Report from your Session and Pastor for Moving Ahead!

May 2010

Recognizing our current need to adapt to changing demands in our mission strategy, our Pastor visited numerous new church plants in April, and reported to the Session on trends and patterns.  From successful and failed church profiles, we have discerned predictable patterns and effective prescriptions for addressing the expanding ministry demands we are facing.  This report summarizes the best strategy for moving forward that we began discussing at the annual meeting.

  We had a wonderful congregational meeting on April 25.  Thank you to all for attending and beginning the dialogue on our next stage of ministry: stabilization. We should understand by now that the structure we have been using to plant the new church (phase one) is not designed to grow the church (phase three).  The current structure puts us in a deficit position, and unless we make a transition soon, we will not be able to sustain the church beyond five months. 

 First, what we are going through is normal.  New churches can expect deficit budgets and declining participation to begin after construction and to continue for up to nine years.  The duration depends on how quickly a church recognizes the need to shift ministry models, and how firmly a church begins to implement the shifts. This need is usually recognized after two budget cycles. 

 The good news is that we are ahead of the game.  We have noticed this situation within six months, 18 months sooner than most.  This puts us in a superior position.  

Although the stabilization phase can take up to nine years, we also know that when a church acts firmly, directly and quickly, the transition has been as fast as two years.  The key is the firm, direct and quick engagement of the components necessary that put a church on a trajectory for expansive ministry. 

 There are three well-proven imperative components for a successful transition from a church planting structure to an expanding church ministry structure.

 These structural imperatives are: 

1.      A member-driven/member-participation model that replaces the pastor-driven model,

2.      A serious commitment to make tithing a goal.

3.      Staff adaptation that meets the ministry and stays within budget guidelines.

 Member-driven/member-participation means we are all involved. 

 We expect all members to participate and set the standard of discipleship for others as best as we are able.  Our presence at Bible studies, prayer meeting, fellowship, work days, or lack thereof, tells new people what we deem as important.  The Session will be further addressing the member-driven/member-participation model with a lay-led member-oversight structure to keep connections strong and to encourage member-driven ministry ideas to be developed quickly.

 Two churches illustrate the importance of an active membership.  Westminster Church had very low membership participation.  New people would attend a Bible study or prayer meeting, and seeing no one from the church’s active membership present, they quickly got the message that these activities were not important.  They stopped coming.  They were good Westminster Church members, living up to the minimal participation standard of everyone else, but they were poor disciples.  Today, twenty years into their church planting project, they remain in decline, down from 153 members to 26!

 On the other hand, Meadows Fellowship felt participation was so important that they assigned members to attend events, whether they were interested or not, solely to emphasize the importance of Bible studies, mission service and prayer to new participants.  They now have over 1000 involved in the church after starting with only 15. 

 Committee work, administrative tasks, organizational meetings don’t count.  These activities, although important to operating the church, have nothing to do with exhibiting the discipleship people yearn to explore when they come to a church. What counts is our presence at the ministry activities: fellowship, Bible study, prayer meetings, mission service, church school.  We will not expand if our discipleship is an afterthought.  Please, make the effort to do more than Sunday worship if you really want to see your church expand.  We will grow only as far and as fast as each of us is willing to give, serve and participate. 

  Tithing is the second imperative component.  

 It has been documented that the sooner a church takes tithing as a serious goal, the sooner it begins a sustained ministry expansion.  For example, Meadows Fellowship never stopped emphasizing tithing, and their transition lasted two years.  On the other hand, Mountain View Church didn’t start a tithing emphasis for six years, and their transition to expansion didn’t take off until then.  The reason is that Biblically, God’s work is assumed to operate on 10% of the income of God’s people.  Anything less means the church can not meet its call.  In fact, acceptance of a lower standard is, according to Malachi, stealing from God.  

 Another church, Westminster, hasn’t embraced tithing for twenty years on the premise that it is too forceful a mandate for members on limited and fixed incomes.  They are still in decline.  Where will we be?

Our current average weekly giving is $15.09.  If tithing is the rule, then we could assume that our average household income is $150.90 a week, or $7,846.80 a year.  This is hard to believe.  Even on Social Security, such an income assumes the last working wage at retirement was $13,500.  We all know that this is the situation for some, but it is not the situation for all, and we cannot excuse poor stewardship on the backs of those with very limited incomes. On average, according the U.S. Census Bureau, our household incomes are $32,845. If tithing is our stewardship goal, as God expects of us, our giving per household should average $3,284.50 a year, or $63.16 each week.  Presently our tithing level is 2.4%.  We have a ways to go.

 Staff adaptations, the third imperative, means we are flexible in staff responsibilities, time and budgeting as is necessary to support member-driven ministries as they emerge. 

 For instance, at one church, Bethany, the pastor reduced his time at the church and began ministering at a local college, because they were in a college town and growth was seen as coming from this previously ignored population.

 At another church, Mountain View dismissed a membership-secretary in order to hire a children’s music director, because the member-driven priorities became children more than administration.  Other members stepped in to absorb the administrative tasks—another example of a highly motivated, member-driven/member-participation church. 

 As a Session, we are looking at ways to adapt our staffing to correspond with recommended budget levels.  In a pastor-driven, church-planting structure, staffing is advised to be capped at 85% of the budget.  This we have done.  However, to create a successfully expanding church, we need to start moving our staffing costs towards a recommended 50% cap.  This adaptation assumes that the other two imperatives are being pursued simultaneously: people are leading member-driven ministry and tithing is taken seriously as a goal.  If they are not, it is impossible to reach this recommended 50% cap.   To meet this recommended budget level the Session is considering how to make temporarily adaptations of $2000 less a month within the next six months, with the idea of holding this staffing for no more than three years.

 We need an attainable and reasonable goal.  Here is what we expect to happen… 

First, get over to church for Bible study and prayer.  Head over to Holyoke for the Brown Bag.  Offer to host coffee hour and invite a new participant to work along side you.  Join the worship leadership team. Volunteer to be part of the new member oversight team. Or, start something new that is close to your heart and driven by you – member-driven!  Established members are the pacesetters for new participants.  How we engage ourselves will accentuate the discipleship patterns of others.  The best part is you’ll grow closer to God and be an ever more gracious Christian in the process.

 Second, strive for the tithe.  If between us we move incrementally from 2.4% to 4.6% giving, (increasing our average household giving by $62.40 a month), while the Session works to make staff adaptations of $2000 less each month, it is reasonable that we will have a sustainable budget within six months.  This will be the foundation for a sustainably expanding ministry well beyond these six months, but it will not happen if we expect others to do on our behalf.  Each of us is called by God to strive for the tithe.  You may not realize it just yet, but the best part of tithing is that as your money priorities become God-driven, your financial affairs always improve. 

Third, understand that adaptations will be made in our staffing.  This is possible, however, only if we keep active in our member-participation efforts.  More member-driven engagement shifts the burden of ministry success from the staff to the people of God, where it inherently belongs.  The best part is that as we streamline the staffing to facilitate the transition, all of us gain in efficiency, and ministry resources can be directed to member-driven ministry.

 These three components, Member-driven/Member-participant ministry, Tithing, and Staff Adaptations, are crucial for setting in motion a sustainable and expanding church.  Churches that engage all three components quickly, firmly and directly move out of the post-construction period with great effectiveness, and do so very quickly, in as little as two years.  Likewise, the absence of any one of these three components inhibits, if not outright prohibits, a church’s ability to expand its ministry with strength and promise.

 We firmly believe it is reasonable and attainable to have a sustainable structure on the way to an expanding ministry in as little as six months, but all of us must engage all three components quickly, firmly and directly. 

 We are without doubt on a road to great ministry and service to the glory of our gracious Lord.  This can be done.  Now let’s all make it happen!