Grace Institute - GraceNewsArchive

We humans are funny. Show us the newest technological gadget and most of us can’t wait to find out how we can get one. Show us the new fashion styles and we’ll make them a trend. In fact, we’ll spend thousands of dollars each year on new clothes--not because ours have worn out as much as we’re enticed by something new. We love new cars so much that we’ll even buy a new-car scent to make our old cars smell new.

But tell us our favorite restaurant has new management and we’ll find somewhere else to eat. Or tear a hole in our favorite jeans and we’re more apt to sew a patch on than throw them away.

What makes us accept some experiences of newness and reject others--Our level of connection? Our level of certainty? The importance we attribute to the change? Memory associations? Yes, yes, yes and yes. This mix of acceptance and resistance happens in church life all the time. Some changes are smooth and seem blessed by God and other feel as if they are dragging everyone through sludge and make us wonder if we heard the voice of God at all.

One of the biggest dilemmas that churches face is that for some participants, a new service or program is embraced like the newest gadget while others want to hold on to what has been like an old pair of jeans, and still others want to disguise the old with simply a new name�like a new-car scent in an old Chevy. Blending these strategies into a cohesive and growing unit can only happen when the decisions are anchored in biblical truths.

May 16, 2008
But it doesn't feel like my church anymore...

Have you ever noticed that when you have a Youth Sunday (youth-led) worship service the kids can turn the worship order upside down, sing unfamiliar songs, play recorded rock music for prelude, and serve Oreo cookies for communion and all the while, people will give them a pass?...for that Sunday. The next Sunday they want something familiar again.

Sometimes innovative pastors and leaders are inclined to criticize congregations for desiring familiarity, but it is natural. When someone chooses a church "home" they have a desire to experience the sense of being "at home" when they worship, at least to some extent. How many times have you gone on vacation, worshipping at churches you've never been to before, and then arrived home saying, "Boy, I missed my church!"? You missed being home. We even talk about hoping that new people will find a "home" with us.

Does “familiar” or “homey” necessarily mean “unchanging?” No. Does worship have to stay the same for this to happen? No. But a guiding principle needs to be followed to successfully try new things. When you are introducing something new, like new songs, keep the order familiar. Vice-versa, if you are going to change the order for some reason (and make sure people know why) then keep contents (such as songs) consistent. People are willing to try a number of new things on any occasion as long as there is still a sense of familiarity, a sense that "this still feels like my church."

People don't want to feel like they have stepped into a totally unfamiliar place and not know why or what to do. Sensitivity to the things that help people feel "at home" helps dictate how new things are introduced.

May 2, 2008
An Ignored Hunger

v In mainline churches we tend to think of evangelism as the "E-Word,” something to avoid. Maybe it’s because we think it means that we need to convince people that they need something that they don’t want. Maybe it’s because we define evangelism as:

Phone calling campaigns
Mass mailings
Invite-a-friend Sundays
Special Events for invitation reasons
Awkward conversations about religion
Trying to get people to join the church
Convincing people that they need Jesus

v What a mixed up combination of behavior! It isn't that these things are bad in and of themselves. It’ just that they are not the point. It isn't about church membership or filling the pews, although we all would like that. But those things are by-products of a different understanding. Evangelism is about addressing an ignored hunger that everyone already has:

A hunger for someone to ask them questions about how they are spending their lives
A hunger to be connected to something or someone that lasts
A hunger to give their lives to a way of life that means something and makes a difference
A hunger for something or someone bigger than their own appetites
A hunger for a relationship that keeps them from feeling lost
A hunger to talk with someone who has that connection
A hunger that only Jesus can fill

Evangelism is leading people to Jesus so they don't have to starve. What if that was what compelled us?

April 18, 2008
Everything is an Experiment

What are the unofficial mantras around your church? “We always do it this way” or “So and so is always in charge of that”? Every church has them, even young churches. One mantra that should be built into church life is “Everything is an experiment.” We’re not talking about change for change’s sake. We’re talking about the REALITY that everything we do in Christ’s name is an experiment in a real sense.

Too often our churches live with the illusion that how we do things now is how it has always been: style of communion, order of service, design of worship space, children’s moment, etc. But even things like regular hymn singing and Sunday school are fairly recent developments in the history of the Church. The early church in Acts began to experiment right away with what they thought was a faithful response to God’s call by trying communal living. (“And all who believed were together and had all things in common; and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need.” Acts 2:43-45) Did it work in the long run? No. But they learned as they went and tried other things that did. In fact, almost everything we do now was at one time an experiment to try to do things in an excellent way for God. While the heart of our message doesn’t change, the means by which we share it and reach out to our communities has to be constantly assessed and improved.

If your church is change-phobic, pick one part of your church life and begin using the mantra “everything is an experiment” but be clear about what your spiritual goals are. As God honors your efforts in that area, an openness will develop in others over time.

April 4, 2008
Does our Financial Reporting Help or Hinder?

There is a lot of difference of opinion about financial reporting to the congregation. Should you have it in the bulletin or not? Does it work as a turn-off for visitors? Do congregation members generally care about line-item reports? How can we accurately let people know how things are going in a simple way?

v The answers to some of these questions will vary from church to church and from polity to polity. But there are some general principles that should be respected in making decisions about reporting:

The congregation needs to have some regular summary reporting to know how things are going. It is the principle of “don’t surprise your friends.”
Since income and expenses vary throughout the year, you should explain to people that an overage or deficit can be momentary and no need for panic or incrimination. Some stock items are bought for the whole year. Vacation Bible School is an expense for one week. Some Sunday school materials are purchased on a quarterly basis. Any finance report is going to be somewhat off if averaged on a 52 week year.
Just giving the results of the previous week’s offering is not that helpful. A first time guest can assume things are great or awful, depending upon whether it was a good week. Giving the weekly need, last week’s offering, and a 4-8 week average of offerings in comparison gives the trend, a more accurate measure of actual financial health.
Don’t be afraid to talk and report about money. Jesus thought it was important enough to allocate approximately 1/3 of his teachings to money and possessions. Should we ignore something Jesus thought of as that important? Our willingness to report is acknowledging the importance.

March 28, 2008
An Opportunity in a Down Economy

It is fairly typical that the Church, just like Wall Street and businesses all over the country, starts to cringe when the economy goes south. As people struggle to make mortgage payments, pay high prices for gas, and generally tighten their belts, they begin to put the Church in the “what’s left over” category. Too often the Church slips into a reactive mode and becomes very tentative and defensive in talking about money because it is now an even more sensitive subject. But, what if we didn’t have to look at it like that?

When the economy is not good, people are being forced into making value judgments about what to do with their money. Should we cut back on cable channels? Should we cancel a magazine subscription? Should we drop a membership to the club? And, even more serious choices. What if we entered into a partnership with people at these times and helped them sort through those problems to develop a sense of stewardship? Stewardship is not simply money given to the Church. It is a lifestyle, a set of priorities, and an understanding that we are trustees of what God has given us. Down economies are times when, in addition to saying that offerings are important, we realize that what we do with what we have in general is something God cares about. It is the perfect opportunity to discover what abundant living can be like if priorities are shifted. Why should it be done by accident? With the average giving in mainline churches at 2% or lower of a person’s income, we are already at the “what’s left over” point. Why should it get worse through neglect? Moments of scarcity are moments for learning and discovery. Take advantage of the moment and help each other.

March 14, 2008
Is Our Church on a Starvation Diet?

A world class athlete, in a recent autobiography, tells of when she competed as a youth in gymnastics. Being very successful, she was horrified when she hit the age when her body began to change, grow, and take a different shape. Since she wanted to perpetuate what she had always been able to do, she went on a starvation diet. While it kept her size down and allowed her the chance to continue to compete, she discovered that it was killing her. She had to learn how to nourish her body again.

Of the approximately 400,000 churches in our country, 80% are stagnant or dying. One of the main causes is the desire to “stay the same.” It is normal to want to annually rehearse the traditions we have done before and enjoyed, to always know everyone’s name, and to be able to anticipate what things will always be like. But to do so, we have to turn away from the nourishment that God wants to give. Congregations that are attentive to the leading of God will always “grow up.” They will usually grow in numbers and change shape. To turn away from that is a vote to join the 80%. It is possible to value our heritage and even preserve some valued traditions but constantly have an attentive ear to the “upward call of Jesus Christ.” But, it requires us to let go of our need to stay the same and grab onto the development that God has for us. We must ask ourselves the hard question: Is our church on a starvation diet?

March 7, 2008
An Opportunity in a Down Economy

It is fairly typical that the Church, just like Wall Street and businesses all over the country, starts to cringe when the economy goes south. As people struggle to make mortgage payments, pay high prices for gas, and generally tighten their belts, they tend to reduce their giving commitment to the Church, putting the Church in the “what’s left over” category. Too often, in response, the Church slips into a reactive mode and becomes very tentative and defensive when talking about money. But, what if we didn’t have to look at it like that?

When the economy is not good, people are forced to make value judgments about what to do with their money. What do we consider frivolous and easily dropped from our lifestyle? What’s a necessity? Do we need or want that fitness club membership? Should we cut back on cable channels? Do we reduce the number of nights we eat out? And, even more serious choices... Do we keep our lifestyle the same and reduce our giving to the church? What if we entered into a partnership with people at these times and helped them sort through the questions to develop a sense of stewardship? Stewardship is not simply giving money to the Church...or understanding the definition of tithing. It is a lifestyle and a set of priorities based on the understanding that we are trustees of what God has given us; nothing we have is really ours.

Down economies are times when, in addition to saying that offerings are important, we have a chance to teach our congregations that God cares about what we do with what we have. It is the perfect opportunity to discover what abundant living can be like when priorities shift. Why should it be done by accident? With the average giving in mainline churches at 2% or lower of a person’s income, we are already at the “what’s left over” point. Why should it get worse through neglect? Moments of fear are moments for learning and discovery. Take advantage of the moments and help people discover the excitement of giving God the first fruits not the leftovers.

February 15, 2008
Choosing “Both/And” instead of “Either/Or”

In our never-ending effort to find the simplest and easiest way to do things, we sometimes reduce things too much. For instance, in church life we have created an unnecessary choice between missions and evangelism. We may not consciously think in those terms, but our language usually reveals something different. When most churches answer questions about whether they are “Great Commandment” oriented (focused on mission/ care-giving/ fellowship) or “Great Commission” (evangelistic/ focused on non-believers) they usually find that they tilt toward one or the other.

We might believe that both of them are important, but we tend to behave in an either/or manner. Why? Because an either/or mindset is easier to get people to rally around than a both/and mindset. Both/and thinking requires that churches learn how to care for those inside and outside the building at the same time. To do both requires more work and greater spiritual maturity.

So, what do we do? The first step is to recognize and confess our tendency to be single minded. We need to admit what we find and decide whether obedience to Christ’s call requires something more than what we’ve been doing.

Secondly, we need to begin to learn the attitudes and behaviors of the behavior that doesn’t come so easily. If we tend to focus only on non-believers, we need to learn how to give care and build fellowship within our congregation. If we spend most of our attention on our congregation, we need to get in touch with the needs of those outside our walls who don’t know Christ.

This change of heart and church culture is difficult and cannot come from sheer will. We must turn to God to create a hunger for what does not come easily to us.

On which side of the spectrum does your church tend to fall? What are ways you can begin living as a “both/and” church?

February 8, 2008
“Friendly” Churches Should Grow, Right?

You would think so. Ironically, surveys indicate that most churches sincerely believe that they are friendly. But, most churches are not growing. So what is the problem? Maybe friendliness isn’t what we think it is.

Being friendly is not necessarily the same thing as being welcoming. It is very easy to be friendly to a visitor but not convey an interest or desire for them to return.

The sense of being friendly is often because of how we treat each other, not guests. It is very easy to greet a visitor and then immediately turn and talk to friends.

Being friendly is not the same as caring about whether someone knows God. Friendliness has no sense of urgency.

Being friendly is no substitute for creating an environment that helps un-churched people feel at home. More urgency is required to make sure people’s first impression is, “This church is serious about Jesus.”

Being friendly is nice, but it doesn’t substitute for sharing what Christ has meant to you. Far too many of us count on our “actions speaking louder than words.” However, without words, no one is intentionally directed toward God.

Churches that depend on friendliness need to realize that friendliness can be no more than a passive behavior. What moves it into an action? Passion. Passion for non-believers or people seeking a church home. When we care more about the person knowing God than we do about the person thinking we are nice, we’ve begun to turn the corner. Let’s turn the corner.

February 1, 2008
How Do You Know if You’re Connecting?

Jesus told a parable about a man who spread seeds on the earth and waited for the harvest. The seeds fell on all kinds of soil, some that was rich and able to grow the seed and other soil that was not due to various reasons. The life of the church is a lot like that. We don’t always know what impact we are having because we don’t know the receptivity of the people. This uncertainty can fill us with multiple questions: Is there a way to know if we are even in the right “field?” Are we afraid to find out? Are we doing ministry in the best way we can or are we continuing practices that are no longer effective? Are we doing what we can to reach people with Christ’s message?

These questions might not always go away, but there are some things that we can do that take away some of the guess work. The suggestions listed below won’t control all the results, but they can help focus the “planting” that we do to maximize our efforts and give God the best chance possible to work in people’s lives.

Develop some objective and subjective markers for your different ministries that indicate development in discipleship. Review these regularly to see if there is progress.
Develop a questionnaire for gatherings of newcomers to find out why they came, what drew them, what they found most helpful and least helpful. See if there are trends.
Develop a questionnaire for those who have visited but didn’t return. Mail it with a self-addressed, stamped envelope asking a variety of questions about what they were looking for and specifically why they did not return.
Have your leaders visit other churches and compare notes to see what affected them most and least. Then compare their experiences to your own ministry practices.

Even the best practices can lose impact over time. Without review and feedback, it is very easy to just continue what we have been doing with no significant results. Developing some processes to stay fresh will increase the impact of your efforts. After all, in ministry nearly everything we do is an experiment in God’s name.

January 25, 2008
Are your board meetings boring?

Far too many churches struggle with boring board meetings. In fact, it is one of the reasons why it is hard to get people to serve on boards…they feel like they are sacrificing a night of their life! However, there are some things you can do to not only make them less boring, but more effective.

Rehearse your mission: If you have a mission statement, rehearse it regularly at the beginning of the meeting so that it frames the discussion that follows.
Send reports early: If most of your board is regularly online, send reports early and ask people to ask questions about the report before the meeting so you spend more time talking about the big picture. If people aren’t online, send them first class with enough time to review before the meeting.
Frame reports with scripture: Ask people to frame their report before they give it with a scripture that captures what their ministry is doing. This does several things: It keeps people biblical in their thinking, it gives the spiritual reason for the work, and it keeps things from being strictly business.
Pray: Not just a perfunctory prayer at the beginning of the meeting, but designate a member who has some spiritual discernment to call for a break for prayer if a tough decision is looming.

Done right, a board meeting could be one of the most energizing events of church life.

January 18, 2008
Is Your Church Over-extended?

For a long time, the general rule was that if a church wanted to grow, it offered more programs. The thinking was that every program represented another "door" in which a person could enter. We are constantly tempted toward this path by the most popular statement visitors make, which is, "I'm looking for a church to meet my needs." But, here's the kicker...recent research has found that the size of church that is the most named size people say they would like to be a part of is 200 members. HOWEVER, it would take a church of 2000 members to provide the level of programming that they say they want. No wonder a lot of church members are worn out.

The original idea of providing more and more doors for people to come through doesn't work after all. In fact, simpler is better and more effective. How many doors are you trying to provide? What doors could you close and still provide the outreach you’re looking for? What if you had fewer programs but the ones you did have were more effective? What would happen if your volunteers were actually not over-extended?

January 11, 2008
Building Church Members or Followers of Christ

Same thing? Not necessarily. People who had great experiences growing up in church often desire that others have the same experience that they had. They emphasize inviting people to worship and other church functions. Just getting them through the door to have a great experience is the goal. However, as great as that is, it isn't the same thing as "making disciples." Jesus desired that we invite people to connect with Christ and hopefully that happens through the church. But depending upon which of these two attitudes you have, it completely alters how you think about ministry. Churches that are trying to connect people to Christ are more focused, clearer about their vision, more intentional about Bible study, and leading people into spiritual growth. It affects how worship is designed and what kinds of first impressions are created.

What is the focus of your ministry? Building church members or followers of Christ?