vision casting

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Review: Your church's building is a ministry tool. It should be built or renovated in order to help your specific ministry do the specific work that God has called you, specifically, to do. It should express and serve the vision of your church, which means vision is important to your building process.

Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback sent me an email this morning (alright, I'm subscribed to a newsletter and it probably wasn't even him who sent it). The first section highlighted an article by Pastor Warren called "How to share God's vision for your church."

Vision is important to your building process in two ways:

1. Building projects can put undue strain an unhealthy church. A healthy church, however, is united behind the vision for their collective ministry, and can see how a new/renovated building is going to further that vision.
2. The building project itself needs an acute vision. It's part of your over-arching vision, but let's face it: this is a big project. Just like your children's ministry has a specific vision that fits into the vision of your whole church, your building project needs specific vision.

So while Pastor Warren's "seven things" to help people understand your vision is referring to the first kind of vision, they can easily be applied to the vision behind your building project.

1. Who you are. This is the VIP factor that Thom Rainer talks about in Breakout Churches.
   
2. Where you are going. How does the new/renovated building fit into the bigger vision?
3. Why you are going there. Why can't you do that in your current space?
4. What it feels like to be going there. "To get people behind your vision, you need to communicate to them how fulfilling it will be to join God in what He's doing through your church. People are looking for significance."
5. What people can do. Help people see how they're needed.
6. How you're going to do it. Share the plan with people. Show them the floor plans and the BIM images.
7. What the rewards will be. This goes back to 1 and 2, but months into the process people will need to be reminded. When the new building opens, how will it make our ministry more effective? How will it please the Lord that we've been faithful to do a hard thing in order to expand His kingdom?

For the whole article, with Pastor Warren's comments and explanations on each, go here.

relationships in church

A new Barna study focuses on people's most important relationships. There are a lot of interesting numbers at Barna's website, but what caught my attention was an observation from Mr. Barna,

People were more than 50% more likely to say that their church’s congregation is their most significant group than to say that God represents their most important personal connection. That certainly reflects the interpersonal comfort that millions of people have developed at their church, but also indicates that people may have forgotten the ultimate reason for belonging to a Christian church.

I wonder if that is what it indicates.

Maybe I'm just feeling optimistic this morning, but I think those numbers could be a good sign. He could be talking about lazy "Christians" with no interest in discipleship, but he could also be talking about the spiritually-curious. Those people whom we assume have "forgotten the ultimate reason for belonging to a Christian church" may just be coming to the faith.

If the later were true, what a testimony those numbers would be to the power of third place spaces and small group communities within a church! People who do not yet list God as their BFF are at least naming their church congregation as their most significant network!

Because, remember, a digital society behaves differently from a broadcast one. In broadcast, you have to subscribe to HBO before you can talk about the shows around the office water cooler. Believe comes before Belong. In a digital society, you can sign up for a dozen social networking sites and never create a profile on half. Belong comes before Believe.

10 Most Innovative (3 of 3)

One more observation about the top 10 churches on Outreach Magazine's "Most Innovative" list:

All of the top 10 churches are "broadcast era" churches.

In his epic classic, The Millennium Matrix, Rex Miller divides written history into four basic "eras."

1. The Oral Era. Very few people can read. Tradition - including religion - is handed down through the spoken word. In church, this means stained glass tells Bible stories and sanctuaries are constructed to communicate the majesty of God. Priests tell Christians what they believe.
   
   
2. The Written Era. The printing press changed everything. More people had access to literature, and so many more learned to read. In church, this meant the Bible was in the hands of the laity and they started to have their own ideas. Church buildings became more functional and the Bible, not the priest, was exalted.


3. The Broadcast Era. Television changed everything again. People are learning more by experience than reading, and the popular mindset became less "beginning to end - left to right." In church, this means helping people experience God. Sanctuaries are designed to reflect modern culture and ease an increasingly hostile society into the truth of Christ.


4. The Digital Era. The Internet upset life again ... or is upsetting. "Beginning to end" has been demolished by hyperlinks, and people learn by interaction with others or their subject matter. In church, we're only beginning to understand what this means.

All of the 10 most innovative churches have kept up with the pace of our culture. All 10, at least in some measure, realize that the U.S. is a mission field, and they need to use the native language to communicate.

bricks, mortar and learning (about Jesus)

USA Today published an article yesterday about how a building can recreate an environment. The story is one of an English teacher, and the change that occurred in his school when they decided to go all the way with a new building.

A church building is primarily a place of worship, but it is also a place of teaching. Right now many church buildings are filled with middle-aged conservatives who grew up in church. They are far from the rebellious, unruly crowds that fill public high schools, but probably not for long. The mission field that is beginning to overtake the western church is made up of "free-thinking" young people who don't know who Moses is. They are used to making their own rules, used to hating Christianity, and used to avoiding church.

So maybe this is more applicable than we'd like it to be.

Space. The school in question doubled the width of the hallways and made classrooms bigger. Adolescent behavior improves when they're not crammed into tight spaces. Imagine how much more comfortable new visitors will feel.

Lighting. We think natural lighting looks pretty, but it can increase learning rates by about 20%.

Improved security. Especially in your children's space.

Collegian cafeteria. The school added a better cafeteria, and stopped allowing students to leave campus for lunch. "To my amazement, few kids have complained, and the cafeteria has created a sense of unity in the student body." People come together over food. Your third place space should be immaculate.

High-tech teaching. "Even the most distracted students perk up when the LCD lights up." When ministering in a foreign mission field, you use the native language. The native language of the emerging generation is interactive, multi-media, and usually 140 characters or less. Don't make it a show, and don't compromise your message, just use their language.

communication is key

Communication is key. You know that, but how much are you communicating and how often?

We talk a lot about staying relevant and catching up with the culture in order to reach people. We're trying to teach you to speak their language and reach out into a growing unchurched population. A recent survey of American evangelicals, though, reminds us that it's similarly important to make sure your congregation knows what is going on.

What concerns American evangelicals today?

The National Association of Evangelicals recently surveyed its leadership and found little concern centered on national politics or the war in Iraq. Culture concerns ... were listed as top issues of concern to the evangelical leaders representing about 30 million members.

Everyone knows that our culture is in the middle of an amazing upheaval, and it's kind of scary.

So as you get excited about adding a third place space and a youth center to your facility, explain what that means to your staff and ministry leaders - so they are equipped to talk about it and encourage their head volunteers, who will be equipped to talk about it and encourage the volunteers who work with them. Share the cool stuff you're learning about Joe Meyer's spaces of belonging, or the digital age that is dawning, or the benefits of third place.

If you reach into your communities long enough, you will eventually catch at least a few people. They will come in for coffee or to drop off their teenagers to play basketball, and they will bring with them their worldviews. They will come with the culture that is a greater concern to many evangelicals than who the next president is going to be. Is your congregation ready?

Evan McBroom at Cornerstone

Evan McBroom gave a great presentation on communication during the building process at the CKN Conference yesterday. My notes:

Five key concepts:
1. Communication is not an event, it's a process.
2. Branding does matter, and it's foundational to all communication.
3. make the need obvious to move and inspire people.
4. Creating "buzz" is essential. Cut through the clutter.
5. Make proven approaches your own. This is not the time for cookie-cutter material.

"Branding:" Clear communication of your promise; paints a picture; creates expectations; refine experiences to match brand.

Brand Equation: Identity + Communication = Offering + Experience

Bonus Advice: Stop doing some things.

When he got onto branding being "foundational," I cringed and he lost credibility points. After his definition, though, I realized his idea of branding is not congruent with my idea of branding and most of his points were reinstated.

And a fun video about communication. Evan didn't use this one, I think Ed Bahler and Bill Couchenour did during the opening session, but it applies and I like it: