The ideas planted in my previous post are starting to come together.
It’s starting to get exciting.
For a year or so, I’ve been following an online preacher/teacher, Jon Swanson. He has been preaching, off and on, about the book of Nehemiah. In fact, he is publishing a kindle book on the topic.
If ever a preacher could take a dry, rarely referenced Old Testament book and bring it to life, Jon Swanson can.
He read the book with us slowly — not skipping all the long lists of names, but savoring each one. His attention to detail brings the book to life.
God-fearing Nehemiah, living in exile, serving a distant king, hears about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. He is upset—devastated. The king notices that his servant is not his usual happy self. He inquires, “Why the long face?”
Nehemiah feared angering the king. Surprise! The king grants Nehemiah time off to look into this temple problem far away.
Understand that the temple has been in ruins for decades. No one nearby was lifting a finger to help. They accepted things. They must have been thinking, “It’s time for the temple to die.”
The temple was to them just a pile of rubble occupying a desirable location—just like all those failing or abandoned churches dotting our region.
The book of Nehemiah gives painstaking detail not only of the stones being laid and doors being hung but also of the intrigue of those who would have his efforts fail.
Small churches face the same challenges today. Church leaders allow small churches to fail. Their failure means there will be spoils to divide. They convince themselves and everyone else that it’s the only way. It is the easy road. Widespread failure is encouraged. Phrases like “It’s time to die” pave their rock-ridden consciences.
Most small churches aren’t nearly as bad off as the pillaged temple that so moved Nehemiah.
There are ways to rebuild ministry. The time is now. It will take the joint efforts of others. Some may be like the distant king who facilitated efforts simply because he had compassion and perhaps admiration for Nehemiah. Some might be the logistics experts who ordered, shipped and delivered supplies. Some might be the craftspeople and physical laborers. Some might be the warriors who took turns guarding the work from those plotting Nehemiah’s demise. Some might be the worship leaders who were summoned when the temple wall was complete. They would lead the celebration.
This kind of collaboration could revive small church ministry.
Leadership is likely to come from within the small churches. That’s OK. It’s biblical.
Some will be jealous of any grassroots initiative, especially if new unforeseen possibilities become evident.
Read yesterday’s post along with this one and we will start to form The Nehemiah Project.
Add your ideas. Let’s see if small pockets (chapters) of small churches can start to help one another in mission and rebuild neighborhood ministry.
If Nehemiah could do it, so can we!
We’ll keep pondering the concept and see where it takes us.
The Nehemiah Project. Hmmmm!
If the Nehemiah project interests you, let us know. Who knows what might result?!
I’ve written about this before, but the more I study modern marketing (evangelism) and business strategy, the more I am convinced that the Church is its own worst enemy.
Church structure is ill-equipped to change with the modern world. Its inability to adapt is dooming congregations—all congregations—not just the small ones.
Church leadership, trained and steeped in tradition, is not leading us into the modern world. They are aware of the needs. Desperately aware.
Experts write and offer advice, usually based on isolated success stories that may or may not apply to other congregations. Church structure is a roadblock to implementation. Too many hurdles. Too much reliance on traditional relationships and procedures. Easier to slog along waiting for a miracle.
This week I attended a business conference. About eight related businesses took turns reviewing the goals and strategies of each of the others. Each business was spotlighted for 45 minutes. Their particular challenges were addressed in detail.
The businesses had to let down their guard. Hierarchy was leveled. Soon, ideas were flying. Good, helpful, concrete ideas. Each business walked away with a checklist of what to accomplish to grow their business over the next four business quarters.
It wasn’t an easy process. Some participants were afraid that their ideas would be stolen and that the criticism would suck the wind from their sails. But in the end all participated and they discovered that the other participants were eager to help. Their fresh viewpoints and experience with similar problems was energizing. They were directing one another to resources that might have been protected if the businesses were acting as competitors.
Soon the participants were sitting together into the evening, asking questions, probing, sharing advice.
I was left wondering . . .
Does this kind of free-flowing brainstorming and dialogue ever happen in the Church?
In the Church, all ideas and programs are funneled through the clergy. The clergy will want to retain control even when they don’t have the skills to implement the needed steps. They will also be weighing their position in the total hierarchy. Often their career goals are more important than congregational goals.
Laity are dismissed or enlisted as followers. Their career success is not at stake. They’ll take the blame for failure but have little control over processes.
Lay people can present ideas but the power to see them fulfilled is largely controlled by cooperation of people with allegiance to the status quo, tradition and turf to protect.
How often are lay people featured speakers at any church gatherings?
How do we get around this?
What if small congregations could band together? What if they could hold regular “mastermind” sessions. Each congregation could share their goals and frustrations. Each participant would help them evaluate and strategize. Each congregation would leave with a plan which both clergy and laity would be responsible for implementing before the next “mastermind” session.
Together we might be able to help each other overcome obstacles and see transformation and growth. Together we might share skills and resources.
Or do we all just keep ministering in isolated despair, waiting for the other boot to drop, wallowing in knowing what the problems are without a clue as to how to address them?
This is our proposal. It’s just a start, but it could grow into something HUGE!
One small church provide leadership initiative.
Invite five-ten other small churches to attend a “Small Church Summit” that would explore common and unique problems. The congregations don’t have to be all the same denomination. We could learn from one another!
Once problems are defined, the group can focus on each congregation. Offer ideas and support.
It’s important that clergy and laity interact. Both must attend. As equals. The Lutheran way!
What do you think? Would a Small Church Mastermind Summit interest you?
2×2 would love to develop this idea. Contact us if you have interest.
Every thousand years or so the Church should reexamine the way it works. Something might have changed that might influence our methodology and our success in mission.
The Church has survived the early days of Greek democracy, Roman Imperialism, feudal governments, monarchies, papist states, the re-emergence of democracy in a New World, and Western Colonization. That’s just a sampling.
You’d think the experience would have made us flexible.
So here we are at the dawn of a new age—the Information Age or the Connection Age.
The Churches of the Western World are largely spectators in our changing society. A new era arrived while our lamps were unlit.
Part of our thinking is skewed toward the habit of culturally dividing the world into Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Today’s world is more culturally divided by Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
The dividing line is actually slightly north of the Equator. The Northern Church is fading. The Southern Church is growing.
The Northern Church is used to being in charge—the leaders. Ultimately the Northern Church will follow the Southern Church. Where is the latest pope from?
What’s the difference between the two hemispheres? The Southern Hemisphere carries less baggage. Christianity is new and refreshing. The language, music, and customs of the North didn’t relate. There was little expectation that they would.
The Northern Church carries a ton of baggage. We don’t know where to begin in unloading it!
The current methodology for reviving mission is to concentrate on individual congregations. Dealing with the baggage of the past is one of the first steps church leaders take when working with congregations in transition. This can come in the form of discussion, or it can come from strong-arming congregations—even evicting them and taking property with the excuse that a new foundation for mission with no baggage is needed. Out with the faithful. In with . . . . who knows?
Either way, we avoid the reality that where change is most needed is in broader church structure. Talk about baggage! Most of the baggage in the church is in the overhead compartments!
Being the target for mandated change is a frustrating process for congregations. We are asked to perform the same old way, a lot better and faster, and with less encouragement and fewer resources. Meanwhile, Church leaders do nothing to change.
Truth be told, change is even more frustrating for regional bodies. They are desperate for success they can control and measure and that will sustain them. At the same time, they feel they must maintain the image of leadership—even as the economic foundation for their existence is eroding.
Congregations can exist without hierarchies. Hierarchies cannot exist without congregations.
Sadly, the latest methodology is a symbol of desperation. The Church actually kicks people out, announcing that they will start churches over under their superior management. This hasn’t been working. The show of superiority and force is a turn-off in today’s world. . Promising starts have faded within a decade. Mission churches fail at an alarming rate!
How do we change 2000-year-old thinking?
We have to be mindful that church involvement is a habit. The Church cannot survive without the cultural habit of weekly attendance and offerings. It’s these figures that we use to measure success.
We have relied largely on tradition to reinforce attendance and giving habits. Unfortunately, new traditions have replaced them. The Church probably has to concentrate on developing new opportunities for spiritual habits.
Habits are triggered by need. The Church has to identify the needs of modern society.
Why do people go to church? Why do they stay home?
People don’t go to church to be counted or to fill offering plates.
People don’t go to church to be loyal servants of clergy.
Habits are based on some trigger—some personal need.
Triggers might be:
Tradition
Personal Need
Imperative of Faith
Curiosity of Faith
Social
Compelling Emotion
Too often, we concentrate on triggers that no longer exist.
Love of organ music and 18th and 19th century music.
A desire to listen to one person’s interpretation of the Word.
A love of ritual.
Maintenance of property.
90% of most church resources are devoted to sustaining things that people no longer relate to.
The first step in reviving ministry is to identify the current triggers in your community. What triggers might change spiritual habits?
Stop sifting through baggage. A baggage-free church is an empty church.
Baggage will always be with us. That’s what the cross is for.
photo credit: loungerie via photopincc
If we expect nothing of our children, they are likely to fail. Expecting failure takes less effort.
If we expect great things, we go to work for our kids. We cheer for them and help to create the conditions for success. We are not surprised when they change the world.
The same science works on adults and in communities. Jesus did his best to build up the people he encountered. He loved them. He showed them he understood them. He challenged them. He gave them the opportunity to fail. He showed them how to pick up the pieces and try again. That’s the training by example that he gave his disciples.
Many church leaders today have given up on the Church. They look through the statistics and see declining attendance, membership, and giving. So sad. Too bad.
A prevailing attitude among today’s church leaders is to accept failure as the norm. Bishop Burkat even recommends doing nothing to help small churches in her book, Transforming Regional Bodies.
The malaise is contagious—and deadly.
Redeemer will never forget Bishop Burkat’s first visit to Redeemer in December 2006. Bishop Burkat likes to claim publicly that she worked hard with our congregation for an extended period of time to no avail. This is what really happened.
It was a study in the power of low expectations, fueled by prejudice.
She walked into our Fellowship Hall. Gloom filled the room.
No bishop had visited Redeemer to talk with our leaders in nearly a decade. In 1997, Bishop Almquist came to break the 18-month term call (contract) he had made with us and one of his staff members just three months earlier. We were bitterly disappointed. (Bishop Burkat likes to claim that Bishop Almquist worked long and hard with us, too, but he was largely absent and he confiscated a sizeable amount of our money for two years.)
We went without a pastor for a year after that and for most of the following decade. Our lay leaders had worked hard to find ministry solutions on our own with mixed success. Still, we were enthusiastic about our prospects, especially since things seemed to be poised for significant change.
The memory of synod’s abandonment was still fresh for our leaders if not for the many new people who had come to Redeemer. We weren’t sure what to expect from the newly elected bishop, whom none of us had met, but we came ready for a fresh start.
It didn’t take long to dash our hopes. Bishop Burkat greeted us with what sounded like a rehearsed string of criticism.
She walked into the equivalent of the living room of our home and complained that the place looked junky. “No visitor will want to return to a place that looks like this.”
We explained. Epiphany, a neighboring church whose building was condemned, had just moved their things out of storage and into our fellowship hall. We were trying to help our neighbors.
We moved on.
Next. “You have no parking lot,” Bishop Burkat noticed. “A church with no parking lot has little chance of survival.” Our Ambassador visits have proved that the size of the parking lot has nothing to do with attendance at worship, but we answered defensively.
We pointed out that parking at Redeemer had never been an issue. The school and library, which share our intersection are closed on weekends and in the evenings when most church activity takes place.
The conversation continued.
Churches have personalities, Bishop Burkat said, with the clear implication that Redeemer’s personality left something to be desired.
What could we say? We turned the attention to our ministry efforts. We talked enthusiastically about the number of East Africans who were showing an interest in our congregation and the multi-cultural environment that had been fostered by one of our part-time pastors. We wanted to continue in this promising direction.
Bishop Burkat said a puzzling thing, “You are not allowed to do outreach.”
Huh? Say that again.
We told the bishop that we were disappointed in SEPA’s treatment of our ministry and very hurt that Bishop Almquist terminated our call agreement for his own convenience. That was a pivotal loss (by design, we think) for lay people to overcome, but we rose to the challenge.
The meeting ended abruptly. The bishop had a serious family emergency and we urged her to go to be with her family. Bishop Burkat promised to schedule a meeting in three to five months to talk about our concerns and try to heal some wounds. (Never happened,)
We sighed with relief when she was gone. She exuded negativity. We were glad that only our key leaders were at that meeting. Her attitude would have dragged down the entire congregation. It would have undermined all the work we had done.
Our next encounter with Bishop Burkat, eleven months later, was similar. There were more people present. Redeemer had grown significantly during that 11 months of neglect, accepting 49 members! We came to that meeting with our recently completed 20-page ministry plan and with a resolution to call the pastor who had been serving us for about seven months.
Bishop Burkat began this meeting by ranting that Redeemer was “adversarial.” She used that word repeatedly in her opening statement. We still don’t understand her wrath!
The rant was undeserved. Only three of the thirteen people present had met the bishop before — two of us briefly, a year before. The third was the pastor we hoped to call who had been a member of her seminary class. All but two had joined the church within the last 10 years and knew nothing about ancient problems, which synod seemed ever-ready to resurrect.
The meeting lasted more than two hours and we were able to turn the tone around, ending, we thought, on a very positive note. The bishop promised we could work with her newly appointed mission director, Rev. Pat Davenport. Our people began to sing a hymn together as we rode down the elevator and crossed the parking lot. We were excited and united.
And then NOTHING happened.
After four months of silence, including numerous unreturned phone calls, we all received letters from the Bishop announcing she was closing our church.
We wonder how many other churches have experienced such low expectations from leaders.
If this is how every church is treated, it is no wonder there is so little progress.
Our leaders have no faith in their message.
They don’t seem to care about or even like the people they serve. They don’t model their teachings about peace, repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation, love, justice, humility, or transformation (though they talk about this a great deal).
Pastors and congregations soon begin to avoid the regional body. They may even fear it.
The only transforming that takes place is destructive.
What would happen if we expected success—if church leaders went into congregations and asked one question: “How can we help you serve?”?
What if pastors—and bishops—were held accountable?
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!
If churches want to reach millions of independent-minded young Americans they should learn a thing or two from craft brewers. . . . It’s time, he said, for “craft churches” that reach niche audiences.
This is an astute observation. Small churches have been serving niches for some time.
Our Ambassador visits reveal that most churches, large or small, serve a niche, but probably with little intent!
The largest church we visited (non-Lutheran and twice the attendance of the largest Lutheran church we visited) was a congregation of 25-35-year-olds.
Birds of a feather . . .
Small churches know their niche. Any intention of being all things to all people, though tempting, is out of reach. Even if people wanted that kind of ministry, (and most mission statements sound like they do!), finding leadership is daunting.
Church leaders often view small churches as failures—undesirable places for pastors to serve. Part of this is economics. All churches must rise to the same budget expectations, which in the modern era have priced many communities out of the faith business. Pastors assigned to small churches often view their role as care-taking, never bothering with outreach. Some even use the offensive term “hospice ministry.”
Perhaps it’s time to seriously examine the economics of church.
People will make their church home where they can see their offerings and efforts at work. They will neither participate nor attend a church where they do not feel fully welcome.
We at Redeemer know the difference between being welcome to attend church and being welcome to participate. Our bishop made it clear that we are not welcome to participate in SEPA Synod. She seized our property and pledged to close our church and reopen it under new leadership. She wrote to us that current members could attend this new, improved Lutheran church but former members would not be permitted to participate. She unilaterally denied us vote or voice. When we started visiting churches she sent a letter to pastors warning them!
How’s that for a welcome statement!
Redeemer was welcoming East African immigrants who were moving into our community—not just to use our building, which is the more common outreach approach, but to join their traditions with ours. We saw our unique niche ministry as adding to the mosaic of the greater church.
But SEPA was determined that one population had to die before a new population could be fully welcomed. As Bishop Burkat said, “White Redeemer must be allowed to die, black Redeemer . . . we can put them anywhere.” Control of assets was the objective.
Religion is not supposed to be a spectator sport.
Part of the problem with niche ministries is that few pastors are trained to serve niche populations.
Defining a niche (while recognizing the likelihood that niches will change every decade or so) may not be such a bad idea. It will take decades to recognize and train leaders to actively serve niche ministries and not view them as “hospice” assignments.
Another problem with niche ministries is that the “niches” that are most in need (the ones the Bible talks about), often can’t support them.
The true mission of the church is defeated by cost—at least with today’s budget and funding expectations.
Meanwhile, rejected and criticized by our denomination, Redeemer has created a niche ministry. You are visiting it now. Today, two months into our third year, we are reaching more people every week than the largest church in our denomination’s local region. We are just getting started.
“We are not thinking machines that feel;
rather, we are feeling machines that think.”
—Antonio Damasio
What does it take to mobilize a congregation?
The answer to this question is elusive. It is usually answered with formulaic responses presented by distant church leaders, many of whom have limited hands-on pastoral experience.
Get a good pastor. (Definition of this is never clear).
Write a mission statement. (The push to have mission statement is now a decade or more old. Has it made a difference?)
Target certain demographics. (Rather exclusive!)
Sometimes these approaches work. Not usually.
A congregation will not be mobilized until it feels. Emotion is fuel for action.
People don’t act based on the analytical part of their brains. They act based upon the emotional parts of their brains. In head vs heart, heart wins.
Churches are not good at handling emotion. Emotions can be so messy!
The cerebral approach permeates church life. We tend to turn up our noses at more demonstrative styles of worship. Soon, even hymns of joy are sung cerebrally, with every nose in the congregation buried in the hymnal!
Pastors are often cerebral in their approach to ministry. They are trained to read and analyze scripture. Applying that training to action is s rarer skill.
To appeal to the emotional is daring and dangerous, but it is the only way to get a congregation moving.
Congregational leaders must find ways to help worshipers feel again.
Too often in its history, the Church has relied on two emotions: FEAR and GUILT.
And we wonder why people stay away!
Here are some emotions that could change your congregational life for the better.
LOVE is powerful. Love is a verb. It is easy to talk about love and do nothing.
ANGER is a powerful emotion. Make sure anger is directed in unselfish ways, but don’t be afraid to encourage appropriate anger.
HOPE is an emotion. Hope is lost if people come to church week after week and nothing happens.
JOY is a powerful emotion. It demands expression. Foster joy. People are eager to come together when they can expect true joy. (View the boychoir video in the last post. Those boys come faithfully to rehearsals because they are encouraged to express joy. Compare the faces of the boy singers to the faces of the typical church choir!)
Warning! A church that takes an emotional approach to mission will experience conflict. It goes with the territory. Conflict, well-managed, can be a good thing. Both the Old and New Testaments are infused with conflict. If transformation is to be more than a buzzword, it must be expected, respected and embraced.
Learn to foster emotions—and the conflicts that go with them. Be prepared to use the dynamics of emotion to teach, motivate and change lives — including your congregation’s life!
Centralize authority to ensure quality and efficiency. Call it leadership.
Pool resources for cost effectiveness. Call it stewardship.
This has worked only short-term. In the long run, it has been disastrous and self-destructive.
The Church has been in the hierarchy game for a very long time. The Old Testament dallies in a number of systems—patriarchy, slavery, judiciary, military, monarchy—each with strengths for the moment, each going awry to be dealt with by a powerful, vengeful (but still loving) God.
The New Testament, puts all of this aside and forges a new relationship between God and His people, centered not on wrath but on love.
As Christianity spread, scattered faith communities sought unified leadership. The keys handed to the fisherman who set out with a walking stick and the shirt on his back were soon held by those with well-appointed robes and massive treasuries. The only way to keep the coffers full was to exert power.
The trappings of power created the illusion of necessity. Necessity became entrenched. If anyone noticed that the system was leading nowhere, they were dealt with swiftly.
The well-intended system stopped working a long time ago. It took centuries for Reformation to attempt to do something about it. Its success was limited and its message seems to be forgotten.
That’s the way with hierarchies.
Today, every person wields tremendous power. A teenager holding a smart phone controls more resources than worldwide television networks had twenty years ago.
When church members in the pew realize this, there will be a new Reformation. The only delay in this happening is the long tradition of lay people doing little but following and the innate desire of God-loving people for peace and pleasantry.
There are still many (if far fewer) satisfied followers sitting in the pews. Knowledgeable, motivated leaders among them are beginning to realize that their considerable efforts to gather resources to support the hierarchies isn’t good stewardship after all. They are growing weary of struggling for resources that do nothing for their communities but maintain a building and support a requisite hierarchically named pastor. They are looking for new supporters, but the lines of people looking for controlling relationships with its own system of taxation is very short.
For the time being the hierarchies are licking their chops as they glean the last kernel of corn from the field before they give up their ways—all the while preaching that the problems of the Church are that congregations won’t change.
Hierarchies don’t really want change.
But change cannot be avoided.
There are fewer churches and fewer Christians. Same old hierarchies.
Join Bishop Ruby Kinisa as she visits small churches "under cover" to learn what people would never share if they knew they were talking to their bishop.
Undercover Bishop will always be available in PDF form on 2x2virtualchurch.com for FREE.
Print or Kindle copies are available on Amazon.com.
For bulk copies, please contact 2x2: creation@dca.net.
Contact Info
You can reach
Judy Gotwald,
the moderator of 2x2,
at
creation@dca.net
or 215 605 8774
Redeemer’s Prayer
We were all once strangers, the weakest, the outcasts, until someone came to our defense, included us, empowered us, reconciled us (1 Cor. 2; Eph. 2).
2×2 Sections
Where in the World is 2×2?
On Isaiah 30:15b
Be calm. Wait. Wait. Commit your cause to God. He will make it succeed. Look for Him a little at a time. Wait. Wait. But since this waiting seems long to the flesh and appears like death, the flesh always wavers. But keep faith. Patience will overcome wickedness.
—Martin Luther
