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September 2012

Mission Churches with No Web Site!!!

God is doing something new and the church is Out to Lunch. We are tempted to say Gone Fishing, but that might have theological implications that do not apply.

Redeemer Ambassadors always turn to the internet to plan our visits. We check service times, read newsletters and find out as much as we can before we visit.

We follow the process any newcomer to a neighborhood in 2012 would take when searching for a church home. They would Google their neighborhood and the word “church” to see what comes up.

Our search process reveals that neighborhood church seekers will have problems finding Lutheran churches.

Since we are looking for Lutheran churches, we start with the ELCA Trend Reports web site and use their Church Finder. We plug in 15, 20 or 25 miles for the radius and press the LOCATE button. Up comes a list. Then we click the link provided to each congregation’s web site.

We are now preparing for our 50th visit. We’d like to visit a nearby church tomorrow morning. Some of our ambassadors have afternoon plans. There are several possibilities. We’ll look for a church with an early service.

THIRTY of them have NO WEB SITE!

Several of those with no web site are mission churches under the direction of synodically appointed leaders. Note: These are just the churches in a 15-mile radius of East Falls.

A MISSION CHURCH with NO WEB SITE!

We Google the name of one nearby congregation. Maybe they have a web site that isn’t listed in the national database. Great! They have a Facebook page. We check it. It has NO information beyond the church’s address.

Really, SEPA churches, what are you thinking? Are you serious about outreach? Are you part of your communities? Do you open your doors on Sunday morning and expect the neighborhood to flock there by magic?

A church can have a nice looking web site for an annual investment of $25 and no more than an hour’s set-up time. Facebook is FREE, for St. Pete’s sake! 13-year-olds know how to use it.

If you don’t have a web site, you are not serious about serving your community.

Most of these congregation’s have pastors who could set up a basic site and at least have a community presence.

Even Redeemer, the church that doesn’t exist according to SEPA and the ELCA, has a web site.

In the world of the ELCA, these churches, that are not serious about ministry, feel they have the right to take votes about the ministries of other congregations and gain from their actions. (They don’t have this right under governing laws, but that hasn’t stopped the churches and clergy of SEPA!)

God is doing something new in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod and many churches are not equipped to perceive it—much less take advantage of it!

We’d like to think they have Gone Fishing for Men, but the evidence is they are Out to Lunch.

photo credit: bobfranklin via photo pin cc
08 Sep 2012

The Problem with Vision Statements

Seeing What We Want to See

These days it is a common for regional offices to request congregations, especially congregations searching for a new pastor, to draft a vision statement.

This is always done by a group. Sometimes a special committee is named.

The problem: groups rarely have vision. Vision is a gift that usually comes to the masses via an extraordinary person. With luck, your local visionary is also a godly person and a communicator with some leadership skills and the ability to work hard. With real fortune, your visionary will be someone people like and will listen to.

If you think this is the job of professional leaders, think again. Pastors are not required to be visionaries. Most aren’t.

This is nothing new. Jesus chose 12 disciples. Only a few, maybe only one — or maybe none — can be said to have been men of vision. Their leadership skills were nurtured and tested over time.

So what happens when congregations draft vision statements.

They end sounding remarkably the same, the better to please regional offices.

We are going to call a dynamic, charismatic pastor. We are going to reach out to the community and they are going to love us and support us.

That’s not vision. It’s wishful thinking.

08 Sep 2012

A Pastor’s Secret Transformation Weapon

The Children’s Sermon As Catalyst

A pastor may think that a children’s sermon is a waste of time. The children might be better off somewhere else, engaged in age appropriate activities.

The children’s sermon time is so much more. It is a golden opportunity to introduce change to your congregation.

Many pastors do little more than talk at the children—a watered down “trailer” of the 20-minute version about to come.

It is painfully obvious in many cases that the pastor has little experience talking to children. All those years of seminary study so you can expound to five-year-olds!

The children’s sermon is a time when you can communicate to everyone. Many adult Christians have not been well-schooled in church matters. This is an opportunity to not only reach the children but to review basic church teachings without “talking down” to the adults.

You can experiment in the few minutes you spend with the children. Few will object. It is a chance to create the experience modern worship so desperately needs—something that people will remember and talk about when they go home and off to work.

In the business world, this is called creating a “remarkable” experience. Business people know that their best advertisers (evangelists) are customers (congregants). They aim to provide the best service possible so that the customer/congregant talks about his or her experience.

Most worship services are fairly predictable in format and even in content. They are no doubt meaningful to the congregants, but few are anything anyone will talk about during the week or even remember a few days later. (Quick! What hymns did you sing in church last week?)

More people will be tuned in for a ten-minute children’s lesson than for the full 20-minute version. Use this opportunity to create a “remarkable” experience.

This is a pastor’s opportunity to introduce change without objection. Congregants may not even notice that the praise song you taught the children last week is the sermon hymn this week.

The children’s sermon is an excellent opportunity to introduce media, teach the kids (and adults) to move in liturgical dance, practice a new prayer technique, read a story or poem, or perform a little drama. Don’t put a stopwatch on the activity. Some sermons may be five minutes long. But if people are engaged, milk the moment.

Here is a list of guidelines.

  • Don’t treat the adults as passive bystanders. Engage them in music, question and answers, or other activities. Enlist their help. They will be more likely to step up to help the children then if you asked them to do something for their peers. Ask a choir member to lead or teach a new song, for example. Or have an usher explain what happens to the coins the children put into the offering plate. It will strengthen your congregation’s sense of community.
  • Don’t be afraid of repetition. Kids love it. Adults learn from it, too.
  • Don’t be afraid of interaction. Throw out a question to the adults. Better yet, have the children ask questions. Imagine one of your older members telling the story at work: “In church yesterday, a little girl asked me a question . . . .” 

It’s all about story-telling. We all love to tell the story. The children’s sermon can be the vehicle for congregational story-telling. And this can lead to transformation.

photo credit: Jenn Durfey via photo pin cc
07 Sep 2012

Why Are We Counting the Days?

See the countdown box to the right. 2×2 Foundation, which grew from Redeemer’s ministry, is counting the days to the third anniversary of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s excommunication of all Lutherans in East Falls so that they could take our property and assets as their own.

We are marking the occasion with the issuance of our annual report which will include a report of our 50 visits to other SEPA churches.

Nine months after they locked our doors, SEPA’s Synod Council, with no constitutional authority or any contact with Redeemer members, voted to officially close our congregation. We found out a year later when we Googled our name. SEPA’s idea of working with us! Perhaps all churches should Google their names to see if they are open!

Why these actions do not outrage SEPA Lutherans passes all understanding. The Gospel is totally abandoned when the subject of Redeemer comes up.

‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ — Matthew 25:40

Redeemer is not closed. Redeemer is locked out of God’s House by SEPA Synod.

We look forward to sharing our annual report three weeks from today.

photo credit: Eva the Weaver via photo pin cc
06 Sep 2012

Transforming Congregations: Changing Attitudes

Discovering Our Target Demographics

Imagine this common scenario.

Your congregational leaders are meeting with representatives from your regional body or with paid consultants. You are part of the “congregational study” process.

Part of congregational studies is to examine demographic data. 

Now, listen for the words that will be used. It will be something like this: “Which group of people should we target.”

Our relationship with our community is defined with predatory language. TARGET.

The most common — almost universal — outcome of this discussion is “Let’s target families.” All churches want families. Our Ambassador visits reveal that few are achieving that goal.

In our mind’s eye, we still see families as Mom, Dad and a bunch of children to populate our Sunday Schools. We see income, we see longevity of relationship. These are the things the Church wants for its own survival. When we think in terms of targets, we reveal our self-interest.

Today, families are in disarray on one hand and inclusive beyond any old-fashioned measure on the other. Families are not a well-defined target!

What church goes through the congregational study and decides to TARGET the elderly, the poor, the immigrants, the homeless, the unemployed, or people with special needs? These are not populations with expendable income. Most are members of families but that’s not exactly what we are thinking when we define our goals.

There are congregations with inclusive ministries worth mentioning. Prince of Peace in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., for example, is developing programming for families who have members with autism and developmental delays. Their ministry did not grow out of the “congregational study.” It stemmed from a teaching/preaching series.

When we start to think of segments of our community as “prey,” we cloud our vision of God’s total Kingdom.

When we narrow the focus of ministry, we become, unconsciously unwelcoming to everyone else.

Redeemer experienced this once some 30 years ago. We asked our regional body for advice on dealing with people who were finding their way to our door from the state psychiatric hospital in our neighborhood. The answer we received was, “That’s not the synod’s emphasis (target) right now.”

Church people see ourselves as welcoming. If we are to be truly welcoming, we must adjust our attitudes and stop approaching our neighborhoods for what they can do for us, but for how we can serve them.

When they walk through our doors, they should not get the “once over” to see if they fit our ministry’s target demographic.

Every person who enters a church has a story. Every church should make some effort to learn something about that story before they leave. Then we will understand the demographics of our neighborhoods!

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06 Sep 2012

Why Don’t More Churches Blog? Answer 2!


Here’s another answer to the question “Why don’t churches blog?”

Church leaders don’t understand the reach and impact of the internet or the new definition of community.

Congregations, by tradition, are geographically bound. For several decades, congregations which had support from people who lived some distance from the church building were criticized. Membership was considered “scattered.” The regional or centralized church didn’t care about this as long as offerings were flowing, but if there were any signs of fiscal trouble, a “scattered” congregation was in trouble with its judicatory.

Geography is no longer as important as it once was. There are definite benefits to physical community, but it is not the sole criterion.

Community is a group of people with common interests. People, today, are discovering people with common interests all over the world. Just because this was not possible from 35 A.D. to 1985 A.D. doesn’t mean it has no value in 2012 A.D.

Recognizing that the Church and its sense of community has changed WILL redefine Church and its structure of support and service.

2×2 is on the frontline exploring this new definition of Church. We are learning every day. Our effort, barely 18 months old, has taken our ministry to places we never imagined.

Our regional office considers us “scattered and diminished” and worthless.

Scattered? Not when they made this claim, but today, maybe. But now it doesn’t matter!

Diminished, not at all. 2×2 (Redeemer) is reaching more people every week than it ever reached on a weekly basis at any time in its history. We can prove it!

Some contacts are fickle accidents. Others are developing into true friendships. That’s really not so different than the neighborhood church that reaches many visitors with only a small percentage actually joining.

We made all of these connections by blogging daily on diverse subjects, analyzing the wealth of online data, and producing content that answered the needs revealed in search engine data.

We did it on a shoestring budget — less than $100 per year. We followed our own members’ interests and talents.

We’ve only just begun. We’re here to help and serve.

Contact us if you need help developing an online ministry.

05 Sep 2012

Why don’t churches blog?

The answer to this question is simple: They don’t know how. They keep busy doing what they always do, aware that it’s not working very well, but unable to make changes — even when they have the tools.

The accepted structure of the Church calls for one thoughtful 20-minute message per week. That’s the way church leaders have communicated for decades or centuries.

In addition, they persist in relying for communication on the church bulletin, which only those who attend worship read, and perhaps an online newsletter, which requires the initiative of members to access and read.

Each has its place, but neither is effective at reaching new people.

There is NO interaction possible with any of these methods, no way of engaging seekers, no way to build your following. But this is the accepted way of communicating—as ineffective as it is.

Blogging is a new discipline. Church leaders have to shift gears sharply.

They must learn to plan a daily message. They must learn to divide thoughts up into shorter messages. They must get used to identifying topics and planning ahead. They must establish a voice and learn to build lists of interested people. They must address different audiences — instead of just the one which shows up on Sunday. And they have to get used to the idea that people will respond online. They are no longer alone in the pulpit!

Blogging has tremendous evangelism potential.

The hardest part is getting started.

Here are some quick tips to help you get your feet wet as you work toward a daily presence on line.

  • Look at next month’s church and community calendars and lectionary readings. List 15-25 topics that come to mind. For now just write a headline for each. You can change it later.
  • This is your roadmap. Write a post for five of the headlines, aiming for 300-500 words. Write the others later after you’ve created a rhythm.
  • Now go to your chosen blog platform. (We use WordPress). Register a url (web address).
  • Choose a theme. You can change it later. Post just one post, adding the others every other day or so. Blogging twice a week is a good starting point, but things will start to happen when you start posting daily.
  • Remember to write for other people — people who may not have any church affiliation. Remember to address — Witness, Education, Stewardship, Worship, Social Ministry, Fellowship and other topics pertaining to your congregation and community.

This is how you start. There are more details in our archived posts on Social Media.

HAPPY BLOGGING!

photo credit: Dominic’s pics via photo pin cc
05 Sep 2012

Why should churches blog? 5 unexpected reasons!


The Alban Roundtable discussion this week presents cautionary tales on what can go awry when using email to communicate.

Comments so far have been: We know, we know. But this is the world we live in.

They are right. If people are going to email, there is nothing you can do to stop them. You CAN, however, provide good content to encourage reasonable and helpful online dialog.

Create a church blog.

2×2 advocates the development of church blogs as a less emotionally charged way of promoting online discussion. Blogs invite participation. Thoughtful posts will result in thoughtful comments—moreso than on Facebook and Twitter. Blogs allow you to moderate comments, but generally we recommend that you moderate the first comment only, simply as a way of verifying that the contributor is not a spammer. Access to the online discussion must be fairly free. If you start editing or rejecting comments, your blog will be seen as the voice of the favored in the church.

Establish guidelines for your commenters. People will cooperate. If you feel you must edit a comment, you can tell the contributor (offline) why it violates your community rules.

There are many advantages to blogs. Some you can anticipate. We’ve listed some above.

This morning, Blogger Mark Schaefer posted five unexpected benefits of blogging. Although Mark is a businessman, his words are very personal. His insights apply to church. 2×2 has been blogging for more than a year. We have experienced the same benefits.

Here are Mark’s insights as they have applied to our church blog . . . and can apply to your church blog as well.

Blogging heals

Redeemer, the sponsor of the 2×2, is a congregation experiencing ongoing rejection and bullying within the Church. It’s painful, and the Church has been unresponsive—hoping we would just roll over and die—even five years after that tactic has proven ineffective!

Blogging has given us a voice which is healing to our community. It has given us reach and it has validated our ministry (to other Christians if not to our nearest neighbors). We know we can still fulfill our “missional purpose.”

Blogging connects

This has been the most amazing benefit of our blog. We have connected with other Lutherans, other denominations, other religious institutions and ministry efforts all over the world. We have come to know many by name and hear from several daily. Some have been helpful to us. We’ve been helpful others as well. We have invitations to visit in Asia and Africa!

Blogging defines

Where does the church stand on issues? Often we allow church experts to draft statements about what we believe, but let’s face it. They are rarely read or used more than a month after they are published.

Why do we allow others to decide what we think? In the past, there was little choice, but dialog online can help congregations participate in issues and respond at the local level. The official response can be helpful but it shouldn’t replace our own consciences.

When you take an issue you aren’t quite sure about and start to write, you can begin to sort out your thoughts and realize what you believe. Sometimes it surprises you!

2×2 posts some ideas, knowing they are not fully defined. Sometimes the ones we think are most nebulous start to get responses — often by email—thanking us for our position. We often learn that others are struggling with the same issues. They add a penny or two to the dialog—which we incorporate in future posts.

Blogging teaches

Mark Schaefer points out that his blog opens his eyes and teaches him. 2×2 says “ditto!”.

Blogging inspires

2×2 looks for messages that inspire and includes them in our editorial mix. We often get emails thanking us and telling us how they intend to use the information in their ministry.

These are five things every church needs. Why aren’t we doing it more?

We have one answer to this question! Tomorrow’s post.

04 Sep 2012

Adult Object Lesson: September 9, 2012

A Gospel Story for the Dogs

Mark 7:24-37

Today’s object is a dog. Use a stuffed dog, a picture of a dog, or even your own pet. You might consider using two stuffed dogs—one of pedigree to represent the Jews and one of less definite breeding to represent the Gentiles.

Mark tells two stories in this Sunday’s Gospel.

The first story tells Jesus’ hesitance to extend his message  beyond the people of Israel. Jesus uses the metaphor of children and dogs.

Is is right to take the food meant for your children and throw it to the dogs? he asks.

The Gentile women is quick-witted. Her answer impresses the great teacher. Even the dogs eat the children’s crumbs and that’s all I’m asking for — a crumb.

Jesus hears the woman and is moved. Her daughter is healed.

Point out the woman could have stormed off in a huff at being likened to a dog. Even today, as lovable as our pets are, we don’t refer to someone as a dog without expecting a fight! But this woman stood up to the miracle worker — who might have struck her down on the spot for impertinence.

You can talk a bit about the most endearing quality of dogs — their loyalty and trust — qualities that played out in today’s lesson.

The second story is about the man with a speech impediment. It, too, is a strange story. Jesus takes the man aside and heals him in private of his speech impediment. For the first time in his life this man can speak and be understood. Jesus orders the crowd, who reappear at the end of the story, to keep the report of this miracle under wraps.

You can tie the dog analogy to this second lesson. A favorite trick to teach a dog is to speak or bark upon command. It’s a lot harder to teach a dog to be quiet! Yet that is what Jesus asks of the healed man and the crowd of people.  “Do not tell anyone.”

Order your dog or dog object to not bark. If you have a group of children or youth, you might enlist them in your story-telling by asking them ahead of time to bark whenever you give the order “do not bark” or “be quiet.”

These passages remain a bit puzzling. Why was Jesus reluctant to heal a child of a non-Jew? Later, why did he charge people to do something that goes entirely against human nature?

Why do we hesitate to embrace people different from us? Why do we admire dogs of pedigree?

What stands in our way of telling the Good News?

photo credit: 27147 via photo pin cc
04 Sep 2012

Laborers in the Field: The Changing Jobs of Ministry

Today is Labor Day. We are celebrating the American worker.

Recent years have seen a lot of change within the American workforce. Some once common jobs no longer exist. Many of the specialty niches have been replaced by technology.

Similarly, some of the movements that helped create the concept of Labor Day are challenged. Unions must weigh their actions or risk rubbing a troubled society the wrong way.

The jobs involved in ministry haven’t changed much, but then change comes slowly in the Church. Maybe the job descriptions need to change.

  • Does every church need a pastor?
  • Does every church need a building?
  • Does every church need an organist? Does every church have an organ?
  • Do we train our pastors to do diverse ministry tasks or do we teach specialty ministries (youth pastors, interim pastors, country pastors, urban pastors, etc.?)

The formula most parishes follow today is the same formula used for the last 100 years. Call a full-time pastor. Add special skills only as the budget can afford to add skills. Ministry needs are neglected until churches can afford to hire personnel to answer the need. Often that never happens. Needs go unaddressed. Ministries fail.

Unlike the commercial market place which strives to identify needs and fill them, the Church keeps doing things the same way, hoping to one day have resources to address the needs that are staring them in the face today.

The Church is relying on volunteers at a time when few hands are raised. We continue to hire staff as if they will have ready help from volunteers.

On this Labor Day, churches should take a fresh look at what skills they need to accomplish their goals and stop putting all their mission dollars into one staff member.

It is poor stewardship to allocate the majority of resources to filling positions that are statistically unproductive.

03 Sep 2012