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Church Growth

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

Facebook: A Force for the Church to Reckon With

Facebook and the Church are entering relatively uncharted territory.

Congregations with broad age demographics are likely to use Facebook as a way of promoting activities. There are a few youthful congregations who have implemented a Facebook social media strategy that is more comprehensive, encouraging lively interaction among members.

Facebook is something the Church must learn with caution. It may be something we should teach as well, but it will take some experience to become authoritative.

A congregation should consider demographics when using Facebook. Measure them against these statistics.

  • 81% of Americans aged 12 to 17 check Facebook daily.
  • It is likely that a quarter of a congregation’s members over 65 are on this Social Media platform and this statistic is quickly growing.
  • Close to three-fourths of your members 25-45 engage in Facebook use.
  • Business people in your congregations are surely exploring Facebook strategies.

Your members are already on Facebook. Grandparents are following the activities of their grandkids. Youth are likely to be in touch with dozens of friends while you think they are having dinner with you.

How many of your members check your congregation’s web site daily? How many read the newsletter? How many members participate in creating the content on your web site or in your newsletter?

The reins of information are no longer in your church leaders’ hands.

There is no doubt that Facebook is a force to reckon with and a tool to consider.

Facebook is changing the way we think. Privacy is valued much less. There is a driving need to be in touch. Facebook has an entry age of 13, but figuring out what year you have to be born to qualify takes elementary math. Children are using Facebook.

When our way of thinking changes, our ways of acting follow. What this means to the Church is not known. Will members become more engaged? Will they see less use for Christian community?

If the Church hopes to influence the answers to these questions, we must engage in the conversation.

The problem Churches may have in building Facebook community is that the thinking of older members and younger members may clash. The impact could be felt across a congregation. One piece of private information, innocently shared on your congregation’s Facebook network, could create serious fallout. Pictures that seem fine to someone posting on multiple walls might not pass the vanity test of others in the congregation.

Though not excluded, deep thoughts are rarely shared on Facebook. It tends to be a lively conversation with lots of inside innuendo going on. This could be fun for those in the know. Others could feel left out.

Still, Facebook is here to stay and it is changing the way we think. If churches hope to reach the people in their community, we must adapt our mission strategies for today’s way of thinking.

Maybe Facebook will force the Church to dust off the cathedral rafters!

11 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

Redeemer Celebrates Third Easter Locked Out of Church

Redeemer members gathered for a third Easter in front of the locked doors of Redeemer Lutheran Church in East Falls.No stone was rolled away at Redeemer this year. Maybe next year!

Nevertheless, Redeemer members gathered in front of the church, read the Easter Story, and prayed before heading to a member’s home for Easter fellowship. We had three new attendees this year, which has been steady growth since the lock out.

Please keep in mind that Redeemer members still live in fear of SEPA leadership. Not all will agree to be in a photograph—very sad commentary on the state of ministry in SEPA Synod of the ELCA.

(Our sign, which Bishop Burkat couldn’t wait to have torn down and destroyed as she pretends to honor the memory of Redeemer, will continue to live on as a witness to our ministry through the magic of Photoshop!)

We had a wonderful Easter — no thanks to the church!

Christ is risen indeed!

09 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

Church Competition (It’s not who you think!)

Did watch manufacturers ever predict that their major competitors would be cell phones? That’s what has happened. Cell phones display the time prominently. No need for a watch. Bulova, Timex, and Seiko were watching each other while T-mobile and the Iphone began to make them obsolete.

Understanding your competition is important to successful honing and implementation of mission.

Many churches have no clue that there is competition. There is.

We often address symptoms of the competition and miss the diagnosis. The competition is not:

  • the neighboring church of a different denomination
  • the church with the charismatic pastor or hefty endowment
  • the bigger church of your same denomination
  • Saturday morning sports
  • demands of the schools on family time
  • dysfunctional families
  • televangelism

These are symptoms.

The competition is the force that separates people from God and wanting to be in communion with the people of God. There was a time when the religious were bold enough to give it a name . . . Satan.

Most churches act as if their mission were to attract the biggest piece of the existing religious pie.

That’s what happens when you rely on demographers to direct mission efforts. Demographers can measure the known. Careful studies count the number of existing “Lutherans” in a geographic area. They compare it to how many “Lutherans” were in that area a decade ago. They measure the household income of the people in the neighborhood.

That’s where the train jumps the track.

Mission is about reaching those who are not measured by demographers and will not have the inclination to support ministry with a piece of their household income for some time.

The biggest problem (and there are many) in this approach to mission is that it keeps churches from working together.

Denominational church structures are designed to facilitate mission, but in tough economic times they can become self-focused, making decisions that protect their own status quo.

Denominations and congregations cannot serve our neighbors while we are coveting their people, their money, their staff, and their property.

When each visitor is seen as a potential “sell,” we fail to reach the soul of a seeker longing to know God. When each congregation is measured by its ability to support the denomination, not its community or mission, we fail the Church as a whole.

There is a trickle down effect. Unaddressed problems spread over the years. Failure to help one struggling church becomes ten neglected churches within a decade or so.

Our Ambassadors have visited many congregations. We have seen separate communities facing the same challenges—most of them in isolation. Some of them are within a three-mile radius (in well-populated areas). Some of them face closure—one at a time—over the next decade or two. Since the ability to support an expensive structure is put before mission, they fight an uphill battle even within their denomination.

There is untapped power in working together. Yet the Church that talks about unity is crippled as they seek success and solutions that help their bottom lines today.

When the church understands that their mission is to reach the world outside their demographics, progress will be made.

We offer a quote prominently displayed on another website.

People shouldn’t have to find a church.

The church should find them.

photo credit: mbgrigby via photopin cc

31 Mar 2012

Women Are Key Influencers in the Church (always have been!)

A business blogger recently posted statistics claiming that women are the most powerful “brand ambassadors” in the world. The business world sometimes uses a church term, evangelist, for this job description. Once again, the church can learn from the world of business.

Steve Olenski, in socialmediatoday, cited a study that showed that:

  • Women are 80% more likely than men to try new products/services based on advice of a friend.
  • Women are 74% more likely than men to encourage friends to try new products and services.
  • Women tend to stay more engaged (74%) with products and services they like.
  • Women are 42% less likely to share negative experiences with products or services.
  • Women are only 32% less likely to avoid products or services based on a friend’s negative experience.

These interesting statistics remind us of something we encountered in our own experience and on our Ambassador visits. Redeemer’s greatest period of growth was nurtured less by pastors but by the presence of a deaconess, who ran the educational and social programs in the church. Older Redeemer members could tell us the names of pastors but they talked about the work of the deaconess. In our visits we encountered several churches that referred lovingly to a long-departed deaconess.

And then we remembered the power of the women’s group at Redeemer, which operated independently with their own budget and bank account. Unhampered by church council they chose their own social pursuits — all of which reflected well on Redeemer as a whole. We thought back to the days of the Women’s Auxiliaries and Ladies Aid Societies.

Many of the churches that struggle today to afford pastors have their roots in the less recognized and less compensated devotion of women.

In a television program that follows well-known entertainers as they research geneology, Actress Helen Hunt appeared to be mortified by the revelation that her great grandmother had been a powerful force in the women’s temperance movement of the 19th century and early 20th century. She sat with an historian who pointed out to her that this movement was actually revolutionary, fighting serious societal problems that were affecting their communities in a world that gave women no vote or voice.

Women have always had a voice — just not a publicly recognized one. Their voice was easily overlooked because men controlled publishing as well as the board room. The powerful women’s groups of the era grew from passion, commitment and perseverance to make a difference in a world that refused to recognize their abilities.

No more!

The church would be considerably stronger today if it recognized and unleashed women’s powerful inclination to nurture — which is what the statistics quoted above reveal.

Consider this as you make plans for church growth. The challenge is to find modern, equitable ways to do this.

30 Mar 2012

The Role of Facebook in Christian Community

We have not advocated that churches, as a body, rely on Facebook. Our main reasons are the intimate nature of Facebook and the need to monitor it, both of which we think present challenges for churches and are best managed individual to individual — not institution on behalf of an individual.

But the fact is, most of your church members are probably on Facebook. We can advise and encourage individuals to use Facebook in a loving way — which will strengthen Christian community on or off the Social Media grid.

HeartYourChurch web blogger, Jason Stambaugh, shared his experience on Facebook when he recently reported the death of his mother. We extend our sympathy to Jason and his family and thank him for sharing with us and so many other “strangers.”

Jason’s blog post is an intimate account of his feelings on “pressing the button” to share his personal tragedy. It is worth a read.

He ends his post with four suggestions on the use of Facebook when sharing personal news.

(1) Like the post and leave a comment. By liking and commenting, you are helping to circle that person and their family with love.

(2) Share the post or link with your own personal message. I shared a link containing information about my Mother’s viewing and funeral. A handful of people reshared that link with a personal message about my Mom. Not only did I appreciate that they were helping me spread the word, I really enjoyed seeing what they had to say.

(3) Send the person a message. With so many likes and comments flowing in, it was hard to keep track of what everyone was saying. About a dozen or so people sent me Facebook messages that I received directly, like an email. They were easier to read and keep track of. If you have something you’d really like to share with the bereaved, send them a message.

(4) Do something.  Follow up your like, comment or message with an action. Whether it’s attending the viewing or funeral, sending a card or making a casserole, it will mean a lot to the person and/or family. The follow-up action makes your words “mean” something.

The last point is the most important. Facebook in the Church cannot replace the loving touch, the soft shoulder, the warm embrace, a hand held in prayer or the sympathetic tear. It sounds so old-fashioned, but we must remember to send a card, flowers, or deliver a hot-dish to the family—and attend the funeral.

Share this with your Facebook-loving congregants.

photo credit: John-Morgan via photopin cc
28 Mar 2012

Growing the Church Among the Discontented

Have you ever noticed how the restaurant server has a knack of asking if everything is to your liking just as you’ve filled your mouth with a forkful of tough meat?

Similarly, the car dealer might call and ask how you are enjoying your new car a week into your purchase, not three months down the road, when you really know something about the car’s performance.

People want to hear kind words and good things about their work. Churches and church leaders are no different. They tend to identify happy souls and and engage them. The unhappy are neglected and eventually will not be in church at all.

There are more people not in church than in church!

Our faith and Christian relationships are precious. Once broken, repairing them is costly and difficult work.

Churches work hard at seeming to care. Leaders seek agreement and talk about their successful relationships, while the discontented are given labels that muffle their voices.

Church leaders talk about processes of “mutual discernment” — the hottest buzz words in the church at the moment.

Often, the process of mutual discernment has the regional body unanimous on one side of the fence and the congregation unanimous on the other side of the fence with neither side reaching to open the gate. Yet reports will tell of the process of mutual discernment that resulted in a one-sided decree.

Lay people may have to put up with this on the job. They will feel differently about it in church where they are the shareholders.

Dealing with discontent is a steady and ongoing process and involves sincere, dedicated communication. Discernment is a process of listening and responding. It is hard work. To claim a process of discernment, while neglecting the necessary work, is dishonest.

If congregants sense that their concerns don’t matter, they have a remedy. It’s a multistep process.

  • They complain publicly.
  • They complain bitterly in private.
  • They keep their billfolds in their pockets.
  • They stay home.
  • They continue to complain, but not in church.

The earlier the church intervenes and shows true concern, the easier the process of reconciliation becomes. Left unchecked, discontent will spin out of control and damage the whole people of God.

Discontented Christians have their grievances steadily on their minds. Their faith and way of life are under attack. They may no longer be attending church, but they are probably talking to their neighbors and friends at the bowling alley and grocery store. While pastors are feeling warm and cozy, surrounded by their closest supporters, the foundation of the community they are serving is eroding in forums they cannot control.

What is eluding many in the Church is that there have never been more forums for the discontented.

It was never more important for the Church to learn to deal with people who have a beef with them.

Wise church leaders spend time with the discontented. That’s where church growth will happen. That’s where the strength of the future Church lies.

Look for the rose in your crown of thorns. It’s what reconciliation is all about.

photo credit: somenametoforget via photopin cc

26 Mar 2012

Using the Internet to Reach the Person Next Door

Anyone with adolescents in the house has witnessed the scene where two or three young people are huddled in the rec room, each with his or her own cellphone or laptop, intently texting or instant messaging each other. Their eyes never meet unless something strikes them as funny and then heads fly back with youthful, exuberant laughter. Hearing that volcanic laughter rise out of silence will take adults by surprise. It is representative of just how engrained social media has become in the lives of more and more people.

Now Social Media is being used in this way by the church.

Pastors can use social media to reach their members and some may enjoy it. Be careful though. Social media such as Facebook are very public and people are still very private on matters of personal faith. A scan of some congregational Facebook pages can reveal all kinds of unsettling personal information.

Nevertheless, Social Media is a tool and according to this article, some pastors are starting to use it. As interesting as this article is, the comments that follow add more dimension, noting that it is not unusual for congregational social media to attract worldwide attention. That realization must be kept in mind at all times!

2×2 uses blogging as the hub of its social media outreach. We “meet” on the blog and correspond by email. We have befriended congregations in Pakistan and Kenya with weekly exchanges of news and mission. We ask permission before publishing anything about our friendship on our web site. We also have regular exchanges with churches across the United States and Australia. Few of them are of our own denomination, but that hasn’t mattered.

We don’t do this on Facebook. It’s too public and freedom of religion hasn’t reached every corner of the world.

It’s still a bit odd. There is a feeling of privacy when there really is none. An innocent exchange could cause trouble.

Worldwide dynamics are going to change the church. Congregations no longer need to wait a year or two to hear a Temple Talk from a sponsored missionary home on furlough. They can follow the work and ministry daily online. This will be a strength of the emerging church. Ironically, it will weaken the structure of the church while it makes the church stronger.

photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com via photopin cc

21 Mar 2012