Dave Travis Now

What IS Changing in the CHURCH

(Long Post Warning) (and this was posted a few days ago over at learnings.leadnet.org)

This is the first part of my speech to the Cornerstone Knowledge Network. The speech was in four parts:

Things that ARE changing in the Church World

Things that AREN’T changing but some say they are

Things that AREN’T CHANGING YET but I think are coming

Things that SHOULD BE changing but don’t seem to be happening

Some caveats:

One, this is all my opinion based on my keyhole view of the world. Feel free to disagree.

My key hole that I see through involves lots of leaders of very large churches in US (and a few in Europe). The avg size for our clients is around 3700 in weekly attendance.

I believe that the things these churches deal with often set the tone and direction for other churches (for better or worse). So some will read my observations and say “that doesn’t apply to my church.” Fine by me. You may assign a particular point to another bucket. Fine with me.

My attempt with these lists were to help these business leaders whose livelihoods depend on working with churches be better equipped to deal with their challenges.

And part of this reflection is based on my comparisons to some notes from conversations with Senior Pastors of large churches 15 years ago. So they are “what has changed.”

So, Things that I think ARE CHANGING:

I am just going to touch on them here and if demand is great enough write a small booklet or a blog post on each one.

1. The rise of Multi Site churches – multi site changes everything as we say.
2. Social Media penetration – I read that 85% of Americans aged 18-29 logged onto at least on

   on
   

   e social media site in August 2009. That’s one month not year to date. I think widespread
   adoption of this communication medium changed how we perceive leadership so I think it changes churches.

3. Internet Campuses – They’re here and they are about to be “in a box” so any size church can have one if the want. For some this will be a fad but for others this is going to be a big part of their reaching strategy going forward.

4. Growth of Teaching Teams – that is a big, accepted change from when I joined
   Leadership Network almost 15 years ago. It’s almost like everyone wants to do it now while they may not know quite how to do it.
5. New Church Development by young 20/30s. People say this generation is not going to church. They are. They aren’t going to existing churches, they are flooding some new churches.
6. Online giving – this number continues to rise and some churches in Europe tell me that they get 80% of their giving through this channel. That is way above US. So I think eventually the number will rise. They tend to get it by automated draft by the way. Probably the most consistent way to get it.
7. The iPhone revolution of communications. Probably more accurately called the smartphone revolution with others now coming on market. How will we communicate in the future – lots being driven via these hand held devices. Pay attention to that.
8. Big change – Availability of appreciated stock . So what does that matter. Lots of gifts in the past came through that type of giving. When it ain’t around no more its hard to build an extravagant building. Might be a good thing.
9. Availability of home equity. Not as much as there used to be. Plus is that it is driving folks to be more fiscally responsible. My guess is that it might have some short term affects on churches in subtle ways.
10. More thinking of church “beyond the walls”. In Leadership Network language that means “Externally Focused Churches” being the best church FOR your community. (We have lots on this one)
11. Lots more multi racial churches (though perhaps not multi cultural churches). We have been tracking these numbers for some time. What this means? Well if you are in the building and advisement industry, (like these people are ) it means that the committee or team you are working with may have different assumptions within their own team to be worked through.
12. Mobility of Americans – I recently read how that total percentages were down. I attribute mobility factors as a big reason for megachurch attraction. If people aren’t moving at least 10 miles away as much, they tend to stay in their same patterns.
13. The book/magazine/church conference business – Anything print seems to be suffering so there is a big restructuring going on there. Also in the church conference business, there are going to be a few winners, a few that can survive and a lot that go under. So a restructuring there as well.

OK – that was the highlights of my first list.

Any to add?

Some may actually be on one of my other lists but I would love to hear your thoughts. Just hit the old comments button and send them in.

Dave Travis

Managing Director

Leadership Network

50% of Today's Pastors will not retire as Pastors

50% of today’s pastors will not retire as pastors - How can we reverse this?

 Not sure we should.

@TomRHarper posted this on twitter today. Actually he just posted the first line, the second is my response.

Let’s just state for the record that Tom is an excellent church consultant, smarter and better looking than me. And I think I get the drift of his statement and he means – Some really good people are being run off from the pastorate and how can we reverse that trend?

Tom has agreed to post a response on his blog and when he posts that response I will amend this tweet. Please feel free to join in the comments on both blogs. I am posting this at davetravisnow.com, learnings.leadnet and Tom is over at Church Central I think.

But I also got to thinking about some of my friends that I went to seminary with that have “left the ministry” even though they really haven’t…….and that is where we need to expand our thinking.

So let’s get a few things out of the way.

Some pastors leave the ministry due to moral issues – I am not saying these should not be restored to ministry roles but some take a permanent leave after those circumstances. I doubt Tom is talking about this group.

Some pastors end up in jail for a variety of offenses. Hey I am not saying they can’t eventually serve again either (remember Paul and Martin Luther King Jr. did some jail time too).

Some mess up in other ways. Perhaps in their confusion about leadership models and what leadership is they split churches, cause division and carry a poor reputation with them and are unable to find (or plant) a church. Don’t think Tom is talking about those but hey, it does happen.

Some become professors at colleges and seminaries. Not for me I don’t think but they seem to find it fulfilling. Sure, they occasionally take an interim pastorate but I don’t think they consider themselves pastors.

Some become consultants, fund raisers, denominational servants, church builders, and other things in the “church related industry.” For many of these people, the new role brings great satisfaction. In fact they feel that God has uniquely equipped them for that role. I doubt Tom is talking about these folks but technically, they are no longer pastors. I know my own seminary considers me to have “left the ministry.” So does my grandmother, but I don’t feel that way.

I know multiple friends at smaller mission agencies and parachurch groups that took a key role to help that group expand its ministry. It’s not that they didn’t feel called to pastor, it’s just that they feel called to help those groups advance the kingdom outside the local church.

I even know of some pastors who have left to serve in the Private Foundation and charity world. Their skills for people development, vision casting and evaluation are highly valued. But they are not a pastor in the formal sense.

I know of some other pastors, who were great “successful” and prominent who entered another line of work. Some were related to family businesses where the whole of their clan needed their leadership. Some entered the teaching profession and have now teach in middle and high schools. Some did this for steady income or benefit reasons but most did it because they saw a great mission field that they felt they could serve. In their heart, they are somewhat still a pastor but just don’t serve in a formal church sense. I know a few that had family situations, such as a special needs child, that exited church leadership for the business world to better serve their entire family’s needs.

I know a fair amount of pastors who have gone into industrial, prison and military chaplaincy and have found that very fulfilling. I also know some that have become involved in the courts system and parole system. They still use their pastoral gifts to serve people but outside formal church structures. Have they left the ministry? Not in my mind.

I think the queasiness I have about Tom’s statement (in tweetable form mind you and he didn’t elaborate) is that I think our definition of “pastor” is too limited. My five-fold friends would say it is actually our view of the all the five fold ministries is too limited to “local church” as we have traditionally defined them.

I think the queasiness is also the assumption that I made that what Tom meant was “full time” or even “bivocational” pastors serving as lead pastor of a local church.

I just think there are lots of pastors who never serve a church and we probably don’t call them pastors. But we should. They have pastoral gifts and are exercising them to advance the kingdom.

 Dave Travis

Managing Director

Leadership Network

Greatest Opportunity of the Decade

I received a few emails this past week from very good, solid church-serving organizations that provide leadership programs for leaders. The emails were advertising specific programs for "dealing with the economic crisis." The messaging speaks of cutting back costs, laying off staff, and bemoaning the hard times. To their credit, these organizations are trying to help church leaders productively deal with these very hard challenges.

I know these are important issues and must be addressed. And I have advised many clients in these matters as well.

But from the ads they appear to approach the issue through the lens of struggle. They approach this economic season as a key obstacle and challenge to the church's mission.

I choose to believe that this is the greatest opportunity for ministry since 2001. The lens of opportunity says that we have a positive message of hope that is the right message for the times.

It is time to seize the day for church leaders.

 

We want to be proactive in dealing with attender's challenges and concerns.

And we view this season as one where our messaging should be encouraging not discouraging.

I am not proposing a "prosperity theology" or "positive thinking" but rather see proactive leaders being intentional at finding very creative ways to advance the gospel, the outreach of their church, and the increase of their ministry internationally.

My challenge to readers today is to examine the language used in all communications be they written, oral, web based and the like.

Are you unintentionally communicating a message of doom and gloom or a message of hope and redemption.

My sense from talking to lots of leaders this past quarter is that those who are communicating "I know times are hard" are not seeing as much fruit as those who are saying "what a powerful time it is for our church to show its love for this community."

I am not saying those are totally disconnected messages but those that focus on the former see this as the greatest crisis of the decade. Those that focus on the latter see it as the greatest opportunity.

So which are you?

Feel free to push back on me in the comments.

Small group haters - Read this

I saw some comments recently in some blogs from some fairly prominent church leaders that said: "Any pastor that tells you they have more than 35% of their people in small groups is a liar." A lot of folks chimed in agreeing with them.

From the source of the comments, I would describe most of their churches as very focused on the weekend services and getting folks "in the door."

At the recent innovation3 conference my buddy Larry Osborne, totally unaware of those recent blog and twitters came up to tell me that North Coast had really hit a growth edge again. Up 1000 people since last year at the same time. (They added three new more venue opportunities this month) But more importantly, the small group launch had 86% of their people enrolled right now.

Now he knows that for the next few weeks that percentage will drop to get down to their "normal" 80%.

North Coast doesn't add venues (the weekend stuff) unless they can maintain 80% in their small groups.

They want to keep and grow people that God is bringing them.

Now, I am not putting down leaders that aren't small group oriented. Perhaps you have some great ways to continue to disciple,teach and grow your people. Great.

But before you start throwing out stats based on your own methods that are not working, why not look at some of those that are?

Fortunately - there is The Sticky Church Conference to help folks along.

http://stickychurch.com/conference
There is one on March 31 in Chicago area and May 11 in Atlanta area.

And do yourself a favor and get the book too.

Sticky Church

(Full disclosure: This is a Leadership Network Innovation Series book and Larry is a long-time friend)

Last thing about movements - for now

Ok the last thing I want to say about movements....
for now

this week

or until something gets in my head that won't let go.

I think one of the most overlooked items in movements, especially social movements in the US is the business factor.

What business interests are aligned with the movement?

We still live in a nation where money matters. Not making a value judgment, only a description.

And the truth is, for some so called "movements" there is very little business support or a business case to be made.

When a group of businesses or enterprises get behind a movement and want it to succeed, things are accelerated.

Remember the movie "Wag the Dog" and the character played by Denis Leary? He was the person who aligned songwriters and tennis shoe makers around the idea of using the "war" to advance their own businesses. Hence they invested in the idea and helped bring that fictitious idea to the forefront.

So who are the various businesses that would like to see your movement succeed? How would they profit if it succeeded?

This is a powerful constituency not to be overlooked.

One more thing on movements

So as I was working this week I realized another important element to contemporary movements.

You need an image. Preferably a photograph. Something that sticks in your mind like a song that you keep singing regardless of whether you like it.

While political campaigns work hard at the images, especially the video, i think it's more important to have a provocative single photograph.

Before widespread photography, Josiah Wedgewood created an emblem which was used on buttons, plates and handbills to create awareness of the abolition of slavery for England.

And for my money, I think the Civil Rights movement in America turned on a few photograph's from Birmingham in 1963.

Before I show you the photographs, because they are so infamous, my guess is that you can already see them in your mind. One is a photo of a dog attacking a non violent protester and another of a group of young people with a firehose blasting them.

In both cases, the photographer captured the cause. In both cases they could be considered provocative and offensive photographs. People could take sides on the meaning of them.

Great movements have images associated with them. Sometimes they are created and staged but they exist to help the cause along.

What is the image for your movement?

And if you don't have one, how can you get one.

Do you want a program or a movement?

From program to movement

(I was asked by an organization recently to speak to them about moving from program to movement. After some negotiation we monkeyed the title a bit.

My goal was to outline 21 emphasis points to speak from. So without hearing the full context of the speech, this will be a tough read.)

But they wanted a copy, and since I didn’t make any. Here it is.

Perhaps when I have time I will try to fill this out a bit and make it smoother. Until then, you are stuck with it.

1. Not sure you can get there. Movements appear. You join them. Not sure you create them. They start with different leaders doing not thinking about it. Movements may coalesce.

2. Movements are catalyzed and not programmed.

3. The Best examples we have are American Civil Rights and Homosexual movement. Perhaps the Conservative movement in American Politics-  post Goldwater.  But I am going to use Multi-Site churches as a template for my discussion. You could apply the same points to the others.

4. Has to begin in hearts of individual leaders actually leading something of note and value. Monomaniacs with a dream. “Fanatics” who will die for their dream in Eric Hoffer’s language. Movements are anchored around some attractive personalities – at least attractive to somebody. Somebody looks up to them. And it has to have some ego involved. There has to be enough ego on the part of the leader to want to be noticed and enough to sustain during times of attack.
   

5. Long time horizons. These things don’t happen quickly. Small battles won over time. Example in Civil rights, integration of Army, Brown v. Board, Civil Rights Act I, etc. Work various fronts of the “war” but settle for small wins along the way.

6. A coalition of the willing – various leaders, their groups, foundations that support, funders, some businesses that will be served by the movement if it succeeds. Never underestimate the power of money in these deals.
   

7. Coalitions coalesce at key points in the movement but for the most part they are going their own way and fighting for their own organization/cause/battle. They aren’t coordinated or planned except around key catalytic events. Expecting more slows things down.

8. Movements have some degree of popular support. There is a percentage of the population that really wants to see it happen and can serve as foot soldiers for the leaders.
   

9. Movements also have to have opposition.  There has to be the fight between “good” and “evil” and debate and rancor and polarization. The debate increases the visibility and sharpens the arguments which gains converts to both sides. It generates media attention which serves the purpose of getting the word out. Media covers conflict, controversy and Novelty. Most church movements are bland and without opposition.

10. A precipatory event or catalytic event. For politics, elections serve this purpose. For others, marches and protests. For our examples, perhaps conferences and other gatherings.
    

11. Cultural, demographic and other environmental factors that passively support the changes desired. So, for example, the explosion of the suburbs helped support the creating of the megachurch and the rapid expansion of many of these suburbs supported the multi site movement.

12. In some ways the movements have “intellectual support” – articles written, studies made, etc. This base gives some movements legitimacy in the eyes of educators and certain media.
    

13. It also helps to give the movement some common language and terms. Everyone doesn’t have to agree to them but they help others know what you are talking about.

14. The role we at Leadership Network played is to serve the movement and amplify it and speed the diffusion. We can’t create them. We only find the right leaders and try to help them along. And for multi-site we have some big ego leaders.
    

15. Our method is to put them in the room and help them think through THEIR plans and goals, not to impose ours on them.

16. We help build the bridges between the leaders and their ideas. Help them find solutions to their problems.
    

17. In our notes and concept papers and emails we help build common language. Example – we are a multi site church not a church with multiple sites. Also helped others under

    stan

    d the idea.

18. We started to publicize what was happening. Became background source for press.
    

19. We struck gold when some leaders strongly opposed the idea. Some said that it would hurt church planting and others said that it wasn’t a biblical model of church. The debate helped to draw attention to the idea so that others could examine it for themselves.

20. Apparently it was a good time since church income at megachurches was strong during the formative season and enabled them to expand quickly using multiple sites.
    

21. The rest is history.

Way to Go Seacoast Church Dream Center!

know this is not the only church to do this. In fact we had a Leadership Community of Churches that had health clinics and other programs that serve the uninsured American population that needs healthcare. But yesterday

Seacoast Church opened their Dream Center ’s Clinic and the news organizations covered it well.

Follow these links for more of the story, including some good video:

http://www.wciv.com/news/stories/0109/583078_video.html?ref=newsstory

 

http://www.wciv.com/news/stories/0109/583078.html

 

http://www.counton2.com/cbd/news/local/article/volunteer_doctors_staffing_new_clinic_opening_today/18850/

 

http://charleston.net/news/2009/jan/07/one_stop_shop_heart_soul67534/  

Seacoast was inspired by the teams from the LA Dream Center, The Healing Place Dream Center and some folks from Leadership Network (just to brag a little) and some connections with one of our partners The ECHO Foundation (Empowering Christian Healthcare Organizations) to make this a reality.

ECHO, while working on a variety of healthcare access issues, really does want to help churches in this ministry.

http://www.echohealthnetwork.org/contact.html

That organization was birthed by John and Nancy Snyder and we are proud to say that John has been one of our board members at Leadership Network for some time.

But the kudos go to Seacoast’s team of staff and volunteers who have made the whole of the

Dream Center, not just the medical center, a reality for North Charleston

I praise God for what you are doing and hope more churches will follow your lead.

You might want to seek out some of these folks at our upcoming i3 conference. www.innovation3gathering.com

Update at 2:00 p.m. Greg Surratt, Lead Pastor at Seacoast, has just posted a summary from his point of view. If I were him I would feel very proud of my congregation today.

http://www.gregsurratt.org/greg_surratt/2009/01/all-i-can-say-is-wow.html

Year End Giving

Today is December 31 and I think we just made our last charitable gift of the year. We had been thinking through several options and finally decided to do them all.

Over the last 4 months I interviewed over 125 Senior and Executive Pastors of larger churches and everyone was worried about year-end giving this year. For most larger churches, the last month of the year means about 15-20% of income. That is probably similar to other size churches but my database there is smaller. For many not for profits, the percentage is even higher.

 I just got off the phone with an officer of a foundation that had recieved multiple million dollar contributions today. These had been in the works for a long time, but the giver waited here until the last day of the year to make the contribution.

 I made some predictions for year-end giving to reporters in the past month and it will take a month or so to tell if I was right or not.

In my interviews with the above churches the trend is that attendance was normal and up for the last four months of the year, but giving had not maintained the same pace. In general, most of these churches were about where they were last year with a few exceptions. The exceptions tended to be those in "sand states" (Southern California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida) as well as states hard hit by carmaker troubles (think Michigan, etc.) These churches, especially if there was a capital campaign going on, were getting hit hard.

 Those churches doing "well" had made very modest budgets for the past 24 months and were prepared for the recession. Their giving was slightly up over projection, but nothing like the fast growth times of a few years ago.

A few thoughts that I have shared with reporters:
1. Appreciated stock - while many churches have relied on those types of gifts for year end and capital campaigns, they are going to be much harder to see in the next season. There is still some appreciated stock out there though. It may have lost a lot of its value for the past few years, but a some of the long holdings that people may have are still worth more than they paid for them, especially if it was some sort of grant or option in previous years. Still, it ain't the glory days for those types of gifts.

 2. Real Estate - while many churches don't deal with this type of gift, or handle it through a local community foundation, there are some that have. While real estate values are down across the board, some donors still hold land that they are willing to give. Makes sense to partner with a local Christian Community Foundation for those purposes.

 3. Americans are generous - While the above two items generally reflect high worth donors, most of us give from cash holdings. My prediction was that if a church had a major local or international cause that attenders saw as tangible and needed, then a special offering of that type would set records.

Why?
 a. Americans give to real needs they can see. If you present a worthy cause that helps people less fortunate than the giver, they respond. So if the church said we have 10 families to help, they did. If the goal was to fill the local food bank, they did. If the goal was to send water systems to Africa, they did. If the church said, we have a group of attenders hard hit by the housing downturn and we need to help, they did.

 b. These gifts come from cash and here is what I think happened in the last few months of 2008. On September 1st everyone had gasoline prices above $4 and everyone was worried what was next. Christmas gifts for family and friends got adjusted downwards as people reset their expectations for lifestyle. People avoided making large purchases. Lo and behold, gas in my neck of the woods is below $1.40 and we have more money in our pockets.

The thought was why not be generous and help some. In spite of the economy and world situation, Christian Leaders need to keep on encouraging people to be generous in all things as a matter of discipleship of the person, not from the needs of our churches.

 When people develop generous hearts, our needs will be met.
Dave Travis
Managing Director Leadership Network
Connecting Innovators To Multiply

This blog is cross posted at http://learnings.leadnet.org