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Church

The Church and Its Elusive Goals

disruptiveGood Enough Can Be Great

Let’s look at the second principle of Putting Disruptive Innovation to Work.

 Noting that “good enough” can be great.

Many innovators seek to leapfrog over existing solutions, essentially hoping to win by playing the innovation game better. Disruptors win by playing the innovation game differently. [emphasis in original] Disruptions are all about trade-offs. Disruptions typically do offer lower performance along dimensions that historically mattered to mainstream customers. They aren’t bad along these dimensions; they are good enough. But they more than make up for that — in the eyes of their customers — by offering better performance along different dimensions.

This is very applicable to church life. Congregations are bombarded with demands to transform. We are competing to reach a standard that no one has measured. The drama sets congregation against congregation as they vie for attention from their regional body in access to professional services and standing. Transform becomes conform.

Concentrating on growing can be frustrating. It can discourage people who never joined church to work to reach other people’s goals. New members need time to settle and mature.

Sometimes churches are exactly the right size. They can afford their pastor. They can maintain their building. People know each other and are sensitive to one another and their community. They work well together and are confident enough in their sense of mission to welcome new people.

So why can’t we accept congregations the way they are? Is the push to grow important to the mission of the church or is it important to maintaining the three budgets each congregation is expected to support (their own, and those of the regional body and national entity)?

Churches will grow if they are growing for the right reasons. Their way of achieving their mission may not suit church professionals, but it may be good enough—at the moment. It may be great.

Redeemer was good enough. Redeemer was great at what it was doing in mission work — which no one else was doing quite the same way. We were not replicating a model foisted on us from above but we were innovating in ways from which others could learn and which we could afford and had the talent to support.

We don’t know what would have made the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America happy.

  • We had grown five-fold since Bishop Almquist’s interference in our ministry in the late 1990s. SEPA didn’t know that because SEPA ignored us for a decade. When faced with the facts, they simply refused to count the new members. “White Redeemer must be allowed to die. Black Redeemer — we can put them anywhere.” (Bishop Burkat)
  • We had achieved diversity, a stated goal of SEPA.
  • Our members spanned the age ranges and was no longer top heavy with older Christians.
  • We had several pastors interested in working with us.
  • We had some money in reserve.
  • We had lay leaders with diverse talents that complemented those of professional leaders.
  • We had a ministry plan that had the potential to create ongoing revenue.

We were and are good enough. We might even be great.

But recognizing Redeemer’s unique ministry didn’t meet SEPA’s agenda. They needed us to fail so they could justify taking our property (which their Articles of Incorporation forbid, but who cares).

So they quickly, in a blink of an eye, acknowledged our success but followed it with criticism for not achieving it under their direction. (They were AWOL.)

Since they kicked us out of the ELCA, we’ve visited 52 congregations. We know our ministry is just as active and effective as those who sat in judgement over us. And it is unique. We don’t have a food pantry. We don’t sign up for every charity run. Our kids don’t go to Synod youth events. But we do support ministries in other countries. All our kids and families had an opportunity to attend church camp. We have developed a social media ministry which reaches 1500 people a month. We’ve made a project of connecting with other Lutheran congregations. We have fought to maintain congregational polity, which will someday benefit every other SEPA congregation. We continue to meet for worship and ministry weekly.

If we had tried to be like bigger churches we would not have been able to accomplish the things we did. We did our own thing with our own resources and remained true to our mission. If we had concentrated on emulating bigger congregations we would have failed. All of our resources would have been spent keeping up with the St. Joneses. We found areas of ministry in which we could excel and make a difference.

We were good enough, we like to think, to be welcome in God’s house.

We were not good enough, we know, to be welcome in the ELCA.

09 Dec 2012

Are Program Churches Programmed Churches?

2×2 grew from a small church—Redeemer in East Falls. How small? Well, too small for the ELCA. But big enough for mission.

While we have been locked out of our sanctuary for more than three years, we took on a project of visiting the very people who locked us out for their own enrichment.

We’ve made more than 50 visits. Most congregations appear to be no stronger in numbers or wealth than Redeemer. Several would probably already have been targeted by SEPA Synod for takeover if Redeemer hadn’t been commanding their attention for the last five years. As church experts categorize churches by size, they are either in the family church (under 75 members) or pastoral church (around 150 active members) categories .

A few of the congregations we have visited fall into the next biggest category — the program church.

Program churches are big enough by definition to afford a full-time pastor or two and some additional paid staff. They can offer programs to various segments of the population led by the extra hands they can afford to pay.

There is a stark contrast between these churches and the smaller churches that struggle to compete for pastoral services and attention from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

The difference is initiative. It’s not that larger churches don’t have initiative; it’s just more “programmed.”

We can see it in little things.

In last Sunday’s visit, the pastor used five large objects in his sermon. He introduced them one by one and placed them across the front of the chancel as he talked. When his sermon ended, he walked back and forth across the chancel and removed the objects. He sang a hymn as he did so. But it seemed odd that the vicar sitting nearby didn’t offer to help—nor did the acolyte sitting nest to the vicar. I know that had this been Redeemer, one or two people would have jumped up and helped the pastor prepare for the next part of worship. There is nothing wrong with this, understand. The hymn the pastor was singing as he cleaned up was nice. It just seemed odd.

Where initiative is lacking, so is creativity. It shows in the bulletins of program churches. They invariably have long lists of credits. Who is the greeter, the reader, the usher, the offering counter, the communion assistant, the flower donator, or the nursery assistant for this week and the rest of the month? Just check the bulletin.

Presumably, if it’s not your Sunday to greet people, then there is no reason to greet anyone.

In small churches, every job belongs to every body.

Reading through church newsletters and bulletins of the program-sized churches, there are lists of activities. They are similar to every other program-sized church. Perhaps that’s where church leaders get the notion that closing/consolidating churches is good management.

The things Redeemer does aren’t on any of the lists. No Swahili outreach, no experimentation with the web and social media, very little experimenting in the worship and educational settings, no ambassadors.

Perhaps the promise that they will lose their uniqueness is why small churches resist the management “wisdom” of their leaders.

Perhaps it is why the ELCA and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (SEPA) tend to undervalue their small congregations.

Redeemer is not closed.
We are locked out of God’s house by SEPA Synod.

20 Nov 2012

Stewardship of Possibilities: Part 2

Seth Godin’s blog is worth repeating today. (It’s short).

When you don’t know what to do…

That’s when we find out how well you make decisions.

When you don’t have the resources to do it the usual way, that’s when you show us how resourceful you are.

And when you don’t know if it’s going to work, that’s how we find out whether or not we need you on our team.

Every small church is in this position. Many are finding out that they don’t need to structure their “team” quite the way they have in the past.

The “dead wood” (a term one pastor used in a comment on this site in reference to small churches that the synod wanted to close) may not be the congregations. If you are going to assess interdependent ministries, look for dead wood in all the interdependent branches.

We suspect you’ll find some withering main branches.

Small churches are finding that not only do they not need them on their team but they have been playing without their support for years.

photo credit: Moochy via photopin cc
12 Nov 2012

Going Green: Revamping the Church Bulletin

Rethinking the Weekly Church Bulletin

Redeemer Ambassadors have now visited 50 churches. We’ve seen 50 versions of the weekly bulletin.

They are all pretty much the same and most are a mountain of paper to be left in the hymnal rack or tossed at the first opportunity.

The primary purpose of a worship bulletin is to direct people through the service. This is also the primary purpose of the expensive Worship Books/Hymnals sitting in the pew racks.

A secondary purpose is advertising — which these days is better done by email or Facebook. (It’s not the people who are in church that need all the reminders!)

Bulletins can be a creative outlet that provides enriching content—much more than those black and white line drawings that every church uses—the ones with short, big-eyed characters in flowing robes, acting out the Gospel for the day.

If a church is to go to the trouble of reprinting the worship book each week, it should add something to the worship experience.

We have yet to encounter bulletins as helpful as Redeemer’s—one piece of paper (11 x 17) with the entire service printed inside, including words to all hymns and prayers. Full color art from many different genres and religious poetry graced the covers. News, contact info, credits, calendar and even a Bible study or puzzle for the children appeared on the back.

There was no need to reference hymnals, which freed us to use worship elements from many sources.

Since we printed only words, we could easily substitute parts of the liturgy with an appropriate praise song or hymn.

But what about the music? The congregation developed a pretty good ear. The organist played hymns through in their entirety once. Hymnals were in each pew. Hymnal references were provided for those who wanted the music—and that was rarely more than one person.

A Redeemer bulletin was easy to follow for the presiding minister, visitors and even the children. Most important—there was a reason to take a Redeemer bulletin home to enjoy and share during the week.

Recently, a former member who now lives out of state wrote to one of our members and asked for a copy of our bulletins. She wanted to share them with her new pastor. A current member spoke up and said, “I’ll send her a few, I have them all on file.”

Others had often shared that they clipped a poem or image from the bulletin and stuck it to the refrigerator. That anyone kept them on file was a surprise!

It’s been more than three years since our last worship service in our own sanctuary, but when I cleaned my son’s room last week (who is now of age to be moving out). There, neatly folded on his dresser was the bulletin from the last Redeemer worship service —September 20, 2009.

Redeemer bulletins had mileage—even three years after we published our last one!

In this age of “going green,” it is peculiar that we publish hymnals with liturgies printed in them and place them in every pew. We brag that we have the latest and greatest worship book. Then the worship books sit unused in the racks. We reprint the liturgy in bulletins that eat up a ream or two of paper each week, a ton of toner, and wear and tear on office equipment. Preparing these bulletins takes a half day of a pastor’s time and probably a full day of office time.

Church bulletins are a huge investment with little return.

The reason we do this is probably that the hymnals are heavy and require flipping from the liturgy section to the hymn section frequently. They are awkward.

It’s also the way every church seems to do it.

But bulletins with 16-24 pages and fliers spilling out are equally awkward. Some of them were daunting to us as visitors — even with our strong church backgrounds.

Here’s an idea. Fill the hymnals with hymns—nothing else. You may end up needing to invest in fewer copies.

Print each liturgy in a small booklet that is easy to manage and won’t cost more than a dollar or two per copy. Let congregations choose which liturgy booklets they want. They can even create them themselves if they pay the licensing fee. Most churches don’t use more than one or two versions of a liturgy, regardless of how many choices are offered in the heavy worship books. An advantage of this is that new liturgies can be added at any time without waiting 20 years for the next hymnal to be published.

Now your bulletin can be one sheet of paper. Or maybe you won’t need one at all!

Save a forest. Save the church budget.

The bulletin will be easier to follow and allow for the inclusion of more art, poetry and teaching in your worship experience.

PS: We were able to forge the way in developing this because we didn’t have a pastor controlling the process.

Redeemer Bulletins

05 Nov 2012

Is This the Beginning of the End of Organized Religion?

Generation X, Y and MillenialsReligion — at least the way it has been understood up until now — is facing a modern challenge. It has little to do with numbers. Numbers are just evidence of a major societal change.

It has to do with the way we are wired. Young minds — Generation Y and the Millenials — have known only an interconnected world. These connections were not organized for them by their parents or tradition. They were formed by each individual opting in and out of friendships, groups, and causes at will. More than that, these generations have been taught to use modern tools to initiate actions to address their sense of justice and righteousness.

The thought of joining a church, building trust, identifying a need, communicating the need, and then rallying volunteers and support to address the need is foreign to modern thinking. This is good! The old way is archaic and inefficient by modern capabilities.

Those of us still hanging on to the past may still value a well-run organization. We look for leaders who can work together to define goals and connect with people and resources to achieve goals. Our measure of successful participation is how well members obey and contribute.

Our children don’t care about “organizations.” They are not just avoiding organized religion. They are not joining Leagues and Service Clubs either. This is not a lack of empathy. They realize they don’t need to sign on as foot soldiers in a cause defined by someone else. They can create their own networks and contribute their passion their own way.

Independence from structure is just beginning to hit the Church, where structure is worshiped at the right hand of God. If the Church thinks we are going to come up with innovative programs to attract younger generations back into the pew to contribute to church community the way their parents or grandparents did, we are chasing a dream. An expensive, doomed to fail, dream.

The Church must redefine many of its core structures. This includes expectations of members. There is a lot to talk about. For now, we suggest reading this post from the Jewish Weekly as reposted in Rabbi Hayim Herring’s blog. Jews are experiencing the same challenges as Christians. We can learn together.

In a few days, 2×2 will start to explore the issues raised.

photo credit: Andrew Huff via photopin cc
24 Oct 2012

More Pastors; Fewer Preachers

Let’s face it. One of the biggest challenges for small churches (and that includes most churches) is meeting the costs of professional leadership. Salaries and perks are the bulk of the budget.

At the first sign of financial distress, what do most churches do? Call a part-time minister.

What is the priority of every part-time solo minister? Preparing for worship and Sunday morning.

Often, that’s about all a small congregation can negotiate from their leaders. It is the frequent source of conflict.

Sunday morning preaching alone does not grow a church, especially when the sermon is delivered to only a few dozen part-time listeners. But the pressure on congregational lay leaders is to grow and transform or else, while all the congregation’s resources are tied up satisfying the salary requirement for a requisite pastor—whether that pastor is helping the congregation grow or not.

This must change.

Education is coming to realize that the responsibilities of teachers are changing. There is no longer any need for thousands of biology teachers working to craft a lecture on photosynthesis when just one expert educator can thoroughly cover the topic online, complete with visuals and links to enhance the lesson. This role can be competitive to ensure quality, but duplication in every school district is no longer necessary. The old model for education, born of pre-Information Age traditions, will soon be obsolete and recalled as quaint.

It is projected that the typical class day will flip. Listening to lectures will be the homework. Class time will be spent with instructors facilitating discussions, problem-solving and projects—what used to be called “homework.”

Similar changes will benefit the Church. Small churches do not have to devote scarce resources to pay theologians to craft a sermon on the same topic as a several thousand other pastors. This model belongs to the ages.

It may once have been necessary when information was harder to come by and many members were illiterate. As the economic model of Church shifted to totally monetary compensation, it has been pricing small churches out of existence. This is a shame. Small faith communities still hold the greatest number of total denominational membership. People like small churches. Soon, only the privileged will be able to afford to live in Christian community. The Church will have defeated its own cause.

Today, we need more pastors and fewer preachers. We need comforters, advisors, peacemakers, innovators, advocates, teachers and leaders. Knowledge of scripture and church teaching is still important in performing these roles. But the expense of dedicating one full salary to every congregation for the primary purpose of filling a Sunday pulpit is imperiling the entire Church.

If small churches are to return to prosperity, they need hands-on pastoring more than expensive preaching. Just as in education, the Church must turn its priorities upside down. Thoughtful preaching can be provided online and delivered by anyone who can speak well. Professional staff will free a day or two for hands-on interaction in the community.

This is already beginning to take shape. Luther Seminary’s online preaching helps (www.workingpreacher.org) is a resource that covers each Sunday’s lessons from the Common Lectionary. Many seminary professors from varying traditions comment on the lessons, helping to free the time of hundreds of pastors. 2×2 fashions both its Daily Devotion and the weekly object lesson from this online discussion.

Meanwhile, online preaching is being honed to an art. The temptation for many preachers is to post their ten-page sermon manuscript on-line. These do not fit the habits of online readers.

Online preaching must conform to the new rhythm of modern life. Pastor Jon Swanson broadcasts a short devotional reading daily and elaborates more fully in his blogs. 7×7 (very short daily devotion) and 300 words a day (a longer—but still short—daily blog lesson). He is growing an enthusiastic following — including 2×2.

All of us pioneers in the social media world have analytics at our fingertips. We can test and hone our skills, using actual data. Pastors preaching in sanctuaries have to guess and wait a week to correct their course.

The role of ministers must change if ministry is to remain affordable to most congregations.

Now would be a good time to start.

23 Oct 2012

First Estate, Meet the Fifth Estate: A New Reformation

The Fifth EstateIn the Church, we are still shaking off the dust of the Middle Ages. Back then, as always, there was a crying need to organize society, partly due to unparalleled spread and power of Christianity.

  • Who would have the power?
  • Who would control the wealth?
  • Who would protect the wealth and power?
  • Who would pay for everything?

There was tension between church leaders and the people they relied upon to protect their impressive assets. This ragtag group of warriors would be most effective and reliable if they were given some official status and a smidgen of power.

Somebody came up with the idea of “estates.”

The First Estate included the clergy. They controlled much of the wealth, demanding contributions of the faithful. They paid NO taxes.

The Second Estate included the warriors that were to become the nobility. They were willing to risk their lives to protect the Church, and so, they were allowed some very nice tracts of land and the power to get the general population to work for them. They paid NO taxes.

The Third Estate was everyone else—about 97% of the population. THEY paid taxes.

As for upward mobility—it was next to impossible to enter the Second Estate by any means other than birth or marriage. Is it any wonder that there was no shortage of clergy in the Middle Ages?

Then came the printing press. The Fourth Estate was born. It was soon recognized that anyone who owned a printing press held power that had to be respected (and controlled, if possible). The press became the Fourth Estate.

Along came America and the power of the press was given constitutional protection.

Today we stand at the threshold of new possibilities and the birth of the Fifth Estate. The term seems to have started in Canada, referring to the media. It is evolving to include the power that lies in the hands of millions of unfettered individuals (the same 97% who have been supporting the power structure of both Estates One and Two for a thousand years).

Enter the power of the blog—The Fifth Estate.

This is a new form of power— a bit like the press but rawer and more independent, uncontrolled by any structure and empowered as much by the low cost as the technology..

  • Blogs are available to all.
  • Blogs do not require wealth and backing.
  • Blogs can create their own following.
  • Blogs are immediate.
  • Blogs have no cumbersome internal power structures.
  • Blogs are not restricted by the costs of print, marketing and circulation.
  • Blogs are not beholding to advertising for revenue.
  • Blogs are controlled by everyone’s ability to respond if they disagree.
  • Blogs are protected by the same Bill of Rights that protects religion and the press.

Anyone can become a thought leader in this new world. You won’t need a title or fancy degree.

The Fifth Estate will outpower every other Estate.

We have already seen the Fifth Estate affect government and international relations—swaying elections, inciting rebellion, changing the world.

We are beginning to see the Fifth Estate change education with free and easy access to course material once available only to the privileged.

Business has changed. Publishing has changed.

Will the Fifth Estate change the First Estate—the Church?

It will…if we start using the power at our fingertips.

The Church’s resistance to change—which begins at the top—will hamper it. Leaders will try to protect the status quo, which is their expertise. They will continue to rely on outdated communication techniques—20-minute sermons in cavernous, empty sanctuaries, newsletters filled with fluff, feel good web sites that invite little interaction or thought leadership.

One day soon, the power of the Fifth Estate will force open the doors and windows that have been sealed for centuries. The change is not going to be dictated by the seminaries or bishops or even the clergy. It is going to come from the bottom up and it is going to be truly transforming.

Are we ready?

photo credit: BottleLeaf via photopin cc
21 Oct 2012

Using Your Mission Statement to Strengthen Networks

We can’t do it all ourselves, but we live in a world where we like to think we can.

In the world of corporate marketing, the “brand” is sacred. Corporate branders would cringe to think of sending their customers to a competitor. They would take one of these approaches.

Convince the customer they are wrong for needing something they do not offer.

You like contemporary worship? Our liturgies are much richer and more meaningful! Take a seat and listen!

You are being bullied? We are so sorry, but our mission is more about feeding the hungry. Our food pantry is open on Tuesday and Friday afternoons! Stop by!

Promise an answer so far down the line that it is likely to be useless to the person in need today.  

You want youth programming? Come back in two years. We’re training someone right now in exactly what you are looking for.

This type of thinking can affect how congregations interpret their Mission Statements. Governing boards can start to weigh every challenge by measuring it against their published Mission Statement and what they are prepared to provide—not the actual needs of the neighborhood. The Mission Statement then becomes an excuse to turn a blind eye to the changing needs.

Part of the decline of the neighborhood church is that the church as a whole is unprepared for change. Denominational leaders strive to find long-term pastors for stable (they call them “settled”) positions. When this becomes problematic, lay people tend to pay the price.

Let’s learn from this failure. Do not use your Mission Statement as a rigid gatekeeper in approving every congregational venture. Instead, use  it as an indicator of how you need to change.

Also realize, that the approved Mission of your congregation may not resonate with each member. Similarly, visitors to your congregation may not care at all about your mission. Most people first attend church for personal reasons. They come to be healed. They come to have their needs met.

  • Don’t expect everyone to embrace your lofty words.
  • Make sure that all the good intentions in creating a Mission do not blind you to reality.
  • Seekers coming to your door may not seem to fit into your Mission.
  • Your sense of Mission must be flexible. Otherwise, you may be a congregation with a sense of mission but no one to serve.

This can happen at every level of Church life. A congregation can go to their Regional Body and ask for help with a challenge that their neighborhood has encountered. After all, when neighborhoods change, you can expect challenges to. But it is not uncommon for the response from leaders to be some form of “That’s not in our Mission.”

What they are saying is “We don’t know how to help you.” And that’s OK, but churches and denominations must be aware of the needs and be prepared to direct people to those who can help.

Today’s Mission needs are bigger than congregations of any size! It is inappropriate to turn seekers with problems away without hope. We have to start building networks for serving. We have to start thinking in terms of team.

If a need is beyond your ability to serve, help seekers find direction. Don’t just give them a phone number. Accompany them to the agency or office that can serve them. Personally introduce them to individuals with the expertise to help. Your personal attention will build your reputation in your changing neighborhood. By personally taking part in finding help, you will strengthen your own abilities.

You Mission must be active and flexible and ideally linked to other Christians and neighborhood organizations that can help.

Start building those networks!

16 Oct 2012

A Discussion of Spirituality and Music

Here is a 50-minute talk with musician Bobby McFerrin and Public Media’s Krista Tippett. It’s long but don’t worry, it will make you happy—and allow for grace to come in.

So concentrate on listening to this or put it on while you do the dishes, but take the time to listen one way or another.

Topics include:

  • Our tendency to wait until we are “qualified” to use our skills.
  • The patriarchal vs matriarchal nature of religious tradition.
  • The roller coaster of emotion in the book of Psalms.
  • Singing the scriptures across various religious traditions.
  • The value of singing together and hymn tradition.
  • Singing as an expression of prayer.

And much more . . .

15 Oct 2012

Understanding Your Congregation

In this series on branding, we’ve talked about the benefits of considering your regional body and denomination in your branding efforts. We are about to discuss branding your congregation for outreach.

But before we do, let’s talk about the benefits of branding your congregation and its mission for your own members.

People join churches for many reasons. Often they are selfish!

  • They want to be comforted.
  • They are looking for peace.
  • They are looking for companionship or like-minded friends.
  • They need help with their marriage or with raising their children.
  • They just want to feel better about themselves and their relationship with God.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of these reasons.

Nevertheless, the Bible is pretty clear that more is expected of us. The role of church leaders is to accept people as they are and nurture their faith so that they reach beyond their personal spiritual needs and become a force which helps others find reconciliation with God and His people.

The branding strategies that you create for outreach will help your members bond in mission. It is worth the effort for no other reason.

Branding is about perception and how your members perceive themselves influences their ability to minister.

2×2 has adopted a mission to visit other congregations and learn from them. One small church we visited, clearly a family-sized church, was practicing branding. Every week they stood as one people and recited their mission statement. It had become part of their liturgy and part of the fabric of their corporate life. They didn’t have a flashy logo, grand advertising or signage, but among themselves they knew who they were and what they were about. Their self-confidence showed in their ability to welcome visitors.

Take time to work with your people to understand their expectations. This is not a 30-minute exercise. It’s takes some time to reach below the surface of people’s thinking.

This is a failing of professional church evaluators. They come to a congregation and schedule a meeting or two. They talk with the people who will show up for such a meeting, and may have an axe to grind. This is often not a representative group. The outside evaluator doesn’t know that! Their reports quote the observations of these few people. They often come out looking  selfish to outsiders. If the evaluator had taken the time to get to know the speakers, they might realize there were serious life challenges that justified a selfish outlook.

Outside consultants, especially when they are working for the denomination, not the congregation, do not take the time to do more than scratch the surface of congregational life. It is up to your congregation’s leaders, both professional and lay, to lead your congregation in self-examination.

Only then can you write your mission statement, design a logo, create an evangelism strategy or implement branding for outreach.

10 Oct 2012