Best Practices

The business world is flush with buzz words such as "best practices." However, of all the adages created by the corporate community, "best practices" is one of the more descriptive and beneficial to follow.

A church is certainly not a business and in most cases is better off not trotting down the trail of fads that business entities gleefully follow. The search for "best practices" though is a beneficial goal for the church community and can come in many forms. Here are a few places to seek out those best practices for your congregation:

1. Start with the Bible. Christ was careful to map out for us how His message effectively flows through the people of His creation. At their core, people have not changed. They still seek the same things that Christ addressed. Carefully consider the manner in which the early church engaged with people to find the best practices of approach and execution.
2. Be a student of organizations represented in your congregation. Seek out casual conversations with lay leaders in your church to learn what is working best in their business, school, civic organization. How are they communicating with people? What are their goals for next year? How are roles assigned according to those goals? What motivates people toward action in their organization?
3. Read widely. Subscribe to Google Reader to track articles from innovative publications of best practices such as Fast Company. As you read, make notes in your paper or online based capture system. Look for application not just information.
4. Have courage to experiment. Effective organizations are willing to try new things. Unfortunately, churches usually are not. Be honest with your congregation ahead of time that it is a trial and their support during and input after is critical.
5. Recruit a "sister church" to share ideas and resources. Much like the once popular municipal trend for cities to have a sister city in the East or Europe, the same can apply to a church. Find a like-minded pastor to share ideas and resources. Visit each other's campus and meetings. Organize the manner in which you will share ideas and materials (set up a shared page on BackPack) to make it easy to share and navigate.

The search for best practices can be an encouraging and beneficial activity that the lay leaders of your church can become involved with and benefit from.

Organizing for Future

I see it as a "wink of the eye" from God when his creation, namely man, has a sense of what should be but doesn't look far enough in application. IBM recently completed a survey of over 1,000 corporate leaders to gain a collective perspective of what the organization of the future will look like. In the "collective insight and wisdom" of these corporate leaders they came up with these five elements:

1. Hungry for change
2. Innovative beyond customer imagination
3. Globally integrated
4. Disruptive by nature
5. Genuine; not just generous

My first impression upon reading the list: Church

God plants within the heart of these unsuspecting business leaders the recipe for a dynamic organization. People are people. People respond to organizations in similar ways. Organizations are effective in similar manners. The five elements of an effective organization of the future, appear to me to have merit for churches desiring to make a significant impact on their community.

1. Hungry for change: A never ceasing hunger to see people change their spiritual groundings, their lifestyle, their behavior and their compassion for others. Hunger is not a sensation to which our culture can relate. It requires that we set aside comfort, personal goals, success to hunger for something different in ways to reach others with something different.

2. Innovative beyond customers imagination: Not innovation for innovation sake or as a "competitive advantage" for the church around the corner to steal market share from the next closest church, but rather a innovation in reaching out and individually seizing people in ways and with meaning that resonate with their soul.

3. Globally integrated: Technology has made global integration a possibility for churches and should be a by-product of pursuing the other four characteristics. Global integration includes serving others who are doing the task better than your church. Integrated carries with it a "behind the scenes" role rather than a global domination strategy for the sake of notoriety.

4. Disruptive by nature: History showed and valued and applauded a disruptive church. The present finds plenty of disruption internally over carpet colors and committee seats, but little in the way of stopping the flow of a life and culture that is headed for ruin. Few churches can be found today challenging the culture. More need to be caught in the act of disruption.

5. Genuine; not just generous: Gulp. Guilty. Genuine church is rare. Genuine church is overwhelmingly attractive. Genuineness is the magnetic pull that brings people face to face with the purpose of the church. Generous is culturally hot with each cause identified with a new plastic wrist band. But generosity as a fashion statement is self-centered. Self-centered generosity is not generous. Those churches that "get it" will and are reaching people in ways and rates not recently seen. Genuine should be the core belief and effort of the five characteristics.

It started with people searching for the organizational answer. It followed that God puts in our heart as lay leaders and pastors what it will take to reach people. It is a shame to let insights into the heart of an effective organization be "wasted" on corporations. What will you do now that you know?

Laity Should Insist on Sabbatical

Human Resource studies estimate that 20% of organizations in the U.S. have some form of sabbatical for their executives. It is seen as a way to increase retention and productivity of the executive. The stresses of leadership require a stepping away from the responsibilities to refresh. The experience is often accompanied by additional education or self-study that benefits the executive and the organization upon their return.

The practice of sabbatical began in the Jewish culture related to an agricultural economy and eventually spread to include periods of respite every seven years for those in the rabbinical services. Some churches have adopted the seven year break for their pastoral staff.

The role of pastor is likely one of the most difficult leadership positions in the U.S. Dealing primarily with a volunteer workforce, a membership struggling with the financial and social stresses of society as well as an often tight budget from which to serve -- pastor's are reaching record periods of burnout and turnover.

I believe it is the responsibility of church lay leaders to speak on behalf of the pastoral staff and insist to other leadership that provisions be made for pastoral sabbatical. When a laity leader comes to have a deep understanding of the day-to-day stresses of ministry, they are more likely to appreciate the benefit of such a break.

As a lay leader, spend some time with your pastors to understand what they face and what you can do to walk with them in that journey. A good start is becoming an advocate for their rest and reflection.

Giving Shifting Away from Traditional Church

"With millions of people shifting their allegiance to different forms of church experience, and a more participatory society altering how people interact and serve others, many Christians are now giving their money to different types of organizations instead of a church. They attend conventional churches less often. They are expanding their circle of Christian relationships beyond local church boundaries. And they are investing greater amounts of their time and money in service organizations that are not connected with a conventional church." - Barna Report

Traditionally organized congregations and building related funding is at risk as American's shift their stagnant giving (hovering around 5% the last decade) to alternative ministry and non-profit organizations not necessarily aligned with a church. On the heels of a building boom, and increased staffing, churches will be faced with attracting new giving sources to maintain current ministry efforts.

Look for multiple churches to utilize existing buildings on a "coop" basis to share overhead. Those not achieving necessary giving levels will re-evaluate their ministry focus to attract giving from younger generations who are prone to give toward more socially oriented causes addressing humanitarian efforts. Consumer behavior analysis firms will provide churches with a more in depth look at congregational giving trends and member's desired connectivity to highly specialized social causes. Mega churches will move toward "franchise" agreements to broadcast and staff hundreds of satellite locations to generate new giving streams creating national church "brands."

In general, the financial pressures will necessitate church leadership becoming more active in understanding the congregation's desire for ministry focus to ensure engagement and giving. The next 10 years will see considerable controversy within the church as we experience generational clashes over the debate of this new church organizational design.

Courtesy of Trend Ping