Americans Want to Make a Difference

In a new report from the Barna Group finds that nine out of every ten Americans (86%) describe themselves as “caring deeply about social injustice.”

We in the church want to think it’s our influence, but in reality it’s part of our God-given nature to help out.  Americans in general care about justice and fairness, and feel a desire to help fix the issue if they have it in their power to do so.

What the church can do is make opportunity to participate.  Rather than restrict who can help to “us only”, find a way for outsiders to help.  Of course you want insiders to lead and need for the newbies to follow guidelines, but maybe the taste of and place of service is all that’s needed to bring someone in.

When my daughter was young, I coached her church basketball team.  My assistant was another dad, not a church member, not strong in his faith.  He sat through each of 10 weekly devotionals and watched me show love and compassion on the court.  He started attending church regularly and soon was an active member of the congregation.

The church used to do a big Easter production.  It took a lot of people to pull it off.  Mike had been attending only services, floating in and slipping out.  But there was a need for more people in the parking lot, and one night of duty turned into regular service and a sense of belonging.

For myself, I was a teenager when I noticed the oldest members had trouble using the ancient church elevator.  I helped them on and off, pulling back the metal cage and holding the heavy door.  When one of the deacons complained about me being there, a more senior elder countered and let me continue that little service.  Small as it was, it was training me for a life of church involvement.

So look around.  My church is handing out food for Easter, using lots of new volunteers.  The greeting committee has doubled itself for that day to stand at the doors and smile, saying “thanks for coming” at both the walking in and the walking out.  How hard is that?

So go ahead.  Get creative.  Let the people serve.

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From the Barna survey:

On social awareness, matters of lifestyle, and the desire for simplicity, the self-identities of born agains and others were very similar. Only two of the non-spiritual self-perceptions showed any difference, and those gaps were minimal: born again Christians were slightly more likely than others to see themselves as making a positive difference in the world (83% versus 74%, respectively) and slightly more likely to be fulfilling personal life calling (76% to 67%).

 

With Only an Accusation

Scott Forbes had turned his life around.  Overcoming addictions to drugs and alcohol, he then earned a bachelor’s degree in addiction and several counseling certifications  He also has a master’s degree in organizational management.  And then a false report undid it all.

Forbes had spent 22 years working for various programs that assist those with similar addictions to what he had overcome.  In November 2004, Forbes became director of Hope Haven in Madison, operated by Catholic Charities of Madison, WI.  It was a promotion and job change from a related job with Catholic Charities.  And it meant he moved offices.

Then in October 2005, a computer disk was found in his old office back at Marquette County Chemical Dependency Service.  The computer disk contained a “significant amount of pornographic images” that included those of children.  They also found working files created by Forbes.  The fact that it was a “read/writable” disk for adding new files later didn’t register with the police.

He was arrested in April and charged with with 17 counts of child pornography, including pictures of two boys between the ages of 13 and 15 and one girl about 8 to 10 years old.

He was fired from his job immediately, before the charges were filed. He challenged the firing, and eventually the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development ruled in his favor.

“The state ruled that I had been terminated without cause,” he said. “But that did not save my career.”

He had lost his job; he lost friends. He had to sell off some family property.   He became a carpenter to make ends meet.

Finally last week, the judge ruled that he had not been given enough evidence when he authorized the search, and if he had he’d known the evidence was too flimsy to make a case.  He ruled the evidence inadmissible.  The jury of 10 women and two men unanimously found Forbes not guilty on all charges.

Vindicated, he admitted it has made him stronger, but then added “I’d have been fine with being less strong.”

(reference:  capital newspaper)

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The lesson for us is to have adequate liability insurances for your church.  A false accusation based on the slimmest of connections ruined his career, his reputation and – but for the faith of his wife – could have ended his marriage.

 

The Bystander Church

You know the concept of the bystander effect.  That is the sociological term where a person in a group is less likely to get involved in an emergency situation or request for help than someone standing alone.  The research shows that people will watch a crime but not get involved, thinking they are not qualified or out of fear for their own safety.  Not until one of their number acts will anyone else move to get involved.  Usually it takes a direct personal appeal to a single individual (by name or with eye contact – even if randomly chosen) to get them to get involved.

 

The All-Important Youth Volunteer

Robbie wrote a great post called “No Youth Volunteers: No Youth Ministry“  He gives the qualities of a good youth volunteer: Crazy, Radical, Caffeinated, Brave, Dreamer.

For instance, he says “A Youth Volunteer steps out of their shoes & walks in a teenagers shoes. The best leaders are the ones that relate to the youth, where the youth are at. … Youth volunteers take the Gospel & radically mold it to where the youth are. Jesus did ministry the same way”

The good youth worker sees past the exterior and sees a teen to find themselves in a culture that is constantly changing, trying to find some hope.  “They dream about what God could do…and take action.”

The pastoral youth leader is there to plan, to pray, to organize. But it’s tough doing it alone.  Every church that is committed to reaching teenagers for the Gospel needs mature volunteer believers who will look past their own discomfort to pour themselves into the next generation.  They’re out there.  Go get them.

 

Closing the door on the 80%

 I met the leaders of a division of a certain volunteer organization. They do essentially the same as dozens of other community service organizations, but this group requires you be trained by them to do what others have been doing for decades. Then, if you want to participate in one of their trips, you have to go with one of their chapters, on their schedule. Many – myself included – would participate more, except my work schedule hasn’t let me match up with the trips sponsored by my local chapter. I asked if there was a way for me to find a trip to join up with a different local chapter, but they tell me they don’t have the structure or the people to handle non-standard requests, or to let you serve less than their standard one week’s service.

When I went to refresher training, this leader made an odd comment to the group, lamenting that only 20% of the ones they train actually go with them on one of their trips. When I asked him about his comment privately after the training, he claimed it was an example of the Pareto 80/20 rule, and there was no reason to expect anything different. He wouldn’t listen when I tried to tell him differently.

 

Free is good, if it doesn’t cost

Westchester Church in Grand Prarie, Texas is taking a soft sell to making friends in the community.  Free breakfast, hot and fast, no strings attached.

The problem with the way most of us do giveaways is there is a catch.  You gotta show up on Sunday and listen through a sermon.  They did that at the rescue mission that I did an early sermon at.  They had to listen to the sermon first to get fed after (so don’t preach too long!)

What Westminster does is give free breakfast on Friday to folks on the way to work.  They arrive around sunup and set out signs, cones, coolers, and muffins.  They position several people out at the street to invite the traffic in and a couple at the tables handing out the food and drink.   Everything is prepackaged to stay clear of health department rules.

On average, it takes about 20 seconds to take an order and fill it, and send the people on their way with an encouraging word. They have make strategic contacts with the community (including the police stopping by for free grub).  It costs a couple hundred dollars – an average day is around 80 cars.

The point is that they are connecting with their community, the people that live or work near that church.  It’s already on their drive path. 

You may wince at spending a couple hundred on stuff with no commitment, but how much is a single newspaper ad? (hint:  multiple hundreds of dollars for a small impression)

Source:  http://illogicalstrategy.com/?p=25   

 

what causes churches to die

I was asked what causes churches to die.  Is it sloppy / liberal theology?   a lack of discipleship programs?  the lack of theological education?

One cause is evangelical sloth.  RR Reno claims that “Sloth and cowardice …slink away from the urgency of conviction. Both fear the sharp edge of demand and expectation. Both have a vested interest in cynicism, irony and outward conformity. These vices, not pride, now dominate our culture.” (1)(2)

The remedy is often the professionalization of the clergy, where we leave our spiritual disciplines to our surrogates to satisfy.  And if their own theology is sloppy, all the better to attract  a society of believers having shared slothful theology.

I’ve seen healthy churches led by barely-educated farmers whose only texts were a well-worn Bible and a commentary (the man in mind used KJV and Matthew Henry). 

 Churches struggle when the leadership keeps people from exercising their spiritual giftedness, they come to believe their service is not needed (anybody could do it), and will let other volunteer work crowd out church work (especially those clubs that mimic their giftedness).   When the pastor doesn’t allow for meaningful service, he doesn’t get any.  The people forget how to serve (or never learn) and quit trying.  Lay leaders leave to serve elsewhere, leaving the sitters, and staff start drifting away as well.

And since involved volunteers are more likely to give (and usually give 4 times as much), the budget also suffers.  The staff have to do more and more on less and less.   This causes the pastor to have to work even harder doing the “professional preacher” kinds of things.  I’ve seen churches thrive without a full-time pastor.  I’ve rarely seen a healthy church without  involved deacons in active service.

The turnaround begins when a leader insists on a return to core fundamentals – discipleship, prayer, outreach/evangelism and individuals caring for one another (instead of passing it off on the pastor).   It doesn’t have to be the pastor – this works well if the leader is a deacon – but a pastor is the one person who can stop it.

I’ve seen healthy churches led by barely-educated farmers whose only texts were a well-worn Bible and a commentary (the man in mind used KJV and Matthew Henry).  I’ve seen churches thrive without a full-time pastor.  I’ve rarely seen a healthy church without  involved deacons in active service.

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sources
1. Reno, RR The Ruins of the Church: Sustaining Faith in an age of Diminished Christianity, p8
2. http://www.opensourcetheology.net/node/788

 

Being Ready to Minister

Yesterday, around 4:15pm, an EF-3 tornado (160 mph) skipped across Suffolk, VA. It touched 6 neighborhoods. Today, I joined 7 other Disaster Relief volunteers assessing the damage for the Southern Baptist Convention. We looked at over 500 homes in 4 of the neighborhoods, assessed damage for 2/3 of them, and observed 24 destroyed homes, some with little more than the front steps remaining.

See pics here and here.)

Along the way, I saw how three churches in the affected area reacted. The first was a small church of 50 just outside the police checkpoint. We were some of the first volunteers there, and the church was open, running a generator. They were serving pancakes and coffee, and let us use their parking lot. We created an impromptu planning session with another Baptist Disaster Team that saw our van and stopped. I spoke with them about our efforts to be ready to respond, but they did a good job of doing whatever they could with what they had. And after assessing that area, they fed us (and any who stopped by) hot dogs and sodas.

That other team was on their way to a church just outside the southernmost disaster area. That church had hosted Disaster Response recertification training just last week. They opened their facility to be a volunteer reception and coordination area. They were prepared, and they knew what to do, and had people in the neighborhoods very quickly to help clean up and cover (with tarps) open spaces in the houses.

The third church, unfortunately, was not as prepared. They were less than 1/4 mile from one of the hardest hit areas, just across the road from the city’s disaster command post. Yet, when I walked up, with power crews parked in their lot (fixing the lines to the hospital), only one person was there, and he came to mow the yard so it would look nice for when power . He agreed it would be good to do something, and lamented the inability to provide water bottles to the work crews on his property (not thinking of a thermos of ice water and paper cups). The pastor showed up later, and found some of his parishioners standing around and eating at the nearby sub shop. Yet they were still waiting for someone else to come do something at their church.

We do disaster response to get us past the police checkpoint. Even with training, credentials and precoordination, we spent a lot of time standing around, talking our way through multiple sequential checkpoints and doing things that seemed non-productive. (However, having blazed a trail, whoever goes tomorrow will have an easier time getting through those checkpoints.) But once at disaster ground zero, we were able to talk to homeowners about their problems, praying with and for them, letting them talk about their problems, and setting the stage for others to quickly come to do more direct response.

I wouldn’t wish a disaster on anyone, but if a major event happens on your doorstep, what will you do to show your neighbors you care? They want to know you care before they will listen to why you do it. But if you let the Spirit move you and look for ways to be used, they will see your good works before men and hear your heart.

p.s. – On Wednesday the local news reported that Baptist Disaster Relief workers were already removing branches from people’s yard. You can’t buy better coverage than that!

c2008, Mike Mitchell, all rights reserved

 

Washington Mass a Model of Efficiency

Pope Benedict XVI was in DC this week. His theme was Christ our Hope. And the DC news media gave extended time to a local priest to give the “play by play” of the Pope’s arrival at the Catholic embassy.  The news media let him fill in details about Catholic beliefs and practices, and even let him explain the desire for former Catholics and others to return to church, as many have.

For his part, the Pope spoke openly and forcefully about the need to maintain a regular relationship with the local church, for the individuals’ personal spiritual health. It was an open call to strengthen struggling Catholic churches.

During his visit, the Pope said a special Mass inside the new Washington Nationals’ stadium, with 46,000 attending. Part of the mass, you know , is the serving of communion. Catholics believe that taking the communion bread and wine is essential to maintianing spiritual closeness.

But what struck me as truly amazing was in the reporting about the Mass. NPR said that they provided communion to 46,000 people in 20 minutes. I’m not sure the exact logistics of that, but it meant a large number of priests participating, since the elements must be blessed by an ordained clergy.

Is your congregation a model of efficiency? Are you setting the stage where those in your regular and inactive congregation can become involved, and then used effectively when the time for their service comes?

People generally enjoy being part of an active, effective church, but shy away from one with busy work supporting ineffective or self-serving purposes. (see my InvolvingMore blog for more ideas on using volunteers.) But an active, involved volunteer force can both energize the participants and help the services move very smoothly.