Toolbox For Faith

George Bullard posted an interesting article last week on his blog which invites leaders to rethink how they measure participation in their congregation. Instead of simply tracking average worship attendance, Bullard suggests measuring the total number of households participating in the worship life of the congregation. Since attendance patterns and average household size have changed over the last twenty years, it is possible that you may have fewer people in worship on an average Sunday, but more total people participating in the worship life of the congregation.

Here’s an example of the type of change Bullard is seeing in his work. “First Church has decreased in weekly attendance by 35 percent in the past 20 years. The average size of the households connected with the congregation has decreased from 3.4 people to 2.6 people. Twenty years ago 147 households were present on a typical Sunday, and now 163 households are present on a typical Sunday.” Average attendance has dropped, but the reach of the congregation has actually grown over the same period of time.

Certainly there are cases when declining average worship attendance is an indication of a weak or dying congregation, but l think Bullard makes a compelling case that previously reliable statistical measures like average worship attendance and, I would suggest, membership totals, no longer provide a complete picture of the health and size of a congregation. In today’s world, total number of households present in worship or total number of active participants in the life of the congregation is probably a far more helpful statistic to track.

You can read Bullard’s complete article here: Is Attendance in Your Congregation Declining? Think Again

Dr. Peter Steinke offered the following six suggestions during a workshop entitled, “Life is a Mission Trip” on May 23, 2012 in Waynesboro, Virginia.

1. The proclamation of the Word

• Essential to the mission of the church

2. Recruit - bring people into the family

• Church growth is a part of the church, not the goal of the church.
• Church offers a sense of belonging and gives a sense of purpose.

3. Mission of the church has much to do with healing

• A key to growth was the early church’s willingness to be a part of healing.
• Early Christians were different than the rest of society.  They touched the sick and buried the dead.
• Today, healing ministries are very important to the health of the church - 1/5 of verses in Gospels are about healing.

4. The church is the means not the end

• The goal is not to preserve the entity.

5. Peace making

• Being advocates for the marginal
• You can’t read the Old Testament and come away believing that God isn’t concerned with the poor.
• Bishop Tutu said - The poor are God’s stand ins - recalling Jesus’ teaching that what you do to the least of these, you do to me.
• Proclamation and demonstration go together.  People read the Gospel of our lives.

6. Faithful Presence

• As a church, we prepare people for their time in the secular world to exhibit a faithful presence.
• Be the 67th book of the Bible
• Be a disciple of Christ in the world.  Who we are has a lot to say about what we believe.
• We need to devote more and more time preparing our people to let their lives speak.

I was at a continuing education event last week with Dr. Peter Steinke. He offered a variety of statistics to illustrate the changing nature of religion today, but the research he shared from Christian Smith’s book Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers was by far the most interesting to me. After interviewing teenagers all across the country, Smith concluded that regardless of religious affiliation, most teenagers were Moralistic Therapeutic Deists. Steinke summed up Smith’s findings in the following way, Moralistic Therapeutic Deists believe that:
1. God created the world, but is on inactive duty.
2. God wants you to be nice and share your marbles and bread.
3. God wants you to be happy. God is overly invested in your happiness.
4. If things do fall apart, you can contact God. God is there for emergencies.
5. If you have been good, you can go to heaven.

I first encountered Smith’s research several years ago, but I never really paid much attention. Upon hearing it again, I am struck by the fact that the teenagers who were a part of the study in the early 2000’s are now the young adults the church is trying to engage. If Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is the cultural religious base for young adults in the world today, then the church shouldn’t be surprised that traditional emphasis like sin, redemption and repentance are not points of connection and areas of interest. For all intensive purposes, we are offering answers to questions that aren’t being asked.

If you want to read a more complete discussion of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, Smith wrote a helpful article which is posted on the Princeton Theological Seminary website: “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism”.

I came across an article last week, but a writer named George Colony entitled: Apple=Sony: Brace For The Coming Post-Steve Jobs Decline. The article describes Apple as a charismatic organization and then proposes that the organization will coast and then start declining within 24-48 months unless they find another charismatic leader to replace Steve Jobs. While we will have to wait and see if Mr. Colony’s prediction will actually happen at Apple, I have seen it happen numerous times in congregations led by charismatic pastors.

According to the article, “Sociologist Max Weber created a typology of organizations in his 1947 book The Theory of Social and Economic Organization. He described three categories: 1) legal/bureaucratic (think IBM or the U.S. government), 2) Traditional (e.g., the Catholic church) and 3) Charismatic (run by special, magical individuals).

Charismatic organizations are headed by people with the ‘gift of grace’ (charisma from the Greek). ‘He is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities.’ Followers and disciples have absolute trust in the leader, fed by that leader’s access to nearly magical powers. ‘Charismatic authority repudiates the past, and is in this sense a specifically revolutionary force.’”

In today’s world, many growing, vibrant congregations are led by charismatic leaders like Steve Jobs - individuals who have a strong sense of their connection to God and a clear vision for ministry, individuals who have gift for leading and connecting to others, and individuals who have the skills necessary to effectively manage a growing organization. While these leaders, like Jobs, can help congregations and individuals experience tremendous grown, when they leave or retire, it can be extremely difficult to fill that’s leader’s role in the leadership system.

Colony continues later in the article. “When Steve Jobs departed, he took three things with him: 1) singular charismatic leadership that bound the company together and elicited extraordinary performance from its people; 2) the ability to take big risks, and 3) an unparalleled ability to envision and design products. Apple’s momentum will carry it for 24-48 months. But without the arrival of a new charismatic leader it will move from being a great company to being a good company, with a commensurate step down in revenue growth and product innovation.”

Replace the name “Steve Job” with the name of an outstanding, charismatic pastor and you have an accurate description of what has taken place in hundreds, perhaps thousands of congregations. As Colony notes, “One of the primary challenges with charismatic organizations is succession.” Congregations face the same problem and unfortunately since our system of call typically relies on a bureaucratic or traditional approach. It often doesn’t do an outstanding job of identifying the next charismatic leader for a congregation and without that next charismatic leader or a complete change in the organizational structure of the congregation, the congregation loses momentum and slowly goes from great to good.

One of my favorite magazines is Fast Company. I’m about a month behind in my reading but I finally got to the February 2012 issue and was intrigued by the article on “Generation Flux.” At the bottom of the sixth page of the article, I read the words and sat up shouting a loud “Yes!” I scared my poor cat Scottie who had been asleep on my lap so badly that he jumped straight into the air, leaving the room is a flash of fur.

For years, members have shared their ideas of the best oldies programs that worked in churches so well in the past. They were convinced that these programs were the “silver bullet” to resurrect their church and any church. Over the years, I even tried some with no success. After struggling with these suggestions for over 25 years, I finally came to the conclusion that we should leave the past in the past.

The author of the Fast Company article wonderfully described the phenomenon that I had seen as nostalgia

“Nostalgia is a natural human emotion, a survival mechanism that pushes people to avoid risk by applying what we’ve learned and relying on what’s worked before. It’s about as useful as an appendix right now. When times seem uncertain, we instinctively become more conservative; we look to the past, to times that seem simpler, and we have the urge to re-create them” (Fast Company, February 2012, page 67)

Don’t fall into the trap of attempting to recreate the past. It doesn’t work. Be at peace when someone suggests this fantastic old program. The suggestion deserves a “Thank you” and then lay the suggestion to rest in the closest cemetery. That’s where it belongs.

The headline, “IPhone confession app gets church approval,” intrigued me even though I do not have an IPhone. The article explained that the app approved by the Roman Catholic Church had a custom examination of conscience based on your age, gender and marital status as well as a confessional walk thru including a place for people to add their custom sins. All of this for only a cost of $1.99.

For a person who pushes “O” constantly while listening to pleasant recorded messages giving me every option but talking to a real person when I call most businesses, the app reminded me how impersonal our society has become. Just this week I was reading about the high school football star who chose a different college than his mother wanted him to attend so he texted her the news and didn’t tell her in person or even by a call because he knew she wouldn’t approve. He took the easy way out which is what apps, texting and email can become.

I sincerely hope the IPhone confession app helps some people realize that they have moved away from God but I am convinced that our Christian faith is best demonstrated when we share it in person—when we can laugh together, cry together, talk together and support each other. I know the world is changing but our personal witness is still the central starting point in the midst of all the transformations happening in the world. That is something I never want to forget. Apps and modern media can help but they can never replace each of us personally sharing the faith.

And just so you know, pushing “O” constantly usually get me to a real person much quicker than waiting for it to be a last resort.

In an article entitled, “Film School” Chris Anderson proposes that the rate of change in society is being accelerated by the ability of millions of people to view and respond to online videos. In the past, an idea may have been limited to a small circle of people, but now millions of people with differing resources, perspectives and experiences can witness, analyze and improve upon the idea. Anderson believes that innovation has always been a group activity. He says “most innovation is the result of long hours, building on the input of others. Ideas spawn from earlier ideas, bouncing from person to person and being reshaped as the go . . . . Throughout history, the best creativity has happened when groups of artist, reformers, writers, or scientists connected regularly with one another.” Anderson refers to this process as Crowd Accelerated Innovation.

Crowd Accelerated Innovation, Anderson points out, is not new, and certainly we can see its impact in the history of the Christian movement. Look at how the disciples solved the problem of the widows who weren’t getting fed or the work produced the the various early church Councils or the impact of the group of people surrounding Luther during the Reformation. Throughout Christian history we have seen numerous examples of the crowd - the body of Christ - developing new and powerful ways to go and make disciples of all nations.

In today’s world, Christianity faces a number of challenges, problems and opportunities. I know there are wonderfully talented people in various corners of the church working in these areas, but it seems to me that the best way forward for the Christian movement is to tap into the variety of gifts which make up the body of Christ - to take advantage of the “crowd” God has gathered together and allow the body to innovate, problem solve and lead. Crowd Accelerated Faithfulness lacks the control that top-down solutions might offer, but think of what we might accomplish if we use the resources which exist in today’s world to connect huge segments of the body of Christ and invite them to work together to build up the whole community. Moving in this direction will require leaders to relinquish a certain amount of control, will require us to embrace new and emerging technologies and may require us to modify the way we have always done things, but to me the potential of Crowd Accelerated Faithfulness is simply too powerful to ignore.

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?

It seems like every few years someone produces another article discussing the impending death of national denominational bodies. This morning, George Bullard posted a critique of national denominational bodies and offered a few suggestions for how they might be revitalized. You can read the article here.

For years, my Worship Committee has discussed the balance we strike in our bulletin between hospitality and care of creation. On one hand, we would like to print the entire service in the bulletin so that new worshipers can follow along easily. On the other hand, we feel like printing the entire service in the bulletin uses entirely too much paper. Each time this conversation has come up, I have mentioned that I could envision a day when the hymnal and bulletin were replaced by electronic tablets that are loaded with everything you need for the service. The group would always laugh and talk about the amazing cost of doing something like that and then move on.

With the introduction of Apple’s I-pad and the growing popularity of e-readers and tablet computers, I have begun to think that my idea may not be that far off. I can easily imagine a time when we email our entire service to the congregation on Friday. People download the “e-bulletin” to their tablet computer and then use it to follow along with worship. I can also imagine someone showing up at worship and downloading the “e-bulletin” from the church’s wireless network right before service begins. I certainly don’t think this will happen next week or next year, but if textbooks, newspapers and magazines all migrate from paper to e-readers and people start carrying their tablet computers the way they carry their phone, then the “e-bulletin” won’t be far behind.