Interview with Bill and Mike Buher

Bill Buher and his wife, Mary, raised their two sons in an a cappella church of Christ in southern Indiana and then, a few years ago, transferred membership to Sherwood Oaks Christian Church in Bloomington. Bill was called to serve as an elder at Sherwood Oaks and was one proud dad when his son Mike was similarly called to serve at Mountain Christian Church in Joppa, Maryland. Bill, retired for about 10 years, finds plenty of ways to keep busy serving Christ. Mike is an audit partner for Grant Thornton, an international accounting firm.

Did you grow up in the Christian church?

Bill Buher: We grew up in a little town in the country and we were raised in the church of Christ. I attended the church of Christ for 60 years.

How did you end up in the Christian church?

BB: My wife and I decided we just needed to make a change. We thought we would end up in a smaller church of Christ. I never dreamed of going to Sherwood Oaks [a megachurch], but we found that we had quite a number of friends there. The doctrine is pretty much the same, except for the instrumental music issue. It”s a large congregation with a lot of small churches in it.

Did the two of you aspire to be elders?

Mike Buher: I had been a deacon for close to 10 years before I joined the eldership last year. It”s not something you necessarily plan for. If you”re called, and the Lord wants you to serve, to say no would be disobedient. It”s not something you would pursue like a career option, but if it”s where God wants you to be, then there”s no better place. It”s not easy. It”s sometimes scary. But there”s no better place to be.

BB: I just wanted to worship and go about my business. I always had been in a leadership role as a deacon and Bible school teacher. When I was asked to serve as an elder I was kind of floored.

What did you think about your son being called to serve as an elder?

BB: Even before Mike was an elder, I told people it was really gratifying to talk with my sons about spiritual matters. When Mike told me he was being considered for elder, I was a proud father. The people I shared that with said, “I would love to get that phone call some day.”

How does a commitment like yours pass from one generation to the next?

BB: I go back to the church of Christ days. It was just expected that on Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday night you go to church. I never demanded that, it was just something we did. I didn”t want theirs to be an inherited faith.

MB: I heard a word the other day that I think describes it: We were all marinated in that environment. We had such a high view of Scripture growing up that the Bible was taught plainly and openly. The truth is very engaging and appealing as long as you”re open to it. We learned truth””we were around it constantly. It just permeated what we did. That relationship with Christ and the biblical grounding we had gave us the foundation to go outside the church walls and do what we were called to do.

Is there another generation in the wings?

BB: I think so. It”s like the Lord said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” It”s interesting to see how my sons and their wives are so spiritual. It”s just part of their being, their everyday life. It”s just part of their life! I think the two boys and their wives have done a great job in raising these children.

MB: We”re meeting in a multipurpose building, so there are 1,600 chairs that must be set up and torn down every weekend. Of our three kids, two are boys, and I”ll be dogged if I was going to do it without them! They learned what it was like to serve, and it”s not always glamorous. They and our little girl would join us in nursing home visiting. As you do mundane ministries, you”re also teaching your kids.

Are you involved in other areas of ministry?

MB: I was one of the cochairs of the deacons. We did a lot of the heavy lifting, figuratively and literally””parking, visitation, ushering. Now I”m serving on a couple of eldership committees””including the finance committee. I”ve been leading a men”s group on Saturday mornings for several years now.

BB: Once you go to a congregation you”ve got to find a niche. You just have to stay plugged in. Where I found I could fit in was to help with the kitchen ministry. We also have our own small group Bible study, and I go by about every other week and make sure the vans are serviced. We have a Levites ministry where we open the building, count the money, etc., and I do that once a month. One difference from the church of Christ was that there, once we embarked on a project, it was the project. At Sherwood Oaks we have a lot of things going where everyone can be involved.

What have you learned about leadership as an elder?

MB: I”ve grown to appreciate the whole idea of listening to various points of view to get the best answer. If we”re all saying the same thing from the same perspective, we might be missing something. As long as we all have the same goal in mind, I think that”s what God wants.

BB: We really don”t vote on things, we come to consensus. Once there is consensus, we”re unified on where we”re going. What is enlightening to me is to watch the ability of our younger elders to think through things. I”m a thinker, but my first thought is usually my best. The younger generation of elders is just smarter than I am!

MB: I don”t know about that. The way we do church can become more complex just by the way society functions. For example, the idea of multisites creates another layer of complexity, but there are more opportunities. We have to be creative, so it is more and more important to think things through.

Coming from different generations, do you have any differing philosophies of ministry?

BB: I don”t think so. We”ve never discussed it. It goes back to our conservative roots. It”s a matter of being grounded in the faith, in the Word, and using that as the blueprint for what we do. I don”t know that we would have a different philosophy on anything. When Mike”s church went to a Saturday night service, I thought it through and concluded, that”s pretty cool. Both of the boys challenged me in my thinking. I learned a lot from my kids.

MB: The fundamentals don”t change. The approach and the execution might change, but the fundamentals don”t change.

BB: Where most churches get into trouble is with the methodology. It”s not about the message or about the Word””it”s the methodology.

How have you seen things change over time?

BB: I was raised in an era where you used songbooks. Congregations don”t use songbooks anymore. We use the computer. I”m convinced that if Christ somehow started ministering in the 21st century he”d be flying all over the world and using PowerPoint! They”re just the tools of the trade. The use of technology magnifies the changes that have taken place in my lifetime. We do Communion the same, offering the same; it”s not all bad””we just reach more people. People need to get out of their comfort zone.

Do you compare notes about what”s happening at your churches?

BB: Yes. I”m interested in how they”re doing the church planting and the satellite work they”re doing in White Marsh and Bel Air. It”s interesting to see that there”s no sense that they have to be in that building to be serving. It certainly hasn”t hurt their growth.

MB:  As I said, the fundamentals don”t change. I”ve noticed even though we have similar types of churches, the way Mountain does ministry in Maryland is going to look a little different than Sherwood Oaks in Bloomington, Indiana, because culturally they”re two different areas. In Indiana you”re on the northern edge of the Bible Belt, where church is a little more a part of the culture. Here in Maryland we keep reminding ourselves that no matter how big we get, there are still thousands and thousands who do not have a church home and don”t know Christ. We exist for the people who aren”t here! We”re constantly looking to add more people to the church and build them up and make them better disciples. It”s gratifying to see that 2,000 years later, the message still matters.

Brad Dupray is senior vice president, ministry development, with Church Development Fund, Irvine, California.