ConsultationReport · ConsultationReport! Reportfor PottstownFirstUnitedMethodistChurch*! WilliamTenny+Brittian! On!site!Consultant!! March!2012!

Consultation Report

Report for Pottstown First United Methodist Church

William Tenny-‐Brittian On site Consultant

March 2012

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Table of Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 4

Objectives For the Consultation .................................................................................................................. 5

Section 1 The Vision ..................................................................................................................................... 6

Section 2 Priority Comments ....................................................................................................................... 9

Section 3 Considerations for Strategic Planning ........................................................................................ 12

Section 4 Foundations to Vision Achievement .......................................................................................... 13

Section 5 Presuppositions .......................................................................................................................... 23

Section 6 Recommendations ..................................................................................................................... 24

Recommendation 1 Make a Decision .................................................................................................... 25

Recommendation 2 Let the People Go ................................................................................................. 28

Recommendation 3 Build a Spiritual Foundation .................................................................................. 30

Recommendation 4: Discern and Develop Your Congregational DNA .................................................. 33

4.1 Discern and Embrace Your Purpose … Formally Adopt a Mission Statement ............................. 33

4.2 Develop and Adopt Expected Behaviors ...................................................................................... 34

4.3 Develop and Embrace a Meaningful Leadership Covenant ......................................................... 36

4.4 Discern and Define Your Core Values .......................................................................................... 37

4.5 Discern and Define a Compelling Vision ...................................................................................... 41

Recommendation 5: Get Off Life Support: Stop Surviving and Start Thriving ....................................... 43

5.1 Ratchet Up the Hospitality Level for Guests and Members Alike ................................................ 43

5.2 Intentionally Adopt Your Guests .................................................................................................. 54

Recommendation 6: Start Growing ...................................................................................................... 58

6.1 Allow Your Pastor to Be the Church’s Primary Growth Catalyst .................................................. 58

6.2 Provide Your Pastor the Tools to Become the Church’s Primary Growth Catalyst ...................... 64

6.3 Provide Your Pastor the Opportunity to Network within Your Circles ........................................ 64

6.4 Support Much-‐Needed Spiritual Retreat Time ............................................................................ 64

Recommendation 7 Organize Based On Your Size ................................................................................ 66

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7.1 Stop Supporting Ineffective Ministries ........................................................................................ 66

7.2 Stop Doing So Many Ministries .................................................................................................... 67

7.3 Streamline Decision Making ........................................................................................................ 68

Recommendation 8: Miscellaneous, but Important Recommendations .............................................. 70

8.1 Stop All Anonymous Ministry ...................................................................................................... 70

8.2 Tweak Traditional Worship to Make It Even More Excellent ....................................................... 70

8.3 Provide Additional Opportunities for Financial Giving ................................................................ 72

8.4 Protect Your Future ..................................................................................................................... 72

8.5 Use the Space You Have Wisely ................................................................................................... 72

8.6 Prepare For Your Future .............................................................................................................. 73

Recommendation 9 When You Reach ~ 150 in Average Worship Attendance … ................................. 77

9.1 Hire a Part-‐Time Worship Leader ................................................................................................ 77

9.2 Develop a Signature Ministry and Build a Reputation in the Community ................................... 77

9.3 Seek Outside Assistance in Visioning and Strategizing for What Comes Next ............................. 78

Section 7 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 79

Section 8 A Word of Appreciation ............................................................................................................. 80

Appendixes ................................................................................................................................................ 81

Appendix A First Impressions ................................................................................................................ 82

Appendix B: Connections Parts 1 & 2 .................................................................................................... 95

Appendix C: Digital Worship ................................................................................................................ 103

Additional Resources ............................................................................................................................... 107

THIS SECTION IS FOR STAFF AND OFFICIAL LEADERSHIP ONLY ............................................................... 131

Pottstown Recommendation Report

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Introduction In November 2011, Pastor Will Humes contacted 21st Century Strategies about the possibility of a consultation. During the conversation it became clear that the congregation, the First United Methodist Church of Pottstown, had been experiencing ongoing and debilitating decline in membership, attendance, and finance. Although the congregation had already made an intentional transformation attempt, it had failed and the current congregational climate had become increasingly hopeless. Pastor Will received a full congregational consultation proposal and presented it to the church’s Administrative Council. After serious discussion, the leadership opted for a three-‐day onsite consultation and a one year follow-‐up coaching contract.

The congregation engaged the preliminary data gathering for the Complete Ministry Audit, completing multiple surveys and providing congregational historic and demographic information. Along with community demographics, this information was compiled, reviewed, and compared to our national database of over 1000 churches we have consulted with. This provided the raw data necessary to start the process. Next, consultant and coach Bill Tenny-‐Brittian arrived on site on March 23, 2012 to begin interviews and offer some preliminary training. When Sunday afternoon rolled around, he’d compiled enough information to provide specific recommendations for the congregation to consider.

The bulk of this report include recommendations made on Sunday evening, March 25. However, the recommendations made that evening were only the tip of the iceberg and this report includes many additional recommendations and resources.

This report is designed as a learning and planning tool. It presents you with some of the best thinking and most effective strategies for ministry from across the church today. Use it to inspire dialogue and discussion within the leadership of Pottstown First United Methodist Church. Research and fine-‐tune the strategies for ministry. Most important of all, move ahead as quickly as possible so you can ride the wave of enthusiasm your leaders feel at the moment. The key to doing this is to develop an ever-‐widening group of leaders who capture, embrace, and work passionately to help your church accomplish God’s vision.

The more people you involve along the journey, the better your chances are for success. Pray for and process this report. Through it all pray earnestly, “Lord, make us part of what you are doing in your world. Put us within the flow of your Spirit. Help us to do the things that you are blessing in this present age.”


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Objectives For the Consultation The stated objective for the Complete Ministry Audit Consultation process is to help Pottstown First United Methodist Church move from a “circle the wagons” survival culture to one that looks to future with hope, excitement, and a thriving tomorrow. If ever there was a congregation in need of the promises of Jeremiah 29:11:

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

To that end, this report has been designed to:

1. Raise the congregation's awareness of the cultural context in which ministry must occur during the first quarter of the 21st Century.

2. Impress the necessity for building a foundation of spiritual practices, depth, and maturity within the congregation, and especially within those who are, or aspire to be in, leadership.

3. Identify the congregation’s core mission, values, and vision in order to maximize the congregation’s available resources.

4. To identify possible ministry opportunities that the church could avail itself to in order to reach the community for Jesus Christ.

5. Encourage the pastoral staff, lay leaders, and congregation to commit themselves to a systematic, focused, and sustained approach toward accomplishing God’s vision for Pottstown First United Methodist Church.

Note: If you do not wish to read the teaching material in Section One, proceed directly to Section Two. Do not skip Section Two. If you wish, you can then skip Section Three and go directly to the recommendations in Section Four.


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Section 1 The Vision There is a classic line in one of Charles Wesley’s best loved hymns that describes the challenge before the church today. The hymn is “A Charge to Keep I Have” and the line is “to serve the present age, my calling to fulfill.” The challenge to the church is that our present age keeps changing, and it is changing more rapidly now than ever before in history. The changes are so enormous and rapid that they are causing a metamorphosis in every area of life. Fewer people today have a Christian memory than at any time since the founding of America. As a result of such change, many of the ministries and methods that once worked so well no longer achieve the desired results.

We may not like many of the changes, but if we want to be effective in fulfilling our calling to offer Christ to the world, it is essential that we understand what is happening in this present age and develop effective ministries that will put the people of our day in touch with the timeless Gospel. As a new age dawns, the Gospel will not change, but the package in which the Gospel is shared is rapidly changing. In times such as these, vital congregations cannot continue to simply manage what exists. We must forge a new vision for ministry without compromising the Gospel. That is what this report is about.

In his book, Growing Spiritual Redwoods, Bill Easum describes this new age as the “pre-‐Christian” world, a time when the age of Christendom is coming to a close and a pre-‐Christian world, much like the first century, is emerging. The book, Growing Spiritual Redwoods, describes what he calls “Spiritual Redwood” churches. These Spiritual Redwoods have grown head and shoulders above the other churches and, if we see the world from their vantage point, we can see where God is leading the church in the 21st century. These churches are only spiritual giants because they have discovered how to grow people into spiritual giants. Each of these churches focus their entire ministry on making disciples of non-‐religious people. Our hope above hopes is that the information, recommendations, and resources in this report will help your congregation grow a forest full of Spiritual Redwoods that will shade, shelter, and beckon those in your community to come and share the light of Jesus Christ.

Principles of Today’s Disciple Making Church

1. People who are not disciples of Jesus Christ are missing the primary reason they were created. 2. Unconnected people matter to God as much, if not more than, those within the church. 3. Their church is primarily a mission station for passing on new life in Christ to the unconnected. 4. High expectations for their people are essential. 5. Some things must be changed and some things must be preserved. 6. It is important to understand, love, accept, and like, secular, unconnected people. 7. It is more important to use music that unconnected people understand and are interested in to

spread the Gospel, than it is to teach people to appreciate "good" music. 8. It is important to start new churches, multiple-‐site churches, and to be involved in missions at

home and throughout the world. 9. Their back yard is the primary mission field. 10. Nothing works today like it worked yesterday.

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Our studies also show that disciple-‐making churches do several things that dying churches do not do:

1. They are as familiar with the unconnected population around them as they are their own members.

2. They set a high bar for church membership and hold their members accountable for acceptable Christian behavior. In addition, they hold the church’s leadership (both clergy and lay) to a higher standard than the rank-‐and-‐file member.

3. They strategically target the unconnected. 4. They have a clear vision and mission plan for the future. 5. They develop and implement a strategy for reaching unconnected, secular people. 6. They equip their members to actually serve in ministries to others and witness for Jesus Christ

instead of sitting on committees. 7. They design worship so it is sensitive to the needs of the unconnected. 8. They challenge people to commit their lives to Jesus Christ instead of becoming members of a

church. 9. They are open to the leadership of the Holy Spirit and develop prayer ministries. 10. They want other churches to join them in reaching out to secular people.

In today’s culture, it is critical that churches do everything in their power to ensure they are faithful, effective, and sustainable.

A Faithful Church Is:

• Biblically grounded • Culturally relevant • Exists to transform lives • Mobilizes and equips the laity for mission and ministry • A community built on trust • Structured to grow disciples

The needs in the world are many and great. People outside the church are spiritually hungry at the same time that they are alienated from, or simply ignorant of, traditional Christianity. The signs are clear … God is raising up a new kind of church to meet the challenges of “this present age.” The question is: Will your church be a part of what God is doing? Can your church claim the promise of Isaiah 43:16: "Cease to dwell in the days gone by … for I am doing a new thing in your midst"? Can your church earnestly pray, “Lord, lead us to what you are doing and blessing and help us to do it”?

Churches that put themselves at God’s disposal will emerge as the Spiritual Redwoods of the 21st Century. Please understand that being a Spiritual Redwood is not about growing a big church, but about growing BIG people. Experience is showing us that the churches that do an exceptional job of growing disciples of Jesus Christ also happen to be growing numerically. We believe that God wants to send seeking people to congregations where people will be loved and nurtured into discipleship.

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The Marks of an Effective Church are:

1. Leaders lead in spiritual practices and integrity resulting in high trust and accountability 2. Mission and vision driven 3. Organized around four core processes: Invite, Connect, Apprentice, Send 4. Prioritizes everything around transforming people and the community so that more ministry

happens off campus than at church 5. Has a streamlined decision-‐making process with few (if any) committees 6. Intentionally and intently multiplies leaders, ministries, and missions 7. Prioritizes funds around the mission to transform individuals and society 8. Does not tolerate unresolved conflict and remains unified in its mission 9. The church has high self-‐esteem (participants are excited and invite, invite, invite)

A Sustainable Church:

1. Maximizes its resources 2. Recognizes its limitations 3. Builds on its strengths 4. Minimizes its weaknesses 5. Is laser focused on keeping its Main Thing the Main Thing 6. Is more concerned with ensuring a future than commemorating its history

The following information and recommendations are offered simply to help your church discover ways to respond to the challenge of the future. You may disagree with some of the information or recommendations. If some of the information is incorrect, correct it. If you find yourself disagreeing with the information, before you react, ask yourself this question: "Do I not like what I am reading because it goes against my biblical foundations, or because it goes against my personal opinions, preferences, or sacred cows?" Knowing the difference is the primary task of leadership in changing times.


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Section 2 Priority Comments

Keep in mind that the issue before you is not church health or church growth. The issue is what does it mean to be a faithful church. A faithful church is one that is intentionally seeking to carry out the Great Commission of “making disciples of all nations.” To be faithful means that your church is doing everything that it can to win people for Jesus Christ. A faithful church is one that is intentionally seeking to be salt, light, and leaven in the world, both at home and abroad.

Priority Comment 1

During my time with the congregation, I quickly became aware that there was a prevalent climate of negativity – with few exceptions, the congregation had lost all hope of growing … or even surviving. The negativity manifested itself in many ways, including finger pointing over whose fault the church’s imminent demise was. Those named included the current pastor, several former pastors, disloyal members, and the congregation’s general apathetic past. It also became clear that the negative culture had become so embedded within the membership that it is triggering an imminent exodus. I spoke to about as many members who confided they were actively looking for another church as I did to those who were committed to go down with the Titanic. Although the Pottstown First United Methodist Church is facing some very difficult decisions, IF the leadership opts to grow the church the negativity of the congregational membership will need to be intentionally dealt with or any growth initiatives will literally be doomed.

Priority Comment 2

As critical as Priority Comment 1 is, there is a second issue that is pressing hard against the congregation. Although self-‐reliance is a good-‐ol’ American virtue, in the church it is literally a mortal sin. If the Pottstown FUMC leadership had called for outside help as few as five years ago there would have been ample time for discussions and consensus building. However, the reality is that the church has little to no time to work what would normally be considered a prudent timeline. As I mentioned on Sunday evening, the amount of work and time it will take to see results from a turnaround effort means that you have less than six months to not just make a decision but to get well-‐started implementing the first three recommendations.

Priority Comment 3

Successful turnaround efforts are rare. Only 20 percent of intentional church transformational efforts succeed in North America … and in the Mainline church that number drops precipitously to 10 percent, even when a consultant or coach is called. There are many reasons for failure, but the number one culprit is that the church’s leadership has neither the stomach nor the backbone for “Transformational Fallout.” Transformational Fallout occurs any time the church instigates changes for the sake of growing

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or transforming the church. Regardless of the decision you make in Recommendation 1 (to close, merge, go to part-‐time, be subsumed, or grow), you will experience Transformational Fallout. When your leadership makes a decision or tries to implement a change, there will be an overwhelming backlash that emanates from within the congregation. The “volume” of these objections will make it appear that they come from a very vocal majority when, in fact, the Transformational Fallout will most likely come from less than two or three individuals who will insinuate they “represent” a majority of the congregation or else a powerful faction. If they don’t get their way, the conflict almost always escalates to bullying or terrorism (threats). Too often the church’s leadership will forsake what’s actually best for the congregation in order to placate these individuals. When they do, the transformation attempt is awash. There’s an axiom used in church transformation circles that “You choose who you lose.” No matter what decision the Pottstown FUMC leadership makes, someone/s will not be happy and they will either leave, threaten to leave, or worse threaten to stay. If the leadership opts to pacify these few, then they choose to lose the possibility of growth (or a faithful death with dignity). If, on the other hand, the leadership responds by remaining faithful to the congregation’s decision then they will have no choice but to neutralize the opposition. By doing so, they will be choosing to “lose” the antagonists, but they will also be choosing to honor the larger congregation’s decision (and if Growth! is the congregation’s choice, then they will choose in favor of future members). All of that is to remind you that the choice you make will not be easy, but regardless of the decision, it will be even more difficult to be faithful to the chosen course.

Priority Comment 4

Currently, the combined worship services are attracting only between one and two new families per month, and only 10 percent of these return. This raises two red flags. First, it is clear that the church isn’t making a positive first impression on guests. Indeed, there are some significant gaps in the hospitality area. Second, there are few opportunities for visitor to get connected with existing church members. If a guest doesn’t get a great first impression and do not feel welcome, they will not return. If a returning guest doesn’t find a way to make a significant connection with existing church members, they will not join (nor continue to attend).

Priority Comment 5

During my visit it became apparent that although the congregation’s membership were very aware that the “good old days” for the church had come and gone, there was clearly no understanding about what that means when it comes to pastoral leadership. In addition, the membership’s pastoral care expectations were also largely based on a national culture that no longer exists. Back in the “good old days,” the nation’s culture ostensibly embraced and reflected a Christian worldview. This meant that the church’s pastoral leadership needn’t worry about or work to ensure church growth because churches generally grew (or shrunk) based on the local population. Build a church near a burgeoning suburb and it would grow simply by putting a Welcome! sign in the church yard. New members were aplenty, if for no other reason than the children raised in the church remained in the church. In a climate such as this, the pastor and staff could – and were expected to – focus on the spiritual needs of the congregation’s

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membership. Pastors made drop-‐in visits just to see how a member was doing, even if they hadn’t missed a service … and regularly pastors made haste to check on any member who was missed for one or two weeks. The problem is, those “good old days” are gone … and they’re not coming back. The national culture no longer reflects a Christian worldview. In practical terms, this means that churches don’t grow without significant time and effort by church leaders, and especially by the pastor. But most of Pottstown FUMC members still believe that one of the core responsibilities of their pastor is to visit them, check on them, and both to notice when they miss a week or two or three and to make haste to discover “why” they’re missing. However, these expectations have largely brought FUMC to its knees. Because Pastor Will hasn’t been as attentive as some have expected (and demanded), there has been a growing undercurrent of discontent, complaining, and gossiping. If some I spoke to are to be believed, Pastor Will never returns phone calls, never keeps appointments, and must be begged, cajoled, and threatened to get him to make a visit (of any kind). On the other hand, I spoke to others who shared how Pastor Will was there for them in times of crisis. In any event, if the congregation opts to Grow! those who remember how it used to be in the good old days or when the Pottstown congregation enjoyed the attentions of a Pastor of Visitation will either need to change their expectations, learn to live with unmet expectations, or else move their membership to another congregation where they can get the level of care they expect (and the only congregations that actually provide that level of care are or will be suffering the same dilemma Pottstown FUMC is facing).

Priority Comment 6

Finally, if the congregation chooses to Grow! there will be a near-‐overwhelming temptation to immediately work the recommendations that will bear immediate growth. I cannot be more adamant: DO NOT DO THIS. If you do, you will not succeed. If you do, you will not get a second chance (or a third chance, as the case may be). If you do, you may experience a grow spurt, but it will be very, very temporary and before twelve months pass you will be forced to choose one of the other options available to you. You must establish a spiritual foundation before you do anything of value (you can and should start this now and never, ever, ever stop). You must be clear about who you are and where you’re going before you can make any decisions about how to grow (or with whom to grow). And you must create a thoroughly welcoming environment before you can expect to receive and retain guests. The primary recommendations are ordered by priority, and recommendations that can be implemented at any time are noted. You have been given a proven, workable plan. Work your plan and you will see success.


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Section 3 Considerations for Strategic Planning

The following items are extracted from the nineteen growth principles of the Ministry Audit that was filled out by your congregation prior to my arrival. Each item is considered essential to the strategic plan in Section Five.

• The church building is prominently located and easy to find.

• The building is located in urban Pottstown and the most local demographics do not match the church membership demographics.

• The church building is expansive and offers a wealth of ministry opportunities.

• The church building is structurally sound.

• The church building could use significant cosmetic upgrades.

• There are few directional signs inside or outside of the building.

• Most of the existing members live several miles away from the facilities.

• The congregation enjoys an excellent traditional musical program.

• The congregation is and has been experiencing significant membership losses.

• Church finances are problematic and there are limited endowments to draw from.

• The nursery has an excellent teaching program.

• The nursery is exceptionally vulnerable and insecure.

• The nursery is not convenient to the worship center.

• The modern worship service style is primarily informal traditional, but with “contemporary” music (i.e., music stylistically appealing primarily to baby boomers).

• There is a culture of negativity and low self-‐esteem that is clearly discernable.

• The worship services receive few visitors, and few visitors return.

• Visitors rarely leave contact information for follow-‐up.


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Section 4 Foundations to Vision Achievement

Consulting with more than 1000 churches has taught us that strategic action requires identifying and focusing on the leverage points. A leverage point is the one thing that, if changed, makes it easier to change everything else. A leverage point is the number one priority on everyone’s agenda. The following leverage points should be taken in the order in which they are listed.

Leverage points

A Solid Community consists of:

Leaders who know the Bible and have a prayer life and are growing daily in their devotional life.

o Is the pastor a spiritual and strategic leader?

o Does this describe the attitude of your key leaders: “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might win some.” 1 Cor. 9:22

o How many spiritual giants do you have among the key leadership?

o Are most of your leaders respected throughout the congregation?

Children and youth are not the future of the church—adult disciples are, and have always been, the future. Without strong adult spiritual leaders, there can be no growth in the church. This is the key area of need in every church. Every leader in the church should be involved in a small group spiritual development group.

The church has a solid plan for discipling people from where they are to their potential.

Without an intentional process, discipleship seldom happens (which is one of the reasons we find the North American church declining in both membership and reputation). Every congregation must develop a process by which a new Christian can become a mature disciple of Jesus. Going to worship and attending Sunday School is simply not enough in these times to effectively grow disciples. Instead, small groups, mentoring relationships, accountability, and a personal commitment to spiritual disciplines is necessary.

The church is a community that functions around trust rather than rules or policies.

The difference between a surviving congregation and a thriving congregation is generally found in the level of trust leaders have of their congregants and the trust

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congregants have of their leaders. To develop trust, the congregation must be clear on its Mission, Values, Vision, Bedrock Beliefs, and Expected Behaviors (the church’s DNA). But clarity is only the first step—a congregation must be confident that those who betray the DNA will be removed from leadership and not allowed to sidetrack the mission and ministry of the church.

The absence of major and/or ongoing conflict.

If conflict exists, this is always the place to start BEFORE trying anything else. Eliminating the conflict and or the ones causing it is essential first. If the leadership is not biblically based, then you could work on this while doing one of the following.

Churches are like rivers and estuaries, remove the pollutants and the river rebounds because all things are tied together.

Several good resources could guide you here.

Community

Alpha (15 weeks) -‐ level one. For a brief description and how to reach Alpha, go to the FAQ’s section of our website. Alpha (15 weeks) a new member study course that takes people into the basics of faith. It centers on Jesus, not denominationalism. Cook Communications Ministries, 4050 Lee Vance View, Colorado Springs, CO, 80918, 888-‐949-‐2574.

Disciple Bible is a United Methodist publication but is suitable for any mainline denomination. It includes videos, but requires training first (36 weeks). P.O. Box 801, Nashville, TN 37202. www.abingdonpress.com

Vital Christianity: A Manual for Teaching the Basics of Christianity. This is basic curriculum for any level of Christian. Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church, Tipp City, Ohio, 513-‐667-‐1069. www.ginhamsburg.org

The Marks of a Disciple, Price of Peace Lutheran Church and Changing Church. www.changingchurch.org

Becoming a Contagious Christian, Zondervan. 800-‐727-‐3480. www.willowcreek.org

Experiencing God (13 weeks), Mike Rogers and Claude V. King, Kingdom Agenda Ministries, 1595 Michigan Blvd., Dunedin, FL 34698.

Mind of Christ (18 weeks), is a follow up to "Experiencing God.” Lifeway, Southern Baptist. http://www.lifeway.com

Discovery from www.joyonline.org

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High-‐Voltage Spirituality, Bill Tenny-‐Brittian

Kicking Habits, Tom Bandy

Danger In The Comfort Zone, Judith Bardwick

Leadership Development

Leadership Without Easy Answers, Heietz

Leadership On The OtherSide, Bill Easum

Coaching Change, Tom Bandy

Diffusion of Innovation, Rogers

Reinventing Your Board, John Carver

Leadership And The New Science, Margaret Wheatley

Waking To God’s Dream, Dick Wills

Leadership, James Burns

Conflict

Two good books on conflict are Clergy Killers and Antagonists In The Church

Conflict CPR: Conflict Prevention and Reconciliation. Available at 21stCenturyStrategiesinc.com.

Bill Tenny-‐Brittian has written a number of instructive articles on resolving conflict. See Net Results magazine (Jan-‐Feb 2009) and his blog (billtennybrittian.com)

The FAQS section of our website has a section on Conflict Management.

Owned and Managed Mission, Vision, and Value Statements, or Purpose Statements, or Core Values:

These instruments come out of the people’s growing spiritual awareness of God, not from a planned retreat setting.

Owned means that the leadership:

o Can recite the statements from memory;

o Uses them for all of its decision making, staffing and budgeting;

o Teaches them to all new members.

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Core values can be a purpose statement, a list of Core Values, or it can be the Mission, Vision, and Values Statement to which I refer.


Unfreezing Moves by Bill Easum.

Moving Off the Map by Tom Bandy

“Vision Discernment Toolkit” by Tom Bandy

"Mission Statements" in the FAQS section www.EffectiveChurch.com/faqs

Ken Blanchard’s Managing By Values

Laurie Beth Jones The Path

Indigenous Worship

Indigenous worship means that the service style is offered in the language, technology, and culture of the people the church is trying to reach. If you want to reach traditional seniors you would likely want to use classical instruments, hymns, responsive readings, etc. If you want to reach Baby Boomers, add keyboards, a rhythm guitar, choose praise and worship songs, and add PowerPoint. If you want to reach the younger generations the bass guitar and drums are more important than a piano and make sure you're using the highest tech in video and sound production as possible

Worship should be a relevant, safe place to hear a dangerous gospel. It does no good to equip people to bring their friends, relatives, associates, and neighbors to church if worship is boring or irrelevant to their lives.


“Worship For People Of The Heart,” Bill Easum.

See the section on worship in Growing Spiritual Redwoods by Easum and Bandy.

Worship Evangelism. Sally Morgenthaler.

"Worship Helps" in the FAQs section www.ChurchConsultations.com/faqs

The Spectacle of Worship in a Wired World. Tex Sample

The Wired Church. Len Wilson

Out On The Edge. Michael Slaughter

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The Power of Teams, Video from Ginghamsburg FUMC www.ginghamsburg.org

How To Start A New Service. Charles Arn

www.midnightoilproductions.net Jason Moore and Len Wilson provide worship graphics

Lay Mobilization

The church sees Christianity is a journey as well as a destination. That means it is always trying to grow people as well as introduce them to Jesus Christ. This involves a process for identifying new people, helping them find their gifts and passion, equipping for ministry, placing in actual ministry, and coaching them in their chosen ministry.

Accountability is required so this is not volunteer management. People serve as servants, not as volunteers. Consider “promoting” servant leaders to unpaid staff status, which would include receiving an annual performance evaluation.

Multiplication of leaders is one of the key issues of the church.

Several good resources can guide you here.

"The Equipping Church Guidebook” is one of the best resources for lay ministries. Contact Leadership Network -‐ 800-‐765-‐5323

The New Reformation. Greg Ogden

"Laity" in the FAQs section www.ChurchConsultations.com/faqs "Lay Pastors" "Lay Ministries" "Permission Giving"

Witnessing Without Fear. Bill Bright

Becoming a Contagious Christian. Mark Mittelburg and Bill Hybels

The Master’s Plan for Making Disciples. Charles Arn and Win Arn

The Lay Driven Church. Steinborn

Hitchhikers’ Guide to Evangelism. Bill Tenny-‐Brittian

Doing Church As A Team. Wayne Cordeiro

The Purpose Driven Church. Rick Warren

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Redemptive Missional Opportunities

Mission is always redemptive, never just social. Churches are not service organizations and what they do should not be seen as a “service to the community.” This is what happened to the church in Canada. What the church does is mission, not service. The mission is to transform people, not offer them a service or meet their need. The only reason to meet their need is to offer them Christ. Any group can meet their need; only the church can offer them Christ. “Our preschool is a service to the community."

Ministry, outreach, and mission are all seen as the same. However, the primary mission is now in the backyard rather than overseas.

The mistake most churches make is that they try to involve people before they disciple them. They skip Lay Mobilization and go directly to this one with new members. This turns them into “doers of good” works who often have no idea why they are doing good works. It has led to churches filled with biblically and spiritually bankrupt good people.

Several good ministries are available.

Week Day Children’s Ministries such as Logos, Kids Club, Pioneer Club. See The FAQS section of our website for addresses of these and much more.

Servant Evangelism, see www.kindness.com

Sidewalk Sunday School

Habitat for Humanity

Week Day Children’s Ministries

Social justice issues of the area

Books to help you understand the world today

RetroFuture, Gerad Kelly

Leadership and the New Science, Margaret Wheatley

The Birth of the Chaordic Age, Dee Hock

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller

Organized around the DNA

Is the church organized to carry out its agreed upon mission?

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There is no one form of organization since the DNA should dictate the organization. This is why top-‐down, imposed denominational organizational structures seldom work.

Restructuring usually comes toward the end of any transition. Seldom does it do any good to begin by restructuring.

Some good resources are:

Christian Chaos. Tom Bandy

How To Reach Baby Boomers. Wm. Easum, Chapter Four

Books on Organizational Theory

Sacred Cows Make Gourmet Burgers. Wm. Easum

Images of Organization. Gareth Morgan

Christian Chaos. Tom Bandy

Staffing

The goal is to hire equippers and mentors, not professionals.

Staffing issues are always related to something else.

The two most important staff positions, other than the pastor, are the worship leader (old music director) and the Lay Mobilizer.

Some good resources are:

Effective Staffing for Vital Churches. Bill Easum and Bill Tenny-‐Brittian

Multiple Staff and the Large Church. Lyle Schaller

"The Role of the Senior (Lead) Pastor and Staffing A Church," by Bill Easum www.ChurchConsultations.com

Logistical Issues

Parking

o This is only a logistical issue always related to something else in one of the first five leverage points.

o Parking never helps a church grow, but it can hinder the growth of a church. Uncommitted people will seldom walk more than 600 feet to the door of a church.

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o The optimum goal is one parking space for every two people on the premise at the peak hour.

o Another issue is the friendliness of the parking for non-‐Christians or unchurched people.

o A good resource here is Growth Principle Thirteen in The Complete Ministry Audit by William Easum.

Facilities

o Logistical issue always relate to one of the first five leverage points.

o Do not build unless it is absolutely necessary.

o Some of the keys issues to consider

o Nursery is one of the most important areas in the church. For more, see the Nursery section in The Complete Ministry Audit, by Bill Easum.

o Lightness and Lighting. Stage lighting is now important. For more, see the FAQ’s section of our website.

o Stairs. The fewer the better.

o Location. Does not mean as much as it once did, but it is still important.

o 80 percent. Avoid ever going over this percent in anything. For more, see the 80 percent section of The Complete Ministry Audit.

o Bathrooms. One of the ways Boomers measure the comfort of any building. Do you have diaper changers in the men’s room?

o Amount of land. Purchasing less than ten acres is always a mistake, unless you are a downtown church.

o A couple of good resources can guide you here.

See ChurchConsultations.com for several resources under Architect, Audio Consultants, Church Security, Facilities, Improvements, Renting Space, Sound Systems, Office Space, and Strip Malls.

When Not To Build. Bowman and Hall

Finances

o Finances are seldom an issue in the growth of a church.

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o Finances are always an issue in the growth of people. If the people are growing, the church usually has the needed money.

o Goal: either 4 percent of the total average household giving or tithing.

o A logistical issue always related to one of the first five leverage points.

o Several good resources can guide you here.

See the FAQs section of our website (www.ChurchConsultations.com/faqs for Bonds or Loans, Budgeting Around The Mission Statement, Finances, Grant Proposals, Money, Offering Plates, and Stewardship and Tithing.

"The Missing Piece Stewardship" workbook by Bill Easum www.ChurchConsultations.com/cart

Effective Church Finances. Kennon Callahan.

Not Your Parents’ Offering Plate. J. Clif Christopher

When these leverage points are addressed in the above order, everything is much easier to accomplish.

Failure to honor the order of importance often ends in failure in whatever is being attempted, not to mention an inordinate amount of unnecessary pain.

Most churches can work with only one leverage point at a time. When it is firmly addressed so that it is no longer a need or problem, they can move on to the next leverage point.

The primary strength of the following recommendations will be in direct proportion to how the leadership and congregation feel toward the "yet-‐to-‐be-‐committed," and how willing it is to discover new "wineskins."

You are being asked the following:

• "How much do you care about God's unchurched people?"

• "How much are you willing to sacrifice to reach those not yet actively participating in the Body of Christ?"

• "Can you stand with Jesus as He looked out over Jerusalem and wept because, like a mother hen toward her chicks, He could not gather them in under His wing?"

No strategy can take the place of such spiritual passion for the souls of human beings. My prayers and the prayers of all God's people are with you as you entertain the following recommendations.

The following information and recommendations are born out of the nine leverage points and are offered to help your church discover ways to respond to the challenge of the future. You may disagree

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with some of the information or recommendations. Help can be found in the Resource Section for those recommendations that are so noted. Respond to these recommendations only as prayer moves you. If some of the information is incorrect, correct it. If you find yourself disagreeing with the information, before you react, ask yourself this question: "Do I not like what I am reading because it goes against my biblical foundations, or because it goes against my personal opinions, preferences, or sacred cows?" Knowing the difference is the primary task of leadership in changing times.

A consultant can recommend strategies based on proven information from scripture, tradition, experience, and reason, but in the final analysis all spiritual growth occurs because God's people are inspired by their spiritual leaders and their own inner spirit to reach out in love and compassion to those who are not yet in love with Jesus Christ.


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Section 5 Presuppositions Every consultant has some biases. You need to know those of Bill Tenny-‐Brittian.

1. The purpose of the church is to give life away to those inside and outside the church in the name of Jesus Christ. The purpose of the church is not simply to take care of itself. Those who merely care for their members are clubs, not churches.

2. The purpose of the church is to win the area in which it is located to Jesus Christ. The purpose is never to build an institutional church, so size is never the issue. The issue is whether or not God’s people are spreading scriptural holiness throughout the area.

3. I do not believe that God wants any church to be closed. Some churches choose not to be churches and therefore close themselves in spite of God.

4. If the above is true, then where the church is located and what ministries the church should be engaged in are determined by the felt needs of the community as much as the felt needs of the present members.

5. Where the institutional church is located does not matter to people who understand that their ministry is to reach out to people in the name of Jesus Christ.

6. God wants every church to grow.

7. Recent history shows that circuits/multi-‐charge churches seldom work.

8. The smaller the church, the more likely a local pastor will be able to grow the church easier than an ordained clergy.

9. Worship designed for unchurched and pre-‐Christian people is essential for ministry in the 21st century.

10. Worship that reaches pre-‐Christian people born after 1946 must include both indigenous music and multimedia.

In preparing to interpret and implement this report, your church will be wise to have its leaders read Unfreezing Moves by Bill Easum. This book will give you immense guidance in not only how to proceed, but also in understanding the dynamics of a faithful congregation.

Based on the above, Bill Tenny-‐Brittian and 21st Century Strategies offer the following observations and recommendations.


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Section 6 Recommendations The following recommendations are listed in order of importance. Indeed, each one builds a foundation for the next. Although there may be a temptation to attempt multiple recommendations simultaneously, this could result in confusion and ultimately a "good-‐enough" attitude as if the goal was to put a checkmark in front of each one indicating it's been finished. Some of the following recommendations can be completed relatively rapidly, whereas others include the implementation of processes that will never be "complete."

Some recommendations will need to be delegated to specific individuals, some to teams, and some the whole church will need to embrace in order to implement. To that end, it might be helpful for the church's leadership to review these recommendations and decide which should be delegated to others. However, those teams or individuals who are given the responsibility should immediately develop specific objectives that are mission-‐focused and time-‐bound so that they can be held accountable for the effective and timely implementation of their recommendation.

A Note of Urgency

When considering the following recommendations, weigh the following carefully. An analysis of the Pottstown First United Methodist Church demographics suggests that more than 50 percent of the current worshipping congregation or more will not be here in as few as five years due to their advanced ages. Some will die, some will relocate, and some will be unable to attend for health and disability reasons. As you consider the following section, know that Time Is of the Essence.

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Recommendation 1 Make a Decision

Complete by: ASAP, but no later than September 1, 2012

Issue

The one thing (and frankly the only thing) the Pottstown First United Methodist Church leadership and membership is unanimous about is that the church is in dire trouble and on the brink of no-‐return. Attendance has been in serious decline for well over a decade; indeed, the current attendance cannot financially sustain a full-‐time, ordained pastor, let alone multiple staff. The congregation has been dipping into its endowments and reserved funds for several years and it is projected that it will need to “borrow” upwards of $50,000 to make budget this year … even though the budget has already been slashed to barebones. In addition, the congregation is aging and it’s estimated the church may lose over 50 percent of its current participants to death in as few as ten years. To make matters worse, many of the church’s current membership is so disillusioned that they have decided to leave the congregation (even though many of these members haven’t actually left yet). Further, the church enjoys very few visitors, and fewer still return. Therefore …

Make a Decision About Your Future

The Pottstown First United Methodist has six options, only two of which in my opinion are faithful to your heritage. With the exception of option #1, any of these choices will be painful to make.

Option 1: Don’t Make a Decision

This option is the one most churches make by default. They engage any or all of the following: live in denial; study the issue; appoint a committee and hear reports; hire a consultant, reject the recommendations, hire a different consultant, repeat; postpone the decision until there’s consensus (and there will never be consensus); or just fight about it all. In the end it won’t matter because the decision will be made for you, most likely by the Conference.

Option 2: Leave a Faithful Legacy

If, as a congregation, you decide that you simply don’t have the energy to Grow!, then the most faithful option will be to ensure your congregation leaves enough of a legacy that the future of the Church is ensured. You will note the Capital C in the word Church … this means the legacy will be for the larger church, not your local congregation. To exercise this option, the congregation will need to vote to close and to designate all of its unencumbered assets to be used for United Methodist New Church initiatives (this will most likely involve a called Charge Conference). This will ensure as much of your liquid and non-‐liquid assets as possible will be used to ensure the future for the Church through the support of new church plants.

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Option 3: Merge with an Existing Church

The opportunity to merge with an existing congregation would be determined by whether or not there is another congregation that is both willing to consider a merger and is also geographically viable. It is likely the Conference would be the arbiter of this decision. Mergers are notoriously problematic and largely unsuccessful. Typically, a merger means that one church will leave its building and begin worshipping in a new location. Because of the downtown Pottstown location, I suspect FUMC would most likely be the congregation that “merges” with a host congregation. This type of merger generally results in a split congregation of “Us” and “Them,” or “Host” and “Guest” (guest meaning interloper) that is unhealthy. Although in theory, merged congregations both bring their respective gifts to the table, in practice the gifts of the guest church are rarely utilized and those of the host church are diluted. In addition, the dysfunctions of each congregation tend to be amplified because of the Us and Them mindset and the lack of a cohesive mission, vision, or values.

Option 4: Request a Multi-‐Church Charge or a Part-‐Time Pastor

If the Pottstown FUMC selects this option, ultimately, the Conference will determine whether the congregation will receive a solo part-‐time pastor or else become part of a multi-‐point charge. Historically, becoming a part of a multi-‐point charge or receiving a part-‐time pastor forestalls the inevitable, although it can forestall permanent closure for several (or many) years. However, the existing congregation will need to understand that there will be little time for a part-‐time pastor to do more than lead worship, go to meetings, and handle pastoral emergencies, i.e., funerals.

Option 5: Request a Large, Healthy Church Subsume FUMC

The likelihood of this option is limited by the proximity of a large, healthy United Methodist Church. The nearest large UMC church is New Hanover UMC, and although it appears to be healthy there is question whether or not it is large enough to effectively subsume the congregation and the facilities of the Pottsville FUMC. If, however, this was an attractive option to the New Hanover UMC congregation, the Pottstown FUMC would, for all practical purposes, cease to exist and all current leadership positions would be eliminated. The New Hanover UMC leadership would then take full control of the facilities and assets in order to create a satellite congregation in the Pottstown urban core. The existing Pottstown UMC members would, of course, be invited to be a part of the transition, but their role would primarily be to pray, pay, and attend the “new” church services. This particular option is being exercised effectively in several Annual Conferences, and both Ginghamsburg UMC in Tipp City, Ohio and the Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas have successfully exercised this model by acquiring struggling, downtown congregations and transforming them to successful, urban ministry centers.

Option 6: Do What it Takes to Grow!

The key to this option is, as I emphasized during the Recommendations Presentation, is found in the missing word in this option. Try. In the immortal words of Star Wars’ Yoda, “There is do or not do. There is no try.” If the Pottstown FUMC leadership decides to act on this option, it cannot be a half-‐hearted

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attempt. In fact, both the leadership and the congregation must understand that this is an “all-‐in” option and anyone who is unwilling to go all-‐in should be encouraged to affiliate with a church elsewhere.

The changes that will be demanded for the successful transformation will demand the trustees/finance committee release even the perceived control of the funds – there will be no saving for a rainy day and there will be no “reserved” funds. It’s all or nothing. This doesn’t imply that the transformation will drain the coffers, but the concern that it “might” cannot enter into anyone’s thinking. If it takes every nickel, then that’s what it will take.

This option also means that every member will have to put aside their “personal preferences” and “needs” and “desires” in order to adopt Paul’s mantra of “Whatever It Takes” (1 Corinthians 9:19–22), for it will take the full commitment by every participating member to effect this transformation and ensure a faithful, effective, and sustainable future.

Finally, exercising this option also means that “church” will not longer be that building down on High Street. It won’t be what we do on Sunday mornings. Church will have to become who “we” are, not what we do. Faith practices will no longer be relegated to what we do in public worship or during Sunday school. Spiritual disciplines will no longer be matters that are personal and private, but subject to accountability by one another, as it was in the early church.

All that’s to say that if the Pottstown First United Methodist Church opts to Grow! then it will be an expensive journey. Sure, it will take funding, but more importantly it will take commitment by the participating membership to changes that will affect not only their “church,” but every aspect of their lives. I suggest a careful reading of Luke 14:25–35 for Jesus’ words about this level of commitment before deciding to exercise this option – and to quote the Master himself, “Those who have ears, let them hear.”

NOTE

From this point on, all of the recommendations are based on the exercise of the Grow! option. If the congregational leadership chooses to exercise a different option, then please disregard the following options and let me know ASAP so that I can make alternative recommendations commensurate with the decision.

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Recommendation 2 Let the People Go

Complete By: Implement immediately upon the congregation has voted to exercise the Grow! option.

Issue

In many (yes, many) of my conversations with the membership, I found that there were quite a number of members who were seriously contemplating leaving the church, and spoke with several who had already made the decision to leave, but were unable to get up the nerve to actually leave. Indeed, the most common word I heard during my time with you was guilt. “I can’t leave because I feel guilty” was expressed over and over. In fact, membership in one of the church’s programs was likened to becoming a made-‐man in the Mafia: “Once you’re in, you’re in for life.” In addition, as in all churches, there were some folks I spoke with expressed their anger, frustration, and/or hurt feelings that appear to be so rooted within them that reconciliation is unlikely.

Let Those Who Need to Leave, Leave

First, it’s important for those who have decided to be a part of the Pottstown FUMC future to realize that there are three kinds of people in any church:

1. Those you build with 2. Those you build around 3. Those you build in spite of

For the Pottstown FUMC Grow! initiative to be successful, the vast majority of the membership will need to be of the first group. The reality is that there will always be a few members who fall into the second group … these are members who won’t get in the way of growth, but you won’t be able count on them for much more than showing up. Although every church has a few members who fall into the third group, these members tend to be high-‐maintenance folks who create undercurrents of negativity and sow seeds of discord. For the Pottstown FUMC to become faithful, effective, and sustainable it will need to have access to its full reserve of energy for the transformation alone. In the fourth recommendation, I will address how to create processes for dealing with those who would short-‐circuit this process. However, to begin with, the church’s leadership will need to be unified enough in its decision to go forward that there is no question that anyone who cannot support the decision and all the ramifications of that decision should immediately engage in finding another church home. These people need to leave for the sake of the church.

However, there is a fourth group of people at FUMC – those who have deep roots in the congregation, often with strong family ties, but who have either given up on the church and/or have decided that the congregation is unable to meet their needs. These are the ones who expressed their deep-‐seated guilt about feeling the need to leave – even though some have already begun attending other churches. These people need to leave both for their sake and for the sake of the congregation. Those who do not

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leave, but remain unfulfilled, will unfortunately give a false impression to the congregation that they can be “counted on” as a committed member to the transformation, when in fact they may have little or no commitment. Indeed, at best, these would fall into the second group of people mentioned above (people you build around), but will likely carry an air of negativity and hopelessness that may be unintentionally infectious.

Allowing, or encouraging, people to leave does not mean that these people are “bad” or “unfaithful.” Indeed, as I recommended on the evening of the presentation, the remaining congregation must allow these people to leave without guilt and without blame. The church should bless them, love them, not be angry at them, not talk about them, and not abandon them. Just allow them to leave with grace and dignity with the knowledge that their “home church” was there for them for years and will still be there for them in the future, even though they have moved on.

For those in this latter group who seem to continue to have difficulties moving on, it will be incumbent upon the church’s leadership to help them “leave the nest.” Those who need to leave, but who have leadership commitments, should be gently – but firmly – released from both their duties and positions. Those who have made other commitments, such as to the music program, small groups, Sunday school, etc. should be privately encouraged to move on by, and with the blessing of, the ministry leader.

Of course, there are some who may see the commitment of the church’s leadership and the congregation as a sign of hope and decide to be a part of the transformation. So long as they understand that they by remaining they are making a significant commitment on a personal level, then the congregational leadership must respond accordingly. Again, the fourth recommendation will specifically address the level of commitment by membership and by the leadership.

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Recommendation 3 Build a Spiritual Foundation

Complete By: Implement Immediately – this task will never be complete

Issue

Today’s spiritual seekers rarely turn to Christianity or to the church to find the answers they seek because of their past experiences or because of the church and faith’s reputation. Too often, spiritual seekers have turned in desperation to the church only to discover the church embroiled in “business as usual,” that leaves little room for the development of spiritual giants. Second, although the church’s leadership must oversee significant resources in a business-‐like fashion, the church was never intended to be operated as a business. Leaders in business are selected for their skills, experience, and abilities in their trade. The church, however, has a different biblical mandate for leadership selection. Church leaders are to be selected based on their spiritual maturity, their integrity, and their model as a spiritual mentor and leader. Indeed, there was no other criterion used for the selection of church leaders in the New Testament. The apparent process for leadership selection was (1) discern a fully committed, faithful disciple of Jesus Christ; (2) select them as a leader; (3) only then did they train them in whatever skill was needed. However, over the years, the church has defaulted to the business model of leadership selection. This has left the church spiritually wanting, and in too many cases spiritually bankrupt.

Build Strong Spiritual Leaders and a Strong Spiritual Congregation

Although there are many “programs” that have been developed to raise up spiritually grounded leaders, the fact is that most of them depend on an intellectual model, that is, if you learn what you’re supposed to do, you’ll naturally do it. Although that has been one of the core Christian educational models for decades, the results have been less than stellar. Instead, the pedagogy that has repeatedly shown itself effective is based on the biblical model of “encouragement.”

Although the word “encourage” has been used as a synonym for “praise,” as in giving someone an “Atta Boy” or “Atta Girl” when they’ve done something well, the biblical use is significantly different. Biblical encouragement is better understood as “You can do it! Let’s take the next step in your faith journey!” It would include Paul’s admonition to spur one another on to do good works and to admonish one another. Today, we would include the practice of accountability to complete the understanding of biblical encouragement.

However, strong spiritual leaders and members are not developed by weekly worship attendance, Sunday school attendance, or even small group participation alone. Faithful, practicing disciples become strong spiritual leaders by personal practice of the spiritual habits, also known as spiritual disciplines. These spiritual habits are just that – they’re the habits that are practiced in between church activities. These habits include scripture reading, listening prayer, encouraging others in the faith, doing good conspicuous good works, and intentional faith sharing. Of course, there are many other spiritual

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disciplines, but we’ve found that when a church leader is intentional in practicing these five habits the leader’s spiritual maturity develops at an escalating rate.

Incorporate Discipleship Development as an Expectation in All Leadership Functions Beginning immediately, instill the expectation that all church leaders will be intentionally engaged in personal spiritual development. To facilitate this expectation, all administrative council meetings, all executive council meetings, all committee meetings, and both ministry and administrative meetings should begin by every participant answering the keystone accountability question:

What have you read in Scripture this week that intrigued you?

In the case of ministerial staff, Christian education leaders, and others who study the Bible as a part of their regular preparation, the question should be appended with “outside of preparation time.” And though reading and studying Scripture in worship, Sunday school, and small groups is a good thing, these readings should not “count” in terms of this question. The intent is to encourage one another to delve into the Bible on our own time and at our own pace. Whether we’re reading a paragraph, a chapter, or a whole epistle at each sitting is less important than the practice of engaging Scripture one-‐on-‐one with Jesus Christ.

In time, the leaders at each meeting will naturally open their time together discussing what they’ve been reading and how it’s affecting their lives. When this has become the custom, only then should one of the other Discipleship Development Questions be introduced, and it must never take the place of the keystone question that must be asked at every meeting.1 The remaining Discipleship Development Questions include:

What have you heard from God in your listening prayers, and what is God calling you to do?

Whom have you encouraged in the faith this week?

How have you served your neighbor in the name of Jesus this week?

Who have you intentionally shared your faith with this week, and what was the result?

Typically, we recommend adding one question from the list and repeating it at every meeting until everyone is firmly entrenched in its practice. Only then should it be replaced by one of the other questions (again, only the keystone question remains fixed as the keystone question).

Base All Future Leadership Nominations and Appointments on Spiritual Fitness First, Passion Second, and Skills or Talents Last

Although Recommendation 4.5 deals with the creation of a leadership covenant, it will be important even before that to understand, and begin to practice as the need arises, that all

1 Failure to do so will lead to a gradual falling off of spiritual practices – it shouldn’t be that way, we suppose, but it’s just the nature of a fallen world. Unless someone holds us accountable for our practices, our faithful practices

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leaders must FIRST be fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ, committed to personal spiritual growth, and only secondarily participants/members of the church or skilled in some particular skill. As go the leaders, so will go the congregation and ultimately the whole church. A leader whose behaviors reflect badly on the faith in their personal lives, as well as in their church practices, should clearly not be in leadership – at least not as far as the biblical testimony expects.

Of course, we’re not looking for nor expecting perfection. However, the church should expect their leaders to be just that: leaders. Leaders in faith practices. Leaders in prayer. Leaders doing good works. Leaders in self-‐sacrifice for the sake of the Kingdom and the church. Leaders who are intentionally modeling the faith in every area of their lives, and when they fail (as all of us do), they immediately take responsibility for their poor choices or actions and do whatever it takes for restoration. In other words, leaders of the church must be men and women of integrity who are who they say that are, and do what they say they will do by the time they say they will do it in. And when they don’t, they own it, fix it, and move on.

Therefore, it will be of critical importance that all future leaders (and for that matter, all current leaders) be selected based on their “fruit,” that is, whether they demonstrate fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22–23 rather than the fruit of sinful practices in Galatians 5:19–21.

There will be those who object and say that we’re not supposed to “judge” one another; however, that particular passage isn’t addressing the fitness of leaders, but the way in which we treat one another (i.e., looking down our noses at one another). Clearly leaders throughout the New Testament were chosen based on their spiritual fitness, and Paul writes extensively to many of his churches about the need for demonstrated faith before leadership is bestowed. In addition, I submit that the church has always “judged” the fitness of leadership, but the standards have been changed from faith-‐based fitness to a combination of willingness and skill. Churches that continue to put spiritually juveniles into leadership will continue to experience conflict, strife, and decline. Churches that put active developing disciples with passion into leadership will find themselves being led into faithfulness, effectiveness, and sustainability.


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Recommendation 4: Discern and Develop Your Congregational DNA

Complete by: Within 12 months of the decision to Grow!

Note: This is a key recommendation and the visioning process should be engaged as soon as possible. Failure to complete this recommendation will ultimately derail all other recommendations.

It became apparent during the onsite visit that the congregation had no consensus about the purpose and direction of the congregation. Although the church has a workable mission motto it was immediately clear that the mission had little meaning or driving force within the congregation. This simply compounds the church’s lack of community recognition: if the church doesn’t know who it is, why would we expect the community to know who the church is?

Every living organism has a core DNA that maps its existence. In biology, DNA is a coiled twin helix of molecular material that contains the building blocks of life. Similarly, a congregation’s DNA contains the building blocks that determine the congregation’s very being. A congregation’s five-‐part DNA comprises its Mission, Vision, Values, Beliefs, and Expected Behaviors. Together, these determine everything a congregation is and does. However, many congregations suffer from a genetic malady of either malformed or mutant DNA. Malformed DNA reflects a congregation that has been started without clearly predefining the five building blocks. Many congregations begin with a viable mission and vision, but don’t define what its values, beliefs, or Expected Behaviors are. In these cases, the congregation adopts and adapts the missing parts from its culture which is rarely a culture grounded in biblical faith. Other congregations may start out with a clear grasp of who it is, where it’s going, and why but over the years the DNA isn’t passed from one generation to the next. In these cases, the DNA will gradually mutate to accommodate and reflect the culture.

A congregation’s DNA can be “repaired” by genetically splicing healthy biblical building blocks into the congregation. This process is neither risk-‐free nor inexpensive. Some current participants will chaff at the changes that accompany DNA adjustments. Others will not understand “what is wrong” with the way we’ve done things in the past. Ultimately, some will leave the congregation, but without a clear and healthy DNA a congregation is unable to be either faithful or effective.

The Church-‐Talk Training DVD Developing Your DNA (available Dec 2011) and the Unfreezing Moves book provide guidance on how to achieve this (both available at www.ChurchSolutions.biz). Or if you want to take a more lengthy process, get Thomas Bandy's Moving Off the Map (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998).

4.1 Discern and Embrace Your Purpose … Formally Adopt a Mission Statement

Since you already have two mission statements, either of which will work, choose one and move on. The core of the church’s marching orders, as determined by Jesus Christ, is to Make Disciples. Both of your

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statements include this mandate. Choose one, use the motto “Making Disciples” (or “Making Christ Followers,” etc.), and get ready to organize around it (that comes later). Then move on.

4.2 Develop and Adopt Expected Behaviors

Expected Behaviors are simply the minimum Expected Behaviors by those who are leaders and members of the church. These are not litmus tests for “who’s in” and “who’s out,” but agreed upon behaviors that determine fitness for leadership and ameliorates conflict. Perfection, of course, is not possible, but without an expected level of behavior, the church leaves itself vulnerable to controllers, bullies, terrorists, bluffers, and guerilla warfare.

Note: The development and adoption of the congregation’s Expected Behaviors should precede the remainder of this recommendation section as well as any other major recommendation.

The following resources will help you in developing your Expected Behaviors: Conflict CPR Training DVD set, the Church-‐Talk Training DVD Developing Your DNA and the Church-‐Talk episode Bullies and Terrorists.

There are a number of ways to develop the congregational Expected Behaviors, but the simplest way is to engage the church’s decision-‐making leadership (council, board, session, vestry) in a study of the New Testament’s One-‐Anothers (there are over sixty of them). I recommend beginning the process in a retreat setting (not gathering the leaders for an afternoon in the fellowship hall, but going “away” to a real retreat setting where prayer and devotion creates a Christ-‐centered focus). After a morning of prayer, scripture, and reflection the afternoon would be devoted to extricating the one-‐anothers in small groups of three to five – ensuring that Jesus’ instructions for handling issues in the church is included (Matthew 18:15–17). Then each group “collapses” and synthesizes their list into eight to twelve meaningful behavioral statements reflecting what Jesus and the New Testament writers were communicating. The small groups should then come together and share their statements. A recorder should list these statements on a whiteboard, flipchart, or on an electronic whiteboard. Once all the small groups have shared, the larger group refines the list, removing duplications, combining related statements, and revising them until the list has been pared down to between eight and ten behavioral statements. These become the core of the Expected Behaviors Covenant (some congregations rename the final product to Membership Covenant, Discipleship Covenant, Congregational Covenant of Behavior, etc.).

Once the initial Expected Behaviors’ list is complete, they should be handed off to a couple of wordsmiths in the congregation who can “clean up” any ambiguity and polish off the rough spots.

When the Expected Behaviors have been crafted, they should be adopted by the Implementation Team, the official decision-‐making board, and finally presented to the congregation for adoption. When the proper groundwork and visioning has been accomplished, the congregational vote will be a slam-‐dunk (Who votes against a commitment to treat each other with respect and compassion?). The third step is

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critical – without the congregation’s approval, the Expected Behaviors are little more than homework on paper.

Below are actual Expected Behavior Covenants from real churches to serve as an example. Notice both the similarities and the differences.

Church A

1. We will treat each other with respect and compassion, speaking honestly and taking the time to listen to one another.

2. We will joyfully accept and embrace all people into our midst, practicing generosity of our time, our abilities, our financial gifts and our prayers for each other.

3. We will pursue agreement through honest interaction and then speak well of resulting decisions by the community of First Church and its leaders to build trust in fulfilling the united mission of the congregation.

4. We will practice peacemaking by following the teaching of Matthew 18:15–17. 5. We will be faithful in regular worship attendance, small group bible study and prayer, growing in

spirit and grace, so that we experience the life transforming movement of God’s Spirit within us. 6. Leaders will model these behaviors of discipleship, being of one heart and soul, by continuing to

grow in spirit and grace, inspiring others to come alongside.

Church B

We will behave in such a way as to reflect the One-‐Anothers of the New Testament.

1. We will treat one another with love in all circumstances. (John 15:12) 2. We will pray for one another. (James 5:16) 3. We will encourage one another. (Hebrews 3:13) 4. We will not be divisive nor create factions, but will endeavor to be united and supportive of one

other. (1 Corinthians 1:10) 5. We will admit when we are wrong and will both seek and grant forgiveness with one another.

(Colossians 3:13) 6. We will rely on the reconciliation teachings of Jesus whenever conflict arises. (Matthew 18:15–

17) 7. We will seek one another's best interest above our own self-‐interest. (Romans 12:10) 8. We will be engaged in personal spiritual growth disciplines. (Colossians 3:16)

Once the Expected Behaviors have been adopted, it is vital that the leadership take these statements to heart and hold one-‐another accountable for them. In addition, the leaders should begin crafting an additional Leadership Covenant, remembering that leaders are held to a higher standard than members at large (see 1.5 below).

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The following resources will help you in developing your Expected Behaviors: Conflict CPR Training DVD set, the Church-‐Talk Training episodes Building Expected Behaviors and Bullies and Terrorists.

4.3 Develop and Embrace a Meaningful Leadership Covenant

Although the Expected Behaviors lays out an expectation for membership behavior, when it comes to congregational leaders it is unlikely that it will go far enough. Where more responsibility is given, more is expected … and a higher level of accountability is required. Because the church is not a business, even though paradoxically it should adhere to successful business practices, it must take seriously the need for church leaders to be Spiritual Leaders first and Corporate or Business Leaders a distant second. A congregation’s Leadership Covenant should be extended beyond just the staff and into every area of congregational leadership – from the Council to committee chairs to Sunday school teachers to the Women’s Group president, and anyone else who “leads” others in the church.

As a minimum, the Leadership Covenant should include a specific commitment to each of the following:

• To support and embody the congregational Expected Behaviors; • A commitment to support and embody the congregational DNA (mission, vision, values, etc.); • A commitment to attend corporate worship, except when Providentially prohibited; • A commitment to prayer, personal Bible study, and to participate in an adult disciple-‐

development group (Sunday School or Small Group); • A commitment to regularly sharing their faith/testimony with pre-‐Christians; • A commitment to their particular responsibilities as a leader (to attend the expected meetings,

etc.); • A commitment to being a Leadership Team member.

o As a Team Member, leaders are expected to fully support decisions made through either consensus or majority rule (as practiced by the congregation). If a leader is a member of the minority in a decision, once a decision has been reached (voted on, etc.), all leaders are expected to “buck up” and support the decision. In other words, there shall be no “meetings after the meeting,” no “parking lot meetings,” no email or telephone campaigns, etc. Indeed, if a member of the minority is questioned about the decision, their response should (must) be a litany of why the decision is helpful, good, and right for the congregation – because they are a member of the Leadership TEAM. Those who cannot be team players should enact the last Leadership Covenant clause.

• A commitment to resign without being asked if a leader cannot or will not fully embody the Leadership Covenant at any time.

Example

As a Leader of the Church, I Will …

• Embrace and model the congregation’s Discipleship Covenant. [this congregation’s Expected Behaviors Covenant]

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• Support the church with my time, my talent, my treasure, and my testimony. • Engage in many and varied spiritual disciplines daily, including prayer, study, and doing good

works. • Speak the truth in love, and refrain from speaking when my words will not build up the church. • Speak and act kindly towards one another both inside and outside of the church at all times. • Do and say nothing that would embarrass or impugn the church, its members, and/or its

leaders. • As a leader, if I enter a season of life when I am unable to live my life in keeping with these

expectations, I will step away from leadership with the expectation of reconciliation when my life once again reflects the values and behaviors of our church.

The process of developing a Leadership Covenant is similar to that of developing Expected Behaviors. In this case, however, the study would be to look at the expectations Jesus had on those he selected as leaders (the Apostles).

See the Conflict CPR Training DVD set for more information.

4.4 Discern and Define Your Core Values

The majority of the current Values Statements listed on the Pottstown website are more reflective of core beliefs rather than values. Indeed, each of them could be prefaced with the words “I believe” or “I believe in.”

• All People Matter to God • Gods Grace is Available to All • New Life is Possible • The Centrality of Scripture • Loving, Supporting Community • Inspiring Praise and Worship • We are the Body of Christ • Servant Leadership

Although some of these could be re-‐couched as Core Values, my recommendation is to start from scratch using the following guidelines.

Whereas a church’s mission defines why they exist, Core Values reflect what a church finds important within the scope of the mission. In the broadest possible terms, you can tell what’s really important to an individual or an organization by measuring two things: how they spend their money and how they spend their time. In other words, when given the opportunity to act without external constraints, our behavior will always be consistent with our values. To discover what’s really important to a church, one would look at the church budget and at the church’s calendar. For instance, many churches claim that they believe evangelism is important, and yet when they analyze their budget and calendar most of these churches realize that evangelism, for them, is little more than an idealized value … not a realized

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value. In other words, their “walk” doesn’t match their “talk.” Therefore, not only is it critical for a congregation to discern and define its Core Values, it must ensure that the Core Values set both the expectations and boundaries for congregational behavior, and for individuals as they do ministry in a congregational context.

One of the key benefits of congregationally defined and accepted Core Values is that they instill trust within and throughout the congregation. If Leader A is acting within the scope of the Mission and making decisions within the boundaries of the Core Values, then the congregation can rest assured the decisions made will reflect the church’s best interests.

To determine a church’s values, begin with a small group, such as an ad hoc committee or team, the executive team, or the board/council/session/vestry. Once again, engaging this process in a retreat setting is best. Note that the following process will need to be done in several blocks of time. Do NOT try and complete this task in one afternoon. Indeed, this process may well take several sessions spread over a period of time. Divide into small groups of three to five and have them peruse the Gospels and list the apparent values behind Jesus’ words and deeds. These lists will reflect idealized values that may or may not be currently reflected by the congregation. Reassemble the groups and combine and refine the collective work into a master list. As the lists are shared, be certain that the values accurately reflect Jesus’ words and deeds (for instance, if Family is suggested as a value, Gospel evidence will need to be demonstrated, remembering that projected inferences do not outweigh more direct statements and behaviors). Once the list is complete, each small group should then be given the task to pare the list down to ten Core Values they believe reflect the idealized and/or realized values of the larger congregation. When the groups are done, they again combine their lists and should come to consensus on only eight of the values. Generally, the group will find ways to refine and combine values that are similar in scope. The idea is to end with a list that not only reflects the ideal congregation, but reflects a realistic opportunity for the church to grow into.

Once the group reaches consensus around the Core Values, the next step is to share them using the ripple effect. Share with ever-‐increasing groups and get their feedback. Again, the goal is consensus and to get congregational support. Once this has been achieved, the congregation will need to vote to adopt the Core Values and then begin the process of living into them.

Remember that the congregation’s Core Values will determine how the congregation allocates its time and money. Therefore, ultimately, before any and every decision made within the congregation this question will need be answered: Is this decision reflective of our Core Values? If does not, then alternatives must be explored.

In addition, each year the leadership should evaluate how well the leadership and the congregation is reflecting the Core Values. This is done by doing a survey of both members of the congregation as well as non-‐members and even non-‐participants who are familiar with the church. For instance, if the church hosts a Scout troop or a Twelve-‐Step group, the congregation should also solicit representative participants from these groups as well.

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In gathering responses, a single question for each Core Value should be used. For example, if a congregation includes hospitality as one of its values, one of the survey questions would look like this:

“We will be gracious hosts and practice radical hospitality with everyone we meet.”

On a scale of 0–5, how well does this congregation reflect this Core Value?

Once all the responses are gathered, they should be sorted, tallied, and averaged with an aggregate score, a leadership score, a membership score, and a participant score. These scores should give the leaders and members pause to consider how to make adjustments in order to move from idealized values to increasingly realized values. By annualizing the scores, leadership will be able to make plans to vision-‐cast increasing alignment to the values as well as helping leaders internalize the values within the decision-‐making processes of the wider church.

The following are examples of Congregational Core Values in actual churches:

Church A

• A commitment to relevant, biblical preaching. We are committed to equipping Christians, through the preaching and teaching of God's Word, to follow Christ in every sphere of life.

• A commitment to the Body of Christ. We are committed to collaborative networks of autonomous people and groups, using their spiritual gifts for the common good of the Body of Christ.

• A commitment to prayer. The ministries and activities of this church will be characterized by a reliance on prayer in their conception, planning, and execution.

• A commitment to lay ministry. Whenever possible, the ministries of this church will be carried out by non-‐vocational servants. This will be accomplished through training opportunities and practices which encourage lay initiative, leadership, responsibility, and authority in various ministries of the church.

• A commitment to small groups. We are committed to small group ministry because this is where most individual transformation, conversion, and leadership development takes place.

• A commitment to the Holy Spirit. We are committed to creativity and innovation. In today's rapidly changing world, forms and methods must be continuously evaluated and, if necessary, altered to fit new conditions. We are more concerned with effectiveness in ministry than with adherence to tradition or efficiency. We applaud the use of wine skins.

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• A commitment to excellence. We seek to maintain a high standard of excellence in all of our ministries. This will be achieved when every person is exercising his or her God-‐given spiritual gift to the best of his or her ability.

• A commitment to growth. We believe that life is meant to be given away and that Christianity exists to share Christ with others. Therefore, we will pursue methods and policies that encourage numerical growth without compromising in any way our integrity or our commitment to biblical truth.”

Church B

“Our values are:

• Faith in Jesus Christ; • Passion for the Gospel; • Respect for all people; • Kindness; • Honesty; • Spiritual Growth; • Worship as a privilege and power of meeting God with other believers; • Community.

As I mentioned in the recommendation report, it seems likely that main core value of the Pottstown Church is:

• Intergenerational Ministry

In addition, I recommend seriously considering the following two core values for adoption. Of course, neither of these are current values and therefore will take both time and effort for them to become embedded.

• Prayer • Hospitality

One more possible core value could be:

• Committed to Downtown Pottstown

However, if this becomes a realized value, be aware that this comes with a commitment to “bloom where you’ve been planted,” though it doesn’t mean that you couldn’t create a multi-‐site campus sometime in the future to reach the spreading suburbs.

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4.5 Discern and Define a Compelling Vision

It is clear that the congregation as a whole, and to a lesser degree even the staff, is unclear about where Pottstown FUMC is heading. Without a vision of the preferred future, the church will lack both the will and the energy to make mission-‐critical decisions about future ministry.

The current vision statement is generally inadequate for setting a future course; indeed, it reads more like a secondary mission statement:

Our vision as a church is simple. We strive to know, grow in, serve and share Christ. This is our purpose and only reason for being.

A usable Vision Statement is life-‐giving, inspiring, motivating, ultimately captures the heart and propels people into ministry and mission. Vision statements are longer than the mission statement (which should fit onto a bumper sticker or on the back of a tee-‐shirt). They include two parts:

1. The Vision Heart. The heart of the vision is like a motto, a “slug,” or some memorable device that captures the imagination. For instance, a church in Saskatchewan has embraced the heart of their vision with the words “Bless You!” The Vision Heart can be words, an image, or even a song. The key to the vision’s heart is that once it finds a place in a member’s mind it is impossible to shake it.

2. The Vision Statement. The Vision Statement is the “business end” of the vision’s heart. The Vision Statement explains and expounds upon the heart. A workable Vision Statement is:

• Specific • Measureable • Actionable • Time Sensitive

However, don’t be misled into believing that a compelling Vision Statement is a business model that ensures success. A godly vision is always beyond reach (see Judges 7), but it is never de-‐motivating because of its overwhelming scope. The fact is, a godly vision is God-‐given and cannot be discerned or “created” in a boardroom. It comes from the soul of a faithful congregation. There are a number of resources available to help you discern your vision, including Easum’s Unfreezing Moves, the Church-‐Talk audio podcast The W5H Plan, and the Church-‐Talk Training DVD Developing Your DNA.

During the on site visit it became clear that there was some confusion about the “target” of ministry at Pottstown FUMC. Some were concerned that the church was not attracting local residents into the congregation as members, while others weren’t certain that the local residents were the target for new members. During the visioning process, the congregation will want to get clear about the difference between “Those we serve” and “Those who serve.” The former group is those who are recipients of missional ministries of the church. Although the goal of these ministries must be at least two-‐fold (to serve as well as to introduce and/or disciple those who receive), the reality is that few are likely to

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become active members; certainly we expect that some will become members, but the current local residents are unlikely to swell the rolls anytime soon. However, the latter group – those who serve – are likely prospects for membership in the congregation. It will be critical for those in church leadership to understand the difference between these two groups and to plan ministries, publicity, and outreach-‐evangelism with these differences in mind.

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Recommendation 5: Get Off Life Support: Stop Surviving and Start Thriving

DO NOT EVEN BEGIN THIS RECOMMENDATION UNTIL AFTER RECOMMENDATIONS 1–4 ARE COMPLETE

As mentioned in the Priority Comments and elsewhere, currently there are few first-‐time guests visiting each week, and fewer getting involved and ultimately becoming members. This is an untenable situation and must be corrected as soon as possible. However, the “obvious” response may seem for a church to rally behind a marketing and word-‐of-‐mouth invitation campaign. Although an influx of guests looks good, the fact is, the church already has guests coming to the tune of over 40 new folks a year. Unless something changes, it wouldn’t make a lot of difference if over 400 visitors each year showed up … nearly 90 percent of them won’t stay. Therefore, it is important that the following parts of this recommendation be completed in the order presented. Currently, Pottstown First United Methodist Church is not ready for guests.

5.1 Ratchet Up the Hospitality Level for Guests and Members Alike

In our experience, we’ve never found a church that didn’t believe it was one of the friendliest churches in town. However, most of the time this belief is based on how members treat each other rather than how visitors or guests are received. It was revealing that, when some of the church’s leaders experienced the hospitality of the Morning Star Fellowship, the hospitality deficit for the Pottstown FUMC was noticed.

The following recommendation are specific to the Pottstown situation; however, I highly recommend forming a Hospitality Team and equipping them with the FlipYourChurch Hospitality Training DVD set and allowing them to be fully responsible and giving them the full authority for implementing “whatever it takes” for the church to deliver “excellent hospitality” to the FUMC visitors and guests, remembering that many of the guests will have limited (or no) church experience.

A. Provide Excellent Signage – Inside and Out Although “everyone” knows where the front door of the church is, the fact is, not everyone knows where the front door of the church is – and if a guest parks in the side or the rear parking lot, it’s easy to get confused about where to enter the church. Indeed, once a guest walks through the “front door” it’s not immediately clear where to go next … In fact, the Welcome sign at the fellowship hall entrance seems to beckon “Yes, THIS is the way to the Worship Center.” Frankly, the first time I walked into the church, that’s where I headed. The existing sign that points the way to the Worship Center is obscure, undersized, poorly placed, and difficult to see (unless you’ve seen it before). And though there should be door greeters at every exterior door of the church (see below), it’s important that signage be provided as a backup. On Sundays, consider adding banners on stands outside of the church and inside the stairway vestibule.

Guests finding their way into the church building by a route other than the front doors are faced a dilemma – navigating the hallowed halls of the church. Indeed, guests who enter from any other of the

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door could easily find themselves totally lost. Then there’s the restroom issue ... the signs that exist throughout the building are not easily seen – and at least one seems to promise a restroom, but the men’s restroom is nearly invisible.

The signage test for excellent hospitality is this. From any hallway or large room (the fellowship hall or worship space, for instance), a guest should be able to see a directional sign that points them to the (1) Worship Center; (2) Restrooms; and (3) the nursery. If there is any place in the church that a guest could not see a sign pointing to any of these locations, then hospitality gets low marks.

To be most visible, signs should generally be perpendicular to a wall, rather than flush against a wall. This allows the sign to be thrust out into otherwise empty space, thus making the signage more visible from a distance.

There are those who advocate that signs also point guests to the office, and this is up to the local congregation. Typically, the only people who need to find the church office are church members or vendors.

B. Set Aside More Guest Parking and Provide Adequate Parking Signs First, FUMC gets high marks for having designated parking for visitors; however, it is doubtful that a guest could actually find these parking spaces since they’re tucked away in the ally to the west of the facilities. In addition, there were few designated parking spaces. The rule of thumb is to provide guest parking spaces for approximately 10 percent of the Worship Center’s normal capacity divided by the average number of people who ride together (~2.5). Thus, Pottstown FUMC should provide approximately eight guest parking spots. These reserved spaces should be the most coveted and convenient parking spaces. If appears that the ally may indeed be the best location. If that is so, it appears that every space in the ally should be guest parking (the Handicapped spaces should not be displaced, but the organist’s spot should be surrendered for the sake of future guests).

Replace the current signs with new, non-‐weathered and rusted signs. In addition, purchase a sandwich board or some other prominent signage to place on the sidewalk on Sunday mornings (and for any other guest welcoming event) that points out the availability of guest parking.

Since off-‐street parking is at a premium and well-‐hidden, provide highly visible signage that points the way to these hidden gems so that guests and those less familiar with the community can easily find a place to park.

NOTE: Finally, since off-‐street parking is at a premium, able-‐bodied members should avoid parking in these areas, choosing instead to be disadvantaged and park at least one block from the church in order for those who are guests and those who are truly disadvantaged can enjoy the premium parking that’s been made available by the charity and graciousness of the congregation’s membership.

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C. Put Your Best Foot Forward: Deploy Your Greeters Effectively 1. Identify and Deploy Greeters

On my visit, there were no greeters at any of the church’s exterior doors. In fact, a visitor who dropped in would have been hard-‐pressed to figure out whether there was any life in the church, especially for the second service, since there wasn’t a soul to be found on the ground level anywhere near any of the entrances. This should be rectified immediately.

There should be at least one greeter outside of every entrance door to the church. Greeters should be posted outside of the doors and should remain outside at least fifteen minutes after the service has started. They should also be redeployed ten minutes prior to the benediction in order to hold doors and invite each person to return the following week (“Thanks for coming, we’d love to see you next week!”). Again, these greeters should be redeployed to each door of the church building, not just the main doors.

Finally, each serving greeter should wear a prominent badge or button that identifies them as a member of the Pottstown FUMC hospitality team. These buttons should serve as an open invitation for guests to seek directions or information. They could be brightly colored and proclaim “Ask Me!” or more subdued and labeled “First Church Greeter,” but in any case they must be prominently displayed. Some churches have gone so far as to provide matching blazers, vests, or even white gloves for their hospitality team in order to facilitate easy identification (and location) by guests.

I recommend that Joan Landis and Melissa Caballero be tapped as your chief front-‐door greeters, since both are exceptionally welcoming and gregarious. Indeed, they should be charged with finding like-‐minded people with passion and train them in over-‐the-‐top welcoming.

Remember:

• Greeters stand outside the doors regardless of the weather. • Greeters take their posts at least 15 minutes before the worship starts. • Greeters do not leave their posts until the worship service has been going on for at least 10

minutes. • Greeters retake their posts 10 minutes before the service is over.

2. Identify and Deploy Ushers

In North America at large, and especially in the church, the art of ushing seems to have been lost. Except at the most elaborate weddings, gone are the times when an usher asks each person whether they have a seating preference. And yet, in churches such as FUMC, this could be one of the top-‐shelf hospitality services.

I have included the Introduction of my upcoming book First Impressions in Appendix A as a brief introduction to the art of being an usher. In short, every person who enters the worship center should be asked their seating preference. Of course, most members will choose to seat themselves, but when the sanctuary is filling up, they may well accept assistance. Guests are the most likely recipients of being

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shown to a seat. When an usher “does this right” by the time the guest is seated, the usher and the guest will have established a cursory bond of familiarity, so that when the guest returns, the usher will recognize them and greet them (preferably by name). In any event, the fact that ushers are deployed and are seating members and guests ratchets up the hospitality level significantly.

As with the greeters, the ushers should be identified clearly as members of the hospitality team.

3. Identify and Deploy Hosts

Hosts are the next-‐to-‐last layer of hospitality that a guest will experience. Hosts serve in a number of venues in a congregation. First, they staff the Information Kiosk (see below for specific information). Second, they are deployed throughout the common areas of the building to direct “lost” guests and to answer questions. Third, a Pottstown First Methodist Church host (or team of hosts) should provide hospitality services whenever the building is being used by an outside group (imagine the effect on an AA group when a member of the host church ensures there’s ample coffee and is there to answer any questions for their weekly meeting). And finally, they are salted throughout the worship center to meet and greet guests and members as well as to provide answers for any questions.

Again, refer to Appendix A for characteristic details of these important members of the hospitality team.

In the worship center, hosts should be responsible for only a few “pews” to facilitate their ability to chat with each worship participant before and following the service. The host should introduce themselves to anyone they don’t already know. The key word here is “know.” If someone sitting in their section is someone they’ve “seen” at the church many times, but the host doesn’t know the person’s name, how they came to be at church, how long they’ve been coming, and what they do in their day-‐to-‐day lives, then they need to be introduced.

Please see the Hospitality Training DVD for detailed instructions on effective guest conversations.

Hosts should be deployed in a different section each week so that they are always getting to know different people (and returning guests have an opportunity to connect with an additional Pottstown First United Methodist Church member).

Finally, like the greeters and the ushers, hosts should be clearly identified as members of the hospitality team.

4. Train and Deploy Congregational Hosts

One of the most misunderstood concepts of church membership is the privileges versus responsibilities aspect. Indeed, a study done some time ago indicated that over 80 percent of long-‐term members believed the church existed “to serve my needs.” Jesus was clear that the church exists to reach those outside the Kingdom and that those who followed him were to be sacrificial servants. Thus it is critical that the Pottstown First United Methodist Church come to the realization that their members are not there to be served, but to serve. Members are not guests at the church – every member is a host. They

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host for One-‐Another (their brothers and sisters in Christ) and more importantly, they host for guests who make their way to the church.

Good hosts have the attitude that their primary task is to ensure their guests both feel welcome and at home. This can only be accomplished when the FUMC Members embrace their mission to help build life-‐changing relationships with those who visit. And so, when an usher asks a member to slide in to the center of the pew so a guest (or even another member) can be seated on the aisle, not only do they do so, they do so with gratitude that they’ve been allowed to offer a small sacrifice for the sake of the Kingdom.

Therefore, it’s important that the church’s leadership engage in ongoing member host training from the pulpit, in Sunday School, in small groups, in the newsletter, etc. To keep the host-‐culture active, this training will need to be ever before the congregation in order to remind them. This training should include how to have effective conversations with members and guests (see C above) and reminders that each is expected to reach out beyond their own circles of influence to greet, meet, and even befriend One-‐Another and guests in the congregation.

D. Make a Great First Impression: Provide Beverage Service Prior To and During Services I suspect this particular recommendation will come with some sharp intake of breath by some. However, in today’s unchurched culture, there’s nothing that says welcome quite so warmly as the convenience of hot coffee, tea, and hot chocolate or lemonade for younger participants. Indeed, a 2011 survey by Net Results magazine indicated that a majority of churches today provide and allow refreshments in the worship center.

Creating the beverage area will necessitate the removal of one or two rows of pews at the rear of the worship center (unless room is somehow allocated in the worship center lobby).

When making a coffee choice, be aware that in many locales there is a distinct coffee preference based largely on age. In these areas, those who are approximately sixty-‐plus years old may prefer a good Mid-‐West coffee (MJB, Folgers, Maxwell House, Farmers, Bunn, etc.). However, those younger than sixty, and certainly those younger than forty, have a strong preference for a premium coffee (Starbucks, Seattle’s Best, Gavalia, etc.). In addition, there is also a preference towards a fair-‐trade coffee. It may be best if the Pottstown FUMC provided both coffee choices; however, if only one choice will be provided, opt for the premium coffee.

Finally, rather than serving coffee in polystyrene cups, it is generally a better practice to use well-‐made coffee cups with lids like the one shown. These have become the standard for portable coffee cups, but also offer the best protection of the church furnishings when they tip over, since they tend to keep their lids in place and only a small amount of liquid escapes.

E. Send a Positive Message to Guests (and Members): Unlock the Doors! When the church building is “open” for members and guests alike, there is nothing that says “We don’t trust you” any more clearly than when they discover doors and cabinets and refrigerators and closets

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locked, chained, and padlocked. Certainly, there are utility cupboards and staff offices and unoccupied wings of the church that should be locked, and access to the nursery and the children’s education wing must be secure, but by and large, both guests and members should be able to navigate relatively unencumbered by these less-‐than-‐discreet “Thou Shalt Not!” metaphors.

On the other hand, outside doors should all be unlocked, or else there should be a clear, readable-‐from-‐a-‐distance sign that indicates the locked status of the door so that disoriented guests don’t have to go around shaking door knobs or tugging on door handles to discover the “right” door to go in. In addition, it would be helpful if there were sandwich board signs or some other directional signage that pointed the way to the church entrance in the atrium area, as well as in the back parking lot.

F. Raise the Level of Excellence for Your Nursery In terms of young family hospitality the current nursery is seriously under-‐par in almost every aspect. Gen-‐X and Millennial parents have been tagged as Helicopter Parents because they virtually “hover” over their children. Many of these parents seem overprotective by the likes of Baby Boomer and older generations, but the reality is that the church must come to grips with what IS not with what they think OUGHT to be. With that in mind, these recommendations are already overdue.

To begin with, the infants and the toddlers share a single room. Although I’m sure this is convenient for staffing, it is far from ideal. The nursery should not be a “holding place” for kids while the parents go to worship – it should be an integral part of the congregation’s comprehensive discipleship program. Even infants should be exposed to the love and compassion of Jesus through touch, story, and song. Toddlers should receive a planned curriculum that introduces them to the reality of God and Jesus. Because infants and toddlers have different developmental needs, as well as teaching needs, combining them in a single space is counterproductive.

Secondly, although the nursery appears to have a fresh coat of paint, the walls and the décor was not particularly inspiring. Today’s successful daycares, nurseries, preschools are not only well lit, they are bright, cheerful, educational, and inviting. Those responsible for decorating the space pictured should be given a paintbrush and a hefty budget to remodel the nursery.

However, all other issues aside, one of the most problematic issues with the nursery (and childcare in general) is the total lack of security. In a culture where fully 50 percent of all marriages have (and are) ending in divorce and with 20 percent of all households with children being led by a single parent, the concerns about non-‐custodial parents are forefront in the minds of many, many parents. The Pottstown First United Methodist nursery and toddler space is unacceptably accessible by anyone. For instance, a non-‐custodial parent could easily show up during a worship service and enter through the exterior door without raising any alarm (as I showed on the video during the Recommendation’s Report). Then the could go into the nursery, which appears to be routinely unlocked, open the door and when little Junior cries with glee “Daddy!!!!” (or “Mommy!!!!” or “Grandma!!!!”) could scoop him in arms and exit without being seriously challenged. Therefore, the following recommendations can and should be addressed immediately.

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Please see the Hospitality DVD and the Church-‐Talk episode Five S’s of a Great Nursery (http://bit.ly/qID4Zv) for additional information.

Secure. In today’s world, it’s not safe to leave your children just anywhere. Many parents today have to contend with the fears that a non-‐custodial parent or grandparent or even a stranger may make an attempt to remove a child from an unsecure space. Church nurseries and children’s educational space have historically been particularly vulnerable to such attempts, since we want to naturally believe the best of everyone. Many parents, therefore, are hesitant to leave their children in the care of the church. It is imperative, therefore, that the church take measures to ensure the security of their charges.

First, I recommend the nursery be relocated to what is the current Choir/Handbells Room on the main level. The close proximity to the worship center will be a comfort to helicopter parents. In addition, it can (and should) be remodeled to provide a secure space for the children.

There are many ways to secure a nursery and the children today, but the most effective security measure is presence. It would be a simple matter to put a desk at the entrances that lead to the children’s areas and staff that desk during all events. Yes, this is “expensive” in terms of getting volunteers in place, but it will be much less expensive than the lawsuit the church will lose if one of their charges is snatched.

The nursery and educational space should have limited access to custodial family members and the children should be checked in and out using one of the many systems designed for this purpose. The chosen system need not be expensive – even a paper checkout receipt could be used. In addition, it would be hospitable to develop a call system so that parents could be notified in case they are needed. Of course, there are a number of professional systems available, similar to the “beepers” that restaurants use to notify patrons their tables are ready. However, a system using the parent’s cell phones (have them put their phone on vibrate) would be adequate and cost effective as well. It would also be especially good to have a couple of Pay-‐as-‐You-‐Go phones to loan for those parents who may not have a cell phone.

Finally, if you really want to make a great impression on these parents, install a recording video security system in the nursery and toddler rooms … and let the parents know about the details.

Staffing. The nursery should be staffed whenever there is an onsite church function, including council, committee, and team meetings. It should also be available for many of the offsite organized functions such as “small group night,” choir parties, Christmas outings, and so on. Before any event that makes it onto the church calendar someone on the planning team should be checking to see if nursery care would enhance the attendance. If so, then the nursery should be open. It is true, especially at first, that the nursery might not be heavily used for events. However, by not offering it, the church ensures that the attendance at future events will be limited to the childless.

The nursery should be staffed by at least two unrelated adults who have passed a thorough local, state, and national background check. Although a number of volunteers can provide the nursery care, when

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there are regularly scheduled events, such as worship and weekly small groups, it is important for both parents and their children that the nursery staffing is consistent. At least one person in the nursery should be professional staff for these regular events in order to ensure familiarity with the children and the families.

Safety. First, younger parents want to ensure their child is going to be in a safe environment. That means that there are no safety hazards such as televisions on media carts, dangling cords, accessible electrical outlets, unsafe cribs, playpens, or toys. In addition, I have to wonder if the cribs, high chairs, etc. have been checked against current recall lists: http://1.usa.gov/ibfWZx.

Sanitary. Second, younger parents look to see if their child is likely to leave with communicable illnesses after their child’s nursery stay. They look for cleanliness first, accessibility of washing stations, obvious sanitation provisions, such as conspicuous wall-‐mounted Purel dispensers, and the state of the toys. The staff should wipe down toys and all surfaces with disinfectant wipes after every use, and at the end of the day.

Sizzle. Today’s helicopter parents expect more than warehousing of their children wherever they are. Even malls and Wal Mart kid care spaces include brightly colored motifs, educational toys, and the like. In today’s church the nursery and childcare must do more than just look efficient. They should be outfitted with learning toys (think Baby Einstein). They should have brightly colored murals and mobiles. They should be high tech. According to a 2010–11 study by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and the Sesame Workshop, nearly 80 percent of children between 0–5 use the internet on at least a weekly basis.2 The implications of this study suggest that interactivity is more important than every before when teaching children. The days of “sit still and let me tell you a story” have past. The church will need to get on board with digital tools for the nursery and all areas of childcare if it is to reach young families. Nurseries that sizzle impress young families with their 5 S’s to begin with … but the continue to impress because of their heart. However, it’s all for naught if a parent won’t leave their child in your care.

G. Embrace the Platinum Rule of Hospitality In a nutshell, the Platinum Rule of Hospitality includes: Thou Shalt Not

• Embarrass thy guests • Confuse thy guests • Ignore thy guests • Overwhelm thy guests

This is well covered in the Hospitality DVD Training Set, but the here are the basics – and none of these are all-‐inclusive, exhaustive lists, but highlight some of the faux pas we see regularly in churches.

2 http://joanganzcooneycenter.org/Reports-‐28.html

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A guest may become embarrassed if:

• They are identified or singled out during the service (let’s have all our guests stand up so we can greet them)

• They need to use the restroom during the service and have no idea which direction to go • Everyone around them knows the words to recite, but they don’t know them • Everyone else stands (or sits or kneels) and they find themselves sticking out • They get lost in your building

A guest may become confused if:

• The bulletin or the screen doesn’t reflect what’s actually going on • The rest of the congregation seems to know what to do, but they have no idea • They don’t know how (or if) to take communion • They get lost in your building

A guest may feel ignored if:

• No one talks to them • Only the greeters and/or ushers talk to them • People don’t meet their eyes and acknowledge them in a friendly manner • Only the pastor speaks to them • The pastor doesn’t speak to them • No one, or very few people, greet them during the greeting time or after the service

A guest may become overwhelmed if:

• They are identified or singled out during the service • Too many people make their way over to speak to them – especially during a greeting time or

after the service • They are expected to hold hands with strangers (or anyone, for that matter)

Please use the Hospitality DVD set for training your congregation to be sensitive to guests.

H. Spruce up the Facilities – Both Inside and Out Although the church building is structurally sound, it is showing its wear and tear. It’s time to break out the paint, etc. and make the building look as welcoming, active, and alive as possible. Starting with the outside front and working in through the most public spaces (the hallway, stairway, elevator entrance and passage, worship center, etc.). Don’t just go for maintenance, but go the extra mile to make a great first impression. For instance, consider repainting/refurbishing anything that smacks of 1950s Institutional colors. Think vibrant and alive!

Remodel and retrofit the restrooms with self-‐flushing toilets (or at least, upgrade the urinals so they release enough water to fully flush the smells that accompany the men’s rooms). Any fixtures rusted or

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corroded should be replaced or sanded, sealed, and repainted. Redecorate the restrooms so that they are not just clean and pass the sniff test, but they sparkle with gender-‐specific décor and scents. When there’s space, the women’s restrooms should have ample space for conversation and relaxing (replace the chair shown with something more comfortable and stylish).

In time, consider replacing the awning at the front of the church building with one that reflects a vibrant congregation rather than a sedate, secure apartment building.

Finally, one of the least expensive changes that could be made would be to keep the trash picked up around the building (and in the atrium), as well as bringing in the mail rather than letting is weather in the postboxes. Remember, if it looks like you don’t care, it’s doubtful anyone will care about being a part of the congregation … you won’t get a second opportunity to make a great first impression.

I. Postpone the Modern Service Until You Reach 150 in Average Worship Attendance I realize that this may be a hard pill to swallow for those who love the Modern Worship Service; however, note that this is but a temporary measure – see Recommendation 9.1.

Currently, the Modern Worship Service demands significant energy and resources just to offer it. The energy and resources are sorely needed in the traditional worship service in order to raise the level of excellence and hospitality.

J. Provide Nursery, Children, and Youth Programming During Worship According to the American Religious Identification Survey (from Trinity College, Hartford, CN) the fastest growing “religious” affiliation growing in North America is the unaffiliated. Called the church of the nones by scholars, these are people who were once affiliated with the Christian faith, but have “opted out” of faith. Although many, perhaps even a majority, were raised in the church, they have turned their backs on their upbringing. The reasons for their departure are myriad, but one of the chief reasons the unchurched give for avoiding “church” is because it is irrelevant and doesn’t speak to them or their needs.

Given the above, there are two sad realities facing us in these times. First, the vast majority of those in our communities have little to no sustained church experience. This means that they don’t know what to expect when they visit a church, including how to behave – especially if they have children. Second, because of our culture’s busy schedule, fewer churched folks are willing to give up multiple hours on their Sunday for both Sunday school and worship. Indeed, increasingly churches across the US are abandoning their Sunday school programs completely.

These two realities create a serious issue when a visiting family shows up for the average worship service. If the church does not provide children and youth programming during the worship service,

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these visiting families, many of whom have little or no experience in church, must try to keep their children occupied during worship.

As I attended the Sunday morning worship services, I was struck by the families with elementary and youth in the services. As I watched them, it was clear that some were uncomfortable, most were bored, and some families had brought “tools” to keep the their children occupied. These children did their best to “behave,” but it was clear the primary religious training they were getting from the service was to try to sit still and be quiet. Beyond that, I watched the parents, mostly mothers I might add, who were not able to engage fully in the worship experiences because they were constantly distracted by their children’s inquiries, rolling crayons, and trying the “next” thing to ensure their children were “appropriate” in worship. I suspect that there were a number of parents who couldn’t have provided the gist of the sermon if they’d been asked following the service.

When it comes to children and youth, there are primarily two functions of the church’s ministry. First, the church must provide a foundation of knowledge in the faith. This includes the biblical stories, the great biblical themes, and an indoctrination and introduction into the Christian faith. Over the years, the church has done pretty well at this function. Children who have grown up in the church and have attended Sunday school and other Christian education events have, by and large, walked away with the Christian basics and the church has brought perhaps even a majority of these children to the waters of baptism. However, with the rise of post-‐modernity, we’ve come to understand that “knowledge” of the faith isn’t enough. Our nation is filled with baptized adults who were well indoctrinated into the faith, but who have since joined the church of the nones. We now know that knowledge must be paired with experience. The church, therefore, is faced with two very real options. We can expose our children and youth to a model of worship that is relevant, moving, touching, and inspiring to an adult target and hope the children and youth can appropriate a positive experience of worship. Or we can intentionally provide a worship experience that is relevant, moving, touching, and inspiring to our children and to our youth.

Children’s Worship

Begin by launching a full children’s worship service simultaneous with the current worship service.

Worship practices for these services should be designed to offer relevant experiences of authentic worship for children in first or second through fifth grades (and nursery/toddler care should be offered for those younger). Because children are still developing their attention span, the worship should include a variety of opportunities for movement and for the full spectrum of senses and learning styles.

The service should not be seen as a preparation step for “big church”; instead, the service should move, touch, and inspire the children where they are, not where we hope they will be in ten or more years. Music, prayers, and teaching should primarily match their vocabulary and their developmental stages. The service should include interactive teaching rather than preaching. Crafts and refreshments and

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large-‐muscle activities are probably the order of the day as well.3 And, perhaps most importantly, the worship should include an opportunity to “respond” to the working of the Holy Spirit in every service.

I recommend the service be located in the gym, as this allows for plenty of space.

Youth Worship

When it comes to working with youth, the best program is to invite a youth group to design worship – and keep the parents and youth leaders out of it. Believe it or not, when left to their own devices, they’ll create an experience that is pretty much unlike anything churched adults have experienced. Interestingly enough, we’re seeing that churches who switch from straight youth programming (youth groups) to a focus on youth worship see a dramatic increase in youth participation.

The Best of Both Worlds

Christ United Methodist Church launched a revolution in November 2000 when they created the first Big House production on a Sunday evening (www.TheBigHouse.info). The Big House takes children worship to the next level and participants young and old experience the heart of worship. The Big House takes advantage of a well known, but under-‐utilized, learning trait: kids mimic and learn exceptionally well from the next-‐oldest group. Think about it, no one “Wows” a seven-‐year-‐old like a twelve-‐year-‐old. And even a parent’s influence on their twelve-‐year-‐old may pale in the face of a seventeen-‐year-‐old.

The creators of The Big House made use of the next-‐oldest dynamic by empowering their youth to create an interactive, exciting worship experience for children. With guidance by creative and youth-‐savvy adults, each week the Christ United Methodist youth group puts on a children’s worship that has kids coming from miles around.

Pottstown FUMC should consider developing their children’s worship as a project from the youth. Ultimately, the children’s worship project could become one of the primary outreach foci of the youth fractal.

5.2 Intentionally Adopt Your Guests

Although the numbers of first-‐time guests dropping in to Pottstown FUMC are few, fewer still are those who return and who become involved. Although the church would be in no danger of a growth explosion if you simply managed to retain 75 percent of your guests, until the church is adept at guest-‐retention, sustainable growth will remain elusive. Implementing the following recommendations will increase your retention rate significantly.

Please see Appendix B for an extended article on turning first-‐time guests into fully committed members.

3 Some of the best entry-‐level materials for this service could be old Vacation Bible School materials (Finally! a use for that cupboard full of previous VBS kits.).

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A. Learn the Art of Every Member a Host It will be critical that all members of the congregation take to heart that they are not there to be served, but to serve. Each member must make a conscientious decision to recognize that they are congregational hosts … that they are not guests. A host is someone who puts themselves out for the sake of their guests. They prepare their “home” and go the extra mile for their guests … and those with a gift for hospitality know no bounds to the lengths they’ll go to help their guests feel comfortable and welcome. This is a picture of what every member at the Pottstown FUMC must embrace if this turnaround is to be successful – and here’s a secret … once this culture is in place, your guests will quickly turn into hosts themselves.

I recommend showing the “Hosts and Guests” and “Effective Guest Conversations” segments of the Hospitality DVD set during a set of hospitality training worship services.

B. Provide Space for Connecting When I visited the traditional worship service, there was a clear expectation that those in the worship center were expected to be respectfully quiet and introspective. This being so, the limited conversations that did take place were brief and hushed. Although this style of preliminary worship has its advocates, it is also a guarantee that members will miss a significant opportunity to connect with visitors and guests. And though I recognize that there are those in the congregation who may be less than enamored with this recommendation, it’s important to remember that for the Pottstown First United Methodist Church to thrive, significant changes will be required. This is one of those changes.

Since there are limited opportunities for members to make significant connections with visitors and guests, change the pre-‐worship culture from one of silent reverence to one of welcoming conversation. This may mean that rather than an organ prelude, piped music plays in the background for at least thirty minutes before worship begins. Of course, providing beverage services prior to and during the service will be helpful in changing this culture, but the members of the congregation will need to be intentional in raising the noise and conversation level in the worship center.

In addition, I recommend adding a “Meet and Greet Time” during the worship service to facilitate conversation. To pull this off effectively, it will be necessary to train membership to utilize this Meet-‐and-‐Greet time effectively. Typically, a meet-‐and-‐greet (passing of peace) time of shaking hands with folks sitting nearby creates virtually no feelings of being warmly welcomed by visitors or guests. In general, the greeting time is contrived at best and there almost seems to be an in-‐house contest going on between some to see how many hands they can shake in the two-‐minute allotment. However, these moments can be leveraged to get contact information from visitors and guests by training members to be intentional with their greeting. Instead of trying to shake many hands, members should be encouraged to identify people they don't know or recognize and then to go to these folks and have a real conversation.

In effective greeting times, members stand, take a moment to look around and identify someone they don't recognize or don’t know well, and then approach these folks with an opening line such as, "Hi, I'm Betty. I don't think we've met" or if the greeting is with a familiar face, “I’d like to get to know you

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better.” Once introductions are made, engage the new acquaintance with questions about them. Get to know them just a bit in the two minute "fellowship time." The coup de grace of the conversation is to personally invite them to an upcoming event (small group meeting, etc.) and to ask them for their contact information in order to follow-‐up. Once the information is obtained, two things should happen. First, the member should follow-‐through with the follow-‐up … meet their new friend for the concert or whatever as promised. Second, the information should be communicated to the pastor or to the hospitality team before the member leaves the premises. This information will be used in the congregational follow-‐up system.

C. Connect Guests to Members Although it’s important for a visitor to form a great first impression and to feel welcome, it’s equally important that they make a significant connection with an existing member who will essentially “sponsor” the guest into the congregation. Remember, at its current size, guests to Pottstown FUMC only become integrated members by being intentionally “adopted” by the larger congregation.

Although there are a number of ways that visitors or guests can make a connection with the congregation, one of the most efficient and effective ways is to connect with someone in the congregation who has similar interests, hobbies, or avocations. Unfortunately, in most churches this kind of connection only happens through serendipitous circumstances or after a guest has become a well-‐integrated member. However, the Pottstown FUMC cannot afford for this to be a hit-‐or-‐miss proposition if it is to ensure visitors become returning guests who ultimately become members.

Therefore, to facilitate these connections, it will be imperative that every worshipping participant gets to know as many other worshipping participant well enough to know (and remember) other member’s interests. Of course, this should be much easier now that the 5.2a-‐b are being implemented. During those worship services when the first-‐time visitor and/or returning guests are not immediately accessible (because they’re being greeted by others in closer proximity), the worship participants should identify those whom they do not know well and be intentional in making their way across the worship center to have a meaningful conversation that includes more than a commentary on the weather or the Phillies. Get to know what one-‐another do in their spare time, what their interests are, etc. so that when you chat with a visitor or guest and you discover they love scuba diving, you are able to recall that Betty used to be a Navy deep sea diver and so the two might hit it off. Then make the introduction.

D. Make Time for New Friends THIS IS A KEY RECOMMENDATION. FAILURE TO EMBRACE, ENACT, AND EMBED THIS RECOMMENDATION WILL LIKELY LEAD TO FAILURE OF THE TRANSFORMATION PROCESS

This is one of two areas I typically get the most pushback: the members and participants at the Pottstown First United Methodist Church must make room in their busy lives for a new friend or two. Yes, I know everyone is already too busy to maintain relationships with their family members, let alone their current friends, but as I said above … this is a KEY recommendation. If this doesn’t happen, all the rest of this process will be for naught.

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When an opportunity presents itself, that is, when you seem to have some affinity with a particular visitor or guest, you must avail yourself of the opportunity to invite the acquaintance to the next level. In other words, make it a point to go to lunch, have coffee, go fishing, share a movie, go clubbing, take a bike ride, or whatever it takes to build the next level relationship. If a connection can be made, make it. By so doing, you will be essentially “sponsoring” the guest into the congregation by virtue of your relationship. Remember, adoption is necessary for effective church growth at your current size (and honestly it’s true at some level for every church size).

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Recommendation 6: Start Growing

NOTE: DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS UNTIL ALL OF THE ABOVE HAS BEEN ADOPTED AND THE WELCOMING CLIMATE IS IMPROVING

6.1 Allow Your Pastor to Be the Church’s Primary Growth Catalyst

The Issue

Probably the most eyebrow-‐raising church turnaround principle is that the only way a turnaround church sees significant growth is when the pastor initiates, leads, models, and is accomplished at bringing new people into the church. In other words, if the church is going to grow, at least initially, it will be at the hand of the pastor. There are a variety of reasons for this, but the reality is this: if the membership had the ability to grow the church, they would have done it. Indeed, there’s no question that church members been asked (implored, cajoled, guilted, shamed, etc.) to invite their friends, relatives, acquaintances, neighbors, co-‐workers, and everyone else, but either they have been unsuccessful or they haven’t acquiesced to do so.

A general unwillingness to invite others to attend worship is the plight of much of the North American church. The root cause of this situation is that the vast majority of churches suffer from low self-‐esteem. It’s not that these church members don’t love their churches. They do. And many, if not most, thoroughly enjoy the worship services that they’ve become accustomed to. However, when pressed, and when honesty prevails, most of these same members admit they don’t invite their friends to their church because their friends wouldn’t [choose one or more]

• … understand • ... enjoy • … appreciate • … get anything out of

their church’s worship service. In other words, it’s fine for them, but it wouldn’t be for their friends. And even in those churches where a turnaround process has taken place and the hospitality, follow-‐up, and worship service has become guest-‐friendly, they won’t suddenly start inviting others. When it comes to church transformations, all church members are from the “Show Me!” state. They won’t reengage invitational evangelism until they get so excited by what is happening in their church that they can’t help it. And that is why the pastor must initiate, lead, model, and accomplish bringing a significant number of people into the church. Until they do, and until they are sufficiently successful in bringing in a near-‐

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overwhelming number of new people, those who were initially a part of the turnaround will not engage in most evangelistic and invitational opportunities.4

Give Your Pastor the Space to Become the Church’s Growth Catalyst

Like most pastors on the front-‐side of a turnaround, your pastor has been tasked with a great number of responsibilities that would prevent him from being the congregational growth catalyst. In other words, your pastor is so busy with taking care of the current church that it isn’t possible for him to grow the church. To remedy that, the congregation will need to be intentional (and perhaps insistent) that the pastor stops doing a number of these tasks in order to spend the necessary time to grow the church. The following specific recommendations will provide the space for the pastor to become an effective church growth catalyst.

A. Change Priorities to Fully Support the Church’s Mission and Vision One of the key differences pastors of transformational churches must make is to refocus their energies specifically towards mission achievement and alignment. At this point, the church cannot afford fuzzy or foggy outcomes, but must become laser focused on achieving its mission and reaching its vision. As I’ve said earlier, as goes the leadership, so goes the congregation. Thus, your pastor must shift his priorities from maintaining the organization and membership to growth, growth, growth.

However, as the pastor changed his priorities, it means that many tasks that he currently does must come to an end. In some cases it will mean someone else in the congregation will either have to step up, the church will need to hire someone to complete the task, or else the task may be left undone. However, if your pastor remains responsible for arranging for replacements for all these tasks, he will be unable to shift his priorities in a timely manner. Therefore, the church’s leadership will need to be proactive in those instances where the task is deemed mission-‐critical.

B. Let Go of Non-‐Essentials A pastor has many non-‐mission critical tasks they often get involved in, many of which serve as serious distractions in the achievement of the congregation’s mission and vision. Although a number of the following tasks may be essential, though certainly some are not, the key here is that none of them require the pastor’s leadership or expertise. The pastor should be immediately relieved of each of these:

• Bulletin preparation • Any and all custodial duties, including unlocking and locking the doors • Set-‐up for worship, fellowships, events, etc. • Breakdown or cleanup following worship, fellowships, events, etc. • Worship PowerPoint slide preparations • Choir or hand bell participation • Pastoral counseling

4 However, as the pastor brings in new people to the church, and as they are integrated into the congregation, they are quite likely to passionately engage in both evangelistic and invitational opportunities.

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• Ministerial and ecumenical meetings • Most church meetings (see 6.1c)

Besides these tasks, the pastor should create a list of all the things he is currently responsible for. Once that list is done, he should evaluate which tasks he does that cannot be done by anyone else. The question isn’t which tasks no one else wants to do, or is willing to do, but whether or not someone else could do them. Each of these tasks must be removed from the pastor’s responsibilities and either assigned elsewhere or put aside.

Ultimately, the pastor of an effective, faithful, and sustainable church should have a job description that looks a bit like the following:

1. Spiritual Modeling. In every leadership position this must be included as the most important characteristic. All leaders, especially the Lead Pastor, must behave according to the congregational expected behaviors and leadership covenants. In addition, the Lead Pastor should conspicuously model prayer; personal Bible study (outside of sermon preparation); encouraging the spiritual faith of the one-‐anothers in a personal way; doing non-‐anonymous good deeds in the name of Jesus Christ; and sharing faith with the unchurched.

2. Mission Alignment and Fulfillment. The Lead Pastor is responsible to ensure that everything the church does is aligned with its mission, is achieving its vision, and is operating within its values. Any activity/program/event that is not specifically aligned must be evaluated and either brought into full alignment or disbanded. In addition, the lead pastor is ultimately responsible for accomplishing the church’s mission and ensuring the vision is being fulfilled. Mission achievement is always structured around the Church’s Four Core Processes:

• Invite people in; • Retain them long enough to disciple them; • Disciple them as leaders in the faith; • Send them out into the community and the world to share faith.

Again, at this point in the Pottstown FUMC transformational journey, the priority must be on the first two processes, with the pastor leading in the Invite process and the congregation leading in the Retain process. The other two processes will need ongoing attention, but cannot be the priorities.

3. Vision Casting. The Lead Pastor is responsible for keeping the vision before the congregation as well as alive in the community. The former may be accomplished through preaching, teaching, writing, and conversation. The latter may be accomplished by community involvement – indeed, the Lead Pastor should spend between ten and fifteen hours each week networking in the community. This networking time should include one-‐on-‐one conversations with community leaders, business professionals, non-‐profit leaders, etc. Time spent with denominational and/or

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interdenominational Christian groups should not count as networking time (which is not to suggest that time spent with other Christian leaders is unimportant).

4. Team Building. In the Collin’s book Good to Great, one of the key marks of a Great company is that they not only have the right people on the right bus, they have the right people in right seats. The Lead Pastor is responsible for ensuring the right Key Leaders are in the right jobs. Hence it is critical that the Lead Pastor have the authority to fill vacant Key Leadership positions with those who are qualified and who are team players.

5. Fund Raising. Finally, the Lead Pastor is responsible for ensuring the funding of ministry is available. Although the mechanics of stewardship education and drives are far removed from these recommendations as Pottstown FUMC faces its transformation, in the future it will be critical that the Lead Pastor clearly takes a lead in this particular area.

Note that these five responsibilities are not meant to represent a “balanced” portfolio. Indeed, at this point in the transformational journey, the first and second tasks must receive virtually all of the pastor’s attention.

C. Streamline the Essentials Although putting an end to the non-‐essentials will free up some of the pastor’s time, most pastors find that those ministerial tasks deemed essential can take up so much time that there is little time to grow the church. That being the case, the following recommendations should be implemented.

• Worship Preparation: Learn to accomplish this while out of the office and during networking time. In any event, no more than five hours per week should be devoted to worship prep, including the time necessary for sermon preparation.

• Meetings: Unless there is a specific reason that you must meet,5 stop holding formal meetings. Certainly some meetings seem essential, but the fact is, most churches would be able to function must more effectively and efficiently if they simply canceled 100 percent of their meetings and both trusted and allowed their leaders to do their jobs. This doesn’t mean that people wouldn’t “meet,” but these “meetings” would be informal, often occurring before or after worship or via telephone, email, texting, etc. Amazingly, those churches that have tested the theory that churches could survive without any meetings discovered that their bills still got paid, the worship service continued without a glitch, Christian education still had teachers and students, and the annual barbeque was still a community hit.

• Membership Visitation: Most membership care should be accomplished by participation in small groups and by the membership at large. Indeed, see Acts 6:1–7 and Ephesians 4:11–12 for the biblical responsibilities of the congregation versus the church’s leadership. When the church

5 Just because your bylaws say you have to meet is not a sufficient reason to do so. Remember, your bylaws are not holy writ … you wrote the bylaws, you can re-‐write them. For the time being, however, simply suspend them if that seems to be necessary to appease the by-‐the-‐book people in the congregation.

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is the Church, pastoral care needs are most efficiently and effectively handled by the membership, since diffused care ensures no one “falls through the cracks” when members practice the one-‐anothers, truly care for one-‐another, and reflect the practices of the New Testament church (see Acts 2:42–47; 4:34). However, some members of the Pottstown FUMC have embraced tradition over scripture and so expect personal chaplaincy services by the pastor. Because of this, 6.1d contains a recommended pastoral schedule that includes membership visitation.

D. Suggested Pastoral Schedule In order for the pastor to be the congregational catalyst for growth, he will need to rework his schedule to reflect the missional priorities. With that in mind, the following schedule will provide the space and time for the pastor to attend to the growth priority, and still allow for a measure of chaplaincy that’s being demanded by some members. Again, any slack should be taken up by the membership.

• Visit all local shut-‐ins quarterly o No more than ½ hour visits

• Make local hospital visits weekly o The pastor should visit only one time, unless the stay is extended o Approx. 10 minute visits – remember, the patient in there to recuperate, not to

entertain the pastor (or vice versa) • Coach & Coordinate with KEY Leaders monthly

o Ministerial Staff, Lay Leader, and Core Process Leaders o Approx. 1 hour for each key leader o Meetings should rarely be held in homes nor on the church property; instead, meet in a

more public setting to facilitate networking. • Suspend Church Office Hours

o The pastor cannot grow a church from the office o Members must learn to make appointments o “Drop in” with the pastor while he’s “out” in the community6

• Only attends critical meetings o Stop meeting unless it’s absolutely necessary (see 6.1c

• Spends 30+ hours/week with prospective guests, doing guest follow-‐up, and facilitating guest integration

o Spend time with prospective guests This is a networking mandate. The pastor should spend time where he can meet

and have conversations with people who are likely to be prospective visitors.

6 I recommend the pastor develop a basic schedule of networking that includes specific times at specific places. For instance, spending Mondays from 9–2 in the Community College student lounge, Tuesday mornings 7–10 at Churchill’s, 1–3 at Books 4 Less, etc..

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Spend time at local hangouts, at the Community College, at Chamber of Commerce events, at local fetes, etc.

Consider adjunct teaching at the Community College, joining Toastmaster’s International (do not join a “service” club, since you will not have time to participate in their service projects), go to PTA meetings, high school events, etc.

Build relationships with key community members such as law enforcement, community government, and especially in the non-‐profit sector (chair of the hospital board, United Way, etc.).

o Spend time integrating guests Although guest integration is primarily a congregational responsibility, the initial

effort for each guest will likely depend on the pastor’s initiative as he gets to know the individual and helps to “hand them off” to the congregation

The pastor will need to follow up with first-‐time visitors (see the next major bullet point), but once they’ve returned will need to be intentional in building an initial relationship, perhaps via a small group, pastor’s desserts, Welcome to PFUMC classes, etc.

o Follow-‐up with all first-‐time visitors

Studies show that friendly, brief calls on first-‐time visitors by the Lead Pastor or another staff up-‐fronter (worship leader, etc.) within twenty-‐four hours after they attend will improve the chance of a return visit by 85 percent (in other words, go Sunday afternoon!). If this home visit is made within seventy-‐two hours, 60 percent of them return. If it is made more than seven days later, 15 percent return. A phone call by a layperson or the pastor, instead of a personal visit, cuts the results by 80 percent. This immediate response is the most important factor in reaching first-‐time visitors.

Some churches make the mistake of putting off an initial visit until a guest has returned a second time. However, the average person today visits several churches before they decide on a church home. This means they may not come back for six weeks. By then, they decide which church to return to by the friendliness and helpfulness of the members. If you wait to contact them until they return the second time, you lose over 75 percent of the visitors.

In addition, most current research demonstrates that it is significantly more effective if the pastor makes this initial visit. This visit should be a “door step” visit. For instance, the lead pastor stops in, stays on the front porch, thanks the guest for coming, leaves them a gift of value7 and a visitor’s packet or some other hand-‐off, and invites them to the next week’s service (and perhaps an upcoming “Meet the Pastor and Staff” dessert

7 See the blog post on gifts of value at http://bit.ly/I8lJu5

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or luncheon. The pastor should not go in, even if invited (of course, leave room for the Spirit’s movement here).

Create a Visitor’s Packet for Distribution to Guests

The packet should include information about the church; about the denomination; bios on the staff members with pictures; a description and invitation to the educational opportunities, including Sunday school, small groups, etc.; an invitation and description to upcoming events including free tickets to any event that church members may have to pay for (yes, even movie tickets if that's an upcoming event); and any hands-‐on mission involvement opportunities

6.2 Provide Your Pastor the Tools to Become the Church’s Primary Growth Catalyst

Relationship building, which is a key practice in your pastor’s success as the church’s growth catalyst, is not an inexpensive proposition. Of course, we’re not talking about mass media marketing, which you cannot afford (and the Return On Investment for church marketing is hideously low). The costs of relationship building looks a lot like a salesperson’s expense sheet: meals, events, memberships, etc.). That being the case, it’s important that the congregation provide the funding for the following:

• Membership in the Chamber of Commerce • Membership in Toastmasters (http://bit.ly/I8nqru) • Membership/s in other clubs/organizations that provide excellent networking opportunities • Hanging-‐out expenses (coffee, meals, etc.)

6.3 Provide Your Pastor the Opportunity to Network within Your Circles

Many church members host social events for neighbors, friends, colleagues, coworkers, employees, etc. The pastor should be on every invitation list for any party, event, fete, etc. where he would have the opportunity to meet your unchurched friends, relatives, acquaintances, neighbors, coworkers, etc. Indeed, if the church is seriously going to Grow! and expand its membership, they every member should consider hosting regular teas, cocktail parties, work picnics, barbeques, dinners, and so on with the primary (or at least secondary) intent of ensuring the pastor is introduced into their circles of influence.

6.4 Support Much-‐Needed Spiritual Retreat Time

The work of leading a congregation, especially in a transformation effort, is mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhausting. Even with a Congregational Covenant of Conduct and Leadership Covenants in place, it takes tremendous energy to negotiate member’s expectations and still be “on” for meeting with the public. Therefore, I recommend your pastor (and all ministerial staff) adhere to the following guidelines for taking regular spiritual retreats (that the church should pay for to ensure they have the highest functioning spiritual leader possible).

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These retreats need to be away from the ministry field, away from home, and in a location that moves the spirit of the retreatant. Further, the church not only needs to ensure the staff is afforded these opportunities, it needs to insist that they take them for the sake of the congregation. A burned out, tired, and uninspired staff member does not bring the Fruit of the Spirit to their daily ministry.

These retreats should be times for reflecting on scripture, praying, and reflecting some more. They are not times for sermon preparation, for catching up on either recreational or professional reading, or for reviewing new internet sites. Retreatants should take a Bible, a pen, and a pad of paper. They should check their laptops, iPods, iPhones, iPads, cell phones, etc. into the retreat master’s office ... or better yet, leave them at home.

An effective schedule for these retreats is this: One 3–5 day silent retreat each year; One overnight retreat each month; one morning or afternoon retreat each week.


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Recommendation 7 Organize Based On Your Size

These recommendations are important … indeed, some are critical to the success of your decision to Grow! However, many churches get caught up in the Let’s Get Organized trap. Most organizational and structural changes made by most church are used as distractions in order to avoid doing the more important work of disciple-‐making. As mentioned earlier, if bylaws and other organizational documents need updating, simply suspend the existing documents with a single vote and move on to the more important tasks before you. However, as you will see, there are some organizational practices that need your attention sooner than later (and some more immediately).

7.1 Stop Supporting Ineffective Ministries

Ministries and ministry events are generally started to meet a specific need that members of the church have identified. Once a ministry is started, however, it is almost impossible to bring it to a close, even when it is no longer meeting the need for which it was originally intended. A classic example is found in most denominationally supported women’s ministries (I know, I’m dangerously close to stepping on a sacred cow landmine). Most of these women’s ministries were created to support overseas missions and missionaries, since the denominations were not engaged or supporting these missions effectively. Eventually, most denominations created boards and structures to support overseas missions. Rather than ending the women’s missions organizations, the denominations refocused their purpose from actively supporting (as in recruiting, sending, and financing missions) to mission education and fund raising. In fact, today in many local congregations, the women’s ministries exist less for missions and more for local church benevolence, such as preparing after-‐funeral dinners and so on. Ultimately, many of these women’s ministries exist primarily as social outlets for the older women in the congregation. Though they still do a number of good works, these groups are rarely aligned with the congregation’s primary mission or vision.

All effective churches, and certainly all congregations facing a serious turnaround attempt, must be ruthlessly honest in evaluating each and every ministry, mission, and event against the congregation’s mission and vision. Those ministries, missions, and events that are missionally aligned should then be evaluated for their effectiveness. For instance, is the annual summer Vacation Bible School actually attracting unchurched families to the church or are the majority of the children from the host congregation and children from other area churches? Those that do not meet these criteria should either be cancelled or they should stop receiving congregational support and resources.

Notice I didn’t say that all of these ministries should be stopped, abandoned, or shutdown. There are those in the congregation who find great joy, hope, camaraderie, and support as they participate in these ministries. Cancelling these ministries not only runs the risk of creating a social hardship for some members, it would also fuel a certain firestorm or conflict. Rather than stopping, abandoning, or shutting down these ministries, the church’s leadership should share its evaluation findings with the leaders (and perhaps the participants) of these ministries. They should assure them that the church has

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no interest is shutting them down, but that the church can no longer support these ministries in terms of finances or marketing (including in-‐house marketing). In other words, these events will no longer get a budget line item, nor will they be placed on the church calendar, announced in the bulletin, get a newsletter page, etc. The group can continue to meet, when there is space, but they will not get priority over other church ministries.

Yes, there will be fallout over these decisions, but a church facing a turnaround situation must invest its resources – all of its resources – on the most effective ministries possible. To do otherwise invites distractions and diffuses needed resources.

7.2 Stop Doing So Many Ministries

No individual local church is big enough or has enough resources to meet the spiritual, emotional, physical, or mental needs of everyone. However, when looking at a church’s ministries, missions, and events it too often looks like that’s exactly what they’re trying to do. The most effective churches know exactly why they exist (see Recommendation 4) and what ministries they do very well. These churches tend to focus on one thing, although they offer peripheral ministries that support their “one thing.” Effective churches do few things, but the things they do they do with excellence. Indeed, if they can’t do something with excellence, they will not do them at all.

The Pottstown FUMC has too much going on – and many of those ministries get just enough resources to continue, but not to be excellent. In a turnaround effort, the church must be judicious where it puts its energy, hence the recommendation to postpone the Modern Worship Service (5.1i). To that end, the Pottstown FUMC should stop doing as many ministries and missions as possible in order to focus its resources on those that it can do excellently.

Again, I realize I’m treading on the mines of sacred cows, but consider postponing ministries such as the hand bell choir (or combining adults with children); re-‐visioning small groups as guest-‐integration opportunities (which means each small group should take a break every four to six weeks in order to easily induct new group members); closing the Labyrinth for the time being (see Recommendation 9.2); and taking serious Recommendation 7.1 above.

A church the size of Pottstown FUMC should probably be offering the following ministries, and few others:

• High quality, high touch, participatory worship • Multi-‐generational choir • Excellent nursery programming (especially during worship) • Excellent elementary programming (especially, or exclusively during worship) • Short-‐term small groups designed for maximum guest integration • Perhaps one local ongoing hands-‐on mission project that provides a variety of opportunities for

congregational participation

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7.3 Streamline Decision Making

In most churches, the decision making process is cumbersome at best and dysfunctional at worst. The solution to the issue is found in the creation and adoption of the congregational DNA (Recommendation 4) and in selecting only trustworthy leaders of integrity – and then allowing your leaders to do their jobs.

Most Ad Councils operate as if they are organizational management boards. However, in today’s world almost no non-‐profit (outside of the church) tolerates such an ineffective and dysfunctional system. Effective, faithful, and sustainable churches develop an organizational structure that allows their leaders to lead and empowers the board (council, session, vestry) to hold the leaders accountable to the church’s mission and vision.

The function of an effective board (Ad Council) is twofold:

1. To create policy as needed. 2. To hold the leadership accountable for achieving the congregation’s mission.

In the most efficient churches, the board exists for the above reasons, only meets as necessary, an the “leadership” it holds accountable is the lead pastor … and only the lead pastor. Of course, this means that the lead pastor is not only responsible for ensuring mission alignment by all staff, committees, teams, ministries, and missions, it also means the pastor has the authority to effect changes in personnel, etc. as necessary to achieve that mission. All ministerial staff, therefore, reports to the pastor (who has the authority to hire and fire). All committee chairs report to the pastor who has the authority to hold these leaders accountable for results (in larger churches, committee chairs report to the staff person responsible for their area of ministry). If the pastor mishandles a situation, the expected behaviors and the leadership covenants are the first line or reconciliation. However, if the pastor doesn’t get the results the congregation expects (in terms of mission achievement, not in terms of whether or not the pastor visited so-‐and-‐so), then the pastor is held accountable by the board. However, so long as the results are as expected and the pastor is operating within the congregation’s stated values and expected behaviors, then the board provides a wide latitude in anything that could be construed as interference. If the board does have to step in, its primary role is to provide a corrective for the pastor, or else to remove the pastor.

This is clearly not an overnight process, but the basics that should be put into place in the more immediate future include:

1. Only nominate and install leaders whom you implicitly trust. If you don’t trust them, don’t put them into leadership. PERIOD.

2. Provide limits for these leaders: give them a budget and a mission for their ministry/committee/event/task. Provide them with staff oversight to whom they are accountable. Remind them they must embrace and embody the congregational covenants, the congregational values, and to keep their ministry ethical, moral, and legal.

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3. Then get out of the way and let them do their job, including scheduling (or cancelling) events, spending funds, making changes, etc.

4. Finally, support these leaders by running interference for them. If someone complains about a change that’s been made, etc., and if the leader has made that change within their mission and budget, then deflect the complaint and stand in solidarity with the leader. In other words, if the leader is achieving the mission within the bounds of the congregation’s covenants, values, and within budget, then stay out of the way … and keep others out of the way … so these leaders can make the hard decisions that will lead the congregation into an effective, faithful, and sustainable future.

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Recommendation 8: Miscellaneous, but Important Recommendations

The following recommendations don’t fit well into the previous recommendations, but they are no less important. Just because they are listed here, please do not dismiss them as irrelevant or unnecessary.

8.1 Stop All Anonymous Ministry

Many congregations engage in a number of missions where the church does not get credit for the ministry. A typical example is the church that gathers schools supplies all summer long in order to help the less fortunate in the community have the supplies they need for an effective school year. The ministry in and of itself is worthwhile and doubtless many children are helped. However, in August when the church delivers the supplies to the school, the only one who knows of the church’s generosity is the school secretary who receives them. In general, the children and parents do not know who made these donations, though is some cases a long list of all the contributors is included with the gifts. In any event, as nice as this ministry is, it does not further the cause of Christ nor the mission of the church.

Immediately cease engaging in any mission or ministry that is anonymous. The Pottstown First United Methodist Church simply does not have the reputation in the community to be able to afford anonymity. If there are those who still want to participate in anonymous ministries, they should be encouraged to do so – on an individual basis. The church as a whole should put its energies into missions and ministries that give credit to the Kingdom and to the church.

8.2 Tweak Traditional Worship to Make It Even More Excellent

Although your traditional worship service reflects a quality of excellence in keeping with your size (and in many respects, excellence for congregations twice your size), there are still some significant areas that need attention. Please begin with the basic hospitality issues mentioned in Recommendation 5.1, as well as those found on the Hospitality DVD Training set. Then turn your attention to the following:

• Introduce anyone who speaks from the stage/chancel. “Hi, I’m Pastor Will Humes and I want to welcome you today.” And “Good morning, I’m Ken Stigel. Our scripture reading this morning will be …” and so on. This should happen every time at every service. It’s irrelevant that the congregation already knows them or that their names are in the bulletin. An introduction helps put your guests at ease … plus it facilitates familiarity.

• Currently, communion takes too long and creates a significant dead time in the service. If you’re going to pass communion, pass both the bread and the cup simultaneously.

• Although there is a tradition that each week the four lectionary texts get read in worship, that tradition has its roots in a time when the average person did not have access to the written Word. Rather than reading all of the passages, just read the one that the sermon will be based on. An even better practice would be for the pastor to read the scripture at the beginning or during his sermon, where it would be most easily applied.

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• Get better wind guards for the microphones … and consider upgrading all mics to wireless headsets. These are aesthetically and technically better for all involved.

• Streamline the closing. There is too much going on and it takes to long, creating a situation where your guests become antsy and want to bolt as soon as possible. Less is more. Closing song, simple benediction, dismiss.

• Preaching content should be reworked from theologically satisfying homilies to life-‐coaching sermons that are long on “How To” and short on theological or historical or linguistic education. As important as understanding the atonement or sanctification may be, today’s church guest is looking for clear life application of the faith. Sermons should be answering the life questions people are asking, not the ones we think they should be asking. Consider delivering sermons with practical answers (and steps, etc.) on:

o How to make relationships work o How to get out of debt o How to avoid temptation o How to spend our time o How to apply basic faith o How to apply Christian ethics to employment o How to forgive the unforgivable o How to stop repeating the past o How to pray o How to change playgrounds o How to stay clean and sober o How to read and understand the Bible

• Incorporate a Meet and Greet time into the service • Change the pre-‐worship time to a time of fellowship and conversation • Serve coffee, tea, and hot chocolate or lemonade in the worship center • Ensure there is a nursery, as well as children and youth programming available during the whole

worship time. • Offer high tech participation during the worship service.

Consider expanding the wireless internet service into the worship center. The reception level should be between excellent and very good for even B band computers. Once this has been installed, include online sermon resources, additional information, and even a discussion board for participation and interaction.

Expand the technology opportunities for worship participation. Some churches are encouraging SMS text messaging during the service to connect worshipper with upfront team. This could allow participants to text questions during the sermon and allow the pastor to expand or clarify points in the sermon.

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8.3 Provide Additional Opportunities for Financial Giving

It’s a rare thing to run across someone under forty who has an abundance of cash in their wallets or a checkbook in their pocket. And though this is a cultural well-‐known reality, churches still seem surprised when the under forties give but a pittance when the offering plate is passed. The more opportunities a church provides for giving, the better their financial underpinning.

Emphasize Electronic Bank Debiting Although bank debiting is in place for the congregation, it should be mentioned at almost every service. Let guests and members know how to sign up for automatic debiting.

Create Online Giving Opportunities Develop a Donate Here button and display it prominently on the church website. Although this can be easily done with PayPal, explore multiple options to increase a guest’s opportunity to give.

Install a Giving Kiosk Many churches of size are now installing “giving kiosks” so that their members can swipe their ATM cards and give directly at church. Churches that do so are seeing increased giving. Again, the point is to offer multiple opportunities to give. See http://www.securegive.com/

8.4 Protect Your Future

Now that the Lincoln Center has relocated and the space “returned” to the church for your use, protect that space (and all church space) for future use by the church. Although the funds provided by renters can be seductive, the church makes a debilitating mistake whenever it trades space for funds. Generally, it is not a good idea for a church to rent its space for long-‐term projects.

If you decide to get into the landlord business again, do not allow your renters to “take over” space to the exclusion of your use. In general, all space that you rent should continue to be available to the church as the church has need for it. For instance, your current agreement with Morning Star provides a venue for their worship service, but you still have use of the fellowship space the rest of the week. Use this as a model for any other space-‐use agreements you might make so that you have the opportunity to expand or use the space for yourselves.

8.5 Use the Space You Have Wisely

The “Lincoln Center” wing is prime space for a variety of uses. First, as mentioned earlier, it’s time to relocate the nursery into the current choir/bell choir space. I suggest relocated the choir/bell choir space into the space vacated by the Lincoln Center. I would also recommend relocated the offices into this space as well, including the pastor’s study.

There is a tendency by churches to fill empty rooms with junk, I mean, future use materials. There are already a number of these storage rooms and spaces throughout the church. At some time in the near future, I recommend securing a large dumpster and divesting yourselves of as much of the clutter and

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old junk as possible (however, do not throw out usable Vacation Bible School materials – reuse them for your intergenerational children’s programming). Once the clutter is gone, select a room or a small suite of rooms in close proximity and fit them with adequate shelving and systematically store the future use materials that could not be discarded. However, any materials not used during the following twelve months should find their way into a dumpster (or donated to some other church’s yard sale – do not get caught up with the distraction of having your own rummage sale … instead, spend the time you’d have invested in organizing and running the sale with the new friends you’ve been cultivating in Recommendation 5).

Finally, since the Lincoln Center space was developed as a school, the Pottstown FUMC might want to consider using some or most of this space for a Downtown Christian Day Care. In the words of Bill Easum, a Christian Day Care is a “cash cow” for the church. But beyond being an additional income stream, a well-‐run Christian Day Care is also an effective entrance for new members. Therefore, the congregation may want to develop a preschool/daycare center as a connecting/outreach ministry. The programming should be specifically Christian – do not apologize for being a faith-‐based organization. Do not, however, make the mistake for inviting an existing daycare or an outside person to develop the daycare. This must be a ministry of the church itself (you may actually have a mother or two in your congregation with both the passion and the skills necessary to open and operate this daycare).

The program should be an extension of the church’s child discipleship arm. The director should be given full staff status and be expected to engage in all staff activities, including weekly staff meetings, etc. The daycare/preschool should have a threefold mission: (1) To evangelize and disciple the children; (2) To evangelize, engage, and enfold participant families in the congregation; (3) To be an effective community outreach opportunity to the families in the community. Everything the program does should meet these criterions. In addition, the program should fall within the congregational mission, vision, values, beliefs, and behaviors. The following rubrics should be embraced:

The school must embrace and enhance the congregational mission, vision, and values. The director of the school reports to the pastor at this point, and the Discipleship Staff Member

in the future. The director meets with the staff whenever it meets. The preschool needs to be seen and treated as an extension of the congregation's Christian

education program. The school should never be subsidized. The preschool parents should be on the church mailing list.

8.6 Prepare For Your Future

I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that nearly 100 percent of the families in the congregation have a television that they watch regularly. I’ll risk my reputation and guess that over 80 percent of your congregation has and uses a computer on a regular basis. And I’d make a guess that over 50 percent of the congregation has been to a movie theater sometime in the last twelve months. Why is that important? Because it indicates that every single person in the congregation has accepted and is comfortable with screen technology.

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Therefore, it’s time to add screen technology to the church, not just because the congregation is “used to it,” but because it is the primary way least two of the current generations learn (see Appendix C for an article on worship and the Digital Generation).

This recommendation will be the most expensive suggestion made in this report. There are no advantages to dipping your toe into the digital age … the entry costs are high, but the upgrade expenses are higher still. Therefore, when you embrace this recommendation, and you really have little choice if you’re going to reach people under the age of sixty, implement it fully and at one time.

Before I make specific tech recommendations, however, I want to make you aware of a potential hazard of implementing this recommendation.

WARNING

There will be a significant temptation for the congregation, and in particular the pastor, to find the upgrades in technology a church-‐killing distraction. Once installed, there will be a great desire to go head-‐to-‐head with larger churches for projecting high-‐quality graphics, video, and so on. Indeed, preparing the most basic projections will be time-‐intensive. Therefore, do not begin using screen technology until a worship tech arts team is in place (See 8.6b). Do not expect (or allow) your pastor to prepare the presentations for worship, nor to provide the training. If you must, contract out your team’s training.

A. Contract for the Installation of Screen, Video Projection, and Sound Technology There are three components necessary for effective screen technology in today’s church.

First, you will need screens and digital projectors – preferably in the front and the rear of the worship center (so the choir, band, and upfronters can see the projection without straining their necks or being a congregational distraction). Of course, without a computer there will be nothing to project, so a high-‐end graphics-‐enabled computer will be necessary.

Second, you will need 2–3 video cameras (preferably remote controlled), controllers, monitors, and mixer for effective projection of the chancel area onto the screen.

Third, you will need a quality sound system including a digital mixer, amplifier/s, quality microphones, etc. This system will need to be large enough to accommodate the worship team for your future Modern worship service.

With the above, you will need a tech-‐booth that should be located at the back of the worship center and will probably necessitate the removal of two of the back pews.

I recommend hiring a quality sound and video firm for this endeavor. Although you might be able to contract this locally, ensure whomever you hire has significant church experience and that you check their church references very, very carefully. There are a lot of local sound contractors who know little or nothing about video and vice versa. Again, to keep this from becoming a congregational distraction,

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contract out the whole thing, including the construction of the tech booth. Finally, do not skimp on this step. Get the system you need, not the system non-‐digital generationalists say you can afford. Do not do this recommendation in “stages.” Invest in all THREE components. It will be significantly more expensive to “add on” to the system later than to do it right the first time!!!

B. Develop a Technical Arts Worship Team As I mentioned in the Warning, screen technology can be a terrible distraction, especially to a pastor. Therefore, it is critical a Technical Arts Worship Team be developed, trained, and deployed to put together a quality tech-‐arts worship service. For the traditional worship service, this will include projecting the words to the songs, litanies, prayers, etc. (for those who prefer using the hymnal and bulletin, the inclusion of screen technology will not replace either, but it will provide an alternative for those who find it difficult to read small print). Projecting announcements prior to and following the service is entirely appropriate as well. Finally, as the team gains experience it can begin adding images to the presentations – use projected images as “stained glass” that provide windows of inspiration on which to ponder (for instance, classic art pieces that are projected during the Eucharist to provide a spiritual focal point for meditating).

The cameras should be used sparingly during this service, although projecting the choir, speakers, etc. on the screen can enhance even the traditional worship service.

The sound quality should improve dramatically with the new sound system, including the use of headset microphones by all up front speakers.

The pastor’s primary role with this team will be to cast a weekly vision of what he’d like to see on the screen (which may necessitate the creation or completion of the sermon by the first part of the week). The pastor’s secondary role will be to evaluate the projected materials and provide feedback for what needs to be added, deleted, changed, etc. for future presentations. In no way should the pastor become involved in preparation or even proofreading the slides.

When the Modern Service is added (see Recommendation 9), a second team will need to be added, or else the first team will need to be expanded to include a strong video production team.

C. Make Room In Your Minds for the Second Worship Service According to a recent Net Results study, over 70 percent of all first-‐time guests show up at a congregation’s 11 o’clock service. When the time comes to re-‐introduce the Modern Worship Service, it will need to be offered at a time most conducive to attracting and retaining guests. This means that the current traditional worship service will likely need to be rescheduled to an earlier time. Although the recommendation in 9.3 below will address this more specifically in time, below is a suggested schedule for your Sunday morning worship and Christian Education offerings in the future – the point of making this recommendation at this point is simply to prepare the existing congregation for a likely future inevitability.

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9:30 Traditional Worship Nursery

11:00 Modern Worship Nursery Intergenerational Children’s Worship Informal Adult Sunday School

If there are enough children and youth attending (or wishing to attend) during the traditional worship time, then a second Intergenerational Children’s Worship may be offered. If those attending the 11 o’clock Modern Worship desire an additional Christian education opportunity, they should be encouraged to start a small group that meets during the 9:30 service. However, the church should put little energy into creating or maintaining what might be considered a traditional Sunday school program.

Do not be lured into the delusion that there will be a need for joint worship services or that there will need to be a formal “fellowship time” between the services so that “everyone in one service can get to know everyone in the other service.” First, both of these attempts will fail because once the church is large enough for two services, it is no longer possible for everyone to know everyone else (they may recognize familiar faces, but that is not the same as “knowing” someone). Second, any church small enough for everyone to know everyone is doomed to forever remain a small church … typically, well under one hundred.

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Recommendation 9 When You Reach ~ 150 in Average Worship Attendance …

Once you have passed the critical juncture from surviving to thriving, then it’s time to begin the process of breaking the 200 barrier, a barrier I refer to as the “brick ceiling.” This is the most difficult transition for a church to successfully negotiate, but I’m confident that the Pottstown First United Methodist Church will successfully break through. The following recommendations should be adopted only after passing the 150 mark in average worship.

9.1 Hire a Part-‐Time Worship Leader

There are only two ministry programs that have a record for growing churches: a dynamic worship service that reaches and touches a targeted audience and a dynamic, exciting children’s ministry. Presuming you’ve adopted Recommendation 5.1j, you should be well on your way to the latter. However, when you reach 150 in average worship it will be time to revisit the launching of a second service targeted to reach a younger audience. However, before you can even consider that launch, you will need to hire an experienced part-‐time worship leader. Indeed, this hire should be the “first” ministerial program staff that you hire.

9.2 Develop a Signature Ministry and Build a Reputation in the Community

Currently, the Pottstown United Methodist Church has a disturbingly limited reputation in the Pottstown community. Indeed, during my visit I spoke to residents who live nearby who were not aware that the building was still home to a congregation – they were mistakenly under the impression the church had closed long ago. The solution to building a positive reputation in the community is to create and develop a Signature Ministry.

A Signature Ministry is a mission offered to those of the local community that is so significant that

the church providing that ministry is known throughout the community for being the go-‐to church for meeting that need. Because of the Pottstown FUMC’s commitment to remaining a downtown church, I recommend considering expanding and reopening The Labyrinth as a patio coffee house and bookstore with the mission of partnering with the rehab center for assisting in job skills and reentry. The key to an effective Signature Ministry is to provide excellence both in service and in connecting that ministry to the church and to Jesus Christ. It is more than just a social-‐action ministry – it is an evangelistic outreach ministry that is unmistakably Christian and unmistakably associated with the church. On a larger scale, Willow Creek is nationally known as the seeker model church; Saddleback is known as the purpose driven church; and so on. In Columbia, Missouri the Crossing is known as the church for ministry to children (not just children's ministries on Sunday). In Seattle, Findlay Street Christian is known for its ministry to those caught in "alternative lifestyles." The goal for the Pottstown FUMC Signature Ministry would be to become known as the go-‐to ministry for serious job retraining

and support. This Signature Ministry would be an ongoing media-‐newsworthy ministry that would

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garner significant community attention – and that’s the goal. Although there would be those who might suppose the primary beneficiaries of the ministry would also be the target for church membership, this isn’t the case. Certainly, a few of the clients might become involved in the congregation, the reality is that many or most of these individuals would discover they are less than comfortable with the mainly suburbanite church member. However, because of the congregation’s reputation and “fame” in the community for this ministry, there would be a steady flow of individuals who were interested in assisting in the ministry as volunteers and supporters. These are the people who are the most likely future members of the Pottstown FUMC. This is the subtle difference between those a congregation serves and those who serve with the congregation.

As the Signature Ministry becomes more established, the more services it will be able to offer.

Indeed, the tendrils of this ministry could include business reentry preparation assistance through business clothes, grace and etiquette training, resumé and interviewing skills review, and so on. The employment skills could be expanded from barista and retail to business and startup management, bookkeeping, data entry, website development, and more.

Of course, this recommended Signature Ministry is only a suggested recommendation. The key will

be to identify a ministry that matches the congregational culture, mission, values, mission, as well as the congregation’s resources (including location and facilities). Whatever ministry is adopted, the congregational commitment must be both deep and wide to the extent that virtually all other ministries in the church are somehow related, at least tangentially, to the Signature Ministry.

9.3 Seek Outside Assistance in Visioning and Strategizing for What Comes Next

As mentioned in the introduction to this recommendation, the “brick ceiling” is the most difficult of the growth barriers to break. With that in mind, the final recommendation I offer is that when the Pottstown First United Methodist Church reaches the 150 in average worship then it is time to bring in an outside consultant and coach to help the congregation discern the “what’s next” and create a strategic plan to successfully navigate to the next level. Of course, 21st Century Strategies will be there to provide these services as needed, but whether you return to us or not, the continued success in becoming a more effective, faithful, and sustainable church will be worth the investment.

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Section 7 Conclusion

The leadership needs to understand that any time a church attempts to do anything significant, or make the necessary adjustments in strategy to meet the demands of a new generation, it will always have a few who strongly oppose such change. To give in to these vocal few results is hurting many unseen people by not providing ways to minister to the needs of the present day. Please understand that some people will get upset with these recommendations. Do your best to bring everyone along in your planning and decision-‐making, but do not allow such efforts to stop the momentum. The vast majority of the leaders of your congregation will be ready to move positively on all of the amended recommendations by the time they are asked to vote.

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Section 8 A Word of Appreciation

Many members of the Pottstown First United Methodist Church gave a great amount of time and energy to make this report a reality. Between 40 and 60 hours went into just collating the material used in preparing the final report, not including the time people spent answering questionnaires. Everyone cooperated extremely well. The pastor, staff, and church leaders were exceptionally helpful. I want to thank each of you who filled out forms, answered questions, attended the meetings, and agreed to be part of the on site interview process. The ball is now in your court. You must soon determine what to do with this final report. May God richly bless you as you seek to find ways to faithfully serve God in the 21st century!

Bill Tenny-‐Brittian

21st Century Strategies

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Appendixes


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Appendix A First Impressions

See Next Page ...

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First Impressions: The Greeters, Ushers, and Hosts Handbook by Bill Tenny-‐Brittian

© 2010 Bill Tenny-‐Brittian. All Rights Reserved Published in USA

Published by Real Time Publishing Today A subsidiary of 21st Century Strategies, Inc.

Real Time Publishing Today books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions are available for all titles (RealTimePublishingToday.com). For more information, contact our sales office at 573-‐234-‐4374 or [email protected].

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Introduction: First Impressions

The old saying that reminds us that we don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. Although that may seem like a “Duh!” statement, it always amazes me how few churches seem to consider it, let alone take it seriously. As I look back over the past years of consulting, I realize I’ve made the following recommendations to hundreds of congregations and yet too many blithely skip right over them to focus their attention on more important stuff like worship music, technology, or preaching. Then three years later they don’t understand why their retention of first-‐time guests rarely exceeds 25 percent – after all, don’t they have a great worship service?

There’s some discrepancy in the research results, but guests make a decision about whether or not they’ll be returning within the first few minutes of their visit– like somewhere between two and ten minutes – and the clock begins ticking when they turn into your church’s driveway. Add ‘em up. By the time your guests have actually walked up your steps, almost half of your time to “Wow!” them is gone. Think your great music or sermon is going to convince them? In most cases, before the first chord of the worship band or the strains of the organ fill their ears, let alone point one of your sermon, they already know whether or not they’ll likely be back.

Let me illustrate. It was Palm Sunday and I didn’t have an “appointment” at any particular church, so I opted to visit one up the street from me that I’d heard had completed a building remodel that was supposed to appeal to the “younger” crowd. I arrived early, just in case, and found a vacant parking spot. I noticed they didn’t have any guest parking, so I felt lucky to snag a space between two SUVs. There was a young family in the parking lot with me and they got to the sidewalk three or four steps ahead of me. They must have been late for something because the father hustled the children forward putting as much distance between me and them as possible. I guess I must have looked threatening?

There was no sign outside to direct anyone to the front entrance, but I followed the young family and lucked out – it was the right door (though there were several doors in view from where I’d parked). There were two ushers four or five steps into the entry room and they were in rapt conversation. They noticed me right away and wished me good morning, handed me a program, and nodded towards the sanctuary. I followed his unspoken directions and entered the worship space and looked around for a seat. I had several good options and chose to sit near the back. Knowing that it was Palm Sunday and would likely be crowded (a bad assumption, it turned out), I moved to the center of the pew to make room for any who might care to join me. I sat, I watched, I was totally ignored. People greeted each other all around me and there were plenty of conversations, but I wasn’t invited into any of them. By then I’d already made my decision that as “cool” as the exposed industrial ceiling was, I wouldn’t be back.

On the other hand, there was Dean King. When it comes to first impressions and welcome, I always turn to Dean King because he’s the reason I’m ordained in the Disciples of Christ denomination. On a Sunday morning in Decatur, Georgia, my wife and I serendipitously ended up parking in the Decatur First

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Christian Church parking lot to attend worship. We were both attending seminary, and we were both Methodist clergy bound. Even from the parking lot we couldn’t miss the rather tall, red blazered man standing outside what looked to be the front doors of the church. We walked his direction and the closer we got, the bigger his smile – or so it seemed. As we mounted the steps he greeted us with a cheery “It’s a lovely morning, isn’t it?” We agreed as we drew near and he continued, “I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Dean King.” He stuck his hand out and his eyes twinkled. We introduced ourselves as Bill and Kris and he said, “It’s good to meet you. How are you this fine morning?” And being of polite society we assured him we were fine, and how are you? “Feel like a King!” he boomed, winked, and laughed. We were totally disarmed and felt like we’d found a true friend. We chatted for a few moments and he discovered we were first time guests and he gave us the briefest overview of the coming service so we wouldn’t be unfamiliar. Then he opened the doors for us and accompanied us into the church’s entry hall. He escorted us to a pair of ushers who smiled … mostly … and he slightly bent down towards them as if to let them in on a secret. With a marvelous smile in his voice, and with a wry grin towards us, he addressed the ushers. “This is Bill and Kris. They’re personal friends of mine. Give them the best seats in the house and don’t charge them nothin’!” Then he straightened, smiled broadly, and let the ushers lead us to a seat.

My wife says the service was very good and I have to trust her, because it wouldn’t have made any difference one way or the other. Within five minutes of leaving our car in the parking lot I knew we’d be back. The next week, when we herded our five children before us, Dean King was waiting at his designated door and he befriended each one. Eighteen months later I was ordained in that church and if anyone asks why, I “blame” Dean King, the man who took St. Peter’s place at the Pearly Gates when he died several years ago.

You may know Dean – or a Dean clone in your church or in a church past. He’s the one that not only never met a stranger, but the one who’s so comfortable in their own skin that they help everyone around them relax. She’s the one with the winning smile and who knows just the right thing to say as a guest mounts the steps.

And so, this book is not only dedicated to all the Dean and Deanette Kings in this world, it has been inspired by them. For without them, first impressions will be last impressions.

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Chapter 1: Your Calling to Greet, Ush, or Host

Before we get to the “How To,” it’s important that we start with the “Who.” The fact is, not everyone is born a Dean or Deanette King. There are many personalities in this world, and all of them are represented in some way or another in the church. Paul said as much in 1 Corinthians 12:12–27.

You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-‐bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.

I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-‐but-‐similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.

But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-‐importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out"? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it's a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn't you prefer good digestion to full-‐bodied hair?

The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.

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You are Christ's body—that's who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your "part" mean anything.

1 Cor 12:12–27 (The Message)

To paraphrase, “Not everyone should be a greeter, or an usher, or a host. But God has a fitting job for everyone in the church.” And yet ...

In many churches, perhaps most, we find that one of the key tasks of the worship or hospitality committee is to schedule greeters and ushers (almost no one schedules hosts). By and large, the volunteers recruited to serve in the lobby are all well-‐meaning and committed church members who are willing to fill in whenever it’s necessary – and it seems to be necessary about one weekend every month or so. And it seems that so long as there are one or two people holding bulletins at each door, the church has “done its job” with its guest-‐friendly welcome.

But not everyone is cut out to be greeter, an usher, or a host. In fact, I’ve visited churches that would have been better off with no one at the door than the stern-‐faced bouncers they’ve convinced to guard the sacred doors. It’s not that these folks weren’t wonderful men and women, it’s just that they were absolutely the wrong people doing the wrong job – and I suspect everyone would be happier if they were counting the offerings, updating the database, or editing the newsletter.8

The rotating greeter/usher/host positions may be hurting your church’s first impressions. Recruit those for your first-‐impressions ministries based on the character, spiritual gifting, behaviors, and personality types. Once they are recruited, get them trained. Now, before you start outlining this book to create a training session, consider this. In general, leading a training class on how to greet, ush, or host is a colossal waste of time both in preparation for you and in presentation for everyone else. It’s plain bad stewardship for two reasons. First, you can’t train for the most important characteristics of an effect greeter, usher, or host. If they don’t already have it, they aren’t going to get it in a class. Second, if you’ve recruited well, most of what these folks need to learn can be taught on-‐the-‐job in ten minutes or less. Finally, when you’ve found the right people, let them do what they’re called on to do ... for life, or as long as they are willing and able. (Here’s a hint, if they don’t want to do it every single Sunday that they’re available, they’re probably not the right people for the job. Keep looking – the results will be worth it.)

Attributes of First-‐Impression Ministers

So, what are the attributes of a great greeter, usher, and/or host? The primary character trait necessary for any of the three first-‐impression’s ministries is friendliness. The primary spiritual gift necessary for any of the three first-‐impression ministries is hospitality. The primary behavioral practice necessary for any of the three first-‐impression ministries is smiling attentiveness. Let’s take a quick look at all three of these attributes.

8 A good personal ministry audit, such as the Personal Ministry Assessment available in the 21st Century Strategies store, can help your church identify the right people for the right jobs (www.ChurchConsultations.com/cart).

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Friendliness

Those called to first-‐impressions ministries genuinely like people and are able to see beyond a “multitude of sins.” They are rarely shocked by people’s behaviors, mannerisms, or personal choices. In fact, they have a gift of seeing way beyond a guest’s outward appearance and they presume that behind the multi-‐pierced eyebrows, tattooed neck, leather studded jacket, and pink man-‐bag is a guy who could be the next Bear Grylls, the Christian survivalist TV star, the next Nelson Mandela peace maker, or the next effective Middle School Sunday school teacher. It’s clear they are comfortable in their own skin and comfortable with whatever skin a guest shows up in.

Greeters, ushers, and hosts are just as interested in the bag woman’s story as they are in the starlet’s spiel. They have a way of comfortable conversation that disarms the wary skeptic and charms the icy cynic. Their welcome and congeniality knows no bounds.

Hospitality

Although hospitality isn’t named in the more traditional spiritual gift lists, it’s either a gift or a long-‐lost and under-‐practiced art in today’s world. Hospitality defined is the practice of making a guest feel both welcome and at home. It’s the practical practice of loving your neighbor as you love yourself. Those called to first-‐impression ministries exude hospitality to all, both guests and members.

Those with the gift of hospitality are the first ones to notice when someone looks out-‐of-‐place in the vestibule and then makes the effort to walk across the room to introduce themselves. They’re the first ones to notice and respond when someone pours a cup of coffee and then looks helplessly around trying to figure out how and where to refill the empty sugar bowl. They’re also the ones who do a cursory wipe down of the restroom’s counters and sinks whenever they visit – just to make sure it’s presentable.

The gift of hospitality is a gift – it’s not a training item. Good hospitality practices can be taught, but those with the gift naturally go the second mile for a guest’s comfort without being asked. It’s just in their nature.

Smiling Attentiveness

Before you recruit someone for a first-‐impression ministry, look at their face carefully. If they’ve lived enough life to have earned a couple of life-‐lines around their eyes, check the wrinkles carefully. If they’re smile-‐lines, you may have made a great find in the name of first impressions. But if the wrinkled brow is marked by worry, stress, anxiety, and – dare we say it – frown lines, then do everyone a favor and help the pilgrim into a ministry that will fill them without demanding the effort to undo the seeds they’ve sown.

Those called to first-‐impression ministries are joy-‐filled people who don’t just see the glass half full, they are certain it’s destined to be filled soon (and they are the ones who will walk across the room with the

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pitcher of iced tea to refill it for you – even before you realized you needed more – and they’ll do it with a big-‐ol’ smile on their faces).

Smiling attentiveness isn’t about just standing around with a smile on your face, though that’s not a bad thing in and of itself. Smiling attentiveness is making the effort to connect a smile with a person. Years ago, I started a ministry at a church where I, or another member of the church, rose at four o’clock on Monday mornings to brew coffee and offer it to commuters who drove by our church building between five and seven AM. As the approximately 25,000 motorists passed by the church, I would wave at them and offer a silent prayer for their safety and productivity. On those weeks when I wasn’t available to do the waving, I would recruit a church member to take over for me. The folks I selected had one thing in common. When each car went past, they didn’t wave to the car, they looked into the car and waved at each person. They didn’t always make eye contact, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. They smiled attentively.

Greeters, ushers, and hosts are friendly and they’re hospitable. But perhaps more important than anything else, they have a smiling attentiveness that lets a guest know that, at least for the moment, they are the most welcomed person in the world and that they’ve not only been noticed, but that their soul has been personally touched by someone who cares. All that from a smile.

Those called to first-‐impression ministries naturally exhibit all three of these attributes. At this moment, you might be thinking that anyone who has these gifts can be used interchangeably in the three posts, but that would be premature. Although greeters, ushers, and hosts share these traits, each position ideally calls for a different personality type.

The question is – which one are you called to?

Your Calling as a Greeter

The calling to be a greeter comes with great honor. It’s been said that St. Peter will be greeting us at the Pearly Gates of Heaven one day, though I have it on good authority that Dean King replaced him several years ago. In any event, greeters are typically the first person guests and members alike meet when they set foot onto a church’s property. Whether the greeter is stationed in the parking lot or outside the front door, the smiling, friendly, and attentive presence of a God-‐called greeter is one of the first mental snapshots that a guest burns into their memory when they arrive.

As we noted above, those called to greeting are naturally friendly, hospitable, and they smile attentively. But there’s another characteristic that every effective greeter models. Greeters are outgoing people. Call them extroverted or gregarious or effervescent – but no matter how you slice it, the most effective, gifted, and called greeters have yet to meet a stranger.

In his senior years, Dean had the opportunity to visit London. While he was there, he visited Westminster Cathedral on a Sunday morning for worship. Most tourists making that pilgrimage wander

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into the great halls and bask in the history. But not Dean. Dean positioned himself at the front doors and stuck his hand out to those making their way to worship and said, “I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Dean King.” And to those who took the time to introduce themselves, he would turn and say to the real greeters and ushers, “This is a good friend of mine. Show them in and give ‘em a good seat – and don’t you charge them nothin’!”

Those chosen for the high calling of greeter are the odd ones in the Wal Mart checkout line. They’re chatting with those in line, having real conversations with the checker, and actually stopping to ask how that front door greeter is doing – and then listening if they get more than the requisite “Fine.”

If this describes you to a tee, then you may well be that one in a hundred that your congregation is looking for. The question is, if you’re not greeting now, what’s stopping you? Natural greeters don’t need an invitation ... they greet because it’s in their DNA. Don’t go stepping on someone’s toes by “replacing” them. But definitely skip over to the Greeting 101 section to see how you can be effective – even before you’re offered a position!

Finding and Identifying the Illusive Greeter

If you’ve been tasked with identifying a potential greeter for your congregation, you probably already know who that person is (or who they are). In fact, some reading this section have identified their own Dean or Deanette Kings and, essentially, everyone in the congregation knows who they are as well. However, if not, here are some tips on how to find and identify that person.

For the next few weeks, arrive at the worship center at least fifteen minutes early (if you have multiple services, you’ll need to do this before each one). If you have an active and spacious lobby, begin by finding an unobtrusive vantage point where you can easily see the members and guests arriving for worship. Then watch. If you already have designated greeters, keep tabs on them to see if they’re friendly, hospitable, and smiling attentively. For those who are clearly comfortable in their skin and putting themselves out there to meet and greet, make a note to yourself. But don’t get caught up just watching them. Keep your eyes open for others who are natural born greeters. The non-‐scheduled greeters will probably be working the incoming crowd. They may even be outside, so don’t get so comfy that you don’t check there as well. Make note of any who stand out.

Do the same in the worship space. Again, at least fifteen minutes before the prelude or opening worship set, find a place where you can observe what’s going on throughout the sanctuary. Your natural born greeters will be working the crowd. Like hummingbirds, they’ll be flitting from one section to another, from one pew to the next, and from one person to another to say “Hi,” to shake a hand, and to generally chat. Again, make a note of who they are.

Be aware, though, that you may find people who appear to be congregational hummingbirds, darting from one pew to the next, and yet are not effective greeters at all. Some of these folks, most of them in fact, are flitting through the worship space to touch base with members and friends they’ve not connected with during the week. Almost anyone will make the trek across the room to renew an

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acquaintance or to share a word with an old friend. Greeters, however, visit as many “flowers” as they can, not just the folks they know. In fact, the best greeters are those who won’t abide a stranger in their midst – and it’s their personal passion to become new friends, or at least new acquaintances, with each one. And what’s amazing is that they make these new friends without being obnoxious, overbearing, or offensive.

One last note. There’s one more place to look for potential greeters that often gets missed: the choir. In many cases, the choir “scoops” up some of the most talented greeters, ushers, and hosts and corals them in a choir loft. Since it seems most choirs do a quick rehearsal just before services, this can actually do serious violence to a church’s first-‐impression ministry. Over the howls of many a choir director, I offer these words. If your congregation’s star greeter, usher, or host is in the choir, help them do one of two things. Either they need to leave the choir in order to serve where they are desperately needed, or they need to be exempted from choir practices (and maybe even processions) so that they can stand at the door as the first line of welcome for the congregation.

Your Calling as an Usher

Ushers are probably the most underutilized, underappreciated, and under practiced positions in the church. As first-‐impression ministers, with perhaps the sole exceptions of Easter and Christmas, ushers tend to be relegated to bulletin distribution while in some churches, ushers serve the dual role as both greeters and bulletin dispensers. In far too many churches, ushers are almost afterthoughts who can be recruited at the last moment because, frankly, “anyone can do it.” And yet, a well-‐called usher is worth her/his weight in dark chocolate (much more valuable than gold, anytime).

The calling as an usher demands the same three traits as all first-‐impression ministers. Let’s face it, there’s only one thing worse than being handed a bulletin by a grumpy grouch and that’s not being handed a bulletin at all because the ushers are so distracted in conversation with each other that they take no notice of the stranger who just wandered past. Friendly, hospitable, smiling attentive ushers simply don’t miss much, let alone a wayfarer who’s seeking an audience with the King. And though there’s nothing wrong with an usher who’s gregarious and has never met a stranger, effective ushers tend to have a different personality mix.

I’ll expound on the work of an effective usher in Chapter 3, but in order to help you identify whether you’re called to the work of an usher I need to tip my hand slightly. In short, effective ushers do more than hand out bulletins – they take up where wedding ushers leave off and offer to help everyone find a seat (whether they need help or not).

Ushers who serve as first-‐impression ministers are committed to helping guests and members alike feel comfortable in the house of the Lord, so they assist them by finding exactly the right seat for their visit; therefore, ushers have to “notice” things other folks would miss. For instance, first-‐impression ushers know which seats are near the heating vents and which seats should be reserved for those who always seem to be just a little bit too warm. These ushers know where the acoustics are best for those slightly hard-‐of-‐hearing Baby Boomers who are “too young” to wear hearing aids, but need help hearing

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anyway. Effective ushers know where a shorter person will be able to see, even if they really don’t want to be “in the front.” In other words, effective first-‐impression ushers know their worship center intimately.

Second, ushers are more concerned with the comfort of a guest than they are with the societal norm of leaving-‐well-‐enough-‐alone. If someone needs a seat where they can “escape” easily without drawing attention to themselves, and the aisle seats nearest the exit are occupied, a first-‐impression usher has no problem whatsoever gently, but compellingly, inviting the aisle-‐huggers to slide down in order to accommodate the guest. And if the long-‐time member who had to scoot down gets a bit sideways with the usher, the usher either doesn’t notice or has thick enough hide to not care. They just did what needed to be done and that’s enough for them.

All that’s to say that beyond the three common attributes of a first-‐impression minister, there are two unique traits that a gifted and called usher needs. First, they need to be tactilely sensitive as well as observant enough to notice the “comfort zones” in the sanctuary. Second, they don’t mind intruding into someone’s personal space on behalf of the Kingdom. This may sound surprising, but both of these traits are commonly found in ADHD adults. That doesn’t mean all ushers are, or even should be, ADHD, but if you’ve been diagnosed and you’re looking for a ministry where you can shine beyond the ordinary, this may be where God needs you most.

Your Calling as a Host

Whereas a greeter greets and an usher ushes, a host is typically the third level of first-‐impression ministries. Hosts are those special men and women who go the second mile for their guests. The origin of the word “host” dates back to the thirteenth century and literally means “one granting hospitality” and “one in charge of guests.” In Chapter 4 we’ll explore the multifaceted responsibilities of first-‐impression hosts, but suffice it to say that, so far as it is possible, they are responsible for the personal comfort of their guests.

As with all first-‐impression ministers, hosts are naturally friendly and are gifted in hospitality. An attentive smile is never far from their lips, let alone from their eyes. Like greeters, hosts tend to be on the slightly more gregarious side of the scale and they genuinely like people. But hosts have a couple of unique traits that may help you identify whether God is calling you to this particular ministry.

First, hosts tend to be keen observers of humanity and can tell at a glance if someone is out of place. It’s not that they notice the under-‐ or over-‐dressed guest – that’s not a gift, it’s a norm. Instead, they notice those who are “lost” and/or feeling ever-‐so-‐slightly out-‐of-‐place. Some might say that a called and gifted host is blessed as an empath or that they have the spiritual gift of “knowing.” But just noticing the out-‐of-‐place isn’t enough. A first-‐impression host has either a high mercy an exceptionally high hospitality gift and they are moved enough to actually do something about the discomfort of a guest.

Second, called and gifted hosts are gregarious enough to initiate conversations with those they haven’t met, and yet they’re discerning enough to sense a guest’s wish to remain anonymous. This doesn’t

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mean that they avoid the guest – by no means. That would be equally insensitive. Instead, they have been gifted in the art of hospitable conversation that is so welcoming, disarming, and understated that a guest welcomes the interchange, feels no threat, and is assured that they have been noticed and their presence is appreciated.

Third, first-‐impression hosts have a gift for facial recognition. They recognize when they’ve seen or met people before, so that when a guest returns, the host recalls the meeting. They may not remember the names every time, which surprisingly isn’t important when it comes to discerning the call to be a host. The ability to remember names is a skill that literally anyone can learn with practice. But the knack of recognizing a face is a different matter – and gifted and called hosts remember faces.

There isn’t a higher calling in a church than that of a first-‐impression minister. The lead pastor can be a gifted networker, an awesome pulpiteer, and a dynamic vision-‐caster, but if a wary skeptic or an icy cynic doesn’t experience a positive first impression, it is unlikely they’ll cross their own fences and walls to hear the Gospel in a way that’s real for them. As you look at the characteristics and traits of the three first-‐impression ministries, my hope and prayer is that your heart has been warmed and God has tickled you with a sense of purpose for welcoming others into the church and into the Kingdom of God.


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Appendix B: Connections Parts 1 & 2

Connections: From Visitor to Committed Member

Part 1: Turning First-‐Time Visitors Into Returning Guests

By Bill Tenny-‐Brittian

According to our research, it appears that in North America less than 15 percent of first time church visitors return for a second visit. Although I’m sure it doesn’t follow denominational lines exactly, but it appears that in the mainline that number actually hovers nearer to 11 percent. That means that if 100 visitors graced your church’s vestibule last year, 85–89 of them decided your church didn’t have what they were looking for.

Although in some circles it’s chic to be exclusive, that shouldn’t be a church’s badge of honor. In our culture, pretty much the only ones looking for a church are either Already-‐Christian or those Desperately Seeking the Divine. The Already-‐Christians know what the church is like and tend to be pretty lenient in their judgment, so a brush off by these typically means there were hospitality issues or else they were looking for something specific they expected and didn’t find (like a “contemporary” worship service that was actually a traditional service dressed with a tie-‐less preacher). The real issue is when the Desperately Seeking the Divine turn away. Although that may mean there were hospitality issues, the core reason tends to be the visitor was hoping to find God and instead found the Church. In other words, they couldn’t find God through the coded vocabulary, the insider-‐only message, and/or the spirit of conflict that smothers the Spirit of God.

We’ve been training leaders and congregations for decades now on the “how” to turn that around. Indeed, a church I’ve been working with over the past four years reported that by practicing what we’ve taught they’ve turned their return rate from 11 percent to 85 percent … and 75 percent are becoming participating members. (Look for the Turn First-‐Time Visitors into Returning Guests FlipYourChurch Training DVD set in mid February).

However, in order to put together a cohesive plan on how to usher visitors onto your membership roles, it will be helpful to capture the big picture of the connection track. In this article, we’ll both explore the larger picture and look specifically at the first half of the connection track: turning first-‐time visitors into returning guests. In an upcoming article, we’ll explore the second half of the connection track: turning guests into committed members.

The Connecting Track

There are two rails of the connecting track. The first rail carries our passengers and we call it the Integration Process. The process is best understood through the terms we use to define integration into

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the heart of a congregation. These terms certainly aren’t proprietary, but when we use them, we do so with specificity and intentionality.

The Integration Process Rail

Visitor: Someone who visits a church for a single service. Visitors may never return to a particular church, they become a returning guest, or else they return as a visitor some time in the distant future. A visitor who returns a second time within six weeks should be considered a returning guest. When Aunt Marg from Pensacola drops in while she’s in town with the family she is a visitor and should be treated as such.

Guest: Visitors who return a second time within six weeks are considered returning guests. Guests are considering becoming increasingly involved with the church, although that doesn’t mean they want to chair a committee, sing in the choir, or join a small group. It also doesn’t mean they don’t. It does mean that they are especially sensitive to pressure and may be looking as intently for a reason not to stay as they are to continue attending.

Participant: When a guest begins singing in the choir, attending Sunday school or a small group, volunteers to help with a hands-‐on ministry, or willingly joins a committee or team, they’ve become a participant. Participants tend to be consumers more than supporters, so don’t expect their giving to increase and don’t plan on building a ministry around their gifts, talents, or skills just yet. The one thing you can count on is that you can’t count on participants for much.

Participating Member: Somewhere along the line a participant stops talking about “your” church or “the” church and begins to own it as “my” church or “our” church. This isn’t necessarily the definitive sign of membership, since some cast their loyalty on whatever seems like the next best thing, but it is a hint. Participating members may or may not “sign on the dotted line” and join your church, but they have made a decision to move from “guest” to “member,” at least in terms of their practices and behavior. Participating members are willing to serve, at least on some level. However, their loyalty is often predicated on the current pastor and/or with a small body of church friends.

Committed Member: You can tell who the committed members are when the going gets tough. When a popular staff member leaves, the mortgage payments become overwhelming, or the search committee hires a real nice pastor who can’t preach a lick, the committed members will stick anyway. Yes, they may grumble, but when push comes to shove, they’re the ones pushing with their shoulders against the wall. Their loyalty is beyond personalities and friends and they will serve and sacrifice beyond where it hurts.

Thus, the first rail of the connection track looks like this:

Visitor → Guest → Participant → Participating Member → Committed Member

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The Connections Rail

Whereas the first rail of the connecting track carries the passengers, the second rail carries the freight. To move someone along the track from visitor to committed member requires a number of specific connections that must be made along the way. If any of the necessary connections aren’t made, the likelihood of full integration into the congregation is unlikely. Therefore, we call the second rail Connections.

In brief, the second rail of the connections track looks like this:

Connection with Church → Returning Guest

Connection with Acquaintances → Returning Guest

Connection with Friend/s → Participant

Connection with God → Participating Member

Connection with Church → Committed Member

You probably noticed that the first two connections have the same results … a guest returns. The reason for the repetition is explained in the next section.

Turning First Time Visitors Into Returning Guests

The remainder of this article will briefly look at the connections that must be made for a first-‐time visitor to become a returning guest. When churches fail to understand and facilitate these first connections they find themselves in the under 15 percent group. And although churches that do well here may not transform their guests into fully committed membership, churches that don’t retain their visitors don't even have a chance.

Connection With Church

For a moment, let’s consider the visitor who comes without a personal invitation from a member. We sometimes refer to these as “Those who don’t come on the arm of a member.” What determines whether a visitor has any desire whatsoever to return to the church is whether or not they make either an intellectual or emotional connection with the “church.”

Please understand that we’re not saying that a church has two shots at making a connection with an individual and that if it misses the intellectual part it gets a chance to connect on an emotional level. Nicky Gumbel of Alpha fame has correctly surmised that people are stimulated primarily on one of these two levels. Thus, some will make a connection on an intellectual level (“That makes sense”) and some will make a connection on an emotional level (“That touched me”).

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A connection with the church is built on first impressions and on the visitor’s ineffable overall experience. We’ve spoken, written, and recorded volumes on the importance of first impressions, so we’ll turn our attention briefly to their ineffable experience.

Simply put, a great first impression won’t necessarily turn a visitor into a guest, although a poor first impression pretty much guarantees they won’t be back. A visitor must make a near visceral connection with the whole church experience in some way to want to return. Generally this happens in one of two ways: (1) They make a perceptible connection with the pastor; (2) The style and content of the worship service “resonates” within them. Indeed, it is not uncommon for a visitor to make both of these connections. In any event, if a visitor leaves the service feeling or thinking “That hit the spot” in some significant way, then it is relatively likely that they’ll return. Couple that with a great first impression and effective follow-‐up and the odds of a returning guest leap above 50 percent.

Connection with Acquaintances

Enjoying a church’s worship service enough to want to return will only last so long. A returning guest will only hang around the church for a couple of weeks if they don’t begin making connections with some of the “regulars.” We’re not talking hard and fast friends … not at this stage. But everyone has a need to feel both noticed and accepted before they’ll make any sort of personal investment. Therefore, it’s critical for guests to begin making connections with some familiar faces within the first few weeks.

Some of these connections may almost be imperceptible. A nod of recognition, a brightening smile when the guest enters the lobby, and if someone actually remembers their name … priceless. Other connections will need to be more tangible. Clear recognition by the pastor, staff, or other key leaders. Inclusion in conversations before and after the service. Invitations to the fellowship hall for coffee and doughnuts.

As a guest makes these connections, they may begin to pick up names and initiate conversations. At this stage it will become increasingly critical for the church to be intentional about helping the guest move to the next level.

… and that’s the content for the next article.

For more information on making a great first impression, visit our ChurchHospitality.us website.

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Connections Part 2: Turning Guests into Committed Members

In the first part of this article series we dealt with the most common problem churches have – getting a visitor to return. In fact, churches are so troubled by this issue that the national average appears to be significantly less than 15 percent of first-‐time visitors return for a second helping.

However, when a visitor does return another difficulty emerges: integrating the guest into the life of the congregation well enough that they not only become a member, they become a committed member that “sticks” even during the tough times. As I mentioned in Part 1, I’ve worked with one church through this process and they’re currently seeing 85 percent of their first-‐time visitors return and 75 percent are moving into membership at various levels.

If you haven’t had a chance to read “Connections Part 1: Turning First-‐Time Visitors Into Returning Guests,” you may want to peruse it first. If not, the sidebar provides thumbnail definitions of the twin rails of Connecting.

Turning Guests Into Committed Members

Churches of all sizes experience difficulty in the integration process (we’ve stopped using the term assimilation – we’re just not into the Borg imagery). Smaller churches generally know if they’re having an integration problem, but mid-‐sized and larger churches may not immediately notice the issue. They often discover they’re having an integration problem when they review their annual stats and realize: (1) They’ve “received” sixty-‐seven new members during the previous three years (2) Their average worship attendance is about what it was back then; and (3) They’ve only done five funerals. And though this malady is common throughout the church, ineffective integration is probably the most common problem plaguing the mega church today.

Hearkening back to the previous article, although a returning guest will have made an initial connection with the “church” and a few acquaintances, to remain on the Connecting Track will necessitate additional connections – and significant ones at that. Although a church’s excellence in hospitality can inspire a visitor to become a returning guest, the next connections take more than being welcoming.

Connection with Friend/s

I’m not sure who actually said it first, but I distinctly remember hearing Win Arn say it in an evangelism class back in the 80s that if a guest didn’t make a friend within the first six months or so, they would drift away from the church. When someone does drift away, church leaders too often succumb to the delusion that “another one simply fell through the cracks” as if they had no responsibility for those losses. Many, if not most, churches suffekring from integration issues are guilty of abdicating their responsibility of “friending” their guests.

Of course, behind this issue is the oft’ used excuse, “I just don’t have time for another friend.” It’s true that we live in a too-‐busy culture that’s been compounded recently by the lagging economy. However, in our experience, one reason so many churched people have no time for friends is because they are

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over-‐involved in church activities (this is more true in small to mid-‐sized churches than larger ones). In many churches, it’s not uncommon for active participants to serve on multiple committees, to sing in the ‘plkrtchoir, teach a Sunday school class, and/or to lead some other ministry. In addition to all that, these are the ones who show up every time “the church doors are open,” attend multiple committee and board meetings, and support/attend almost every church sponsored event as well. With all that on their plate it’s no wonder many church-‐folk have no time for a new friend.

On the flip side, in larger churches the busy-‐ness of members is compounded by the lack of intentional and available means to connect. For some reason, a number of large and mega churches seem to carry a “We dare you” attitude when it comes to providing easily accessed processes to integration. Indeed, I spoke with the staff discipleship leader at one mega church who admitted, “We intentionally make it difficult for new people to get connected here.” The rationale behind this was unfathomable to me, but it may explain the decade-‐long plateau that church has experienced!

The solution to the busy-‐ness issue is simple: Get less busy. Many churches would be helped by the “One Person, One Passion, One Position” rule. Simply put, this rule limits church members to serving only within their God-‐given passion. It means that no one can hold more than one leadership position in the church. When implemented, it’s amazing how much more free time church members have – time that they can use to “take on” a new friendship (see BillTennyBrittian.com for more on this rule).

Larger churches not only have to help their leaders (and members) make the choice to become less busy for the sake of the Kingdom, they also have to develop easy and plentiful opportunities for returning guests to make connections with existing members. Small groups, affinity events, providing openly accessible and inviting gathering and mingling space, and so on will help facilitate introductions that lead to friendships.

Getting un-‐busy isn’t easy and it isn’t painless, but it’s absolutely necessary if the church is going to help returning guests take the next step in the connection process. As a guest builds friendships within the church, they become increasingly active in the life of the church. They become more regular in their worship attendance. They may try out a small group or Sunday school class with a friend. And ultimately, in churches that are intentional in their integration processes, they’ll find themselves “clicking” with a ministry or mission of the church and becoming increasingly involved. During this period the guest moves from being a “guest” and becomes a participant.

Connecting With God

Although a number of folks will come through your doors with some sort of God-‐connection, as our culture continues its trek away from the church and from Christianity, an increasing number will find their ways into participation without having a meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ. That being said, it will become increasingly incumbent upon churches to develop some sort of a process for walking unbelieving first-‐time visitors from the front door to faith to membership. There are any number of processes that have been created and are available for adopting and adapting (Saddleback’s four-‐base 101 system immediately comes to mind), but the key is to choose and use something. Most churches

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leave this process to chance, “hoping” that somehow a pre-‐Christian will somehow just “connect” with God because the church’s worship is so good, or their Sunday school is so inviting. However, hope is not a strategy and this stuff is simply too important to leave to chance.

It’s not enough to develop a process to walk someone from cynic to saint, skeptic to believer, seeker to faith-‐filled. The process has to be so obvious that even the spiritual blind can see it. I can’t tell you how many churches I’ve visited that offer no apparent pathway from visitor to believer to member … and then complain that they’re not able to get guests to commit. Further, it should come as no surprise to any of us that a growing number of church guests have limited church experience. Without that history, they have no idea how to traverse the faith journey, they have no idea even where to start.

Some churches offer a series of “Introduction to …” classes. Others design a path that begins with a one-‐on-‐one with the pastor, moves to involvement in a Sunday school class, and culminates in a confirmation or catechism course. So long as a guest can easily find the on-‐ramp to that journey, when they’re ready they’ll make their way to it (but don’t hesitate to personally invite them to the first step when it’s opportune to do so).

One word of warning … the core of this connection step is less about getting a “new member” for the church than it is about accompanying a new citizen into the Kingdom. Whatever process that gets designed, design it with facilitating a relationship with Jesus Christ as the chief outcome. However, since most churches equate baptism or faith commitment with church membership, this connection nearly always includes the reception of a new participating member.

Committed Member

When someone “walks the aisle” or becomes a member by some other mechanism in your congregation, most churches seem to decide their job is done, at least in terms of integrating the new member into the core of the church. After all, they must have made a connection with the church since they’ve joined.

Far too often, new members join with a flurry of excitement and anticipation. Indeed, they may even get involved in this ministry or that, but then something happens. An unfortunate word is spoken by a long-‐time member. A particular ministry comes to an end. Or horror of horrors, the pastor resigns or is transferred. And in the end, the new member slips out the back door.

The final destination in the integration process is moving from a participating member who may come or go on what may seem like a whim to a fully committed member who will be there come what may. And though this process takes time, church leaders who don’t understand the process or who ignore it do so at the church’s peril.

You may remember from Part 1 of this article series that the very first connection a first-‐time visitor makes is with the “church,” that is, they connect with their initial church experience. For a participating member to become a committed member they must make a connection with the church, but in this

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case, it’s not a connection so much with their experience of church, rather than a connection with the church itself.

Although it appears that the majority of churches have not done the work of effectively discerning, stating, and organizing around their mission, a committed member has almost always connected with the church’s purpose. In other words, they’ve come to a place where they believe in what their church stands for, or at least what it accomplishes – even if its primary ministry is to the members themselves. However, it also appears that the more the church is conspicuously committed to and practicing a mission that includes life transformation (and seeing results), the more quickly commitment is developed.

Second, although participating members have made a friend or two in the congregation, committed members have taken those friendships to a much deeper level. Indeed, one of the most common refrains we hear from committed members is that they could never leave their friends. However, it should be noted here that as important and “sticky” as deeply rooted friendships are, friendships alone aren’t enough to take a participating member to the committed level. Many, if not most, participating members leave when the going gets rough or uncomfortable enough unless they have made the missional connection mentioned in the previous paragraph. However, the reverse is also true. As committed as a participating member might be to the church’s mission, if they haven’t built deep and committed relationships with a number of friends, when the winds of discord blow it will carry them out the doors.

Although the above factors is common with almost all committed members, there are other key factors that foster deeper commitment among participating members. For instance, when the church helps a participant discover their God-‐given passion and then provides a meaningful ministry opportunity for fulfilling that passion, commitment is generally the result. However, if for some reason the church withdraws that ministry, the member’s commitment may be compromised, especially if missional and friendship networks haven’t been fully established.

One last factor worth mentioning is the commitment that is developed when a participating member finds themselves facing some sort of personal or familial tragedy and the church steps in with significant and sustained support. Indeed, there is almost nothing that builds loyalty and commitment faster and more completely than being raised from the dead in some way by a caring, compassionate congregation.

Certainly, there are additional factors that may compel a participating member into commitment, but these are the most common … and indeed, missional commitment and deep friendships are foundational for most. By understanding the integration process and the connections that make integration a reality, church leaders can develop programs and ministries that will guide first-‐timers into congregational integration and ultimately into fully committed members.


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Appendix C: Digital Worship

Connecting With the Digital Generation in Worship

By Bill Tenny-‐Brittian

The pastor had committed a faux pas … that was clear. The Board met immediately following the service and after a few brief minutes they made their pronouncement. “The pastor may no longer refer to Twitter or Texting during worship.”

True story. And unless something seriously changes in that church I can draw the timeline to the moment they’ll join Lyle Schaller’s statistical prediction of 150,000 closed US churches within a decade.

It’s not that tweets and texts can save a church. But so long as worship is restricted to radio-‐communication, the church’s future is grim.

Radio-‐communication has its roots in the “Radio Generation,” which is the generation that is still in the driver’s seat in many, if not most, smaller churches (and many medium and even some larger churches). It’s not that these folks are necessarily opposed to technology in worship, it’s that they don’t understand (on any meaningful level) why it’s important or why anyone would dream of texting or tweeting in a worship service.

Before we “solve” the problem, let’s take a quick tour of the three generations in most churches today.

The Radio Generation: Those folks who were raised on radio entertainment. They learned to hang on every nuanced word the Shadow and Little Orphan Annie said. The spoken and written word was their chief learning tool … radio shows, lectures, sermons, and so on. Sure, they were exposed to movies, but their primary learning input was the written word and verbalizations. These are mostly the Silent and the Builder generations.

Think about it for a moment. If you close your eyes at most worship services you would miss very little and you could walk away with pretty much everything that was offered. That’s the radio generation at work in worship.

The TV Generation: Sometimes these folks are called the MTV Generation, but not all of “us” were raised on MTV. This generation was raised with television, or should I say raised “in front of the” television. The verbalizations of the past were largely replaced by images. Although it was a Radio Gen that made famous the phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words,” it was the TV Generation that made image-‐driven media their primary learning tool. And though there have been paraments in churches for hundreds of years, note that it was the TV Generation that got busy sprucing up the worship space with banners … and when they really got their way, they outfitted the sanctuary with an LCD projector (hoping for more than just words on the screen). These are mostly Boomers and early Gen-‐Xers.

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In an image-‐driven worship service (there actually aren’t very many of them yet – even in mega churches) if you close your eyes for more than a few seconds you’ll miss something important.

The Digital Generation: These are the folks who have never not had the internet. Many, if not most, of them have very talented thumbs that can text at 60wpm (words per minute, for those of you more familiar with LOL, OMG, and OTP) while carrying on an intelligent conversation with a group of friends in almost any setting. Their learning style isn’t looking at a screen, as one might expect of a generation raised looking at a computer monitor. Instead, they learn best through interactivity. These are the late Gen-‐Xers, the Millennials, and Digital Natives.

So now, let’s consider today’s typical worship service. Well, for starters the primary communication mode is oral – the songs, the sermon, and most of the other worship components pretty much depend on words. Many churches have added screen technology to their services, but most of them still use that technology as if it’s an overhead projector: they project the words of the songs, the responsive reading, unison prayers, and the points to the sermon.

It’s funny that even churches that “get it” when it comes to learning styles have defaulted to an enhanced radio generation service. The words of the songs make it up to the screen and there may even be a graphic or video background, but the “image” rarely carries significant (or any) meaning. If you close your eyes, you would still miss very little. These churches generally use cameras to project the pastor (and other up-‐front guests) up on the big screen. But projecting the speaker on a JumboTron hardly qualifies as an image-‐driven teaching tool – you could get the same effect sitting in the front row. On the other hand, some churches have taken the next step towards image-‐driven worship. They use video clips, create video commercials, and develop video illustrations to enhance the sermon (which is still largely an oral delivery). Although this is movement in the right direction, to be sure, I’ve yet to encounter a church that has effectively adapted worship to move, touch, and inspire an image-‐driven generation (I suspect this may be another reason why so few Boomers have returned to church).

Although strides have been made in the image-‐driven venue, few churches have even broached the Digital Generation’s needs. Remember that being “digital” isn’t so much the issue with this generation. Interactivity is their preferred learning style. That doesn’t mean they’re the generation that embraces the “Turn to the person sitting next to you and say ‘Jesus loves you’” style of sermon interactivity … far from it. Though it’s true they respond and learn best in an interactive environment, a need for interactivity does not presume inter-‐relational-‐ism.

Here’s a reality check though. A Radio-‐Generation worship service can add digital interactivity without disrupting the worship service. In fact, an enterprising church could do so without adding screen technology! The one technological tool a church must have for this to work effectively is an open-‐access broadband internet connection. But with that in place, even a small church can create an interactive worship service that can keep the most avid Digital Native content – it takes work and a little cooperation of a member or two, but it’s well worth it.

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Creating a Digital Native Friendly Worship Service

Rather than creating a long narrative of how to, the following bulleted list offers a jumping off point … add what’s possible now and add more as technology changes and opportunities arise.

Provide a text phone number or a Twitter feed in the bulletin (or on screen) where participants can text questions or comments while the service is going on.

The recipient should be someone in the service whose ministry is to field these questions and respond to comments.

To take this to the next level, put the recipient on the platform with the pastor. As pertinent questions and clarification-‐needs are received, the recipient should jot them down on a 3X5. These cards should be slipped to the pastor as s/he preaches so they can be woven into the sermon.

Create a webpage that has resources that augment the prayers, hymns, scripture readings, and sermon.

Add hymn stories, histories, etc. that help the worshipper better connect with the hymn

Provide definitions of unfamiliar terms in the hymns (such as ebenezer, zephyr, seraphim, etc.)

Provide links to prayer sites such as the labyrinth site http://www.labyrinthsociety.org/flash/labyrinth.htm

Add links to scripture tools such as http://www.biblestudytools.com/ and Bible helps such as http://www.internationalstandardbible.com/. Don’t just offer the base URL links, but direct links to the Bible passage, commentaries, articles, and so on.

Provide the sermon outline, reflection questions, alternative interpretations, etc.

Create a “chat room” for the service, perhaps embedded on the above webpage, that is staffed by one or more church volunteers who can field questions and comments with ease. (Keep in mind that “I don’t know” may be the most authentic and integrous answer to some questions.)

If you live stream your service online make sure that all of the above options are obviously available on the streaming site. (I recommend www.primcast.com as one of the least expensive streaming services.)

If you video record your service, consider offering the worship service or the sermon at an additional time (and/or day) and streaming it via “live tape.” When you do, provide the same level of digital interactivity as you do for the live service.

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I presented the above materials at a tech seminar for pastors and church leaders the other day and one of the pastors exclaimed, “You’ve just redefined ministry!” I’m not convinced that offering digital enhancements as a redefinition of ministry, but I agree that it’s a brand new ministry opportunity that few churches are offering.

Is it more work? Certainly. But tomorrow’s church demands it today.


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Additional Resources The 21st Century Strategies website and eCommerce section has a plethora of resources to help you in your transformational journey. In addition to what you’ll find there, you will want to familiarize yourself with the following:

www.Church-‐Talk.com. Online video training for virtually every aspect of church transformation. Live every Tuesday at 10 AM Central, and archived as video for online viewing. Many episodes include a training handout for discussions.

www.FlipYourChurch.com. Providing DVD training resources and connections to additional transformation tools.

www.HitchhikersGuideToEvangelism.com. Training and motivational resources to help congregations engage in practical, relevant evangelism.


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OTHER RESOURCES ADMINISTRATION 1. Lyle Schaller, The Multiple Staff And The Larger Church, Abingdon Press. 2. For personnel policies and procedures or job descriptions, write Multi-‐Staff Ministries, 3819 N. 154th Lane,

Goodyear, AZ 85338. Phone/Fax 602-‐935-‐0747. This information comes in both print and on disk. They are somewhat expensive.

3. Knowledge Point has software programs for staff review, personnel policies, and job descriptions. They run

from $59.00 to $89.00. 800-‐851-‐2917. 4. Owners Representatives can help churches before, during, and after construction phases from site selection,

contractor selection, equipment, project review, to system analysis. 703-‐790-‐5412. ADULTS 1. Strengthening the Adult Sunday School Class, Dick Murray, Abingdon Press. 2. Teaching the Bible to Adults and Youth, Dick Murray, Abingdon. ASSIMILATION 1. "Every Member In Ministry Involving Laity and Inactives," John Ed Mathison, Nashville: Discipleship Resources. BIBLE STUDIES 1. Disciple Bible, contact Wini Grizzle, Room 233, P.O. Box 801, Nashville, TN 37202. 2. Bethel Series, P. O. Box 8395, Madison, WI 53708. 3. Kerygma Program, 300 Mount Lebanon Blvd. Suite 205, Pittsburgh, PA 15234. 4. Trinity Bible Studies, Box 77, El Paso, AR 72045. 5. "Through The Bible In One Year," 6116 East 32nd Street, Tulsa, OK 74135. 6. The Kingdom Agenda: Experiencing God in Your Workplace, by Mike and Debi Rogers (Lifeway). For seminars

involving the Kingdom Agenda message, contact Kingdom Agenda Ministries, 2720 Onizuka Court, Palm Harbor, FL 34683.

7. Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby and Claude V. King, Lifeway Press. 8. Alpha is a 15 session, including one weekend, course for introducing non-‐Christians to Christianity. Each

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session consists of a meal, one lecture, and small groups. There are 6,000 courses running now in 55 countries. I have heard only good things about this ministry. North America phone is 212-‐378-‐0292, 1029 East 50th Street, New York, NY 10022. http://www.alphana.org

CHILDREN 1. Logos Program, Inc. 1405 Frey Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15235.

2. Pioneer Clubs, Box 788, Wheaton, IL 60189-‐0788. Phone (708) 293-‐1600. Good material for those wanting a conservative approach.

CHURCH PLANTING, Building, Relocating 1. 44 Questions for Church Planters, Lyle Schaller, Abingdon Press. 2. Malkoff and Associates are project managers. They also help churches deal with the city or state government

regarding restrictions, zoning, or anything that stands in the way of building, expanding, or relocating. They are the primary firm that helped Saddleback Church through its 52 moves. 800-‐MALKOFF (625-‐5633) or 714-‐288-‐6200. 18456 Lincoln Circle, Villa Park, CA 92861. Fax 714-‐288-‐6210.

3. The Home Mission Board of the SBC has developed resources for a variety of languages. Call 800-‐634-‐2462. 4. Portable Church Industries, started by Kensington Alliance Church sells all the equipment a group needs to

start a church in rented facilities, even to the point of the van in which to transport it. Six people and two hours and 800 people can be accommodated. Call 800-‐939-‐7722.

5. ChurchSmart has a variety of excellent materials by people who have started new churches. 800-‐253-‐4276.

[email protected] 6. There are several good profile tests to give potential church planters. DISC, contact Jim Beard at NAMS, 800-‐

441-‐6267, $50 each; Role Preference Inventory, self-‐scoring 800-‐443-‐1976, $5 each; and the popular Meyers-‐Briggs.

7. Church Planter’s Toolkit, Robert Logan and Steve Ogne, CRM Publishing, 800-‐253-‐4CRM, $69.95. 8. How to Implement a Regional Church Planting Vision, Robert Logan, CRM Publishing, 800-‐253-‐4CRM, $79.95. 9. Church Multiplication and Training Center (CMTC). This organization sponsors a Boot Camp for church

planters. 3214 Summersworth Run, Ft. Wayne, IN 46804, Phone: 219-‐434-‐0090 Fax: 219-‐459-‐0597. http://www.cmtcmultiply.org

10. Sprung Instant Structures. Offers a revolutionary way to put up quick, good looking buildings in record time

with a 25-‐year guarantee. 800-‐528-‐9899, www.sprung.com, [email protected] COMPUTERS

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1. "Christian Computing," (magazine) Christian Computing, Inc., P.O. Box 198, 406 Pine Street Center/Suite L-‐M,

Raymore, MO 64083. Phone (816) 331-‐3881, Fax (816) 331-‐5510. You can usually get this magazine free of charge.

2. Shelby Systems, 65 Germantown Court, Suite 303, Cordova, TN 38018. Phone (913) 877-‐0222. This software is

designed to handle any size church. It has everything you need. It is expensive and requires extensive training. You will never outgrow it.

3. Desktop Ministry offers a variety of good software products for program use. Their electronic brochure for use in the foyer on Sunday is very good. You can get samples by calling 800-‐964-‐5250. Emerald Blvd., Southlake, TX 76092.

4. Wisdom Tree, Inc. has some software games for children to learn the Bible. Phone (800 )772-‐4253.

5. Bridgestone Multimedia group has software games for children to learn the Bible. Bridgestone Multimedia Group -‐-‐ 300 N. McKemy Avenue, Chandler, AZ 85226. 800-‐523-‐0988

6. Ministry Business Services, Box 1567, Huntington Beach, CA 92647 consult with large churches about their systems and computer needs. Their web page is www.mbsnet.com.

7. Lion Publishing. Children’s software. http://www.lion-publishing.co.uk

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT 1. Surviving Difficult Church Members, Robert Dale, Abingdon Press. 2. How To Deal Constructively with Clergy/Lay Conflict, Speed B. Leas, Alban Institute, Washington, D.C. 20016 3. Antagonists in the Church, Kenneth Haugk, Abingdon Press. 4. John Savage, L.E.A.D. Consultants, Box 664, Reynoldsburg, OH 43068. Phone (614) 864-‐0156.

http://www.leadplus.com/introduction.htm COPYRIGHT FOR PRINT ONLY (for all other forms see “Worship”)

1. United Media www.unitedmedia.com for cartoons

2. Copyright Clearance Center www.copyright.com for print DEMOGRAPHICS 1. For Percept reports, call Stanley Menking at 570-‐646-‐0973 or email [email protected]. Cost is $310.00. Give

him the intersection nearest your church.

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2. "American Demographics," (800) 828-‐1133. This is the best in its field. 3. Demographics Workshop Handbook, Stanley J. Menking, 1991, Perkins School of Theology at SMU, Continuing

Education Department, SMU, P.O. Box 133, Dallas, TX 75275-‐0133. Phone (214) 768-‐2251. $10.00. 4. Focus Groups: A Guide for Marketing and Advertising Professionals, Jane Templeton, American Demographics,

P. O. Box 68, Ithaca, NY 14851. Phone (800) 828-‐1133 5. Focus Groups: See Stanley Menking, "Demographics Workshop Handbook". Perkins School of Theology,

Continuing Education, SMU, P. O. Box 133, Dallas, TX 75275-‐0133. Phone (214) 768-‐2251. $10.00. 6. Focus Groups: See Church Marketing, George Barna, Ventura California: Regal Books. DIRECT MAIL 1. Direct Mail Ministry, Walter Mueller, Nashville, Abingdon. 2. For technical advice on mass mailings, contact Rev. Deral Schrom, South Suburban Christian Church, 7175

South Broadway, Littleton, CO 80122. 3. Breakthrough Media provides graphics for direct mail or for mailing for the Phone Is For You. 804-‐829-‐6426 or

www.us.net/btmedia. 4. The Church Ad project is very good for radio ads. 800-‐331-‐9391...ask for their latest catalogue. DISCIPLE MAKING 1. Witnessing Without Fear by Bill Bright, Thomas Nelson, 1993. 2. Becoming a Contagious Christian, Bill Hybels, Zondervan. DRAMA 1. Willow Creek Community Church has excellent drama sketches. P.O. Box 3188, South Barrington, IL 60011-‐

3188. 2. Puppet Productions, P.O. Box 1066, DeSoto, TX 75123, 800-‐854-‐2151.

3. Drama Share has on line dramas. It comes out of Canada http://www.dramashare.org

4. Sample drama script can be found on the EBA website at http://www.easumbandy.com/resources/index. Drama scripts are also available for purchase under “Other Resources” from the EBA website.

EVANGELISM

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1. There are several good, inexpensive sources for new residents: Research Data, Inc., 16950 Dallas Parkway, Dallas, TX 75248; Dataman Information Services, Inc. 1100 Johnson Ferry Rd. Suite. 450, Atlanta, GA 30342; New Resident Data Marketing, Inc. (201) 666-‐2212. Do not forget to include the county or counties served by your church.

2. Friend Day is a worship attendance program that has been used in over 30,000 churches with great results.

Church Growth Institute, P.O. Box 7000, Forest, VA 24551, (800) 533-‐GROW. 3. Biblical Perspectives on Evangelism: Living In A Three Story Universe by Walter Brueggemann, Abingdon Press.

The best book in print at the moment on the relationship of evangelism to the Judeo-‐Christian biblical traditions. It also has a very good word on the relationship of evangelism and social justice.

4. "Workshop on Personal Evangelism", United Methodist Church, (615) 340-‐7050. 5. The Phone is For You, can be ordered from Church Growth Development International, 131 E. Grove Avenue,

Orange, CA 92865. 714-‐279-‐6570. For help designing the mail outs, see Breakthrough Media below. 6. "Perceptions," by Maxie Dunham, Abingdon Press. This is a series of excellent radio ads. 7. Breakthrough Media has some of the best and widest selection of church media outreach resources. For a

sample packet contact Breakthrough Media at 804-‐829-‐6426 or visit their website at www.us.net/btmedia. 8. “Contagious Christians” from Willow Creek Community Church. 9. Steve Sjogren, A Conspiracy of Kindness, Vine Books. 10. Alpha is a 15 session, including one weekend, course for introducing non-‐Christians to Christianity. Each

session consists of a meal, one lecture, and small groups. There are 6,000 courses running now in 55 countries. North America phone is 212-‐378-‐0292, 102 E. 50th Street, New York, NY 10022. Website is http://www.alphana.org

FAMILY MINISTRIES

1. The Stepfamily Association of America. Phone 402-‐477-‐7837.

2. Strengthening Your Stepfamily, Elizabeth Einstein and Linda Albert, American Guidance Service, $10.95.

3. National Center for Fathering, 217 Southwind Place, Manhattan, KS 66502, 913-‐776-‐4114. GENERATIONS

1. Strause and Howe, Generations. This is a large and expensive book that you can find summarized in Stanley Menking’s “Demographics Workshop Handbook.”

2. Jesus for a New Generation, Kevin Ford, (InterVarsity), 1995.

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INACTIVES 1. John Savage, Lead Consultants, Box 664, Reynoldsburg, OH 43068. Phone (614) 864-‐0156. John is the leading

authority on listening skills. http://www.leadplus.com/introduction.htm INTERACTIVE VIDEO 1. A Father and Two Sons, a wonderful interactive look into Luke 15:32. Requires a CD Rom and at least 8 megs

of RAM. American Bible Society. LAY MINISTRIES -‐-‐ SMALL GROUP MINISTRIES (META) 1. The Ministry/Chemistry Match materials is great for matching people with ministries. Contact Steve Johnson

at the Profile Group, 303-‐745-‐2097. 2. "Networking," Spiritual Gifts developed around the Willow Creek model. Zondervan. 1-‐800-‐727-‐3480 3. Making Cell Groups Work, M. Scot Boren. 4. Program-‐based churches wishing to transition to small group-‐based churches may contact North Star

Strategies, 1500 N. Lincoln, Urbana, IL 61801 in care of Jim Egli. Phone (217) 384-‐3070. 5. Dale Galloway, 20/20 Vision, Portland: Scott Publishing, 1986. 6. Carl George, Prepare Your Church for The Future, New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1991. 7. "Small Group Church," 14925 Memorial Drive, Suite 101, Houston, TX 77079. 8. "First Love" video from Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church detailing its small group ministry based on the

Meta model. (800) 322-‐5817, (800) 686-‐HOPE inside Ohio, Media Resources for Ministry, United Theological Seminary, 1810 Harvard Blvd., Dayton, OH 45406.

9. Stephen Ministry is developing a new ministry for small groups that can be used in program-‐based churches

that do not wish to become cell-‐based churches. Write or call Dr. Kenneth Haugk, Stephen Ministries, 2045 Innerbelt Business Center Dr., St Louis, MO 63114-‐5765. Phone (314) 428-‐2600.

10. Team Ministry, Church Growth Institute, Box 4404, Lynchburg, VA 24502. Another form of spiritual gifts that

will work with mainline churches. It is not very expensive. 11. Birkman International can help you in the selection of important staff and key laity positions. They are a world-‐

wide management consulting firm that is now interested in helping churches select and train leadership. 3040 Post Oak Blvd., Suite 1425, Houston, TX 77056. (713) 623-‐2760. www.birkman.com

12. "Every Member In Ministry Involving Laity and Inactives," John Ed Mathison, Nashville: Discipleship Resources.

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13. The Equipping Church Guidebook is one of the best resources for lay ministries. Contact Leadership Network -‐

800-‐765-‐5323. 14. "Walking With God Series," an excellent material for small group ministries, from Willow Creek Community

Church, P.O. Box 3188, South Barrington, IL 60011-‐3188. Zondervan Publishing House. 15. Serendipity has an excellent booklet that gives examples of all of the major small group ministry models. Order

"Small Group Leaders Training Manual." Box 1012, Littleton, CO 80160. Phone (800) 525-‐9563. 16. The 2:7 Series from Navigators, P.O. Box 6000, Colorado Springs, CO 80934. 17. How To Mobilize Church Volunteers, Marlene Wilson, Abingdon. 18. John Savage, L. E. A. D. Consultants, Inc., is an excellent trainer for lay ministries. Box 664, Reynoldsburg, OH

43068. Phone (614) 864-‐0156. http://www.leadplus.com/introduction.htm 19. See "Cell Church" under Magazine Section. 20. "Building Christian Community Through Small Groups" is training material for small group leaders on cassettes

and print material (Fuller Institute) and "Using the Bible in Groups," Roberta Hestenes, Westminster, 1985. This may or may not be available in the future. But the back copies are great.

21. Curriculum and Resources for Small Groups, Judith Hamline. NavPress. 22. Telecare Ministries, Dale Galloway. Contact New Hope Community Church, 11731 S. E. Stevens Rd. Portland,

Oregon 97266. 503-‐659-‐LOVE. 23. Palmer Becker, Called To Equip, Scottsdale, PA, Herald Press, 1993. 24. Equipping Ministries International has a good catalogue of materials. Equipping Ministries International, 4015

Executive Park Drive, Suite 309, Cincinnati, OH 45241. Phone (513) 769-‐5353. 25. "Nine Facets of Effective Small Group Leaders" (video) with Carl George, Center for the Development of

Leadership for Ministry, 231 Indian Creek Road. P.O. Box 5407, Diamond Bar, CA 91765, phone 909-‐396-‐6843. 26. "52 Ministry Skills for Small Group Leaders" describes the training of laity by the four district pastors of New

Hope Community Church in Portland Oregon (the latest small group ministry in North America). 52 practical lessons accompanied by a one hour tape of an actual training session. $69.95. Foundation of Hope, 11731 S. E. Stevens Road, Portland, OR 97266. Phone (800) 935-‐4673.

27. Cell Net is a networking of cell-‐based congregations by Touch Ministries in Houston, TX. Ralph Neighbor’s

group. 281-‐497-‐7901. 28. There is a cell church BBS on the Internet that can be accessed through America On Line. It is called Cell-‐

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Church. [email protected]. 29. Dale Galloway provides a variety of small group materials. 52 weekly TLC Classes, Vols. 1,2,3; Ministry Skills for

Small Group Leaders, Creating Small Groups for Children; Seven Day A Week Church Kit. Contact New Hope Community Church, 11731 S. E. Stevens Road, Portland, OR 97266 503-‐659-‐LOVE.

30. Serendipity New Testament for Groups is a great tool for small group leaders. Serendipity House, Littleton,

Colorado. Box 1012, Littleton, CO. 80160, 1-‐800-‐535-‐9563. 31. How To Lead A Small Group Bible Study, Navigators, P.O. Box 6000, Colorado Springs, CO 80934. 32. "Your Home, A Lighthouse" video series shows how a couple has been doing small groups in their home for 22

years. NavPress. 33. Churches Alive, Box 3800, San Bernardino, CA 92413, 714-‐886-‐5364. 34. Leading Children's Cell Groups, Lorna Jenkins, Touch Publications, P.O. Box 19888, Houston, TX 77224, 713-‐

497-‐0904. 35. Life Development Process, by Saddleback's The Encouraging Word, 714-‐587-‐9534, The Encouraging Word, Box

6080-‐388, Mission Viejo, CA 92690. 36. Cell Track, a software package for keeping track of small groups and all that goes with them, 800-‐735-‐5865. 37. North Star Quarterly resource service is not a magazine but a packet that includes printed resources and audio

cassettes related to transitioning to a cell-‐based church. $99. 38. National Association for Christian Recovery. 714-‐528-‐6558. 39. Small Group Network on Internet has a wonderful array of resources. http://smallgroups.com 40. INJOY 1530, Jamacha Road, Suite D, El Cajon, CA 92019-‐3757. This is John Maxwell’s organization. 41. “Calling and Caring Ministries” (eight audio cassettes, by L.E.A.D. Consultants (John Savage) are remarkable.

They will help any lay person be a better listener and minister in whatever area of the church. P.O. Box 664, Reynoldsburg, OH 43068. 614-‐864-‐0156. http://www.leadplus.com/introduction.htm

42. Alpha, a new member study course that takes people into the basics of faith. It centers on Jesus, not

denominationalism. Cook Communications Ministries, 4050 Lee Vance View, Colorado Springs, CO, 80918, 888-‐949-‐2574.

43. John Ortberg, Small Groups As Life-‐Saving Stations, from Defining Moments tapes from Willow Creek

Association.

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44. Intentional DiscipleMaking, Navigators. LEADERSHIP TRAINING 1. Leadership Network, P.O. Box 199277, Dallas, TX 75201, (800) 765-‐5323 or 214-‐969-‐5950. This is one of the

very best of the very best training organizations specifically for churches. www.leadnet.org 2. Bill Easum’s Summit Series held each year in the Fall on the island where he lives. Each group is kept to no

more than 12 people per facilitator. Some groups are limited to as few as nine people. 3. International Center for Leadership. In Canada this is the old Fuller Institute, Canadian Ministries. Contact John

Baergen. 4. Easum, Bandy & Associates, William Easum, P. O. Box 780, Port Aransas, TX 78373, 361-‐749-‐5364. Specializes

in ministry innovations, systems, local church consultations, leadership training, futuring, capital fund drives, endowments, small group ministries and contemporary worship. Seminars and catalog.

5. Center for Church Leader Development, Robert Dale, 2828 Emerywood Parkway, PO Box 8568, Richmond, VA

23226. 804-‐672-‐2100. 6. Center for Creative Leadership, Box 26300, Greensboro, NC 27438, 910-‐288-‐7210. Workshops and

publications. 7. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, 921 E. 86th Street, Suite 200, Indianapolis, IN 46240, 317-‐259-‐1241.

Workshops and publications. 8. L.E.A.D. Consultants, John Savage, P.O. Box 664, Reynoldsburg, OH 43068. 614-‐864-‐0156. Specializes in

leadership, conflict resolution, and communication skills. Training seminars and catalog. http://www.leadplus.com/introduction.htm

9. Leader Development Services, Bill Carter, 2211 Wyndale Road, Johnson City, TN 37604, 615-‐926-‐3055.

Specializes in multi-‐staff congregations. 10. Parish Consultant, Lyle E. Schaller, 530 N. Brainerd Street, Naperville, IL 60540. Workshops and publications

with Abingdon Press. 11. Pecos River Learning Center, Inc., 7600 Executive Drive, Eden Prairie, MN 55344. One of the most expensive in

the nation. 12. Shawchuck and Associates, Norman Shawchuck, RR 1, Box 123, Leith, ND 58529, 701-‐584-‐3002. Specializes in

leadership, quality management, and conflict management. Seminars and catalog. 13. Quest for Quality, Ezra Earl Jones, General Board of Discipleship, 1908 S. Grand, Nashville, TN 37212, 615-‐340-‐

7000. Specializing in quality church management workshops and catalog of publications.

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14. Christ-‐centered training for youth ministers, pastors and laity. Tentmakers, 500 Blake Road South, Hopkins, MN 55343. 800-‐989-‐TENT; 612-‐935-‐3147. www.TentmakersYM.org

MAGAZINES 1. Net Results (for church leadership/vitality ideas and methods), contains articles from Bill Easum, Lyle Schaller,

Herb Miller, and others. 2. "Cell Church," 14925 Memorial Drive, Suite 101, Houston, TX 77079, 281-‐497-‐7901. 3. WCA Monthly is from Willow Creek Association. Phone 708-‐765-‐0070. 4. Fast Company, a bimonthly publication, one of the best two magazines for leaders. 5. Leader to Leader, a quarterly publication, one of the best two magazines for leaders. It is rather expensive.

888-‐378-‐2537, [email protected], www.josseybass.com. MARKETING 1. Church Marketing, George Barna, Ventura California. Regal Books. 2. "Welcome," Andrew Weeks, Alban Institute, 4125 Nebraska Avenue, N. W. Washington, DC 20016, Phone

(800) 457-‐2674. $15.95. MEMBERSHIP TRAINING 1. Vital Christianity: A Manual for Teaching the Basics of Christianity, Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church,

Tipp City, Ohio. 513-‐667-‐1069. MOVIES

1. "Service Builder" (http://www.willowcreek.org) As a part of that program, they have a data base of film clips that can be used for worship. It is free and helpful, even though it is somewhat limited.

2. See our FAQ’s page for much, much more on www.easumbandy.com under free resources.

MUSIC-‐-‐Indigenous 1. Hosanna Integrity Music (MUSIC) 800-‐877-‐4443, P.O. Box 16813, Mobile, AL 36616. 2. Maranatha! Music (MUSIC) 800-‐444-‐4012, 800-‐245-‐7664, P.O. Box 31050, Laguna Hills, CA 92654-‐1050. 3. Saddleback Praises. Phone (800) 458-‐BSSB. 4. Brentwood Music (SLIDES* see item 10) 800-‐333-‐9000, 316 Southgate Ct., Brentwood, TN 37027.

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5. Bethel Chapel Box 51, Brentwood, TN 37024. 6. Christian Copyright Licensing, Inc. 6130 NE 78th, Suite C-‐11, Portland, OR 97218. They provide copyright

privileges for thousands of songs. The charge is based on the size of the church. They also have all of the songs on CD arranged by theme.

7. Word Music offers an excellent book on planning worship called, Songs for Praise and Worship/Worship

Planner Edition. This material is a must for those planning indigenous worship designed around a theme. Phone (800) 933-‐9673, Ext. 2389, 2784, 2374.

8. J & J Graphics and Designs (SLIDES). 39888 John Drive, Canton, MI 48187. Phone (313) 453-‐0697, Fax (313)

453-‐0698. 9. Phil Barfoot Music Company (SLIDES and OVERHEAD TRANSPARENCIES) P.O. Box 4629, Chatsworth, CA 91313. 10. Interlinc sends you every quarter the best in Christian music on CDs or tapes. P.O. Box 680848, Franklin, TN

37068. (615) 790-‐9080. 11. A new music ministry has emerged for mainline Protestants, and much of it includes inclusive language. Call

Wellsprings Unlimited, Inc., 204 Sevens Court, Burnsville, MN 55306. Phone (612) 890-‐3863. The music is good and is designed by two United Methodist leaders.

12. Pure Word is a new beyond praise band that is excellent. 8700 Emerson South, Bloomington, MN 55420. 13. Song Select gives instant access to the 5,000 most popular songs used by the 80,000 who have license from

CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing, Inc.) $49. 6130 NE 78th, Suite C-‐11, Portland, OR 97218. 14. LaMar Boschman Ministries, (800-‐627-‐0923), P. O. Box 130, Bedford, TX 76095. Outstanding materials for

training worship leaders and praise teams. 15. CHOICE Ministries, P. O. Box 6326, Waco, TX 76706, “Worship As A Lifestyle” audio tape series. CD’s and

Songbooks/”Grace” and “Strong Tower” (2nd & 3rd projects). 16. WORD MUSIC, INC. (800-‐933-‐9673), 7300 Imperial Drive, Waco, TX. 76702. “Songs for Praise and Worship” -‐

the best comprehensive praise and worship hymnal. Worship Planner Edition -‐ Accompanist Edition -‐ Pew Edition -‐ Choral Club -‐ outstanding contemporary literature.

17. Davisongs Music Group (318-‐448-‐9300), P. O. Box 8169, Alexandria, LA 71306. Choral Club -‐ great

contemporary-‐gospel literature. Convenient xeroxing policy (pay royalties). 18. J & J Music (800-‐456-‐4966) (334-‐452-‐2000), P. O. Box 11468, Chickasaw, AL 36671-‐0468. Choral Music

Distributor -‐ unparallelled in quality and service. Hold magnificent choral seminars in January and June. 19. Worship Connection (800-‐881-‐8008) (512-‐795-‐0853), P. O. Box 201808, Austin, TX 78720.

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20. Christian Artists’ Music Seminar in the Rockies, (800-‐755-‐7464), 425 West 115th Ave., Denver, CO 80234. 21. International Worship Leaders’’ Institute (800-‐627-‐0923), P. O. Box 130, Bedford, TX 76095. 22. Lillenas Publishing Company, Division of the Nazarene Publishing House, P. O. Box 419527, Kansas City, MO

54141. 23. Maranatha! Music (800-‐245-‐7664), Worship Leader’s Workshop, 30230 Ranch Viejo Rd., San Juan Capistrano,

CA 92675. 24. Worship International, Inc. (334-‐639-‐0639), P. O. Box 9309, Mobile, AL 36691. 25. Vineyard Music Group (800-‐852-‐VINE) (714-‐777-‐7733), P. O. Box 68025, Anaheim, CA 92817-‐8025. 26. Integrity Music, Inc. P. O. Box 851622, Mobile, AL 36685-‐1622. 27. “Worship Evangelism” by Sally Morgenthaler; Zondervan Publishing House. 28. Fair Oaks Learning Center (Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church) http://www.fopc.org 29. The Almost Definitive Contemporary Christian Music Hot Page http://www.afn.org/~mrblue/ccm/ccm.html

30. Christian Music Online http://www.cmo.com NEW RESIDENTS 1. GGC Associates, Inc. 2900 Bristol, Bldg. H, Suites 202-‐203, Costa Mesa, CA 92626. Phone (800) 444-‐9521. They

can provide both names and sample letters to mail to the different kinds of new residents. PASTORAL CARE 1. "Care Notes" is aimed at helping those who hurt in mind, in body, or in spirit, offering a blend of information

and inspiration, modern psychology and religion. Care Notes covers the gamut of pastoral counseling needs. One Caring Place, Abbey Press, St. Meinrad, IN 47577.

PRAYER 1. Prayer Tract News, Global Harvest Ministries, 215 N. Marengo Avenue, Suite 151, Pasadena, CA 91101. Phone

(818) 577-‐7122. 2. Up Link is an every other month newsletter or prayer from The Community Church of Joy. 16635 N. 51st

Avenue, Glendale, AZ 85306. (602) 938-‐1460.

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SINGLES 1. "How to Start a Singles Ministry," by Britton Wood, Broadman Publishing Co. Nashville, TN. 2. The Baby Boomerang, by Doug Murren, Regal Books.

3. Single Adult Ministry, Jerry Jones ed. NavPress, 6000 Colorado Springs, CO 80934. 4. J. Kenneth Dodd, "Beyond the Storm of Separation and Divorce," a set of six audio tapes with workbooks and a

leader's guide, Bracken Life Resources. Suite 226, 2320 East Matthews, Jonesboro, AR 72401. 5. National Single Adult Ministries Resource Directory, 1991/92, NavPress. SOCIAL JUSTICE 1. Industrial Areas Foundation is in New York. Phone (210) 222-‐8562 (San Antonio office) for additional

information. 2. The Gamailiel Foundation is a breakaway from the Industrial Areas Foundation. 203 N. Washbash, No. 808,

Chicago, IL 60601. 3. Several good software programs can be purchased for under $100, designed to help people make their voice

known in the political world. "Personal Advocate" generates letters and includes a data base of consumer groups, government agencies and officials. From Parsons Technology, (800) 223-‐6925. "Write Your Congressman," includes excellent up-‐to-‐date information on all 535 members of Congress. Software International (800) 365-‐0606. "Federal Soapbox Software" improves on both of the above and offers totally everything you will ever need to make your voice heard. The program is also updated free every quarter. (800) 989-‐7627.

STAFFING 1. Birkman International can help you in the selection of staff and key laity to give leadership to important

positions. They are a world-‐wide management consulting firm that is now interested in helping churches select and train leadership. 3040 Post Oak Blvd., Suite 1425, Houston, Texas 77056, 713-‐623-‐2760. http://www.birkman.com

2. Willow Creek provides a page in their Willow Creek Association newsletter for churches looking for additional

staff. 708-‐765-‐0070. 3. Gallup has a great tool for evaluating prospective staff members. Ask for Rosanne Liesveld, 301 S. 68th St. Pl.

Lincoln, NE 68510, 402-‐489-‐9000.

4. A good site for job placement, http://www.pastorstaff.net

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STEWARDSHIP 1. "Consecration Sunday Stewardship" Program is one of the best low cost annual budget programs for small

and middle-‐sized churches. Cokesbury: 800-‐672-‐1789. 2. The Horizons Company LLC does capital funds and endowment campaigns. Horizons was formed to work with

churches “That See Beyond Where They Are””. Horizons deals with vision and helping persons fulfill the vision of where God wants them to go. Horizons works with Easum, Bandy & Associates consultants in strategic planning for the church and are then able to assist in building consultation, capital fund campaigns and endowment programs. http://www.horizonsstewardship.com

3. Endowments, see number 2 above. 4. Malcolm MacGregor, Box 82, Gresham, OR 97030 (consultant). 5. “In Joy” Stewardship by John Maxwell stresses tithing and is only for the strongest of churches where

accountability and discipleship are part of their tradition. In Joy, Box 1700, Spring Valley, CA 92077. 6. Nehemiah Ministries, 14300 Nicollett Court, Suite 301, Burnsville, MN. Phone 612-‐435-‐2700. 7. Budgetshare, Box 460127, Houston, TX 77056. Phone 713-‐691-‐0849. 8. A new excellent program from Resource Services, Inc., Discover the Joy, 12770 Merit Drive, Suite 900, Dallas,

TX 75251. Phone 800-‐527-‐6824. 9. The Genesis Group specializes in designing and implementing stewardship solutions for growing churches.

They have a unique campaign, “The Adventure of Lifestyle Stewardship,” that is providing the strong stewardship education and growth needed by the church of the 2000's. Go to http://www.thegenesisgrp.com. 102 North 85 Parkway, Ste. B., Fayetteville, GA 30214-‐4070. Phone 800-‐233-‐0561.

SUMMER MINISTRIES 1. Exploring Summer Ministries: A Guide for Congregations, Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress. Phone (800) 328-‐

4648. SUNDAY SCHOOL 1. Rich Kirchoff, "How to Start New Sunday School Classes," 575 Lambuth Blvd., Jackson, TN 38301. Phone (901)

427-‐8589. 2. "Growing Through The Sunday School," Louise Barger, P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482. 3. Godly Play, a curriculum for elementary children. P.O. Box 563, Ashland KS. Phone (800) 328-‐4648.

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4. Group has excellent hands-‐on curriculum for preschool through grade 12. 800-‐537-‐1030. 5. Michael Mack, The Synergy Church: Integrating Sunday School and Small Groups, Baker, or order at their

website at http://smallgroups.com. 6. Sidewalk Sunday School, videos and material on how to take the Sunday School into the streets where the kids

are. Metro Ministries 714-‐453-‐3352. TEAMS 1. The Power of Teams is one of the best videos on how to use teams to design contemporary worship. Order

from Ginghamsburg FUMC in Tipp City, Ohio.

TELEMARKETING 1. "The Phone Is For You," can be ordered from Church Growth Development International, 131 E. Grove

Avenue, Orange, CA. 92865. Phone (714) 279-‐6570. For help designing the mail outs, see Direct Mail, Breakthrough Media.

2. For a wide variety of excellent examples of telephone surveys see Church Marketing, George Barna, Ventura

California: Regal Books. USHERS AND GREETERS 1. A Guide To Church Ushering, Homer Elford, Cokesbury Service Center. Phone (800) 672-‐1789. 2. Greetings! A Guide To Evangelistic Welcoming, by Thom Albin, the Christian Board of Publication, P.O. Box

179, St. Louis, MO 63166. WOMEN'S MINISTRIES 1. Lyle Schaller, 44 Ways To Revitalize The Women's Organization, Abingdon Press. WORSHIP 1. "Growth Plus Worship Attendance Crusade Guide," Discipleship Resources, Box 189, Nashville, TN 37202, 615-‐

340-‐7285. 2. Worship Leader, Box 40985, Nashville, TN 37204. 3. House of Worship (newsletter) 800-‐245-‐7664 $29.95 a year. 4. Banners 615-‐791-‐0800.

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5. The Church Concert Series Handbook, Carol Wilson, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, 5555 N. Federal

Highway, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308. Phone (305) 491-‐1104. 6. Starting A Seeker Sensitive Service, Ed. Dobson, Zondervan. This is a very creative book. 7. A Community of Joy, Timothy Wright, Abingdon. This book is for developing an indigenous service. It even has

an appendix with a variety of formats. 8. The Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention has worship resources for the small church.

Order a catalogue by calling (800) 458-‐2772. 9. Fowler Productions have several LCD machines that throw large images over a long distance. These are far

more productive than an overhead or carousal if your worship center is designed so that light does not hit the chancel area. They seem to be extremely honest in their approach. 1-‐800-‐729-‐0163.

10. Drama Sketches Catalog can be ordered through Zondervan Direct Source 800-‐876-‐7335. 11. To get copyright for motion pictures (video) Motion Picture Licensing Corporation, 5455 Centinela Avenue, Los

Angeles, CA 90066. 800-‐462-‐8855. The cost is much the same as a copyright license for music from CCLI. It is also for one year at a time. $95 a year.

12. Idea Bank (Creative Christian Concepts), bi-‐monthly from Willow Creek, provides a comprehensive listing of

sermon topics indexed to songs, dramas, multi-‐media sources, and sermons. 800-‐307-‐4332. $75 a year. 13. Thematic Programming Package, from Changing Church (Prince of Peace Lutheran Church), provides you with

a weekly theme for all age levels and life stages. It includes bible studies for adults, junior and senior high; children’s bulletins, and faith questions for families to talk over and pray about. 800-‐874-‐2044.

14. Boxlight Corporation has reliable LCD products as well as fast service. 800-‐762-‐5757 15. “The Source,” provided by Willow Creek Community Church, has dramas, songs, video clips, messages, and

topics/titles, coordinated with themes for messages and services. Phone 708-‐765-‐0070. You can find the same material at http://www.willowcreek.org. It is easier to use than the book. Just click on the Programming Material section and you will be guided through a search of their dramas, songs, message topics/titles, and videos.

16. Call 21st Century Ministries...800-‐748-‐5119...they have a Church Media Kit that includes a wonderful guide to

video clips...it is indexed by subject and gives you the frame, etc. to use. At the back of the guide is all the legal stuff and who to contact, etc.

17. Contemporary Worship: A Source Book for Spirited-‐Traditional, Praise, and Seeker Services. Sixteen different

authors fill this book with practical information. It also contains a resource kit for each of the types of worship, including sermon and worship outline. Obtain through Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN, 800-‐251-‐3320.

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18. The Power of Teams is a video from Ginghamsburg FUMC on how their team prepares worship. It is one of the best videos on the market.

19. The Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com). A free database that has a powerful search tool that

has a key word search to help one find just the right movie. However, be aware, it can be time consuming. 20. Harbinger Communications, Inc. A library of original video and multi projector slide presentations designed for

use in the church. They are for rent for $35-‐$45 and are relatively short. A catalogue and demo are available at 800-‐320-‐7206.

21. Swank Motion Pictures, Inc., (http://www.swank.com) 800-‐876-‐5577. It will cover almost every other secular

title MPLC misses. License is per use, $40-‐$250 each. Videos for churches are usually under $100 regardless of size.

22. Criterion Pictures USA, Inc. 800-‐890-‐9494. Covers what the others do not. Fox, Pottstown, Kit Parker

Films/Hallmark. Cost same as Swank. 23. Motion Picture Association of America 818-‐995-‐6600. Can answer any question that you might have about

legal use of video. 24. The Wired Church, by Len Wilson. 25. American Society of Composers, http://www.ascap.com, and Broadcast Music, Inc., http://bmi.com, for music. 26. Harry Fox Agency http://www.harryfox.com for the use of sound combined with other media. 27. Media Image Resource Alliance http://www.mira.com for photography rights. 28. www.Worshipmusic.com 29. Worship Evangelism, by Sally Morganthaler. YOUTH 1. Search Institute, 700 South Third St., Minneapolis, MN 55415. Phone (800) 888-‐7828. Write for their catalog.

Their quarterly newsletter is called SOURCE and is worth ordering. 2. Healthy Communities, Healthy Youth, Search Institute. Phone (800) 888-‐7828. $10.00 plus $1.50 for shipping

and handling. 3. "The Troubled Journey: Full Report," Peter L. Benson, Search Institute. Surveys 47,000 6th -‐ 12th graders and

suggests strategies for those working with youth. 4. Working Together With Youth, Shelby Andress, Search Institute. A practical approach with specific instruments

to help youth workers identify and implement programs.

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5. Contact Sun Cities Ministries, Willow Creek Community Church, South Barrington, IL. 6. "Youth Leaders Update" is an audio cassette tape series that provides nine tapes a year with listening guides.

$72.00 for the first year. Fuller Institute. This may or may not be available in the future, but the back copies are great.

7. Group has creative material. P.O. Box 202, Mount Morris, IL 61054. 8. Making Disciples, William Willimon. This is a mentor approach to confirmation. Cokesbury Service Center.

Phone (800) 672-‐1789. 9. “To know, to live, to grow,” effective junior and senior high curriculum for confirmation. It is designed by

Prince of Peace Lutheran, so you may have to make some adjustments theologically. 800-‐874-‐2044. 10. Young Life 407-‐628-‐3303. 11. Purpose Driven Youth Ministry, Doug Fields, Zondervan, is the best youth ministry book on the market as of

1999.

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Recommended Reading Each asterisk represents the importance of the book. Four asterisks is the maximum I give a book. Remember, just making the list in the first place separates the book from most on the market. So if it does not have an asterisk, it is still head and shoulders above most other books in my opinion. Arn, Charles: How To Start a New Service. Grand Rapids, Baker Books 1997**** Arn, Charles & Arn, Win: The Master’s Plan for Making Disciples. Grand Rapid, Baker Books 1998**** Ashkenas, Ron: The Boundaryless Organization. San Francisco, Jossey-‐Bass 1996**** Bandy, Thomas G.: Moving Off the Map. Nashville, Abingdon 1998** Christian Chaos. Nashville, Abingdon 1999**** Coaching Change. Nashville, Abingdon 2000*** Kicking Habits: Welcome Relief for Addicted Churches, Upgrade Edition. Nashville, Abingdon 2001**** Coming Clean. Nashville, Abingdon 2001**** Facing Reality. Nashville, Abingdon 2001*** Bardwick, Judith: Danger in the Comfort Zone. New York, American Management Assoc. 1991**** Barker, Joel: Future Edge or Paradigms. New York, Morrow 1992**** Barna, George:

Turnaround Churches. Ventura,CA, Regal Books 1993**** Church Marketing. Ventura, CA, Regal Books 1992** The Invisible Generation. Glendale, CA, Barna Rearch Group 1992***

Beaudoin, Tom: Virtual Faith. San Francisco, CA, Jossey-‐Bass Publishers, 1998*** Bennis, Warren & Biederman, Patricia W.: Organizing Genius. Reading, MA, Addison-‐Wesley 1997** Benveniste, Guy: The Twenty-‐First Century Organization. San Francisco, Jossey-‐Bass 1994**** Bergquist, William: The Post Modern Organization. San Francisco, Jossey-‐Bass 1993**** Blanchard, Carlos & Randolph: Empowerment Takes More Than A Minute. Berrett-‐Koehler 1996*** Blank, Warren: The Nine Natural Laws of Leadership. New York, Amacom, 1995 Block, Peter: Stewardship. San Francisco, Berrett Koehler 1993 Borg, Marcus: Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time. Grand Rapids, Harper Collins 1994**** Bower, Marvin: The Will to Lead. Boston, Harvard Business School 1997*** Bowman, Ray: When Not to Build. Grand Rapids, Baker Book House, 1992 Bridges, William: Job Shift. New York, Addison-‐Wesley 1994 Briskin, Alan: The Stirring of the Soul in the Workplace. Berrett-‐Koehler, inc. 1998**** Brueggemann, Walter: Biblical Perspective on Evangelism. Nashville, Abingdon 1993*** Buford, Bob: HalfTime. Grand Rapids, Harper Collins 1994**** Burns, James: Leadership. New York, Harper & Row 1978**** Callahan, Kennon: Effective Church Leadership. San Francisco, Harper & Row 1990**** Twelve Keys to an Effective Church. San Francisco, Harper & Row 1983 Chandler, Russell: Racing Toward 2001. Grand Rapids, Harper Collins/Zondervan 1992**** Chawla, Sarita & Resesch, John: Learning Organizations. Portland, OR, Productivity Press 1995**** Christopher, Clif & Mather, Herb: Holy Smoke! Whatever Happened to Tithing. Nashville, Disciples Resources

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1999**** Cimino, Richard & Lattin, Don: Shopping For Faith. San Francisco, CA, Jossey-‐Bass 1998* Clapp, Rodney: A Peculiar People. Downers Grove, IL, Intervarsity Press 1996**** Clarke, Andrew:, Serve The Community of the Church, ed of First-‐Century Christians in the Graeco-‐Roman World,

Eerdmans** Collins & Porras: Built to Last. New York, HarperBusiness 1997**** Cordeiro, Wayne: Doing Church As A Team, New Hope Publishing 1998** Coupland, Douglas: Life After God. New York, Pocket Books 1994*** Crandall, Ron: Turnaround Strategies for the Small Church. Nashville, Abingdon 1995**** Davis, Stanley: Future Perfect. New York, Addison Wesley 1987**** Dennison, Jack: City Reaching. William Carey Library Publishing 1999*** Dobson, Ed: Starting a Seeker Sensitive Service. Grand Rapids, Zondervan 1993**** Dunn, William: The Baby Bust. New York, American Demographics 1993** Drucker, Peter: The Effective Executive, Harper**** The Post-‐Capitalist Society. New York, Harper Business 1993**** Easum, William: The Church Growth Handbook. Nashville, Abingdon 1990 How To Reach Baby Boomers. Nashville, Abingdon 1991** Dancing With Dinosaurs. Nashville, Abingdon 1993**** Sacred Cows Make Gourmet Burgers. Nashville, Abingdon 1995**** The Complete Ministry Audit. Nashville, Abingdon 1996**** Growing Spiritual Redwoods. Nashville, Abingdon 1997**** Leadership On The OtherSide. Nashville, Abingdon 2000**** UnFreezing Moves. Nashville, Abington 2001**** Edington, Howard & Schaller, Lyle: Downtown Church the Heat of the City. Nashville, Abingdon 1996**** Fields, Doug: Purpose Driven Youth Ministry. Grand Rapids, MI, Zondervan 1998**** Ford, Kevin: Jesus for a New Generation. Downers Grove, IL, InterVarsity 1995*** Frazee, Randy & Schaller, Lyle: The Comeback Congregation. Nashville, Abingdon 1995 Friedman, Edwin: Generation to Generation. New York, Guilford 1985*** Friedman's Fables. New York, Guilford 1990**** Galloway, Dale: 20/20 Vision. Portland, Scott Publishing 1986*** George, Carl: Prepare Your Church for the Future. New York, Revel 1992*** Greenleaf, Robert: Servant Leadership. Paulist Press 1983**** Grenz, Stanley J.: A Primer of Postmodernism. Grand Rapids, William B. Eerdmans, 1996**** Guder, Darrell, The Continuing Conversion of the Church. Eerdmans, 2000 **** Hamal, Gary & Prahalad: C. K.: Competing for the Future. Boston, Harvard Business School 1994** Hargrove, Robert: Masterful Coaching. San Francisco, Jossey-‐Bass 1995*** Heifetz, Ronald: Leadership Without Easy Answers. Belknap Press**

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Henderson, D. Michael:. John Wesley’s Class Meetings, A Model for Making Disciples. Evangel 1997**** Hock, Dee: The Birth of the Chaordic Age. San Francisco, Berrett-‐Koehler 1999**** Hohstadt, Thomas: Prophetic Compass, Nashville, Abingdon eBook, 2002**** Hunter, George: How to Reach Secular People. Nashville, Abingdon 1992***

Church for the Unconnected. Nashville, Abingdon 1996**** Imparato, Nicholas: Jumping the Curve. San Francisco, Jossey-‐Bass 1994**** Jaworski, Joseph: Synchronicity, The Inner Path of Leadership. San Francisco, Berrett-‐Koehler 1997**** Kami, Michael: Trigger Points. New York, McGraw Hill 1988 Keck, Leander: The Church Confident. Nashville, Abingdon 1993*** Kelly, Gerard: RetroFuture. InterVarsity Press, 1999**** Korten, David: When Corporations Ruled the World. San Francisco, Berrett-‐Koehler 1995**** Laboron, Graham: The Horizontal Revolution. San Francisco, Jossey-‐Bass 1994** Long, Jimmy: Generating Hope. Illinois, InterVarsity Press 1997**** Lucas, Henry C., Jr.: The T-‐Form Organization. San Francisco, Jossey-‐Bass 1996 Mallory, Sue: The Equipping Church, Zondervan, 2001**** Mazarsr, Michael J.: Global Trends for 2005: An Owner's Manual for the Next Decade. Martin’s Press 1999 Mahedy, William & Bernardi, Janet: A Generation Alone. Downers Grove, IL InterVarsity Press 1994**** McLaren, Brian: The Church On The Other Side, Zondervan, 2000 *** A New Kind of Christian, Jossey-‐Bass, 2001**** McNeal, Reggie: Revolution in Leadership. Nashville, Abingdon Press 1998*** Mead, Loren: The Once and Future Church. Alban Institute**** Miller, Donald: Reinventing American Protestantism. Berkeley, University of California Press 1997**** Miller, Herb: Connecting With God. Nashville, Abingdon 1994**

Hidden Determinants to Leadership Strength. Nashville, Abingdon*** Mintzberg, Henry: The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning. New York, Free Press 1994*** Mitchell, Susan: The Official Guide To The Generations, First Edition. New York, American Demographics 1995*** Morgan, Gareth: Images of Organization. San Francisco, Berrett-‐Koehler 1998***** Morganthaler, Sally: Worship Evangelism. Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House 1995**** Morton, Nelle: The Journey Home. Boston, Beacon Press, 1985 Naisbett, John, & Aburdene, Patricia: Megatrends 2000. New York, Morrow 1990**** Neighbor, Ralph: Where Do We Go From Here. Houston, Touch Publishers 1990**** Nixon, Paul: Fling Open The Doors. Nashville, Abingdon 2002* Ogden, Greg: The New Reformation: Returning the Ministry to the People of God. Grand Rapids, Zondervan

Publishing House, 1990****

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Pascale: Surging At The End Of Chaos, Crown Publishers, 2000*** Patrick, John: Net Attitude, Perseus, 2001** Patton, Jeff: If It Could Happen Here, Nashville, Abingdon, 2002*** Payne, Claude & Beasley, Hamilton: Reclaiming The Great Commission, Jossey-‐Bass, 2000*** Peck, Scott: A World Waiting To Be Born. New York, Bantam 1993** Peters, Tom: Thriving on Chaos. New York, Harper 1987 Pinchot, G. & E.: The End of Bureaucracy and the Rise of the Intelligent Organization. San Francisco, Berrett-‐Koehler

1993**** Prichett, Price: Resistance: Moving Beyond The Barriers to Change. Dallas, Pritchett Publishing Company 1996**** Quinn, Robert E.: Deep Change. Jossey-‐Bass 1996*** Redfield, James: The Celestine Prophecy. New York, Warner Books 1993**** Regele, Mike: Death of the Church. Michigan, Zondervan 1995*** Richardson, Rick: Evangelism Out Of The Box, InterVarsity, 2001**** Rogers, Everett M.: Diffusion of Innovations. New York, Free Press 1995**** Roozen, David & Hadaway, C. Kirk: Church & Denominational Growth. Nashville, Abingdon 1993**** Roxburg, Alan: Reaching a New Generation. Downers Grove, IL, InterVarsity Press, 1994**** Sample, Tex U.S. Lifestyles and Mainline Churches. Louisville, Westminster 1990 Hard Living People and Mainstream Christians. Nashville, Abingdon 1993**** The Spectacle of Worship in an Electronic Culture. Nashville, Abingdon 1998*** Savage, John: The Bored and Apathetic Church Member. L.E.A.D. Publishers, 1979 Schaller, Lyle: The Multiple Staff and the Larger Church. Nashville, Abingdon 1980**** Center City Churches. Nashville, Abingdon 1993* The Change Agent. Nashville, Abingdon 1972***

The Interventionist. Nashville, Abingdon 1996*** Tattered Trust. Nashville, Abingdon 1996***

Discontinuity and Hope. Nashville, Abingdon 1999**** The Very Large Church., Abingdon, 2000**** Schultz, Tom & Joani: Why Nobody Learns Much of Anything at Church: And How to Fix It. Colorado, Group

Publishing 1996* Senge, Peter:

The Fifth Discipline. New York, Doubleday 1990**** The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook. New York, Doubleday 1995**** Shaw, Robert Bruce: Trust in the Balance. Jossey-‐Bass 1997*** Shawchuck, Norman: Marketing for Congregations. Nashville, Abingdon, 1992**** Benchmarks of Quality in the Church. Nashville, Abingdon 1993 Sjorgen, Steve: Conspiracy of Kindness. Servant Publishing, 1996*** Slaughter, Michael: Spiritual Entrepreneurs. Nashville, Abingdon 1995** Out on the Edge. Nashville, Abingdon, 1998****

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Real Followers. Nashville, Abingdon, 1999**** Smith, Chuck: The End Of The World... As We Know It, Waterbrook, 2001**** Spears, Larry C.: Insights For Leadership. New York, John Wiley & Sons 1998*** Strobel, Lee: Inside the Mind of Unconnected Harry and Mary. Grand Rapids, Zondervan 1993**** Sweet, Leonard: Faithquakes. Nashville, Abingdon 1994**** Quantum Spirituality. Dayton, Whale 1991**** Tapscott, Don: Growing Up Digital. New York, McGraw-‐Hill, 1998**** Tenny-‐Brittian, Bill. Hitchhikers’ Guide to Evangelism. Chalice, 2008.***** Tillapaugh, Frank & Hurst, Rich: Calling. Dreamtime Publishing,1997**** Toffler, Alvin: Powershift. New York, Bantam 1990**** Towns: Every Church Guide To Growth, Broadman**** Tulgan, Bruce: The Mangers Pocket Guide to Gen X. Maryland, HRD Press 1997**** Turner, Charles: Creating Corporate Culture. New York, Addison Wesley 1990 Van Engen, Charles: God’s Missionary People, Baker Books, 2001**** Van Gelder, Craig: The Essence of the Church, Baker Books, 2000* Warren, Rick: The Purpose Driven Church. Grand Rapids, Zondervan 1995**** Wellins, Byham, & Wilson: Empowered Teams. San Francisco, Jossey Bass 1991* Wheatley, Margaret:

Leadership and the New Science. San Francisco, Berrett-‐Koehler 1992**** A Simpler Way. San Francisco, Berrett-‐Koehler 1996***

White, Timothy: The Baby Boomer Bible Study. Arlington, White-‐Dei 1997*** Wilber, Ken: The Marriage of Sense and Soul, Integrating Science and Religion, Random House, 1998**** Wilson, Len: The Wired Church, Making Media Ministry. Nashville, Abingdon 1999** Wright, Timothy: The Community of Joy. Nashville, Abingdon 1994**** The Prodigal Hugging Church, Joy Resources, 2001** MAGAZINES Fast Company. P.O. Box 52760, Boulder, CO 80321-‐2760, bi-‐monthly.**** Leader to Leader. San Francisco, Drucker Foundation and Jossey-‐Bass Publications 1997**** Net Results. www.netresults.org

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THIS SECTION IS FOR STAFF AND OFFICIAL LEADERSHIP ONLY Note: The following section is how we recommend a more typical recommendation report be adopted. However, since time is of the essence – and since the Pottstown FUMC has already voted to move forward, I suggest fast-‐tracking the report. The pastor and key leaders should each receive a copy of the report and should immerse themselves in it. Presuming they enthusiastically support the recommendations, the report should be made available to the congregation and a congregational vote scheduled. When the report is adopted, appoint an implementation team to shepherd the implementation of the recommendations. This group should get to know the nuances of the report and then create a strategic timeline complete with milestones for implementation. They should present the plan to the Ad Council and once it is adopted, the implementation team should begin their work in earnest. Remember to only put leaders you trust into place, set their boundaries and limits, and then get out of the way so they can do their job (refer to Recommendation 7.3).

ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY

My experience reveals that four things are necessary to implement the above report. If you follow these basic principles, you will be able to implement this strategy within the shortest possible time period. Remember, the most important part of a strategy is the process by which it is examined and implemented. Be sure to spend all the time necessary to process this material. It may take longer than recommended. Just do not let it sit on a shelf gathering dust.

1. The majority of the leadership must believe the strategy will work and be willing to share their enthusiasm with the congregation.

2. The leadership must be willing to stand up for the strategy when opposition arises from a select few. Every church always has some initial opposition when attempting significant change.

3. The report must be processed through the congregation and revised and refined to reflect the values of the vast majority of the leadership. A process that I know works well is described below.

4. The entire process is usually completed within four to six months or it does not get accomplished. Although there are exceptions, it is not wise to decide from the beginning that your church is one of the very few exceptions to the four to six month rule of thumb.

Step One: As soon as possible after this consultation, have either the most respected leader of the church or the chairperson of the official administrative body (who was present at the seminar) share in worship (3–5 minutes) his or her excitement about the seminar, without including any details.

Step Two: Charge some group in the church with the responsibility of shepherding this strategy along by doing the necessary research and preparing a report on how to implement these recommendations. This

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committee works best if it consists of no more than seven people, two under 40 years of age, two over 50 years of age, and two members of less than one or two years.

Step Three: Mail the above report to the entire church within two weeks of receiving it. Ask the church to join you in a two-‐week period of prayer. Schedule a day of prayer at the church to pray for God's guidance as it relates to the future of your church and the enclosed recommendations. During worship over the next four weeks, call the church to pray about the future of the church and action on the recommendations.

Step Four: Hold an all-‐church meeting two weeks later, not to vote on the recommendations, but to do the following: (1) to share with the congregation the leadership's excitement for this strategy, as well as to say they know there will be some problems in implementing it. Get feedback from the membership; (2) list the reasons you support the strategy and its benefits; (3) tell the congregation you want them to share with you the problems and obstacles they see to the implementation of the strategy. Field their questions and make note of all the obstacles or problems they come up with; (4) do not take issue with (or try to rationalize away) any of the problems they raise. You are there to listen.

Step Five: Have the group responsible for shepherding the report meet that week to: (1) answer all the questions they can and solve all the problems they can; (2) decide if any of the problems they cannot seem to solve could derail the strategy; (3) make any revisions necessary to solve the problems.

Step Six: Mail the conclusions to the people who attended the first meeting and to anyone else who has shown interest.

Step Seven: Mail the revised and refined report to the entire church as soon as possible. This report may look very different from the original report. Announce that there will be a meeting within two weeks to vote on the enclosed strategy. Include the actual motion to be voted on.

Step Eight: Have a second meeting TO VOTE on the amended report. At this meeting, the pastor and a few of the very key leaders need to say to the church that they think the revised strategy is a very wise vision for the church to pursue. It is imperative that the pastor, staff, and key leaders are seen as in total support of the final product. Do not propose it as a life or death issue. Do not say this is our only way forward. Say it is our best advice after weeks of study, prayer, and consultation with one another.

May God richly bless you as you seek to find ways to faithfully serve God in the 21st century!

Bill Tenny-‐Brittian Senior Consultant 21st Century Strategies

Documents

Consultation*Report* · Consultation*Report*! Report*for* Pottstown*First*United*Methodist*Church*! WilliamTenny+Brittian! On!site!Consultant!! March!2012!

ConsultationReport · ConsultationReport! Reportfor PottstownFirstUnitedMethodistChurch*! WilliamTenny+Brittian! On!site!Consultant!! March!2012!