Pastor Andy Stanley, the faith leader of Atlanta’s North Point (mega) Church, made a big mistake.

He spoke out against two things—parents in small churches and small church ministries.

Here is the important thing. He is really, truly sorry. He made a heart-felt, complete apology that congregations rarely hear from leaders. He added no “buts.”

Enough said? Time to move on?

Before moving too fast, let’s look at what he claims were the roots of his comments. He and his church had just come from a successful youth retreat for middle school children. He was high from the experience and wishing every middle school child could have been part of the event. Stanley attacked parents not so much for attending small churches but for not giving their children the opportunity his church had just provided. His mistake was in thinking that the large church is the only environment that can serve this age group.

Small churches can serve youth. The problem is often we don’t. We don’t have the extra staff that are often dedicated to youth ministry. We struggle to find volunteers to lead energetic teens. But the potential is there. It is a matter of finding the way.

Middle school is a microcosm of life. A great deal of potential and dreams are bundled up in packages of hormones and insecurity. Some middle schoolers thrive in large groups. On the other hand, being part of a large group can torture other young teens. They can feel overshadowed by the emerging “A” personalities (who may be struggling with their own self-images). They can be bombarded by what they see as insurmountable shortcomings.

Again, Stanley has retracted his statement in full. He realizes that parents may know best. He realizes that small church ministries have value and good ideas and love their children. He points to the support money his congregation provides to other ministries. He even cites instances where his ministry borrowed ideas from small church ministries.

Small church ministries can provide opportunities for children. Young people can learn to serve, can be individually mentored, can develop faith and talents when they aren’t just another middle school kid. Small churches can do a great job at this.

Unfortunately, in many cases, small churches fail to reach out to this age group. They have programs for the very young. Volunteers to lead programs drop out when children hit — middle school! These days this can be as young as ten.

Before we totally dismiss everything Pastor Stanley foolishly said, let’s look at why and recognize the little bits of truth that prompted it.

Stanley said his comments were about caring for the next generation. His concerns are well-founded.

Small churches need to address youth—for the children’s sake and for the longevity of their own faith communities.

I would have no trouble making a list of why young people can and do thrive in small church ministries, but I’ve visited many congregations (some even fairly large) that have a huge age gap in attendance between the ages of ten and fifty! That is a frustrating cause of concern.

Let’s hope Pastor Stanley’s gaffe is a prompt for something good.

We tend to focus on the topic of Black Lives Matter when violence erupts.

Here is a story well told that speaks volumes on the topic of Black Lives Matter. Russel Omar-Shareef’s story is more powerful than guns.

This writer/artist was a street kid in our own city. He doesn’t mention our neighborhood but he mentions neighborhoods that border ours. He walked our streets and we failed to see him. We were not prepared to make a difference in his life. The schools, the social services system, the justice system, the faith communities — society’s designated solution-providers failed this obviously gifted man. His insignificance was the seed of a life viewed as a problem. We failed to see problem as opportunity—to borrow the words of a common business mantra.

Maybe there can still be a happy ending. If the Black Lives Matter movement does nothing else, it can tell these stories. Separating foundational issues from hot button gun control issues might lead progress.

His first encounter with the law was when he took action as a five-year-old to save the lives of his older sisters threatened by their abusive mother. He became a foster child. He spent some of his most formative years in jail. Jail—the solution for truancy? No wonder his first adult years were spent looking for an escape!

Note how this young man’s struggle in society began with a sense that he didn’t matter. He was the youngest child, inspired to copy the artwork of his big sister. He was just learning to use the tools. He wanted to be noticed. But he was brushed aside. This reminds me of the story of the Beatles. A leading educator points out in a TED talk that one middle school music teacher in Liverpool once had 50% of the Beatles in her class. Paul was discouraged from joining the choir. Sometimes we can’t see for looking! The critics that counter with “All Lives Matter have a point!

After years of dealing with institutional oversight in one form or another, Russel could be reentering society fueled with resentment and hate. His words do not reflect bitterness—just raw reality.

How many youngsters do we pass on our sidewalks that are like him? How many never dig deep within themselves to develop skills as Russel has?

And as for the Church connection—if we abandon the neighborhoods that are home to so many struggling young people (the continuing mainline trend), then we are abandoning the Russel’s that live in these neighborhoods.

Read his moving story written in his own words and illustrated with his own art.

How My Peter Pan Syndrome Landed Me In Prison For 10 Years

Never Never Land turned out to be a maximum-security penitentiary.

Young People in England Are Drawn to Evensong

What will shape the worship experience of the coming decades? Will jazz liturgy gain wide acceptance? Will praise bands be the norm, rocking every sanctuary with numbing sound? The fact of the matter is that the church has always dealt with different music styles. They were just divided by centuries and decades and now there are multiple choices in our diverse and connected society. So what is the future of liturgy?

Church music has a long tradition. The church is probably the only place outside of the folk repertoire where tunes and words of songs that date as far back as the triple digit years are still regularly played and sung.

We’ve lived through many eras—the early chants, the baroque, the theological treatises of the Reformation, the folk music tunes that found their way into hymnals, the marches of the 19th century, the acceptance of the gospel tradition, the awkward years of the twentieth century during which we clung to the past while stumbling into the future. Recently we seem to have returned to chanting. Praise bands tend to feature chant-like lyrics and phrasing.

Things seem to be a bit unsettled today. What lies ahead? We might be surprised!

Leaders of worship in English academic world of Oxford and Cambridge have noticed a remarkable upturn in student attendance at Evensong where ancient tunes and texts are used.

Neil McCleery, assistant chaplain, New College, and a member of the Oxford committee of the Prayer Book Society remarked,

“Very hard working students say that it provides a time towards the end of the day when you can just sit in silence and tune out all of these influences [technological].”

 

He suggested that the 16th century language may seem less demanding or threatening and somehow more inclusive, perhaps because it is equally foreign to all.

Is it a condemnation of the previous generation or two?

“The era of jaded folk worship is coming to an end,” McCleery said. “Indeed I think the people who want that sort of thing are the older generation now and the young are coming back to traditional worship and the choral tradition.”

 

I come from the Lutheran tradition and love hymns. I value the words and the history. I love sharing stories of hymns. As worship leader noted members’ favorites just as a cook takes mental notes on what foods are best received. I’d make an effort to choose hymns that I knew would resonate despite the diversity. It wasn’t hard. We just used as many as eight or ten hymns on Sunday as opposed to the standard three or four. We had members from the Anglican tradition, who would call out during worship if I chose the nonAnglican tune to accompany the words. “Wrong tune!” One member was a Fannie Crosby groupie. I can recall one pastor asking if I knew the favorite hymn of a member who had recently died. “In the cross of Christ I glory” came quickly to mind. We’ve had members who leaned toward gospel music, loved adding dance moves, or wanted to sing trending the trending tunes on religious radio. I find value in all.

There is a cultural element that requires adjustment in sharing varying music traditions. I have the hardest time with praise bands. They seem performance-oriented. Despite the fact that the leaders stand before the assembly with mics in hand, encouraging the congregation, the participation is usually pretty spotting. People are usually really into it or totally passive. The decibel level of praise bands is sometimes so overpowering that it affects me physically. The loud bass thumping against my chest competes with my heartbeat. I am reminded of my insignificance when I can’t hear my own voice! I also get bored repeating the same dozen words for five minutes. But these worship styles seem to be attracting people. I’ll look deeper to find out why.

So are the collegians of Great Britain setting a trend? Is it a cultural fluke? Are others experiencing this? Where do we go from here? Is tradition poised to make a comeback?

Praise Band: photo credit: Cash Cash via photon (license)

Organ: href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/70961014@N00/25173359116″>Rose via photopin (license)

It’s Hard for Lay People to Be Heard!

I’ve been writing for 2×2 for five years now. I always write from the lay point of view. After all, I’ve been a lay person for 62 years.

Last year I was ordained. Maybe my work will carry more weight now. I still tend to see things from the lay point of view. Old habits die hard!

This morning I read an interview with the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Texas, C. Andrew Doyle. He’s hyping a book, Church, A Generous Community Amplified for the Future. 

The title isn’t exactly an attention getter, but its obscurity may appeal to his readership.

Nevertheless, his ideas are refreshing and different from most online church leadership banter. He is saying things I’ve been writing about for five years, usually attracting criticism from church leaders. It is validating to see some of the ideas we had then getting some traction in leadership circles.

Here are a few of excerpts that could easily be taken from posts on this blog. The titles are links to 2×2 articles along the same vein. In most cases, 2×2 addressed the issues multiple times.

ON LEADERSHIP NEEDS

We need vision people; we need people who can communicate well; we need people who are using social media and are digital immigrants at the very least, and are digital natives at the very best.

ON THE IMPORTANCE OF CONNECTING

The work really is coaching and sharing and connecting people. It’s making myself available so that I can create some safe space for people, and say as a bishop of the church, “I’m interested in this.” And that has power to shape conversation — to value things that maybe haven’t been valued.

ON COMPARING THE LANGUAGE OF CHURCH TO THE LANGUAGE OF BUSINESS

What does it say that Apple actually has an evangelist and understands that it has a mission, and yet we [the church] don’t want to talk about it? That’s a weird world. That is a strange situation, when the church abandons the language of mission and evangelists but Apple doesn’t.

ON USING THE TRUE TALENTS AND SKILLS OF MEMBERSHIP

Imagine a CEO or a chief financial officer that is no longer only going to participate in your congregation by serving on the vestry or at the altar in some way but that actually is unleashed to use these gifts and talents that they bring to their corporate life, and to use those out in the world on behalf of the church. So we have huge assets. The reality is we haven’t been courageous or visionary enough to see how the assets that we have can be used.

ON HOW WE MEASURE VIABILITY

For example, I can tell you that average Sunday attendance and budget are huge predictors of what your congregation’s probably like. But that may not be helpful in actually unlocking the needed energy for a mission that you have.

So maybe we should measure some different things. How are you in contact with your community over the week? How many telephone calls with members of your community?

photo credit: 16. да му се кланят като на божество [link] via photopin (license)

The biggest way to crash through roadblocks to using the internet in ministry is not to put up roadblocks in the first place.

This advice comes a bit late. The Church already established roadblocks in its reluctance to adopt technology to ministry.

Caution is understandable. Stories abound about abuse and invasion of privacy — scary to anyone born before 1980. Those under 35 grew up with the reality that there is no going back to lives lived in the peaceful isolation of pre-World War America. They are better equipped to see the potential that outweighs the danger just as an elephant outweighs a mouse. They look for mates online, take classes online, seek jobs, find entertainment, and keep in touch with friends online. The human brain is being rewired around the social nature and communication potential of the internet.

Most church leaders are over 35—no surprise they avoid the digital world. The temptation is to try to recreate the world they know online. This doesn’t work. Different dynamics. Every year lost in advancing the transition to the digital world is a setback struggling churches can ill afford, especially when resources are already designated to systems of the past.

Perhaps it will help advance mission in the digital age to take a “tip of the iceberg” look at how internet ministry could answer many common challenges.

Our previous post listed major areas of ministry. Let’s look more closely at each one to better understand how internet ministry is indispensable.

Remember, internet ministry is not an add-on to what you are already doing. It is a different approach to doing everything. A game-changer.

WITNESS

Churches witness to God’s saving grace.

Where do people go today for answers? Answers are a click or two away online.

Now imagine if people in your community are googling questions church groups often address—social needs, spiritual questions, help for personal crises.

If a Church has no online presence, it will not show up in the search engines. Troubled people will be directed to government agencies, non-profits, and for-profits businesses who use the internet to connect.

Start by advertising your services. Do you have support groups? Do you have people who can help with one-on-one counseling? Great!

That won’t be enough. Remember, you are in competition with government, non-profits and for-profits. You must actively address common issues among your demographics. The internet is a tool that leads. Learn the tricks of the trade to first create interest. Then slowly build confidence and build relationships.

Static websites all about your church won’t do this. Offering helpful content will. In business, it’s called creating authority. It might be argued that eight years of college and seminary training create authority. The fact is that people with far less learning are successfully competing with our expertise. They benefit from the evangelistic power of the internet while churches struggle.

WORSHIP

Sunday morning worship service is usually self-contained. It lasts from, say 11 am to Noon. If you miss it, you might be able to read the sermon online. But if churches tracked their statistics they are likely to find posting a weekly sermon gets few views.

Have you watched TV lately? Take the nightly news, 60 minutes or popular game shows. Every program ends “To learn more about this and other issues or to join in the fun, go to our website.” These strategies work. They extend the relationship beyond the 30- or 60-minute air time.

What if your Sunday worship experience saved something for the weekday online audience? You’d be engaging your members and possibly attracting more interested people with your online content. The Sunday morning message can grow through the week.

EDUCATION

Teaching is a major challenge for many congregations. Many Sunday Schools give up after the age of 9. This creates difficulty in relying on members to promote the faith. They are ill-equipped and lack the skills/confidence to the job.

The internet can help. It is available to everyone on their own schedules.

Providing internet learning doesn’t have to be a time burden. Learnings can range from short fun facts to full-scale webinar series. Tip: do this well and your members will share online, growing awareness of your congregation.

SERVICE

If people are starting to find your site because of your witness, worship and education content, service opportunities are going to surface. You will be surprised. We found, for instance, that our neighborhood was not limited by the one-square mile that makes up East Falls. We have made friends all over the world. Surprisingly close friendships. The internet is likely to present new opportunities for service and more important it will help you network with like-minded people and organizations. That’s power!

FELLOWSHIP

People today check a website before visiting. Your website is your front door. Visitors will step inside and look around when you aren’t there. The first impression left will be the lasting impression. They won’t sign the guest book unless you have a website that invites them to engage. Do you want them to see a static site built to 1990 standards or do you want them to see an interactive site that draws them into your church life?

STEWARDSHIP

Ironically, churches that don’t have much time for internet ministry start by adding a donate button to their static website.

We all know that stewardship goes way beyond monetary giving. Your website can encourage active participation in all kinds of projects. Web visitors should be encouraged to participate wholly separate from attendance and membership. These service opportunities are gateways to spiritual enrichment and eventual church involvement. An internet ministry can introduce and foster engagement in the use of time and talent.

EVANGELISM

The internet is the most powerful evangelism tool ever created. It is poor stewardship to not develop this capability. The mathematics exceed comprehension. If you create a web ministry and encourage sharing, a small church can begin to reach tens of thousands within a year or two.

In short, if churches continue to view their mission as connecting with the people who show up on Sunday morning, they are on the road to failure. It is the responsibility of every church to meet people where they are. Jesus walked the dusty roads of Palestine. Today’s people are on the internet.

Be there.

We are about to launch a refreshed series of posts on how to start an internet ministry. Before we get into the nuts and bolts, it might be helpful to understand why churches have such a difficult time using the tools that are now not only commonplace in most of society but are part of every aspect of modern life.

The Church was unprepared for the digital revolution. We watched while others adopted. Now we are lost. Here is our biggest mistake: The Church approached the use of the internet as an add-on to how we have conducted ministry for 2000 years.

In fact, the internet is a game changer. It is not something else to do. It is something different to do. It requires different skills and different ways of working together. The results could be amazing, but they won’t be realized if the strategy is to just keep on doing everything the same way while creating a static placeholder site. Start using the internet and things will change!

The game-changing element is that the internet facilitates engagement. You can’t always control engagement. The Church likes control.

Most internet strategies allow for readers to comment on what they see and read. They can do this in a number of ways—”liking” or sharing, for example. They can also comment.

Some online communities post rules for those who want to engage.

Here’s typical corporate approach to community rules.

1. Stick to the topic.
2. Be nice or be gone.

Compare this to the rules of this popular online forum directed to church leaders, mostly clergy. It is six printed pages in length (1262 words), complete with warnings about what might happen if your comment strays from its nebulous standards. Would-be commenters also have to sign in to comment. Only the brave dare type! And yes, the authors do snipe back if they determine a comment violates policy. This does not encourage meaningful engagement. It tries to recreate the teacher student dynamic that is part of preaching.

My own denomination’s house organ has an equally archaic policy designed to control engagement, thereby sacrificing any hope of lively dialog. You have to subscribe to comment — that’s in addition to your congregation’s offerings that support the publication. If your congregation foots the subscription costs or someone else in the family pays the bill, you can be shut out.

The Church is not used to open dialog. Control creates a sense of order if not progress. We spend our days scratching our chins and pondering why we are in decline. The rest of the world is learning to accept that the digital world cannot be controlled.

First, your congregation needs to understand the power and reach of internet ministry.

You will be able to enhance many aspects of typical congregational life. If these are a challenge, an internet ministry might be the answer.

1. WITNESS: Your website can be a public face of your congregation’s mission.
2. WORSHIP: Your website can extend the worship experience through the week.
3. EDUCATION: The internet is revolutionizing education in every other aspect of life.
4. SERVICE: You website will trigger new mission opportunities. You’ll be surprised. We were!
5. FELLOWSHIP: Your website will become your front door.
6. STEWARDSHIP: Much more than a Donate button! Your website is an opportunity to encourage giving in many ways — our selves, our time, and our possessions.
7. EVANGELISM: There is no better evangelism tool. Period.

But first, there are roadblocks.

Roadblock 1:

Determining who is in charge. Recognize that multiple skills are needed and these skills are not likely to be found in one appointed leader.

Consider this:

• If you rely on the pastor as internet leader, you are likely to have a site that posts the weekly sermon.
• If you rely on the techies in your congregation, things will work well, but may not be effective.
• If you rely on those in the congregation who just love social media, you are likely to end up with a cliquish Facebook site.
• If you rely on your artistic members, the site may be beautiful but not reach its potential.

So which of these important skills will lead the project? This brings us to the next roadblock.

Roadblock 2:

Embracing the group approach to web ministry. Success relies on finding people with a number of skills—the skills we’ve already listed and a few more. These people may be sitting in your pews. Put them to work. If you truly don’t have people with these skills, find them. Hire them if necessary. Internet ministry is too important to accept any excuses.

Roadblock 3:

The Church has not been leading the development of internet ministry. National and regional bodies vary greatly in their understanding of how the internet can be used. Many have not explored the medium beyond the creation of an informational bulletin board-style site. Very large churches hire media ministers. Small churches may think they haven’t got a chance, but that’s not true. Our church is very small and we’ve been working at this for five years with success.

Roadblock 4:

Creating a strategy. You’ll need to spend some time with your group discussing where to begin and which of the many possibilities for web ministry should be your priority. Beware! Strategies need to be fluid. The internet is fast-changing. What works well one year, may go bust the next. Your team will have to measure your efforts with patience. We’ll be publishing some strategies to consider as part of this series.

Roadblock 5:

Creating content. Content drives every aspect of internet ministry. It is imperative to create quality content published with consistency. It doesn’t have to be a daily sermon. It can be a quote or a link to something you think is meaningful. Your committee is likely to divvy up this job and can even reach deeper into the congregation for help. Again, 2×2 can help. Watch for our internet content subscription service scheduled to begin this Pentecost.

Roadblock 6:

Measuring your website’s effectiveness. The temptation for many congregations is to post a website and walk away. Most church projects in the good old days were evaluated once a year. Your web team should monitor your blogs statistics at least monthly. Don’t worry. There are people who love this work.

Roadblock 7:

Monitoring the website. If you invite community engagement, you have to be prepared to engage back. Your congregation must monitor the site daily and be prepared to take action if needed. That could mean responding with basic information or handling an inquiry that reflects some distress. We’ll write more about this in future posts.

These are the roadblocks. They are waiting to be crashed through. You can do it. We will help.

photo credit: After a Full Day of Travel… via photopin (license)

On February 2, 2x2virtualchurch celebrates its fifth birthday.

A great deal of our early content outlined social media strategies for churches. You can access this evergreen content on our site in our search box.

But it might be time to look again at the topic of social media and the Church.

Why?

Because it remains relatively unexplored—and almost totally unexplored as a mission of the entire congregation.

Why?—when the rest of the world lives and breathes by the networking possibilities created by the internet.

The reason is structural. Some traditions trace their structure to the Reformation. Others claim direct succession from Jesus and Simon Peter. You can’t get much more carved in stone than that! But Simon Peter and the host of reformers never dreamed of the internet. It isn’t part of the pastor’s job description!

There is another, more intimidating reason.

Using the internet is WORK.

Congregations wait for the pastor to initiate this ministry. It’s like asking a fireman to double up as police detective. Two different jobs. Both important.

Consequently, most church websites are static, bulletin-board websites that fail to engage beyond the membership. It is no wonder that churches abandon them when even their members rarely reference them.

To be effective, churches must create a web presence that is interactive and that provides content.

But who is going to create the content?

It won’t work if the pastor is the only participant. In fact, if a congregation allows the pastor to control the congregation’s web presence, they risk any benefit created the day that pastor announces he or she has accepted a new call. The congregation will be starting this ministry over. It may takes years to find a pastor with similar talents and voice. It may be impossible. The inconsistency will be reflected on the site.

The website must reflect the membership.

A congregation’s internet presence MUST involve teamwork—laity and clergy.

The internet requires skills that clergy often lack. The recent BARNA survey reveals that senior pastors participating in the poll are just beginning to accept the internet as a ministry tool—at least about half of them are. Another half are still skeptical.

This transition is tragically slow. The internet is the door to opportunity. A strategy helps.

2×2 is going to take a fresh look at how congregations—even small congregations—can benefit from implementing internet strategies.

We’ll try to find solutions to help you explore your world with your keyboard.