Habits for Success in Ministry

Dharmesh Shah is the founder of Hubspot.

If you have an internet ministry you know about Hubspot. Hubspot leads the way in making the internet work. They sell software that turns the internet into a tool that can guide and measure what you are doing—something churches need to do.

Your evangelism team can learn a lot from following Hubspot online. They publish tons of free resources—they advocate blogging!

Shah recently published two posts. He practices what he preaches, you see.

Let’s look at one today and see how his business advice applies to the Church. We’ll save the second one for tomorrow.

Simple Daily Habits of the Delightfully Successful

1. Walk away from gossip.

The Church is often driven by gossip. That gossip often comes from the highest levels of church. It’s hard for underlings to walk away when leaders are gossiping.

But wait a minute. Don’t we Lutherans believe we are all equal — all saint and sinners?

How many church conflicts start with gossip? How many are fueled for years by gossip?

Gossip is a tool of the powerful. Power thrives on no one questioning. Yet, questioning or ignoring gossip, no matter who generates it, are the only ways to keep the Church from imploding.

Shah’s advice: Talk to people, not about them.

2. Spend five minutes in another person’s shoes.

Focus on others. What does this congregation need? What does this pastor need? What do lay members need? We are interdependent in our structure, but how much time do we really spend thinking about how our actions affect others?

We visited one church where ministry was stalled because their educational wing lacked handicapped accessibility. They had the will and the manpower to operate a dayschool, but couldn’t conquer the property issue—at least by themselves. But it was unlikely that anyone would help them. Pity!

What if every church leader made this one question the key part of leadership strategy?

What can I do to help?

Shah says: The best way to build your own long-term success is to help other people succeed.

3. Give one person unexpected praise.

We all need an “attaboy” now and then—especially when the road is rocky and goals are challenging. Shah points out that choosing to find the good in others cost us nothing but brands us “in an awesome way.”

Many a small congregation suffers from low self-esteem. We feel as if our only value to the Church is our ability to support the greater church—and our ability to do that is waning. We don’t get many “attaboys.” We are barely noticed until it is too late. Time to turn that around!

4. Do one thing no one else is willing to do.

Here is where many congregations make a huge mistake. Most congregation strive to do the very same things their neighbors are doing. In fact, we are encouraged to be like everyone else.

There is a reason for that. We look for what unites us, what defines us.

What if we looked for that extra thing that makes us stand out—makes us the leaders in a particular niche.

Redeemer did this on at least two fronts. We reached out to the growing East African population in our region and we started a serious online ministry. Doing this has led us to other niche ministries. An amazing journey!

5. Shine the spotlight on one person.

Find opportunities to publicly praise others. We in the church spend a lot of time praising professional leadership, honoring clergy achievements and milestones. What might happen if the tables were turned and the achievements of congregations were publicly praised? A collective “attaboy”?

Heaven forbid the leadership of laity be celebrated at the regional level!

Sharing the spotlight might just be the spur that laity need. It might make us feel a little less used and useless. It might be motivational. It might be transformational!

6. “Sell” one thing.

Selling, Shah points out, is the ability to explain the reasoning, logic and benefits of a decision or a perspective in order to get buy-in. He adds: Selling is the ability to overcome skepticism or doubt.

Sounds like evangelism! Yet many people in church life—clergy and lay alike—have no sales/evangelism skills. Martin Luther tried to help us. He wrote his catechisms so that any one of us could explain our faith. Reread them! Put them to work! (And read your Bible, too.)

7. Give one person an unexpected hand.

Shah makes a good point. Most people have a very tough time asking for help. It’s hard to face rejection. It is hardest to face rejection when help is most needed.

He advises us to create an atmosphere where people feel they can ask for help. You do this by making it a habit to offer help.

“Offer to help in a way that feels collaborative instead of gratuitous or patronizing. And then actually help.”

8. Admit one failing.

Laugh at yourself. Say you are sorry. Admit you aren’t perfect even as we
strive for perfection.

Shah says there are two reasons to take this approach.

1. It’s good for us. It helps us improve our weaknesses.
2. It adds to likability. You’ll like yourself better and so will others.

Who joins a church where they don’t like the people?

Transformation Isn’t Built in A Day

We are in the middle of Holy Week at a time in history when the Church longs for a new resurrection. We are ready to celebrate, once again, the Resurrection—the big one. The one with the capital “R”.

This Easter, the greater Church is struggling with resurrection.

From our distant vantage point, the Resurrection seems to have happened so very quickly—three years of wandering the byways of Judea with a little escalating trouble here and there. Suddenly, the faithful are standing at the foot of the cross and then—voila!—Christ rises from the dead. We compress the entire story in our minds. We concentrate on the three days. Alleluia!

We are in a hurry with our modern short attention spans, so we gloss over the Old Testament build up. The Jews waited centuries for that day—generations born and buried! Some modern scholars are now making the case that Jesus ministry, traditionally encapsulated into three years, probably lasted at least two decades.

The process of nurturing is slow and tedious. It is not steady. Mistakes and failures are rungs in the ladder to success. It is no place for leaders looking for the quick turnaround, especially today.

Today, we are building on decades of neglect—inadequate ministry. The corporate approach to church leadership was to provide as much ministry as a community could afford—at salary levels that were outpacing those of the people being served. Investing in new methods or outreach was not considered.

We did not believe our own message.

When things weren’t so dire, we pinched pennies. We played it safe. We camouflaged our neglect with terminology that seemed kind—caretaker ministries—stewardship.

Caretaker ministries have only one outcome—failure. Any pennies spent on these ministries are pennies squandered.

Neglect is neglect.

Caretaker ministries are all about protecting assets—and not for the ministries that provided the assets. Greed enters the picture. Feelings of superiority justify the coveting of others property. Stories are invented (gossip) to justify the feelings of superiority. The devil is creative!

This leads to more caretaking and more intentional neglect.

Don’t waste resources on congregations that are going to die in 30 years.

That’s the advice of church consultants who are now experiencing their own endangered status.

Transformation is a slow process. Progress is incremental. Churches are not going to resurrect ministry in three days or three years. But they can be nurtured back to life. That used to be the job of ministry.

Redeemer, with its wealth of experience over the last two decades, had been following the incremental path toward transformation. We were making great progress when church leadership decided they might be missing their opportunity to get their hands on our property and endowments. Their intentional neglect wasn’t working the way they thought it would.

They tried for 20 years—incorporating escalating tactics of neglect. At last they got their way —not based on the law or their own governance but based on the separation of church and state. The secular courts can’t stop them. The law requires them to police their own behavior. That requires more fortitude than the modern church can muster.

But Redeemer soldiers on. We continued to tweak our ministry even with our unwelcome—even persecuted, nonexistent status in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

We learned a lot. We’ve been sharing what we learn and will continue.

We’ve reached 30,000 readers in the last three months. More than any other congregation that voted to destroy our ministry!

Our transformation has been slow and productive. Time for our resurrection.

Redeemer lives.

Here’s an interesting TED talk on the process of transformation.

It was a rough year for Christians in Pakistan. Hundreds were killed and injured in terrorist bombings only months ago (September). Their presence in the streets on Palm Sunday is all the more remarkable knowing that their witness is not made without risk.

The risk of discipleship is part of the Passion story we will live this week.

Thanks for sharing with us, Pakistan. Lift high the cross.

It’s OK! We have permission. The great thinker of the modern business world, Seth Godin, has said it . . . and published it.

We can steal.

He’s talking about building on the work of those who went before us. It’s OK to use the systems devised by others to run efficient businesses. As long as a payroll, assembly line, website platform and tools developed by someone else work—use them. Don’t waste time and money reinventing.

Instead, put your energy into developing new ideas and products.

This is the dilemma that the Church faces today.

The structure of mainline Church, developed in America over the last 200 years, built upon the structure of the church in Europe, created over turbulent centuries. We thought we corrected a few things. We grew out of the Reformation and many of our ancestors, including my own, fled Europe for a fresh religious start.

None of this works anymore.

The failure of the prestigious Alban Institute—the gurus of church leadership—is proof that we are consistently returning to a tainted well. All those high-paid church consultants couldn’t keep their own boat afloat—yet they were at the ready to tell us what we are doing wrong!

Rest easy. They are still available as private consultants.

Prediction: congregations that can still afford their services will keep turning to them for help. It doesn’t matter if their advice no longer works. It is still “gold” within the church.

Perhaps we need to be more selective and find some new places to practice our thievery.

The Church in Europe is suffering perhaps more than in the New World. There, standing in silent witness, are thousands of beautiful sanctuaries that exist for tourist, historical, cultural and ceremonial purposes. They may still function as worshiping communities, but the deep rows of pews are often empty. The beautiful art and architecture is witness to a passion, now faded.

The Church is not dying from religious wars. We haven’t been conquered by an opposing faith system.

No. We tend to look at their efforts to find fault.

• We look for problems in their methods.
  Like we don’t have these problems.
• We look for problems in theology.
  Like we don’t have these problems.
• We look for problems in sustaining the model.
  Like we don’t have these problems.
• We look at budgets we can only dream of making and suspect unethical stewardship.

Sour grapes?

But now we have permission. It’s OK to steal.

The mainline Church needs to seriously look at objectives and consider that the structure in which we have invested our future may no longer support our mission.

Time to steal another system.

The Best Investment A Small Church Can Make

Many denominations have invested in land and the infrastructure to provide summer camps for their congregations. Often this is considered to be something for the kids — fun in the great outdoors with a little spiritual enrichment around the campfire at night. A summer break for the parents!

Church camps are a greatly overlooked resource for all church members—especially small churches.

Church camping is hands down the best investment in the future a small church can make, yet many churches do little to promote involvement.

At Redeemer, we encouraged our families to attend family camp—growing the skills of adults while creating important bonding opportunities for families and church members.

Church camp is an investment in your congregation’s future—and your ability to achieve those lofty missions!

Here’s why.

1. Camp actively nurtures spirituality.

Clergy often do not recognize just how scary spirituality is for lay people.

Lay people live in the secular world. We are expected to keep our spirituality to ourselves.

Clergy live in a culture where society expects them to talk in terms of God and faith. They won’t be criticized in public for speaking from a Christian point of view.

Lay people are encouraged in our faith on Sunday and discouraged the other five days of the week. We risk being labeled—“the church lady,” “the Jesus freak.” The labels CAN hold us back from promotion in our world.

This affects lay Christians’ spiritual confidence.

While society lures us away, camp can pull us back. For five or six days, in the company of other spiritual seekers—each on our own faith journey—we lay people can charge our spiritual batteries without fear of judgment.

2. Camp is a process of self-discovery.

Speaking of judgment—church culture can be unintentionally limiting. While most churches encourage involvement it is usually in a vetted way. If your skill set happens to include singing alto, there will be a place for you in the choir. But what if you play the tuba!

The Church may never ask us to do what we are really good at. They may not know us well enough —even after years of involvement. Really, how much can you learn about another person by attending worship and potluck dinners!

Sometimes we, ourselves, have yet to discover our full potential. We are Peters waiting for someone to come along, call us, and give us a chance. Often it never happens.

Church camp gives lay people the opportunity to explore. There will be less structured worship and all kinds of activities—crafts, service, music, acting, sports, challenges, etc.

3. Camp nurtures lay leadership.

Strengthened as individuals, your members will return to your congregation pumped to serve.  One year, three of our boys were so excited with the songs they learned at camp that they just had to stand up in front of the congregation and teach them. This was the first time they led the congregation but it wasn’t the last time!

Adults who have been to camp are equally more likely to step forward and lead. It may not be in worship. They may forge an entirely new direction for your congregation.

4. Church camp provides a new environment.

This was important to Redeemer. Many of our members were recent immigrants. They knew little about America outside the urban scene. At church camp, they saw a different side of their new home.

Actually, some of our older members were uncomfortable leaving the lit streets of the city. Camp helped them, too.

As a neighborhood church (like most churches) we could get caught up in the local scene. Getting away for even a few days helped us see our church in a different way—as something bigger than ourselves.

The change in environment can be equally important to all congregations. Camp is an opportunity to put aside the cellphones and laptop/pads for a few days, to focus on relationship with God, and break out steer out of our ruts toward the future.

5. Camp is one of the only places where congregations interact.

Denominations sponsor occasional seminars—usually lasting a couple of hours. Relatively few attend. Camp is one place Christians interact for several days. Powerful stuff.

Some congregations go to camp as a congregation, holding retreats for just their community or for just their youth.

The real strength in getting your congregation involved in church camping is the opportunity to interact with members of other congregations—strengthening one another. I suspect that even church camps haven’t fully developed this. There’s a lot more they could be doing with their unique status in church structure. But even so, when your families eat, play, worship and learn together for five or six days with other Christian families, they bring new ideas back to your congregation.

Redeemer’s commitment to church camping helped create a congregation of leaders—which the greater church didn’t know what to do with. We invested in our future wisely by subsidizing getting our families to camp right up until our denomination took all our resources to subsidize themselves!

Talk about squandering!

Why is there no time to sing Hosanna? 

2×2 generally follows the Common Lectionary for our weekly slideshows and object lessons, but 2×2 also comes from the tradition of celebrating Palm Sunday. Do you remember this joyous church festival?

At Redeemer we typically celebrated with a congregational ham dinner. Members were invited to bring a ham with them. We packaged each ham with the makings of a meal and delivered them to the needy for their family’s Easter celebration.

Palm Sunday is an important celebration.

But in recent years (about the last 25 or so) the Church has joined Palm Sunday with the reading of the Passion story—Palm/Passion Sunday. Palm Sunday is relegated to an opening hymn and procession before diving into the despair of the Passion. (Consequently, a generation of Christians knows only one Palm Sunday hymn!)

Theologians came up with this idea for the modern worshiper—the worshiper who doesn’t come to Holy Week services. The Church is attempting to fit the entire Holy Week experience into just one Sunday morning.

The teaming of Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday makes sense only to theologians who are hoping to get all the readings of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday into one marathon Sunday morning church service — that probably isn’t any better attended for it. They devise ways to make the long story palatable. Various readers. Various voices. A little drama to reflect the epic drama of the actual event.

It’s an emotional roller coaster with just one short high before a huge plunge.

It doesn’t work. It’s too much. Both Palm Sunday and the Passion story suffer.

We need the Palm Sunday experience. We need to sing praise and plea joyously for salvation. We need to cry Hosanna and recognize with all the world that at last, we know who Jesus is. We get it!

Those of us who come to church every Sunday have been building up to this moment. If we shortchange Palm Sunday, we do a disservice to all the Sundays that have led up to this week’s message. Take this away and we lose the opportunity to interpret. We miss important points. This leads to poor understanding. This is already happening!

One of the modern translations of the Bible doesn’t use the word “hosanna” in telling the story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. It substitutes the word “hurray”!

“Hosanna” (at least in the Bible) does not mean “hurray.”

The word “Hosanna” is a prayer. “Save me.” We, the people, are pleading for salvation. We stand along the city streets with the others who finally understand, and we plead for salvation. Jesus is finally recognized as Savior.

Important concept! Important progress!

Give us our victory! It took the miracle at Cana, the late night talk with Nicodemus, the curing of the blind man, the encounter with the woman at the well and the resurrection of Lazarus. But now, we see. Each of these stories read over the last few weeks teaches us about Christ’s role as Messiah, the anointed one. We finally have arrived at a critical understanding. Jesus is Savior.

Hosanna! Save us.

If people truly understand the meaning of Palm Sunday, they might be more inclined to observe Holy Week!

2×2 will spend time celebrating our new understanding. We will celebrate Palm Sunday.

Let Holy Week be Holy Week. Give us Palm Sunday.

Art: Asian depiction of Jesus entry into Jerusalem

A 2×2 reader sent us an image today. It’s the image that appears here. It had the caption:

Never give up, no matter what.

I, like most viewers, first saw a defenseless pawn, surrounded by the mighty — kings, queens, knights and bishops, protected by a line of pawns just like the one standing alone — each of them vying for a position of power, ready to take the lonely pawn as proof of their might.

The image was one of foreboding no matter what the caption read.

I viewed this image just as I returned from Redeemer’s monthly worship. We still can’t meet in the church our ancestors provided for us. It stands empty. Locked. Paint peeling. Unused for mission—despite all the rhetoric of the mighty who claimed our land. “We are dedicated to Word and Sacrament,” they told people.

Yeah, sure.

It’s been nearly five years. We are still locked out of God’s house by a bishop and a host of followers— all of them willing to forsake the gospel to secure their position by Christ’s or the bishop’s side.

Suddenly, I saw this image differently. What if the pawn was not staring down those who would attack? What if that faceless pawn was actually turned away from the forces bearing down, looking us, the viewers, in the eye? What if the pawn was leading the mighty of the world? What if the mighty—in their designated positions of power— knowingly or unwittingly are following the lowly, the defeated, the undesirable, the scorned.

And suddenly, the world looks a little brighter.

It will soon be Holy Week. Easter is not far behind.

Never give up, no matter what.