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Rethinking Small Church Ministry

Transform Your Church: Make Like a Preschooler


Where do we look for answers?Preschoolers may be your most valuable church members.

Preschoolers understand God. It comes naturally to them. A preschooler’s faith is pure. So much of religion involves the ability to embrace the imaginary, to befriend the unseen, to live day to day, trusting that all needs will be supplied.

All of this faith is wrapped up in the ability to ask questions. Simple questions. Obvious questions. Surprising questions. Questions for which adults are embarrassed to admit they don’t have sure answers.

By the time we drop out of Sunday School — and these days that’s at about age 10 — we like to think we have the answers. From that point on we avoid forums that might reveal our shortcomings. This has two results: we either become inactive or we begin to follow blindly. Who or what we follow can determine an entire congregation’s success or failure.

Some congregations look to their pastors for answers and accept decisions. This does not create healthy Christian community. Pastors change. Viewpoints change. Circumstances change. Today these changes shift with jackrabbit speed and unpredictability. Congregations must be able to ask and answer questions independently. This is a trait that must be nurtured.

How? Someone has to start — by asking questions!

Transformational change will not occur without fostering this congregational habit. Emulate your preschoolers.

There are six types of questions.

  1. Questions that clarify
    What are we asking? Why do we believe this?
    How does this relate to our faith or our lives?
  2. Questions that challenge assumptions
    Are we sure our church wants to grow? Are we ready for growth?
    What alternatives are there to the course we are about to take?
    Is this really what we want? Is this good for us?
  3. Questions that look for reasons and evidence
    Why are we considering this?
    What brought us to this discussion?
    Has this path been followed before? With what results?
  4. Questions that shift viewpoints
    Is this the only way to look at this issue?
    How would someone with a different background view this discussion?
    What would our foreparents think? What will our children think?
    Ask, why do we think this is a good idea? Is this even necessary?
    Play “devil’s advocate.”
  5. Questions that look for implications and consequences
    Let’s say we took the actions we are proposing.
    What good or bad will come of this?
    How will it affect us? How will it affect others? How will it affect the future?
    Are the potential outcomes in line with our beliefs and desires?
  6. Questions about the question
    What is the point of this discussion?
    Why are we asking these questions?
    What are the real issues behind the questions?
    Is this something we should be considering?
    Is this important? Is this necessary?
photo credit: HikingArtist.com via photo pin cc
11 May 2012

Why Worship in America Is Only for the Rich

Most people who attend church never stop to think of what the average Sunday morning costs. Many put a dollar or two in the offering plate — satisfied they’ve done their part. If they thought about it at all, they would probably compare their offering to the cost of a movie ticket. It’s about the same amount of time invested, and there are no expensive movie stars, stunt men or cars to blow up!

Here’s what a typical Sunday morning church experience costs (actual costs will vary):

  • First there is the cost of having a sanctuary. Let’s assume that an annual property budget includes at least $20,000 for keeping up the church building. That’s roughly $55 for the day.
  • Air-conditioning in summer and heat in the winter probably cost about $50 for the day. It all depends on the size of the sanctuary and type of heat.
  • Hospitality facilities must be included. Let’s add $50 per Sunday. That will cover the kitchen, coffee and paper supplies.
  • Then there’s the organ. Those organ maintenance contracts can knock the organist’s socks off— about $40 a week, whether or not you turn the power on.
  • We’ll assume the hymnals and choir music were purchased a long time ago and we never have to invest in new music.
  • The bulletins, probably cost $2 each with paper and toner and copier maintenance. If we have 100 at worship, that’s $200.
  • Now we come to the really expensive part—the minister. We won’t count the day spent planning the service and writing a sermon. A supply pastor costs roughly $150 for a one-hour service. A called pastor costs more. At a modest annual salary of $40,000, the Sunday part of the salary costs $109. But we have to pay for the whole week.
  • Office help to put the bulletin together might cost $30, but we are betting the office help wants to be paid for a few other days a week as well.
  • The organist, let’s say $150.
  • The choir director, another $150.
  • The janitor who keeps the place clean and the side-walk shoveled in winter — let’s say $25.
  • We’ll assume somebody donated the flowers for the altar, and the wine and bread for Communion.
  • Thank God for the volunteer choir, readers, ushers, nursery help. etc. We’d be out of business without them.
  • We won’t add the cost of using multimedia. We’ll just stay behind the times.

So let’s add that up.

Our barebones church service, handled the way most churches handle a service costs $900.

The worship service costs about the same whether we have 50 at worship or 500. Only the bulletins and hospitality costs slide with size.

If we have 100 people in church, every one of them — man, woman and that cute baby — must put $9 in the offering plate.

And they are paying only for Sunday morning.

We have to collect that every day to pay for the other six days of the week. How many of your church members are putting $63 in the offering plate every week? That’s $252 for a family of four every week! Let’s hope no one skips a week!

This is just the cost of Sunday morning worship. Our sample church hasn’t begun to reach out, educate, provide social services or support a hierarchy yet.

This is just something to think about as we plan ministry.

Praising God should not be prohibitively expensive for any size church. The cost is making worship the province of large churches. Large church worship is of a different nature than small church worship and doesn’t appeal to many. Most people belong to small churches. When it becomes too expensive they are not likely to start going to large churches. They are likely to become unchurched. Perhaps this is part of mainline church decline.

How can we make praising God something everyone can afford?

Any ideas?

07 May 2012

How Hierarchies Threaten the Neighborhood Church

There was a time when small churches had little choice but to affiliate with larger church bodies. It was their only way of assuring access to quality leadership, resources, and to effectively reach out to the world at large.

Times have changed. Hierarchies have grown while supporting churches struggle. They are expensive. Congregations can’t afford them and are beginning to realize they are not as necessary as they once were.

During formational years, denominations are eager to sign up as many congregations as possible. As time passes, relationships change.

Meanwhile, the care and feeding of the hierarchy continues. Smallest neighborhood churches are in jeopardy.

The measure of a regional body is how it honors the promises made to the smallest congregations when they joined the denomination.

Some joined with as few as 20 charter members. Today, with 80 or more members they may be deemed not worth saving. Their property and assets? That’s a different story.

Few congregations ever set out to grow beyond a certain sociological level. Church experts call them family/parish/program or corporate categories. Family churches are happy being family churches. Program churches are not trying to be corporate churches.

The focus of most congregations is and always will be local. Sometimes congregations find themselves adding a new sanctuary or growing their staff. It is usually a reflection of neighborhood growth. Often significant growth never happens, but the church can still fulfill its mission in its neighborhood.

If growth is the goal, most neighborhood congregations are at a severe disadvantage. They have far fewer options in attracting professional leadership. Denominations even admit to assigning “caretaker” pastors with low expectations for ministry. This drains a congregation’s resources and self-esteem.

A pattern begins. Small congregations know they are not getting equal services. They withhold support.

But hierarchies accumulate more than wealth. They accumulate power. With dwindling support from small and neglected congregations, they begin to exert power. As part of the process, they equate the level of support they are receiving with the congregation’s viability. They try to get resources wherever they can and if the congregations choose to not support the regional body — well, watch out!

Regional bodies and church agencies start to look for ways to fund the structure they have become accustomed to. “Development Offices,” funded with the offerings of many churches, target donors — who are most likely members of the participating congregations. The word “mission” will be in all their promotional material. People are more likely to give to corporate “mission” than to corporate “rent.”

They are now in competition with their member congregations for offerings. They want a bigger piece of the church pie.

With the recent court ruling in southeastern Pennsylvania, church hierarchies — even those prohibited from taking church assets by their founding constitutions — can legally reach directly into the wallets of their congregations without their permission. They need only issue an “opinion” that the church is not viable. We at Redeemer, know how easy it is for leaders to reach that “opinion,” especially when the denomination is running a six-figure deficit budget.

In the end, this is self-defeating. Eventually, the regional expression of the denomination will be funded by a roster of churches — all in financial decline.

Eventually? Look at the church statistics.
Almost every church in SEPA Synod is in decline!

The success of the future church is still dependent on a presence in neighborhoods. That’s where most people attend church — where they live, vote, send their children to school, and where every other aspect of their lives has roots. It will always be this way. People are not attracted to church by the size of the parking lot but on how they fit in. Statistically, most Christians choose to join small churches.

That’s 2×2’s mission. We support small church ministries.

photo credit: Brother O’Mara via photo pin cc
27 Apr 2012

Seven Access Points for Churches Who Want to Grow

People promoting a message often talk about looking for seven access points — seven ways people can learn about their product or service. What can serve as “access points” for churches? Here are some possibilities.

Each access point is a link in a strong chain.

Worship

The first, most obvious (and often only) access point is the Sunday morning worship service. Good start. Is it effective for growing your church?

Is it participatory? Is everyone involved? Many professional entertainers point to their youthful experiences in church as the entry point to their life careers. This doesn’t happen if worship is presented in a static way with paid professionals providing all the leadership.

Child Care

Child care is a common access point for congregations. Judging from the number of children our Ambassadors encounter in church, it’s not working very well. It’s a good idea and churches should analyze their child care programs to make them effective as church access points not only for the children but for families.

Advertising

Advertising is a way of creating access. This was once an expensive proposition with little measurable return. The internet is changing that.

Newsletters may seem like an access point. They are not. Only church members read them.

Use of the internet has a better chance as serving as an access point, especially if churches use the internet to communicate with the unchurched. Social media makes this very possible. That includes everything from Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest to Blogging and web sites. Very few churches have scratched the surface of this promising access point.

Media can be an access point. Some denominations have TV or radio programs. The old Davey and Goliath animated children’s programs from the 60s (or earlier) are still aired—complete with a scratchy rendition of the Reformation hymn at the end.

Service

Social service projects can be access points if the congregation can interact. Sponsoring social service projects without a human face attached does not promote the Christian message. Yet many religious social service agencies have followed the lure of government subsidies and lost their ability to convey their message. As hard as we work and as much money as church people contribute to social service agencies — and even with the immeasurable good they do — the message is lost.

Cultural Excellence

Cultural excellence can be access points. Church schools (pre-K through university) were once associated with religion. Many church-sponsored schools have focused on enrolments and bottom lines and abdicated their religious affiliation. Even the Catholic church with its traditional parish school system is struggling with this concept.

The arts can be cultural access points. Often churches host concerts. The more hands on a church makes their art offerings, the more effective they will be as access points.

Church Camping

Often overlooked or viewed as a quirky a la carte church offering, church camping is one of the most effective church access points. Church camps unabashedly teach and preach and work with the hearts and souls of campers who take the time (usually just five days) to leave the world behind and think about their relationships with God and the world. Church camps, with a purity of message, interest many in church vocations.

Small churches — get your members to camp! There are opportunities for all ages. Sponsor seekers.

Summer Programming

People make life changes in the summer. They relocate. They change jobs. They change schools. But many churches exist on short rations in the summer. Think about it. What opportunities to you offer that will attract people in transition?

Community Involvement

Encourage your members to be involved in community activities. Show your colors and get involved. Be front and center at community meetings. Volunteer as a church for community projects. Wear church t-shirts and send a crew to park clean-up day. Take a table at the local flea market.

Special Needs Interest Groups

People need help. Grieving people. The poor. The hungry. The sick. Elderly. The addicted. The mentally and physically challenged. Families. Youth. Caretakers. Care needers. So many potential access points for congregations!

We were looking for seven. That’s nine. Are there more?

27 Apr 2012

In Search of Wisdom in the Church

We are reposting some information which has a permanent home on the 2×2 web site on our Proverbs Page.

SEPA Synod Assembly convenes one week from tomorrow. We always hope that as a body, Lutherans can improve their policies and services to the many small congregations which make up their membership. As long as small churches are seen as prey to fund Synod’s budget shortfalls — limiting services (for which all contribute) to the clergy and larger churches — there will be inequity and injustice within SEPA.

The cannibalism of the church must stop for the good of all. 2×2 has visited 44 SEPA congregations. We’ve seen many of them facing challenges with little hope for help from the denomination they joined in the 1980s. Many feel alienated and wary of involvement with SEPA.

This is a weakness that can be fixed!

The Lutheran Church was founded by a man who called out to the Church of his era to end policies that took advantage of weakest members. Any Lutheran who claims today that leadership cannot be challenged is denying this proud heritage.

We hope that someday the many members of SEPA Synod will muster the fortitude to right the wrongs against Redeemer and other small congregations that have been victimized by intentional neglect (which Bishop Burkat terms “triage”).

The prevailing “wisdom” must be challenged.

We collected some wisdom from the heritage of our members—all of whom have been locked out of the Lutheran church and denied representation at Synod Assemblies for four years. The first section is a collection of proverbs from Africa—the majority membership of Redeemer. The last entry is a very old tale from the tradition of our European heritage. Enjoy!

A shepherd does not strike his sheep.
For lack of criticism, the trunk of the elephant grew very long.
When a king has good counselors, his reign is peaceful.
The powerful should mind their own power.
A clever king is the brother of peace.
The house of a leader who negotiates survives.
To lead is not to run roughshod over people.
A quarrelsome chief does not hold a village together.
Threats and insults never rule.
He who dictates separates himself from others.
A leader does not listen to rumors.
If the leader limps, all the others start limping, too.
Good behavior must come from the top.
An elder is a healer.
One head does not contain all the wisdom.
A leader who does not take advice is not a leader.
Whether a chief is good or bad, people unify around someone.
The cow that bellows does so for all cows.
A powerful leader adorns his followers.
True power comes through cooperation.
The chief’s true wealth is his people.
Where trust breaks down, peace breaks down.
If you show off your strength, you will start a battle.
A leader should not create a new law when he is angry.
What has defeated the elders’ court, take to the public.
It is better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life.
If your only tool is a hammer, you will see every problem as a nail.
Do not call a dog with a whip in your hand.
Leaders who use force fear reason.
To agree to dialogue is the beginning of peaceful resolution.
If two wise men always agree, then there is no need for one of them.
If you feast on pride, you will have no room for wisdom.
When the village chief himself goes around inviting people to a meeting,
know there is something very wrong going on.
Other people’s wisdom prevents the king from being called a fool. 
Force is not profitable.
Do not light a fire under a fruit-bearing tree.
In times of crisis, the wise build bridges.
It is easy to stand in a crowd; it takes courage to stand alone.
Be sure you stand on solid ground before you stretch out to grab something.
Be a neighbor to the human being, not to the fence. 
Calling a leader wise does not make him wise.
A leader who understands proverbs reconciles differences.

Of course, there are a host of proverbs in the Bible!

We have one remaining proverb/parable from the tradition of our European members. Some little child should speak up and say, “This is sheer foolishness.”

______________________________

And so the Emperor set out at the head of the great procession. It was a great success. All the people standing by cheered and cried, “Oh, how splendid are the Emperor’s new clothes. What a
magnificent train! How well the clothes fit!” No one dared to admit that he couldn’t see anything, for who would want it to be known that he was either stupid or unfit for his post? None of the Emperor’s clothes had ever met with such grand approval!

But among the crowd a little child suddenly gasped, “But he hasn’t got anything on.” And the people began to whisper to one another what the child had said till everyone was saying, “But he hasn’t got anything on.” The Emperor himself had the uncomfortable feeling that what they were whispering was only too true. “But I will have to go through with the procession,” he said to himself.

So he drew himself up and walked boldly on holding his head higher than before, and the courtiers held on to the train that wasn’t there at all. — Hans Christian Andersen

26 Apr 2012

Social Media and Branding Your Congregation: Part 1

Branding is a marketing term. Branding is how people distinguish one company from another. Branding tells your story.


Corporations spend a lot of time, money and attention on branding. They know how important image is in today’s world. They establish lengthy rules and guides to control their public image.

Branding includes things like logos, fonts, colors and the “look” of anything produced by the company. It also includes intangibles — ways of thinking, priorities and behaviors or policies.

Most small or even large congregations never gave branding a passing thought until recent years. But in today’s world, it can be a valuable tool. As congregations look beyond their established communities they will want to be conscious of how they are perceived.

Many churches take part in a branding process without realizing it.

Have you discussed a vision or mission statement lately? That’s an important first step in any branding process.

Key question: What do you want the world to know about your congregation?

  • What is important to your past?
  • What is important to your future?
  • What is there about your congregation’s personality and mission that makes you special?

Once a vision or mission statement is approved, the most common place to start branding is a logo. Many churches have their own logos in addition to logos of their denominational affiliation. Check with your denomination for rules.

Logos used to be black and white and simple. This comes from the days of black and white printing or photocopying. Enter the digital age. Use color.

Decide which one, two or three colors are going to represent your ministry. You’ll be using them in many, many things. Make sure they are colors you can live with!

Use imagery that represents the answers to the bulleted questions above. What makes your congregation unique?  A church near the seacoast might want to use ship, water, or anchor imagery. A farming community might want to use wheat, bread or nature imagery. Urban churches might focus on people, buildings, or multicultural images. There is always the image of your building to fall back on, but your logo is an opportunity to say much more.

Your logo should be something that any member can relate to your congregation’s mission in one simple sentence. Simplifying the complex is part of the art of branding.

Keep in mind how your logo will be used.

  • Signage
  • Stationery
  • Bulletins
  • Newsletters
  • Ads
  • Posters and Fliers
  • Website
  • Avatars (which are square)
  • Video/Powerpoint Backgrounds
  • SWAG (you may want to get some promotional giveaways like mugs or pens)

This list is growing just as our communications options are growing. You may even want to animate a logo for use on the web! There are many possibilities.

There should also be a black/white version. There will still be a need occasional one-color printing.

Surf the internet for examples of church logos. There are some very nice ones.

The logo image is important enough to hire some help if you do not have artists in your community. In fact, it might make the process go easier with outside input.

The process of deciding on a logo can take a while. It should include many people. That always lengthens the decision process. But remember, the logo belongs to your whole congregation—past, present and future. You want the involvement of many. Try to make the process part of your mission conversation.

Dive in and have fun. We’ll address other aspects of church branding in later posts.

photo credit: vapour trail via photopin cc
19 Apr 2012

The Power of Negative Thinking

Label a problem “impossible” and you have an excuse for failure.

This temptation faces today’s Church. In many cases, Church leaders have given up on the Church!

“Neighborhood ministry can’t be supported.” Just declare it! That makes it true.

What happens then?

We stop trying. After all, we have given ourselves permission to fail.

The first to be defeated are the clergy. They throw up their hands and devise ways to make it look like they tried. Assign a caretaker pastor here, an interim pastor there, and pray. Christians support one another in failing ministries. Just look at the statistics.

The laity can only wonder what is discussed at ministerium gatherings of “caretaker” pastors whose assignments are to slowly and quietly bring ministry to a close. It must be deflating. Any pastor who walks in with a new idea is likely to have the conversation quickly changed. The idea is to fail as gracefully as possible.

How can you rebuild self-esteem in a Church where these conditions prevail? Hold grand worship services celebrating Church closures (failures).

Lay people who have more invested in their neighborhood ministries keep working, often under the leadership of defeated pastors, who are called with the tacit understanding that they are to keep things going as long as the money can flow.

Lay leadership is puzzled at the attitudes they encounter, but they soldier on, trying to avoid the conflict brewing from exasperation and a conflict in mission that is never defined — so it can’t be handled.

A  defeated attitude spreads like a bad rash. It chafes at the message that is preached from our pulpits. We worship a God of the possible. The Bible is filled cover to cover with accounts of insurmountable obstacles overcome. Some problems are fought with patience, some with trust, and a few with power. The deeper you go in the New Testament, the more faith is relied upon, and thank God for the Book of James, who reminds us that it might take some work.

The Church faces problems today that can be overcome but not if we must first meet all the standards of yesterday’s church. It is time to clear the slate and approach our congregations openly and with the knowledge that with God, all things are possible. If we do not believe that, why bother?

Walk in the shoes of the laity. Would you support a church with no momentum? Would you join a Church that doesn’t believe in its ability to succeed? Would you subscribe to a faith that doesn’t believe its own message?

photo credit: morberg via photopin cc
12 Apr 2012

The Underestimated Value of Small Churches

There isn’t much difference between small churches and large churches and their mission potential. Redeemer’s Ambassadors have visited nearly 50 neighboring churches. We’ve seen small churches with impressive worship. We’ve seen large churches with ordinary worship. We’ve seen volunteer choirs in small congregations perform as well as larger church choirs with paid section leaders. We’ve seen small churches with amazing track records for supporting neighborhood mission. We’ve seen large churches doing similar things. We’ve seen innovative, scalable mission projects in several very small congregations.

Yet large churches have preferential ranking in the minds of denominational hierarchy. That’s because there is one thing larger churches can do better than small churches. They can better support hierarchy.

Hierarchies are expensive and self-perpetuating.

There is rarely talk about reducing hierarchy. This may be precisely what is needed.

Hierarchies are responsible for keeping church professionals employed. They are also supposed to provide services to congregations. Most congregations have little contact with their regional office unless they are calling a pastor.

Clergy rely on the denomination for access to and approval of a call. The regional body becomes their employment agency.

In the corporate world, employment agencies work for either the employer or the job-seeker. In the church, a regional body, acting as employment agency, holds some power over both the job-seekers and the limited pool of employer congregations within their region. They serve two earthly masters and tend to favor the clergy.

When pastors are vying for the most lucrative or beneficial assignments, the regional body as employment agency begins to judge congregations by their ability to meet clergy needs. If a congregation insists on finding a candidate that fits ministry needs, they can be judged as uncooperative—a judgement that could follow them for decades.

Mandated initiatives that make no sense to congregations can result. The regional body might recommend merger or acceptance of an interim pastor for an undesignated time—or they may recommend closure.

Denominational leaders are acting as managers. Looking at the map, it may make perfect management sense to merge two or three congregations within a two-mile radius. The thinking is that if you merge two 150-member churches, you will have one church with 300-members and that’s a magic number for supporting clergy.

It doesn’t work that way. In the church . . .

1 + 1 = One half

Churches are little communities, something like families. They come with their own traditions and social structure. Merging them to save management costs makes about as much sense as merging three or four unrelated families to make utility and grocery bills more reasonable.

You cannot mandate community. Attempts to merge congregations often end up with one even smaller congregation.

There is another side effect. In the corporate world, mergers and management decisions often result in similar products and services replicated in similar ways. The beauty of small congregations is their individuality. Without small churches we will end up with cookie cutter large churches, worshiping in similar ways and providing similar services and mission opportunities.

The loss of neighborhood ministries will be felt far more deeply than any temporary gains of church closures and mergers.

We must make small congregations a priority. We must find ways to help them get over decades of neglect.

10 Apr 2012

Can the Church Be Fixed?

Are our church doors truly open?

Are our church doors truly open?

The Alban Institute’s Roundtable is unusually active this week. The weekly topic laid out all the failings of the mainline church. The resulting dialog was a mild outrage.

“Why are we going over what’s wrong? We know what’s wrong? How can we fix it?” Among the most desperate and honest questions is, “Can it be fixed?”

There is still a disconnect between church leadership and church members which may be at the heart of a general disillusionment with the Church.

Why do people become involved in church?

  • Some are born into church-respecting families.
  • Some seek answers to life’s problems.
  • Some are looking for peace and comfort
  • Some are seeking validation or acceptance.
  • Some are seeking God.

One way or another, many people find something in the church worth making it part of their lives. Something attracted them. It was probably someone humbly modeling the teachings of Christ.

That opens the door. Then what?

Church always asks more of us. It asks us to learn and to grow. It encourages us to take stands on issues. We are asked to influence others.

And then the rules begin. Rules are prompted by leaders who want order and power. This lessens the potential of the Church.

The laity hit a glass ceiling. Take a stand—but follow us.

Laity have a choice. We choose to become involved when our initial needs are met and we can make a difference. We don’t join churches to take on more financial woes. We don’t join to have more authority figures. We want to feel loved. We want to know God.

Part of the gift of the Reformation — a cause for which many gave their lives — was the empowerment of the laity. Grace is freely given. No middle man is needed. That message is clouded today in a Church where any “stand” is accepted only if it is politically correct.

The Church is at its strongest when it fosters courage by example.

There is an old Sunday School hymn, probably long forgotten by most:

Dare to be brave. Dare to be true.
Fight for the right for the Lord is with you.
He knows your trials, when your heart quails.
Call Him to rescue His grace never fails.

The Church often speaks out of both sides of its mouth. Be brave. Do as we say.

One commenter in the Roundtable discussion wrote an impassioned essay on his frustrations on spreading the Gospel. He concluded with his own battle cry—that he would remain faithful in knowing God.

He is correct. That is the foundation of all that is good and can be better in the Church. It is fundamental. Work at knowing God and the message we send will ring loud and clear. Then we will know when to follow and when to lead. We will be empowered to do both.

photo credit: Autumnsonata via photopin cc
05 Apr 2012

Stop Blaming Congregations for Failure

Let Social Media Save the Day

We lay people have been taking it on the chin for years.

  • We’ve been ridiculed. We don’t tithe. We don’t evangelize. We aren’t welcoming. We don’t volunteer.
  • We’ve been labeled. If we aren’t strong, we are backward and resistant to change, and dying. If we are strong, insisting on answers, we are adversarial and resistant to authority.
  • We are made to feel inferior and inadequate, unable to find our way in the world without hanging onto the robes of the clergy.

—all because mainline churches are failing.

IT’S NOT OUR FAULT.

  • It’s not our fault that the church is structured to nurture homogenous cultures of yesteryear that  naturally replenish and grow in numbers from generation to generation.
  • It’s not our fault that, in the New World, community demographics shift every decade
  • It’s not our fault that even the least dysfunctional families experience their own diasporas every generation or so.
  • It’s not our fault that fewer people enter the ministry as a life call and see the only road to advancement as moving to suburban settings, making neighborhood ministries less desirable.
  • It’s not our fault that leadership has been just as unprepared for changes in society as we were.
  • It’s not our fault that the Church, despite a strong start in the Reformation, managed to sit out the Renaissance and stayed mired in the Middle Ages for the last 500 years.

Now that we are in a new age yet to be named (the Information Age?, the Digital Age? the Age of Globalization?) we’re all playing catch up.

In the hierarchical past, this meant creating a position headed by a well-paid think tank leader with an alphabet of credentials after his name. It meant funding an office with a staff, providing an adequate budget for developing resources, allowing three to five years for development, and the creation of a network to implement resulting initiatives. Implementation would be easy because all churches would be alike, waiting for answers to their problems to be delivered to them. After all, there would be nowhere else for them to turn.

Today, we are standing at the door of the future. The answers will come by inspiring community. There will be much less need for a centralized office of any sort.

The church of the future will be led by a conductor who stands at the podium, signals the opening downbeat and walks away, allowing the musicians to get their cues from one another, to take off in an imaginative riff, to return to the group to enjoy another artist’s take.

Welcome to the Information Age, the Age of Social Media, the Age of Globalization. It’s all coming together just in time to save the mainline church . . . if the mainline church is paying attention.

There is a lot of rethinking that needs to be done. Lay people might be best equipped to lead the way!

photo credit: DeusXFlorida via photopin cc
02 Apr 2012