conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

can you get some satisfaction?

I can't get no satisfaction...but I try.
-The Rolling Stones

Class yesterday was excellent. We worked through Kennon Callahan's book Twelve Keys to an Effective Church and The Anxious Organization. Both, in short, speak to the issue of satisfaction or happiness in human institutions. Fascinating stuff. The class could have very easily become a theoretical chop shop for swingin' idaes on growing your youth group, but thankfully did not. The instructor also brought in some tools of community organizing (one-on-ones) to breathe life into some of these notions. It surprisingly easy to forget that there are people involved in these organizations. People! In church! Who knew?

I just wanted to share some of the Callahan book with you. The twelve keys he lists are as follows:

1. A Concrete Mission
Discover what your church is called to do; find a hurt and meet it. A church needs a focus; it can't be all things to all people. Callahan suggests churches identify no more than three major mission objectives. Don't adopt a negatively stated mission such as simply surviving. Like a sports team, Callahan says, "Don't play to avoid losing, play to win."

2. Effective Shepherding
Callahan believes that visitation by both pastor and laity with members, newcomers, the sick, shut-ins, and the unchurched is essential for a church to be healthy.

3. Dynamic Worship
Sermons that are easily followed, provide humor and drama, and share something hopeful and helpful are key. There needs to be connected movement in the service that strings together one theme. Quality music by a gifted volunteer or staff person is essential for good worship.

4. Good Group Ministry
People are looking for a place to belong. They want to be in community, not on a committee, Callahan states. People, not programs, need to be the focus of a church, and this largely happens through groups.

5. Strong Leadership
Effective leaders are not simply enablers, responding to the congregation's wishes. Instead, leaders must be proactive, visionary, and willing to lead the congregation forward.

6. An Effective Decision Making Process
Streamlined organizational structure keeps leaders from wasting time in too many committee meetings. The congregation should perceive the decision-making process as reasonable in length and effective at reaching decisions and achieving established goals.

7. Several Excellent Programs
Too many programs exhaust a church. Choose a few (two or three, and Christian Ed counts) in which the church can be competent.

8. Open Accessibility
This includes location accessibility-is the church easy to find? Are there sufficient green space and visible parking? It also includes ministry accessibility-is there ministry that attracts people and draws them in?

9. High Visibility
Can the church facility be easily seen? Are the pastor, people, and ministries visible to the community? Is there a good church sign? In the final analysis, however, it's people who attract people.

10. Adequate Parking
There should be a parking space, Callahan says, for every 1.75 people. Twenty percent of the parking should be empty, an invitation for seekers to stop in. A full parking lot communicates "there's no room for you." Obviously suburban and urban congregations will find a work around.

11 Adequate Facilities
There should be a balance between size and usage. The condition of the church property communicates what the congregation thinks of itself.

12. Generous Giving
Income goes up in relation to increased participation in ministries. It's also important to remember that money follows mission. A great ministry inspires greater giving.

The first six are relational characteristics, while the second six are functional characteristics. Yes, programs are functional and not relational. And, if one were to rate them in importance, the relational would hopelfully always be ranked higher. This is not to say that one should ignore the leaky roof, it's just that though good to fix the leak, doing so does not grow your church. It simply prevents it from getting worse. A helpful act to be sure. But the difference is significant. We're talking about satisfaction.

In short, relational strengths increase satisfaction while functional strengths decrease dissatisfaction. And, what's more, the two are not related. Fixing the roof does not increase satisfaction. It keeps people from complaining and the building from falling apart. Dissatisfaction decreases. Wondrous! But people are not necessarily happier. Well, unless you can turn the functional strengths into relational somehow...like, holding a Fiddler on the Roof look alike contest as you fix your roof. Then it's no longer about the roof anyway, and you have a relational function. But that's another post.

A couple other things to keep in mind about these functions. First, even the best church only does six or eight of these very well. Did you get that? So, let go of the idea that all twelve are essential. Get six...maybe eight...and that'll take years. Breathe. Let go.

And second,they are "strengths" or "functions." When Callahan speaks of keys, I get a little lost in "silver bullet" thinking. You know, if we just do these three things, then everyone will come! Yahoo! Um, no. These are functions. These are the things that make up the geography of a church to some degree. And these are strengths. We follow our strengths. Do not jump on the things we do wrong and try to fix them. Follow the strengths. What are your congregation's strengths? Work from there. Anything else will simply frustrate you and make everyone else miserable. Now that's a ministry to be proud of...institutionalized misery. Perhaps needless to say, I loved that little bit.

Well, that's what I have for today. I hope you all enjoy your day. I have one more session left and then it's off to do more things for the church. This has been a great class. I'm sure to make some poor lay leader in the church read Callahan's book. But that's for another day.

Posted by tripp at January 16, 2008 06:19 AM