Missionary Renegade: "Leading Ideas: Cool Church Isn't What It Used to Be | Worship Game Changers" Lewis Center for Church Leadership of The Wesley Theological Seminary of Washington, D.C., United States for Wednesday, 16 March 2016

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

"Leading Ideas: Cool Church Isn't What It Used to Be | Worship Game Changers" Lewis Center for Church Leadership of The Wesley Theological Seminary of Washington, D.C., United States for Wednesday, 16 March 2016

"Leading Ideas: Cool Church Isn't What It Used to Be | Worship Game Changers" Lewis Center for Church Leadership of The Wesley Theological Seminary of Washington, D.C., United States for Wednesday, 16 March 2016

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Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Cool Church Isn’t What It Used to Be by Carey Nieuwhof

For the last few decades, simply being a cooler church than the church down the road helped churches grow. Trade in the choir for a band. Add some lights, some sound, some haze, and you had a growing church. That time has recently come to a close. I’m not against churches having bands, lights, and creating a great environment. Not at all. In fact, the church I lead has all of the above; if you are going to gather people, gather well. My point is not that you shouldn’t, but that it’s no longer enough. So what’s changing?
Cutting-edge keeps changing…fast. Constant connectivity online has sped up trends. What’s novel isn’t novel for long anymore. You used to have to hire experts, be in a certain circle, or do some travelling or sleuthing to find cool things. Now you just download an app, watch a video, stream a song, or follow whatever trend you’re passionate about in the moment. Trends are shorter, less interesting, and we’re all growing oh-so-bored with what’s novel. It’s harder than ever for churches to be cutting-edge because cutting-edge keeps changing.
Indifference to church has grown. As the percentage of unchurched adults in the U.S. has risen, indifference to the church has grown. Church leaders in places like Canada and other countries have felt the indifference for much longer. As churches changed their worship style and even architecture in recent times, having a cool church got you more traction than it does today. Here’s why: if people aren’t into church, it doesn’t matter how cool, hip, or trendy your church is; people won’t be that interested.
Imitation killed innovation. Because we live in a digital age when church leaders easily keep their fingers on the pulse of what other leading churches are doing, we also find ourselves living in an age of imitation. I’m not against borrowing great practices, but when churches imitate each other, we rarely borrow all the best practices. We just borrow the ones that have caught our imagination. We ignore the reality that what’s making growing churches grow is significantly deeper than the cool factor. And in the process of all that imitation, something even more important is lost: innovation.
Five Keys to Rebirth (The New Cool)
All around us is a rapidly changing culture, and when we ignore that culture, we do so at our peril. It is still a great idea to use the culture to reach the culture, but you definitely go beyond that. Here are five keys I see to a future of greater impact with Millennials.
I. Authentic Leadership and Connection
Sometimes the reason cool doesn’t connect is because underneath all that "cool" is an inauthenticity: people who have fallen for the lie that style trumps substance. Unchurched people and younger adults and teens are looking for authentic leadership and authentic connection. And, my goodness, if the church is anything, it should be a place of deep authenticity.
2. An Elevated Sense of Mission
The church has always been about something bigger than itself. At the center of our mission is Christ. While most organizations naturally drift toward an insider focus, church leaders must resist this at all costs. Not only is it antithetical to the true mission of the church, but a self-obsessed community is a turnoff to a young generation that is well aware of the needs in the world the church often ignores. You lose your narcissism when you lose yourself in a bigger mission. And a bigger mission is something Millennials are longing to give their lives to.
3. Hope
Christianity provides more hope than anything. I’m 100 percent behind making messages practical, applicable, and helpful. But sometimes the practical can tip too far. We recently heard from an unchurched woman in her mid-20s who had listened to a few of our messages and said, "Well, it’s great to know how to balance my personal finances ... but I don’t really need God for that, do I?" To some extent, she’s right. As Millennials and young adults explore the Christian faith, there has to be practical theology, but there also has to be much more.
4. Elevated Community
I’m all for video walls if they help the mission, but no church will ever have the resources to entertain better than Hollywood. But even if the church did, what would be the point? God is in the people business. And the heart of Christianity is relationship — a right relationship with God, each other, and ourselves. It’s also fairly clear that younger adults and teens hunger for community perhaps more deeply than previous generations did. Moving forward, churches that elevate community and prioritize healthy relationships will fare much better in accomplishing their mission than those who don’t.
5. Experimentation
Experimentation is the key to innovation. In an age of imitation, innovation has to make a comeback. So how does a church experiment, particularly a church that has had success in the recent past or even in the present? The best approach is to do what you do now, but begin experimenting on the side to see what has the potential to make a significant impact in the future. Truthfully, I’m not sure anyone really knows what that is right now, which is why experimentation is even more important than we might initially think.
Carey Nieuwhof is founding and teaching pastor of Connexus Community Church in Barrie, Ontario, Canada; a popular blogger and podcaster; and author of bestselling books. This article is adapted from his latest book, Lasting Impact: 7 Powerful Conversations That Will Help Your Church Grow, available from Amazon. Used by permission. Read more…
"Worship Game Changers" by Tom Bandy and Lucinda Holmes

Why worship? I mean really, why worship? This is the deeper question that is asked by the rapidly growing population of spiritually yearning, institutionally alienated people in Western culture today. This group includes people with no religious preference and “nones”; but it also includes a multitude of formerly active church members who are stepping further and further from regular worship attendance. Worship design will never be able to get on the right track unless it answers this fundamental question.
Church leaders have been so preoccupied with how to worship that they have failed to really explore why anyone worships in the first place. The conversation about worship in the era of Christendom assumed that we are all religious insiders trying to build consensus about the best way to worship. The game has changed.
12 Reasons Worship Design is Different in the Post-Christendom World
Most people think worship is a waste of time. Yet stripped of all the wordiness and liturgy, dogma and tradition, facilities and symbols, sacred egos and sacred cows, there remains a profound desire for God.

Existential anxiety is what drives people to spirituality and compels people to seek God. And it is what motivates otherwise busy people to occasionally show up on Sunday morning at church.
Worship is an act of mission. It is the intersection of specific human yearning with relevant experiences of grace. For Christians, it is about experiencing the real presence of Christ.
Membership privilege is dead. There are not insiders and outsiders. Everyone is a stranger to grace. The only good worship is worship that works: targeting a public, blessing a person, and giving them hope.
The era of church shopping is over. Worship is not about assimilating members but blessing people. Worship is an encounter with Christ, and an encounter with Christ is worship.
People experience the mystery of Christ in different ways … all legitimate, just different. Jesus can be revealed as spiritual guide, perfect human, promise keeper, new being, healer, vindicator, or shepherd.
Worship is a total Sunday morning experience, from humble hospitality, through life-shaping communion, to significant mentoring. The real presence of Christ must be in each step.
Sunday morning worship is a microcosm of a lifelong disciple: meeting Christ, experiencing Christ, growing in Christ, walking with Christ, living like Christ.
Worship design will never get on track unless it answers the fundamental question, “Why Worship?” It is not beginning with “How?” as in strategies and creative tactics, or “What?” as in a particular style of music or liturgy, but with the question “Why worship at all?”
Worship and lifestyle are mixing and merging today in unexpected ways. The challenge for worship design is not in music style or liturgical format but in offering distinct mission-targeted choices to bless different lifestyle segments in your community.
In a world of diversity, the only “good worship” is worship that works. Paul says that good worship is whatever motivates a seeker to confess with their lips that Jesus is Lord, and believe in their hearts that God raised him from the dead. So long as seekers are equipped to love kindness, do justice, and walk humbly with Jesus, worship is a success!
God’s power is revealed to specific people at the right time, in a relevant way, with lasting results. You can help or hinder the process. God will hold you accountable for the one or the other!
This means that the “Sunday morning experience” must be more carefully planned than ever before. Set aside whatever you thought you knew about “good worship” and open yourself to worship in the postmodern world that is radically different than anything we have expected or experienced in six hundred years of modernity and denominationalism.

Thomas G. Bandy and Lucinda S. Holmes are church consultants, coaches, and authors of Worship Ways: For People Within Your Reach (Abingdon Press, 2014), which lays out seven categories of human need and shows how different approaches to worship can help worshipers experience God as an answer to those needs. This article is adapted from the book and used by permission. Worship Ways is available through Cokesbury or Amazon Read more…
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Quotable Leadership:
An important gift the church has to offer emerging and young adults exists in the alternate scripts our faith provides for a successful — or better yet, meaningful — life.[Denise Janssen]

Pastors Moving to New Churches Need the Right Start
Are you a pastor preparing to begin ministry in a new setting? With The Right Startvideo resource, you’ll learn how to end your current ministry well, develop a personal transition plan, and make the most of your first days, weeks, and months in your new congregation. The Right Start is available in both Pastor’s and Group Training Versions in downloadable and DVD/CD formats. Learn more.
The Right Question
Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the right questions.
Deborah Ike has offered five right questions that leaders can ask of church staff:

What can I do to help?
If you could do any job, even somewhere else, what would it be and why?
How can I improve as a leader?
What’s an issue that needs attention but I haven't noticed, and how would you address it?
How does your family feel about church? Do they feel part of it or jealous of it?

Want more Right Questions? Check out “Right Questions for Church Leaders, Volumes 1–4.”---------------------
"Leading Ideas: Becoming a Leader Who Says Yes! | Spiritual Growth through Mission Participation" Lewis Center for Church Leadership of The Wesley Theological Seminary of Washington, D.C., United States for Wednesday, 9 March 2016

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Wednesday, March 9, 2016
"Becoming a Leader Who Says Yes!" by Robert Schnase

During my tenth year as pastor of a large multi-staff church, the laity offered me a twelve-week study leave for rest, renewal, and learning. I was absent during the summer months as volunteers and staff planned the fall schedule. Upon my return, I discovered a program full of great new ministries — an eight-week lay academy that offered a dozen Bible studies and small group classes for adults, a Wednesday children’s program that had been radically reinvented, a missions initiative that addressed an unmet need in the community using dozens of volunteers, the launching of a young couples class, and a new approach to using our projection screens in worship. All of these were departures from the usual programs that we had used successfully for years.
As I looked at the fall program, I thought, “These are great ideas. Why didn’t we think of these things when I was there?” Then it dawned on me: maybe we didn’t initiate these things before now because I had been there! If I had been present during those months of planning, the fall program would likely have looked similar to that of previous years. While I think of myself as open to ideas and an encourager of experimentation, there are times when I’m the one whom God has to work around for accomplishing creative change.
Many leaders have become accustomed to the culture of No. The No person looks for problems, and then focuses exclusively on how to fix them. The problem-finder’s obsession with things that are broken sometimes has the effect of magnifying not merely the perception of the problem, but the problem itself. “I serve a dysfunctional church,” a pastor says. “I could never get my people to do that.” “That would never work here,” a layperson laments. “Our church doesn’t have enough people or money.”
The repetition and reinforcement of these negative perceptions create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders who focus exclusively on what’s broken, what doesn’t work, and what can’t happen foster an environment that makes change impossible. Permission-giving leaders rid themselves of the idea that the future is in someone else’s hands, the direction of the congregation is beyond influencing, and there’s nothing that can be done.
A culture of Yes expects people to have ideas, gifts, and callings. It amplifies what works and encourages the passions and callings that already exist but which may remain unseen or hidden from view.
Permission-giving leaders shift from “How can I change those people to get them to do what I want?” to “What are the changes I’m willing to make to unleash people for ministry?” They embody the change they want to see happen. This shift in attitude is an antidote to helplessness. Leading a permission-giving church requires becoming a permission-giving leader. Change in the church begins with the change in values, attitudes, and behaviors that takes place in us.
Robert Schnase is Bishop of the Missouri Conference of the United Methodist Church. This article is adapted from his most recent book, Just Say Yes: Unleashing People for Ministry (Abingdon Press, 2015), and used by permission of the author and publisher. The book is available at Amazon or Cokesbury. Read more…
"Spiritual Growth through Mission Participation" by Ann A. Michel

Mission and service activities are increasingly the entry points through which people, particularly younger people, first connect with our churches. We hope that mission participation will help them understand who Jesus is, who God is, and how the church’s mission points to God’s Reign. We hope that it will lead them toward faith and into the church. But how do we nurture the connection between mission participation and this type of spiritual growth?
Often, the church has regarded spiritual formation and mission as two different realms. Dominant models of Christian formation see mission engagement as the end product of the discipleship journey. It comes after people have matured in faith through activities such as worship, Christian education, and small groups — things that tend to go on inside the church. Then, they head outside the church in mission.
One unfortunate consequence of the bifurcation of spiritual formation and mission is that our Christian service often isn’t much different than the work of secular community groups. The church group working on a Habitat House may not be having a significantly different experience than the Kiwanis’s Club group, except that they may have some vague notion that church people should do good in Christ’s name.
But at the same time, we know that God can use our mission endeavors to open our eyes to human need, instill compassion in our hearts, and inspire us toward generosity and sacrificial living. In this day, when many people are more attracted to our mission than our worship, it is essential that we learn how to recognize and nurture the spiritual fruits of mission engagement. So what are some key factors that promote spiritual formation through mission?

Getting beyond our comfort zones. So often, the conventions of our day-to-day lives prevent us from seeing the world through God’s eyes. But when we step away from what Robert Martin, Dean of Wesley Theological Seminary, has called “our addiction to safety, security, and status,” we open ourselves to experiencing God and others in new ways. This is one reason people often return from mission trips with a truer and fuller understanding of other people’s circumstances, more aware of their own social location and privilege, and more aware of God at work in the world.
We need to structure mission activities so that they lead people into what Bishop Robert Schnase calls “risk-taking” mission — mission that places people in situations that will change their minds. We don’t want to push people into the deep end before they can swim. But making sandwiches in a church kitchen or collecting toiletries can be a good and important starting point, especially if these activities are a window for understanding the needs of others and a doorway into more relational and collaborative ways of engaging. So a key consideration is: what are the stepping stones that lead participants to deeper, more sustained, and more transformational mission relationships?
Framing experiences. We need to give mission participants the lenses and vocabulary they need to make spiritual sense of what they encounter when serving others. This involves casting a vision for how faith is lived out through sacrificial service, telling stories of how Christian service transforms our lives and the lives of others, and continually contextualizing the meaning of mission through dialogue and teaching, prayer and preaching.
Group engagement. Everything we know about spiritual formation suggests that small group encounters are important vehicles of growth. One reason mission trips are often so formative is that they promote the kind of interpersonal bonding that facilitates spiritual exploration. We can bring this benefit to other types of activities, as well, whether it’s encouraging existing small groups to take on regular service commitments or using teams to implement ongoing mission activities. Mission is more spiritually impactful when we do it with others.
Ongoing reflection. There is a growing body of research on the effectiveness of short-term mission experiences. It points to the importance of integrating learning, debriefing, and reflection into mission experiences. We need to ask provocative questions that help participants connect the dots between faith and action. We need to help them understand how what they do relates to Christian discipleship. But the research suggests that spiritual revelation received on the mission field doesn’t often translate into sustained personal transformation unless this reflection is ongoing — before, during, and perhaps most importantly, after mission experiences.
Leadership. All of this underscores the critical variable of leadership. Because mission leaders frame expectations and contextualize the experience for other participants, we need to equip them as spiritual guides, not just project leaders.

Because discipleship is a learned behavior, leading people effectively in mission can help them learn about faith by living faithfully. While we never want to be accused of undertaking mission for our own sake, we can still be mindful of how mission engagement nurtures us in faith and discipleship.
Ann A. Michel is associate director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership Read more…
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Quotable Leadership:
A friend of mine asked me, “How do you get young adults to lead?” I said: we ask them. It’s pretty much that simple[Molly Phinney Baskette]

Help Prevent Clergy Sexual Misconduct

Keeping Our Sacred Trust is an online course from the Lewis Center that has been used by nearly 3,200 clergy across multiple denominations. The course addresses the dynamics, motivations, and vulnerabilities that can lead to misconduct and the positive steps that can help prevent misconduct or the appearance of misconduct. The cost is only $49 and includes .5 CEU. Individuals may enroll online, or judicatories may set up group enrollment with group billing and discounts for groups of 250 or more. Learn more at keepingoursacredtrust.org, or contact Joe Arnold at(202) 885-8560 or jearnold@wesleyseminary.edu.
The Right Question
Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the right questions.

A time of focused conversations with different types of people within a relatively short time frame can provide the makings of valuable insights about those you are seeking to reach. Imagine a small group of leaders finding ways to talk collectively with at least ten of the most active church members, ten of the least active, and ten people you are not now reaching. Usually there are those close enough to people in these three categories so that conversations would not be awkward. The conversations do not have to be especially about the church but about their lives as a whole — hopes, concerns, and interests. Then, the small group of interviewers can come together to talk about similarities and differences among the groups using questions such as:

What do they all have in common?
What are the differences?
What do the similarities and differences suggest that
would help our church serve them all better?

Want more Right Questions? Check out “Right Questions for Church Leaders, Volumes 1–4.”
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Update: Next Sunday is Not a Presidential Primary | Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns Conference and Live Stream | "How We Did It" Ideas from Churches Like Yours Lewis Center for Church Leadership of The Wesleyan Theological Seminary of Washington, D.C., United States for Wednesday, 2 March 2016

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Wednesday, March 2, 2016
"A Report from the Director: Next Sunday is Not a Presidential Primary"
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When someone tells you they hold a “Christian” position on an issue, think about it. Whom are they including? What are their criteria?
Following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a remarkable focus emerged among churches. We know there were instances of religious prejudice and harassment, but many churches immediately understood they had a role to play in fostering better understanding across diverse faiths. They felt called to educate themselves about faith groups beyond Christianity.
In 2000, for example, the year before the attacks, only eight percent of congregations engaged in activities with other faith traditions. By 2005, that percentage had climbed to 37.5 percent. These reports come from surveys of congregations across the country by the well-respected Faith Communities Today. This increase in interfaith and multifaith engagement among Christians and other religious bodies reflects major leadership by clergy and laity who knew they needed to reach out to others if the nation was to move ahead after such a tragedy.
But in more recent years, things have changed, and not for the better. Between 2010 and 2015, the percentage of congregations engaged in activities with other religious groups decreased from 21 percent to 15 percent. While much time has elapsed since 9/11, the need for greater understanding across religious lines is even greater today. The U.S. population has grown increasingly diverse religiously, and tensions have grown, especially with regard to Islam and to Muslim people.

Credit: American Congregations 2015: Thriving and Surviving
David A. Roozen, Hartford Institute for Religion Research
Changing Political Climate
It appears that the decline is not because the need is no longer urgent. While the theological trends are somewhat more conservative, they do not explain what Director of the Faith Communities Today Project David Roozen calls “the dramatic collapse” of such multifaith engagement. He says that it “probably more strongly reflects, and in fact tracks with, public polling data on changing attitudes about broad geo-political circumstances.”
The political climate today is what makes it harder and less likely that such engagement is happening. That is extremely troubling. Experience indicates that often political views expressed in Sunday school classes and small groups are informed by our favorite political commentators; and, sadly, there are fewer references beyond the most superficial to biblical or theological considerations.
What is a Christian Position?
The very word “Christian” is often used as synonymous with a particular political stance. In recent times, it tends to be conservatives who claim the connection, but those from every political perspective have claimed it when it fit their advantage. When someone tells you they hold a “Christian” position on an issue, think about it. Whom are they including? What are their criteria?
Politicians in this presidential primary season must appeal to a passionate but narrow segment of the electorate in their parties who decide primary elections — even though they know they will have to broaden their base to win a general election. This narrow focus often leads to angry and extreme positions, calculated to stir the electorate, but also causing hostile divisions — including attitudes of divisiveness toward other faith traditions.
When you go to church on Sunday, remember it is not a presidential primary. Your church should help you see others, including those who do not believe as you do, through the eyes of the God we know in Christ. Your church should offer also a way to be in dialogue within and beyond our faith tradition — a dialogue that reflects the witness of Jesus Christ rather than the political crosscurrents of the day.[Lovett H. Weems, Jr.]
Lovett H. Weems, Jr., is director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership and professor of church leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. His books may be found at http://www.churchleadership.com/resources/books.htm. Read more …
Register Now for Saturday’s “Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns” Conference and Live Stream
Saturday, March 5, 10 a.m–1 p.m. EST
Conference
Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, D.C., United States
Church members who pledge give 30 percent more than those who do not, and congregations that seek annual financial commitments have significantly higher levels of overall giving. At the Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns Conference, you will learn to reap the harvest of generosity through best practices for a more effective annual financial campaign. Register now.
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Add the Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns Resource to your church or home library so that you and others may view this valuable information again in the years to come. The resource will include video presentations of all four sessions plus outlines, written materials, and supplementary materials. The resource will be available in downloadable and DVD/CD formats in mid March; preorder through March 5 and save $15 off the regular price: $75 $60. Learn more and preorder today.

“How We Did It” Ideas from Churches Like Yours
Churches are always looking for ideas that worked for other churches that might fit or could be adapted to fit their contexts. Check out “12 Crazy Cool Ministry Ideas from Churches Just Like Yours” for examples of pay-what-you-can restaurants, exercise and heart-healthy cooking classes, bicycle donations, ice cream trucks for the community, and more.

Pastors Moving to New Churches Need the Right Start
Are you a pastor preparing to begin ministry in a new setting? With The Right Start video resource, you’ll learn how to end your current ministry well, develop a personal transition plan, and make the most of your first days, weeks, and months in your new congregation. The Right Start is available in both Pastor’s and Group Training Versions in downloadable and DVD/CD formats. Learn more.

Free Clergy Tax Video Now Available
Clergy face some distinctive tax regulations and often need guidance from tax professionals with experience working with clergy. To help seminary students and clergy understand better the issues to which they and their tax preparers need to give attention, the Lewis Center has prepared “Compensation and Taxes,” an informational 12-minute video. Watch now.

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"Leading Ideas: Easter Vigil Brings the Story of Salvation to a City in Need | Next Generation Leaders" Lewis Center for Church of The Wesley Theological Seminary of Washington, D.C., United States for Wednesday, 24 February 2016

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Wednesday, February 24, 2016
"Easter Vigil Brings the Story of Salvation to a City in Need" by Kate Payton

The Easter Vigil service is all about remembering and reliving our story of salvation. Usually we do this within the confines of a sanctuary. But last year, the multi-site church I serve in Northwest Washington, DC, partnered with other churches to conduct an Easter Vigil in multiple locations. We came together to proclaim a story our whole city desperately needs.

The betrayal, abandonment, violence, and death that Christ experienced on Good Friday are present-day realities for too many people in our midst.Given the racial and socio-economic geography of DC, some of our group members found themselves in parts of the city they had never been to before. If we are to pray and work for new life for all of God’s people, we must know first-hand the Good Fridays they experience.

So our Easter Vigil service was designed to lead us through places of need in our city, places we usually avoid or don’t even know about. The service explored the themes of creation, liberation, abundance, hope, and baptism, each in a specific location where death and the hope of resurrection are tangibly present.

Creation. We started at our community food garden — standing barefoot in the dirt — to remember God’s creating work.
Liberation. We went to a church located on a known prostitution track of our city. Standing in a parking lot littered with condoms, we read the Exodus story. One of their pastors spoke of the realities of sex and human trafficking. We prayed for all of these who are enslaved.
Abundance. Reading the prophecy of the consummation of all creation in Isaiah 55, we joined a partner church in their table fellowship open to all housed and unhoused neighbors. The food came from our Campus Kitchen Project that reclaims food from area grocery stores and restaurants that would otherwise be thrown away. We prayed that the word God has given through us, and provided in food we have grown, is not wasted and does not return to God empty.
Hope. Reading Ezekiel’s passage of dry bones, we stood next to the trash trap in a water way in a local park. It was the place where police had searched for the body of an eight-year-old girl abducted the previous year from the city’s shelter for homeless families.
Baptism. We closed our vigil remembering our baptism along the Anacostia River — a riverbed so contaminated that brown bullhead catfish have developed cancer from simply touching the riverbed. We read Romans 6:3–11, remembering African American churches in our community who were once able to baptize new believers in the river. We remembered our baptisms and prayed for a cleansing of our sins and of the river, that it might once again be a sign of life.

This Easter Vigil allowed our church to connect with our city and face our Good Fridays head-on. We prayed with heart, soul, mind, and strength for God to bring a resurrection morning. And when it came, we were reminded of the hope that is ours. We serve a living God who brought forth life from death and continues to make the impossible possible. This is our prayer, and our work, for our city — for all those still in need of a resurrection dawn.

Kate Payton is one of the pastors of The Metropolitan Church, a multisite United Methodist Community in Washington, DC.Read more…
"Next Generation Leaders: by Susan Beaumont

At an event I was approached by a well-dressed older woman who said, “We are willing to do whatever it takes to get the next generation of leaders involved. We will invest our time to train them, equip them, and guide them as they learn how to run this congregation. It’s their turn to step up, just like we did when we were their age.” It seemed like a noble gesture on her part, her willingness to invest in the next generation. But there was an unstated assumption beneath her offer. They will have to learn how to run the organization our way, before we yield leadership to them. She didn’t consider that the next generation of leaders might reshape the organization in significant ways, before they accept the leadership reins. What will it take to turn the leadership of the church over to the next generation? How will the church negotiate the transition?

The Seismic Shift in Volunteerism

The good news is that volunteerism is actually on the rise in our culture. However, the places we find volunteers are shifting. The rate of volunteering inside of the church has dropped dramatically, while the rate of volunteering among people who don’t attend church or civic organizations has nearly tripled in the last twenty years. Volunteerism today requires greater flexibility, better use of technology, and more episodic opportunities for volunteering. Volunteerism has shifted away from an emphasis on skilled workers (who show up and do the tasks they have been assigned), to knowledge workers (who expect to be empowered with decision making). People are no longer willing to serve on labor intensive, slow moving committees. They are attracted to micro-projects with fast turnaround times and more focused commitments.

Streamlined Structures

For a long time we have approached the leadership development task from the perspective of the organization. What slots do we have open, and how many bodies do we need to equip existing structures? Next generation leadership requires a shift in our orientation, away from the organization as the center of the conversation, and towards the needs and availability of volunteers. The next generation leader wants to bring personal gifts and interests to bear on the needs of the organization. They are passionate about specific causes. They are attracted to smaller projects with bigger impact. With this in mind, we need to reduce the size and complexity of our governance structures. Committees need to be reduced, and in some cases eliminated. We will have to replace ongoing process work with discrete tasks that fit together into a cohesive whole. We need to streamline decision making to facilitate a faster pace of work.

Meeting through Technology

Congregations historically employ committee structures to do our work and strengthen our sense of community through the work that we do together. Gen X (born 1965-1984) and Millennials (born 1985-2004) would rather find their community connections in other kinds of groups, and make decisions together using more nimble structures. Social media is a natural language for them, and they know how to make strong personal connections over the internet. They are masters of technologies that allow for sharing and shaping information together online. They are comfortable making decisions virtually. Additionally, their available time to do church work is often when others are not available. They need to do their work when personal schedules allow, and they prefer to join a virtual conversation according to their own timeframe. We need to learn how to join them in their world, not just expect them to accommodate ours.

Let Them Teach You

Historically, we have thought about leadership development as a process of teaching and equipping those who are coming up in the ranks behind us. They watch us do it. They do it with us. We watch them do it. Finally, we let them lead. The next generation of leaders is going to pick up the reins differently. They are confident, self-expressive, connected, and open to change. They expect their efforts to result in change, not the maintenance of the status quo. Gen X and Millennials grew up in the digital age. They process information very differently than the Silent (born 1925-1945) and Boomer (born 1946-1965) generations. Boomers grew up with analog data. We think and process information in a linear fashion. Gen X and Millennials are not bound by linear thinking. They leap ahead in the process to access the piece of information or resource that best serves the moment. We can learn things about the efficiency of our congregations from the different ways that their brains work. We should let them teach us.

Preserve the DNA, Adapt Anything Else

I do not mean to suggest that we simply throw up our hands and let the next generations do whatever they like. I do believe that we should identify our core operating principles and values to protect, and then let everything else evolve. We often don’t know how to distinguish between the critical DNA that marks our distinctiveness, and everything else that we do in the name of tradition. The next generations display a high level of respect for their elders. They are very tolerant of diversity and will embrace serving in leadership alongside their elders. However, their respect for people will not override their impatience with outdated technologies and bureaucratic structures. The church has spent a lot of time and energy talking about the preferred worship styles of Gen X and Millennials. It is time we attend to their preferences in volunteerism and leadership as well. The next generations will surprise us with their capacity for organizational leadership, on their terms.

Susan Beaumont is a consultant, author, coach, and spiritual director with Susan Beaumont and Associates. She is author of Inside the Large Congregation available from Amazonhttp://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=lewicentforch-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1566994195 and Cokesbury. This article is adapted from her newsletter issue of November 19, 2015. Read more…

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Quotable Leadership:
Conflict is a normative part of leadership and the human experience. Bad outcomes happen when we embrace it too quickly, and when we avoid it completely.[Tom Berlin and Lovett Weems]

Register Today for the “Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns” Conference and Live Stream; Resource Preorder Discount Available
Saturday, March 5, 10 a.m.–1 p.m. EST

Church members who pledge give 30 percent more than those who do not, and congregations that seek annual financial commitments have significantly higher levels of overall giving. At the Optimizing Annual Financial CampaignsConference and Live Stream, you will learn to reap the harvest of generosity through best practices to make your annual financial campaign a more effective one. Learn more and register. Also, preorder the Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns Resource for your library so that you can review this valuable information again in the years to come. Learn more.
The Right Question
Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the right questions.

Since so many meeting agendas fill with ordinary but necessary items, some leaders find that occasionally sending this question to participants shortly before the team or committee meetings is useful:

Given our responsibilities, what is the most important thing we should be discussing when we meet?

Want more Right Questions? Check out “Right Questions for Church Leaders, Volumes 1–4.”
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Leading Ideas: Creative Lenten Activity Encourages Reflection | Speak More Effectively by Asking Three Questions - Lewis Center for Church Leadership of The Wesleyan Seminary of Washington, D.C., United For Wednesday, 17 February 2-16

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Wednesday, February 17, 2016
"Creative Lenten Activity Encourages Reflection" by Kelly Crespin

Credit: Floris United Methodist Church
Lent, the forty-day period before Easter, is set aside as a season of soul-searching and repentance. The forty days of Lent reflect Jesus’s withdrawal into the wilderness for his own time of spiritual reflection and preparation for his sacrifice on the cross. At Floris United Methodist Church in Herndon, Virginia, we invite families and groups to spend time together in preparation for the celebration of Easter with suggested devotions, prayers, and activities.
Last year, we invited families and groups to decorate a cross as a Lenten activity. Crosses were cut from 4’ x 8’ foam boards (purchased at Lowe’s or Home Depot) in two sizes. Starting Ash Wednesday, following our evening service, these crosses were given away on a first-come, first-served basis.
We asked families and groups to sit down together and reflect on what Easter means to them. They were then asked to decide as a group how the cross should be decorated. Options included paint, decoupage, glue, 3D materials, and almost any other medium. The cross could be simple or elaborate, somber or colorful. Crosses were decorated on the front as well as the sides, leaving the backs undecorated. The crosses were returned to the church, with a family or group name on the back, two weeks before Easter so they could be displayed in time for Easter Sunday. Following the Easter season, families were invited to take their crosses home with them.
In our instructions, we encouraged families and groups, in age appropriate language, to share the story of Holy Week using scripture verses in the later chapters of all four Gospels. We encouraged discussion of questions such as:

What does Jesus mean to you?
What does this cross mean to you personally?
How does your group’s cross reflect Jesus’s love for us and the sacrifice he made for us?

Families and groups really appreciated this activity as it was a way for them to draw closer while actively participating in something together. Once the crosses were hung in the church narthex, it was amazing to see all the different styles, colors, and techniques used to celebrate the Easter season. People used paint, gems, flowers, fibers, carvings, and more to represent their feelings and thoughts. Some were done by children while others were done by Bible study groups. We also had crosses decorated by a Girl Scout troop and a group of homeless individuals spending time at the church. This was a fantastic community event that everyone could enjoy no matter how young or old and no matter their artistic ability.
Kelly Crespin is Children’s Ministries Director at Floris United Methodist Church in Herndon, Virginia. Read more…

"Speak More Effectively by Asking Three Questions" by Adam Hamilton

Perhaps the most important component to giving an effective speech is asking the right questions. There are three very simple questions your talk, speech, or sermon should be built upon: “Why?” “Who?” and “What?”
1. Why?
When I’m asked to give a speech, talk, or sermon outside of my home church, I want to know, “Why am I being asked to speak?” “Why me?” and “ Why are others being asked to listen to me?” The underlying question is really about the purpose, aim, or mission of the talk. Sometimes those who ask you to speak aren’t clear about the answers to these questions. They may say, “Well we needed someone to talk at our event, and we heard you’re a good speaker.” Sometimes they follow this with, “You can talk on anything you want; just be inspirational!”
Here’s what I’ve found. The less clarity I have around the purpose, the mission, the goals, or the “why” of a talk I’m going to give, the harder it is to prepare and the less effective my talk is. The greater clarity I have around the mission or purpose of the talk, the more likely I am to feel the talk was effective. When someone isn’t clear about the why of the talk they hope I’ll give, I’ll spend time trying to help them work through this. I may begin by asking them to describe the mission of their organization and the purpose of the particular event where I’ll be speaking.
For preachers preparing and delivering a weekly message for their local church, the sermon should serve the mission, vision, and goals of the local church. For those who speak in the workplace, it’s critically important that your presentations and talks align with the mission and purpose of your organization. If you are in charge in your organization, and speaking, you must answer these essential questions for yourself. No one else will answer them for you.
2. Who?
Once you are clear about the mission or purpose, of both the group you are speaking to and the particular speech you are going to give, your next step is to know to whom you will be speaking. What will be on their hearts and minds as you speak to them? What might they need to hear from you? I find this is an easier task with the congregation I serve, since I know them well. It requires more homework when I’m speaking to groups with which I’m less familiar.
I was recently asked to give a ten-minute talk to caregivers in the community – therapists, pastors, rabbis, and others who devote a great deal of their time to caring for people who struggle. I knew that the people in this audience often feel burned-out and overwhelmed from bearing the burdens of others. As I began to work on my talk, I thought about what I might share that would offer encouragement to this particular group and their unique situation. Know your audience, and understand the challenges they face, and consider the questions and concerns they are wrestling with. This will enable you to offer a timely and relevant message.
When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered his first inaugural address in 1933, the country was in the midst of the Great Depression. Fear had gripped the nation, and hopelessness was in the air. What Roosevelt knew was that he needed to calm these fears, reassure the country and communicate to the nation that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Eighty year later, we still recall these words as some of the most compelling in any inaugural address, but they were written in response to FDR’s clear understanding of the people’s needs.
3. What?
Finally, in light of the “why” and the “who,” I begin looking for the “what.” I begin asking, “What do I want my hearers to know? What do I want them to feel or experience? And what do I want them to do in response to the message?” These questions correspond to the head, the heart, and the hands. You may recognize them as three of the four Hs of the 4H clubs. The founders of 4H believed that people learn and develop best when they engage their heads (intellect), hearts (emotions), and hands (action). This premise is important for speakers as well. Answer the “what” question, and you’re more likely to include material that resonates with more people, on multiple levels, in multiple ways. You’ll also be ready to begin writing your speech with a strong and focused idea of what your content should include.
As a speaker you should know why you are speaking, you should understand the people to whom you are speaking, and you should be clear about what you want those people to know, feel, and do as a response to your message.
Adam Hamilton is pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. This article is an excerpt from his book Speaking Well (Abingdon Press: 2015) and is used by permission. Hamilton’s many books can be found at Cokesbury orAmazon

. Read more…
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Quotable Leadership:
"When you open your mouth too much, something stupid is bound to come out."[Gloria Naylor in Mama Day]

Register Today for the “Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns” Conference and Live Stream; Resource Preorder Discount Available
Saturday, March 5, 10 a.m.–1 p.m. EST

Innovation is on the minds of church leaders today as old ways of serving seem inadequate to a new context and new models are sought. An article by researchers having studied diverse settings where innovation had occurred concluded that the important question for leaders is not “How do I make innovation happen?” but, rather:

How do I set the stage for innovation to happen?

Want more Right Questions? Check out “Right Questions for Church Leaders, Volumes 1–4.”
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Leading Ideas: Do You Need a New Worship Service? | Should We Go From Two Worship Services to One? of The Wesleyan Seminary of Washington, D.C., United States for Wednesday, 10 February 2016 of The Lewis Center for Church Leadership

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Wednesday, February 10, 2016
"Do You Need a New Worship Service?" by Laura Heikes

Our church had hit a plateau. We continued to welcome new members, but worship attendance stubbornly remained flat. We were bumping up against what consultants call the 80 Percent Rule. When 80 percent of ideal seating is full, the feeling of crowding will limit a church’s continued growth. So we began a third worship service, and, within the year, worship attendance was on the rise again.
Are you considering starting a new worship service? Leaders often plan new services that mirror what they already have with only minor changes. But growth is more likely when you use the new service as a chance to try something new and reach a completely different group of people. Here are some things we learned.
Target Audience
Take time to people-watch in your neighborhood grocery store, parks, and shopping areas. Ask your school district for their latest demographic studies. Notice the people who are part of your community, but not your church. Is there a segment you feel called to reach? A group God has already gifted you to serve? One church realized they were missing young adults. They designed a “casual yet sacred” worship service to reach them. Another realized their blended worship didn’t appeal to seniors retiring to their area. They added an early morning gospel service to appeal to them.
Venue and Time
What venue would best minister to the group you wish to reach? Get creative! Worship doesn’t have to happen in a sanctuary. Your church’s covered patio, a nearby park, or even the bar down the way might be better, depending on whom you want to reach. Choose a venue that will create a welcoming atmosphere for your target demographic. The time also has to work for those you want to involve. Test out some options. Adjust if you get it wrong in the beginning.
Seating
Row seating is not always the best option, depending on whom you wish to reach. Acknowledging this, one church removed a section of pews near the back of their sanctuary and replaced them with colorful carpet, rocking chairs, and quiet toys. Their worship space proclaims their desire to be in ministry to young families. An established downtown church filled their new fellowship hall with couches, a coffee bar, and small tables with eclectic chairs when they began a worship service that targeted people with little or no church background. Consider what type of seating would best fit the needs of the people you wish to serve.
Music
Discover the music popular among your target group. Radio stations provide advertisers with their station’s demographics. Ask! Listen to the music blaring from that car next to you. Notice what families picnicking in the park are playing. Ministering to new groups means going beyond our own preferences to discover the types of music that sing in the souls of those we long to reach. Don’t force new people to learn your favorite praise songs or hymns. Challenge yourself to find a music style that connects with them.
Liturgy
Will you have a traditional sermon or an interactive discussion? Could you receive communion around tables instead of up front? How long will the service be? (Jesus never decreed one hour.) What about traditional practices such as passing the plate? When we start our fourth worship service at a local Icehouse next fall, the “offering plate” is going to be a cowboy boot near the door: perfect for people who live in our area of the Texas Hill Country, and assume that all churches talk about is money.
When you start a new worship service, design it for those you wish to reach. Allow new worship spaces to welcome unreached people into God’s house in ways that seem familiar and natural to them.
Laura Heikes is pastor of Bee Creek United Methodist Church in Spicewood, Texas. She participated in the Lewis Center for Church Leadership’s Lewis Fellows leadership development program for young clergy in 2008-2009. Read more…
"Should We Go From Two Worship Services to One?" by Lovett H. Weems, Jr.

Just as some churches are adding worship services, others are considering reducing the number of worship times they offer. The most common circumstance is a church that traditionally offered two Sunday morning services and is considering replacing that pattern with a single worship experience. Here is how someone recently described their situation:

For years we have had two Sunday morning services. However, increasingly on special occasions, everyone worships together in one service. The energy felt in these services is leading some to push for more frequent combined services or simply going to one service for every Sunday.

Let’s use this case to examine several leadership considerations to explore before reducing the number of services, whether occasionally, routinely or permanently.
Missional Fruitfulness
Good leaders resist the natural impulse to choose a side based on personal preferences or the impact on personal responsibilities. The leader’s task is to help people think about the worship schedule from a perspective of missional fruitfulness. If you have not already done so, you need to clarify the reason you have worship in the first place. For example, here is how one church defines the purpose of their worship services: “We have worship so that members can glorify God, give thanks, grow as disciples, and be inspired for action in a way that draws new disciples to follow Christ.”
Then the question of one service is not which option I prefer personally, but rather which option will accomplish our purpose for worship most effectively. Therefore, if the church just referenced were to decide to go from two services to one, then it would be because they can truthfully say, “We will have one worship service so that members can glorify God, give thanks, grow as disciples, and be inspired for action in a way that draws new disciples to follow Christ more fruitfully than having multiple services.” This is the only basis for changing.
Along the way, you will need to know much more about how the two services came about and the differences in constituencies for each. It may be that a single service will produce more fruit, but you need to have some reasonable basis for that conclusion before making the change. There may be reasons why one or both of the services are not well attended that have nothing to do with the time of the service or the number of services. Keep in mind that people normally prefer more options rather than fewer. Movie theaters learned that a long time ago.
When Occasionally Combining Services Makes Sense
The question of “occasional” combined services raises issues of its own. If the combined services are around “special” occasions, then there will of course be more attendance and energy. This added energy may dissipate if the occasions for joint services become less special as they become more frequent.
My greatest reservation about occasional changes in the worship schedule is that it conveys an insider mentality. Those most “in the know” can keep up with the changes, but the somewhat active and less active will not, nor will guests or occasional visitors. Showing up for worship only to discover you have missed the “special service” does not cultivate more engagement.
If such changes in your worship schedule are indeed rare, then you can make it work to your advantage. Let's say that on Easter you planned a combined service, perhaps at a different venue to seat everyone. That could be confusing, but if you use the change as the opportunity to contact everyone in the church to remind them of the change and do external publicity, then you actually send a very different message to less active members and potential visitors. Otherwise, such changes will appear to be for “insiders” who always seem to have special knowledge.
The number of worship services and their times are not sacred. Just be sure you are making changes for the right reasons.
Lovett H. Weems, Jr., is director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership. A list of his books is available atchurchleadership.com/resources/books.htm Read more…
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Quotable Leadership
"When you feel like you are the only person in the room bringing ideas to the table, you are the problem."[Tony Morgan]

Apply Now for the 2016-17 Lewis Fellows Program

We are now receiving applications for the 2016-17 Lewis Fellows program that brings together outstanding young clergy (under the age of 35) from a variety of denominational backgrounds for intensive leadership development activities and sustained peer interaction. Support for this program is provided by the Lilly Endowment’s Transition into Ministry initiative. Learn more about the program, meeting dates, costs, and eligibility requirements. Applications are due by March 31, 2016.
The Right Question
Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the right questions.

Loren Mead, founder of the Alban Institute and advocate for the importance of studying congregational life, tells about learning a question early in his ministry that served him well whenever a new project was undertaken, especially one that involved partnerships. With everyone bringing to the new venture the best of intentions and high energy, Mead found that ultimate results required someone asking this question early in the work:

What are you trying to do?

Want more Right Questions? Check out “Right Questions for Church Leaders, Volumes 1–4.”
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Early-bird registration ends Tuesday for the "Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns" Conference and Live Stream of Lewis Center for Church Leadership of The Wesleyan Seminary of Washington, D.C., United States for Thursday, 4 February 2016
Early-bird registration ends this Tuesday, February 9.
Register now and save.
“Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns” Conference and Live Stream

Saturday, March 5, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time

Research suggests that church members who make pledges usually give at least 30 percent more than those who do not, and congregations that seek annual financial commitments have significantly higher levels of overall giving. While the seeds of faithful stewardship are cultivated year-round, a well-orchestrated, theologically-sound commitment campaign reaps the harvest of generosity. At theOptimizing Annual Financial Campaigns Conference and Live Stream, you will learn best practices to make your annual financial campaign a more effective one.
Conference attendees may participate in person in Washington, DC, or via live stream from their own computer or mobile device across the globe. Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns is ecumenical and designed for both laity and clergy.
Sessions

Laying the Groundwork

Elements of an Effective Campaign

Implementing a Successful Campaign

Fostering Generosity through Commitment

Presenters

Lewis Center staff members Dr. Ann A. Michel and Dr. Lovett H. Weems, Jr., are leaders in the field of congregational stewardship and have taught and written extensively on generosity, giving, and financial stewardship.
Preorder the “Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns” Resource and SaveAdd the Optimizing Financial Campaigns Resource to your church or home library. The resource will include video presentations of all four sessions plus outlines, written materials, and supplementary materials. $75 $60 through March 5. Learn more.
Save with Early-bird Registration through February 9
In-person registration: $50 $35 per person early-bird
Live stream registration: $35 $25 per live stream early-bird
Current Wesley Theological Seminary students may register free.

churchleadership.com/funding

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Update: Quiet Leadership by Public Leaders | Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns Conference and Live Stream | Doctor of Ministry of Lewis Center for Church Leadership of The Wesleyan Seminary of Washington, D.C., United States for Wednesday, 3 February 2016

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Wednesday, February 3, 2016
"A Report from the Director: Quiet Leadership by Public Leaders"

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Quiet leadership is made up of small but consequential actions taken away from the limelight and often before an issue becomes polarized.
Dale Bumpers was a very public leader for most of his adult life — as governor of Arkansas for two terms and then United States Senator for 24 years until his retirement in 1999. When he died recently at his home in Little Rock at the age of 90, I thought back to the first time I met him at the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion after his election to the Senate but before his departure as governor. At that time Newsweek said he had “undeniably been one of the South’s most successful new-style Democrats,” and the New York Times said he was “considered by some to be one of the nation’s ablest governors.” But I wasn’t there to talk about politics but about how religious faith had shaped, and was shaping, his life.
Bumpers had strong church and Methodist ties from both parents. He was in law school in Chicago at the time his parents were killed in a car wreck caused by a drunken driver. He noted the irony that his mother and father had that Sunday morning signed a card common in those days when Methodists were asked to sign a “total abstinence” from alcohol pledge once a year. Dale Bumpers and his wife, Betty, returned to his small hometown of Charleston where he practiced law and tried to fill some of the void left in the church by the loss of his parents. He was at one time or another choir director, church school teacher, finance committee chair, and lay speaker.
In his early campaigns, some writers pointed out that his speeches projected certain basic values and ideals. He certainly felt that his public commitments were in alignment with Judeo-Christian values. But even in those early days of his political career, he regretted the “moralistic” tone of many church leaders while they showed neglect of social conditions around them. He especially felt clergy should show more leadership. “It’s one thing to preach the gospel on Sunday and something else to translate that into feeding, clothing, and providing health care for those in need as Christ intended,” he told me. What emerged in the nation regarding the narrow and moralistic use of faith in the public square must surely have confirmed his earlier reservations about public leadership from churches.
Quiet Leadership as Greatest Accomplishment
For such a public leader, it may be surprising to many that his obituary in the New York Times reported his telling them of an incident when he was 28 that he considered “probably the most important thing I did in my whole life.” Following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court school desegregation decision, the local school board in his Arkansas hometown asked the young lawyer in town what they should do. He told the board and superintendent “that integrating now would be infinitely preferable to waiting for the national chaos that was sure to come.” They took his advice and became perhaps the first school district in the states that made up the Confederacy to do so and with virtually no public outcry.
Now, to put this in context, his town had a smaller percentage of African American population than is typical across much of the South. However, just think of how history might have been different if more communities that were capable of making a relatively immediate transition had done so. It would have been impossible to maintain the pretense of a monolithic culture of white resistance that local politicians trumpeted for decades. Remember just three years later it took the 101st Airborne Division to integrate Little Rock’s Central High School. And it would require another Supreme Court decision in late 1969 before the original decision was implemented.
Quiet Leadership by Public Church Leaders
Notice that Bumpers counted this example of quiet leadership as his greatest accomplishment. That’s not how we normally think of the achievements of public leaders. Neither is that how we view the work of the church’s visible leaders. For example, just as politicians might be associated with legislation or electoral victories, so we might associate success by church leaders as their sermons, writing, buildings built, or awards received. Or they may be associated with important social causes and movements. However, it could very well be that some of their greatest accomplishments come in their quiet leadership.
Most of us think of great leaders in heroic terms as bold risk takers who orchestrate major changes. Quiet leadership, even when practiced by very visible leaders, is made up of small but consequential actions taken away from the limelight and often before an issue becomes polarized. It is many of these smaller and quieter acts that can reshape churches and communities.
Here are some examples of how I have seen lay and clergy church leaders exercise quiet leadership when there was no groundswell for the change and, consequently, no organized opposition.

Diversifying the people visible in worship leadership in terms of gender, age, and race
Changing the membership of a skewed Church Council to reflect the demographic makeup of the congregation in only four years, primarily using attrition
Using the repaving of the parking lot as a chance to eliminate the myriad of reserved parking places except those for visitors and persons with disabilities
Engaging role stereotyping by including fathers in the volunteer nursery workers rotation and women in the ranks of ushers
Advertising and sending news to all community news outlets, not just the ones used most by the members of the congregation
Making sure accessibility is included in every renovation effort
Making sure that salaries and benefits for all staff are fair and consistent

The quiet leaders could have tried to make these changes through their public roles using oratory or coercion. Instead, they chose to advance things they felt were right and needed. Sometimes such leadership does not work but many times it does. Where are you exercising or at least trying to exercise such quiet leadership?
Lovett H. Weems, Jr.
Lovett H. Weems, Jr., is director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership and professor of church leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. His most recent book, written with pastor Tom Berlin, is High Yield: Seven Disciplines of the Fruitful Leader. Read more …

Early-bird Registration Ends Soon for the “Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns” Conference and Live Stream

Saturday, March 5, 10 a.m–1 p.m. EST
Conference

Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, DC
Church members who pledge give 30 percent more than those who do not, and congregations that seek annual financial commitments have significantly higher levels of overall giving. At the Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns Conference, you will learn to reap the harvest of generosity through best practices for a more effective annual financial campaign. $50 $35 through February 9. Register now.
Live Stream

Can’t attend the conference in person? Log in to the Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns Live Stream. $35 $25 through February 9. Register now.

Preorder the “Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns” Resource and Save
Add the Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns Resource to your church or home library so that you and others may view this valuable information again in the years to come. The resource will include video presentations of all four sessions plus outlines, written materials, and supplementary materials. The resource will be available in downloadable and DVD/CD formats in mid March; preorder through March 5 and save $15 off the regular price: $75 $60. Learn more and order today.

Could Your Church Make Better Use of Social Media?
Social media present new opportunities for congregations — but only if they are used well and with a plan. If you hope to improve your church’s witness this year through social media, check out the article “Use This 10 Item Checklist to Make Social Media Work for Your Church in 2016.” Read now.

Pursue Your Doctor of Ministry in the Nation’s Capital
Wesley Theological Seminary and the Lewis Center for Church Leadership together offer a Doctor of Ministry in Church Leadership Excellence. With this track, clergy will receive the enhanced knowledge, skills, and motivation to increase congregational and denominational service, vitality, and growth. The next cohort begins in May 2016 in Washington, DC. Learn more and apply today.

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Leading Ideas: Reclaiming Conversation | 7 Components of Conversational Leadership of Lewis Center for Church Leadership of The Wesleyan Seminary of Washington, D.C., United States for Wednesday, 27 February 2016

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Wednesday, January 27, 2016
"Reclaiming Conversation" by Dwight Zscheile

One of the most profound and disturbing books I’ve read recently is Sherry Turkle’s Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age (Penguin Press, 2015). Turkle is a professor at MIT, author of Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other (Basis Books, 2010), and a researcher into how technology is reshaping human life and community. This book focuses on how digital devices are eroding our capacity for conversation, deeper connection, and generative solitude.
Turkle spent a lot of time interviewing people of a variety of ages (many of them millennials) about their everyday lives, including family, friendships, education, and work. The picture she paints is sobering. In the past 20 years, empathy among college students has dropped 40 percent (most of it in the past decade). The more preoccupied with technology we are, the more tenuously we’re linked to community.
People find themselves overwhelmed with so many choices and possibilities that they struggle to focus on any one. “In the new communications culture, interruption is not experienced as interruption but as another connection,” Turkle writes. But such connections through technology are thin and fluid; they have nothing of the embodied presence or richness of face-to-face conversation.
The most heartbreaking stories in Turkle’s book are about children frustrated by their parents constantly turning away toward their devices. The common narrative that children are the ones lost behind devices begins, for Turkle, with parents’ own behavior. Children find themselves competing with devices for their parents’ attention and generally lose, so they turn toward devices themselves.
Along the way, a whole generation seems to be losing the capacity to navigate conversations of depth. Relationships are formed and broken off by text message. Employers describe employees who want to communicate with colleagues or clients by email at any cost rather than pick up the phone or talk in person. The kinds of solitary moments that can be so generative for creativity and imagination (as well as self-reflection) are being replaced with an endless checking of devices. Our brains reward us with a high when we do so, but the connections often do not really land anywhere.
Turkle writes about classrooms, workplaces, and homes. But the chapter that begs to be written is about spirituality — about spaces and practices of faith and worship. At the heart of all the world’s great faith traditions is attentiveness and presence — to God, to ourselves, to one another, to the world. Whether through prayer or meditation, being still is central to experiencing the sacred.
But in the culture we find ourselves in today, such deep, sustained attention to anything or anyone seems a vanishing proposition. We are losing the habits that make it possible. What does prayer look like in a world of “continuous partial attention” (in the words of technology scholar Linda Stone)? If we can hardly hold a conversation with a friend, colleague, or partner anymore, how can we sustain one with God?
Dwight Zscheile is associate professor of congregational mission and leadership at Luther Seminary. This article originally appeared on his blog http://dwightzscheile.com/. Used by permission of the author.Read more…
"7 Components of Conversational Leadership" by W. Craig Gilliam

I know, you never intended to be in this world.
But you’re in it all the same.
So why not get started immediately.
I mean, belonging to it.
There is so much to admire, to weep over.~~Mary Oliver, Blue Horses, p. 63.
We are sufficient for the day,
to love, to adventure
to go on the grand tour,
into another
today.~~W. Craig Gilliam, Where Wild Things Grow, p. 97.
For the past year, I have been working with a group exploring the components of leadership and conversation (cohorts led by David Whyte). Truth is, good leadership is about courageous conversation with self, others and God; thus, we call it conversational leadership.
At least 7 components are part of a map on conversational leadership. While there are some similarities to other lenses for leadership, a conversational leadership map has subtleties and nuances of difference. In this article, we will identify 7 components of conversational leadership and offer some reflections. The components are:
1. Stopping the conversation you, the congregation or the organization are having now. What is the conversation you are having and the narrative you are repeating about other, self or God that keeps you and the community/congregation stuck where you and the organization or community are? What is the conversation we need to stop having? What does it look like to become aware of that narrative/conversation and to change it, to find an alternative narrative or conversation that has greater possibilities and open options?
2. The disciplines of asking Beautiful Questions: Cultivating a relationship with the unknown. What is a beautiful question? Beautiful questions shape our identity as much by asking them as by answering them. Beautiful questions open space, options and possibilities for people and often shift a conversation. The beautiful question(s) invite people to see, think and be differently.
Please note, it is not about the Beautiful Question, although I have seen those moments when it is about one question. Often our multitude of beautiful questions lead us like breadcrumbs down the path to the place where the Beautiful Question can be heard and spoken, but it is often a journey or process to that place that touches at the level of emotional process or at what we call the soul level. Caution: Do not let the search for the beautiful question paralyze you from asking the 100 smaller beautiful questions that help take us there internally and externally.
The source of the Beautiful Questions—I have found the questions can come from different faces and places. Sometimes the facilitator might offer the question(s), sometimes someone else in the group speaks it/them, and sometimes the group speaks that beautiful question(s) that changes the thinking and way of being. The beautiful question(s) can emerge from many different sources. Through this question(s), I believe, “God whose middle name is Surprise!” happens.
I have found the driving attitudes for this type leadership is curiosity and the desire to understand. Strong leaders are curious and compassionate, while holding integrity nearby.
3. Making contact with the courageous conversation. What is the courageous conversation? It is the conversation you do not want to have, but seems to keep calling for your attentiveness. It is the stranger who keeps knocking on your door at midnight.
One of our greatest challenges is to know the next conversation that needs to happen. This means getting in touch with the real, next conversation that people might be avoiding and to have the conversation in a constructive way that does not take the roof off the place. We are asking for a kind of conversational identity, and you do it in a heartfelt, robustly vulnerable way. There is no way to have a courageous conversation without some vulnerability, a vulnerability that might break your own heart.
I hear in congregations and other organizations about our ability to talk around a topic rather about the deep, important issue(s) in the topic.
The challenge is how to have the courageous conversation in a way that cultivates the greatest possibility for positive outcomes and deep engagement of understanding and connection. Jesus was a master at this conversational art. How do we have such a conversation that accepts and values differences while honoring the dignity and integrity of each person at the table? How do we remember ourselves and help remind others that each are individuals made in the image of God; that each person’s reality is important, whether we agree with it or not?
4. Cultivating a culture of vulnerability and revelation: Asking for visible and invisible help. The French philosopher, Albert Camus, said that we are to live close to tears. By that, he did not mean that we are to live in a kind of mortal sentimentality. By vulnerability, he meant an invitation to a constant vulnerability that is not a weakness, but actually a robust form of incarnation in the world, so you can risk yourself; you can risk your story. You can hazard yourself in the world and give yourself away again and again and again to see what comes back to you.A student of the late Dr. James A. Knight, M.D., a friend, renowned psychiatrist and medical educator at Tulane Medical School, said, “…probably the most important thing he taught us was that while a tough exterior is necessary to deal with the tragedies of our profession, we should always leave a part of us vulnerable, so as to know the gravity of our work and the ethical responsibility of our profession.”How do we maintain an I-Thou way in the midst of those in an I-It way toward us? Vulnerability and I-Thou go hand-in-hand.
In fully embodying our vulnerabilities we become more physically present, not only to the sources of our fears and our defenses, but to establish a more proper relationship with reality in understanding how much we need to ask for help. Visible help has to do with the tangible, transactional help we need. The invisible is the help that we do not see or do not realize as of yet we need, and the many sources from which this invisible help comes. The Psalmist, Jesus, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Theresa, M. Gandhi and many of our models for life, both collective and individuals, were aware of this invisible source, thus, were able to embody vulnerability.
To run from vulnerability is to run from the essence of our nature; the attempt to be invulnerable is the vain attempt to become something we are not and more especially, to shut off the grief of others. More seriously, in refusing our vulnerability we refuse to ask for the help needed at every turn of our existence and immobilize the essential, tidal and conversational foundations of our identity.
5. Robust vulnerability is a form of incarnation. I have found the most influential leaders I know are those who can be vulnerable. They are not above it all, nor are they beyond making mistakes and showing compassion for others and themselves when they do. They have an ability to own their mistakes and say, “I blew it,” and to say, “I apologize.” Genuine vulnerability is strength, not weakness. It demonstrates one’s ability to accept his or her humanness and accept the humanness of others as well. Strong people pick others up; they do not push others down.
Cultivating and bringing into our work/ministry our own form of art and artistry. A question in the January, 2015 Leadership Resource was, “What is the artistry that you bring to your work/ministry?”
“I see art, and in my case specifically, poetry, as an incarnation. Art gives our creative spirits form and body. It gives outer expression to the deep source or well- spring within us. At its best, art invites us to a deep place of under-neathness, a sacred non-space from which creativity flows. Humankind has had a thousand names for this inner place. I refer to it as soul, a ghost-like, far horizon from which our deepest Self makes appearances, shows its face(s) and calls us deeper into the world.”
(from Where Wild Things Grow by W. Craig Gilliam, 2015, p. 15, available throughAmazon)
I am especially interested in:
1. What is your art?
2. How do you bring your art and artistry into your ministry/work?
6. Making the invitation: The crucial marker of good leadership. Making the invitation is a crucial marker of a good leader. How do we make invitations that create responsiveness and appeal to peoples’ creative, courageous self – not the part of them and us that is resistance, reactive or fear-driven? How do we hear the invitation in the given context in which we serve? How do we frame and help others to hear (discover) an invitation forward or deeper as well?When walking with individuals, organizations and congregations, I often find myself asking, “What is the invitation this situation is offering or that the leader is making or that my inner life is inviting me to hear? What is the invitation God might be extending me in and through this situation?”
If vulnerability makes us understand just how much help we need, then practicing this constant need to ask is the practice of making invitations, to others, to ourselves, to God, and even to what lies over the horizon of our present life. One of the beautiful and disturbing questions we can ask ourselves is the central question around how invitational we are as individuals. What do others think my invitation is to them? How do I invite myself to frontiers of courage and trepidation? Is my invitation something people would want to follow?
7. Harvest the Presence: The ability to bring to a culmination all of the hard work we put into our preparation through the first six components. What are we going to do to build on our previous hard work? Human beings are very good at working hard, preparing, planning, sowing and tending – not so good at bringing in the harvest of all our labors; often refusing to have the patience that a true ripening calls for, or moving onto new initiatives before the one we have worked so hard for has had time to flower. There is also the difficulty that lies in the hidden unspoken almost invisible harvests connected with our shadows, our relationships and our difficulties.
This is one of the most common resistances I hear from groups when we talk about conversational practices or leadership. Their comments are something like, “Are we just going to talk and nothing gets done?” We don’t need to talk, we need action,” etc. We do need action, but first, we need intentional, courageous conversation that leads to clarity and discernment for the next step. We need to carry through and make a plan from our work and conversations to move to action. So harvesting is critical.In the past, I have used the language, Harvest the Learning, at the end of important conversations. Now I have come to use the phrase Harvest the Presence, as the group with whom I was exploring this concept made me aware of it.
Harvest the Learning is about head learning and ideas, which are important. Harvest the Presence is something deeper, something more soulful, more whole, something more lasting. It includes our ideas, but it is more—it is who we are and who we are becoming. Harvest the Presence includes not only the head, but the heart and body of the person and people.
Harvest the Presence suggests our being as well as our learning/ideas/concepts. Harvest the Presence is about who we have become and are becoming through the process of the learning. Thus, I am asking, “How has what we have discussed and done impacted who we are, our way of being as a person and people? How have we become different as a result of these conversations and this work together? How does that influence our map for moving forward or deeper into the invitation that waits?”
Another lens might frame Harvest the Presence as monitoring the impacts of process on the people as well as the content/information.A friend who taught at MIT said that their deep discovery was, “No container, no dialogue.” This process of conversational leadership is a way of growing, deepening and broadening the container, so the deeper, more important, courageous conversations can happen. The container has to do with its quality, paying attention to the group field; the clarity and interaction of intention and attentiveness, each of which help establish context; to monitor if it is too palpable. As the leader, influencing the quality of the container is our first job and very closely, it is inviting others to share that responsibility with us.
We will expand on each of these components over time. For now, I simply want you to hear these components and live with them.
Be well, be inspired and by all means, keep the conversation alive!
Agree or disagree, you are invited into the conversation!
Tags: Craig Gilliam, good conversation, leadership

W. Craig Giliam
Dr. W. Craig Gilliam is on the staff of JustPeace Center for Mediation and Conflict Transformation housed in Washington, D.C.; director of the Center for Pastoral Excellence in the United Methodist Church, LA Conference. He is an adjunct instructor at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, and consults with churches and other organizations across the country; and has a private practice, consulting with churches and other organizations across the country. His primary areas of interest are group dynamics and systems that foster healthy, creative, mature, nurturing communities.Read more…
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Quotable Leadership
"Hosting meaningful conversations isn’t about getting people to like each other or feel good. It’s about creating the means for problems to get solved, for teams to function well, for people to become energetic activists."[Deborah Frieze and Margaret Wheatley]

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Church members who pledge give 30 percent more than those who do not, and congregations that seek annual financial commitments have significantly higher levels of overall giving. At the Optimizing Annual Financial CampaignsConference and Live Stream, you will learn to reap the harvest of generosity through best practices to make your annual financial campaign a more effective one. Learn more and save with early-bird registration. Also, preorder theOptimizing Annual Financial Campaigns Resource for your library so that you can review this valuable information again in the years to come. Learn more.
The Right Question
Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the right questions.

Leaders set the tone for a congregation’s culture. Whether leaders are paid or volunteer, their words convey values picked up by others. Sometimes leaders with good intentions send messages inconsistent with the direction the church is seeking to go. This can send mixed messages, and worse, it supports a mindset at odds with the church at its best. This may happen when people repeat language they heard growing up in church. For example, the faithful finance chair makes the case for financial support using language of guilt and obligation at odds with the theology of stewardship the church seeks to build. A question that can help address this problem and educate as well is:
What are the “we must never use" phrases for our church?

Want more Right Questions? Check out “Right Questions for Church Leaders, Volumes 1–4.”
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Update: When Higher Giving May Not Be Good News | Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns Conference and Live Stream | Doctor of Ministry of Lewis Center for Church Leadership of The Wesleyan Semonary of Washington, D.C., United States for Wednesday, 13 January 2016

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Wednesday, January 13, 2016
"A Report from the Director: When Higher Giving May Not Be Good News"
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Isn’t this good news? In the short term, yes. But for the long term, it is a frightening trend.
As a new year begins, there will and should be a careful review of the past year. Perhaps there will be reports made to the church council or congregation on “how we did last year.” If statistical trends are shared, they probably show a mixture of increases and declines. Such is the ebb and flow of most congregations.
For a majority of declining congregations, the good news in such reports often is that giving went up and per capita giving (whether figured on attendance, membership, or number of donors) went up. Isn’t this good news? In the short term, yes. But for the long term, it is a frightening trend.
As worship attendance has declined, especially since 2002, the saving grace for many churches has been that giving continued to increase. Thus, the economic model that sustains many congregations is that each year fewer people will give more. While that is a way to get through another year, it is hardly a solid foundation to sustain and expand the congregation’s mission.
Money Can Be Deceptive
It’s strange to think that people giving more money to the church might be an occasion for pause among congregations. In fact, a few years back a large denomination set out to identify vital congregations and then to see what factors might account for that vitality. The researchers were given a series of characteristics that that denomination’s leaders believed were signs of growing vitality. One was an increase in “annual giving per attendee.” Sounds too logical to not be the case.
Let’s look at United Methodist churches that grew and declined over a recent ten-year period.

In churches where attendance grew by 50 or more over ten years, “annual giving per attendee” declined $285 after adjusting for inflation.
In churches where attendance declined by 50 or more over ten years, “annual giving per attendee” increased $623 after adjusting for inflation.

The remarkable, even shocking, contrast of attendance trends with financial trends serves as a reminder that money is a lagging indicator. You see, money can make up for, and tend to obscure, many problems. Life can go on much as it did before, as long as funding is in place. What is new today is the realization that aging members with increased assets and generosity cannot substitute forever for the neglect of the basics on which all giving depends — changed lives and transformed communities.
The Solution is Simple but Slow
Why do growing churches have lower per capita giving? Notice that this does not mean they have less money. Indeed, they have more money because they have more people giving, but the average giving per attendee is less than before they grew. Here’s what happens:
Growing churches reach new people, many of whom have not been attending church, at least in recent years.
Since the unchurched are typically younger than regular church attenders, they have fewer financial assets.
More importantly, these new people tend not to bring spiritual maturity, including the practice of regular giving, much less tithing.
In fact, growing churches will sometimes have old timers say of newcomers, “They aren’t paying for themselves.” That may be true, at least for a time.
Growing churches always see positive financial gains as new people arrive, but they don’t count on large gifts or even giving that keeps up with added church expenses. Greater giving will come with time and discipleship growth, just as it happened for the most dedicated of current longtime members. To reach those outside the church means to reach those who may very well be younger, poorer, less educated, less likely to be married, and less spiritually grounded than current members. Don’t regret that reality; celebrate it.
While you give thanks every day for those faithful and generous members who made it possible for your church to make financial progress last year, remember that the greatest gift they are giving your church is some precious months and years to engage new people. These new people can immediately bring energy and service to your church and, with spiritual encouragement and growth, mature into generous disciples themselves who can help make possible faith for a next generation of believers.
Lovett H. Weems, Jr.Lovett H. Weems, Jr., is director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership and professor of church leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. For help in increasing worship attendance, consult his book written with pastor Tom Berlin, Overflow: Increase Worship Attendance & Bear More Fruit. Read more …

Save with Early-bird Registration to the “Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns” Conference and Live Stream

Saturday, March 5, 10 a.m–1 p.m. EST
ConferenceWesley Theological Seminary, Washington, DC
Church members who pledge give 30 percent more than those who do not, and congregations that seek annual financial commitments have significantly higher levels of overall giving. At the Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns Conference, you will learn to reap the harvest of generosity through best practices for a more effective annual financial campaign. $50 $35 through February 9. Register now.
Live StreamCan’t attend the conference in person? Log in to the Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns Live Stream. $35 $25 through February 9. Register now.

Free Video on Asking Good Questions
Lewis Center subscribers know the importance of asking the right questions. To help your use of questions, consider the four types of questions described in the free video “The Art of Asking Questions” from the Harvard Business Review.Watch now.

Editors: Lovett H. Weems, Jr., and Matthew Lyons
Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary.
4500 Massachusetts Ave NW

Washington, D.C. 20016, United States

(202) 885-8757

lewiscenter@wesleyseminary.edu
Lewis Center for Church Leadership

Wesley Theological Seminary

4500 Massachusetts Avenue NW

Washington, D.C. 20016, United States
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Missionary Renegade

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

"Leading Ideas: Cool Church Isn't What It Used to Be | Worship Game Changers" Lewis Center for Church Leadership of The Wesley Theological Seminary of Washington, D.C., United States for Wednesday, 16 March 2016

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