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Mission Strategy

A Pastor’s Secret Transformation Weapon

The Children’s Sermon As Catalyst

A pastor may think that a children’s sermon is a waste of time. The children might be better off somewhere else, engaged in age appropriate activities.

The children’s sermon time is so much more. It is a golden opportunity to introduce change to your congregation.

Many pastors do little more than talk at the children—a watered down “trailer” of the 20-minute version about to come.

It is painfully obvious in many cases that the pastor has little experience talking to children. All those years of seminary study so you can expound to five-year-olds!

The children’s sermon is a time when you can communicate to everyone. Many adult Christians have not been well-schooled in church matters. This is an opportunity to not only reach the children but to review basic church teachings without “talking down” to the adults.

You can experiment in the few minutes you spend with the children. Few will object. It is a chance to create the experience modern worship so desperately needs—something that people will remember and talk about when they go home and off to work.

In the business world, this is called creating a “remarkable” experience. Business people know that their best advertisers (evangelists) are customers (congregants). They aim to provide the best service possible so that the customer/congregant talks about his or her experience.

Most worship services are fairly predictable in format and even in content. They are no doubt meaningful to the congregants, but few are anything anyone will talk about during the week or even remember a few days later. (Quick! What hymns did you sing in church last week?)

More people will be tuned in for a ten-minute children’s lesson than for the full 20-minute version. Use this opportunity to create a “remarkable” experience.

This is a pastor’s opportunity to introduce change without objection. Congregants may not even notice that the praise song you taught the children last week is the sermon hymn this week.

The children’s sermon is an excellent opportunity to introduce media, teach the kids (and adults) to move in liturgical dance, practice a new prayer technique, read a story or poem, or perform a little drama. Don’t put a stopwatch on the activity. Some sermons may be five minutes long. But if people are engaged, milk the moment.

Here is a list of guidelines.

  • Don’t treat the adults as passive bystanders. Engage them in music, question and answers, or other activities. Enlist their help. They will be more likely to step up to help the children then if you asked them to do something for their peers. Ask a choir member to lead or teach a new song, for example. Or have an usher explain what happens to the coins the children put into the offering plate. It will strengthen your congregation’s sense of community.
  • Don’t be afraid of repetition. Kids love it. Adults learn from it, too.
  • Don’t be afraid of interaction. Throw out a question to the adults. Better yet, have the children ask questions. Imagine one of your older members telling the story at work: “In church yesterday, a little girl asked me a question . . . .” 

It’s all about story-telling. We all love to tell the story. The children’s sermon can be the vehicle for congregational story-telling. And this can lead to transformation.

photo credit: Jenn Durfey via photo pin cc
07 Sep 2012

Why Don’t More Churches Blog? Answer 2!


Here’s another answer to the question “Why don’t churches blog?”

Church leaders don’t understand the reach and impact of the internet or the new definition of community.

Congregations, by tradition, are geographically bound. For several decades, congregations which had support from people who lived some distance from the church building were criticized. Membership was considered “scattered.” The regional or centralized church didn’t care about this as long as offerings were flowing, but if there were any signs of fiscal trouble, a “scattered” congregation was in trouble with its judicatory.

Geography is no longer as important as it once was. There are definite benefits to physical community, but it is not the sole criterion.

Community is a group of people with common interests. People, today, are discovering people with common interests all over the world. Just because this was not possible from 35 A.D. to 1985 A.D. doesn’t mean it has no value in 2012 A.D.

Recognizing that the Church and its sense of community has changed WILL redefine Church and its structure of support and service.

2×2 is on the frontline exploring this new definition of Church. We are learning every day. Our effort, barely 18 months old, has taken our ministry to places we never imagined.

Our regional office considers us “scattered and diminished” and worthless.

Scattered? Not when they made this claim, but today, maybe. But now it doesn’t matter!

Diminished, not at all. 2×2 (Redeemer) is reaching more people every week than it ever reached on a weekly basis at any time in its history. We can prove it!

Some contacts are fickle accidents. Others are developing into true friendships. That’s really not so different than the neighborhood church that reaches many visitors with only a small percentage actually joining.

We made all of these connections by blogging daily on diverse subjects, analyzing the wealth of online data, and producing content that answered the needs revealed in search engine data.

We did it on a shoestring budget — less than $100 per year. We followed our own members’ interests and talents.

We’ve only just begun. We’re here to help and serve.

Contact us if you need help developing an online ministry.

05 Sep 2012

Niche Churches — Hmmm!

This is from a blog by the Rev. Larry Peters, a Lutheran pastor from Tennessee. He was commenting on the writings of Terry Mattingly.

If churches want to reach millions of independent-minded young Americans they should learn a thing or two from craft brewers. . . . It’s time, he said, for “craft churches” that reach niche audiences.

This is an astute observation. Small churches have been serving niches for some time.

Our Ambassador visits reveal that most churches, large or small, serve a niche, but probably with little intent!

The largest church we visited (non-Lutheran and twice the attendance of the largest Lutheran church we visited) was a congregation of 25-35-year-olds.

Birds of a feather . . .

Small churches know their niche. Any intention of being all things to all people, though tempting, is out of reach. Even if people wanted that kind of ministry, (and most mission statements sound like they do!), finding leadership is daunting.

Church leaders often view small churches as failures—undesirable places for pastors to serve. Part of this is economics. All churches must rise to the same budget expectations, which in the modern era have priced many communities out of the faith business. Pastors assigned to small churches often view their role as care-taking, never bothering with outreach. Some even use the offensive term “hospice ministry.”

Perhaps it’s time to seriously examine the economics of church.

People will make their church home where they can see their offerings and efforts at work. They will neither participate nor attend a church where they do not feel fully welcome.

We at Redeemer know the difference between being welcome to attend church and being welcome to participate. Our bishop made it clear that we are not welcome to participate in SEPA Synod. She seized our property and pledged to close our church and reopen it under new leadership. She wrote to us that current members could attend this new, improved Lutheran church but former members would not be permitted to participate. She unilaterally denied us vote or voice. When we started visiting churches she sent a letter to pastors warning them!

How’s that for a welcome statement!

Redeemer was welcoming East African immigrants who were moving into our community—not just to use our building, which is the more common outreach approach, but to join their traditions with ours. We saw our unique niche ministry as adding to the mosaic of the greater church.

But SEPA was determined that one population had to die before a new population could be fully welcomed. As Bishop Burkat said, “White Redeemer must be allowed to die, black Redeemer . . . we can put them anywhere.” Control of assets was the objective.

Religion is not supposed to be a spectator sport.

Part of the problem with niche ministries is that few pastors are trained to serve niche populations.

Defining a niche (while recognizing the likelihood that niches will change every decade or so) may not be such a bad idea. It will take decades to recognize and train leaders to actively serve niche ministries and not view them as “hospice” assignments.

Another problem with niche ministries is that the “niches” that are most in need (the ones the Bible talks about), often can’t support them.

The true mission of the church is defeated by cost—at least with today’s budget and funding expectations.

Meanwhile, rejected and criticized by our denomination, Redeemer has created a niche ministry. You are visiting it now. Today, two months into our third year, we are reaching more people every week than the largest church in our denomination’s local region. We are just getting started.

photo credit: Grant MacDonald via photo pin cc
29 Aug 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

Practicing Happiness Techniques in Worship: Part 1 of 5

Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage recommends five practices to help foster happiness.

  1. Start each day with “praise and thanksgiving.” Recognize three unique things for which you are grateful.
  2. Write a journal entry daily about something that brought you happiness.
  3. Exercise. 10 minutes per day.
  4. Meditate. 2 minutes per day.
  5. Practice random acts of kindness.

To start, choose just one and practice it religiously for 21 days, he says. It will make a difference.

Applying these ideas to church life may be a key to the “transformation” process which church leaders find so elusive! 

The daily part is hard to manage since Church people rarely gather daily. Find a way to make it a congregational habit. Use your web site to encourage members to take daily initiative personally.

Let’s start with Number 1:
Praise and thanksgiving.

Achor’s advice is start each day identifying three things worthy of praise and thanksgiving.

This should be a cinch for church people.

Redeemer, totally unaware of Achor’s research, began worship with a Praise section, which typically included a nonbiblical but religious reading, some art and the singing of a couple of praise hymns (old and new) before launching the liturgy.

Try this. Start your worship service by asking the congregation to name things for which they are thankful. You might even write them on a flip chart. Follow their list with a prayer and praise hymn (or two). (Beats a lengthy list of announcements!) Try singing hymns a capella or use minimal accompaniment. It is more intimate and develops a congregation’s “ear.” Lay people can lead this section of worship, developing congregational leadership skills.

Liturgies often begin with the confession and absolution, but there shouldn’t be anything innately wrong with a praise prelude performed by the entire congregation. If it won’t work in your tradition, insert the praise section after the absolution.

Use repetition.

Short hymns of praise can be repeated. Most modern praise hymns lend themselves to repetition as they typically have few verses.

Repetition goes against the short attention span of Americans, but it can be meaningful if practiced with enthusiasm. Repetition in worship has a long tradition (chanting, mantras).

Little children love repetition. Songs bring them joy! They haven’t yet learned stoic restraint! Redeemer practiced repetition during our children’s section of worship. If the children enjoyed a song. We sang it two or three times and the children returned to their seats pumped! Soon the adults were repeating hymns in Bible study!

Take requests!

Involve people in their own praise experience. Leaders will learn something about their congregations!

Give it time!

Try this for three months before evaluating.

According to Achor, implementing this one habit will be transformational, improving optimism and increasing success rates.

Please share any ideas you have for how to regularly offer praise and thanksgiving as a congregational transformational tool.

Here’s a quick recap.

  1. Begin every worship service with a praise section.
  2. Ask for praise “offerings” from the congregation. List them.
  3. Use hymns, poetry, prose, and art to enhance praise.
  4. Make the worship as organic as possible, coming from the people.
  5. Use minimal accompaniment.
  6. Don’t be afraid to repeat parts of worship that seem to be especially meaningful at the moment.
  7. Involve people in worship. Take requests.
19 Aug 2012

What’s Missing from the Church? Emotion

“We are not thinking machines that feel;
rather, we are feeling machines that think.”

—Antonio Damasio

What does it take to mobilize a congregation?

The answer to this question is elusive. It is usually answered with formulaic responses presented by distant church leaders, many of whom have limited hands-on pastoral experience.

  • Get a good pastor. (Definition of this is never clear).
  • Write a mission statement. (The push to have mission statement is now a decade or more old. Has it made a difference?)
  • Target certain demographics. (Rather exclusive!)

Sometimes these approaches work. Not usually.

A congregation will not be mobilized until it feels. Emotion is fuel for action.

People don’t act based on the analytical part of their brains. They act based upon the emotional parts of their brains. In head vs heart, heart wins.

Churches are not good at handling emotion. Emotions can be so messy!

The cerebral approach permeates church life. We tend to turn up our noses at more demonstrative styles of worship. Soon, even hymns of joy are sung cerebrally, with every nose in the congregation buried in the hymnal!

Pastors are often cerebral in their approach to ministry. They are trained to read and analyze scripture. Applying that training to action is s rarer skill.

To appeal to the emotional is daring and dangerous, but it is the only way to get a congregation moving.

Congregational leaders must find ways to help worshipers feel again.

Too often in its history, the Church has relied on two emotions: FEAR and GUILT.

And we wonder why people stay away!

Here are some emotions that could change your congregational life for the better.

LOVE is powerful. Love is a verb. It is easy to talk about love and do nothing.

ANGER is a powerful emotion. Make sure anger is directed in unselfish ways, but don’t be afraid to encourage appropriate anger.

HOPE is an emotion. Hope is lost if people come to church week after week and nothing happens.

JOY is a powerful emotion. It demands expression. Foster joy. People are eager to come together when they can expect true joy. (View the boychoir video in the last post. Those boys come faithfully to rehearsals because they are encouraged to express joy. Compare the faces of the boy singers to the faces of the typical church choir!)

Warning! A church that takes an emotional approach to mission will experience conflict. It goes with the territory. Conflict, well-managed, can be a good thing. Both the Old and New Testaments are infused with conflict. If transformation is to be more than a buzzword, it must be expected, respected and embraced.

Learn to foster emotions—and the conflicts that go with them. Be prepared to use the dynamics of emotion to teach, motivate and change lives — including your congregation’s life!

16 Aug 2012

Restoring Trust in the Church (for the first time in a long time)

Building on a post by Lou Hoffman in “grow”—which builds on the thinking of Mark Schaefer.

The headline grabbed the attention of this Yankee.

Adopting the Piggly Wiggly View of Social Media

Piggly Wiggly? Isn’t that the grocery store in the movie, Driving Miss Daisy?

Piggly Wiggly, as a little research reveals, was the first self-service grocery store. Very few people are alive today that remember any other kind!

Back in 1917, an entrepreneur set out to change things. In those days, if you wanted a bag of flour, you walked into the local grocery with your own wicker basket and stepped up to a counter. The clerk fetched a bag of flour from behind the counter. You went down your list with the clerk turning to collect your desired items from the shelf and assembling your order on the counter before filling your basket and accepting your coin.

Clarence Saunders got rid of the counter. He stacked shelves with food and allowed customers to roam around and choose groceries themselves. He put prices on each item and provided a cart with wheels so you could buy more items, more easily. Revolutionary!

He met with resistance. All innovators do!

Stockholders feared customers would rob them blind. Sure, there are shoplifters, but for the most part, we all go to the grocery store today and select our own food.

Learn from this, Church. Get over your fear; trust the people.

Trust is not really very common n the Church. Much of Church tradition grew from distrust.

This is regularly displayed in the presentation of the Eucharist. One common method requires clergy to be the only hand to touch the host, placing the bread in the mouths of parishioners like a parent bird. The custom grew from the Church’s lack of trust in her people. If you allow peasants to touch the host they might not eat it like they are supposed to.

When trust is absent, control steps in. With control comes power. Power is a hungry beast that needs regular attention. Eventually, controls become so harsh that people no longer trust church leaders.  Reversing established controls is difficult. Result: no one trusts anyone. Some church!

Social Media relies on trust. The Church has been very slow to embrace Social Media. No surprise! Social Media cannot be controlled top-down and that’s all the Church knows.

Social Media has arrived just in time. People’s trust in Church leaders has been shattered by scandal. The actions of a few can bring the downfall of many.

Religious groups must recognize that faith and involvement in Church is optional.

By the way, the modern grocery story opened many doors. Sellers of products could now get the attention of the consumers without relying on the grocer. Consumers, by roaming around a well-stocked store, became familiar with cooking and cuisine from all over the world.

Think what opening the windows and doors with Social Tools of the Church might do!

Trust is a responsibility. There was a time when dialog in the Church was one way. This was back in the day when authorities made the rules, published the books and held the key to the treasury which was kept full by exerting power.

Today, it is two-way. It is likely that a lot of dialog will happen before the Church actually starts to listen. But people do have a voice and will learn to use it.

If this is not recognized, the leaders in the church will become reactionary, doing whatever they can to hang on to old-fashioned power structure even as the congregations they serve fail.

This is no way to run a Church.

photo credit: Surat Lozowick via photo pin cc
09 Aug 2012

How Many People Heard Your Sermon This Morning?

In dozens of churches near Philadelphia and hundreds or even thousands of churches across the country, hard-working pastors stood before their congregations this morning and delivered sermons to fewer than 50 people.

A conscientious pastor probably worked for days on that sermon. He or she probably spent the same amount of time on his or her sermon as far fewer pastors who delivered sermons to larger congregations.

Preaching is a major investment for every congregation whether they have 50 members or 1000 members—probably half the annual church budget.

Yet churches resist using the tools the modern era provides to preach the gospel to every corner of the world.

2×2, the web site that grew from Redeemer Lutheran Church’s exclusion from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, began with little experience with the internet. We had only a static web site which we rarely updated — just like the vast majority of churches who are concentrating on paying a pastor.

2x2virtualchurch.com became our new site.

2×2 studied the medium and followed recommended practices. We had no money to invest in outside help, so we learned how to do this ourselves.

Perhaps we were the perfect candidates for this evangelism frontier. We discovered that a small church can swim with the big fish!

Here is a mid-year report from the congregation SEPA Synod claims doesn’t exist (because they say so).

  • Every DAY 106 followers read our messages with our posts delivered to their email addresses. Huge potential for growth here!
  • Every WEEK an additional 250 or more come to our web site for information.
  • Every MONTH more than 1000 new readers find our site.
  • We’ve had 7000 visits this YEAR (in addition to our daily readers) and are on track to double that by the end of the year.

(Editorial update-Jan 16, 2013): All of these numbers have doubled since this was published five months ago!)

2×2 started strong in the Middle Atlantic states and California. In recent months our readership in Southern states is spiking. We’ve had readers in every state and regular readers in a dozen countries. Six congregations write to us weekly and share their ministry challenges and successes.

Topics which draw readers to 2×2 are (in order of popularity)

  • Object Lessons for Adults
  • Social Media
  • Small Congregation Ministry
  • Broader Church Issues
  • Vacation Bible School

We’ve learned that it is impossible to predict the popularity of a post. We had a Whoville theme party last January and the post about that still attracts search engine traffic several times each week. A post about a visit to a small church in a Philadelphia suburb and its pastor’s “brown bag” sermons for adults began attracting new readers daily, which led us to develop object lesson sermons.

Several seminaries have sent students to 2×2 for discussion topics.

2×2 has established both a mission voice and reach that rivals or surpasses mid-sized churches. We’ve done it on a shoestring budget. Another year to 18 months will no doubt add to our reach.

We will continue our experiment in modern evangelism.

How many people heard the sermon your church paid for this morning?

photo credit: Photomatt28 via photo pin cc
05 Aug 2012

Scalability: Religion Seeks It But Can’t Embrace It

Exponential Growth vs Scalable Growth

The Christian Church has recently focused on the Gospel account of Jesus sending his disciples into the world 2×2.

Jesus’ concept of mission was built on exponential growth. If two people are each successful in reaching two people — for a total of four — and they in turn form teams of two reaching four more— that’s exponential growth. The effort and cost must be repeated again and again. The church will grow with hard work and dedication.

This was remarkably effective. Within a few hundred years, the Gospel spread to the farthest borders of the known world.

Scalability is a bit different. It is a term that centers on the power of technology. How can teams of two reach a thousand or more people using the same effort it takes them to reach four?

The answer is incalculable—and entirely possible. The tools are in our hands to make mission work scalable beyond the wildest dreams of the early Christian apostles. The same work required to reach or teach 100 people can also reach or teach a million for basically the same outlay of resources.

So why aren’t we doing it?

Roadblocks to Scalability

Sadly, the church is not set up to take advantage of scalability.

Try this, for example. Take an idea to a religious institution. They will have a great deal of difficulty thinking beyond their own constituency. “But don’t you see,” you might argue, “you have the power to reach beyond your congregation, beyond your geographic territory, beyond your denomination.”

They will respond with confusion. “But it’s our job to serve our constituency. We work for [name the regional entity.]”  

They will try to be helpful. Scratching their heads, they will suggest, “Take your idea to [another territorial constituency that might be a bit bigger]. Maybe they can help you.”

Any denomination can reach congregations and clergy of all denominations all over the world with truly helpful information—all for the same effort that they might put into a local symposium or workshop which they would charge 50 people $25 each to attend. They won’t, though, because tradition outweighs potential.

Oddly, the efforts to take advantage of the power of the internet are not coming from the higher echelons of the Church. Many regional web sites are of poor quality and virtually all are self-focused. Some of the flashiest regional web sites focus on only their own work—not the work of their members. They are ignoring the potential to strengthen community. They are also ignoring the potential to reach the unchurched — which is their mission.

Church leadership is accustomed to publishing and teaching coming from top down. There was a time when this was necessary. Not everyone owned a printing press and distribution system. There grew to be a comfort in the control which was part of this outdated system. Because control was once possible in publishing they mistakenly believe that it is necessary. It is not only unnecessary in today’s world; it is impossible.

The system of the past is clumsy and archaic, but the Church’s entire structure is built around it.

Smaller entities—individual institutions, small congregations and even individual church members are making stronger headway.

Examples

One example,  www.workingpreacher.org, a project of Luther Seminary, features guest theologians from many backgrounds, analyzing the weekly lectionary. Directed towards pastors, anyone can study the week’s scripture guided by the insights of a seminary professor.

Another: ministry-to-children.com is a web site started by Tony Kummer, a youth/family pastor. It is a lively, interdenominational exchange of ministry ideas and resources that has a large community participating and helping one another. A small church in Africa asked for 2×2’s help in finding affordable educational resources. We directed them to this web site and they were delighted!

Jason Stambaugh writes a blog, www.heartyourchurch.com. He is an individual layperson who works in social media and is a member of a small congregation. He writes about social media in the church and other church issues.

A college student in Texas, Virginia Smith, has used the internet to help small congregations access used Vacation Bible School resources. She’s just one young person passionately engaged in mission, armed with the web. (www.vbs247.webs.com/) Virginia has been very helpful to 2×2 in networking.

And then there is this site, 2×2, the project of Redeemer Lutheran Church, East Falls, Philadelphia, a church the Lutheran denomination (ELCA) determined was too small to fulfill its mission (the old-fashioned way). Three years after locking our members out of our church building, 2×2 is reaching more than a thousand readers a month with a significant local readership with global reach. (And we are just beginning.) We offer ideas for small church ministry and attempt to prompt dialog on small church issues.

Scalable projects are our passion—not to make vast amounts of money, as is often the aim of online enterprise, but to build an new infrastructure that will provide hope and help for neighborhood ministries that we believe are the strength of the Christian Church. We believe there is fiscal potential that would provide the hands-on resources to neighborhood churches that can’t afford them the old-fashioned way. (And this is a large number of churches!)

Meanwhile, denominations concentrate on building Christian communities of a certain number so that they can afford a pastor/building and support their regional and national denomination.

This is not scalable. And it is failing. But it’s still how the Church measures success!

09 Jul 2012

Undercover Bishop Is Now Available In Ebook Form

Have your congregation read Undercover Bishop, a new parable of the modern church, now available for download. Compare your own church stories with those discovered by the newly elected Bishop Ruby Kinisa as she travels from church to church incognito to learn what clergy and lay members would never tell a bishop.

Sixteen short chapters are followed with suggested discussion questions.

Bishop Kinisa visits

  • an urban neighborhood church,
  • a small town church, and
  • a church in the country.

She needs to return to each church to reveal her identity. You are invited to act out your own endings and submit them to 2×2.

Undercover Bishop is an ebook, which means it can be amended. We’ll be glad to add your endings in prose or video form to keep the discussion of small church ministry going.

22 Jun 2012