personal level. I was at his house two times in three years - one was to drop off a dinner we had made when his wife had a baby, and the other was for a baptism ceremony. He never came into our offices during the week just to chat. He pretty much again cares only about himself.

8. Everything he is in charge of has failed. He used to be in charge of small groups and those were horrible until he gave that responsibility to someone else. He is in charge of setup/tear down, and no one ever shows up because he somehow thinks that if he just announces it on a Sunday, that a hundred people will show up - and stay showing up.

9. He is incompetent. He cannot take the church to the next level. He spends most of his week shopping for golf clubs on eBay, going golfing, paying his bills, and talking to his buddies. He spends very little time on his sermons, and it shows.

10. He is hyper-competitive. I think it stems from the fact that his younger brother is a better athlete than he is. His father-in-law is pastor of a church of 12,000 people, and I think he's jealous of that and wants to reach that too. He is proud of the fact that his church is farther ahead in numbers in seven years than his father-in-law's church was. Who gives a crap.

Well, that's enough. I'm sure there's more.

Anyway, I will probably be posting in here more often since I've got the time.