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I recently spoke to a friend of mine about a situation were he had to deal with the state office about a bad situation. He said to me I guess you know what he did next, then gave his state overseer praise. When I hung up the phone I was struck by his ability to anticipate what his bishop would do. As we go into the next GA I wonder, what level of involvement, if any, should I expect in my local church, my personal life or anything that does not require authority to fix something from my Overseer? I really don't even understand how to fill out my State Overseer form about if he is doing a good job or not; because I am unsure what a reasonable expectation is.This is not to bash state overseers, I like mine, but to understand the role of the state office a little better.

This is not intended to be cynical, but it illustrates a point I've been trying to make for years. If most state offices closed down today, the impact for the local church would be minimal. Let me clarify, I'm not saying the individuals who work in state offices are bad people or that they're lazy. I'm simply saying that for the most part the churches support the state office much more than the other way around.

[quote=Da Sheik]This is not intended to be cynical, but it illustrates a point I've been trying to make for years. If most state offices closed down today, the impact for the local church would be minimal. Let me clarify, I'm not saying the individuals who work in state offices are bad people or that they're lazy. I'm simply saying that for the most part the churches support the state office much more than the other way around. The way our system is set up and the way many pastors just want to jump from church to church helps feed the problem. I would be curious to know how much of an AB's time each week is consumed with trying to find a place to send a disgruntled pastor to a new appointment.[/quote]

This is day 281 for us being an overseer. I am still a rookie😄. I lead just as I always have. I have personally been to almost every church we have. There are 160 and I believe I have been on the property of all but three. We began this journey trying to develop relationships and identify with the culture of Mississippi. After the fall season of visiting every region of the state, we launched an initiative Feb. 1 called SHIFT. S-tudents H-arvest, Home Missions, I-ntercessory Prayer, F-athers of Faith, T-raining Leaders. Shortly after we began this initiative, MS was impacted by floods in several areas of our state. We had SHIFT rallies scheduled in 18 different parts of the state. We have raised $200,000 dollars since Feb.1. We totally gutted and remodeled one church impacted by the flood. It had almost three feet of water in areas of the church. We totally gutted a parsonage that had been flooded. We sent operation compassion trucks and several thousands to two other churches who had members impacted. We also gave a vehicle to a family who lost their car in the flood who were parents of of one of our pastors.(churches had no flood insurance and government does not help churches, the residents did have insurance for the most part)After we recovered these four churches and their families we began on the H of SHIFT. We have helped put roofs on two of our smaller churches. We have totally redone the foundation on another one. Remodeled a fellowship hall in one. Painted a couple of more. Relaunched one church and spent 20,000 getting it in operable conditions. My staff and I along with volunteers from Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Georgia have been hands on during these initiatives. These smaller churches would not have been able to do this without the intervention of the state office. There have been $120,000 spent on helping these churches with these projects.The SHIFT rallies have been packed out everywhere we have had one of these services. The lay people of Mississippi and some of my friends and colleagues have bought into the vision. We are now Shifting to the S-tudents of our initiative. We have raised $25000 for the underwriting of youth camp. We are also shifting to Fathers of Faith. We are helping several retired ministers come to the campmeeting. The I in shift...Intercessory Prayer happens in churches all over the state where I will lead us in prayer meetings all across this state. The T-raining leaders begins in August when we launch pastoral covenant groups and I along with other key leaders will have coaching sessions with pastors. We also have a Healthy Church conference scheduled free of charge in October for our ministers and their key leaders. I am organizing a new church next month, relaunching another one in the fall, and hoping to plant a church on the coast.My goal as an overseer has been to lead as a pastor. If we do that as overseers, then our pastors and churches will need our assistance and feel our assistance. The Lord spoke to me at a catalyst convention several years ago when Andy Stanley said would your community miss you if your church was no longer in the community. I have asked myself this question in my new role...Will our churches and ministers miss the state office if it were no longer there. I can tell you that my heart and the heart of overseers is to resource ministers and churches and help provide training that will help them.