Drew Boswell

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Institutional Memory

Today is our sixty-fourth day of being the Pastor of Children and Families at First Baptist Church Valdosta in South Georgia. My family and I are being exposed to a new city, new schools for the kids, new friends, new church facility, and new staff to work with.  When any person comes into a new position in an organization, especially a church that has existed for 150 years, there is a base of knowledge that the organization has, that the new person does not possess.

For example, every week that I have been at my new ministry position I have discovered different things about the church and its’ history. I discovered that the youth building used to be a hospital and has a morgue in the basement. I discovered an old safe in one of the front Sunday School rooms. I discovered that we owned a garage across the street and it was filled with all kinds of treasures (like racks of canoes, Boy Scout supplies, a huge Bar-B-Q cooker, etc.) I discovered where my office was located after getting lost several times. This week as I was searching for architectural plans for our children’s building in a remote cabinet in the annals of the sanctuary I discovered a room dedicated to the making of ceramic figurines (which I have now learned is the ceramics room).

So the “rookie” begins the process of learning the organizations history and its’ members. I have learned from talking with our custodian not to get rid of anything unless I ask some key people first. That old beat up raggedy object that you are sure is junk was once used in ministry and whoever led that ministry does not want it removed or thrown away.

The previous youth pastor got into some hot water when he started throwing away the Boy Scout’s pamphlets into a dumpster (which he later had to fish out). Dusty they may have been, “trash” they were not. One man’s junk is truly another man’s treasure.

So along with this history of the organization and it’s stuff is a culture and way of doing things that one wisely should take note of. Let’s call this “institutional memory.” This is the accumulation of experiences and people that culminate into an organization’s history and culture. There are names on plaques, vases, walls, and buildings for a reason.

To pretend that you are the first to explore these waters of ministry is at the very least self-righteous and if taken to the extreme heartless and uncaring. It is because of the previous generation that the church is where it is today. If you love them and respect their pilgrimage before you, they may look to you for leadership. If you ignore them and their journey, you won’t last very long nor will you accomplish very much.

At the same time, those who possess institutional memories should not use this knowledge for personal gain, control, or manipulation. And when it is said, “that’s not how we do things around here,” it stifles creativity and the bringing of new ideas to the table. I have been blessed to have been encouraged and supported every step of the way (in all my sixty-four days.)

God has called me to lead in my new place of ministry, but I am not the first to chart these waters. There have been godly men and women before me. They had great ideas, worked hard, experienced God’s blessing, sacrificially gave, and expanded the kingdom. Now, as I run with the baton now passed on to me, I recognize their accomplishments and their race having been run.  I don’t want to start over at the beginning; I am content to run the race put before me. I am thankful for the faithfulness of others in the past.

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Three Cliches to Help You Work Through Institutional Memory

1. “Rome Was Not Built In a Day” — Having moved from a church planting environment with no buildings to a very established church with multiple blocks of facilites, I recognize that all that currently exists was not built over night. There have been many generations who have faithfully served the Lord and slowly built what now exists. This is not just brick and mortar, but a good reputation in the community. When you begin a new place of ministry, it is only right to recognize that many have sacrificed so that you are able to do what you do. If you are to make a difference don’t expect to do it over night. Move slowly, carefully, and methodically so that you don’t destroy a work that took decades or even generations to build.

2. “Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder” — It amazes me how fast nostalgia begins to set in amongst a group of people. It always seems that last year was better than today.  We quickly forget that yesterday was filled with heartache and difficulty as well, but today just seems harder. Don’t get upset if people look back with thoughts of “golden years.” God has great plans for you and your generation too. Those saints who have gone to be with the Lord and their service to His church should be honored and remembered.

3. “An oldie, but a goodie” — Don’t dismiss something simply because it is old. Someone has had to deal with the same “issues” that you are having to deal with; why not see what they came up with? Why reinvent the wheel every new generation? Newer is not always better, and older is not always antiquated.

Review and Repetition; The ZIP PLOP Method by Daryl Dale

Daryl Dale is a children’s pastor in CT and was very influential to me at Children’s Pastor’s Conference that I attended in 2002. He placed the following article in his curriculum for the years while he published his own curriculum. Since it is out of print, and defiantly worth reading by all educators, I have reprinted it below.

“The human brain remembers what it understands and what is repeated. Bible stories and concepts are selected on the basis of the child’s ability to understand the primary truth in the story. It is through teaching the child learns the real meaning and application of the Bible story. It is through repetition learning is stored in the child’s long term memory and retained. It is almost impossible for a child to remember our Bible lessons without repetition and review.

Those who study how learning takes place in the brain describe our minds having two parts: a short term memory and a long term memory. The short term memory remembers new facts and concepts for about ten seconds and then forgets them unless they are repeated. When you hear a phone number, person’s name or directions to a store that information will be lost unless you write it down or repeat it in your mind several times. Each time we repeat the information in our mind we will remember it a little longer. With repetition and use new knowledge is moved into our long term memory and remembered for months or even years.

The ZIP PLOP method of teaching is all too common in church classrooms. Imagine the child’s brain as being a tunnel that stretches from ear to ear. This tunnel is three inches square and nine inches long. Pretend each Bible lesson is a three-inch-block. Every week we teach a new lesson and push a new three inch block into the child’s head.

However, after three blocks are in the child’s brain, what happens when the fourth lesson is put in? It plops out. If week after week the teacher continues to push new lessons into the child’s brain without review, the material almost literally goes in one ear and out the other. However, each time a Bible concept is reviewed it is prevented from escaping the mind and stored more securely in the long term memory of the child.

Sometimes the review and repetition may seem cumbersome and unnecessary. However, with review the learning of the children will be multiplied many times. Remember this little poem:

If it is important enough to teach,

It is important enough to review.

It is important enough to learn,

It is important enough to remember.”

A suggestion is the get the sentence strips at educational stores and write your review items on them, (part of the item on one side, and the conclusion on the back). By adding a few every week during a particular topic of study, you will greatly improve your students recall of specific items of study, memory verses, names, places, etc. It only takes a few minutes to do, and you can make it fun.

My Recurring Nightmare

I have a recurring dream that has been terrifying. The kind of dream where you awake covered in sweat, breathing hard, and thanking the Lord that it was only a dream. It has nothing to do with drowning, clowns, or falling (well sort of).

It begins with me being at a Christmas party. There is the sound of music and various sounds of being at a party (clinking of silverware and dishes, the crackling of a fire, laughs, conversations, little feet running, etc.)

The room that I find myself in is beautifully decorated with Christmas apparel. There is yard after yard of garland, golden balls, bells, and thousands of lights. The room is dark but light by the tiny white lights and candles. The room has a feeling of home and it is when I have taken in the beauty of the room and am comfortably sitting by myself that I realize that she is there.

I always enter the dream sitting in this place and there is a knowledge that she has just passed through the room even though I don’t remember what she looks like or how I know her. Lingering in the room is the smell of her perfume from her presence only moments before and now I hear her whisper from the darkness of another room to join her.

I don’t really have to move, only let go. Let go of everything and deeply and slowly inhale. It is then that I begin to drift. At the moment when I know that I have smelled too deeply of her perfume and at the point of taking like changing actions, I have a moment of clear thinking.

It is at this point that I glance down to find my feet bound in some ancient crudely fashioned chain. I yell “no” as loud as I can – but the sounds of the party continue, no one hears me. The chains begin to pull me into darkness, and I yell one more time, “I am not his!” I glance to my right and see a warriors’ helmet perfectly crafted for my head, and I can almost make out the shape of my face in it’s front. It was made in the depths below, and comes back as if I remember wearing it in some distant battle, and had forgotten of its dusty existence.

I yell one more time, “I am His!” All parties concerned know who I mean when I say, “His.” There is no need to mention His name, and I am almost ashamed to mention it considering my predicament. Then the chains release, and I am awake.

The battle is never really for my soul, for it already belongs to Christ. The battle is for my effectiveness. Who am I fighting for and how effective will I become? My fear is that I will be led away by a temptation; that I will smell too deeply of her perfume, and be led away into darkness and ineffectiveness – even fighting for the Evil One and not even know it – that the helmet already fitted for my head will be returned once more.

The temptress’s perfume fogs the mind and lulls one into sleep. Her desire is for you to smell deeply, and cast everything aside – let go, and not to consider the cost.

That’s my nightmare.  Her perfume has always been just a room away.

Solomon tells his son that wisdom is what will keep him from destroying his life. I pray that God gives us all nightmares and constantly remind us of the cost of lacking wisdom. Proverbs 2:17-22 “So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words, 17 who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God; 18 for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed; 19 none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life. 20 So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. 21 For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it, 22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.”

The Third Temptation of Christ; Matthew 4:8 (Selfishness)


Matthew 4:8 “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”

The taking of Jesus by the devil and going to various places was supernatural – so that Jesus can see the vast numbers of people. What is Satan trying to accomplish by showing Jesus the multitudes and “ethne” of people?  What is the temptation for Christ? As a man he had only seen those people in his geographic region. So now he sees the “multitudes” (Matthew 28:17 ff.) We see the short cut (avoid the cross) here in the beginning of the book, and we see the real plan in the end of the book (the horror of the cross).

Satan has the temporary authority to possess the nations; to give them away or to keep them as the “ruler of this world” [1] and “the whole world lies on the power of the evil one.”  The world has believed the Father of lies and its’ own glory would have been worshipping false gods, and all sorts of wicked and evil things. Were all these evil and wicked people worth Him dying a cruel and horrific death on a cross? Jesus saw it all and still died for it anyway.

Romans 5:8 “. . . God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Jesus saw a world in need of a Savior. Satan intended to tempt Christ by showing Him the multitudes (in sinful rebellion) but it only reinforces the mission that the Father has sent Him on – to redeem all of the world. All of His creation desperately needed a Savior, a Redeemer.

That redemption would come at a price. Since the beginning, something/someone would have to die, and His blood must be shed. [2] Satan knows that Jesus, in order to redeem the world has to die under the wrath of the Father. He had an idea of what the Father’s wrath will be like – he will himself experience it one day.

The temptation for Jesus is selfishness; for him to save himself the pain of the cross and to hell with everyone else.

10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”

Satan knows his time is limited, and that the Father’s wrath is coming – therefore because Satan hates the Father his desire is to take the multitudes (the ones who the Father desperately loves) with him.

For Jesus to worship Satan would be a shortcut around the cross. He would save the world and Himself the pain only momentarily. God’s wrath would still be stored up against mankind, and the sin problem would not have been dealt with. The world would still be in need of a Savior – and now the only One who could have saved them would have sinned in selfishness, [3] a Holy God would still be separated from sinful creation. No restoration would have taken place, and no intimacy regained. Nothing but time would have been gained. Man does not need more time to destroy himself with sin, nor does he need more time separated from His Creator who infinity loves him.

If Jesus had worshipped Satan and avoided the cross, it would have meant doom for mankind. Spiritual shortcuts never accomplish what faithful obedience eventually does. If you are tempted to take the spiritual shortcut, let me point you to Jesus and allow Him to illustrate why this is true. You cannot do what God has created you to do if you constantly take spiritual shortcuts and try to live this life by your own rules. If you have failed this temptation, I am right there with you. I have been selfish time and time again. But let’s journey this next distance of road together knowing that it doesn’t work.

Matthew 20:27-28 “. . . and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. Thank you Jesus for being selfless and faithful.

 

[1] Jn. 12:31; 1 Jn. 5:19.

[2] Genesis 3:20

[3] Romans 2:5, 5:9

"For by grace you have been saved through faith." Ephesians 2:8

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