Answers to your questions
Instead of posting a column last week I invited readers to ask me any question they wanted and I’d do my best to answer it as the following week’s column. Obviously some of these questions deserve a whole Tuesday Column so forgive my “Dear Abby” style shorter-then-deserved answers in some cases, but I’ll do my best to give a summary answer to one or two questions per person. You can read straight through catching the ones you are most interested in or you can select the category you care most about—I have divided up the questions & answers into three categories:
THANKS for caring enough to ask questions…see you next week with a
new provocative column—I think you’ll like it.
--Keith Drury
Q: 3 or 4 books that influenced you?
From:
Justin What
are the 3 or 4 books that influenced you to most and that you think every
minister should read?
(Thanks you for
writing every week. I seldom respond but I always read them.)
My Response:
Most professor-types don’t think this way. Same if you asked that
question about “3 or 4 verses in the Bible that influenced
me.” I couldn’t do
it—I’d just give you a favorite verse or a “life
verse.” However I could
give you a list of maybe a hundred
books that every minister ought to read—and their cumulative effect would be good. If you are seriously interested in this
book list let me know and I’ll post it online some time.
Q: Income
From: Jason
OK you asked
for it: How much money do you make as a professor?
My Response: After a decade
of teaching college with annual generous raises and one significant promotion
to Associate professor I am not yet making as much money as I made when I left
my denomination’s headquarters ten years ago… and I should have
been paid better even then at that job!
But that’s all smoke and mirrors, I know you want a number so you
can compare (you are probably a male writer). OK, last year in my ministerial
taxes my after-housing income from teaching was $23,249.15 but like all
ministers that’s deceptive because I also got a
housing allowance and a set-aside of a pile of cash for retirement that
doesn’t show in that figure.
But neither teaching nor writing is a good way to make a bundle of money—so
I married
Q: biggest professional bellyflopper
From:
Jason What is the biggest bellyflopper
you ever tried to pull off in the church--your biggest flop?
My
Response: I tried to get my entire denomination to turn off their TVs for a
week—a “TV fast” of sorts. After thousands of dollars and months of
campaigning I think maybe 4-5 actual churches did the campaign. Of course this was long ago and before
the secular campaign doing the same thing
was invented. (Success is 10% doing
the right thing, and 90% doing it at the right time.)
Q: Courses & Hiking
From:
Josh. Coach--what are
you teaching this year? Where are you hiking this summer?
My Response: TEACHING: LCE (Christian Ed intro); Adult Ed
(Adult discipleship); Homiletics II(preaching
coaching); Church Leadership(administration); Backpacking(Phys Ed). HIKING:
Don’t know yet. I’m
playing with a completely different kind of walk—but not ready to leak
the idea out.
Q: Stay so positive?
From: JustKara How do you stay so positive all
the time? There is so much negativity around the church (and especially online)
yet you seem to stay above it. How?
My Response: I’m not
positive actually. Staying positive
for me is like walking on water—I’m constantly sinking into the
watery gloom of negativity until I remember to refocus my eyes where they need
to be. My wife reminds me to switch
my focus (almost every night).
Q:Ever be a GS?
From: TomTom
You said you were "General
Superintendent" of this fourum--would you ever
again consider being the GS of the denomination some day?
My Response: I would not.
Q: Candidate for GS in 2006?
From: TomTom one more--you were pretty blatent about pushing Joanne Lyons for GS this fall--Will
you push for her as GS in 2006? Do you think she will be elected?
My Response: Probably. Maybe.
Q: Taking meetings again?
I heard you
were taking meetings again--are you?
My Response: Two or three each year, mostly
conferences for pastors or writers.
Q: Greatest disappointment in 60 years?
From: FreedMethodist
I just LOVED your column about being an old man so I've got an old man
question--in all your years in the ministry what has been the greatest
disappointment you faced and the greatest happiness?
My Response: My college mentor’s rejection of
the church and Christ. In my
20’s the president of my college chose me to mentor, teaching me,
correcting me, helping me, and rebuking me. And he set me up with all kinds of
breaks for a young preacher—even taking me to large Methodist camp
meetings where he was the scheduled speaker and putting me on as his substitute
in front of 1000-2000 people. I
absolutely adored him and wanted to become just like him. Then some faculty and the trustees did
him dirty and they eventually fired him as President. He was so hurt he started a journey away
from the denomination, then the church as a whole, then finally Jesus
Christ. Seldom does a day pass that
I do not recall this deep disappointment.
Q: Could you survive pastoring
a church?
If you stopped
teaching, got out of the classroom and jumped into full time ministry in a
church, how effective do you think you would be and why?
My Response: I would be
extraordinarily popular with all those under 30 but I admit I’d be very rusty
dealing with stuck-in-the-mud traditionalists. If I return to pastor a church I’d
have to take a crash course in handling traditional people. (Luckily there are lots of pastors out
there with experience in this area to mentor me.)
Q: Book royalty?
From: Chad This
sounds nosy but would you be willing to tell us how much money a person like
you (or Rick Warren) makes on the books they write?
My Response: I get about $3000 a year royalties from
my books—about a dozen of them still in print. If you are interested in becoming rich
try preaching special services not writing. I write about 18-20 hours per week for
nine months—a total of about 700 hours per year so it averages out to
about $4.25 hr. pay. But of course
for many years (when I had fewer books and still wrote 20 hours a week) it was
far less than Taco Bell® wages.
I do not write for money any more than you golf for money. Sure, some people make millions off
their golfing but most have to pay to
do what they love to do. I get some
money back for doing what I love to do—write. HOWEVER, speaking of making
millions, in one three months period recently Rick Warren got $9,000,000 (yep
that’s 9 million) in
royalties. God either loves me more
than He loves Rick, or He knows I would say far stupider things than Rick if I
were richer—so I do not have to bear his curse.
Q: Next five books?
From: -David
Drury From: 4thGeneration If you could write 5 more
books in your lifetime and you could write whatever you wanted to (and they
would be guaranteed to be published and purchased), what would you write?
My Response: I am too old to
plan that far ahead Dave. I did ten
year goals when I was pretty sure I had ten years left to actually accomplish
them. Now I am on the two year goal
plan ;-) There is however a book
that has been following me home every night for a year now. I can’t shoo it away for it sleeps
outside my bedroom each night greeting me in the morning. I’m playing with something on
“Common Ground”—what all Christians everywhere in all times
and in all places believe. As an
old man I’m interested less in the things that divide us all than the
things were we all agree—the things that make one Christian, not Wesleyan, or Baptist or Nazarene. I’m at the research stage now and
I’m still trying to chase this mangy dog away so I can do something
else. But so far it won’t
leave. So I may have to write the
book.
Q: First met your wife
From: Josh B This could
have a funny story, but what line did you use when you first met your wife, or
did she approach you?
My Response: I don’t
recall what we said when I met her, I did notice that she had a great
smile. And we worked side by side
on the school newspaper. But I
never thought of her as a “candidate” until one night coming home
from a date with another girl—and I started thinking about marriage. I called her when I got to the dorm that
night and invited her to sneak out of her dorm at 2AM to meet me. We went walking and I proposed to her
that night. She said yes and
dropped out of college to earn money for the wedding which took place that
June.
Q: Friend of Barnes
From: IWUFacultyAssociate You have
been Jim Barnes' best friend all these years. How will barnes leaving affect your role in the university?
My
Response: Perhaps I will be able to spend less time being expected to explain
and defend administration decisions and less time listening to people who hope
I’ll be a transmission line back to the President. With this extra time I plan to answer
questions from readers of my Tuesday column ;-)
Q: Christmas Present?
From: Amanda
Drury What do you want for Christmas?
And don't tell
me anything that you're planning on going out and buying for yourself on Dec.
23rd.
My Response: Something I can
take up Mt Elbert
on New Years week.
Q: General Superintendent
From: CB I've
wanted to ask you this for a long time. Have you ever regreted
turning down the election to General Superintendent in 1988?
My Response: I never have regretted it for myself and
family. Occasionally I’ve
regretted it for the church though.
Q: Personal references in preaching
From: Pastor
Mike I finally got around to reading your "column" this afternoon as
"veggie time" after a stressful morning preaching in two services.
Then I saw you didn't actually write a column but opened things up for a
Q&A. I admit that I was disappointed at first THEN as I scanned through the
actual questions I was hooked on the "reality TV" questions about
your personal life. Your readers know your opinions but they seem to be mostly
interested in all kinds of private and personal details of your life—from
how much money you make to how you met your wife. I am wondering if we as
pastors need to take this into account more and let more personal information
through in preaching and Q&A times? It was
hammered into me in homiletics to eliminate all personal references and
personal stories from preaching—but I wonder if that is wrong now in a
day of reality TV and People magazines: what do you think?
My Response: I wondered the same thing and since I am
teaching Homiletics the same way all preachers have taught it for years
(warning students to be careful of telling personal stories and personal
information that makes them the hero of all the illustrations and makes the
preaching be “about me and my family instead of God and His family”)
I am rethinking this as well but I think I’ll stick with the warning on
self-inflating bragging stories… I’ve heard too many of them in my
lifetime. I encourage students to
tell human stories however—that’s
the secret of narrative preaching.
I suggest they make heroes out of their people not themselves and when
telling personal stories on themselves make sure there are more where they fail
than come out looking like the hero of their own messages.
Q: What question should I have asked?
From: KenSchenck What question should I ask you?
My Response: You should have
asked who my favorite friend is.
Q: More about family
From: --Elaine,
Homeschool Mom Hi. Just a
note to say that I read your column almost every week as do both of my sons who
are being homeschooled. They sometimes do
reports on your writing. All three of us would like to hear more about your
family--you wife, children etc. We know all about how you think but we're interested
in who you are.
My Response: Sure, <a href="http://