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

A blessing and a haunting

The man on the left in this photo is my friend Peicho Muhtarov. Peicho lives and works in Bulgaria where he pastors and serves with the Bulgarian Bible League helping them to plant churches.

I got to know Peicho through our European Church Planting Network program we run at Leadership Network

I don't write about our European operation too much, but we have worked with two dozen or so churches and planting organizations over the past few years in our goal to help them catalyze 500 new churches. I will write more on that in the coming days.

Peicho came to Atlanta to share about his work in Bulgaria and I was blessed to go hear him last Sunday at Calvary Church in Dunwoody, Ga.

He had a great message and testimony.

(That is his wife Dede on his arm and another friend from the Bulgarian work who came along)

But something he said just haunted me.

We were talking about his calling and work and he said: "David, I had a friend who was an evangelist and preached to many in my country after the openness. (the fall of communism) And they responded and became believers. Praise God."

But then he added:

"But the churches were not able or ready to receive them. They could not handle such an influx of baby Christians and the harvest was mostly lost. I want to make sure that never happens again."

And that is the haunting feeling I have had since he told me.

I have often used that scenario as an exercise with American Church leaders. "What if God moved mightily in your region, and massive numbers of people were becoming believers....How would you have to change your current way of doing things to disciple them?"

Those questions, many times conducted within our various Leadership Communities help leaders to stretch their thinking to get to new ways.

But Peicho has lived it. And it haunts him. And me.

What about you?

Dave Travis

Managing Director

Leadership Network

Reporters have a tough job

Reporters have a tough job.

Most of the ones I talk to genuinely want to learn and be informed. So I spend time trying trying to give them context and background for their stories. Those can go up to an hour sometimes, but generally they last 15-20 minutes.

In addition to talking to me they are generally talking to 6-12 other sources trying to get multiple angles on the story.

Now sometimes they have a story they want to tell and are looking for material to back up their story. In some ways like a preacher who has a great illustration and is looking for a text. (Ok, I have quit preaching and gone to meddling.)

At the end of the day (and reporters always want to finish quickly), the print journalist has 300-700 words and the tv person gets 2 minutes.

So my 20 minute CNN taping gets 5 seconds and a partial quote that I didn't think was relevant to the story I was trying to tell. It didn't reflect the thrust of the interview but that wasn't their story, it was mine.

That's just how it goes. I don't get upset unless they spell my name wrong. Which CNN didn't so I was happy.

We don't do conferences - but we did do i3

So I have seen a lot of chatter via twitter and blogs about the i3 and thoughts such as “I will be there next year” or “Let’s do it again.”

 

While I thank folks for their good wishes, i3 was a one time deal. We don’t like to repeat ourselves.

 

A little history for those new to our work at Leadership Network.

 

We started some events for large churches in the early 1990s. They were called “The Church in the 21^st Century” conferences. They were limited to about 400 people and you had to be on the list to be invited. They featured a mix of business and church speakers.

 

While they were lots of fun to do, we came to the point where we thought to be repeating ourselves, so we stopped.

 

Plus several other great providers adapted and blew up the idea big time. And that was good. We were happy.

 

A few years later we did an event called “Exploring Off the Map.” It was a fully themed and integrated conference that set a new standard for experiential church conferences. Lots of folks took the materials and adapted them.

Again, we were happy about that.

 

And then in 2003, we did a conference called “Camp Improv ” about the importance of improvisation in ministry.

Not many folks copied that one, but we were pleased with it and that was ok by us.

 

We decided to do i3 for multiple reasons but we felt it was time to call together the tribe again and show how it has grown and changed. We wanted to mix it up, put some new faces in front of people, distribute some ideas and innovations we have been working on in the past 5 years.

 

We wanted to platform some of the varieties of leaders we have the privilege of knowing and learning from over those years. We wanted this one to focus on practitioners doing interesting ministry.

 

We think we succeeded in hitting those goals.

 

But we don’t really do conferences.

 

Leadership Network is more about helping people implement innovative ideas into practical, on-the-ground strategies for churches. We have been working quietly in our “Leadership Communities” programs for the last 6 years on those.

 

In most cases churches double their impact and reach by participating in those small, peer environments with mentors, coaches and support along the way. We measure real results, not just talk.

 

We want to be getting together the right people for real conversations that lead to results that matter. We want to be about building enduring relationships with our friends.

 

So, our conference ministry is sort of “one-off”.

 

Doing a conference with 100 speakers from 100 different churches is huge undertaking ON TOP of our other work, and draws our directors and support team into that mix for quite awhile, sometimes at the expense of our other programs.

 

We don’t like repeating ourselves. We want to make each experience unique and special for the participants. We want our participants to engage fully in that experience and not think, “oh, I will catch that later.”

 

While we tried to put as much of the experience online through live streaming, “back stage” interviews, and the dozens of live bloggers and thousands of twitters, nothing can replace the live experience and face-to-face conversations.

 

I know the technology is not quite at the point for all that to work smoothly just yet, but just wait, it’s coming. At least some of you grabbed some of the core ideas from those sources. And thanks to a bunch of twitterers and bloggers that helped us to do that. We thought that was great.

 

Yes, this time we tried some things that we think other conferences will steal, copy and adapt. We borrowed a few ourselves. And that makes us happy.

 

And we will continue to work with multiple providers of other conferences to lend them our support and goodwill and connections.

 

People like: Churchplanters.com conference, The North Coast Training Network, The Exponential Conference, Catalyst, the New Thing Network, The Healing Place Practicums, The Externally Focused Network just to name a few.

 

Great people doing great conferences for leaders. We are for all of them. We often help sponsor and share the word about their conferences.

 

Yes we do have some announcements coming about some small scale Leadership Network events and immersion experiences for this year. But in our usual style, these will be smaller conversations with more limited focus. They will be great times of learning and application but not like a speaker-driven conference.

 

We are always more about peers than presentation.

 

Later this spring we also have a big announcement about an entire new experience for our friends. We think it will change the game again. Or it could bomb out entirely. But we are going to try it because that is just our nature.

 

For those that came and were with us live and in person……thanks. We hope you found it helpful. For those that joined us “virtually live” – I didn’t get to participate with you much but we hope you were able to glean some things to help you as well.

 

And watch this space and our twitters about some content from i3 that we will release in a few weeks for you to remember, re-enjoy or engage with for the first time.

 

Stay in touch.

 

Dave Travis

Managing Director

Leadership Network

Dave.travis@leadnet.org

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