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leadership

How Denominations Can Derail Your Mission Efforts

Branding When Ministry Is in Decline

Denominations are well aware that the structure of the church faces challenges. As you work on branding your ministry consider these realities. Your mission/branding efforts have the best chance for success when all leaders are on the same page.

This is not always the case and lay members are often the last to know. Leadership in changing this is likely to come from lay Christians.

Church leaders know:

  • the church is playing a smaller role in community life.
  • the traditional membership base of the Church is dwindling.
  • for the first time in history the neighborhood demographics are shifting every ten years or less.
  • the mission of the Church is to embrace all populations.

Knowing all this, church leaders are dedicated to the existing structure. Until recently, it has supported them reasonably well. Mission strategy was simple: replicate the same ministry in neighborhood after neighborhood.

Today, many of the solutions they present to their congregations are both destined and designed to fail.

Church professionals come to congregations and point out that if they think they are going to reach more people like them, they are mistaken. They elaborate on what is obvious to the people living in the neighborhoods: their neighborhoods are changing. They preach a future of gloom and act surprised when people don’t jump on board.

Meanwhile, congregations see opportunity. They live and work every day in their changing neighborhoods. Their children play and attend school with the new neighborhood children. They recognize that they need leaders with different training. Help is hard to find.

The Church as a whole has been caught unprepared. Changing an institution is more difficult than changing a congregation. The Church diverts attention from its own shortcomings by concentrating on the failings of lay people.

The temptation for denominational leaders is to facilitate failure.

Finding and training leaders for congregations facing modern changes is their job/mission, but it is difficult. It is often easier to just give up on congregations that are dealing with the toughest demographic changes.

They are squandering legacy — which has enormous value!

Denominational leaders are actually taught to neglect certain parishes and allow them to die. Using Church jargon, they assign “caretaker” pastors who, unbeknownst to the congregations, are expected to do nothing but hold the hands of the faithful until they quit, move or die.

Conflict results when the faithful do not cooperate with this undisclosed agenda. Suddenly, they are “the enemy.” The only way to spread the Gospel under this “mission plan” is to destroy the existing faith community and start fresh. This buys the denomination time. They do not have to provide ANY services while they work on a mission plan. Church doors are locked for a while (weeks, months or years) until the community forgets that a church was there. This, too, is part of the plan.

The problem with this approach, outside of it being wholly unChristian, is that it is fairly easy for the people making up the new demographic to see the Church behaving at its worse.

  • They can see the disregard for the lay efforts of their neighbors who talked to them with pride about their church.
  • They can imagine where their own commitment to any “new” church might find them in 20 years or less.
  • They will sense that they are of value to the church only as long as they can contribute.

This must be recognized. The Church which was in serious decline before the recent recession is now in severe crisis. The lure of small congregations’ endowment funds and property values is tough to pass up. It has created predatory practices that are thinly disguised as “mission.”

  • The hierarchy has no confidence in its own message.
  • Predators soon turn to questionable, selfish strategies.
  • The people who have sacrificed for ministry are expendable. If they don’t leave on their own, displace them. If they resist, sue them.

We now have enough experience to know this approach is not working. Church members, during peaceful times, are taught to believe and trust in God. It is difficult to teach allegiance to God and suddenly demand allegiance to man.

Your pastor is the first person you must convince to embrace your plan. You must appeal to the passion (which may be dormant) that led him or her to seminary in the first place.

  • Make sure your pastor knows what your leaders envision and what you expect from leadership.
  • If your pastor thinks he or she may need more training, try to set up an “internship” for a week or two with a mentor that is practicing the type of ministry you now need. You may have to go outside your denomination or region.
  • Stress that mission is the goal. Do not let any differences become personal. If you do, your regional office will have a very long memory for any resulting problems.
  • Let your pastor know that lay representatives are expected to accompany him or her on any visits with the regional office. You want to be seen as a team.

 

13 Oct 2012

A First Step in Branding: The Mission Statement

We’ve discussed the need to look over your shoulder and include your denomination’s regional offices and other congregations.

We’ve discussed how branding helps your members understand their mission.

Now you are ready for outreach to your community.

A typical starting point in any branding campaign is to craft a mission statement.

The mission of every church is defined in the Bible.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. —Matthew 28:19-20

There are other verses you can focus on, but this one encompasses a great deal.

The task of each congregation is to refine this directive in a way that will keep your people on a chosen track of implementation.

We all know how easy it is to become distracted from our mission. This is a special challenge for small congregations. We small churches are so busy putting out fires that it is easy for us to lose our way!

There is a tendency to measure all congregations against some standard that, frankly, isn’t very well-defined. It may be a typical suburban church or a church with a well-known pastor. It is never the small church — although we outnumber larger churches!

This can be a shock to a small congregation’s self-confidence. There the driving force is often a dedicated and changing staff of lay people, who juggle uncompensated mission and ministry with work lives.

In defining your mission be true to yourself. If you are a family church, concentrate on the values of a family church—the warmth, the intimacy, the ability for newcomers to assimilate quickly. If you are a pastoral church you might have an emphasis that is a “trademark” of your leadership. That might be reaching a particular ethnic group or operating a daycare program. Your mission should express whatever binds you together as a people.

Mission is a huge task and one that was never intended to be performed solo. (2×2!) The task of congregations is to answer the question How? (We’ve talked about the Why? question before.)

How will your group of people—with all the things you have going for you (taking into account your limitations)—fulfill Christ’s directive? In short:

How do you reach, how do you preach, and how do you teach?

You might start by asking each member this question. Their answers should help shape the “official” mission statement. Having been included in the process, they will own the mission.

Once a mission statement is adopted put it to work.

  • Feature it on your web site, on your stationery, and on your signage.
  • Hold a service to celebrate the adoption of a mission statement.
  • Invite several people to speak to the mission. Do this regularly!
  • Have a pin made or give out refrigerator magnets featuring your statement.
  • Make a congregational T-shirt featuring your mission. Declare T-shirt events (service projects, for example) when members should come in “uniform.”
  • Hang a banner over your door. (Outside where people can see it.)
  • Begin every service or meeting by reciting your mission together.
  • Write a press release and send it to local papers.

Keep your mission front and center.

But remember, your mission can change. Review it every few years to make sure you can still live up to its directive, and that, in focusing on it, you are not ignoring new opportunities. Actually, we live in such a fast-changing world that proclaiming a special mission emphasis each year might not be a bad idea. (Next post!)

11 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

Building Your Relationship with Your Regional Body

We’ve spent some time discussing the politics of church relations and how they related to a congregation’s branding or sense of mission.

In the business world branding and advertising go hand in hand. What can the church learn from this?

Advertising is getting the word out. Evangelism is getting the Word out.

Congregations must learn to tell their story.

We have identified that the audience is not just the current members and the unchurched in your community. A primary audience for a congregation’s branding effort is its regional body, including the regional office, its officials and governing councils and every other congregation in your denominational territory.

Why is this important? Each congregation is vying for the same professional resources. Remember a primary task of your regional body is to fit clergy pegs into congregational holes. Making your ministry known to your regional body is an investment in making sure the peg that is placed in your congregation will move you forward.

Fact: a small church’s ability to serve—or even exist—depends on its relationship with its denomination. This runs counter to how congregations think. Church members will strategize for hours, weeks and years about how to reach and serve their communities. The regional body is out of sight and mind.

Here is a rarely discussed reality. All pastors are not created equal. Your regional body must find places for poor pastors along with the great. They will place poor pastors in the churches that are of the least perceived value to the regional body. You want them to know why your ministry, however small, matters.

Small churches must take extraordinary steps to attract the talent needed to serve members and fashion a ministry that will sustain a presence in the community. (That means meet the budget.)

This is great failing of the hierarchical church. Most communication between a congregation and the regional body is among clergy. It is usually prompted by sudden need or conflict.

Regional offices notice the big things. They will notice:

  • If your church burns down.
  • If the treasurer embezzled a few thousand.
  • If the congregation receives a major bequest.
  • If the pastor is unhappy or in trouble.
  • If a congregation stops sending benevolence (They won’t ask why! They will assume you are in dire straits! You must tell them!).

Regional bodies won’t take special note:

  • When your congregation rallies to help a family with a seriously ill child.
  • When your congregation supports a local charity fundraiser.
  • Votes to supplement a staff salary package during a trying time.
  • Teaches art and music to neighborhood children in an after-school program.
  • Does any number of small initiatives to improve the faith lives of their members and reach out to the community.

Ironic! These actions are the heart and soul of ministry.

Congregations must regularly communicate these things no matter how mundane or obvious they seem. An added challenge—so much of a congregation’s work must be done anonymously. All the more reason to be intentional about what you can share—and it’s all part of branding.

A Few Action Steps

Make sure your regional leaders and any staff assigned to your region are on your newsletter mailing list. Send it in a large envelope with a cover letter pointing to your most outstanding news. Even if you’ve gone internet with your parish communications, print a few and mail them to your regional office. Don’t rely on them looking up your newsletter or website!

Send invitations to events to church leaders and the pastors and church councils of neighboring congregations. Even if they don’t come, they will be impressed. They might start talking about you in a positive way! (It’s called buzz marketing).

Schedule events worthy of attention beyond your membership. In the past, hierarchies initiated events worthy of broad interest. That doesn’t exclude congregations from taking the lead. Consider a topic. Choose a format: guest speaker, workshop, panel discussion or webinars. Such initiatives will brand your church as thought leaders regardless of size. Does this seem impossible for your small family church? Think about a presentation on the value of the family church!

Use your website to address issues that concern your congregation and others. This is another common shortcoming of congregations. Their web sites are little more than online brochures. Think beyond your property line! You will be building your image as a mission-minded congregation.

Use photos. When you hold a successful events, follow up with a card with a photo to every participant and your regional office. Personal greeting cards are great communication tools that are underused.

Insist that lay leaders be included in dialog with the regional office. It is absolutely critical that regional leaders come to know lay leaders. This will take some doing. Regional offices like to expedite all meetings. They will attempt to deal with the leaders that make their goals easy to achieve. Make sure your pastor understands that you expect your elected lay leaders to be included in the dialog.

Encountering Resistance

You may encounter resistance among your professional leadership, but it should be easy to point out that such efforts boost their image with the regional office along with the congregation’s.

The biggest obstacle is that the time and energy spent on this activity are not part of the usual pastoral routine.

But then, the “usual” doesn’t seem to be working very well these days!

08 Oct 2012

A Quote for Transformational Leaders

From Seth Godin’s Blog:

Transformational leaders don’t start by denying the world around them. Instead, they describe a future they’d like to create.

02 Oct 2012

Writing Your Congregation’s History: A Real Whodunit!

Continuing our look at the Book of Nehemiah with Pastor Jon Swanson, we note that large portions of this historical account are lists of names.

Nehemiah was a savvy leader. He was embarking upon a great work. He needed help. He rallied the support of a lot of people. He rewarded them by remembering their names and recording their contributions.

Contrast the Book of Nehemiah with the typical parish history. Our Ambassadors have had the opportunity to read many of these online. The typical parish report lists the terms of pastors and what building renovations were made during their tenure. In fact, there is an online archive of Lutheran churches which isn’t much more than that. It’s not unlike the account of Nehemiah but in Nehemiah, you can almost see the workers lugging the stones, felling the trees, sawing the wood, shouting out orders, guarding the progress, and organizing the people for mission.

Nehemiah noted the names of the lay leaders. He included their genealogy. He detailed exactly what each foreman accomplished in the overwhelming task of rebuilding the vast temple. He provided a detailed archeological survey of the site — the gates, the pools, the steps. We are standing there with him amidst the dust and rubble, watching greatness happen.

Don’t waste time. While it is still within living memory, write your parish history from the lay point of view. Who led the choir, who taught the children, who renovated the kitchen, who fixed the furnace?  Who started the food pantry or visited the sick? Were they part of a long-standing family presence or were they new to your community and congregation?

It will build your congregation’s esteem. Members will feel like part of something bigger than themselves — part of a mission that should go on and on—long after not a soul remembers who was pastor when the work was done.

Soon the readers of your history will be like the readers of the book of Nehemiah. They will see your ministry growing action by action, sacrifice after sacrifice, offering upon offering.

It may help you see your congregation as part of a great plan and help you draft a plan to move forward in mission.

22 Sep 2012

Upcoming Workshop on Conflict Transformation

Weathering the Storm or System

Yesterday, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America announced an upcoming workshop for congregations. We first saw this listed as Weathering the Storm, but notice it is now advertised as Weathering the System.

Weathering the System
October 27, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
St. John’s Lutheran Church
505 North York Road, Hatboro, PA 19040

The six-hour workshop on conflict resolution is advertised as conflict transformation.

A buzzword unused is an opportunity squandered.

How do you weather a storm?

Make sure you win! Winning, at any cost, even at the expense of mission, outranks problem-solving in today’s church leadership. As one leading businessman wrote today, “It’s because defeat and power and humiliation and money have replaced ‘doing what works for all of us.'”

Although the names of presenters are not posted, you will learn from the best. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Lutheran Church in America, has been involved in years and years of conflict. They know the ropes!

Topics within synod’s expertise include:

  • how to create and define conflict using deceit
  • intimidating the opposition
  • exploiting vulnerable volunteers
  • how to identify which volunteers to eliminate to ensure victory
  • discouraging lay involvement to assure managerial success
  • how to pit clergy against laity to maximize success
  • guidelines for effective use of inflammatory language
  • when to apply the constitutions
  • when to ignore the constitutions
  • how to use Roberts’ Rules of Order
  • how to ignore Roberts’ Rules of Order
  • isolating the opposition from the rest of the Church
  • divide and conquer: tried and true techniques to guarantee divisiveness
  • tips for withholding professional services while appearing to serve
  • demonizing your opposition
  • use of litigation as a management tool
  • ignoring facts that do not serve your purpose
  • how to use partial truths to gain popular support
  • when to lie unabashedly
  • best practices in name-calling and finger-pointing
  • how to camouflage objectives with semantics
  • use of charm and charisma to deflect attention from the issues
  • how to keep knowledgeable people from asking questions
  • when and how to declare your opponents as non-existent
  • the underestimated value and strategic use of prejudice
  • creative use of statistics
  • techniques for silencing opposition
  • maximizing the “gotcha” factor
  • when and how to ignore Gospel imperatives
  • counting coup: the proper way to celebrate victory

The announcement quotes a former participant:

“Conflict and stress are a part of life. Both can be positive. It’s all in how you deal with it.”

Don’t miss the upcoming workshop. Learn how to deal with conflict from the masters!

Update: a subsequent announcement names The Rev. Dr. Jennifer Phelps Ollikainen of Liberty Lutheran as the presenter. Liberty Lutheran is independent of SEPA Synod, so content may actually be helpful!

12 Sep 2012

Change the Dynamics of Church

Give the People A Voice

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

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

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

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

God is big enough to handle everything.

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

Church leaders speak; people listen.

This makes sense only among managers—not leaders.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

01 Sep 2012

Practicing Happiness Techniques in Worship: Part 5 of 5

Random Acts of Kindness

The last of the five steps recommended by The Happiness Advantage author, Shawn Achor is to practice random acts of kindness. 

What fun!

Achor starts by explaining that this is as simple as smiling at the person you pass on the street or in a public hallway. He recommends the 10-5 rule. Make eye contact and smile at everyone who comes within 10 feet. Greet anyone who comes within five feet of you.

He claims remarkable results. The idea was tested by a hospital. The program was implemented over the objection of doctors who considered it beneath their dignity.

The result: happiness spread—even among the doctors who resisted. Soon, the hospital gained a reputation of being a pleasant place that people chose to visit and staff opted to stay even when offered more lucrative positions elsewhere.

Similarly, there is a management technique that grew from the hotel industry. If a guest brings you a problem, you own the problem until it is solved — even if it’s not your job. This can be effective in any setting. In most grocery stores, a customer who asks where they will find the canned vegetables is told, “Uh, try Aisle 8.” In a popular grocery store, the employee (who might be stocking shelves or coming back from break) answers a customer query like this: “I’ll show you! Please follow me!” It makes a difference.

How does this apply to church life?

Our Ambassador visits reveal friendliness is harder than it sounds. Sometimes we stand as wall flowers in the church narthex as people pass by never making eye contact.

The most genuinely friendly church we visited was a small congregation, St. Michael’s in Fishtown. People greeted us on the street before we entered. Virtually every member approached us. The service had a greeting section built into the worship service. Friendliness is part of their culture.

A larger church, St. Paul’s in Ardmore, had an official greeting station, staffed by volunteers. They met us as we entered the sanctuary and even offered us a mug filled with candy as we left.

Both are good options, but one makes “friendliness” the job of a few. The other weaves it into their entire church life.

Churches of any size can be awkward at the social graces. Not just the laity! Often, pastors make no attempt to circulate during fellowship, often staying in a hallway or the sanctuary chatting with just one or two members.

Achor’s ideas might help us get over that. Start by enlisting and training leaders. Modeling by the pastor and lay leaders will go a long way to making it part of a congregation’s culture.

In addition to the personal greeting there is the power of greeting cards. Redeemer uses cards. We send about three a week. Our Ambassadors usually follow visits with custom greeting cards. Think what a card in the mail means to leaders, students, homebound or elderly.

Random acts of kindness can be so simple. In one church visited by our Ambassadors an older woman made it her duty to sit near us and guide us through the service. It was a lovely gesture.

It is tempting to list some acts of kindness, but listing them makes them self-serving and diminishes their value as spontaneous and heartfelt. Start with eye contact and a word of greeting and let kindness flow.

Remember: give it three months before evaluating!

photo credit: Nina Matthews Photography via photo pin cc (retouched)

23 Aug 2012

How Hierarchies Are Putting the Church Out of Business

Hierarchies start with the best of intentions.

  • 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.

photo credit: K e v i n via photo pin cc (retouched)
06 Aug 2012