What's in a Name?

I saw a best seller title the other day.  It was, “The ONE Thing.”  Subtitle:  What Successful People Do.  Those cover words get you thinking, don’t they?  What do successful people do?  If you had to boil down your opinion about what makes for success, what one thing would you point out?  

We all probably want a few one things.  How do you make it just one??  I suspect that is part of the book’s message, that successful people do get one goal or one principle to shine, do get from the many goods to the one best.  

After a Sunday School class the other day I walked out thinking that the one thing that can help churches, and individuals for that matter, has to do with names.  In churches, we look at health.  Typically, healthy organisms grow.  Even when we have physically matured we would describe health as growing mentally or relationally or spiritually.

For churches to grow they need an inner dynamic.  Something of genuine value and meaning is going on for the people there.  Not pretend value.  Not obligatory attendance.  Not rote habit.  Something really valuable.  It doesn’t have to be humongously valuable but it does have to be valuable.  

But they also need an outer dynamic.  Others need to be coming.  A store may be successful for its ten customers and that can be all the success that is needed if those ten sustain the store and the store sustains them.  Eventually, those ten will die and the store will end its successful life unless there are replacement customers.

New customers bring new ideas, new hearts, new hands.  And, get this, there is no straight sequence of we get an inner dynamic going and then we get new customers.  That is partially true but not completely.  New people bring a new inner dynamic and a new inner dynamic brings new people.  Or how do you get a new inner dynamic?  Get new people.  Play the dynamics as both and simultaneously, not as a sequence of first inner development and then outer recruitment.  

Okay, way back to the beginning of this article.  Once people come to a church a first time we have to figure out how to get them back a second time.  Most churches focus on this area but if you don’t focus on getting first time guests, you don’t have anybody to work all the welcome strategies on!  Anyway, if a person comes back a second time, the most powerful -- the one thing -- I think that will bring them back a third time is people knowing their name.  How are you with names?  

Listen when they tell you their name.  Really listen … for that!  Say their name out loud in the conversation with them several times.  Find a silly image or rhyme link to help you remember their name.  When you sit down in the pew write their name on your bulletin.  Save your bulletin and get it out before going to church next week.  

Next week -- how Peachtree leapfrogs the member process.

The Power of Recruiting

Presbyterian missionary expert, Ralph Winter, once asked, “What’s the quickest way to put out a barn on fire – to grab a bucket and run to the lake with it or to grab a hundred people, tell them to get a bucket and run for water?”  We hear about the power of compound interest.  Do we know about the power of recruiting? 

Let’s say our church could use money to carry out God’s mission in this area.  We could all reach deeper into our wallets.  What if you brought five people to church in the course of one year and everyone else in the congregation did the same?  Our 100 worshippers would bring 500 people.  That would be 500 more wallets opening!

We all give to the church not only in money but in time.  I recently asked our session about how much time they gave to choir practice, committee work, Sunday School class preparation, and the like.  Answer:  5 hours per week.

Then I asked how much of that time was directly related to recruiting people to Cocoa Presbyterian.  If you stood on one foot just right, you could say 10%.  But really the answer is more like 0%. 

It would be nice if we did 50% institutional maintenance and internal workings and 50% on outward recruitment and evangelism.  It is unlikely, however, for lots of reasons.  Spending 15 minutes a week though is do-able.  Sure, it is micro compared to a few hours.  But if each member put in 15 minutes a week (actual time), that’d be great.  If some of those efforts paid off, and eventually they would, we would have more wallets opening and more hands on deck.  

Gut Check and More

I don’t even remember what was said that precipitated this line of wondering in my mind.  I think it was something like, “I’ll just walk out of church.”

It just strikes me as odd in a place where we are with Jesus, bending our knee to his authority over our lives, to pick up the scepter of our life and storm out if we don’t like something.  It strikes me as odd in place that is about surrender and about humility.  But it is part of the American spirit, I suppose.  It’s a virtue of defiance, of chutzpa, of machismo, of ….

 

It reminded me of how we can exercise authority over the Bible or it can exercise authority over us.  Who’s smarter?  Who has the right to direct?  Who’s in charge?  Me??  God?? 

And there’s something similar with the church.  I know as a pastor I have put myself under the authority of the presbytery.  If I choose to live in violation of our confessions and rebel against my denomination’s directions, then I can renounce their jurisdiction over me or have them defrock me.  But there is a placing under the authority.  We don’t have this going on in the local church very much. 

We don’t have the notion that in becoming a church member we are agreeing to not only attend and tithe and pray for the church, but we are also saying that they have a say in our lives.  Should a pastor and a session show up in the home of a church members getting ready for a divorce and say, “We’re Christians and you are under our leadership and instruction so we want you to go to counseling.”  What about insisting on it or else they renounce church membership?

We are good for insisting that as a member I have a right to use the sanctuary for a wedding or to have the pastor there at the hospital bed.  But can the church “insist” in the other direction? 

No one wants a bunch of lockstep, unthinking people.  We all answer in our conscience to Christ.  But the church can be like herding cats.  Each one is pretty separate, pretty independent, pretty much the sole authority over what they think, say, and do. 

Jesus and the Roman soldier with the sick servant understood being under authority.

If you are tempted to just walk out of church one day, unless it is because you have to go to the bathroom, maybe we ought to do a humility check, a what’s the church all about check, a how does God shape our life and ego check. 

I’m just wondering.  

Leadership

I was reminded the other day that in the boulevards of Richmond, VA there are many statues of generals but none of committees.

I considered the other day how the first group of elders were when the Hebrews were on the exodus.  Moses needed help.  But nobody really said, because they were elders, that Moses wasn't the leader.

Organizations need leaders and they need boards.  But they are not the same thing.

Speaking of leadership, I want to encourage anyone and everyone to go with me to Orlando in August for the Leadership Summit.  It is the one conference I always go to.  It is Aug 8-9.  For more info --
http://www.willowcreek.com/events/leadership/ 

Wonderful Healing Service and ...

We had our quarterly healing service last night.  Maybe a dozen people came.  We prayed.  Everyone prayed for the person who came up and knelt and was anointed with oil as the pastor prayed for him or her. People confessed guilt for asking God for more when he had already done so much for them.  I get it.  But God does like to be asked.  Ok?  People confessed prideful ways and feeling like they were paying the price for it now.  But would God still heal them of their affliction?  Yes.  And thanks for confessing that because it makes me realize I'm the same way and more!  People wept out of frustration with parts of their body that were so uncooperative and even painful.  What frail tents we have for this earthly stay.  Good but when they get old or break, yuck.  And there was just such a sense of love among the dozen or so who prayed together.  I'm glad we had it.  I'm looking to see if God will heal those we prayed for.

And ... 95% of our Easter attenders said they came to Cocoa because of a family member or friend.  This church isn't going to gain members to compensate for the number that are dying.  The cheapest and most effective way is to get more people here is to have members invite.  If you care about preserving your investment in this church, you better invite.  If you want this congregation here for the generation of tomorrow, you better invite.  If you want this congregation to be here to make a difference in this community, you better invite.

As I said before we can say, "Ok, tomorrow."  Or we can say, "I don't like to invite so I'll let someone else do that."  But if it isn't you, you're a part of the problem and not the solution.  If it is tomorrow instead of today, you're a part of the problem and not the solution.

You know how to have lots of good ideas?  To have lots and lots and lots of ideas.  You know how to get some people here?  To invite lots and lots and lots of people here.

Why should they come?  Ahh, because they like you and you like the church?  Ahh, because we have a great choir and a reasonably informative and inspiring service?  Ahh, because we are on the doorstep of mission work -- it's as close as RFM school.  Ahh, because we want them and need them ... other churches have more than enough and one more is just one more.  Not here!

If you're on the session, I am going to ask each month how many you invited and how you invited and how it went.  I don't like just receiving reports.  I like asking for reports and asking for reports that have you saying not just stuff but what you're doing that's critical to our mission.

Why I Do What I Do On Easter

On Easter we were deliberate about
a.  starting a new and short sermon series
b.  putting in an insert that showed a new Sunday School class the next week
c.  putting in that same insert a special, interesting event happening within a short time frame.
d.  using "we're here" cards

Let me explain.  Biggest attendance days for churches -- Christmas & Easter.  We're to be fishers of men.  When the fish are running, do the fishing.  How do you fish?  Get your people to invite.  Promote -- sign, banners, newspapers, social media.

But once you get people there you must help them feel that what they got was worth the effort of going.  In a restaurant you do not want people thinking they drove thirty minutes and paid $10 for a $5 meal.  They will certainly go to a restaurant where they drive only ten minutes and pay $5 for a $10 meal.  And they will go back to that restaurant.

So have the place pretty outside and in.  That means people and place.  A pretty place with unfriendly people, ugh.  Vice versa sorta the same but not quite.  Try to do both.  People inspire.  Places inspire.

Then have the whole service be personal and on pace and possessing quality.  These things will help them feel good about coming and want to come back.  Having a sermon that has a bit of "to be continued" quality and piques their interest will also help.  That's the sermon series idea.  But a 12-part series might be too daunting for a person just getting their feet wet.  Coming for three weeks might work.  So make it a short series.

What if someone wanted to see what else is going on that might fit their age group or set of concerns?  Why not have an insert that samples some of your best activities from across the board.  Remember, however, less is more.  Don't try to list everything or they will get lost.  This is a fly-by kind of list.  Something for men. Something for women.  Something for kids.  And if you can add into your listing for men, for example, that they are just beginning something kinda neat next week, do that!  Listing that they will start that seven weeks from now is too far away.  Six weeks from now you will be out of sight and out of mind for them.

We put in that we were having a healing service next week.  That might arouse some interest, might get someone hurting to come again. That's putting in the insert a special event.

Not attendance cards but "We're Here" cards.  That's a fun thing to do, to say, "We're here!"  I have everyone fill them out while we wait.  I don't want anyone opting out because we just moved along and let that be a possibility.  Why?  Because we want the cards!  That's how we can follow-up and send them the newsletter a couple times, an invite to the men's breakfast, or whatever.

You could collect those cards then and there.  But I like to use them for some interaction with everyone.  So I plan to use them at the end of the sermon.  I ask them to pull them out towards the end of my message.  And I ask them a couple of simple questions.  For Easter it was, "On this believing Jesus was real and actually rose again, I am  [A] On Board (circle A which was preprinted on the back of the card), [B] Could use the pastor's prayers to understand this better (circle B), etceteras.

Now (not later because they'll lose the card) you have the offering and have them put the card and their money in the plate at the same time.

YOU BIG BABY

I took off blogging for Holy Week.  I got a couple of days in with my kids, grandkid, and friends in San Antonio.  Had a wonderful Easter with the Cocoa people ... who are so talented and dedicated!  Now off to blogging with a bang.

I like it when one church incubates another.  One has plenty of facility and the will and the flexibility to take another church onto its property.  It might take it under its wing in some other ways.  They can share all-church-work days and make the worship flower arrangement get in twice the duty. 

Some worry that there’s twice the wear and tear but probably not quite.  And nobody says to a couple getting married and moving into one or the others’ apartment, “Watch out because you’ll have twice the wear!”  No.  They say, “Two can live as cheaply as one.”  Or they say, “Twice the fun!”

But today I am thinking about a backwards idea that, as I am thinking about it, is  very true to life.  The incubating happens when a bigger takes on a smaller.  So there’s a full-grown mother who has a tiny, tiny little life inside.  Usually, an established church is incubating a little congregation of 20 or 30.  In my circles it has been an anglo church taking on a fledgling Korean, or Brazilian, or Arabic, or African American Church.  Other places have Laotians, Chinese, and so on. 

Now to the backwards part.  What if the congregation that you incubated was larger than yours?  What if after your family house was down to just you and your wife, would you consider moving into the mother-in-law quarters so you son or daughter and their growing family and their limited income could have a better home arrangement?  Or consider how in life we have children and we are big but they are little.  Fifty years later and they are big and we are little.  The kid I taught how to read is now teaching me how to manage my computer.  I remember a photo once where there was dad carrying Johnnie and then next to it the fifty years later where Johnnie was carrying dad.  So what if the congregation that you incubated was larger than yours?  It happens in life. 

So I know a church that is growing in a community where an established church is shrinking.  That same growing church is outgrowing its facility and the established church is down to using about 20% of its.  How could the established church incubate the growing one?  What would that look like?