Below is an outline of what we covered in Part 1 of today’s webinar The Strengths of a Small Church. In the comments section, share how your own church is (or isn’t!) ministering authentically, as well as any questions you have for our presenters, Brandon O’Brien and Chuck Warnock. Also, take a look at Part 2, Lean and Nimble, and Part 3, Equipping.
Introduction:
Small churches are uniquely equipped for success in ministry in the 21st century. The trouble is, many pastors and congregations are unsatisfied with their small churches. What undermines the effectiveness of small churches is when they behave like big churches. If, instead, they would play to their strengths, they have enormous potential. Many larger churches are making changes in their ministry strategies in order to capitalize on the strengths of smaller churches. So what we want to do this morning is talk about just a few of the strategic advantages we think small churches have over their larger counterparts.
Part 1: Authenticity
Brandon:
One characteristic common to the small churches that I’ve spoken with and that are doing exciting and effective ministry was authenticity. “Authenticity” is a buzz word in American culture. According to Harvard business gurus Gilmore and Pine, authenticity has become the new primary value that determines what consumers will buy. I recommend the book–all the good stuff is in the first 50 pages or so.
Authenticity has also become a popular marketing term for churches. Spend a few minutes looking at church websites online, and you’ll find “about pages” describing their church as having “authentic worship” and “authentic community” and “authentic service.” Almost intuitively church leaders seem to recognize that our church needs to be perceived as authentic if we want people to visit and come back. They’re right. Go to the website www.churchmarketingsucks.com and search the terms “authentic” and “authenticity.” In one poll they ran, they discovered that the number one reason people return to churches after an initial visit is because the church seemed authentic. The next most popular reason was the pastor’s preaching. The church’s programs only pulled 5% of the vote.
So, we know that authenticity is important. But I’m not sure that we know what it means or how to be authentic. This is a complicated issue, so what I have to say will be insufficient; but I think I can offer two statements to get us thinking in the right direction. The first has to do with cultural authenticity. The second has to do with biblical authenticity.
1. Don’t try to be something you aren’t (the cultural value).
a. “The more glitzy something is, the less people trust it.” (Mike Sares)
b. People who value authenticity can smell phoniness from a mile away.
c. They’ll forgive you for not being excellent; but they won’t forgive you for being fake.
d. My first pastorate is a great example of this.
2. Make sure your behavior lines up with your stated convictions (the biblical value).
a. One of the central themes of the book of James is that true religion, true faith, walks the talk.
b. If a church says that everyone is welcome, but it is clear that what they mean is “everyone who looks like me is welcome,” people will very quickly spot the discrepancy between what we say and how we behave.
c. This value of authenticity is a great opportunity–and provides a great challenge–for churches of all sizes to bring their behavior in line with their stated values.
Chuck:
Christians aren’t the only ones talking about authenticity. In his book The Way We Will Be, John Zogby of The Zogby Report says, “The church of the future will be a bungalow on Main Street, not a megastructure in a sea of parking spaces. It’s intimacy of experience that people long for, not production values.”
But some churches still don’t get it. Last year, a local church in our area was running TV spots that advertised worship with a band and (I couldn’t believe this line) “full-stage lighting.” That’s right folks, the key to authenticity is “full-stage lighting” during your worship services. It would be funny, if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.
Zogby also says, “There’s a longing, too, a deep-felt need to reconnect with the truth of our lives and to disconnect from the illusions that everyone from advertisers to politicians tries to make us believe are real.” Add “church” to that list, and Brandon has hit the nail right on its head with this emphasis on authenticity.
Let me tell you a quick story about how this quality of authenticity played out for our church. We located in south central Virginia, in a small town called Chatham, with a population of about 1300 people. In 2005, we opened our doors to help start a local branch of the Boys and Girls Club in our church building.
If you know anything about the South and Virginia, you know the history we have of slavery, and of racial discord after the Civil War. And even though that was over 140 years ago, our community, and especially our churches, still divide along racial lines. So, when we opened our doors to all the children, 5 to 18 years of age in our community, it was not an easy thing for some of our members to do. But we did it, and it was a great, growing experience for us.
Before we knew it, we had 40 to 80 kids each afternoon, representing the racial diversity of our community, coming to our church. In the summertime, those numbers increased. We engaged with the kids, did cookouts with the families, taught the kids art and music, and set up basketball goals in our parking lot since we didn’t have a gym.
I received a call from an African-American pastor in the community. He asked if we would host the Martin Luther King Day celebration for January 2008. We were delighted, and on that day the coordinating pastor stood, thanked our church for hosting the event, and then said, “Pastor, people notice what you’re doing here.” For me, that validated our attempts to bridge the racial divide in our community by helping kids. We were genuinely engaged, and people of all races noticed.
I completely agree with Brandon when he says in his book that “action is the evidence of true faith.” What we do speaks more loudly than what we say. And what we do validates the authenticity of what we believe.
But we didn’t always get it either. The first two years I was here, we sent full-color direct mail pieces to all the households in our community. Over 5,000 homes received our direct mail invitations to join us for our Christmas events. Combined, those pieces costs us over $5,000, and we don’t have that kind of money to throw away.
The first year, we had about three new people show up for our Christmas stuff, and the second year we didn’t have anybody new. Our slick, four-color, professionally-produced direct mail campaign produced zero new members, and only three new visitors. That’s not a good return by anybody’s math. Because our community is rural/agricultural and has a host of other economic and social issues, I finally realized that we looked too slick for this area. Since then, when we have done advertising, we’ve done small ads in the local weekly paper for about $40 each. Authentic has to be authentic for your community, too.
To act authentically, you’ve got to know what is “genuine” for your church. I found Dr. Israel Galindo’s book The Hidden Lives of Congregations to be very helpful at this point. Galindo says that congregations have characteristics based on several factors:
1) their lifespan and where they are in the lifecycle of churches;
2) their size (and he lists several sizes with their characteristics);
3) their style of worship, decision-making, dress, etc;
4) their identity, or how they see themselves.
He talks about a lot more than that, but those are the characteristics that helped me figure out where my church was, as a 153-year old church located in a small town in a culture that values more formal worship. Once I figured that out, I then was able to relax and maximize our strengths, address our shortcomings, and build on our heritage.
