Toolbox For Faith

Last Monday, I posted a link to an article from the Columbia Partnership on the Death of the Middle Judicatories. This week, the author, Dick Hamm, has posted a second article suggesting a way for middle judicatories to live and behave that he believes is healthier and more effective. His suggestions make a great deal of since to me and invite us to explore a new way of being God’s people together. You can read the article, the Resurrection of Middle Judicatories here.

After reading my last post on our vacation church-going experience, two people asked the same question—what can we do at our church to make sure that we are a welcoming congregation. I have three starting points you can consider.

First, change the culture of welcoming by doing an exercise at the beginning of the service that we have been calling “100 seconds of Fun” at the church where I was interim. After I welcomed everyone, I asked the congregation to move about for 100 seconds welcoming as many people as possible. We chose 100 seconds in honor of the 100th Anniversary of the congregation. Two weeks ago, a guest told me on the way out that our congregation was the friendliest she had ever attended.

Second, change the culture of welcoming by using your church’s governing body to be a greeting force. Take the group into the sanctuary and tell them to sit where they normally sit and then have them divide the congregation into areas in which they will be responsible for welcoming everyone in that area and introducing the guests to as many people as possible.

Third, change the culture of welcoming by having an Art Lee type person at the door who welcomes everyone and finds out information about the guests. Art was a member at one of my congregations who took the responsibility of being in the narthex before and after services. He gave me the names of all guests when I exited at the end of the service and then talked to each guest when they came out, introducing them to all around. Art was a natural who shared a warm welcome that became contagious and spread.

Try one, two or three and see if they can help change the culture of welcoming at your congregation.

I carry my iPhone with me everywhere. I use it to check email, read the news, keep up with my daily tasks, keep my contact list, send texts and occasionally make phone calls. I’ve had my phone for about eight months now, so I am still fairly new to the smart-phone world, but I can already see how it is changing the way that I communicate and undertake ministry. In a previous time, I checked email occasionally while I was in the office. These days, I check email constantly and exchange messages with people in the congregation throughout the day. In a previous time, I would stay around the office waiting for people to call. These days, I have a growing number of church folks who send me texts to ask quick questions or update me with messages like, “Mom’s out of surgery.” In a previous time, I went back to my office to access ministry resources. These days, I have used my phone to look up hospital information for a family and to find directions to make a visit. In just eight months, my iPhone has become a tool I depend on to accomplish ministry on a daily basis.

As I think about these changes in myself and the way that I do ministry, I have started to wonder if congregations are adapting quickly enough to changes in communication. For example, should the church have a cell phone so we can send and receive text messages from the church to our youth? As people become accustomed to receiving a constant flow of information, what does it look like for a congregation to shift from a large monthly newsletter to a system which provides ministry news in small digestible bits through multiple streams? As everyone transitions away from having one home phone number to having their own personal phone number that they carry with them constantly, how will we respect the privacy of staff and congregants? In general, I guess it all boils down to this - how will we adapt to the possibilities these new communication tools provide and the expectations that they create?

Every congregation has a pattern to its life and ministry. At St. Michael for example, we do not schedule much for the two weeks after Virginia Tech graduates, because everyone takes a little break once the students leave. When I arrived at St. Michael, that end of the school year break continued throughout the summer. All of our ministries went into hibernation. Sunday School went away. The Senior Adult group stopped meeting. The Choir took a break. We offered worship and Vacation Bible School, but that was about it. Most everyone was still around. People didn’t really seem burned out to me when summer rolled around, but still our ministry virtually came to a halt.

Over the years, we have slowly increased our ministry during the summer months without much resistance and recently, I think I discovered part of the reason why. While talking to one of my long-time members, I learned that our “hibernation period” probably started because there was no air conditioning at church. It was too hot in the building, so nobody did anything until the weather started to cool off. The interesting thing is that even though air conditioning was added years ago, the pattern was so ingrained that nothing changed.

Sometimes we do things in the church for very intentional reasons, like not scheduling meetings during the two weeks after graduation, but sometimes we are simply repeating a pattern that may no longer be helpful or necessary, like going into hibernation for the summer. Each congregation’s pattern of life will be different, but discovering your pattern and understanding your pattern can be a tremendous asset for leaders as they plan for the life and ministry of a congregation.

I just finished reading, “Switch” by Chip and Dan Heath and I recommend it highly to anyone who is interested in change. They offer excellent insights into why change can be hard and helpful guidance for how you can help bring about change in your own life or in an organization you are leading. Here’s a small glimpse of their ideas.

They offer a “three-part framework . . . that can guide you in any situation where you need to change behavior: Direct the Rider[rational self]. What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity. So provide crystal clear direction. Motivate the Elephant[emotional self]. What looks like laziness is often exhaustion. . . . It’s critical that you engage people’s emotional side - get their Elephants on the path and cooperative. Shape the Path. What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem. We call the situation (including the surrounding environment) the ‘Path.’ When you shape the Path, you make change more likely, no matter what’s happening with the Rider and Elephant.”(Switch, pg. 17-18) You can find more information about the book and free downloadable resources on the Switch page of heathbrothers.com.