Ministry Team - Winter 2021 by FaithLifeMagazines

WINTER 2021

planning

giving

church hospitality

spiritual health

Power Your Planning with a Circular Calendar Page 28

How to Encourage Year-End Donations Page 30

11 Turnoffs for First-Time Visitors Page 46

Moving Beyond Ministry Burnout Page 54

Reaching Your Community during the Holidays Four churches share how they celebrate Christmas and welcome visitors

Page 37

EXPANDED DIGITAL ISSUE The Best of Ministry Team

WINTER 2021 | VOL. 4, NO. 4

EDITOR CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR ART DIRECTOR GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

PRODUCTION / CIRCULATION COPY EDITORS

ADVERTISING SALES

MARKETING

Jennifer Grisham Matthew Boffey, Mandi Newell, Jessi Strong, Jennifer Miles David Bomar Brittany Schrock Jim LePage, Christine Christophersen, Joshua Hunt, Lydia Dahl, Owen Craft, Whantai Park, George Siler, Micah Ellis, Kristen Cork Fanny Palacios Danielle Thevenaz, Kelsey Matthews, Jessi Strong , Rebecca Brant, Erin Mangum Kevin Bratcher, Ryan Yoder, Scott Arvay, Michael Meiser Bob Pritchett, Dan Pritchett, Scott Lindsey, Nick Kelly

PUBLISHED BY

STATE ME N T O F FA I T H We believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. We believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead and on the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. —Apostles’ Creed

AB O UT US Ministry Team is a nondenominational publication providing resources and insights for innovative church ministry. Ministry Team (ISSN 2577-0500) is published quarterly by Lexham Press, part of Faithlife Corporation, maker of Logos Bible Software, 1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225-4357. Books by the creators of Ministry Team are available at LexhamPress.com.

CONTAC T U S

HELLO “Here is a call for the endurance of the saints.” I thought things would be better by now—that life would be closer to my own subjective standard of normal. As I write this, COVID-19 isn’t the only source of chaos: it’s also a broken supply chain, continued unemployment, and what’s being called “The Great Resignation,” to name a few. Perhaps the adage is true: change really does beget change. Maybe you sometimes feel as I do, like a rubber band stretched too far. Yet I’m reminded of a phrase that appears right after some bleak moments in Revelation: “Here is a call for the endurance of the saints” (13:10; 14:12). The depths and heights of Revelation—including its call to endurance—remind us that one element of endurance is coming back to what we know so we can face the unknown. We know that God has not forgotten about us. We know that he is always working through his Church, perhaps especially when things seem most difficult. This issue’s primary theme is “The Best of Ministry Team,” but you could think of endurance as the unwritten theme. Inside these pages, you’ll find some of our favorite articles about the philosophy and practice of ministry. Each article was chosen with weary church leaders and the holidays in mind, recognizing that one of the easiest ways to endure is to hold on to spiritual and ministry realities that won’t become obsolete overnight. May we keep pressing forward with eyes on the cross and hands on the plow.

To reach our circulation team: customerservice@ministryteam.com To reach the editors: editor@ministryteam.com To place an ad in Ministry Team: advertising@ministryteam.com 1-800-875-6467

Jennifer Grisham Ministry Team editor jennifer.grisham@faithlife.com

Faithlife is committed to increasing biblical literacy and accessibility for every Christian around the world through its products and services like Ministry Team.

To see more of what we do, visit FAITHL IF E .CO M /A B O U T SFI-00993

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IN THIS ISSUE

37 COVER STORY Need some fresh ideas for reaching your community over Christmas? Four churches share what worked and what they hope to try.

08 22 34 46

ONE BODY, ONE SPIRIT Why your imagination might be keeping you from more effective ministry.

TEAMWORK Ideas and Insights for Innovative Churches

FAITHLIFE HOW-TO Discover a secret weapon for stronger connections with attendees.

MINISTRY SPOTLIGHT Learn how a parachurch partnership extends one church’s ministry.

HOSPITALITY Don’t scare off your firsttime visitors: 11 things that send them running.

MOVING BEYOND MINISTRY BURNOUT

10–33

DIGITAL DISCIPLESHIP Grow your online reach without creating extra work. 10 COMMUNICATION Six visitor-friendly webpages to refresh before Christmas. 12 WORSHIP Break out of a song rut with these tips. 16 ASSIMILATION Help online visitors find their place at your church. 20 PLANNING Visualize and plan your church calendar in a fresh way. 28 GIVING How can your church encourage year-end donations? 30

HEROES OF FAITH How God used a small church pastor to help a depressed teen.

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LEADERSHIP Stop making these 5 leadership training mistakes. 32

O N E B O D Y, O N E S P I R I T

CU LT I VAT I N G IM AG I N AT I ON KURT INGRAM

ver the past few years, I’ve been learning more and more what it means to be rooted in a place— to really know and be woven into the particular place where God has called me; to see the gospel as a transformative agent in every aspect of my neighborhood; to seek for the life of Jesus to come alive in our community. One of the dangers, though, is becoming so passionate about our church or our neighborhood that we end up isolated from other voices in our world—voices we need to hear in order to be healthy. We can think we are the center of the world and lose the story. We can get tunnel vision and find our community root-bound. This often leads to a kind of isolation that eventually chokes out the good work we’ve been called to do: we lack imagination, we lose hope, and we quit courageously living out our faith. So how do we cultivate a healthy community—one that is grounded in our mission—while actively learning from others? The most powerful way might be to collaborate with churches and Christians who belong to different cultures than our own. A few years ago, I had the privilege of visiting a variety of Christians doing work in Indonesia. I noticed some who seemed to almost disdain the people they were called to serve, and they were often frustrated in their work. But there were others who truly loved the people, and they seemed to have fruitful and hope-filled work. When I returned home to Bellingham, Washington, that experience shaped the way I loved my community and cultivated that love in our church. On another occasion I spent a week with some amazing church leaders in Fresno, California, and I learned the value of caring for the streets and sidewalks and infrastructure of a city. When I came home, I began to engage more in my city’s planning process, particularly as it impacted my church’s neighborhood. If I’m going to care

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for the community where I’m called, I have to care about the spaces we inhabit, to work toward a better place for everyone to live. I’ve learned to care about my community from churches in the jungles of Peru. I’ve learned the importance of authentic discipleship from churches in Colombia. I’ve learned the joy of sacrifice from churches in Burkina Faso. I’ve learned the power of collaboration from churches in Cincinnati. I’ve learned the importance of community development from churches in Philadelphia. It’s as if the Spirit of God places what you need to fulfill your own calling in the hands and hearts of others. Unless you go and listen and watch and learn, you can’t become all God has created you to be and lead the ministry he’s calling you to lead. Often our biggest hurdle to effective ministry is a lack of imagination. We get stuck doing what we’ve always done in the way we’ve always done it. Imagining a different way of seeing, a different way of being, requires someone else to cultivate dreams of kingdom possibility. Stories, experiences, and relationships have a way of expanding our sense of what can happen. Imagination helps us see that Jesus could really transform everything in our community just like he is in other communities. Imagination opens us up to hope, and hope gives us courage to act. Collaborating, listening, and learning are not meant to make our ministry exactly like someone else’s. All of it is meant to help us more faithfully live out the particular mission we’ve been given in the specific place we’ve been called—to take the gifts God has given others for us and plant them in the soil where God has placed us. is pastor of Roosevelt Community Church in Bellingham, Washington.

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4 QUICK WINS FOR ONLINE MINISTRY How to make big gains with little time

M AT T H E W B O F F E Y

Matthew is the editor of Ministry Team and a licensed minister with experience in digital marketing.

It has been said that budgets are moral documents—they reveal our values and priorities. Calendars are, too. Show me your calendar, and I will show you what matters to your church. I expect that it’s full of good things: sermon preparation, prayer, counseling, deacon meetings, and so on. Does it include what you’re doing on social media? If your church is serious about digital discipleship, it will. You can knock this out right now, in one minute.

Start small and schedule the following prompts or posts for Instagram and Facebook: 01

M O N D AY

Prayer prompt: “Spend a minute to pray about a need that’s on your heart for this week. Please share your prayer in the comments below so others can pray with you.” 04

T H U R S D AY Share an interesting quote or idea from your sermon preparation, followed by something like, “More on [topic] to come this Sunday! What are your questions about [topic]?”

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T U E S D AY

“What did you read in your Bible reading today? Share any interesting insights; we’d love to know!”

F R I D AY Share a passage from Scripture.

W E D N E S D AY “The week is halfway over. What are you looking forward to this weekend?”

S AT U R D AY Quick video update from a staff member inviting your church to the service tomorrow.

S U N D AY Morning reminder to join your church service online or in person.

Here’s a very easy digital discipleship win: circulate high-quality content you didn’t make. This is a win-win-win. Your congregation wins because they get fed great content. Your staff wins because you feed your sheep chef-quality meals you didn’t spend hours cooking. The content creator wins because they get more exposure.

Here are some ideas:

Desiring God’s “Look at the Book” series (desiringgod.org/labs)—brief videos where pastor John Piper shows you how he studies a passage.

The Bible Project (bibleproject.com)— hundreds of exceptional animated videos explaining books and themes of the Bible.

Faithlife Courses (courses.faithlife.com)— seminary-level, accessible courses from top professors throughout the world. (Share internally, not on social media.)

Look for great content that you want shaping the hearts and minds of your congregation, and share it liberally.

There is so much noise online, and it’s important for churches to cut through it. Use these platforms to help people pivot from mindless scrolling to soul-shaping disciplines. One crazy idea? Call your church to silence. What if, while scrolling through your social media feed, they saw a big, bold, large-font image that said: STOP. BE STILL FOR TWO MINUTES. and then were invited to close their computer, turn off their phone, and practice two minutes of absolute silence? You could also prompt spiritual disciplines like prayer, Bible reading, or fasting.

For a truly robust digital discipleship ministry, you need to put resources behind it. Get volunteers for this ministry, just like you would for any other ministry of your church. Start with just three volunteers. Look for people of Christian maturity who also know their way around digital platforms. Rather than just give them a list of things to post, invite them to shape the ministry. Gather their ideas, and make it an opportunity for discipleship with them. This lightens your load, and it’s exactly what pastors are called to do: equip the saints for the work of the ministry (Eph 4:13).

T E A M W O R K | C O M M U N I C AT I O N

M AT T H E W B O F F E Y

6 Web Pages to Refresh Before Christmas S

ince Christmas is a key time for church visitors, it’s a good idea to refresh your church website—not a massive overhaul, just a light dusting. Here’s a checklist you can tackle in just 30 minutes to encourage more people to visit your church.

HOMEPAGE This is the single most important page on your website, because it’s the first page will visitors will see. What do you want to tell them? The best practice among churches is to make the homepage all about how to visit. But remember the concept of “choice paradox”: the more options someone has, the fewer actions they’ll take. So if you want people to take one action, give them one option: learn how to visit your church. Whatever else you put on your homepage, make sure it includes:

 service times and locations  a section dedicated to any holiday services  your church’s mission statement or big idea

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Pro tip: Include a link to your “Visit” page.

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VISIT

MINISTRIES

This page should provide more than just service times and locations. Ask yourself, “What would I want to know if I were new?” Make sure you cover:

People will look to see if you have ministries that match their needs and passions. Mention all your ministries, down to support groups and affiliations (like Celebrate Recovery or Mothers of Preschoolers). Include things like:

 childcare information  details about accessibility for the disabled  written directions for the most common routes to your church (not everyone is smart-phone savvy)

 an option to have directions sent via

 when each ministry meets  photos of ministries in action  a calendar or list of past and future events  contact info for each ministry

text message

 what to expect—such as how people dress,

how long services are, and other info that might make a visitor feel more comfortable

! Pro tip: Just give short summaries on this page. Insert “read more” links to point people to the extended explanations.

Pro tip: Ask someone who doesn’t attend your church to review this page and offer feedback.

ABOUT US

GET INVOLVED

Before people come visit your church, they’ll want to learn more about it. This page should cover things like:

Some churches call this page “Start Here” and include a brief welcome letter from the head pastor or elders. It’s the top of the funnel for someone who wants to get plugged in. Cover things like:

 mission and values  what you believe  leadership  affiliations (such as denominations)  history

Pro tip: Prioritize getting people to give their name and email address, so you can follow up with more information.

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 signing up to receive emails  membership  baptism  small groups  volunteering ! Pro tip: Avoid insider language. Instead of using special names like “Ignite,” be descriptive: “First Baptist Youth” or simply “Youth Group.”

RESOURCES Some people might want to listen to a sermon or two before visiting. The last time I looked for a new church, it was the sermon page and recommended reading list that compelled me to actually visit (and now it’s my church home). Include resources like:

 sermons  podcasts  videos  photos  study guides, resources  recommended reading

! Pro tip: Choose a sermon that represents your church well and position it prominently on your site.

The gospel brings life changing hope to REAL people with REAL problems.

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TEAMWORK | WORSHIP TEAMWORK | WORSHIP

While repetition has its merits—like familiarity to the congregation—it also has its weaknesses. It can get boring. The psalmists repeatedly tell us to “sing a new song” unto the Lord. There are so many wonders of God to proclaim, it’s unlikely the same two or three dozen songs cover them. Here are five tips for breaking out of the worship song rut to explore the breadth of biblical themes and engage your congregation’s imagination. 1. TA K E IN V E N TO RY OF T H E SO N G S YO U’ R E S I N G I N G Get a sense for your church’s practical repertoire—the songs you are regularly singing. If it’s been over two years since you’ve sung “Revelation Song,” it’s effectively no longer in the rotation. To come up with that repertoire, go back a year or two and move through each Sunday until you have a master list of every song you’ve sung with any regularity. Drop them into a spreadsheet with columns like, “Dates sung,”

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“Number of times sung,” “Primary theme,” “Secondary themes,” “Style” (traditional or contemporary), and “Tempo” (slow, medium, or upbeat). This can help you identify gaps in your repertoire over a range of important categories. Once you have that data, you can take steps to fill them in. MATC H YOUR S ONGS 2. MATCH TO THE S ERMON THEME A great way to force your own hand toward variety is to match your songs to the sermon theme or text. You can even choose one or two songs to play repeatedly throughout a sermon series. One benefit to this is service cohesion. When your songs reinforce the sermon, you leave people with one strong impression of a particular topic or theme. It also prompts you to explore a variety of biblical themes or attributes of God. Rather than naturally gravitating toward love, freedom, power, etc., the sermon text may lead you to themes like lament or gratitude that get a little less air time in most worship songs. This gives your congregation the opportunity to grow in a more robust understanding of the Christian life. You can even order your songs to make the service a journey, say from sin and rebellion to salvation and new life.

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5 MILLION LIVES C E L E B R AT E R E C OV E RY OVER

IMPACTED THROUGH

DATE

SERMON SERIES

SONG 1

SONG 2

SONG 3

Jan 6

FRESH START

COME BEHOLD THE WONDROUS MYSTERY

REJOICE

COME TO ME

Jan 13

PRODIGAL

RECKLESS LOVE

ALL CREATURES OF OUR GOD AND KING

HOW DEEP THE FATHER'S LOVE FOR US

Jan 20

PRODIGAL

COME TO ME

RECKLESS LOVE

TREMBLE

Jan 27

PRODIGAL

GRACE ALONE

RECKLESS LOVE

GOOD GOOD FATHER

Feb 3

PRODIGAL

WHO YOU SAY I AM

KING OF MY HEART

RECKLESS LOVE

Feb 10

PRODIGAL

GLORY IS YOURS

RECKLESS LOVE

HOW DEEP THE FATHER'S LOVE FOR US

Feb 17

THE KINGDOM OF GOD

BUILD MY LIFE

OPEN UP THE HEAVENS

YOU NEVER CHANGE

Feb 24

THE KINGDOM OF GOD

LIVING HOPE

JESUS!

RECKLESS LOVE

Mar 3

THE KINGDOM OF GOD

LORD I NEED YOU

WHO YOU SAY I AM

BUILD MY LIFE

3 . G ET IN P U T F RO M OT H E RS When one person is in charge of choosing songs, he or she may end up dictating the style of worship for the whole congregation. Getting input from others helps you branch out to styles that may not always match your personal preferences. Start with your worship team— it’s a great way to cultivate a sense of shared ownership. Then invite your staff or the congregation to offer input. 4. H OST P E R I O D I C WORS H IP N I G H TS Whereas most worship leaders introduce no more than two new songs over the course of a month, a worship night— where you may sing a dozen songs or more—allows you to introduce two or three songs in one night. You can also get a sense for how the songs catch on. If multiple people tell you they really liked the new song, you may decide to play it again the following Sunday. Not only can you expect the larger congregation to enjoy it, but you’ll already have a contingent familiar with the song, so it’s not entirely new.

5 . SWITCH SWITC H UP YOUR BAND STRUCTURE STRUC TURE Like matching songs to sermon themes, matching songs to your band makeup can increase variety. If you always play with a large band, you may gravitate to more energetic songs. But if you play with just a guitar and vocalist, you will probably gravitate to slower, more contemplative songs. You may rediscover some oldies that have wonderful staying power and can become a regular part of your rotation again. We can all get in a rut, but any of these simple tips can pull you out and help you choose fresh songs that fit your congregation and represent the wealth of themes we find in Scripture.

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T E A M W O R K | A S S I M I L AT I O N

Now that your worship services are both online and in person (as most are these days), how are you engaging your online visitors—or are you? Here are four tips for making sure your online guests aren’t afterthoughts but instead are welcomed and folded into the life of your church.

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CREATE AN ONLINE VOLUNTEER BASE Because of COVID-19, many churches are moving their volunteer base online; former door greeters are now online hosts. These online volunteers are an essential part of creating a welcoming environment through greeting people in the chat, discussing topics with them, and opening the door to the online community. Online hosts can also help prompt conversation, answer questions, and connect people to the church’s other ministries. These online hosts should be using their personal profiles and not the church’s, because it helps create a more intimate feel. If no one was there to “open the door” for you at church, would you feel as welcome? Having real people connect during an online worship service helps everything feel more natural.

CLOSE INTENTIONALLY As you end your service online, go over those main objectives again to review what was taught that week. Remember, always include a call to action. What do you want the people watching to do next? You can prompt them to comment, send a message, fill out a form—there are so many ways to connect people to the church online. No matter what you choose, make it easy. Visitors have already taken a big step in their faith journey just by tuning in, so don’t make it complicated. By creating a seamless process of welcoming, connecting, and engaging with people, you will begin to reach more people in your communities with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Online church isn’t going anywhere. If we choose to continue to adapt and make the online worship experience better, we will create pathways for visitors online or in person.

CREATE A CONNECTION An effective way to welcome the digital community is to create a buffering video preceding the service. A short two-minute video of announcements or a welcome can make for a smooth transition into your service. You can either pre-record a video or have a live host welcome visitors, which is my preference because it is more personal. Even if you do a pre-recorded video, try to have a host engage interactions live over Facebook, both before and after the service. This offers a more inclusive, intentional experience.

K A T I E A L L R E D works with nonprofits, churches, and businesses to help increase reach through websites, social media, and online marketing. She is the founder of ChurchCommunications.com, an online community for church leaders featuring a Facebook group, podcast, and website. She is also an assistant professor of marketing and software development at the University of Mobile.

CALL PEOPLE TO ACTION The idea here is to sustain engagement throughout the service. A call to action can include signing up to receive bulletins via text message or filling out a connection form. You can also promote free resources or tools for new visitors or people who want more information from your church. For example, if you are in a series on prayer, create a list of prayer resources, and in exchange for those resources, ask for visitors’ email addresses. In marketing, this is referred to as “opt-in.” Provide incentives for guests, rather than just saying, “If you’re new, fill out this form.” Another great strategy is to include discussion questions during or after the sermon. Families and small groups meeting in homes can pause the service to discuss what they just learned. Providing discussion questions is critical for creating learning pathways for attendees. An effective way to promote discussion during the service is with popup text in the lower third of the video feed.

Just one click to connect With digital bulletins, connecting with visitors and members has never been easier. Incorporate digital bulletins into your online and in-person services so no one falls through the cracks. Learn more at faithlife.com/features/digital-bulletin

MINISTRYTEAM.COM — 21

FA I T H L I F E H O W -T O

FA I T H L I F E S TA F F

Increase Connections with Digital Bulletins Whether manually created or generated automatically through Faithlife Proclaim, digital bulletins are great for connecting with members and newcomers. Bulletins allow people to: • • • • •

Directly access donation links Automatically add events to their digital calendars Continue reading any passages included in your presentation Fill out surveys/contact cards to send directly to you Interact with live surveys

Digital bulletins also make it easier for staff to repurpose and share content. Here’s how to use them.

1. Generate Bulletins through Proclaim Faithlife Proclaim automatically generates a digital bulletin from your service presentation. To find it in Proclaim, expand the Files menu and click View Digital Bulletin.

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Anyone Can Run Proclaim, No Kidding Train volunteers in 5 minutes. Visit faithlife.com/nokidding

2. Find Your Bulletin on Faithlife.com Go to Faithlife.com and log in. Select your church group in the left-hand sidebar.

Expand Content and select Bulletins.

24 — MINISTRYTEAM.COM

If you are an admin or a member of your church’s bulletin team (within your Faithlife group), all your bulletins—published and unpublished—display here. Select your presentation’s bulletin to view and edit its contents.

— WIT AND WISDOM FROM THE PEN OF ONE OF THE GREATEST THEOLOGIANS OF THE 20TH CENTURY.

3. Customize Your Bulletin Auto-generated bulletins contain every service item in your presentation—though some are hidden by default unless you undelete them. You can remove items, add items, or adjust the publish date or timing. Select Preview to view your changes. Be sure to click Save to secure any adjustments.

“Delightful devotional gems!” —Carl R. Trueman

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4. Share your bulletin You can share your bulletin in several ways both online and in print.

Publish online When you’ve finished customizing your bulletin, click Publish to set your bulletin to publish at the scheduled time. Your bulletin will post to your Faithlife church group at the scheduled date and time. If you have a Faithlife Site, it also will publish to your website at the scheduled time.

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MINISTRYTEAM.COM — 27

TEAMWORK | PLANNING

TURN YOUR SCHEDULE AROUND Circular Calendars Help You See the Whole Picture

D AV I D B O M A R

SAMPLE CALENDAR

Summer 2019: Kids & Youth Elementary (Inside Ring) Middle School (Middle Ring) High School (Outer Ring)

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lanning for multiple ministries across the church can get tricky. With so many layers of information, a standard calendar might not be the best way to track your events. Give a circular calendar a try. Each ring of the circle shows a different category of data, allowing you to see children’s ministry events alongside the youth ministry schedule (for example). For an annual calendar, the end of one year runs seamlessly into the start of the next, making it easy to visualize the transition. The circle is especially helpful for showing the Christian liturgical year, with Advent leading to Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Ordinary Time, and back to Advent. It’s easy to create your own circular planning calendar with a free trial at plandisc.com. Just be prepared to invest some time exploring the initial setup. The app offers different ways to customize your calendar. You can add rings and set their colors and sizes. You can choose a date range for your calendar and set it up for monthly, weekly, or daily planning. The app can import your data from Microsoft Outlook, and it gives you tools to share access with coworkers and post your calendar online. At left and right are two examples of how a church can use a circular calendar. From sermon planning to event scheduling, there are possibilities for every area of ministry.

SAMPLE CALENDAR

Teaching Schedule & Church Year Holidays (Inside Ring)

Church Year (Middle Ring)

Sunday Sermons (Outer Ring)

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Access these sample PlanDisc calendars at Faithlife.com/MT-Resources.

TEAMWORK | GIVING

M AT T H E W B O F F E Y

HOW TO ENCOUR AGE YEAR-END DONATIONS

One Statistic Is Good News for Church Giving. What Are You Doing About It?

t’s not easy to find a silver lining to procrastination. Who has ever said, “I wish I had started this project even later”? But here’s one situation where procrastination does pay off: year-end giving. Thirty percent of charitable giving in the US happens in the month of December. Why is that good news for churches? Because it tells you exactly when to make a giving push. Giving is on people’s minds in December. Not only does the Christmas spirit produce generosity, but donations matter for taxes. Here are four ways to capitalize on this statistic.

ACT NOW Late November and early December are the perfect time to encourage year-end giving, so get started. • Put a reminder in the bulletin. • Announce it from the stage.

E GIVE

to receive (Acts 20:35). Because our treasures serve our Treasure (Matt 6:21). Speak specifically about your church’s mission and what donations have accomplished in the past—and what they’ll do in the future. Make sure you cast vision. This isn’t a money grab.

REMOVE EVERY BARRIER Nothing will kill these efforts more than an arduous giving process. Remove as many barriers as possible: • Provide clear instructions for all the ways people can give. • Send out emails with direct links for online giving. • Enable a text-to-give tool. • Display “Give” or “Donate” buttons prominently on your website.

• Send out emails.

• Mail pre-addressed, postage-paid envelopes for sending in checks.

• Update your church website.

• Pass the plate every week.

• Add a slide to your pre-service presentation roll.

• Put a “Remind me to give” option on the connection card.

Canvas your church’s communication channels with information about how to give—and keep doing it. Repetition commands attention.

CAST VISION, NOT BAIT In the spirit of urgency, your impulse may be to just shout “Give!” from the rooftops. Redirect. Just like in Scripture, the why makes the what. Why were the Israelites expected to obey the Ten Commandments? Because, God told them, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you ought of slavery” (Exod 20:1). Why are Christians to walk in newness of life? Because they’ve been made new. And why do Christians give? Because God is generous toward us (1 Tim 6:17). Because it is better to give than

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Think of every conceivable way people will give. Make each process as seamless as possible.

KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING Carry momentum into the new year. Ideally, by midDecember giving will be fresh on people’s minds. Maybe some people will use your online giving platform for the first time. Be sure to update the congregation on their progress. When people see that others are giving, they are encouraged to give. Find opportunities to commend your church for their generosity, to report how many people are giving online, and to remind people of your church’s plans for the new year.

Switch to Faithlife Giving & Bring Your Recurring Gifts You don’t have to miss out on recurring gifts! Transfer your entire congregation’s recurring gift schedules, giving history, fund designations, and more—all in a click. Under contract with another giving provider? Don’t let that stop you. We’ll waive your Faithlife Giving subscription fee for up to a year while you’re under contract. Talk to our team to learn how to get your free year.

Schedule a demo today. Call 888-505-6862. fl.vu/switch2giving

TEAMWORK | LEADERSHIP

BRIAN BEAUFORD

very church needs a leadership pipeline—a system for identifying, training, equipping, and empowering leaders. In my experience, a healthy leadership pipeline has six levels (see chart). I have seen this structure work in churches from 60 people to more than 3,000. At the church where I’m a pastor, planning, building, and filling our leadership pipeline has taken almost eight years, and through that time we’ve learned a few things the hard way. Here are our biggest mistakes and the lessons we learned.

MISTAKE #1

NOT BUILDING FROM THE BOTTOM UP When we built our pipeline, we had all the levels labeled and each position thought through. But when we started filling out the pipeline, we promoted people too fast. Lesson learned: We needed to map out our pipeline on paper first and fill it from the bottom up, placing existing leaders’ names in all the levels until we properly trained our replacements. Yes, it takes longer, but the structure and culture that’s being built will be stronger.

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MISTAKE #2

MISTAKE #4

REQUIRING TOO MANY SKILLS AND EXPECTATIONS

IGNORING ONGOING TRAINING

When we started listing the different skills and expectations needed to be successful at each level of leadership, we had way too many! I’ve had the privilege of helping several other churches build their pipelines, and most tend to make this mistake. When the bar for being a leader is set too high, many people feel overwhelmed and choose to stay out of leadership. Others get stuck in weeks or months of training to learn the required skills. Lesson learned: Level 1 should have almost no required skills and maybe just one expectation— two at most. When someone opts-in to serve, the onboarding process should be fast. The more skills and expectations you have at the bottom, the longer it will take to get people serving.

MISTAKE #3

NOT SUPPORTING COACHES ENOUGH The transition from Level 2 to Level 3 is the most difficult. Moving from leading others to developing leaders involves a huge shift in values, because the leader goes from doing ministry to delegating ministry. The leader also has to adjust their focus. At Level 2, their impact was found in their individual tasks; at Level 3, their greatest impact is in their relationships with the people they lead. Lesson learned: Within the past year, we’ve really started to resource our Level 3 coaches better to help them work through this transition. Over several months, we held leadership workshops focusing on delegation, time management, mentoring, and communication.

Learning our lesson from Mistake #3, we realized that we built our pipeline with an unintentional focus on training new leaders (onboarding) but we did almost no training once they were on the team (ongoing development). Lesson learned: We created a system of monthly, ongoing trainings to help equip our members, leaders, and coaches. PRO TIP

Effective training requires these 4 elements … TEACHING Content should focus on one skill or idea. TALKING Learning happens best in the context of a group discussion. TRYING Go and apply the new skill or idea. TELLING Schedule a time to come back together and report how things went.

MISTAKE #5

FAILING TO ANTICIPATE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT At first we focused on quality control, building in ways to ensure that each ministry would be run well even if its top leaders weren’t around. After a few years, our system had a high bar of execution, but we weren’t reproducing leaders. We were doing things well, but our leaders were burning out! Lesson learned: When we focused on excellence, the by-product was burnout. But when we focused on developing stronger leaders, then the by-products were quality, execution, and ownership.

MINISTRYTEAM.COM — 33

MINISTRY SPOTLIGHT

Extend Your Church’s Ministry Through a Parachurch Partnership

Sully Curtin, Malissa Mackey, and Joel Miles

hurches and parachurches can do more together than they can apart. That’s the experience of Joel Miles and Malissa Mackey, who participate in a ministry partnership in Chicago. Joel is an associate pastor of Holy Trinity Church, which has four congregations across the city. Malissa is the director of Faith and Work Chicago, a joint ministry of Holy Trinity and a parachurch organization called Cru City. The mission of Faith and Work Chicago is to help people connect the Great Commission to their career. Ministry Team contributing editor Matthew Boffey recently sat down with Joel and Malissa to discuss the successes and challenges of a ministry partnership, and why the fruit is worth the labor.

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MATTHEW: Tell me about this partnership and how it came about. MALISSA: After serving with Cru Campus for 18 years, I moved to Cru City in

These are branches of Cru, the name of Campus Crusade for Christ International in the United States. Cru has ministries on 5,300 campuses worldwide and in 35 U.S. cities. cru.org

JOEL: The partnership definitely stemmed from our mutual desire to launch a faith-and-work ministry in Chicago. The next step was to learn how to pair Holy Trinity’s gifts and structure with Cru’s reach and already somewhat established work in this area.

Holy Trinity Church is a multiethnic, nondenominational church in the Reformed tradition. Founded in 1998, Holy Trinity now has about 700 people attending four campuses around Chicago.

2015 and began attending Holy Trinity Church. Upon discovering our shared vision for faith-and-work discipleship, a natural partnership and genuine friendship emerged because we were pointed in the same direction. We didn’t begin by thinking, “We should partner—what can we partner on?” but rather, “Wow, we desire the same thing. How can we do this better together?” I think that is significant. Joel, our colleague Sully, and I worked closely redesigning a program that we had launched previously under the Cru banner. Doing it together made it better.

MATTHEW: What was key to that process of merging gifts and resources?

htcchicago.org

JOEL: A lot of communication, plus a willingness to consider Cru City staﬀ as fully part of Holy Trinity’s team, rather than something on the side. Faith and Work Chicago is actually equally owned and run by both Cru City and Holy Trinity.

Faith and Work Chicago is a parachurch ministry that equips Christians to live their faith in the context of their everyday work—“for the good of the city, to the glory of God.” It hosts lunches, lectures, workshops, and other events on a broad range of topics, from theology to speciﬁc industries and vocations.

MALISSA: Openhandedness with resources has been huge. When I first discussed

taking a formal ministry director role at Holy Trinity with my Cru leaders, I was amazed and thrilled by their generosity, enthusiasm, and encouragement to pursue this formal partnership. It also helped knowing that our mission, vision, and ultimate aim were fully compatible. Because of that, my leadership was comfortable with us working out the details on the local level.

faithandworkchicago.org

MATTHEW: What are some complexities involved in partnership? MALISSA: Every partnership is unique, but our challenge has been working out

those details. I have two distinct roles that overlap, so it’s a matter of fulfilling my responsibilities in both roles as they sort of bleed into each other.

JOEL: On a practical level, this has included some hard conversations, such as hav-

ing to say, “I need to take a step back and balance my priorities.” At times we have not addressed the complexities of our structure well enough. To avoid this takes a lot of conversations and intentional management—something that we have improved on, but in which we are not yet perfect. There’s also the additional complexity of partnering with more than one ministry. Every ministry and partnership has its unique model and structure. That has to be honored, especially when finances are involved, or you can easily end up ostracizing or hurting others. To avoid this takes a lot of thought, awareness, and open conversation with the various people involved.

MATTHEW: What advice would you give a church or ministry on partnering? MALISSA: The value and priority of communication and relationship can’t be

overstated. There aren’t easy answers, and no one can anticipate all the things that need to be figured out when you begin to partner. I am incredibly grateful for the trust I have been granted from both my Cru and Holy Trinity leadership. None of this would be possible if it wasn’t for the open and honest communication and spiritual maturity of those I work with on both sides.

JOEL: I agree. Lots of good communication and relational investment is essential.

And this needs to go both ways. It is not simply the pastor or church leader trying to hear out the parachurch ministry leader, but the other way around as well. I’d also suggest not entering a partnership lightly, as it can be hard. But churches should seek out partnerships, realizing the great opportunities.

MINISTRYTEAM.COM — 35

Lorem ipsum caption title

“I see a beautiful picture of unity in the body of Christ through our partnership.”

MALISSA: It’s amazing what you can accomplish by merging

ministries can work together to meet handily. But this takes time, and both ministries need to be willing to come together to create a shared vision and ministry—not a “partner with me while I build my ministry” kind of deal.

MATTHEW: How would you encourage someone struggling to make a partnership work?

MALISSA: Focus on the benefits and your unity in Christ. Despite the complexities of our partnership, the benefits both personally and missionally far exceed the challenges. I feel a sense of being able to boast in the Lord for what he’s done in bringing about this partnership. Without his powerful work among us, we wouldn’t be able to lay aside organizational credit or enter into difficult and vulnerable conversations. I see a beautiful picture of unity in the body of Christ through our partnership and a lifting up of what we both most highly prize—Jesus Christ.

strengths. Each of us has been able to work out of areas of giftedness, and I am humbled by God’s blessing and the growth we’ve seen this past year.

JOEL: We see a lot of partnerships that are event-based and

informal. We would encourage ministries and churches to partner in more long-term, formalized ways. The opportunities here are quite remarkable. For example, when you think about the reach Cru has with students or graduates moving into cities who need to find good churches, and the pastoral gifts of church leadership, it’s a challenging need that both

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WORSHIP

Reaching the Community Through Holiday Celebrations K E R I W YA T T K E N T

Although church attendance is declining in America, even unchurched folks are likely to show up for Christmas and Easter. What’s the best way to reach people who otherwise don’t attend church? We talked to ministry leaders about how their churches celebrate Christmas. Several have moved away from big splashy productions toward simpler worship services and practical help for the community. Some churches focus on favorite traditions—carols, candlelight, and even live animals— while others incorporate elements from popular culture. Christmas Eve services can draw twice as many people as regular services, and church leaders recognize the important opportunity to share Jesus with visitors. They want to communicate the gospel clearly but also to create a memorable experience, in hopes that Christmas-only attenders will become faithful disciples.

MINISTRYTEAM.COM — 37

ONE

Missions Minded CREEKSIDE CHURCH (ASSEMBLIES OF GOD), LYNNWOOD, WASHINGTON thecreeksidechurch.org

Lead pastor Jason Deuman says his church keeps Christmas Eve services short and simple. It hosts two family-oriented services at 5 and 7 p.m., then an acoustic service with no children’s participation at 11 p.m. “Every year, we do an Advent series tied to missions,” Deuman says. Visiting missionaries speak at services during the weeks leading up to Christmas. Creekside also takes a special missions offering on Christmas Eve. The church begins talking about that offering in September, on a “vision day” that invites people to pray about their role in supporting missions. Focusing on missions is a natural fit for Advent, Deuman says, “because really, Jesus came as a missionary, to bring hope to the world.” Attendance at Creekside averages 400 on a typical weekend but jumps to 600 for Christmas Eve. Creekside recruits extra volunteers to greet, usher, and help in the parking lot. For those who can’t volunteer at the services, the church has a “Super Serve” event several days before Christmas. Volunteers clean and decorate, set out extra chairs, and prepare the church for Christmas Eve. The Christmas Eve services are deliberately simple: traditional carols and hymns, a storytime for children, a short sermon. The goal is to let families enjoy the service without having more things to keep them busy, like a choir or a play. The service ends with the congregation singing “Silent Night” and lighting candles, often with just a violin and soloist to lead. While weekend services throughout the year include a presentation of the gospel, Deuman recognizes the special opportunity that surrounds Christian holidays. At Christmas and Easter, “people are going to come to church because they think they should,” he says. “They might only come those days, so I try to make it as clear as possible that they need Jesus.” Deuman invites people to receive the gift of Jesus at the Christmas Eve service, trying to keep his sermon focused. “People come because they want to have a Christmas experience. They want to come and sing the traditional songs. They don’t want to hear the pastor talk for 45 minutes about the magi,” he says. “The biggest challenge is telling the familiar story in a fresh way. And managing expectations—my own expectations. Not everyone is going to be as passionate about Christmas.” “I find the most meaning in our tradition of candle-lighting,” Deuman says. “That’s the part of the service where we invite people to slow way down. We do not rush through the singing of “Silent Night.” I invite people to think of Mary, holding baby Jesus, who has been crying and finally has fallen asleep in her arms. If you’ve ever rocked a crying baby and had them fall asleep, you know you don’t even want to move. I encourage them to think of holding on to Jesus, being still.”

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TWO

Camels and Caring SOUTHSIDE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA sumcjax.org

“Our Christmas Eve service is always geared toward celebrating the birth of Jesus,” says Jeanette Danson Yates, director of communication for Southside. “But we know we have people in the audience who would not normally attend, and we want to make them feel as comfortable as possible. We try to put it in language they can relate to. But we want to make sure they understand it’s more than a story of a baby.” Because Southside runs a preschool, the congregation is mostly young families. The church is involved all year with a nearby grade school, and many of its Christmas season activities revolve around that partnership. At Christmas Eve services, the church shows a video highlighting community outreach activities. “We include the kids in the service,” Yates says. “Nothing gets parents there like allowing kids to participate.” The church has discovered over time that the children’s participation need not be complicated. For parents, just seeing their child on stage singing is fine—and less stressful than an elaborate pageant. A popular feature at Southside is a live-animal nativity scene on the church grounds between the two Christmas Eve services. An outside company brings in the animals and manages the display.

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THREE

Fun for Families HIGHLANDS FELLOWSHIP (SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION), ABINGDON, VIRGINIA hf.church

Some churches make Christmas into a family-friendly event in hopes of drawing unchurched folks. James Eaton is the online campus pastor at Highlands, which has six locations along the Virginia-Tennessee state line. On a typical weekend, attendance across all six sites is about 4,000. The church’s online service is viewed by another 1,500 to 2,000 people. For Christmas, Highlands holds multiple services at all locations. Rather than doing a service on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, they always celebrate on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday prior to Christmas. Combined attendance totals 8,000 to 10,000. Highlands is known for doing large-scale Christmas services. “We’ve done a lot of things,” Eaton says. “There may have been some live animals in the past—that’s definitely been a thing.” In 2015, when the Disney movie “Frozen” was at peak popularity, the church themed its Christmas services around the characters, music, and story. “Maybe you can’t take your kids to Disneyworld, but you could come to our church and get your picture taken with Anna and Elsa,” Eaton explains. The church tries to create “a free Christmas event that is uplifting and fun—kind of a production.” Last year, the church tried to use snow-making machines to deliver a white Christmas. “The weather didn’t cooperate,” Eaton says. “But every kid who came got a free sled. We gave away thousands of plastic sleds.” Eaton says people enjoy the big events, but the church has been rethinking the best way to serve. “We’re trying to find a good balance between creating an experience that people can enjoy and giving back

to our community,” he says. Highlands’ Christmas service is “not as big a production” as it once was, because they’ve decided to take a different approach. Two years ago they created a “Just One” campaign, encouraging church members to think of one person to invite to Christmas Eve services. But to invite them, they had to put together a gift box for the person. It could have food, candy, a small toy or clothing, a gift card—whatever they wanted. “We were basically flooding the area with kindness,” Eaton says, and the congregation embraced the mission. Last year, the team at Highlands began to question whether the cost of the big event showed good stewardship. After some discussions, they cut the advertising budget and redirected money toward things like grocery store gift cards for people in need in the community. One year, someone donated a car, and the church gave it to a woman who had just found a job but had no way to get to work. “We’re trying to care about our community in tangible ways,” Eaton says. “We’re trying to find a good balance between creating an experience that people can enjoy and giving back to our community.” “Maybe we don’t need camels,” he says. “We’re trying to get away from novelty and have something meaningful. We want people to have a great experience but also know that Christmas is about Jesus coming into the world. At the end of the day, if we don’t point them to Jesus, that’s not a win.”

FOUR

Joyful Traditions CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS cecsa.org

Christ Episcopal is an urban congregation, with about 500 people attending four services on a typical Sunday. Christmas Eve draws about 1,200 people (also four services), but the church celebrates all throughout Advent season. The second Sunday of Advent features a pageant by the children’s choir, involving kids from preschool to junior high. On the third Sunday of Advent, the church hosts a much-loved Lessons and Carols service. “We have strings, brass, timpani—it’s a big production,” says Josh Benninger, the music director. Like many congregations, people at Christ Episcopal highly value their traditions. The Lessons and Carols service, for example, ends with the same song every year, as does the Christmas Eve service. “The final choir piece (for the Lessons and Carols service) is ‘This Christmastide’ by Donald Fraser. It features the children’s choir, which is probably one reason why it is extra special,” Benninger notes. “For Christmas Eve the final hymn is always ‘Joy to the World.’ ” “There are certain hymns and carols that everyone wants to sing,” he says. “Christmas is not the time to pull out something new or different.” The previous music director learned that lesson the hard way when he switched to an unfamiliar hymn to close the Lessons and Carols service. “He got bombarded” with complaints, Benninger recalls. “I don’t want to say it was hate mail, but a lot of it was, ‘How dare you?’ ” “For Christmas Eve, we keep it as traditional as possible,” Benninger says. “My filter—not just for Christmas, but for all music—is, first, is it

liturgically correct, and second, do I even like it? We can try new things but still not take away the tradition.” Putting on special services three weekends in a row can be a lot of work, and Benninger says his church is fortunate to have teams of volunteers. They recruit extra helpers to greet people, serve as ushers, and assist with the childcare at services. “Volunteer-wise, it’s an all-hands-on-deck time,” he says. Christ Episcopal also hires outside security for its parking lot, which is extra-full during the Christmas season. Located near downtown San Antonio, the church has had cars broken into in the past. Benninger has served as music pastor, organist, and choir director since 2007. While Christmas services require a lot of work, he says he really enjoys them. “My goal is to communicate the word of God to the congregation. It’s not just about the music; it’s about an emotional and spiritual connection. How do I do that effectively and not take it for granted, even if the music is the same?” On Christmas Eve, he directs the choir while seated at the organ in the choir loft. “I just love being up in the loft, looking down at the congregation, seeing all their smiling faces. It’s really the culmination of the entire year, and it gives me great joy.”

is the author of GodSpace: Embracing the Inconvenient Adventure of Intimacy with God and 10 other books. She has written for numerous magazines and websites including Christianity Today, ChurchLeaders.com, and SmallGroups.com. She is a member of Willow Creek Community Church, where she serves as a lay pastor and part-time staff member. She blogs at keriwyattkent.com. K E R I W YA T T K E N T

H O S P I TA L I T Y

J O N AT H A N M A L M

Welcome to Our Church? 11 Turnoffs for First-Time Visitors

hen was the last time you visited a new church? Did you experience the anxiety of going to a new place? Were you worried about sticking out like a sore thumb? There’s so much that’s scary about going to a new place. And sometimes there are simple barriers we accidentally put up that keep guests from feeling welcome in our churches. This isn’t about consumerism. It’s about courtesy—about hosting the people God sends our way. It’s about caring for them and loving them enough to remove the barriers that might scare them away or make them feel uncomfortable. Here are some common obstacles for newcomers.

1. The Locked Door One time my dad was visiting a new church. After parking, the beautiful main entrance was quite a walk away, but right in front of him were three doors. It was a hot South Texas day. He thought, “Let’s get inside as soon as possible. Then we can figure out how to get to the sanctuary.” Door number 1: Locked. Door number 2: Locked. Door number 3: Still no winner. He finally had to backtrack toward the impressive looking entrance—now on the other side of the building—secretly hoping no one saw his antics from inside the nice, cool building. Churches are places where you’re looking to belong. They’re filled with future friends and fellow worshipers. It’s a horrible feeling to start out looking like a fool. That’s why,

as much as possible, you should avoid locked doors. Even if it isn’t the main entrance, people expect doors to open. Obviously, the exception is doors that need to be locked for security reasons. If you must lock doors, post a sign or place a greeter nearby to keep people from using that door. It may seem like an unnecessary precaution, but by doing this you’re showing your guests you care about them.

2. The Invisible Signs Where’s the sanctuary? Where are the restrooms? Where do I drop off my kids? These are the big questions guests ask when they enter your building. You know where everything is, but visitors don’t. And it’s easy to forget the sensory overload that can come from being in a new place. Your signs need to be large and easily visible. In an attempt to make everything look nice and neat, we often color coordinate our signs to blend in with the décor. But when they blend in, we may as well camouflage them in a duck blind. A great sign might actually be ugly. But an ugly sign that keeps me from walking into the “Nursing Mothers” room is my best friend. Signs need to use terminology that makes sense. I’ve been around

This article is adapted from Unwelcome: 50 Ways Churches Drive Away First-Time Visitors, by Jonathan Malm. Available in print and Kindle formats from Amazon.com and at Books.Apple.com.

MINISTRYTEAM.COM — 47

churches since I was born, so you won’t confuse me with a sign pointing to the “narthex.” But for the average person, that sounds like a creature from a Dr. Seuss book. So make your signs visible and understandable.

3. The Dirty Church When we have guests in our home, most of us take extra care to make sure things are clean. Why should we treat guests at our church with any less courtesy? The cleanliness of your church sends a message. A clean and fresh restroom says we value you, our guest. Clean windows, dusted furniture, and polished floors say we are stewarding the resources God has given us. A clean children’s facility communicates that we love your little ones. They will be healthy, safe, and well-attended while in our care. Make sure everything is neat when you open the doors to your guests. But you can’t stop there, because people tend to make messes. Keep an eye out for those messes and clean them up as they happen during the day. When people see that you care for your facilities, they’ll not only tend to take better care with your space, but they will also more easily believe you’ll care for them.

4. The Too-Friendly Church Once I walked into a smaller church that looked fairly traditional. An older woman immediately greeted me. She was very sweet and gracious. She shook my hand. Great. Then she proceeded to bring me in for a hug. Less comfortable, but she’s a sweet grandma. How could I be too upset about that? But then she put her cheek to mine. That was the limit of my bubble. I don’t care how clean she was or how nice she smelled. That was too much contact for my first interaction at the church. I’d venture to say that hugging your first-time guests is going too far. Some people have bubbles they don’t want popped. Some might be worried about their hair getting messed up—or falling off. Some might be dealing with emotional baggage that makes it hard to interact with strangers. Give your guests space when you first meet them. I suggest instructing your greeters to offer a handshake at most. And even then, that should be on a case-by-case basis. Some people don’t want to shake hands. They just want to find their seat. They’re on a mission to be comfortable, and when you stop them and pop their personal bubble, you make them feel more self-conscious than they are already feeling. Learn to identify guests who want to interact and guests who want to be left alone. A good rule of thumb is eye contact. If a guest makes eye contact with you, there’s a good chance they want a bit of interaction.

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5. The Greeter Gauntlet Do you remember that TV show “American Gladiator”? Contestants tried to best a bunch of beefy athletes in various competitions. There was one particular event I always loved watching called “The Gauntlet.” The contestants had to run down a narrow path to reach their goal. Between the starting point and the finish line, there were burly athletes who tried to slow the contestants down and keep them from reaching their destination. The contestants had to dodge, duck, juke, and fake to make it past the crowd of sweaty gladiators. I’ve visited churches that remind me of “The Gauntlet.” As I approach the front doors, I am met by an eager greeter who hands me a bulletin and grabs my hand for a shake. Then another greeter opens the door, again offering me a handshake. Just inside the door, another smiling face goes for an embrace. Then there’s a small-groups coordinator giving me a handout. I imagine myself as a contestant on “American Gladiator”—spinning and dodging to make it past the greeters. “I just want to sit down!” Perhaps I’m being a bit dramatic; perhaps I’m not. You should have greeters assigned to greet guests and distribute information. I’m not suggesting you forgo that. But too many greeters can exhaust and overwhelm your first-time guests. So how many oﬃcial greeters are enough? As a general rule, you should have greeters stationed at key decision points. Anyplace your guests might have to make a choice about where to go or what door to enter, you should have a greeter making that decision easy for them. Other than that, leave the pathway clear. A greeter’s role is to make the guest feel welcomed and at home. But when they become obstacles to getting where you are going, you’ve created a greeter gauntlet.

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“Holy cow, this church is welcoming!” That’s what I thought as I made the transition from parking lot to foyer to worship center. But as soon as I made it past all the professionally loving volunteers, I was confronted with ice. There was no more welcoming, warm feeling. The folks in the room gave me looks like, “Who is this guy? Why is he in our church?” It appears the leadership at the church desperately wanted guests in their service, but the congregation missed the memo. You can’t rely on your guest services volunteers and staff to be the only welcoming force in your congregation. That isn’t enough. So how do you transfer the welcoming spirit to your congregation members? You can continually tell your congregation how much your church values guests. Cast the vision that each one of those guests is someone’s brother, daughter, mother, or father, and they want them to hear about Jesus. Remind people how important a welcoming smile is—and make a big deal of it when you see it being done right. Whatever you praise in people, they begin to value in themselves. As you praise their welcoming spirit, they’ll be eager to develop it and get even better.

7. The Forced Enthusiasm Proverbs 27:14 says, “A loud and cheerful greeting early in the morning will be taken as a curse!” I’m pretty sure when Solomon wrote that proverb he was referring to an early morning church service. I, like many people, prefer silence until I’ve had my second cup of coffee each morning. During a normal workweek, it takes me a couple of hours before I’m ready to even meet with people or be pleasant. That’s why I enjoy attending the latest possible service on a Sunday morning. It gives me time to become a human being. But there are those occasions—unhappy occasions— when I have to go to an early service. I try to force a smile and cheery handshakes as I enter the service. I’m still

“ As soon as I made it past all the professionally loving volunteers, I was confronted with ice.

“

6. The Cold Congregation

waking up, but I don’t want to be a jerk. But then the worship leader, hopped up on Red Bull and Mountain Dew, tries to jolt me from my sleep. I get pretty grumpy. I take that loud and cheerful greeting as a curse. I’m not saying the worship service needs to start like a funeral procession. Just let your early morning congregants ease into the service. Be aware of the energy in your room, but don’t conform completely to it. Have a reasonable goal of where you want to take your congregation during the service. Then lead people from their current energy level to where you want them to be. Guests—even though they’re brand new to your service— can feel the energy in the room. And when they feel the energy of the room rise, their energy will rise with it.

8. The Hype “Join us for this life-changing worship night!” “Your life will never be the same if you attend this small group!” “This Bible verse will blow your mind!” “This missionary’s talk will transform you forever!” Have you ever noticed how easily we throw around phrases like “life-changing”? If my life had actually changed with every “life-changing” event I’ve attended, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t even recognize myself. In church communication, we tend to use a lot of hyperboles and exclamation points when we don’t quite know how to talk about something. For instance, we have a women’s event coming up, and rather than learn more about the event and why a woman might want to attend, we just throw around bold statements and exclamation points. A woman can get encouraged and make some new friends, but instead we say their lives will forever be changed. We can’t promise those things, and we shouldn’t promote events that way. People in our church communities are used to being marketed to. They live in the real world, and they see thousands of advertisements weekly. Each ad is promising them success, fame, sex, and love. And each product falls short in delivery. Why would we want to lump our church communications in with those things? We don’t need to market to our church communities. We need to minister to them. We need to speak truth to them. Whisper possibilities instead of yelling hyperboles. Be honest about what people can expect. If you consistently create great experiences, you’ll never have to use a single exclamation point to promote them.

9. The Outdated Website I don’t think there’s a single church in the world that intentionally puts incorrect information on the Internet. Unfortunately, it happens. You change your service times— either permanently or for a single event—and you forget to update the website. Or you update the home page, but you neglect to update the information on another page.

So Sunday morning rolls around, and a guest shows up an hour before the service starts. Or they show up 10 minutes before it ends. And they feel stupid. Did they remember the service time wrong? They check the site. They feel betrayed. They already had enough fear and anxiety over going to a new place to worship. And they leave feeling dejected and discouraged. There’s a good chance they won’t come back. It’s important we give newcomers accurate information. That means a few things: • Update the site early. If you update your website on the Friday of the week you’re changing the service times, you’re doing it too late. You should update the site as soon as the last service at the old time is over. • Check every page. The incorrect service times might be buried within your website. • Check all your social media profiles. Does Facebook have the correct service times? Twitter? Instagram? Your online presence is a guest’s first impression of your church. It’s a chance to answer questions and address concerns before Sunday morning. And the answers you post on your website (like service times) are your first promises to first-time guests. Don’t break those promises.

10. The Misleading Photos One of the main reasons newcomers visit a church website is to see what the church is like. “What types of people go there? Will there be someone like me? Are there people my age at the church? Do people from my socioeconomic group attend?” Stock photos are a wonderful resource for web designers. The danger of using stock photos is that it’s tempting to show you reach everyone. And if that wonderfully diverse stock photo doesn’t actually represent your church, you’re lying to your website visitors. I’m not saying you shouldn’t use stock photos on your website. And I’m definitely not saying you should stop showing diversity in your photos. But the majority of the photos on your website should represent people who actually attend your church.

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11. The Unwanted Volunteer My wife and I had just moved to a new city. We immediately found a church we wanted to get plugged into. The same night after our first visit to the church, I got on the website and signed up to volunteer. I emailed a couple of people and said, “I’d love to volunteer.” Oddly enough, I didn’t get a single response that week. After church the next Sunday, I went to the guest services area and let the attendant know we wanted to volunteer. “Where do we sign up?” He actually seemed a bit surprised I was so eager. But he found a volunteer coordinator, and we repeated our request: “We want to get involved.” The coordinator told us he’d let the respective ministry heads know, and they’d be in contact with us. Do I need to tell what happened—or rather what didn’t? We never heard anything from anyone. It wasn’t until we stuck around for a little while that we realized this church’s funnel for getting people involved was through a membership class—held only once a quarter. Eventually we got the impression this church (1) didn’t really need our contribution and (2) would take a long time to let us serve. So we started going to a church where we felt like we were needed. Many times our churches desperately want people to get involved, but we don’t have a system in place to actually grab people who show interest. It’s sort of like the dog chasing cars, and one day he finally caught one: “Now what do I do with this thing?”

Use Secret Shoppers to Improve Your Church Experience

Do you have a system set up to quickly respond to guests and congregation members who want to get involved? Do you know what to do with a volunteer when you catch one? • If a guest wants to attend a small group, can they get in one quickly? Or do they have to wait until the next season when the small groups start over? • If a guest wants to start serving, is there a system in place to get them from point A to point B? • If a guest asks a question from an unexpected place— like an email or a tweet—is there someone who will catch those questions and respond? A church that responds quickly to people is a church that loves people. But sometimes our systems can get in the way of that. Make sure your systems are eﬃcient and there’s plenty of overlap. is a creative entrepreneur and writer. He’s the author of Created for More. He also runs Sunday | Magazine and Church Stage Design Ideas. You can follow him online at JonathanMalm.com or on Twitter @JonathanMalm.

J O N AT H A N M A L M

Want to find out how your church feels to a newcomer? Try using a secret shopper. Businesses do this all the time: a secret shopper visits the store, goes through the motions a normal customer would go through, and then reports back on what they noticed. This feedback is invaluable because it helps the business see what a typical customer sees—things the business leaders might not see. Your church can do this too. You can get secret shoppers to visit your service and report back to you. Often, people are very willing to help if you merely ask. Or you could put out an ad on Craigslist and offer a gift card in return. Or find a friend of a friend. To make the process easier, here’s a response form you can give the secret shopper (ideally in advance, so they know what to look for).

Download an editable version of this form at Faithlife.com/MT-Resources. 52 — MINISTRYTEAM.COM

Secret Shopper Response Form If you had to describe our service to a friend, how would you explain it? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Did you have any problems finding anything (bathrooms, nursery, etc.)? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Did our child check-in process go smoothly? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Did we use any words/terms during the service you weren’t familiar with? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ How would you rate the following factors of our service? 1=Very Poor

2=Poor

3=Mediocre

4=Good

5=Very Good

Ease of finding a parking spot

Friendliness of parking attendants

Ease of finding the entrance to the worship service

Friendliness/helpfulness of greeters and ushers

Cleanliness of facilities

Friendliness of congregation

If you marked any of the above as Poor or Very Poor, please explain what we did wrong and how we can improve. _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ What was your impression of the worship team? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ What was your impression of the pastor? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Are you excited to return next week? Why or why not? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ What did we do really well in the worship service? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ What could we do better? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ We appreciate your feedback!

S P I R I T U A L H E A LT H

CURTIS ZACKERY

MOVING BEYOND MINISTRY BURNOUT HOW I FOUND TRUE REST AMID THE CHAOS Spiritual fatigue is real, and, sadly, it’s becoming more prevalent. Ministry burnout is increasingly common. Followers of Jesus—and ministers, especially—live under enormous and often unrealistic expectations. I regularly encounter Christians from all walks of life who say they don’t know if they can “do it” anymore. The “it,” for many, is the ability to keep up with what they believe to be the successful Christian life. Usually these thoughts are followed by the confession that they are flat-out tired. Their exhaustion leads to a growing sense of disillusionment with God and the church.

THE SOURCE OF BURNOUT Although I am the least handy individual on the planet, I still understand the basic premise of how a car engine works. One thing I know for sure is that an engine without oil will burn out. I know this because I’ve had a couple vehicles that have suffered from oil leaks. The engine attempts to burn the oil it needs, and when the reservoir runs dry, there’s no lubrication for all of the parts to work smoothly. The car begins to smoke, warning that some refreshment is necessary. Although this illustration is overly simplistic, it reminds us that we need to be filled with the right substance, or we will not be able to operate properly. I’ve heard many times that we can’t serve or give when we’re running on empty. If we aren’t intentional about finding rest amid the chaos of life, one of the most obvious implications is personal or ministry burnout. You become so weary and disillusioned that you reach a place where you can’t continue doing the same things in the same way. You might find yourself irritated with others. You might cease to see any hope in tough situations, and you might feel jaded and cynical. Your normal level of motivation to pursue your goals might start to dissipate and eventually dissolve completely. Burnout can even feel like battling depression. Like me, you might attempt to convince yourself that your disillusionment and frustration are only temporary and will soon pass. You might dig in and entrench yourself in the rhythms that lead to fatigue and failure. And you’re not alone. Sadly, the number of stories I hear of ministry leaders experiencing burnout is growing steadily by the day. Burnout is a real problem, and it needs to be acknowledged. One of the ramifications of ministry burnout can be a public and visible downward spiral. Sadly, I’ve witnessed friends and associates lose their jobs, their ministry endeavors, and even their families as a result of burning out. Burnout exposes our weaknesses. For some, this type of humbling experience has led to the pursuit of soul rest and the restoration of their lives—an opening to discover their true identity and purpose. For others, the embarrassment, guilt, and shame connected to their actions have led to more fortified walls around their hearts and emotions. Bitterness and anger become further barriers to finding a place of healing and restoration.

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AN HONEST SELF-ASSESSMENT During my own desperate search for rest, I felt as though the Lord asked me a direct and sobering question: “If I were to take away your ministry platform, would you still love and worship me with the same passion that you have right now?” A platform is subjective and it varies for different individuals. Some people’s platform consists of being in front of large groups. For others, it’s simply a reputation or something for which you are known. My platform consisted of preaching and teaching in front of groups of people, serving and volunteering in my neighborhood, and spending time encouraging people toward hope. This question from the Lord cut directly to the heart of the matter. Sadly, I realized that the honest answer was “no.” My level of passion and engagement for the things of God was indeed predicated by the way I was able to serve him. That was a hard discovery to face. It meant that, at some deep level, I found my value and worth in the things that I did for God rather than in the God for whom I was doing them. I thought my ability to do something for God determined the way he saw me and was proud of me. Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard once stated, “It is absolutely unethical when one is so busy communicating that he forgets to be what he teaches.” I found myself in this place. I was speaking a lot of Jesus and the fullness we find in him, but I wasn’t drinking deeply of his truth myself. I was doing a lot for God and talking a lot about God, but I wasn’t embodying the very principles I was teaching. I believe Kierkegaard’s assessment is a fair one. It does seem unethical to teach about a certain way of life as the best possible one but then practice a different way that actually contradicts your instruction. Although I was discovering some ugly truths about myself, my prideful and selfish tendencies didn’t take the abuse sitting down. Something inside me began to rise, attempting to assert itself against the conviction I was feeling. I didn’t want to believe I had been operating wrongly. Eugene Peterson wrote something that sums up my posture in response to these new revelations: “The kingdom of self is heavily defended territory.” It’s interesting how we can find ourselves instinctively reaching for methods of selfpreservation when we feel as though our self-image is threatened. I knew my goal was health, but it was hard to accept that I was struggling. I did not have it all together and I was not leading from a place of wholeness. The deeper I began to look into my heart, the more I discovered the need for restoration. Peterson also posed this question: “How can I lead people into the quiet place beside the still waters if I am in perpetual motion?” This also resonated with me, as I was completely unsettled internally, which stemmed primarily from my inability to remain still. I realized that when I stopped, my level of anxiety rose, connected to the thought that if I’m not doing something, my value level was low. I was calling others to sit beside the still waters and be rooted in Jesus there, but I wasn’t experiencing that quiet place myself.

56 — MINISTRYTEAM.COM

I WAS CALLING OTHERS TO SIT BESIDE THE STILL WATERS, BUT I WASN’T EXPERIENCING THAT QUIET PLACE MYSELF.

MINISTRY ROOTED IN ANCIENT WISDOM Introducing the Lexham Ministry Guides. Edited by award-winning author Harold L. Senkbeil, this new series offers practical, proven wisdom for the church. These books invite you to enter into these conversations to better serve the Savior’s sheep and lambs with confidence. You will find hands-on tools, lessons from years of ministry experience, and an array of resources to apply to your own ministry context.

Learn more at lexhampress.com/LMG.

OK NOT TO BE OK

LOOKING INWARD WILL UNEARTH THE FACT THAT WE NEED A HEALER AND DELIVERER.

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As I wrestled with confusion and disillusionment, I felt as though I just had to power my way through it. I thought it was a sign of weakness to admit I couldn’t fix things on my own. One of the greatest gifts I received during this time was the encouragement and challenge that came from a friend. One day on the phone, he asked how I was doing. Somewhere in the middle of my attempt to convince him that I was doing great, he interrupted and said, “Hey, can I say something?” I was a bit thrown off, but I said, “Sure, what’s up?” Then he said this: “I want you to know, it’s OK not to be OK.” This simple sentence stopped me dead in my tracks. I’d heard and said these very words before. But something about having them directed to me by a friend struck a deep chord. Oh, how I longed and wanted it to be true. I had no words in response. In recognition of my silence, he said, “I know, just allow yourself to believe that it’s right.” It is no secret in our culture that we don’t know how to rest. We feel as though admitting the need to take a break is, in a sense, a failure. There is something engrained in our DNA that tells us we need to be working to be valued. That impulse to work is placed there by God himself. From our creation, he indeed intended that we would work. Along the way, we became distracted and disconnected from the actual purpose and intent of our work. Instead, we attached our value, our worth, and our identity to the work we do. What we could

TIPS FOR AVOIDING BURNOUT— OR SURVIVING IT If you’re on the way to burnout but aren’t there yet, try these preventative measures. These are ongoing mechanisms for spiritual health.

If you’re already burned out, you’ll need to take more extreme measures. Like a car that begins overheating, the first thing to do is pull over.

• Practice the Sabbath. No other practice is more essential for avoiding burnout. It’s woven into the fabric of creation for a reason. Among other things, the Sabbath helps us see the difference between what is essential and what we’ve given the illusion of being essential.

• Take a break. Admit to your family and church leaders that you are burned out and need a break. It’s a leap of faith, but a break is the only way to begin burnout recovery.

• Enjoy solitude and silence. Busyness is a noise that keeps us from hearing God and even our own thoughts. Get alone and quiet for at least an hour each week to give space for reflection. • Meditate. Even assessing your thoughts for five minutes a day before the Lord brings clarity and relief to your inner life. • Go outside. Since nature displays God’s invisible attributes, it’s a refreshing environment. Commit to getting outside weekly or monthly. • Celebrate. Burnout often stems from a preoccupation with what’s wrong. So celebrate what’s good. Have a potluck. Throw a no-reason party. Go dancing. • Play, eat, and sleep. Take care of your body with healthy food, plenty of sleep, and regular play. Play can be anything that engages your body and brings joy to your heart. As Richard Foster writes in Celebration of Discipline, “By themselves, the Spiritual Disciplines can do nothing; they can only get us to the place where something can be done.” If you’re tired, invite rest into your life through these disciplines.

• Cut things out. It could be that the shocks of your soul have lost their spring from carrying too much. Through prayer and counsel, decide what responsibilities you need to drop or reassign. • Fast. Burnout is a consequence of selfdependence. Deprive your body for a period of time to teach your soul dependence on God. • Study and pray. While these are always essential, you’re in a unique season of need, and these are your two most important companions. Spend sustained time seeking guidance. When you’re burned out, a to-do list is the last thing you need. Instead, frame all these measures as gifts to receive. Like water for a dry plant, they will slowly bring life to your soul—not because they have life, but because they help carry you to the fountain of living water. Adapted from Curtis Zackery, Soul Rest: Reclaim Your Life, Return to Sabbath (Lexham Press, 2018), available at LexhamPress.com/Soul-Rest.

MINISTRYTEAM.COM — 59

accomplish, in some ways, came to define us. As a result, it is impossible for us—in our humanity alone—to come to rest. Ronald Rolheiser says it best in his book The Holy Longing: It is no easy task to walk this earth and find peace. Inside of us, it would seem, something is at odds with the very rhythm of things, and we are forever restless, dissatisfied, frustrated and aching. We are so overcharged with desire that it is hard to come to simple rest. The great tension that we experience in our humanity is that we, by nature, attempt to do and accomplish in order to bring meaning and definition to our lives, by ourselves. For some of us, part of the difficulty with looking inward involves a concern that we might be elevating self-help over God’s help. We have to pay attention to how we might be attempting to rescue ourselves through our own efforts. The important thing is that we come to know ourselves in order to be aware of our needs—precisely so we can ask the Lord to do his work. Too often, we set about making changes and adjustments to our lives in hopes of discovering a remedy for our discontent. We do so, however, without truly knowing our soul’s actual condition. Looking inward will unearth the fact that we need a Healer and Deliverer. We need to journey

down to the depths of our hidden places to genuinely be aware of this need. Ephesians 2:14 says that Jesus “himself is our peace.” So when my friend told me it was OK not to be OK, I genuinely needed this bit of affirmation. But I also needed to be reminded that, whether I believed it or not at that moment, there was living hope in Jesus. The permission to truly feel the pain, hurt, frustration, and confusion in my current state gave the gift of the accurate understanding of my heart’s status. But the beautiful reminder of healing, whether it seemed realistic to me or not, is the hope I needed in my despair. We often learn more from our failures than from our successes. We have to remain pliable and teachable. Our souls are crying out for the refreshment that comes from God alone. He’s calling us to find rest. Let’s listen. is the author of Soul Rest: Reclaim Your Life, Return to Sabbath (Lexham Press, 2018). Over the past 15 years, he has served in various ministry roles, including church-planting, pastoring, and speaking. Curtis lives in Franklin, Tennessee, with his wife, Monique, and two sons, Noah and Micah.

CURTIS ZACKERY

RECLAIM YOUR LIFE

“This book is needed in today’s culture.”

— TobyMac, Grammy award–winning artist, producer, and songwriter

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Buy now at lexhampress.com/soul-rest

H E R O E S O F FA I T H

common sense & grace L I N DA G A R R E T T

Depression just about overwhelmed me as a teenager. I felt ugly, and I envisioned a lonely future. One day, I saw a copy of the Good News for Modern Man Bible laying open on a side table. The contemporary line drawings made me wonder why an ancient book displayed modern art. I picked it up and discovered a Jesus who loved. I knew I was a sinner and desperately felt the need for grace. I prayed for forgiveness often, but I didn’t know if God could actually accept an introverted girl with Coke-bottle-thick glasses like me. About that time, my family started attending a new church. The pastor, Bill Forrester, seemed really approachable. He preached one day from the book of Romans, repeating Paul’s arguments that God is just and forgiving. Somehow, a small faith—or maybe just enough hope—led me down the aisle. Several weeks later, Brother Bill (as we called him) phoned to ask if I wanted to be baptized. My mom drove me to a counseling session in his office. I told him I wasn’t sure I could be baptized, since I wasn’t sure I could be forgiven. He sensibly opened his New Testament and read from Matthew 18:19 “whatever two or three of you ask in prayer ... will be granted.” He asked me if I believed God could lie. I told him, “No.” Then he led me in prayer for forgiveness with him, explaining that we had two in agreement there. Faith sprouted a bit more. He gave me a couple of discipleship books, which set me on a lifelong quest to understand God’s word. Brother Bill will never be famous; he was just the pastor of a small church. But through him, God led a despondent girl to accept God’s favor and forgiveness. I’ll forever be grateful for a sensible minister who graciously cared.

somehow, a small faith—or maybe just enough hope—led me down the aisle

has served as a pastor and professor. She currently serves as a deacon, Sunday school teacher, and Stephen minister and is an avid amateur equestrian.

L I N DA G A R R E T T

MINISTRYTEAM.COM — 61

Ministry Team - Winter 2021

Articles inside

MINISTRY SPOTLIGHT Learn how a parachurch partnership extends one church’s ministry

HEROES OF FAITH How God used a small church pastor to help a depressed teen