money or missions?

What is the end result of a struggle for control?  Is it a process of cleaning the weeds so the garden can flourish?  Or is it more like topping the tree in an attempt at keeping it from overtaking the landscaping – to keep in under control?

In the early 1980s, the Southern Baptist Convention began to come apart.  The argument was couched in spiritual terms – that teachers in the colleges weren’t doctrinally pure enough.  There were even heresy investigations of some who challenged their students’ faith in the classroom to give them tools to counter opposition in the real world.  The result was an intellectional split in the theological direction, and a physical split in some parts of the convention.  Texas and Virginia now have two theologically different Southern Baptist Conventions.  Some who consider themselves historical Southern Baptist now belong to a new Cooperative Baptist Convention.

At the time, there was a charge that it was a grab for money.  The SBC had become the largest Protestant denomination in the country and the largest Baptist convention in the world, with billion dollar budgets.  It sponsored 5 national seminaries and sub-convention associations supported dozens of colleges, hospitals and orphanages.

As it happened, the SBC, formerly the fastest growing provider of the Gospel in the world, stopped growing.

Except for the years following the Civil War, an analysis of growth trends show a 3%-5% year-to-year growth rate that tapered off after 1980 and began to top out in the mid 90s, turning to actual declines in total membership in 2005.

So when the US economy hit a bump in 2009, that decline in membershp began to take a financial hit.

And so comes a realization from denominational leaders that, just perhaps, they overdid their zealous enforcement of their brand of orthodoxy.  The realization reminded leaders of ousted Southern Seminary faculty member  Bill Leonard, who had predicted that once the conservatives took control of the SBC’s massive infrastructure, they would soon turn on one another.   And so they have. 

In a bid to shore up funding of missions agencies, the central funding organism, called the Cooperative Program -an innovative approach to pool voluntary church contributions to accomplish common activies, is now at risk.  Churches are beginning to fund individual missions and missionaries, or reserving funds for local actions.  There is also suspicion that most money is going for maintenance. (One trusted source said that an estimated 60% of weekly tithes goes to repay loans on buildings.)

This is an intersting object lesson for individual churches.  If you drive off your most passionate dissenters, does it change your core message?  Are you still focused on reaching your whole community for the Gospel, or are you seen as only after their money?  Are you inclusive or exclusive?  Choose wisely; you will have to live with the future you create.  

—

sources:
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/04/24/southernbaptists_0424.html

http://baptistmessenger.com/editors-journal-our-ominous-future/

 

The Motivation for Worship

On a facebook post today, pastor/teacher/student leader Alvin Reid quoted Jim Elliff’s call to worship leaders to “Raise the believers’ understanding of the beauty & power of God, & let emotions follow, not lead.”

In reply John Guetterman wrote:

Amen! singers singing the beauty and power of God from the place of divine revelation. This is the glory of corporate worship when we see Him as He is and we are invited into the realm if the spirit through the open door. We need singers who sing from encounter! We need preachers who preach from encounter! This is our hope for our nation to change… Read More… That God would raise up burning and shining lamps leading many to Jesus in this hour! People who have stood in the council of the Lord who speak from the place of knowledge that transcends understanding… We need the Spirit of Revelation. We need the Spirit of Prayer… We NEED GOD!!!

I remember attending a church that led our denomination in baptisms, a supposed indication of the power of their preacher as an evangelist.  However, when I got to know some of the members, I learned there was little followup, little understanding of what the Christian life was all about.  They were led by the emotion of the moment, and a number of those were rebaptisms (“The first 3 times weren’t real, but this time I know I’m saved!”)

You can’t sustain a church on emotion.  People wear out and quit if they live on the evangelism sugar high.  Teaching the congregation the truth of God, leading them to full understanding of their salvation, helping them see the beauty & power of God is what will set them afire and send them out as witnesses.  Their worship will remain beyond the benediction, their testimony will resonate at the restaurant, and their service will be sustainable, because it is all for the glory of God.

 

Doxophobia

My buddy from college (and a Facebook friend) Reggie May posted the word of the day. He picked it up at Worship Expo ‘09 in Lakeland, Fl. The word is Doxophobia, the fear of giving praise.

Technically, the word “doxology” is to speak or express a word of opinion, and “doxophobia” is the fear of giving an opinion. You might offend someone, or they might not like you for what you say, or you might be wrong.

But in the spiritual sense, a doxology is a word of praise to God, and Doxophobia is the withholding of that praise for fear of doing it wrong. As Reggie put it,

Doxophobia is rooted in control. We are afraid of losing control. We fear what will happen if we give God total control of our HEART, total control of our SOUL, total control of our MIND and total control of our STRENGTH. But didn’t Jesus tell us that was the MOST important thing. When we practice perfect praise, we may think we are getting more of God, but the reality is that He is getting more of us. Are we willing to totally lose control for His glory?

and again

We fear what other people might think; we fear that we are unworthy. We can’t seem to get past the flawed thinking that this praise thing (doxology) has something to do with us. When we fear what others will think, that’s about us. Shouldn’t we be focusing on what God thinks? When we fear that we are unworthy, we think it’s about us. We ARE unworthy!! But, we don’t praise Him because we are worthy; we praise Him because He IS Worthy. He has not given us a spirit of fear…Hello!! Perfect praise casts our fear.

————
Reggie May is Minister of Music at Stetson Baptist Church in Deland, FL.

 

Churches Continue to Shrink

The was

 

The 2008 American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS). is out, and it says the nation’s Christian influence is continuing to fade.  In fact, the third largest religious segment in our society today is “none.”

Since the survey was first done in 1990, the number of Catholics has been cut in half and Baptists have lost a quarter of their number.  Mainline protestant churches (Lutheran, Methodist, etc.) are down 90%.

“It looks like the two-party system of American Protestantism–mainline versus evangelical–is collapsing,” said Mark Silk, director of the Public Values Program. “A generic form of evangelicalism is emerging as the normative form of non-Catholic Christianity in the United States.”

The fastest growing segments, in terms of percentage gowth are Muslims, Wiccans, and self-described “pagans.”  The largets of those, Islaam, has doubled in size, up to .6% of the population.Mormons are holding steady at 1.4%.  Ethnic Jews are still 1.2% of the population, but religious identification and attendance is down from 3.1Million to 2.7Million.

Overall, only 76% of the US considers itself Christian in the traditional sense.

 

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References

http://www.AmericanReligionSurvey-ARIS.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/5033

http://b27.cc.trincoll.edu/weblogs/AmericanReligionSurvey-ARIS/reports/ARIS_Report_2008.pdf (the report itself)

 

Love on em

In yesterday’s post, where Thom Rainer reflected on how he could have been a better pastor, point number 3 caught my attention.  It is counter to what most writers will say, but right in step with what I’ve been writing for some time.

In a post from 2008, called Complainers Care, I quoted marketing expert Seth Goodin, who says that customers who complain are usually well-meaning people with a desire to help, to make things better than they are.  He suggests that some been ignored for so long they’ve gotten used to shouting, but that we need to try to listen to HEAR their concerns and look for truth underneath the complaint, and find a way to address at least some of their observation.

This is counter to what Gene Wood advises in his book Leading Turnaround Churches.  Pastor Wood says that some people just like to complain and when you hear of someone who’s been vocal before you came and is still vocal about what’s not being done, then most likely the person was simply out to control the church, and needs to be asked to leave.

What Thom Rainer said was that the good pastor will look past the complaint to hear the person, to address the hurt that is prompting the outburst, and to help them heal.

 

A Congregation of One

I read a tragic story of Carol Daniels, pastor of a small church in Anadarko, OK.  She was found inside the church house, the victim of trauma.

According to the news article, Pastor Daniels drove to Anadarko from her home in Oklahoma City, some 60 miles away.  She had pastored the small Christ Holy Sanctified Church for “many, many years.” 

What is sad about the article, beyond the pastor’s death, is that she drove there and opened the church each week “just in case someone showed up.”

Pastor Daniels was not reaching Anadarko’s 6,600 people, and had failed over the course of her ministry to have any impact on the town.   It’s not clear if she was active in the community at all.  Perhaps it was that she lived so far away, and only showed up to preach.

If you want your church to matter, you will need to show up more than just on Sunday morning.  You’ve got to get into the neighborhoods, meet the people, get involved in their lives, in what matters to them.  How will they know to come to your church if they don’t know anyone there?

If you die in the church building some Sunday, will anyone notice?

 

Focusing In

The Apostle Paul said that he became all things to all people, so that he might be able to save some, but few churches can really follow his lead.  Maybe the megachurch can have 25 different ministry teams, fully staffed and resourced, but that’s not reasonable for the small and struggling church.

I’d recommend instead you follow the advice of Jim Collins.  In Good to Great, he wrote that the enemy of great companies is often being good enough at multiple things.  If instead they would focus in on what they are best at, and ignore or outsource the rest, they can begin to become great in that one area.

Lee Eclov, pastor of Chippewa Evangelical Free Church in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, notes that in the Revelation letters, holiness, love and concernm are marks of a healthy church, not evangelism, stewardship, church planting, or attendance programs.*

Erwin McManus added that “Healthy community flows out of a unified cause.”**  Rather than scatter our attention or outspend Hollywood, the healthy church focuses in on that core of the Gospel they can accentuate:

• does your community need an after-school program with people who love with the love of Jesus?
• does your community need a soup kitchen staffed by people who serve others as a demonstration of their love for Jesus?
• does your community need a place where kids can skateboard under the watchful eye of  people with servants’ hearts?

Whatever you do, so long as there is a need and the people are first centered on loving Jesus, you can become great.

__________________________

* “Jesus’ Surprising Definition” at BuildingChurchLeaders.com

**”The Cause-Driven Church“ at BuildingChurchLeaders.com

 

The Agility of Small Churches

I had occasion to use the space of a large church in the area.  It was tedious, to the point of pain.  The bureaucracy added way too much stress on the ministry team and hindered the spread of the Good News.

The startup congregation I’m working with heard that a noted singer in our denomination was to be in the area, and had a few days between performances.  Although we only had 10 weeks to put it together, we decided to try.  But getting a room on a Tuesday night in August was harder than it appeared at first glance.

We normally meet in a church of 2800.  But the adminstration of that size congregation means multiple layers of approvals, some of whom were out of town during key meetings, meaning a delay in channeling the room request to senior leadership.  (A number of other venues we tried either wanted a $400 fee for 4 hours or would not consider us using their space at all.)

At barely one month out, we secured a room, but just as publicity was going out (the minimum lead time for advertising is usually 4 weeks), the host church decided they didn’t want their name on anything that hadn’t gone through the in-house graphic designer.  That approval came out less than a week prior to the concert, changing the background picture and a slight change to the wording.

If we had had our own space, our congregation of 50 could have decided in early June, advertised in July and probably exceeded the 70 that came.

Leaders of small churches can usually meet  more spontaneously, make decisions with less coordination, and respond to needs much more quickly.

Large churches have more resources.  (We wanted a room to hold more than 100 and parking for 50, something not available to a house church!)  They can mobilize for special events.  But small churches can see and respond to needs more quickly.

And ministry is measured in speed to action, not intention to convene a committee.

 

It’s not the money

Many small churches struggle with money. For some, there aren’t enough congregants with enough income to pay all the bills and the maintenance upgrades – even if everyone tithed the full 10%. For the rest, the members often struggle with finances at home and are limited in what they can contribute.  Studies show most want to give more, but can’t.

The challenge for leaders is to teach their congregation about the spiritual nature of giving, about getting their spirit in order first, then adjusting  their lifestyle to match the spirit, and finally finding the freedom to give from “enough” God has given them.

Steve Sappington was a college classmate of mine, and has used his farming background to come to grips with this problem.    He has written a new book, Today’s WORD on Money, to help people understand what the Bible says about their finances.  It’s a 40-day workbook, suitable for private or group study.

Alan Ross, CEO of Kingdom Companies says:

In the midst of tremendous financial uncertainty, the most certain thing we have is our faith that the Father is for us so who can be against us. The 40 day challenge that Steve has laid out for us may well be the best use of our time, our energy and our focus. These meditations will not change our circumstances, but they will change us; in a way that may well change the financial circumstances affecting our lives. Steve has presented us with the word of God in a powerful and challenging way. Read it for 40 days and be blessed.

Read more about this resource at Steve’s website, www.TodaysWordOnMoney.com

 

Orality and Video

Newpapers are struggling. Magazines are falling on hard times. Bookstores are reshaping their business models. People don’t read the way they used to.

It’s not that illiteracy is breaking out. It’s just that so much of what we do read comes in short bits on the internet (this post, for example). Text messages in the thousands a month. Short tweets about everything and nothing.

The rest is audio and video. YouTube is prolific. MP3 players and iPods are everywhere. Internet TV keeps us updated.

Churches need to be aware of these trends toward visual and verbal communication.  Fewer people will read long passages of scripture. Almost no one will study up on a theology text during the week. Instead, they will check out WikiPedia and search for a video illustration.

What all this means is that people want to hear good stories, and are turning to vignettes to get the point across. I’ve heard that the ideal length for a video is 3 to 8 minutes. It’ll take a couple of minutes to build a point, but TV has programmed us to take a comercial break 8 times an hour.

A good lesson includes video interruptions to illustrate a thought. Several styles will be used in the telling. (fast to slow, pause for effect, then a chase scene.)

It will take some doing to make the switch from lecture to storytelling, but that’s where the culture is.

Orality – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orality