Which Church Would You Join?

Last week I was in Louisiana, working with congregations across the state and preparing for the Fall Leadership Gathering in New Orleans. On Wednesday morning I found myself having a conversation with the head of housekeeping at the motel where I had spent the night.

She told me she was being moved to another location next week where she was going to have fire the housekeeping staff and hire a new one. She explained that they had heard too many reports about the shabby conditions of that motel and that they had proof – over 200 pictures – that were taken by “silent shoppers” who had been sent to investigate the reports.

The first time I ever heard about “silent shoppers” was when I read Sam Walton’s autobiography. He made a habit of personally checking out the competition, beginning in his earliest years with his Ben Franklin store. He wanted to know everything from product selection to display to pricing to the customer experience in the store. He wanted to be the best at what he was doing and he was willing to go to any length to get there.

Which reminded me of something that I had heard a couple of weeks ago.

Someone wrote to me who had tried out a new congregation on a Sunday morning. He reported back that he appreciated the worship space – full of light and warmth – the hospitality of the people and the spirit of worship. He said the sermon was good, faithful to the text and delivered with a measure of passion. He enjoyed the full breakfast that was offered after worship. And then, on Tuesday morning, he received a nice card in the mail thanking him for his presence in worship and encouraging him to return.

He said it was a welcome change from the other congregation which he had attended a number of times. There he found that he was largely ignored before and after worship, the people seemed listless in worship, the sermon lacked fire, and, although he had filled out a visitor card at least three different times, he never heard anything back from the congregation.

Simple question: Which church would you join?

Now we all know the truth. We can’t gain an adequate understanding of the ministry of a congregation based on attending one or two worship services. There is much more to the depth and breadth of ministry than that. But the simple fact is that we only get one chance to make a first impression. People today aren’t going to give us the benefit of the doubt, there are too many options available to them and the days of denominational loyalty are long long gone.

The atmosphere and practices of Sunday morning hospitality are more important today than they have ever been when it comes to making a connection with new people. Great hospitality doesn’t just happen, we have to work at it.

Consider the congregation where my friend had a great experience.

They have spent a large amount of money in creating a worship environment that is bright, warm and beautiful. They have trained their greeters and ushers well. They plan worship with some acknowledgement that visitors might be present. They do the hard organizational work to provide something special – a full breakfast after worship. They have a visitor communication card in the seats that were done well enough that a visitor actually filled one out. They have the kind of record-keeping system in place that the pastor and the church office are informed about the attendance of a visitor and then they have a follow-up plan in place that they use.

In short, they are prepared to receive visitors. And because they are prepared to receive them, God just might send some their way.

There is a whole lot more to it, of course. Congregations need to be as attentive to what it takes to increase the number of new people who come and visit on a Sunday morning. And there needs to be real, effective and relevant ministry happening throughout the week to retain people. Sunday morning hospitality is one piece of the puzzle but it is a crucial piece.

One of the back-burner ideas that float around in my brain is the creation of a network of Sunday morning “secret shoppers” who could attend, experience, evaluate and then offer feedback about their experience in worship. Certainly this would require both curiosity and humility on the part of the congregation that would invite “secret shoppers” into their midst. It would also require an agreed upon evaluation tool that would measure what really matters in creating the kind of Sunday morning experience that encourages visitors to return. But that would not be at all difficult to do. Like my friend’s report back to me, we already know much about what works and what doesn’t.

But first we would have to ask the deeper question: If a motel chain cares enough about customer service, or a retailer cares enough about being a learning organization in a competitive environment, what does it say about a Christian congregation that doesn’t view or shape their own Sunday morning experience from the point of view of a visitor? It says we don’t care.

Yet we DO care. We just don’t always act like it. We can do better.

Want to talk more about a Sunday morning evaluation process? Write to me at revkerry@gmail.com

Meeting People Where They Are

My calendar said that I would be attending the annual Mission Developer’s Training Event in Minneapolis. The schedule said that Saturday evening would be free. My Facebook friends list said that I have several high school classmates living in the Minneapolis area. So I wrote to one of my friends and asked if she and her husband would have me – and any other classmates available – over for dinner so we could catch up.

(Both of my friends have read this post and have agreed to allow me to share my take on our conversation.)

It began as a “catch up” conversation. “So, where has life taken you – educationally, vocationally, relationally, and spiritually – since the day we graduated from college?” It was an absolutely fascinating conversation. As holy of a time as time can get. It was also, for me at least, what it feels like to make a relational connection with people, meeting them where they are, asking the “God” question, which lies at the heart of evangelism.

All three of us went off to college. I sailed through in four years, they each went through in fits and starts, still trying to find themselves and their path. I went to graduate school, they both found jobs in sales/marketing. Two of us had been divorced, the third waited to marry until she was 31. We all have kids. All of our kids have had difficult issues of one sort or another. They both now live relatively close to their families of origin. One lived in Denver for seven years, decided she had missed to many significant family events, so she moved back to be closer. I live a long long way from my sisters.

I’ve changed jobs in the past 18 months and am adjusting to what that means. One of my friends has been working in the same industry for the past 20 years and has experienced it getting more and more difficult, more and more competitive, and is now at an age (all three of us are) where younger employees are more attractive than mid-career and older employees. One of my friends lost her job last week.

We have all faced health issues of one sort or another, both our physical health and our mental health. One is a cancer survivor. I’ve battled with deeply rooted depression off and on through my life.

Perhaps there is a part of us that will always suffer from a case of “terminal uniqueness”, thinking that we are the only ones to go through what we go through. But I’m not so sure. If we ever created room and space to have the kind of trusting conversation I shared with my friends on Saturday night we might discover that the life is a journey of peaks and valleys for all of us.

So it is that our conversation turned more directly to spirituality. Both of my friends have been life long Roman Catholics. One was deeply rooted in her faith. It has always been a source of meaning, identity and solace in her life. The other “went to church” but “didn’t get anything out of it.” My own experience with organized religion was bizarre, fits and starts, until I finally landed in the Lutheran tribe in college.

In our talking, spirituality (our own sense of connectedness to God, others, life) was woven back into and out of religion (the shared expression of spirituality within the structures of a particular community). We talked about the “rules” we have run into regarding our faith communities and their stances toward marriage, divorce, remarriage and the diversity of experiences others have had.

It was fascinating in our conversation – and in our lives – how spirituality, religion, personal relationships and personal maturation, all dance together in some kind of a frenetic mosh pit illuminated by moments of brilliant light, sudden darkness, and chaotic breathlessness. Life feels like we make it up as we go…but – our faith assures us – we are also BEING made up as we go.

And that is what it means to meet people where they are. To listen and join in relationship from the perspective of people who trust that there is a God who connects all of us, is connected to all of us, and is accessible to us. That is what we know and trust as people of faith and that is what secular people are, knowingly or not, hungry to know.

One of my friends talked about her occasional frustration with the Roman Catholic church but also her ongoing devotion, participation, and love of traditional worship and traditional spiritual practices. Yet she continues to be open-minded and curious in her spirituality.

My other friend described her journey of discovery that has taken her to a deeper involvement in a large Baptist congregation. She had no plans of getting involved there but was very surprised to discover an intersection between her needs and the ministry of the congregation. She likes contemporary worship. She talked about how her faith has grown and developed, primarily through sharing with others – in large group/small group Bible studies, and in personal conversations with a 70 year old person who functions as her spiritual director, her discipler. This friend was the one who point blank said, “Organized religion has to change.”

The Christian faith hasn’t “fixed” any of our lives. But we have been caught in life giving ways.

I’m sharing all of this with you because the title of this blog is “Mission Possible.” I want to reassure you that it IS possible that we, in our lives and through our congregations, really can continue to be both faithful and fruitful. But we will NOT get there if we continue to argue about arcane theological tidbits, if we continue to speak in clichés, worship like it is 1952, allow congregational life to be rote and shallow, ignore the ancient spiritual disciplines, and expect people to join US rather than, full of humility and passion, surrendering together to God.

I am convinced that every one of our congregations have people just like my two friends sitting in their pews and living in their surrounding community…and many of them feel frustrated, unheard and lonely. We need to be creating space for them. We need to take seriously the hunger that people have for spirituality and connectedness.

We need to do what God does for us – God meets us where we are and then walks with us to see that we don’t stay there. God walks especially with us through the shared journey that is full participation in a community of faith, a community where conversations like this happen with regularity. That is what evangelism is all about.

Congregations on the Move

The Church is not a building where people go to pray,

It’s not made out of sticks and stones, It’s not made out of clay.

We are the Church. The Body of our Lord.

A significant piece of the legend of Saddleback Church in southern California is the fact that they used more than 110 locations between their founding on Easter Sunday in 1980 and their eventual move to a 100+ acre campus in Lake Forest. But they didn’t quit moving. They continued to plant new places for people to gather for worship, fellowship, learning and service. Today, they have five different ministry sites.

We can say many different things about that ministry but one of them certainly is that they realize, to the depth of their congregational DNA, that the Church is NOT a building. It is what happens IN the gathering of people – in worship spaces, in private homes and in the community itself that matters, that makes a godly difference in people’s lives.

On the other hand, it gets hot in Texas and air conditioning is a helpful tool when you gather a crowd to worship God. Buildings have their place.

We have two ministries in our synod now preparing to go on the move.

Celebration Church is a new mission development in Cypress that was officially launched in September, 2007. They have been worshipping in a school but have been under the gun since their local school district has a policy to limit outside groups to a three year rental relationship. Land is very expensive in that growing corner of the Houston metropolitan area and Celebration has not yet found where they will land. But they HAVE found where they will land next.

They have just signed a lease in a strip mall at the corner of Barker Cypress and Tuckerman, just south of Highway 290. This new location will heighten their visibility and expand their opportunities to gather people for worship, fellowship and discipleship. Bishop Rinehart will be with them on September 26^th as they celebrate their birthday in their new location.

Joyful Life in The Woodlands has been worshipping in a school since their founding in April, 2005. The Mission Investment Fund had pre-purchased a church site in The Woodlands prior to the birth of Joyful Life and the new mission struggled to, at the same time, connect with new people and meet the requirements to build. Eventually they came to realize that their vision for ministry was not bound to a piece of land in The Woodlands.

After spending many months seeking an alternative site the congregation finally settled on leasing and remodeling a former carpet store at 5514 Highway 1488. Located just north of The Woodlands, this new site will open its doors to a new population of people. It will also consolidate their worship site and heart of congregational life.

Their renovation work is being done this month and the congregation plans to begin worship in the new site in September. If you are interested in making a house warming gift to Joyful Life, here is their wish list:

o 4 Sunday School Classrooms – $250 each – total $1,000

o 130 Chairs @ $30 each – total $3,900

o Outdoor Storage Shed – $1,500-received $450

o 32 Bibles for Worship Area @ $7.50-Total $240.00

o Office Computer-$1,000.00

Please contact Pastor Scott Cigich (pastorscott@joyfullifethewoodlands.org) if you want to help.

I remember well the “move” we experienced when I was serving Covenant Lutheran Church in Houston. The congregational leaders realized, on their very first Sunday in a new building in 1989, that the building and the land on which it would sit was inadequate for the future growth of the ministry. By 1994, when I arrived, I knew it too. But it wasn’t an easy problem to fix. Buying that first piece of land and constructing a new building meant borrowing a lot of money. That debt load limited our options. Ultimately, it took 11 years before we were able to move into a larger building on a 10 acre site that we could continue to grow into.

As we moved into that transition, and as we experienced those initial years, what I wasn’t prepared for was the subtle shift in congregational identity that we experienced. Overnight it seemed like we shifted from a “small” congregation with big dreams to a “large” congregation with little dreams. The fact is, we just moved directly across the street! But the reality was, something shifted.

As excited and proud as we were about a new building, so much more room, so many new opportunities, we also experienced a subtle “inward” turn that snuck up on us.

The corrective to that “inward turn” is to focus attention and energy on the call, the vision and the mission of the congregation. On what happens IN the building FOR the wider community, not merely for the congregation adapting to a change in space. Saddleback Church was able to do that in remarkable ways.

Congregations are meant to be on the move! Jesus never hired a single contractor. He knew the potential idolatry that comes when spaces intended to be places of prayer evolved into ends unto themselves.

Certainly we are all grateful for the buildings we sit in on Sunday mornings. Air conditioning is a good thing. But ministry isn’t about maintaining buildings. Debt for new buildings and maintenance costs for older ones can seriously hinder the missional potential of our ministries. We would all do well to remember that the Church is not a building.

May God richly bless and keep the people of Celebration Church and Joyful Life Church as they move into new spaces this month. May these moves be signs of their willingness to do whatever it takes to connect new people in new ways with the God who will love them to the end.