Spending Easter at home

Yesterday was the first time we have not spent Easter with family. I'm sure many of you could say the same thing. We facetimed our daughter's family and received pictures from them of the kids looking for Easter eggs in their yard. We talked with our son and heard about his Easter day with his kids. My wife fixed a wonderful Easter dinner for the two of us. It was a good day, but it wasn't the same.

I watched a couple of Easter services. One was our local church which was well done. The other was Franklin Graham speaking from Central Park in New York. Behind him were the tents his ministry had provided to be used for a portable hospital to treat patients with the coronavirus. I thought they made a wonderful backdrop for his message of hope and forgiveness.

So many churches have been quite active in responding to this pandemic. Churches, both large and small, have made sure people had food. Some have been busy getting food for those who cannot get out and placing it on their porches. Many have made concerted efforts to check on those who live alone or might be more susceptible to the disease. I called one pastor to check on him. He didn't answer but called me back in a few minutes. He explained he was on the phone with a lady who lives alone and has health issues. It was her birthday, and he wanted to wish her a happy birthday and make sure she was doing OK. That story can be told thousands of times across the country. Some churches have worked to provide PPE for hospitals and first responders. Prayer drives around hospitals have occurred in different places organized by local churches. Churches quickly moved to obtain the equipment and knowledge to be able to livestream their services to offer hope and encouragement to people. Many churches are engaged in ministries we never hear about.

Some people criticize the church saying it does nothing for people, but this crisis certainly proves otherwise. The church has been active as the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. It has been doing exactly what Christ called it to do: to love our neighbor as ourselves and to do unto others what we would want them to do unto us.

Yesterday was not the Easter many of us have known in the past, but it didn't change the reality of the Easter message. Our Savior is alive! It is through Him that we find hope and peace in trying times. It is because He lives that we can experience forgiveness and salvation. It is because of Him that the church is reaching out ministering to people during this crisis providing the spiritual and physical things they need to survive this.

What does your church measure?

A couple of weeks ago I was selected to receive a new book by Cheryl Bachelder, Dare to Serve: How to Drive Superior Results by Serving Others. Bachelder is the CEO of Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen. When she became CEO this was a business that was in trouble with its franchisees, investors, and customers.  Although I've just started reading the book, I've already found some great leadership principles that can be applied to church settings.

One of the things she discovered is that the company was not sure how bad things were because they lacked the data to understand exactly how they were doing. About the only thing they measured was dollar sales because that was what royalty payments were based upon. Bachelder realized that the company had to begin measuring other things that were important such as speed of service, market share, restaurant operating profits, and other metrics that would help them better understand where they stood. As she said, numbers don't lie. You may not like what you find when you begin to measure what you're doing, but it's the only way to know exactly what is happening.

As I read that I began to wonder what churches measure. As a former pastor I know many churches measure attendance figures and financial giving, but beyond that many of them measure very little. Without firm data they may think they are doing OK or they may fear that things are not going well, but they really can't be sure.

A few years ago a church called me concerned that it had been plateaued for the past few years. I obtained their annual reports and quickly found that they had reported a steady decline in attendance over the past 20 years. In that two decade period their average attendance had decreased by about 50 people. Because no one had ever ran the numbers, the church wasn't aware of what was happening in their church.

What should a church measure?

• A church that believes in the Great Commission should be measuring the number of people who make professions of faith. In some churches that might be measured by the number of baptisms, in others they will have to find a way to measure this. If a church claims it believes in the Great Commission but never sees people come to faith in Christ, something is wrong.
• A church needs to measure the giving in the church as one way to measure the spiritual growth of its people. Christians who are growing in discipleship should be growing in their financial giving.
• Churches need to measure the number of their first-time guests and the number of those guests who return for a second and third visit. If the number of returning guests is low this is an indication the church needs to work on hospitality.
• Churches need to measure the number of people involved in Sunday school classes, small groups, or whatever program used in the church to develop disciples.
• Churches need to measure their capacity space. A sanctuary or parking lot that is at 80 percent capacity should be considered full. Seldom will such churches see additional growth until these barriers are addressed.

There are far more things that churches should measure than can be mentioned in this post. For a more thorough listing, and the reasons why such measurements are important to a church, I highly recommend What Every Pastor Should Know: 101 Indispensable Rules of Thumb for Leading Your Church by Gary McIntosh and Charles Arn.

One last thought from Bachelder...measurements matter only if you plan to act upon what you learn. If you don't intend to deal with any issues you find, you might as well not bother to measure. But, if you plan to use the data you gain from such measurements to make whatever changes need to be made, then determine what you need to measure and develop a team to immediately begin gathering that information.

2015-2016 bivocational ministry conferences

Seven years ago I had a sabbatical during which I talked with leaders from several denominations. I was interested in finding out what was happening with bivocational ministry. Without exception, every leader said that bivocational ministry was growing in their denominations and each of them admitted that training such leaders was a challenge. Some were more intentional than others about offering training to their bivocational leadership, but each of them admitted that more needed to be done.

For the past several years I've been privileged to have led numerous conferences and seminars for bivocational and small church leaders. Regardless of denominational affiliation, I've found that most bivocational leaders face the same challenges and the same is true of smaller churches no matter what name is above their door. It has been a joy to work with so many different denominations to help train their bivocational and small church leadership.

Requests are starting to come in now asking about my availability to lead workshops for bivocational and small church leaders in 2015, and I'm sure I'll soon start hearing from denominational leaders wanting to schedule something in 2016. If you think I might be able to help your small church leaders and the churches they service, I encourage you to contact me soon to get on my calendar.

I currently offer several seminars:

• The Healthy Small Church (This has been my most requested.)
• Bivocational Ministry for the 21st Century
• Transforming the Small Church from Maintenance-Minded to Missional
• The Healthy Pastor: Maintaining Balance in the Ministry
• Church Hospitality: A Key to Seeing Your First-Time Guests Return

In addition to these, I have developed some special presentations that met specific needs such as keynote messages. I would be glad to do that for your special needs.

If you are a denominational leader, I would be glad to talk with you about presenting one of these seminars to your small church leaders. If you are a pastor and feel that one of these would be a help to you, please forward this article to one of the leaders who could arrange for me to come to your area. Perhaps you are not part of a denomination. I would encourage you to contact other independent pastors in your area to see if they would like to host of one of these events.

In an effort to maintain balance in my own life, I only schedule a few of these events each year.  My schedule tends to fill up fairly quickly so I encourage you to contact me soon if you think I may be able to help your bivocational and small church leaders. 

Ministry on purpose

Last Saturday I spent the day with a small church leading them through vision discernment.  This church is in the process of seeking a new pastor which is a great time to begin discerning God's future for a church.  We had previously spent a couple of evenings helping them explore their core values and bedrock beliefs, and now it was time to bring all that work together in vision discernment.  Church members spent time alone in scripture reading and prayer to see what they heard God saying to them and then brought their thoughts back to the larger group for discussion.  It was a powerful time and a day well spent.  They did not leave that gathering with a clear vision for their future ministry, but they have began the process, they now have a common language to continue this discernment together, and they understand how critical it is to seek a fresh vision from God for ministry.  I am excited about the future of this church.

Earlier this week I met with the leadership of a larger church to discuss their need to go through such a process.  Like the smaller church, they have been drifting for the past few years without any sense of purpose or direction.  A new pastor has led them in making some organizational changes they needed, but they now sense it is time to really begin looking at what God wants to do in them and through them over the next few years.  I explained the dangers of drifting, the importance of a clear, unifying vision for a church, and the process we would use to begin that discernment.  The feedback was positive, and I am hopeful this church will decide to pursue this.

Most churches have no real vision for ministry.  Some may have a vision statement hanging in the pastor's office somewhere, but no one has really looked at it in years, and it has little if any impact on the decisions the church makes.  There is a huge difference between a vision and a vision statement.  Visions produce passion in a church because the people believe they are pursuing God's purposes for their church.  Who could not get excited about that?  With a clear vision the church is united around the church is ready to create its budget, it's ready to determine its ministry programs, and it's ready to do ministry on purpose.

Churches that just drift from Sunday to Sunday often find themselves drifting into trouble.  People in the congregation are not excited because there's nothing to excite them.  Attendance falters, giving goes down, it becomes more difficult to attract volunteers, guests seldom come and even more seldom return for a second visit, there is rapid pastor turnover, the facility becomes rundown as maintenance is ignored, and church youth leave as soon as they are able.  Even worse, the community around the church goes untouched for the Kingdom of God.

Is your church doing ministry on purpose or is it drifting along from Sunday to Sunday hoping that someday something good will happen?  If you are in a drifting church you can turn that around.  God has a vision for your church.  There are things he wants to do in and through your church, and if you will seek that vision and unite around it, great things will begin to happen.  It is not a difficult process to begin vision discernment, but it does require intentionality on the part of the church.  When we seek God is when we find him, and the same is true for his vision for our churches.

Easter brings tremendous opportunities to a church

It won't surprise too many pastors and Christian leaders to be told that this Sunday is Easter.  This Sunday will probably be the largest worship attendance your church will have this year, especially if you serve in a smaller church.  Families will come home for Easter and many of them will want to attend services in the churches in which they were raised.  Some of your absentee members will find their way back to church this Sunday, and some folks from the community are likely to drop in as well.  This provides your church with a tremendous ministry opportunity if you do some things well.

Be prepared for your guests.  Print extra programs.  Have extra greeters at the entrance and even in the parking lot.  Make sure the grounds and building are spotless.  If it's bad weather have people available with umbrellas to meet people at their cars.  You may even want to consider offering valet parking especially if the weather is bad or your parking is limited.  A visitor is someone who shows up unexpectedly like a vacuum salesman.  A guest is someone you are expecting, and you should be expecting to see new people on Easter Sunday so be prepared for them.

Don't insult your guests by mentioning how you haven't seen them since Christmas.  Don't embarrass them by asking that they introduce themselves or wear name badges or ribbons or do anything that will make them stand out.  Do welcome your guests and thank them for coming to the service.  If your church has pew Bibles do print the page number of any Scriptures you will be reading in the program to make it easier for them to read along with you if they choose.  Do try to capture their names and addresses so you can do follow-up with them afterwards.  A great way to do that is to ask everyone in the congregation to fill out a name and address card so you will have a record of their attendance.  This doesn't make the guest feel conspicuous while filling out their card.

This is a Sunday to present a very simple and clear gospel message.  Easter is a time of celebration, and your message should capture that.  Jesus Christ is alive!  He wants to be Lord and Savior of every person who sits in your congregation.  He wants to provide them with forgiveness for their sins and transform them into new persons.  You should have no problem preaching a dynamic message that offers hope and salvation to all who hear it.  It is likely that some sitting in your sanctuary this Easter Sunday have never heard such a message, and you have an opportunity to plant seeds in their minds and hearts that could lead to a transformation of their lives.

Close your service with excitement and anticipation that God has spoken to people through the music, the prayers, and the message.  Send them out with God's blessings upon them.

Do not fail to follow-up with every guest in the week following Easter.  This is critical if you have any hope of them returning.  Depending on how many guests you had that Sunday you may need to ask other mature, spiritual leaders in your church to assist you in this follow-up.  You may want to physically visit some guests depending on the level of communication you've had with them, but a letter and a phone call will often suffice after their first time at your church.  Send the letter out on Monday following the service and then call them later in the week asking if they've received the letter and if they have any questions about the church.  In both contacts be sure to invite them to return the next Sunday.

Easter Sunday is often the one Sunday in the year that provides a smaller church with the greatest opportunity to touch people's lives.  If you will treat people as you would like to be treated if you visited a church for the first time you are much more likely to see them return.  This is even more likely if you have shared with them a message of hope and grace that is only available through a living Savior.