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Mission Strategy

Measuring the Potential of Church and Ministry

Today we are witnessing the end of the Medieval Era. The Church may be the last vestige of Feudalistic Society — where communities operated, lived and served under a select group of people who protected them.

That is the model of today’s church which found its enduring structure in the Middle Ages.

Today, Philadelphia is reeling over the proclamation from Roman Catholic leaders, based on a “Blue Ribbon Commission” report, that will close or merge dozens of neighborhood parish schools. There are strong hints that this is Stage One, with church closings to be announced next year. Dangle the string in front of the mouse a bit longer.

Decisions made by church hierarchy tend to be based on their own needs and resources more than the needs and resources of neighborhoods. There was a day when loyal lay people would not venture such criticism. Yesterday’s newspapers show that day is over.

Neighborhoods are beginning to recognize that the Feudalistic Church is no longer serving their needs and mission. It is existing to protect itself. It is a bitter pill for the most dedicated church supporters. We wish it weren’t so.

Hierarchies could make changes in policies and traditions at the leadership/service end, but it’s easier to dictate change to the rank and file.

Catholics are not alone — but they are in today’s spotlight. What results from the wisdom of the Catholic leadership remains to be seen. It is likely that the decision will accelerate any existing decline.  Affected congregations will lose a core part of their ministry focus. Their loyalties will not automatically transfer to consolidated schools — the hearts and souls of people just don’t work that way. The parishes who survived will not reap a windfall in support. The Church will be weakened. People will drift. Resources will be further strained. Substantial spoils of closed churches/schools, contributed by generations of neighborhood families, will go to enrich the unyielding hierarchy.

These decisions were likely based on statistics. Statistics tend to work against lay people. They are minimally involved in either collecting or reporting data. The data recorded may mean very little in a fast-changing world.

A fresh approach might be to stop measuring the people who are there and start measuring the people who are not there. Instead of measuring the services the church provides, measure the needs of the people who are not in church. This is a very biblical approach — something every congregation talks about doing, while they are measuring and reporting useless statistics.

Think about it. . . if you measure what you have, you are valuing and protecting the status quo. The church becomes a protective organization, making decisions to hang on to things as they are and hope for slight progress doing things the same old way.

If you start measuring needs and counting the people who are not in church, you are opening your community to service, mission and outreach. It will change your focus and thinking. The Bible is full of mandates to do just that.

We just have to get as good at measuring potential as we are at measuring failure.

09 Jan 2012

How Do You Measure “Church” in A Digital Age?

The things we measure are not always the things that count.

Churches have vital statistics. Most people in the pew pay little attention to them. Pastors often pay little attention, too. Denominations have a hard time collecting parish data and sometimes they make up their own statistics.

Maybe it’s too depressing. Maybe we measure the wrong things.

Typical parish statistics include:

  • Worship attendance
  • Number of baptized/confirmed members
  • Percentage of members attending worship
  • Number of members involved in Sunday Schools and VBS programs
  • Regular giving by members
  • Endowments and property assets
  • Operating expenses and debt
  • Contributions to benevolence (what the local parish sends to the denomination)
  • Contributions to mission
  • Ethnic and racial makeup of a congregation
Little of this says anything about what a congregation does or is capable of doing in the modern world!

In most congregations, at least in the ELCA, most traditional statistics are dropping dramatically.

Some of these statistics are rather old fashioned.

Once upon a time, a parish had to give money to centralized authority to be dispersed for mission. Today, congregations can and do choose mission efforts in the community and bypass their denominations, which skews that statistic.

Operating expenses assume a pastor’s salary and property as foundational expenses. Neither may be necessary anymore.

There are many other things in a congregation that can be measured (but aren’t) and there are even more things that are difficult to measure.

If we start looking at other sources of data, our view of parish ministry might change.

Internet ministries are very measurable and can be very helpful in directing church ministry. Very few congregations bother or work only half-heartedly in a self-focused way.

2×2 concentrates on internet outreach — and we’ve only begun!

Here are some statistics on our first 10 months of internet ministry.

2×2 published its first post in February 2011. We had practically no traffic for six months. In mid-summer, we began publishing daily and the site has grown since. There was a slight dip at Christmas time but we have already recorded our most traffic ever only four days into 2012, so we expect the statistics to continue to grow — as long as we continue to work at it.

We have recorded 2100 site visits. For the last two months, 2×2 has consistently registered 100-150 views each week. We have about 70 subscribers/followers who receive our posts by email and so are not counted in site visits data. Our average daily on site readership is about 25. So it is fair to say that 2×2 has 100 daily readers.

2×2 has been visited by someone in all but three states with regular viewership in several states. We have viewers around the world with regular readership in several European countries, Canada and Australia.

We can follow our reader’s interests and provide content accordingly. 2×2 readers are most interested in Social Media and the Church and Children’s Sermons. Our articles on Multicultural Ministry were republished by a reader in Texas. The Editorial Calendar we created to correspond to the Lectionary has been downloaded dozens of times.

2×2 has a presence beyond its online ministry that is more difficult to measure (like most ministries), but in 2×2’s case, it is made all the more difficult to measure because the members of 2×2, who are also members of Redeemer, East Falls, have been excommunicated from the ELCA — without discussion or congregational vote — with the denomination claiming our property and financial assets against their own denominational rules.

Imagine what might have been accomplished if our abilities had been measured!

The church needs to take a fresh look at how they measure ministry.

04 Jan 2012

Small Churches Can Reach Out to Unaccompanied Children

Our Ambassador visits have revealed some stereo-types of small churches. We heard some professional leaders referring to them mockingly as “old-folks homes.”

Offensive as this terminology is — some congregations are aging. Unfortunately, leadership mindset sees this as the end of ministry. Pastors adopt, sometimes with the encouragement of denominational leadership, a caretaker approach to serving. There are no plans for growing the church or any reason to look for mission opportunity. They are playing a waiting game.

It may be up to the laity to turn things around.

Our ambassadors have seen some small, aging churches making the transition to becoming welcoming places for families and children. They invariably have only supply pastors or part-time professional leadership. Imagine what might happen if the leadership saw this as a door opening for ministry.

Our own church made this transition and grew from a church of seniors to a church of young families.

Our transition began when we noticed a number of children returning week after week without parents. At first a couple of girls (about aged 10) came and sat in the front row. After a few weeks, they brought an older brother (about 12). Soon they started bringing younger children.

We weren’t prepared to deal with this. That’s not the way church works! Parents bring their children to Church and Sunday School.

Things have changed!

We have noticed some similarities in other churches we visited. The early focus of our visits was the urban church. In cities, children pass the church as they walk home from school. Curiosity brings them back. Yes, their parents should accompany them. But children are playing the cards they have been dealt. They may come from homes with only one over-taxed parent. The parent may know the children have gone to church and consider it baby-sitting, or the parent may be at work unaware of that their children have turned off the TV and wandered out on their own. In the worst case, the parents may not care. In that case, the church must not turn their backs on the children because they have arrived on their doorstep in an unconventional way. Small churches with aging memberships can be particularly attractive to children who are seeking.

Young children have some things in common with older folks. They are crossing paths in life. Children are dependent growing into independence and older folks are independent growing into dependency. Young children often like the attention of seniors who can understand them in a way their parents don’t. They have time for them when their parents are preoccupied. It is validating to seniors.

Congregations can see this as a nuisance that must curtailed, or they can see it as outreach coming to them.

There are good reasons to discourage unaccompanied children.

  • They do not contribute to the offering.
  • They do not behave.
  • They are lively, energetic and strong and may seem threatening to the frail.
  • They may be there only only for donuts at fellowship.
  • Raising them is the responsibility of the parents.

Or

  • They may, in their own ways, be seeking.
  • They may enjoy the music.
  • Older children (as young as 11 or 12) may have been left in charge of yournger siblings and are following an instinct to parent them.
  • They might might feel part of a family of God when their own family is dysfunctional.
  • Raising them is the responsibility of the community of God.

Here are some first steps to take when children start coming to church by themselves.

  • Make sure an adult sits nearby, perhaps in the pew behind them.
  • Teach the church service. Pastors can give a brief explanation as your worship moves along. The adult sitting near them can whisper in their ears. “We are now going to stand to honor the reading of the Gospel that tells us about the life of Jesus Christ.”
  • Engage the children in conversation. Find out where they live and who their parents are.
  • Plan to visit their homes with the pastor. You may be hitting a brick wall, but you may find a parent receptive to help. At the very least, the parents should know with whom their children spend Sunday mornings.
  • Pray for them. Assign each child to an adult as a prayer partner. Engage the children in the prayer if possible, but they don’t need to know you are praying for them!
06 Dec 2011

6 Reasons for Pastors and Congregations to Blog


Our Ambassadors study web sites as we prepare for visits. A few have snappy web sites or adequate, static sites. Some have barely functioning web sites. A surprising number have no internet presence whatsoever.

Now and then we come across a web site that features a Pastor’s Blog. This raises our interest. Blogging is a passion of 2×2’s. We have come to expect disappointment. The blogs are often no more than a few posts, months apart, and the most recent post is often years old. The blog posts tend to be personal musings aimed at the congregation’s existing community. No wonder they ran out of steam!

Ministry opportunity is being lost! Pastors should blog. Congregations should blog. Here’s why:

  1. Blogging is team work. Maintaining and growing a blog is work that should be shared. Working together on developing a good congregational blog will help your members and leaders bond, build community, and find ministry and mission opportunities.
  2. Blogging provides direction. Blogging is a tool to help your congregation stay connected with the people you serve. Posting content several times a week is good lubrication to keep your ministry from getting rusty. You will be looking constantly for issues to address. You will meet new people and organizations. Who knows how this could impact your ministry?
  3. Blogging builds trust. Bloggers wear their hearts on their sleeves. Publishing daily in a forum where your thinking can be challenged as easily as applauded keeps your thinking grounded. Readers will notice, respect and trust that you have others’ interests at heart.
  4. Blogging helps you reach out. Blogs help seekers find you. This won’t happen with four posts a year though! You need to treat your blog with the same importance you treat the preparation of a sermon or worship service. It is likely that it will be read by many times the number of people who attend worship! (2×2 started our blog nine months ago. We now have 100-150 new readers every week!)
  5. Blogging expands your point of view. Blogs allow for interaction. Your readers can comment on the ideas you present. Commenters influence the dialogue. They may applaud your efforts; they may point you in a different direction. Good bloggers listen and respond to all legitimate comments whether they agree or not.
  6. Blogging returns us to Christ’s approach to outreach. Congregations often exist with a fairly narrow focus on the world, fashioning ministries around tradition and doctrine. Outreach efforts often focus on trying to find people who fit into the community culture as it already exists, with thinking that mirrors their own. In contrast, Christ’s approach was to build upon encounters with the least likely prospects. With disciples grumbling in the background, Christ approached lepers, the possessed, children, women, criminals, rulers, church authorities and outcasts.

There is power and momentum in blogging. It takes work, but it is work that can  bear fruit and multiply.

04 Dec 2011

10 Reasons to Question the Wisdom of Interim Ministry

Interim Ministry is a fairly modern trend of assigning a short-term minister to a parish that has recently ended a relationship with one pastor and intends to call a new pastor. The process is described in a similar manner by various denominations as a time to minister to the people and help them identify ministry objectives.

One denomination described the interim period as a buffer between a congregation and its relationship with a former pastor and expectations of a new minister. One said, “The interim minister makes the necessary changes in a congregation. No reason to have the congregation get mad at the new minister. Let the interim take the heat.”

The days of a congregation enjoying the leadership of a single pastor for decades may be numbered.

This sounds like a good idea on the surface, but there is a danger that the practice could serve less noble purposes. Our recent visits to 34 congregations found a surprising percentage engaged in some stage of interim ministry. Some were just beginning the process. Some had been in interim status for more than a year. One had a new interim at our first visit and we learned a few weeks later that another interim was stepping in. “It didn’t work out,” the newer pastor explained.

Both the number of interim ministries we encountered and their length raised questions. We do not claim to have the answers but the questions could be important.

  1. What other aspects of our lives have such long fallow periods? We change presidents and mayors, jobs (and even spouses) without months of interim work. An argument might be that presidents and mayors have long campaigns before they are chosen for their jobs. That leads us to consider the call process.
  2. Perhaps it is the call process that needs changing? With the average length of pastorates fairly short — less than seven years — an interim ministry can be a frequent occurrence, adding to instability. The scenario could be 12-18 months of interim ministry, 12 months of honeymoon, three years of ministry, 12-18 months of interim ministry, etc. (Revolving door). While pastors may feel that the interim has eased the transition process, the lay point of view is that the process starts all over again every time the face in the pulpit changes — interim or not. The call process, at least in our denomination, can be unsettling. Candidates are given every opportunity to learn about the congregation, while the names of candidates are withheld from the congregation until a sample sermon is delivered. The approval process is often based on little more — yet congregations expect so much more!
  3. Shouldn’t congregations undergo a constant process of self-examination? If ministry is to be effective, congregations will change constantly. Communities also change quickly.
  4. Shouldn’t all pastors have skills to help congregations assess goals and strategize?
  5. Does the interim process change the role of lay representatives? Who does the interim pastor report to and work for — the congregation or the regional body? In several of the churches we visited, the interim pastor announced that he or she would be making a report to the bishop that week. There was no mention of any lay involvement.
  6. Wouldn’t it be easier to train one leader to handle change than to try to work with dozens of congregation members?
  7. Is the interim process good use of congregational resources? Congregations pay good money to the interim for a very short-term investment. If this is a period where ministry concentrates on self-analysis, that translates to a long period of time when resources are spent on activity that is not, at least for the time being, outreach-oriented. Are visitors during the interim going to be attracted to a congregation in long-term transition?
  8. Do interim ministries meet the career needs of pastors and administrative needs of regional bodies more than the ministry needs of congregations? Interim pastors are making short-term commitments. Short-term commitments are safer entry points for the many seminary candidates entering ministry as a second career. Interim pastors don’t have to consider the hassles of moving and relocating families. It’s an attractive opportunity for pastors who don’t want to make changes in their lives that may not match the career objectives of their spouses. But the congregations are expected to change!
  9. Do interim pastorates change the political balance? An overlooked consequence of the over-dependence on interim pastors is the shift of power away from the congregation. Interim pastors have close ties and loyalty to the denominational body and its current leadership. When a high percentage of congregations have interim ministries, that has the potential to skew the decisions of representative governing bodies.
  10. Why should the interim process, led by experts in interim ministry, take more than three months?
21 Nov 2011

Calls to Action Are Nothing New to Christianity

A Call to Action helps your reader take the next step.

As you get comfortable with blogging you will want to start creating more interactivity with your readers. If you want interaction, you’ll have to ask for it. That’s where the Call to Action comes in.

Calls to Action are so important to the business world that they have their own acronym (CTAs).

You see them every day in advertising: “Call 1-800 . .,” “Send $24.95 to  . . . .” 

Typically, advertisers try to create a sense of urgency — a reason for people to take action NOW! They know that people need incentive to get off their backsides and do something. And so you see the warnings! “Act now. Offer ends July 4.” “Supply is limited.” 

This is not new thinking to Christians. Our whole faith is built on Calls to Action: “Follow me,” “Come and see,” “Do Unto Others . . . ,” “Love one another.” The challenge to the modern church is to translate biblical Calls to Action to reach modern Christians or seekers.

How do you create Calls to Action on your web site or blog?

Again, you see CTAs on web sites every day. “Click here,” “Download,” “Submit,” or “Enter.”

Churches can use the same tools. The goal is engagement with others and growth in Christian community.

Pace yourself as you build your community’s engagement and trust. 

Your CTAs should be stepping stones to involvement in your community. Help people move from the anonymity of cyberspace to “what’s in it for me?” participation to “how can I help?” commitment. In other words, watch your interactions with your readers grow from anonymous participation to sharing an email, to providing a name and eventually a physical presence.

Here’s a plan described in tiers or levels of engagement:

Your first-tier or introductory Call to Action might simply be to pose a question at the end of your blog article.

  • “What do you think?”
  • “Can you recommend a resource?”
  • “Share your experience.”
  • “Do you know anyone who can benefit from this idea?”
At this level of engagement, your only goal is to get people thinking about their involvement.

A second-tier Call to Action might be to provide a way for people to answer those questions on line with a comment box. Another possibility is to engage readers in a simple poll. Blogging software makes this easy. Limit your poll to one question and suggest just a few possible answers. It allows your readers to test the water. There is no risk. They are not sharing any personal information with you. Keep it fun. Everyone wants to know how their ideas stack up to others. Report the results of the poll in an entertaining way.

A third-tier Call to Action might be to offer something for download. 2×2 offers the Editorial Calendar for example. You can have this information offered freely (as 2×2 does) or you can ask for information when they download and begin to create an opt-in email relationship.

A fourth-tier Call to Action might be to interest readers in some action that requires a bit more initiative from your readers. Tele-evangelists, for example, often ask for prayer requests.

  • Sign up for our Walk for Hunger.
  • Volunteer to work in the Food Pantry or Thrift Shop.
  • Join our Prayer Chain.
  • Join our youth on their Mission Trip to New Orleans.
  • Attend our workshop on Autism.

A fifth-tier Call to Action asks for information and offers something of value in return for the information (an incentive). Do not ask for more information than you need. An email address may be enough. A physical address might be desirable. Keep in mind that the less information you require, the more comfortable it is for readers to participate and the higher the response. If all you need is a name and email address — that’s all you should ask for.

  • RSVP for Our Community Thanksgiving Dinner by November 1 and receive a beautiful Advent Calendar. (Blogging software will allow you to create the form.)
  • Sign up for Hunger Walk by October 15 and receive a free T-Shirt at the starting line.
We’ll explore the nuts and bolts of how to create and use CTAs in a future post.
16 Nov 2011

Our Once and Future Church

Today’s Alban Institute Weekly Forum builds on the re-release of the books written in the 1990s by its founder and president emeritus, Dr. Loren Mead. The Once and Future Church (1991), Transforming Congregations for the Future (1994), and Five Challenges for the Once and Future Church (1996) tackle the very issues our sponsoring congregation, Redeemer Lutheran Church, has been facing since 1998.

None of our members was a scholar of his work at this time. We were just lay members working at what we believed was our mission. As we review the five challenges Mead poses for the church, we find remarkable similarities to the direction our congregation took — without leadership pointing the way but with dedicated lay people grappling, uncompensated and unrecognized, with issues as big as worldwide church.

Our discipleship has not been without cost. We have suffered both as community and as individuals. Most of the time we found ourselves very much alone. The church as a whole was struggling, its denominational leadership was struggling, its individual congregations — large and small — were counting every penny. Our small church was deemed insignificant.

Mead writes:

For now, here are the five challenges I see we have ahead of us: 

  • To transfer the ownership of the church. 
  • To discover new structures for the church. 
  • To discover a passionate spirituality. 
  • To make the church a new community and source of community. 
  • To become an apostolic people. 

Redeemer deals with each of these issues:

  • We insist that the ownership of our community rests in the congregation. Our constitution and church polity agree with our position. But this has been of no protection. When assets are coveted, governing documents are quickly rewritten in the minds of church leadership. Clergy serving us disappeared with little or no notice or explanation. We were eventually evicted from our property. This was intended to be a final blow. Our denomination even predicted publicly that within six months, our congregational identity would die. 26 months later our congregation still meets weekly and has found new ways to serve which do not rely on property or professional leaders. 
  • Left without a building to support, we began creating a new congregational structure which reached out to other congregations, denominations and the spiritually minded with no church affiliation. How fortunate that the world was never more prepared for this type of outreach!
  • We discovered within ourselves a spirituality we didn’t know we had when we were passive pew-sitters, receptors of our clergy’s sense of spirituality. A foundation was quickly laid for the development of dormant leadership skills.
  • We embraced outreach tools that the church as a whole has been very slow to use to anywhere near full potential. Within months we found that our community potential was worldwide.
  • We work now to create an apostolic presence using modern tools.

Mead goes on to write:

“We need to recognize that a classic conflict of interest is at work here. Clergy-dominated institutions make many decisions in which clergy have a direct stake: salaries and job security, for example—sometimes involving prestige and preference. In our society we generally feel that institutions that nurture “conflict of interest” frequently make bad policy—policy that supports the welfare of those with the conflict of interest not the welfare of the entire institution.”

Mead calls for more dialog between clergy and laity. He cautions that dialog must be entered into with equal respect among participants. This, Redeemer has found, has been impossible. The conflict we have faced has been fought for four years with virtually no dialog and no foundation for mutual respect. Power, not mission, was central to the conflict from the outset.

Mead’s books were rightfully acclaimed when they were published. As they are re-released in a single volume for a new generation of church leaders, we can only ponder why his respected advice has been so strongly resisted by the readers who once found his thinking so ground-breaking.

We hope for a new generation who can not only applaud his wisdom but also apply it!

14 Nov 2011

Why Small Churches Are Ideal for Multicultural Outreach

2×2 is polishing the crystal ball. Looking into the future, we see the small urban church as having the best potential to implement multicultural ministry.

Here are the reasons why:

  • Location, location, location 
    Small churches sit in the middle of changing neighborhoods. If multicultural ministry is the goal, the church needs to be where the cultures are!
  • Heritage
    Small churches remain close to their heritage which often had their roots in immigrant ministry. Suburban churches are likely to have had a later historic start and missed that experience.
  • Size
    Smaller groups of people make it easier for newcomers to become involved in influential ways more quickly. They will not be lost in a crowd.
  • Ability to Adapt
    Small groups can change more easily and quickly with the right leadership. There are fewer minds to change. Leaders are easy to identify and motivate.
  • Personal Touch
    Guests stand out in a small church. Visitors readily greet them. This has been very pronounced in our Ambassador visits. Smaller churches meet and greet — before church, sometimes during church, and after church. Medium-sized churches often assume somebody else knows you and may say hello. Larger churches have an invitation to sign the guest book printed in the bulletin.

Small Churches Have the Best Shot of Leading the Way — Except

  • Many small urban churches are targeted for closure.
  • Their ministries have often been neglected with minimal professional leadership provided. Leaders are often assigned as “caretakers,” waiting for congregations to get discouraged and close. While they are providing “palliative care” the neighborhoods around them are changing with no outreach efforts attempted.
  • Interim ministries (the new normal) slow the process of change. While congregations are in a year or more of evaluation/assessment limbo, neighborhoods keep changing. When the congregation finally calls a pastor, they are starting over once again with probably another year before outreach can be attempted. That’s two years of a congregation’s history and resources spent focusing on relationship with a pastor — not outreach. With an average length of pastorate being just a few years, that’s a high percentage of a congregation’s time and resources focused on self.
  • Often, resources are depleted during years of maintaining a status quo and doing NO outreach. People are afraid to spend money, attempting to preserve assets for their current ministry as long as possible.
  • Assets of small neighborhood churches are sometimes eyed by the denomination.
  • Attitudes toward small churches, fostered by hierarchy, make them unpopular places for clergy to seek calls. What energetic pastors want to hold the hands of a congregation that has been labeled caretaker ministries with closure in the near future?

If denominations want to advance multicultural ministry, they must take a fresh look at the neighborhoods where multicultural ministry is most needed and find ways to make ministry possible.

The first challenge to the Church is to reverse the negative attitudes towards small churches as not worth the attention of church leaders. These attitudes squander the resources available for multicultural ministry.

This type of ministry requires special training. Seminaries must stress evangelism skills. The current scenario many small churches face is pastors who charge the laity to do this outreach. The laity have even less training than pastors! This is not working!

New ideas for teaming ministry talent (both lay and clergy), church agencies and resources must be explored.

Failure to address these conditions over the course of many years has created distrust between congregations and regional bodies. Reports from church consultants and online polls are consistently close in numbers. According to them, two thirds of church members have lost confidence in their denominational leaders with an additional 10% or more not sure. This should set off the sirens among leadership circles, but they have been slow to recognize the problems.

Rebuilding trust is a good place to start.

11 Nov 2011

13 Ways to Prepare Your Congregation to Welcome Other Cultures

The success of your Multicultural Ministry begins with preparing your people. You are entering uncharted waters and your people want to know what lies ahead.

People need time to adjust to new ministry initiatives. Expect apprehension.

Recognize that faith is not constant. It is likely that you have members that are in various stages of their individual faith journeys. Faith wavers with age and circumstance. Faith is precious and needs to be nurtured and protected.

  • Youngest children have the strongest faith. They rely on everyone else for survival.
  • Some are confident of their value to the church. They are healthy and prosperous enough that they know their position in the “society” of church is secure.
  • Others may still feel like newcomers and be unsure of their ability to contribute to the ministry. They are weighing what their investment should be in a new direction. They haven’t quite grasped the old direction!
  • Others may feel threatened. Once they were strong leaders in the church but are beginning to step back. Your congregation’s new direction may have them wondering if there will still be a church they recognize when they most need comfort and support.

Change must be implemented in ways that are not threatening and which can be sustained. Unless you want your congregation to become a revolving door of new members — attracted by a fleeting special initiative and gone with the next new initiative — you must prepare your congregation.

Here are important steps to take as you begin your outreach.

  1. Make sure your pastor is comfortable with the outreach initiative. Ask what help or additional training he or she may need. There are few pastors trained in multicultural ministry. It is as new to them as it is to many lay people.
  2. Work with your governing board long before you take plans to the congregation. You need their full support.
  3. Involve as many as possible in creating a plan. When people are part of change they have less to fear.
  4. Get support staff on board. Your church musicians may have to learn some new music. Your visiting team may need coaching.
  5. Remind members of scriptures that charge us to minister to all the world. Hold a special Bible Study. If people won’t come to a Bible Study, build the elements of the Bible Study into worship and other areas of church life.
  6. Address fears and concerns. Make sure that your current members know that their spiritual needs are still important.
  7. Educate. As you develop your plans and decide what groups in your community you hope to serve, help your members learn about the cultures you will encounter. Invite someone to speak. Recommend books. Point members to helpful web sites. Learn music from other cultures. Have a congregational dinner featuring food from the culture. Take whatever time you need to prepare your current members for change. (The children’s sermon is a good tool for change. Everyone is listening while you talk to the children! Teach the children and you will teach the adults.)
  8. Do not abandon your current culture. Make sure favorite hymns and observances remain prominent in the life of your congregation. Add new things. Don’t replace old things. As stated before, you will know when to mothball the old. No need to force it.
  9. Make it fun. If a foreign language is involved, teach a new phrase a week. You can make this part of your Facebook and Twitter initiatives.
  10. Answer questions immediately. Address negative comments immediately. Failure to do this can scuttle your mission project and allow discontent to spread. If you use Social Media, monitor it and respond to both positive and negative comments. Supporters will be encouraged. Those with doubts will know they are being heard.
  11. Make friends with leaders in the culture you hope to serve. Invite them to participate in a project, so that members make friends a few at a time.
  12. Use inclusive language at all times. Remember as you use Social Media that everybody can take part — your existing congregation and the people you want to reach. It will benefit your mission if you keep your multicultural outreach from becoming “us and them.”
  13. Love one another.
10 Nov 2011

Evangelists Can Learn from Marketers

Have you noticed that the business world has adopted words commonly used in the religious world? Companies once hired spokespeople. Now the job title is “evangelist” (for example, Guy Kawasaki, former evangelist for Apple).

The business world also talks about a successful sale as a “conversion.”

Church evangelists can learn a great deal from modern marketing. Marketing and evangelism share many of the same goals. They can also share the same strategies.

The hottest trend in marketing goes by several names: Inbound Marketing, Relationship Marketing and Content Marketing are just a few. These three emphases fit beautifully into any church’s evangelism program.

INBOUND MARKETING

In a nutshell, Inbound Marketers make lots of helpful information available to everyone for FREE, using blogs and websites, coupled with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn networking tools. While sharing their expertise, they gain authority. When people are ready to buy, they think of the people who were so helpful to them on the web. This marketing technique is tailor-made for Church Evangelists. Help people and they will come to you.

This marketing specialty grew from the modern challenge salespeople faced. As a people, we once were amenable to the knock on the door, the cold call, or chatting it up with visiting sales reps in the company cafeteria. Today we are security conscience. We ban solicitation, check Caller ID before answering the phone, and we do not allow anyone to enter our work space without passing security.

Marketers looked for new ways to get their message/product before potential customers. They used modern tools and technology to attract interest. It is a breath of fresh air for the business world. They no longer feel like nags. They refer to the old days (just a few years ago) as the days of “Interruption Marketing.” They are glad they are no longer distracting irritants. They know that the people they talk to are already interested in their message.

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING

Companies don’t want to work harder than they have to. Finding new customers is more work than keeping old ones. Businesses look for ways to stay in contact with their customers and continue to serve them long after the initial transaction. This can begin on the web. Some of it will rely on other strategies which we will discuss in later posts. Churches must learn from relationship marketers. It will help them be better Christian witnesses.

CONTENT MARKETING

Content Marketing is related to both Inbound Marketing and Relationship Marketing. Content is the helpful information you provide for FREE that attracts people to your message or product. Churches of any size can do this. It is a redirection of energy, but it is a potentially powerful evangelism tool. Provide helpful advice, meaningful thoughts, valuable information, and show that you care. People will notice and begin to build a relationship with you.

Churches must consider implementing these outreach techniques. It requires work and retooling ministry concepts, but these new methods can be very effective. It is not enough for congregations to be witnesses for Christ. They must be effective witnesses for Christ. That means looking for strategies that will make a difference in people’s lives and in the life of your congregation.

The above chart reveals 2×2’s web site’s pattern of growth. This is a project of a very small congregation. We began using Inbound Marketing techniques in February when we launched this blog. We took a few months to learn the ropes. In mid-summer we began following best marketing practices. We slowly started adding content more regularly (now daily). We monitored the statistics. Weekly, we saw interest growing. Today we expect to welcome our 1000th site visitor (almost all within the last four months!). We are averaging close to 30 new visitors every day. We’re not sure where we are going, but we are following a plan that seems to be appreciated. Thanks to all readers. We encourage you to start your own web ministry. We’ll be glad to help.

06 Nov 2011