4/7InkzHVUEQeEdU9vpc1tikzEhChrKmPfvXI-FSDBrBQ

Rethinking Small Church Ministry

Rebuilding the Church: Is It Worth it?

I’ve been following the daily blog of Pastor Jon Swanson, 300 Words a Day. This week he has been retelling the momentous story of the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem, told by Nehemiah. The story is gripping — all the more because it cuts to the “Why?” of ministry.

  • Why look upon destruction that is so vast that no one bothered to clean it up much less rebuild it.
  • Why cry for it?
  • Why, when given the opportunity, petition a foreign king for permission to rebuild?
  • Why face the opposition that you know is plotting against you for daring to organize efforts to make things better?
  • Why record the details of the work crews that rebuilt each gate and wall?
  • Why be bothered? No one else seems to care!

Perhaps today’s church needs some of Nehemiah’s passion.

We have become very brazen about the state of our church. Attendance down? Oh, well. It’s time for ministry to die. Is attendance down in 90% of a region’s churches? It’s just a sign of the times.

The quote from church leadership should be alarming:

Congregations that will die within the next ten years should receive the least amount of time and attention. They should receive time that assists them to die with celebration and dignity. Offer these congregations a ‘caretaker’ pastor who would give them quality palliative care until they decide to close their doors.  It is the kind of tough-minded leadership that will be needed at the helm if your organization is to become a Transformational Regional Body.” — Transforming Regional Bodies, by Claire S. Burkat and Roy Oswald, a guidebook used to train leaders of regional bodies

The most troubling part of this quote is the time frame. Ten years! In the Lutheran Church that’s almost two terms for a bishop.

Our regional leaders are encouraged to stand by, implementing a ten-year plan to DO NOTHING (and get paid for it).

A ten-year time frame is enough time to revitalize a ministry, to rebuild its foundation. But the plan advised to leaders of regional bodies is to help only the churches with a proven cache of money. Go where the work seems easiest.

Church leaders need to reread Nehemiah until they can shed tears for the temples within their charge. There can be no dignified celebration of church closings when the closings have been brought about by designed neglect. (Click to Tweet)

This trend continues in the church unquestioned because the blame is placed on the people with the least voice or sway — the lay people. Wisdom of church leaders should not be questioned. Regard for their professional status outweighs regard for lay volunteers.

When we are busy protecting church leadership, we forget to ask the “why” questions. Why are we here in the first place? Why does anyone care?

It is time for this to change.

photo credit: UGArdener via photo pin cc
21 Sep 2012

They Will Know We Are Christians . . . How?

Here’s a challenge you can present to your congregation:

There is a popular hymn, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

“Love” is not a very clear word. It requires some definition!

Ask members, colleagues, committee members, governing board, children, youth, visitors, etc. to rewrite the words to the hymn and define exactly how people will know you are a Christian.

“They will know we are Christians by ____________________________.”

Make a youth project out of the question. Ask them to make a montage video of people’s answers with the hymn playing softly in the background. Post it on YouTube and send us a link!

Might be an interesting exercise. Share the new words with one another  . . . or send them to us. We’ll make a blog post out of them!

19 Sep 2012

How Does Your Congregation Tell Your “Why” Story?

 . . . because God first loved us

Yesterday I received an email from a young fellow who makes videos with passion. He had a brainstorm and he was soliciting help. He wanted to make a video of people telling their “Why Story.” He made a little video imploring people to send a short video with an answer to the question, “Why do you do what you do?”

I had never taken a self-video before. But I spent about a half hour creating my Why video. I had never responded to a video by posting a film to YouTube before. But by the end of the day I had mastered that. Took four tries.

This morning I came across a video of a TED conference presenter, Simon Sinek. He gave a 17-minute talk on how the Why question drives all successful enterprises. Watch it.

It seems the Why question is pretty important. How well does your church communicate your “why”?

Why do you gather together on Sunday mornings? Why do you want others to join you? Why does  faith matter in the lives of your individual members?

If your only answer is “so that we have enough financial support to keep going,” you will not succeed as a church.

It’s a simple question. What’s your answer?

18 Sep 2012

Does Your Regional Body Have A Vision Statement?

We, as congregations, are often asked to draft both mission and vision statements.

Out of curiosity, we started researching vision statements and visited our own regional body web site to see what their vision for their work might be.

There is a menu navigation button that says Mission/Vision. Click!

There is a Mission Statement, an abbreviated version of Ephesians 4:11-13.

“Activated by the gifts of the Holy Spirit,
we equip the saints and congregations
for the work of ministry,
for building up the Body of Christ.”

We have seen only the opposite of that at work in East Falls. But then they didn’t include the next verse! “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” Or the rest of that chapter.

But let’s move on! We’re looking for vision statements.

Where’s the Vision Statement? There is none posted. What is the Synod’s vision for its many neighborhood churches?

17 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!

photo credit: emiliokuffer via photo pin cc

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

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

Making Innovation Part of Church Transformation

Reining in the Laity; Hobbling Transformation

The world of education is on the threshold of impressive innovation made possible by exploiting the capabilities of the internet and technology.

While hundreds of educators study educational methods and struggle to find new and better classroom practices, the Kahn Academy, a free online learning system provided to anyone with internet access, grew out of one man’s attempt to help a young cousin with math homework. It attracted the backing of Bill Gates and the attention of CBS’s 60 Minutes.

Religion, too, is in dire need of transformation. The need has been largely unanswered for decades, despite intense study among clergy.

The call for “transformation” is at least a decade old with little success.

The economy is causing small churches to focus on their own needs, sending less of their offerings to regional or central body. If something does not change, the regional and central church leaders will face extinction—but they don’t intend to be the first to go!

Church leaders are lost.

The Kahn Academy allows for a restructured classroom, making more teachers available to help more students. It is successfully restructuring the traditional classroom for a new era in education.

Google’s Eric Schmidt commented on Kahn Academy:

Many, many people think they are doing something new but they are not really changing the approach. Innovation never comes from the established institutions. It’s always a graduate student or a crazy person or somebody with a great vision.

We suspect that this is the big hiccup in transforming the church.

Church hierarchy is calling for transformation with no vision for change and an unwillingness to allow change without institutional oversight.

Change in the church is going to happen on the front line, where one or a few faithful people, with little loyalty to old ways, prayerfully try to solve problems.

Many small churches are the victims of regional leadership practicing what they call “triage.” Triage is a euphemism for neglect.

In some cases, congregations have had little or no leadership for a decade.

Left alone, dedicated lay people are free to experiment. They are not restricted by seminary education. They look for answers outside the usual parameters. Such small churches are ripe for change.

They face a major obstacle. The institutional church will be ready to step in and rein in “errant” lay workers. They will restore the old order and assign an approved pastor to help the congregation draft a stale, treacly mission statement—or they will flex their muscles and demand closure.

Redeemer was a small congregation engaged in such experimentation—and experiencing success. Our regional body, desperate for dollars, took the muscle-flexing route.

We are still experimenting with no support of any regional body . . . and still experiencing success.

Redeemer has visited 50 other congregations and we’ve seen similar lively efforts in small congregations. There is often a scent of fear hobbling their efforts. Will the regional body approve?

And that’s why transformation in the Church isn’t happening. God is trying to do something new . . . but the hierarchy won’t let anything happen that they can’t control and take credit for.

photo credit: Jeffrey K. Edwards via photo pin cc
03 Sep 2012

Change the Dynamics of Church

Give the People A Voice

The patriarchs and matriarchs who populate the pages of today’s Old Testament had a very personal relationship with God. Communication was anything but one way. They argued with God and did their share of ranting. They felt confident enough in dialog to attempt to make deals. They praised God and laid their sorrows and shortcomings at his feet. The result was a lot of creative energy. Something worth writing and remembering. Compare the Old Testament record with a typical congregational history today, which usually details a list of pastors and building projects.

Jesus continued that relationship in his discourse with the disciples and the growing tribe of followers. Jesus gave God a face, making it still easier for people to engage with God.

God wants to be part of our lives. The Bible encourages us to be in regular conversation.

A pastor in one of our recent Ambassador visits exhorted people not to go to God with their little problems. Solve them yourself and save God for the big things was her message. That’s not a limitation placed on us by God. God wants us to feel free to turn to him with matters big and small, joyful and painful.

God is big enough to handle everything.

The thinking that God needs a gatekeeper to handle our needs has fueled the ego of Church leadership through the centuries. It creates an illusion of power. Church leaders have God’s ear.

Church leaders speak; people listen.

This makes sense only among managers—not leaders.

This can change. The internet returns the voice to the people.

Even the pope cannot expect to make pronouncements that are met with silent obedience. Recently, the long arm of the Vatican reached across the ocean to slap American nuns on the wrist for not doing more to enforce Church teachings on contraception and abortion. Their response was something on the order of: Sorry, you’ve got us all wrong. We can’t be all things to the Catholic church. We know what our mission is and we aim to follow it.

Such cheekiness would have been unheard of decades and centuries ago. Today? It’s just the way it is going to be.

This will make the Church far more effective — if not powerful.

The old system is unwieldy. A church leader makes a pronouncement which probably must be repeated for years before the message hits home. Church members may ponder it. They may go home and do nothing about it. Action will probably result when something becomes dire, The Church does good, to be sure but in many areas, social action in the Church lags years behind actual need.

Today, no Church leader can expect to lead from the pulpit without being questioned. In fact, we should take a lesson from the Bible and encourage religious dialog.

God wants us to be involved. Our ears and voice is where that begins.

Today, laiity have equal voice. When they learn to use it — Watch out, world!

01 Sep 2012

Speaking of Niche Ministries —

Small Church Creates Niche Ministry

Dr. John Jorgenson leads a small congregation in a Plymouth Meeting, a vibrant Philadelphia suburb. Prince of Peace Lutheran Church is uniquely situated across the street from a popular and well-appointed township community center.

The congregation has long been supportive of several regional ministries including a food pantry, prison ministry, and a Lutheran Service Agency serving troubled youth, Silver Springs.

Dr. Jorgenson, who developed curriculum for many years with the Lutheran Church in America, helped the congregation focus additional attention on a gift the small congregation is uniquely equipped to serve—the modern family.

Their emphasis is not the typical route of larger churches who dedicate a large part of a budget to hiring a youth minister. Their program relies on using the resources they have and that unique location in their community.

“No Family Left Behind” began with a congregational exploration of three issues that challenge today’s families.

Bullying was the first issue. Bullying is often viewed as something affecting teens. The congregation discussed how bullying spans all ages and is common even within families.

As they focused separately on bullying among infants, toddlers, school children, youth, families, school, the workplace and among our elderly, they identified other areas they could serve in the small church setting.

Families who deal with Autism and similar health problems often have a difficult time feeling at home in structured church programs.

The Aging often are similarly challenged, especially in the many small churches where the elderly are the majority and ministries among them are often viewed by church management as “dying” and not worth their investment in time and resources.

2×2, along with Dr. Jorgenson as guest blogger, will examine how the No Family Left Behind approach is tailored to small church ministry, working with a regional Lutheran Social Service Agency, Ken-Crest, which serves people with developmental challenges, and with the Community Center across the street.

29 Aug 2012