Consulting, Coaching & Chatter

From the beginning of 21st Century Strategies, a long, long time ago, we’ve had one driving value: help transform churches. We suspect that pretty much all our readers understand that one of the ways we do that is by offering professional consultation services, church leadership coaching, and congregational training. What many folks may not realize is that when we write books, articles, newsletters, FAQs, ore respond to questions on the Advanced Leadership Forum of the 21st Century Strategies Community, we don’t hold anything back. Everything we do is focused on helping churches – and ultimately, for us, there is nothing more important than that, so we don’t keep back the secrets to success.

All that’s to say, for those willing to do the work, pretty much everything we teach, every recommendation we make, and every “secret” we have is there on our website and in our books. And with that knowledge, there’s really no reason they couldn’t do a respectable and effective Do It Yourself Consultation. With that in mind, let me (us) point the way.

Step One: Data Gathering

The foundation for every consultation we do begins with demographics. Now, before you surf over to the Census Bureau, Percept, or MissionInsite, some of the most important demographics you need to really “know” and “understand” are those of your congregation. And how old and how many and how long and how much and so on is just the start. You’ll want to measure attitudes toward leadership, hospitality, and their aversion to changes – and what specific changes will create the most waves. The forms we use for gathering and compiling all this data is found in The Complete Ministry Audit.

Congregational demographics are only the starting point for understanding your congregation. Next, you’ll need to pull some decadal statistics. You’ll be looking for trends, once the data is compiled, so make sure you pull the statistics for each year so you can plot them. You’ll want to get the information on income and giving; expenditures, including capital, maintenance, program, staff, and missional spending; attendance in each worship service, Sunday/Sabbath school, choir, and any small groups; baptisms, transfer of membership, deaths, departures, and general membership figures. One of the revealing, and often startling and disturbing, trends can be seen when these are plotted on a line graph. In far too many churches, the trend lines trail off and even the least savvy can make an educated guess on when the church will be no more and/or have inadequate funding to sustain even the most basic ministries.

Once you have a true understanding of the congregational, then it’s time to pull community demographics. The boundaries of your ministry area are important, so choose them carefully – and remember, your effective ministry area may not be equivalent to a particular zip code or a simple circle with the church in the center. In addition to the standard demographics, you will want to get a psychographic workup as well so you not only the raw statistics, but will have some understanding of what’s important to those in your community, plus how they spend their time and money and affections.

With the basic data gathered, you’ll be able to find connecting points for reaching into the community, but you’re not even close to ready for that now. The next step is to begin the evaluations.

Evaluating

Data is pretty much black and white, so it can be tempting to start making recommendations immediately. But before effective recommendations can be made, you’ll need to honestly and seriously evaluate virtually everything associated with the church. And though everything we’ve covered up until now can be found in our books, it’s time to mine the 21^st Century Strategies website (ChurchConsultations.com).

Building and Grounds

It’s probably easiest to start with evaluating the physical plant. How much property do you have – and need – for the number of seats you have in the worship center? How is the property divided up and how many parking spaces do you have? What is that state of your property? Is it in good repair, or do you need to resurface the parking lot and paint the church’s shutters? Once you’re done outside, move inside to check the usability, access, and repair of the facilities. How many usable seats are there? Where is the nursery and does it meet minimum hospitality standards? The list can go and on, but literally everything you need to evaluate – and the measures to use – can be found on the website. Here’s a mining tip: most of the information you need can be found in the extensive FAQ section.

Congregational DNA

Once the building and grounds are out of the way, you may be thinking it’s time to evaluate the programs of the church. Before you can do that, you’ll need to put on your critiquing hat and look over the congregational DNA. Start by evaluating whatever foundational work has been done in the past and consider whether or not the mission statement is even viable. The sad fact is, many are theological and sociological treatises that carry lots of baggage, but little weight. Next, if the congregation has done additional DNA work, carefully evaluate the core values, the bedrock beliefs, the vision, the expected behaviors, and any strategic foci that’s been adopted. Again, you can find evaluation tools on our website – and don’t forget to check out our respective blogs (www.billeasum.com and www.billtennybrittian.com).

Of course, the real evaluation is in whether or not decisions are made based on the DNA, or is it just so much window dressing? The only way to find this out is to check the hierarchical, organization, and decision making structures – and here’s the tricky part, to get a real feel, you’ll have to ferret out both the formal and the ever-elusive informal structures. Once you discover these, then compare the DNA to the way decisions are made. Is the loudest voice more influential than the congregational DNA statements? If so, who are those loudest voices?

The DNA evaluation doesn’t stop with decision making though. The next step is to compare staffing against the DNA and the congregational size/budget. You’ll need to consider whether the current staffing is effectively organized around the congregational mission and vision or are they organized around anachronistic “generalist” or age-graded structures. In addition, you’ll need to consider whether you’re staffed for growth, maintenance, or decline. And of course, there’s the question of budget projections you’ll need to consider as well before you begin the recommendation process.

Programming

Finally, it’s time to evaluate your congregational programming. For sanity’s sake, you’ll want to consider your worship programming separately from the rest of your programming.

Once again, begin your evaluations by comparing everything the congregation does against the congregational DNA – and we’re talking about measuring everything. Start with the obvious programs: Sunday school, small groups, fellowship events, classes, gender and age based groups, ministry and outreach events and groups, and so on. It may be easiest to work from the congregational calendar and ask of everything on the schedule, “Does this specifically support and enhance the congregational DNA?” If you have to think about it for more than a split second, the answer is probably that it doesn’t. Make your list so you’ll be ready to make your recommendations for what programs should get the axe, which should be phased out, which should receive no support (a Do Not Resuscitate order), and which should be embraced and enhanced. Your recommendations will need to include these, along with specific steps for accomplishment while minimizing conflict (you can’t avoid conflict, but you can certainly minimize it).

As you consider each of the congregational programs, you’ll also need to seriously evaluate whether or not they are “doors” for guests to become integrated with the congregation. It’s critical that you identify each open and closed door. For instance, some Sunday school classes may “say” they are open to guests, but in reality guests may find it difficult to become a “part” of the group. This kind of information will be necessary for making effective recommendations later on.

Worship

In most churches today, the worship service is the core practice of the congregation and so demands significant scrutiny. However, this can be difficult for an “insider” to evaluate – but again, mining our websites will offer concrete suggestions.

If your congregation has multiple worship services, you will want to evaluate each separately, unless they are duplicate services. For each service, begin the evaluation by asking yourself, “For whom is this service targeted?” Begin by exegeting the explicit target (heavily churched sixty-year-olds and older; church-lite baby boomers; rarely churched thirty-somethings with families; etc.). Next, compare the actual service to the expectations of that target. It’s not just about music – you’ll need to consider style, formality, language, dress code (including the unspoken code), technology, participation opportunities, music selection, music performance, instrumentation, sermon theme, sermon delivery, presumptive participant foreknowledge, gender/age/dress/appearance of anyone who conspicuously serves, the content and layout of any bulletin/handouts, hospitality, feedback opportunities, level of excellence, and more. In addition, when evaluating the suitability of a service to a particular target don’t forget to check the supporting services such as children’s worship and nursery care.

When it comes to the worship service, you will want to take special notice of hospitality services. Start with the parking lot and work your way in. Are there smiling, friendly, gregarious “never-met-a-stranger” greeters on both sides of the front door? How long after the service starts do they remain in place? Are there greeters at other doors of the church that might be used by a first time guest who didn’t know for sure where the front door is? How about ushers? Are they glorified bulletin dispensers, or do they actually ush? Is there anything in the service that could embarrass a guest who wanted to remain anonymous and unmolested? Don’t forget signage. Is there any place in a hallway, narthex (vestibule/entry way), fellowship hall, auditorium , multi-use room, etc. where a guest would be unable to see a sign that pointed the way to the restrooms, nursery, or worship center?

Marketing and Follow Up

When embarking on the DIY consultation, don’t neglect to evaluate the systems the church is using to reach out to the community, let them know they’re there, and then follow-up once someone has visited. Check to see how much money the congregation is spending on low-response marketing such as newspaper and Yellow Pages advertising. Check the website for missing critical information or critical information that’s buried deep within the site. If directions or worship times are more than one click from the home page, it may be considered inaccessible by the average web surfer.

Guest follow up cannot be overlooked either. You’ll need to evaluate the church’s effectiveness in getting guest contact information. The next issue to check is to see what they do with that information. How soon after a visit is there an in-person home visit and who makes that visit? You’ll also need to find out how effective the follow-up is by crunching the return rate of first time guests.

Finally, check to see if there’s an intentional integration (assimilation) plan for helping guests connect with those in the church. If not, do guests have to claw their way into the fellowship? You can find out how effective the congregation’s integration programming is by crunching the number of first time guests who remain active in the congregation a year after their first visit.

Evaluate the Main Thing

Although there is much more that can, and perhaps should, be evaluated, there is one more area that is essential when attempting a Do It Yourself consultation. I’ve left this to last not because it’s least important, but because without  making this area a priority in the evaluation, it won’t matter what you recommend: the transformation will fail.

The main thing of the church is discipleship. The question that must be answered is whether or not new people are becoming effective, practicing disciples of Jesus who engage in the spiritual disciplines or not. And the second is like the first – are the church leaders spiritually centered, grounded, and practicing disciples of Jesus who engage in the spiritual disciplines. In any consultation, whether we’re doing an onsite consult or you’re engaged in a DIY consultation, this is the number one, most important, make it or break it question. If the leaders are not model disciples of Jesus who are engaged in the regular study of scripture, immersed in prayer and reflection, sharing their faith with the unchurched and marginally churched, and practicing the one-anothers in every aspect of their lives, then it won’t make any difference what you recommend. Indeed, this was the primary failure of the Church Growth movement of the seventies and the eighties – program without spiritual foundationing.

Evaluating the main thing can be difficult, but you can get a pretty good read on it by measuring the level on ongoing, unresolved conflict and by simply asking some key questions of the leaders (try the Discipleship Development Questions – again, found on the website). If the leaders aren’t modeling discipleship, then it’s a pretty good bet the congregation isn’t. And if the congregation isn’t, then guests will come and guests will go, but it will be the rare guest who is still a part of the congregation eighteen months after their initial visit.

Making Recommendations

When it comes time for making recommendations, there is a specific order – at least at the front end – that is imperative to follow … at least if you want to actually transform the church.  Top on that list is the spiritual discipline practices of the leadership. This, of course, also includes intentionally dealing with unresolved conflict and implementing systems for dealing with conflict as it arises. How you recommend putting this into place is largely contextual, but leadership modeling, integrity, and accountability is core to a successful transformation.

Next on the list would be shoring up the DNA if it’s needed. Since the DNA infuses every aspect of the congregation’s function and form, it’s virtually impossible for a congregation to move forward without  clear, concise, embedded, and modeled mission, values, vision, beliefs, and behavior statements.

Third comes hospitality. In this case, we’re not just talking about greeters and hosts, but everything the church does to engage both those outside the church as well as those inside. For instance, as “friendly” as a church might be when a guest walks through the door, if the music is foreign to their ears; if the language is encoded with Christianese;  if there is an expectation that they are familiar with the Judeo-Christian meta story and/or have memorized the rituals and rites; if the location of the restrooms is the church’s best-kept secret; if the nursery has security, sanitation, or safety issues; or if a newcomer has to commit felony breaking-and-entering to get into a group, then there are hospitality issues.

The rest of the recommendations are pretty much determined by context. Reorganization and bylaw rewrites are rarely more than a miscellaneous item – giving it priority is a rookie mistake since form follows function, not the other way around. Again, virtually every recommendation we’re likely to make can be found on our websites or in our books.

So, there you have it – a veritable step-by-step DIY consultation. If it sounds complicated and complex, it’s because it is. Between us, Bill Easum and I have done hundreds of customized consultation and each one is as unique as your situation. On the other hand, as you’ve no doubt surmised, there’s a method to the work we do and the recommendations we make. Follow the steps in this article, mine the depths of our sites and our books, and you’ll have at your fingertips everything you need to work from data gathering, through evaluation, and ultimately to making church-transforming recommendations.

Final Note

Just in case this all seems like too complex and too much work, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Bill Easum and I both have room in our schedule to work with you and your church. Whether your congregation needs an onsite consultation, you or your leaders need coaching, or there’s a  need for congregational training, we’re committed to helping churches become increasingly effective.

I had a GREAT conversation with the pastor of one of the churches I mentioned in my post Churches That Don’t Want to Grow. It probably won’t take you long to guess which of the pastors contacted me, since only one even had any way to know that I was there!

So, this pastor emails me and invites me to lunch (he hadn’t read the blog entry yet) and we had an excellent conversation. There’s a lot to admire in this young pastor who has planted this church. He’s young (did I say that already?), he’s clearly an entrepreneur, and he’s already wise before his years. The conversation came around to the church’s follow up practices and I shared my experience and what we’ve learned over the years with both research and consultations with over 1000 churches (and yes, some of those were even with young congregations). I wasn’t surprised at his response. It’s not verbatim, but here’s the gist. “We don’t do the visitation follow-up to their homes. We have a younger crowd (they do … mostly twenty and thirty somethings) and we don’t want them to get the impression that we’re a boomer mega church.”

The rest of the conversation was excellent, lively, and I’m impressed overall with this pastor. On my way home – I actually walked because the pre-autumn day here is beautiful today – and I mulled over his words. I was weighing them up thinking, “Well, maybe he’s right” when a couple of things struck me like the proverbial ton of bricks.

First, I’ve been to a LOT of mega churches and have discovered that, in general, their follow-up is just about as bad as most smaller churches. They don’t seem to want return visitors coming to their churches either. They may have been good at it once upon a time (that may be one of the ways they grew to be a mega church), but somewhere along the line, they either got cocky and let their follow up system lapse because they were getting plenty of return visitors (that’s what happens when you have the best show in town … even if the best show is also the most faithful presentation of the Gospel), or they got so big that they didn’t invest in or design a continuing follow up system. Certainly, of the mega churches in Columbia, MO that I’ve been to, and there are a couple and I’ve been to all of them I believe, none appear to be doing effective follow up, so in that regard it’s not likely any of this young pastor’s visitors will be confusing his church with a mega church.

But for me, here’s the clincher. Twenty and Thirty somethings are, in general, two generations from the church. They have little, if any, church background. Sure, there are always a few, but most … nope. And even for those that have, they almost certainly have no idea about mega church (or any other church) follow up practices and programs. It’s only us clergy and church leaders who have been a part of the church for awhile who even know that churches are supposed to be following up.And it’s only us who are steeped in church research who know that the boomer churches practiced front-door follow-up once upon a time.

So, it’s a bit of a distraction to say, “Well, our congregation is so young, we don’t want them to think we’re ____.” These visitors have no church experience … so let’s get real and at least go through the motions that perhaps we’re interested that they visited us. And who knows, when the pastor is standing at the front door of a first-time visitor’s home on Sunday afternoon, ready to hand them a church-branded coffee mug filled with goodies and church literature, s/he might have an opportunity to do more than just say “Glad you were with us.” Someone out there might actually have a question about the service or about a small group or about the children’s programming or ??? that the pastor could answer. And if the pastor’s taking follow up to the next level, and if the first-time visitor shows a modicum of interest, the pastor can always whip out their Blackberry right there on the spot and schedule a lunch or coffee appointment for later on in the week.

Those who’ve read any of my church renewal/small group books or who are familiar with my work with Easum, Bandy & Tenny-Brittian know that when I speak about DNA, I mean the six strands that answer the question “Who is this congregation?” A congregation’s DNA can be found in every part of the local church – the leadership, the members, and can even be found in participants who’ve been hanging around with the church for as little as three months. I define those six DNA strands as:

1. The Mission
2. The Core Values
3. The Bedrock Beliefs
4. The Expected Behaviors
5. The Compelling Vision
6. The Strategic Focus

In earlier entries, I’ve mentioned the need for congregation’s to work on expected behaviors early on in the discovery/discernment process. I return to the DNA topic because there’s been a LOT of conversation lately on the EBT Advanced Leadership Forum (an online coaching service that’s part of the EBT Community) about the congregational Bedrock Beliefs.

On that forum, much has been made of this particular strand of DNA … and honestly, it’s a very important strand. However, as I watch leaders from around the world struggle with their congregation’s Bedrock Beliefs, I wonder how much of it is all that necessary.

One definition of Bedrock Beliefs that has been put forth by my partner Tom Bandy is that Bedrock Beliefs are those beliefs you turn to for strength in times of trouble. Examples would include “God comforts us in times of trouble” and “God accepts us no matter who we are.”

I like the imagery of this, but when I work with churches I find it almost impossible to pin down these kinds of statements on a church-wide DNA basis. On a personal basis, no problem. I know what my Bedrock Beliefs are in times of trouble. But when it comes to helping a church define what the core of their heart is, I take a different tack.

When I help a church discern their Bedrock Beliefs, my purpose is to help them get to a bedrock place where they can, as a congregation, build a foundation that won’t shatter when someone lobs a theological grenade into the room. I’ve seen far too many churches get into a fray about what a small group of individuals find core, but the congregation as a whole finds tangental – but without defined Bedrock Beliefs there’s nothing to keep the fray from becoming a fight.

Now, before I write another word … I totally agree with Tom Bandy who says that Bedrock Beliefs are not a congregation’s systematic theology. That would simply be too much for any congregation to swallow. But it is the place where the congregation can agree and then can deflect the grenades.

Some congregation’s are confessional. “Officially” they already have their bedrock beliefs defined for them. I’ve yet to be in a church in USAmerica where that was actually the case, but at least it’s somewhere to start. But for those non-confessional churches (and even some of the confessional churches), congregation’s often come to the understanding that Jesus is the bottom line. Their foundation for their core values may well get stated, “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and we call on him as our Lord (boss, CEO, etc.) and Savior.” In general, few Christians disagree with this as the foundation. Great. Step one done.

If Jesus is the foundation of the faith, then everything gets built on that. I’ve found that churches find they can summarize their beliefs what Jeff Hubbard, a close friend, named “The Four Greats.” Jesus gave us four “great” commandments that can crystallize the Bedrock Beliefs for many congregations. (1) Jesus gave us the Great Invitation: Follow Me. In other words, we’re called to do what he did (and more) and to value what he valued. (2) Jesus gave us the Great Commandment: Love God. Our lives are meant to revolve around honoring God in all we do. (3) Jesus gave us the Great Commandment: Love Others. Everything we do and think and say must go through this filter: Is it loving? And not just is it loving, but would they receive it as loving? and (4) Jesus gave us the Great Commission: Make Disciples. That’s why we exist … that’s why the church exists.

When churches adopts the Jesus and the Four Greats as their Bedrock Beliefs, it helps put focus on what’s important when those “Grenades” inevitably get lobbed into Small Group meetings, Sunday School Classes, Board Meetings, and so on. Here’s one way I coach congregation’s in how to deflect (or even diffuse) those moments: “You know, that’s an important belief, but when it comes to what this congregation believes and practices, we lean on Jesus and the Four Greats. Anything else … anything … simply isn’t worth dying for or arguing about.” If the query comes again, just keep deflecting it. You might even turn to Paul’s words to Timothy to avoid senseless controversies (2 Tim 2:23-24), and since this belief isn’t a core belief in the congregation ….

Is there more we may all hold in common? Perhaps. But in general, Jesus and the Four Greats tend to cover it pretty well. And it heads off a lot of controversy.

The stats aren’t pretty. In fact, they’re pretty deplorable. But they’re nonetheless accurate. Eighty percent of all Pastoral Size to Program Size church transformations fail – 80 percent. A Pastoral Sized church is one in which the pastor is essentially the end-all, be-all of the congregational expectations. They attend virtually every function and event. They facilitate virtually every meeting. And, in general, they plan everything the church is going to do. These pastors do almost all of the visiting of the sick, the infirm, the homebound, new visitors to the church, and membership in general. They’re busy bodies (as opposed to busybodies).These churches tend to have between 100 and 150 people in worship.

The Program Sized church is one in which the programs of the church are the end-all, be all. These
programs are overseen by teams or committees. The pastor’s role is to equip and support these leaders in doing ministry. This is the first level of the church where, in general, the pastor gets serious with the role of the pastor as defined in Ephesians 4:11-13 … the ministry of the pastor is to equip the church to do the ministry of the church, not the other way around (as is often the practice in Pastoral and Family sized churches).

The reason most of these transformations fail is that congregation’s core values in most North American churches, especially in churches that have been “stuck” at less that 150 for the last five or more years, is (1) Comfort and (2) Status Quo. In other words, “This is my church and I just want to be comfortable.” and “I don’t want to change … and I especially don’t want my church to change.” With those two core values, it’s practically impossible to transform a church – for obvious reasons.

But 20 percent of churches that attempt the Pastoral to Program sized transformations succeed. What’s different about them? I leave you with a bullet list of differences. The question is, where is your church on the list?

• The pain of remaining the same outweighs the pain of change. It’s amazing what desperation will drive you to.
• The pastor is committed to seeing the transformation through … regardless of the pain.
• The congregation is committed to seeing the transformation through … regardless of how much a pain their pastor is.
• The congregation quickly develops and adopts expected behaviors and their full DNA.
• There is little ongoing conflict, and no serious conflict.
• Bullies and Terrorists are either converted, neutralized, or shown to the door.
• The pastor has a coach and a mentor … and is both coachable and teachable.
• The congregation’s leaders are committed to developing their spiritual maturity – even if they’re already spiritual giants, they know they have further to go.
• The congregation and the pastor all have this attitude: “It’s all about God. This is God’s church, not mine, and God is willing to do ANYTHING, even going to his death on a cross, to reach the lost in the neighborhood. Because God is willing, I will follow.”