Consulting, Coaching & Chatter

I’m not much of a bettin’ kind of guy. I played the ponies once in the UK … I won and decided to keep my winnings and never played again. Did the same at a casino playing the slots. I won and walked away. When it comes to gambling, I’m a been there, done that aficionado. And yet, the fact is, if you’re in the church leadership biz, whether you’re a pastor, a deacon, a board chair, Sunday school teacher, or bench warmer, we’re all playing a gambling game.

I’m not talking about whether there’s a heaven or a hell. It’s not whether or not there’s a God that your betting on (if you are, then let me try to put your mind to rest … there is and there is). Those are sure things. The gambling you’re doing is betting that your congregation’s strategic focus will transport you and your congregation into the future.

You may remember the dire predictions: 100,000 churches will close by the end of the decade (that rumor’s been going around for over 15 years now, according to Olson in The American Church in Crisis -p 118). The real numbers hover around 32,000 churches that closed in the past decade. That’s about 1.1%. On the other hand, in none of the 50 states did church planting and church growth keep up with the population. The good news is that the average size of church in USAmerica has risen from 54 to 124. The bad news is that it appears the reason for the “growth” isn’t because the smaller churches are growing, but because the smaller churches are ceasing to exist and the mega-churches are offsetting the losses and raising the stats significantly.

But I digress. If you’re a church leader of any stripe you should be scrutinizing whatever strategy your congregation’s is using to meet your mission (you DO have a viable mission, right?). And here’s the gambling part … few churches even think in terms of key strategies. Instead, most churches employ an almost random practice of bouncing between one tactic and another in hopes that something will carry the church into the future and reach the community for Jesus Christ.

I was reading in the September 2008 issue of the Harvard Business Review and came upon a sidebar that lists six questions every company should ask. The one that caught my eye included an interesting anecdote.

Would we bet on it?

Gordon Bell, a prominent investor who funds start-ups, is very blunt with executives of firms in his portfolio. For instance, when someone makes predictions for company performance, Bell will zero in on one number and ask the CEO, “Wanna bet? A side bet, you and me, for $1,000.” If the CEO gulps, Bell knows he or she has doubts. At least once, when an underperforming CEO didn’t take the bet, Bell had him fired.

Well, church leader … willing to make a bet that your congregational strategy is going to achieve your goals? (No goals? See The Growth Debate for why you need them.) If you haven’t developed a strategy yet, that may well be your next step. If you don’t know how (or what) a strategy is, check out the blog entry on Completing the Missing Genetics of the Congregation’s DNA. And if you have both … would you stake $1,000 of your own money that you’ll meet your predictions by, say, the end of the year?

Back at home and trying to get back in the groove of things. As I reflect on my time at the World Convention of the Christian Church, one of the things that niggles me is that ostensibly the purpose of our meeting was to help instill unity amongst the three strands of the Campbelite movement (the Church of Christ (non-instrumentalist/a capella), the Disciples of Christ, and the independent Christian Church). There was some good talk about unity, but I didn’t notice a lot of progress in that vein as I attended a variety of seminars. For instance, Gailyn Van Rheenan of MissionAlive, a church planting support ministry, presented his church planting process. His methods are much like what I recommend when working with an individual who is going into church planting with minimal funding … start with small groups, develop committed disciples of Jesus, and then move into the public launch when you have a core of 60 or more.

It’s a good model. Not the only good model, but a good one nonetheless. But there were those there who were from a different strand and were narrow-minded enough to be dismissive of this model because it didn’t start with a large team, didn’t emphasize public worship from the beginning, and didn’t depend on marketing to create a launch. I’m okay with folks disagreeing with what’s best for a particular setting, but not only to dismiss, but to be dismissive, of a model that is working (Van Rheenan helped start 150 churches in Africa and has several church planting teams in the US now) … well, that’s not alright. Rather, it’s clearly the workings of a very teeny tiny mind.

Teeny Tiny Thinking is a real issue in North America. As a church, we don’t believe big enough. We struggle to raise $5000 for a worth ministry project and forget that it’s nearly as easy to raise $1 million. Really it is … but you have to have a BHAG, a Big Hairy Audacious Goal … and you have to believe in it enough that your heart and mind and soul sing. BHAGs are God-Sized visions, not little teeny tiny thinking visions.

Unity? That’s a nice goal, but the last time i checked, that seems to be a minimum expectation in the New Testament, as a quick read through John 17 and Ephesians quickly reveals. So, let’s get over our teeny tiny thinking and ponder on what God might have in mind. Like getting serious about multiplying disciples of Jesus regardless of which denomination gets the credit … or even gets the “member” for their rolls.

I’m curious, what kind of BHAGs do you carry around with you? What’s propelling you to the next level?