4/7InkzHVUEQeEdU9vpc1tikzEhChrKmPfvXI-FSDBrBQ

transforming the church

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

A Recipe for Change: Lessons Learned in the Church Kitchen

Mom was Pennsylvania Dutch through and through. Dad, too, except that his Pennsylvania Dutch parents traveled to India where they raised seven children and worked as missionaries for 20 years.

The result: our comparatively bland Pa Dutch diet was occasionally infused with eastern spices, the names of which did not fit on the tiny spice jar labels.

Despite the early introduction of exotic flavoring, it wasn’t until well into adulthood that I embraced the joy of cooking with spices.

I learned to cook with spices in church.

Little Redeemer in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia has roots among Pa Dutch traditions, except that a good number of founding members shared a mongrel Scotch/Irish/English heritage. Still, the typical pot luck dinner at Redeemer was decidedly bland and heavy on meat, potatoes and pastry.

Then, around the turn of this latest century, we enjoyed having a student vicar from Puerto Rico. When he was about to leave, we planned a farewell party. “Any requests?” we asked.

“I’m really hungry for sancocho,” he responded. “Puerto Rican beef stew,” he translated. He waxed nostalgic at the thought of the peppery stew. When he noticed the horrified faces, he assured us. “It’s not spicy, just tasty.”

I googled sancocho and found a recipe with a lengthy list of ingredients, many of which were unfamiliar.

I have a basic rule in cooking. If I don’t know what it is I don’t put it in the pot.

I pared down the ingredients to the familiar, made some substitutes for convenience and filled a large pasta pot with the diverse ingredients: beef, spices, a ton of vegetables, lemons, bananas and burgundy. As I prepared to transport the pot to the church. My teenage son came running to help. “What smells so good?”

Once at the church, I did what any cook does. I stood back and watched. The pot quickly emptied. The vicar went back for seconds. Thirds, too. Success.

But sancocho was just the beginning of a new world of cooking.

It was at about the same time that our membership began to pick up among East African immigrants. Their cuisine was similar to the Puerto Rican fare I had just conquered. I learned still more about curries, garlic and fresh ginger.

And it was fun.

Savory soups and stews soon became the hallmark of Redeemer fellowship. Food was becoming a catalyst for change in our church.

Cultures began to blend with every stir of the pot. Changes which had been unimaginable a decade ago, were happening — under our very satisfied noses.

photo credit: avlxyz via photo pin cc
20 Jun 2012

Church Lingo: Keeping Our Message Obscure

Simplicity is a sign of truth and a criterion of beauty. Complexity can be a way of hiding the truth.”
— Helena Rubinstein

The message of Christianity is simple. God is love. Because God loves us, we are to love one another.

This simple message becomes obscure in the hands of theologians and church professionals. There is incentive to make it complicated. Church leadership has a very long tradition of cultivating mystery about their work.

Like many cloistered professions, the Church creates its own lingo. We know what we’re talking about. Why don’t you?

The difference is that our “business” is the message. We need to communicate clearly.

When we make our message obscure we defeat our purpose. It is no wonder that the “we” of the church is a shrinking number.

Let’s look at some of the hot buzzwords in the church today. (Warning! All words commonly used in the church are not actual words!)

Mission: Mission originally meant the act of sending. It has come to describe organizing for the propagation of faith. In that sense, it is a compelling word to Christians. Today, it is attached to almost every enterprise and is often the “hook” for fund-raising. Almost every solicitation for funds from any church-related institution has this word displayed prominently. People are far more likely to give to a “Mission Fund” then to sacrifice for the day-to-day operating expenses of bureaucracies—which is where the money can go. And so we have the Synod Mission Fund, the Seminary Mission Fund and the churchwide Mission Fund. The better to attract dollars. Congregations! Hurry! Start your own mission fund and get your piece of the pie!

Missional: This is an attempt to make mission an adjective so the word “mission” can be used more often. Coming soon: more non-words like “missioning.”

Discernment: This is the act of figuring things out. Discernment seems more intentional and focused. It is used often by church leaders and denominations. They spend a great deal of time trying to figure things out. When they can’t, they write about discernment and it seems like they have accomplished something or are about to accomplish something truly great. Results of discernment are not discussed nearly as often as the acts of discernment. Very few people actually recall the discernment process or a discernment meeting. They were probably busy trying to figure things out while someone else did the discerning.

Viability: Church leaders love to talk about viability — the ability to stay alive. They usually focus on other people’s viability and not their own.

Transform: This has been a church catch word for a while. The word “change” was just too scary. Nobody wanted to be “changed” by church leaders. They are not standing in line to be “transformed” either, but it sounds better. It is never quite clear what the goal of church transformation is or when transformation actually occurs, but we are all working at it.

Transformational Ministry: This is a much talked about but seldom seen phenomenon. Often, it has little to do with transformation or ministry. It has more to do with economic viability (see above). Congregations can transform greatly but go unrecognized until they can contribute more to the denomination or hire more professional help. If you are really good at transforming no one will notice. It is like a magic act. The rabbit appears and then it disappears. But what happened to the rabbit when it disappeared? It doesn’t matter to the church as long as the act keeps playing and it can be chalked up as transformational ministry.

Thus ends today’s vocabulary review. Do you have a favorite church buzzword?

photo credit: visualthinker via photo pin cc
05 Jun 2012

Leadership in the Modern, Changing Church

“I don’t understand why a person with a college-education has trouble finding work,” the older pastor commented after encountering a middle-aged parishioner, struggling with a mid-life job search.

The Church may be the last organization on earth to understand the changes facing the modern work force.

The Church, entrenched in the past, is dealing with the same problems with less success.

For countless decades or even centuries, mid-life was the pinnacle of a skilled worker’s career. Knowledge and experience positioned them as authorities. They commanded handsome wages. Life was good and the retirement years were looking sweet.

Today’s middle-aged, college-educated, skilled workers face a different world. Their skills are less valued. Newer skills of the connected age are not difficult to master, but they take time, effort and a continuing investment. Unlike youth, who can set aside the demands of independent living for four to eight years, the middle-aged workers are retooling while caring for teenagers, aging parents and still paying mortgages. Retirement is far less certain.

How does this affect the world of Church?

The Church still honors the system of hierarchy to some degree — even if they don’t call it “hierarchy.”

The people currently elected or appointed to leadership positions earned  their credentials the traditional way. Their positions are less market-driven. It has been enough in many cases to foster a reputation among a very narrow group of similarly trained and credentialed colleagues. They have been able to avoid the demands of the rest of the world — but not without consequence.

Change is every bit as imperative, but can be avoided until situations are dire with no damage to reputation. There are plenty of places to deflect blame for poor performance (economy, demographics, media, culture, lay people).

The great influx of second-career clergy may be adding candidates to the clergy roster who find the ever-changing demands of the secular world to be daunting. A major role of hierarchy is to keep the pool of available leaders active in ministry, regardless of their skills. Bottom line: the Church has incentive to stay the same to complement the skill sets of leadership–most of whom have very similar training and experience.

Sustaining clergy is a purpose of hierarchy, although it is rarely presented that way. Hierarchies want the available jobs to match the skills of available clergy. The Church is going to have to do a good bit of wiggling to loosen that stick from the mud!

This creates a division in expectations of laity and clergy. Laity, who must change or perish in their secular lives, grow impatient with clergy leaders, who roll out programs based on ministry models that used to work. The people at the top, most likely well into middle age, are disconnected from the lives of the laity. Empathy has not been the Church’s strong suit, especially since there is a LOT less money to work with.

Survival becomes the standard for success. Laity are not flocking to sacrifice for an organization in survival mode–especially one that threatens the local expression of faith with the strong arm of ecclesiastic power.

Survival standards are used to judge congregations. “We just don’t see how you can survive,” they are likely to say, even as they are dealing with the same or even more severe challenges.

There are ways to survive. There are ways to thrive. They are ways to reach out. But they will require new methods, new technology, new vision, a respect for younger blood and  lay talents and lifelong learning for Church leaders. Church leaders cannot ask congregations to make changes if they, themselves, are unable to change.

Laity are pretty busy making changes in their own lives.

24 May 2012

The Quickest Way to Church Transformation

Marketing Guru Seth Godin’s blog post this morning is short but speaks volumes to a topic near and dear to the hearts of Church leaders — transformation. What’s the quickest way to achieve transformational goals?

  1. Don’t demand authority.
  2. Eagerly take responsibility.
  3. Relentlessly give credit.

The blog post has only one more sentence, a caveat warning that it is not the easiest way but the quickest.

Contrast this to the way Church leadership often approaches “transformation.”

  1. They demand authority (constitutionally or not).
  2. They relentlessly find fault within congregations and assign blame to volunteer laborers.
  3. They grab credit for any success.

No wonder Church “transformation” so often ends with results that are counterproductive to the mandates of Christianity.

Seth says so much in just a few words. So we won’t add any more.

17 May 2012

Mission Work Then and Mission Work Now

God works mysterious wondersNot so many years past, mission work in far away places was something congregations knew about and supported but little more. It was impractical and impossible for congregational members to be directly involved in distant outreach.

Mission work was the realm of specially trained and denominationally sponsored missionaries who traveled to faraway places, often with their families. They either found work in foreign places and evangelized on the side (the tent-making approach) or worked full time — preaching, building hospitals and schools, gaining trust and creating Christian community.

The method was a choice driven by the philosophy of a denomination or sponsoring group. Christianity spread around the world, but it took decades to train native leadership to take over the “mission fields,” a popular term that became politically incorrect a couple of decades ago.

Back home, sponsoring congregations looked forward to periodic reports. Missionaries would return home, visit congregations with stories and photos, and raise support for future work.

That was then.

2×2 is discovering that it is now possible for congregations to become directly involved in mission efforts. We stumbled upon this mission. We put mission content on our website. For all we knew, there it would sit. But within a year faraway congregations found the content and contacted us. Today, congregations in Kenya and Pakistan correspond with 2×2 regularly. We learn about their ministries, share experiences, prayers and scriptures and offer ideas for ministry.

A few weeks ago, 2×2 sent an MP3 recording of a simple anthem we thought would translate well in any culture or language. One African church wrote to us this weekend to tell us their children learned the anthem from the recording and sang it in worship last Sunday.

Another congregation asked for ideas for Good Friday and later for a youth retreat. Another asked for help with a children’s curriculum.

We make it a policy to answer requests as best we can. When we have no answer from our own experience, we point to online resources.

But there’s more to it. We are learning from their ministries as well. The “mission field” includes us!

This was not possible ten years ago. Today, any congregation can expand its mission expression anywhere in the world. The role of regional and denominational offices is likely to change. They may begin to concentrate on helping congregations create and maintain direct connections.

Congregations are entering new territory and must “get over” the sense that mission work is only for the experts—an attitude we’ve encountered even in local outreach. This path was followed in the past because it was the only way possible. The danger we face today is to assume that this is the only proper way to reach out with the Gospel. Because top-down control was the only way then, does not mean it is the only way now.

There are signs that this transition will not come easily. Denominational leaders have invested a great deal in creating mission infrastructure that is becoming outdated. There will be challenges to be sure, but they must be met, because things are going to change. (Use the word “transform” if it helps!)

The Church is not experiencing anything exceptional. Every realm of society is learning the uncharted byroads of the information superhighway.

How this develops congregation to congregation remains to be seen as we explore new territory. Meanwhile, our suggestion is for congregations to keep it real.

  • Communication must be heartfelt and genuine with participants working to share actual experiences with credentials honestly presented. What your congregation cannot handle should be referred to those who can.
  • Explore possibilities but never assume patronizing or expert status.
  • Study the methods of the past. Learn from their vast experience and adapt.
  • Never publish anything about another faith fellowship without their knowledge and permission. You may make life difficult for Christians in cultures that do not encourage minority religions.
  • Make sure communication is two-way. Other cultures have a lot to teach us!
  • Be prepared for the energy of distant congregations to change your congregation’s perspective.
  • How will you find one another? Add helpful ministry content regularly to your congregation’s web site. Write in a way that search engines will find you. Wait. It may take months, God will work his wonders in mysterious ways.

God is doing something new, but if we stick to the old mission manuals, the Church will never be able to perceive it.

photo credit (retouched): Genista via photo pin cc

14 May 2012

Transform Your Church: Make Like a Preschooler


Where do we look for answers?Preschoolers may be your most valuable church members.

Preschoolers understand God. It comes naturally to them. A preschooler’s faith is pure. So much of religion involves the ability to embrace the imaginary, to befriend the unseen, to live day to day, trusting that all needs will be supplied.

All of this faith is wrapped up in the ability to ask questions. Simple questions. Obvious questions. Surprising questions. Questions for which adults are embarrassed to admit they don’t have sure answers.

By the time we drop out of Sunday School — and these days that’s at about age 10 — we like to think we have the answers. From that point on we avoid forums that might reveal our shortcomings. This has two results: we either become inactive or we begin to follow blindly. Who or what we follow can determine an entire congregation’s success or failure.

Some congregations look to their pastors for answers and accept decisions. This does not create healthy Christian community. Pastors change. Viewpoints change. Circumstances change. Today these changes shift with jackrabbit speed and unpredictability. Congregations must be able to ask and answer questions independently. This is a trait that must be nurtured.

How? Someone has to start — by asking questions!

Transformational change will not occur without fostering this congregational habit. Emulate your preschoolers.

There are six types of questions.

  1. Questions that clarify
    What are we asking? Why do we believe this?
    How does this relate to our faith or our lives?
  2. Questions that challenge assumptions
    Are we sure our church wants to grow? Are we ready for growth?
    What alternatives are there to the course we are about to take?
    Is this really what we want? Is this good for us?
  3. Questions that look for reasons and evidence
    Why are we considering this?
    What brought us to this discussion?
    Has this path been followed before? With what results?
  4. Questions that shift viewpoints
    Is this the only way to look at this issue?
    How would someone with a different background view this discussion?
    What would our foreparents think? What will our children think?
    Ask, why do we think this is a good idea? Is this even necessary?
    Play “devil’s advocate.”
  5. Questions that look for implications and consequences
    Let’s say we took the actions we are proposing.
    What good or bad will come of this?
    How will it affect us? How will it affect others? How will it affect the future?
    Are the potential outcomes in line with our beliefs and desires?
  6. Questions about the question
    What is the point of this discussion?
    Why are we asking these questions?
    What are the real issues behind the questions?
    Is this something we should be considering?
    Is this important? Is this necessary?
photo credit: HikingArtist.com via photo pin cc
11 May 2012

Let Go and Let God. It was never more possible!

Social Media is going to change the Church—whether or not the Church participates.

The Church is slow to embrace the power of this influence in our lives. It goes against the way the Church has worked for a very long time.

Trust and obey. Foundational words of faith. It means to trust and obey God, by the way.

Somehow the God part gets forgotten. Keeping Christians in line becomes an emphasis of anyone feeling empowered. The lines drawn by church leaders can be moving targets. Ideas change from century to century, decade to decade, and nowadays, year to year.

No one dares to quote the Bible to justify slavery anymore, but it worked for nearly 2000 years.

It worked when slaves had no voice.

Centuries of habit are going to be hard to break, but the time has come to trust the people of God. If we do something egregiously heretical, there are any number of forums for redress. There is no longer a need to monitor the thinking and voice of individual Christians.

We have always believed in this. It’s just been hard to practice.

We teach every three-year-old — Let your light shine.

Then we start to add the “buts” until their little lights are snuffed out.

The Church has never had more potential power. It can motivate and move EVERY member. You don’t have to roster us. You don’t have to qualify us. You don’t have to sort us out by race, age, status, or genitalia. We’ve been structuring our faith around such nonsense for a long time. Someday we are either going to laugh at our historical efforts to limit or exclude (thereby protecting power) — or hang our heads in shame.

This potential power of social media should spur our efforts to effectively share our faith outside the church. We are going to have to be part of the dialog outside our walls — because that’s where the conversations are taking place.

We have to be educators in many forums. We have to mix with the rest of the human race.

That approach has been taken before!

Let Go and Let God.

photo credit (retouched): crazyluca69 via photo pin cc

02 May 2012