Which is better -- Stop until I say, "Go," or Go until I say, "Stop"?
Interestingly, negative directions can give more freedom. So sessions and boards to pastors and directors, if these your staff are standing still waiting for your permission on an idea or instruction on what to do, good luck. However, if you sessions and boards say to your pastors and directors, "All we ask is that you do nothing inconsistent with our purpose or immoral or illegal," you have said what not to do (the negative) and given them permission to "get going." Life and ministry is open before you. Be creative.
Of course, pastors can say this to their boards or sessions. It isn't just a one way street. And pastors and boards or sessions can say this to members. It's called permission giving by saying not what to do but by saying what not to do. Go for it.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Friday, July 27, 2012
The Front of the Shoes
They say you never get another chance at a first impression. So if you have only enough shoe polish to do either the fronts or the backs of your shoes, do the fronts. And in any world, whether it is one meager or flush with resources, the front should be done first. Always allocate first resources to places of central and maximal impact.
If you are trying to sell a house, making the closets nice while leaving the grass in the front yard overgrown is just bad strategy. Potential buyers will never get in the front door to see the nice closets if they close down on seeing the house at all because of the front yard. Thus, realtors talk about curb appeal.
Let's leave aside for a moment whether we allow God's house to look worse than our own and talk saying, "Hopefully not." The Saturday morning men's breakfast in fellowship hall, as great as that may be and I certainly love the ones I go to, is auxillary in the life of a congregation. The main event, the last thing that will remain standing in a church is the worship service. So being concerned about the "closet" of a men's breakfast in the fellowship hall is very secondary to the front yard and curb appeal of the worship service in the sanctuary.
How is the worship service? Vital? How is the worship space? Beautiful? This is the event and the place where most of the attenders come most of the time. A men's breakfast in a fellowship hall may get fifteen people once a month. Compare that to the worship -- 100+ people every week. The point is that worship time and space impacts the most people the most regularly. Therefore, resources should be applied there first. Imaginative resources. Elbow grease resources. Financial resources.
Now you could have the order of the worship service be stellar and the sanctuary be pristene and still have missed out on making the worship event and place as full as it could be. We cannot overlook hospitality resources. I cannot be "up" all the time. I have to let my hair down sometime, someplace. But Sunday morning worship is not that time or place. I don't want inauthenticity. But we all can choose our attitudes to a large extent. Sunday morning every Christ follower's wonderful goal is to be truly hospitable person, to dole out encouragement, to smile, to thank, ....
I have often been blessed by the guy who said to his staff member with respect to his bad attitude, "Listen, I am paying you and I can get bad attitudes for free." Or let's say you are a policeman. You put on the uniform. Do you get to, while you are in the uniform, have any ol' attitude or mode of conduct you want? I should say not. That person lifts his whole self into a professional role. And we who profess Christ, let's lift ourselves into a high road and high encouragement and high hospitality role for this heartbeat event for any and all churches -- the worship time and space.
If you are trying to sell a house, making the closets nice while leaving the grass in the front yard overgrown is just bad strategy. Potential buyers will never get in the front door to see the nice closets if they close down on seeing the house at all because of the front yard. Thus, realtors talk about curb appeal.
Let's leave aside for a moment whether we allow God's house to look worse than our own and talk saying, "Hopefully not." The Saturday morning men's breakfast in fellowship hall, as great as that may be and I certainly love the ones I go to, is auxillary in the life of a congregation. The main event, the last thing that will remain standing in a church is the worship service. So being concerned about the "closet" of a men's breakfast in the fellowship hall is very secondary to the front yard and curb appeal of the worship service in the sanctuary.
How is the worship service? Vital? How is the worship space? Beautiful? This is the event and the place where most of the attenders come most of the time. A men's breakfast in a fellowship hall may get fifteen people once a month. Compare that to the worship -- 100+ people every week. The point is that worship time and space impacts the most people the most regularly. Therefore, resources should be applied there first. Imaginative resources. Elbow grease resources. Financial resources.
Now you could have the order of the worship service be stellar and the sanctuary be pristene and still have missed out on making the worship event and place as full as it could be. We cannot overlook hospitality resources. I cannot be "up" all the time. I have to let my hair down sometime, someplace. But Sunday morning worship is not that time or place. I don't want inauthenticity. But we all can choose our attitudes to a large extent. Sunday morning every Christ follower's wonderful goal is to be truly hospitable person, to dole out encouragement, to smile, to thank, ....
I have often been blessed by the guy who said to his staff member with respect to his bad attitude, "Listen, I am paying you and I can get bad attitudes for free." Or let's say you are a policeman. You put on the uniform. Do you get to, while you are in the uniform, have any ol' attitude or mode of conduct you want? I should say not. That person lifts his whole self into a professional role. And we who profess Christ, let's lift ourselves into a high road and high encouragement and high hospitality role for this heartbeat event for any and all churches -- the worship time and space.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Brass Tacks
Dwindling numbers, especially when the people are aging, means dwindling resources in terms of money and energy. At some point we get upside down and are unable to maintain the facilities or sustain programs. We have to get more out of the number who come or we have to get more who come. Or both. Whatever increases our numbers maximally without increasing our expenses must be our key focus.
Our central offering is Sunday worship. Beyond this major weekly event we offer but a few small programs. Our worship is quite good and the few small programs are meaningful to those who participate. What we do have must be looked at with inviting very consciously in mind. Anything new we attempt, either on a one time basis or a regular basis, must have the aim of increasing people who fondly affiliate with Cocoa Pres. If it doesn't serve that purpose, don't do it and use the energy instead for something that does. If it serves that purpose, then the engineering for the program or event must include from start to finish means of connecting with new acquaintances and following up with them. Having, for example, a blessing of the animals service where we get new people here but do not think through how to get their names, emails, and addresses means we lose a significant amount of the potential in that event.
So two questions – does it increase new faces here? is it very cheap or costs nothing? If the answer is yes, do it. If the answer to either is no, don’t do it. Use the energy instead for something for which the two questions get yes answers.
Our central offering is Sunday worship. Beyond this major weekly event we offer but a few small programs. Our worship is quite good and the few small programs are meaningful to those who participate. What we do have must be looked at with inviting very consciously in mind. Anything new we attempt, either on a one time basis or a regular basis, must have the aim of increasing people who fondly affiliate with Cocoa Pres. If it doesn't serve that purpose, don't do it and use the energy instead for something that does. If it serves that purpose, then the engineering for the program or event must include from start to finish means of connecting with new acquaintances and following up with them. Having, for example, a blessing of the animals service where we get new people here but do not think through how to get their names, emails, and addresses means we lose a significant amount of the potential in that event.
So two questions – does it increase new faces here? is it very cheap or costs nothing? If the answer is yes, do it. If the answer to either is no, don’t do it. Use the energy instead for something for which the two questions get yes answers.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Back from Vacation
I had a great time out in Texas seeing family and friends. But it's time to get back to posting blogs!
Last night we began VBS. We are partnering with Celebration Tabernacle. Since this joint effort began I have had some "wonderings." I remember a pastor who spoke to his people about training them for a world movement. They were in training to impact the world. I thought, "Wow, that's cool." On the other hand, it is hard for me genuinely speak that way. But what I can get my arms around genuinely is speaking about impact in our local area. That's where Celebration Tabernacle comes in.
Cocoa Pres is at one end of Dixon and Celebration Tab is at the other end. We are next to Walgreens and a retirement center. They are next to 5 Hot Dogs for $5 and the future home of Brevard's Boys/Girls Club. We are aging and white mostly. They are younger and multi-cultural mostly. We have been here a long time and have experienced decline. They are relatively new and have experienced growth.
I look at us on our end and them on their end and all this around us that is our community where God has put us and I think, "Transcontinental Railroad!" Remember? The track was laid from west to east and also from east to west meeting up in Promontory, UT. What if we two churches said that we were going to bring spiritual life to this street, to bring betterment of life to this street? What if we said, "Let's dream together, resource each other, and do it"? What does that look like 3 years from now? So what do we tackle this year?
Just "wonderings."
Last night we began VBS. We are partnering with Celebration Tabernacle. Since this joint effort began I have had some "wonderings." I remember a pastor who spoke to his people about training them for a world movement. They were in training to impact the world. I thought, "Wow, that's cool." On the other hand, it is hard for me genuinely speak that way. But what I can get my arms around genuinely is speaking about impact in our local area. That's where Celebration Tabernacle comes in.
Cocoa Pres is at one end of Dixon and Celebration Tab is at the other end. We are next to Walgreens and a retirement center. They are next to 5 Hot Dogs for $5 and the future home of Brevard's Boys/Girls Club. We are aging and white mostly. They are younger and multi-cultural mostly. We have been here a long time and have experienced decline. They are relatively new and have experienced growth.
I look at us on our end and them on their end and all this around us that is our community where God has put us and I think, "Transcontinental Railroad!" Remember? The track was laid from west to east and also from east to west meeting up in Promontory, UT. What if we two churches said that we were going to bring spiritual life to this street, to bring betterment of life to this street? What if we said, "Let's dream together, resource each other, and do it"? What does that look like 3 years from now? So what do we tackle this year?
Just "wonderings."
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Ministry Per Square Foot
Businesses have it clean -- you have to have a certain amount of customers against a certain amount of product profit margin so as to pay for costs and have something left. If church property were taxed, then our overhead would be even more than maintaining buildings and paying staff. We'd have to have a certain ratio of customers to giving to handle the additional expenses. We'd have to have a few members who give a lot or a lot of members who give some (or something in-between these two). Tax or no, it is still the same -- you have to pay for overhead. Or else.
Now one of the things that businesses do is this. They say, "If we bought this land, paid for this buidling, invested in all the machinery, and we have to pay for all that whether it operates making our product for one hour a week or 148 hours a week, let's make it operate nearer to 148 than to one." You produce more, make more money and get in front of the overhead costs.
The church has property, buildings, and staff and so often operates only for one to two hours per week generally. Wow.
If a business nets a $100/square foot producing only one hour a week and nets $100,000/square foot producing 148 hours a week, then they are going to go towards 148 hours a week.
What if the church tried to get more out of what it has paid for? I once belonged to a church which had an Anglo contemporary service, an Anglo raditional service, a Korean service, a Brazilian service, and then was considering an Arabic service. They had already paid for the building and the organ and it got used five times on a Sunday. And the $35 bouquet of flowers went through five services! Instead of $35/service the flowers went for $7/service. See? And in the same way the ministry per square foot went up. The amount of people touched by the tool of that facility went up.
Just an idea ... let's think about how to increase our ministry per square foot.
Now one of the things that businesses do is this. They say, "If we bought this land, paid for this buidling, invested in all the machinery, and we have to pay for all that whether it operates making our product for one hour a week or 148 hours a week, let's make it operate nearer to 148 than to one." You produce more, make more money and get in front of the overhead costs.
The church has property, buildings, and staff and so often operates only for one to two hours per week generally. Wow.
If a business nets a $100/square foot producing only one hour a week and nets $100,000/square foot producing 148 hours a week, then they are going to go towards 148 hours a week.
What if the church tried to get more out of what it has paid for? I once belonged to a church which had an Anglo contemporary service, an Anglo raditional service, a Korean service, a Brazilian service, and then was considering an Arabic service. They had already paid for the building and the organ and it got used five times on a Sunday. And the $35 bouquet of flowers went through five services! Instead of $35/service the flowers went for $7/service. See? And in the same way the ministry per square foot went up. The amount of people touched by the tool of that facility went up.
Just an idea ... let's think about how to increase our ministry per square foot.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Diffusion of Innovation
For some reason last week's blog didn't publish so I'll do it over.
Everett Rogers in 1962 wrote Diffusion of Innovation. The chart that goes with his work looks like this --
I actually remember a tail-end group opposite the innovators called "never-adopters." Real quick explanation of it all. There are those to the left, innovators, who are adventurous and think up new things. Then there are movers and shakers called early adopters who try new things. A forward leaning part of the general population will follow them. They are the early majority. The momentum is going so that even the more skeptic are feeling like they are missing the boat and or that the new thing is going well enough for them, the late majority, to join in. The reluctant to change, hard to persuade, slowly adopt or adapt. Then, like I said, there are die-hards who won't, won't, won't.
Here's the question from this study for any organization including the church -- can you really hold all these people together? If you cater to the late half, will the early half really have the patience to stick around? Will they have their creative candle put out? If you cater to the early half, will the late half feel dispossessed or scandalized and go someplace else?
Next question for the church -- where are churches generally? Who do we cater to generally? When we talk in 2012 about trying to get the church into the 1970's or 80's, what does that belie about all this? When we say, "We can't make so and so unhappy," who are we generally saying that about?
The church tries so hard to hold everyone together and maybe it just can't be done. For the future of the organization, if you had to lose one group, which is the group to lose? Okay, we don't want to lose any and I get that. But if for survival, you had to pick ... if for health, you had to pick ... which?
And what kind of guy was Jesus? change agent or establishment?
And did he hold everyone together? did he let some go? throw out others?
What did he mean about shaking the dust off the feet?
Can pastoral care for a few mean lack of stewardship of the whole, of the future, of those who are bypassing the church?
Speaking of stewardshp, in the parable about three guys given talents and one makes a bunch and the other puts it in the ground, where is that on the chart?
Monday, June 4, 2012
THE ONE CONFERENCE I GO TO
I've been to quite a few conferences over the years. There is only one that I have repeated at. And I'm on my tenth or twelth time by now. There is only one conference that I really try to get others to go to because I believe it will do them and their church well. It is the same "only" conference that I have been going to year after year. It is the Leadership Summit. For the price and the world class speakers, you simply cannot beat it.
I go because I always learn something about the Lord, about leading, about the world, and about the church. I don't just learn, I'm inspired.
In other churches I have made it a part of our elder training. We have even paid for the whole session to attend. It's that worth it.
While its main site is Chicago, I attend in Orlando. I have been to Chicago and at Orlando you don't miss out on anything.
If we get ten from Cocoa, we can get a rate of $159 by registering by June 26. I hope you'll go with me. Email me if you want to go and I'll get us signed up. revjeffwood@gmail.com.
Check it out for yourself at http://www.willowcreek.com/events/leadership/about.asp.
I go because I always learn something about the Lord, about leading, about the world, and about the church. I don't just learn, I'm inspired.
In other churches I have made it a part of our elder training. We have even paid for the whole session to attend. It's that worth it.
While its main site is Chicago, I attend in Orlando. I have been to Chicago and at Orlando you don't miss out on anything.
If we get ten from Cocoa, we can get a rate of $159 by registering by June 26. I hope you'll go with me. Email me if you want to go and I'll get us signed up. revjeffwood@gmail.com.
Check it out for yourself at http://www.willowcreek.com/events/leadership/about.asp.
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