Lutheran Synod Embraces Marketing Advice

A newsletter from the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (SEPA) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) today begins with a quote from futuristic thinker, Seth Godin.

There is the mistake of overdoing the defense of the status quo, the error of investing too much time and energy in keeping things as they are.

And then there is the mistake made while inventing the future, the error of small experiments gone bad.

We are almost never hurt by the second kind of mistake and yet we persist in making the first kind, again and again.”

Words of wisdom. Except that SEPA has shown no inclination to follow them. Their decisions tend to be status quo-oriented at best—and remarkably retro overall.

Of course, we live in an age that if an idea is ten years old it is ancient. The playbook SEPA followed in East Falls was written in 2001.

Redeemer’s Ambassadors have visited 54 churches and we see the same ministry plan with few variations in most of them.

SEPA’s vision:

• You will have a congregation led by a pastor which we will choose for you—but we will pretend it is your call —because that’s the church way.
• You can worship any way you like, but if you aren’t celebrating communion weekly, you are just not with it.
• Accepted worship innovations include drums and an audio-visual screen.
• Your budget will maintain your building and pay for a pastor, organist, choir director, sexton and church secretary. If money allows, your next hires will be a youth or visitation pastor. That’s the church way. Employing clergy is your major missional purpose.
• Your mission efforts will coordinate with our mission office (keeping us employed as well). Otherwise, any success will not count and your ministry will be judged as uncooperative
• Your ministry will be supported by offerings from a dwindling number of supporters in a volatile economy. That’s the church way. Go ahead. Keep trying. We’ll wait a reasonable amount of time before we celebrate your failure. Pastoral help? Sorry, no one is available.
• When at last our prediction of your poor ministry potential comes true, we will make sure any remaining assets benefit synod.

Redeemer’s members, most of whom are entrepreneurial in their private lives, determined that we had to have a different kind of ministry. We had worked with Synod’s plans for a decade. Some showed promise, but SEPA’s support for their own proposed ministry plans was self-serving and ephemeral. The interim pastor we agreed to call for 18 months was recalled by Bishop Almquist after three months. He was needed in Bucks County. The covenant we signed with Epiphany was broken with the support (and to the benefit) of SEPA.

Redeemer’s vision:

• Relying on offerings will guarantee failure. Providing pastoral needs as a priority will deplete resources with no measurable benefit.
• Serve the community with profit center ministries.
• Use the educational building to operate a community day school (with religious instruction) which might also reach the neighboring public school. Projected revenue $6000 per month.
• Invest the skills of members in ministry that would serve the immigrant community while generating income. Projected revenue $10,000 per month (anticipated to grow with experience).
• Experiment with social media, sharing ideas and potentially creating an income stream. Projected revenue within two years ($1000 per month with much more potential).

So Redeemer set about reinventing its ministry. Redeemer presented a detailed plan to Bishop Burkat who never reviewed it with us before (or after) announcing her plans to close our church. No questions, no answers, no complaints, no discussion, no congregational vote — just a declaration of closure. SEPA had a six-figure deficit clouding its vision. Redeemer, on the other hand, was living within its means.

Redeemer was willing to take calculated risks with its own resources for the benefit of its own ministry. Redeemer asked nothing of SEPA except their approval of the pastor we hoped to work with and who was entirely qualified and agreeable to the plan. He disappeared after a private meeting with Bishop Burkat. He resurfaced with an interim call to good old Bucks County.

While reinventing our future, we were willing to make mistakes along the way and planned for careful monitoring to maximize success. We set about our new ministry by rallying the support of members, involving them in the planning and shaping of their own ministry.

Outsiders, with no interest in our assets, have commented that we were doing a pretty good job. (Some of them were Lutheran!)

But status quo SEPA, facing its own murky future, decided that they had better plans for Redeemer’s assets. And so there has been no SEPA-sponsored ministry in East Falls in four years—Redeemer’s assets serving no ministry purpose. A legacy of distrust growing daily.

Meanwhile, Redeemer continues as much of its ministry as we can, under hateful conditions, while SEPA uses our resources to sue us.

If only SEPA had come across Seth’s words of wisdom before they fouled the baptismal waters in East Falls.

Looking for Success in the Wrong Places

As it struggles, the Church tends to misidentify success. They look at the largest dozen or so churches that attract larger numbers. They can still afford a few pastors and a staff. Careful analysis will show that the larger churches are also struggling. It just isn’t as noticeable. So their “success” is emulated.

We are emulating failure.

The Small Churches and Laity Are Pivotal to Change

The ideas that are going to change the Church are most likely to come from the laity in the smallest churches. (Tweet)

Small churches are keenly aware that complacency endangers ministry. Most small churches have strong lay leadership. Synod shows no interest in serving them. It’s a waiting game. A death watch.

If SEPA Synod is sincere in wanting to foster innovation, they must turn to their smallest congregations and work WITH them.

Here’s why the laity are key to innovation.

• Lay people do not rely on the approval of hierarchy for their career trajectory. They are more likely to take innovative risks.
• Lay people tend to circulate among other churches, religions and denominations — fodder for creative ideas.
• Lay people are dedicated to the church and the neighborhoods where they live. They have no plans to move on to a bigger church in seven years.
• Lay people provide the funds that support ministry. They care about how THEIR offerings are spent.
• Lay people collectively bring the wisdom of many disciplines to the Church. Clergy get similar training in whatever seminary they choose.
• Lay people serve with no expectations of reward or credit.

It’s a good thing. We rarely get it.