Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Lewis Center for Church Leadership from The Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., United States for Wednesday, 16 May 2017 - Leading Ideas: "Adam Hamilton on Leading Unafraid - Podcast - From Parking Lot to Pew: Turning Building Users into Worshipers"

Lewis Center for Church Leadership from The Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., United States for Wednesday, 16 May 2017 - Leading Ideas: "Adam Hamilton on Leading Unafraid - Podcast - From Parking Lot to Pew: Turning Building Users into Worshipers"
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
Adam Hamilton on "Leading Unafraid"
How can church leaders confront the fear that prevents congregations from dealing with controversial issues or taking necessary risks? Adam Hamilton, pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, outlines perspectives and strategies drawn from his new book Unafraid: Living with Courage and Hope in Uncertain Times.
Successful people are willing to do the things that unsuccessful people are unwilling to do. And the same is true for congregations. Yet most are so paralyzed by fear that they don’t do the things that would lead to success.
Almost every great experience in life requires a measure of risk. This was certainly true in 1990 when my wife LaVon and I started the Church of the Resurrection. Many key leaders in our conference said it would never work. “It’s underfunded. It’s undercapitalized. You really shouldn’t do this because you’re going to fail and end up the pastor of a four-point charge.” Their admonitions were an example of how fear can keep us from taking risks. But in the end, I thought, “What’s the worst thing that can happen? If this doesn’t work, I’ll serve a four-point charge. But I think God is calling me to do it.”Over and over again, I’ve seen at the Church of the Resurrection how the best things have happened despite of our fears, because we pressed through our fears, and that led us to see amazing results.
Discernment by nausea
Jesus talked about there being two paths — one that is wide and broad and leads to destruction and one that is narrow and hard and leads to life. Congregations and individuals often come to this type of fork in the road. One path is easy and safe and doesn’t require a lot of risk taking. The other path is difficult. It feels riskier. It makes us a little sick to our stomach. When confronted with these two paths, it’s usually the path that makes us a little queasy that is the right path. It leads to the greatest reward and the greatest impact. I call this the principle of “discernment by nausea.”
Over and over again, I’ve seen at the Church of the Resurrection how the best things have happened despite our fears because we pressed through our fears, and that led us to see amazing results. For example, I was a little nervous when we started our preschool at Church of the Resurrection. At first, we only had four children register and I thought it was a disaster. But today we have a waiting list and thousands of kids who have been through the program.
Some local churches must stare down fear when the community has moved to the other side of the highway and they have to decide whether to give up their building and move somewhere else. Other churches need to learn to stomach fear when launching a new program. One of a leader’s most important responsibilities is to teach people the importance of taking calculated risks.
Overcoming the fear of confronting divisive issues
In 2016, the general level of fear and anxiety in American society was higher than any time since just after 9/11, due largely to the political environment and the rhetoric of the 2016 campaign. We live in a very polarized time when the Far Right and the Far Left have set the agendas for everyone else. In most congregations, we are afraid to talk about the issues that divide us whether it’s gun violence or refugees or immigrants or sexuality.
We have to figure out how to escape this fear and confront these issues in ways that acknowledge differences and help people hear one another. If we just get up on our high horse and preach one side of an issue, we end up alienating the portion of our congregation on the other side. I have found that it is far more helpful to take time to understand where different people are coming from, to acknowledge legitimate concerns on all sides, and then to seek common ground based on a reading of Scripture. More often than not, when I’ve approached issues in this way either in preaching or in studies, people say it helps them see things differently in light of their faith.
Non-anxious leadership
What people most need in a time of anxiety is a non-anxious leader. When leaders convey anxiety, people feel more anxious. It’s just amazing how quickly anxiety spreads within groups. But it works just the opposite too. Sometimes one person can play a key role in tamping down fear by simply saying, “I know this seems scary but here are the reasons I’m not afraid.” Leaders can convey a non-anxious presence, not by giving false reassurances, but by naming the things to focus on in the face of fear.
After the 2016 presidential election, some people at Church of the Resurrection were quite happy with the outcome and others were quite anxious. I told those people, “I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid because we have checks and balances. I’m not afraid because America has survived interesting people in the presidency before. But I’m also not afraid because I believe God actually walks with us on this journey and that there are enough people of faith who will stand up for people who can’t speak up for themselves, and because in the end God’s Kingdom is bigger than one particular party.”
Fear is mentioned often in the Bible, but over and over again we are told, “Do not be afraid, for God is with you.” People of faith need to remember what Frederick Buechner said, “The worst thing is never the last thing.” There is always hope. And God is still God.
Adam Hamilton’s most recent book is Unafraid: Living with Hope and Courage in Uncertain Times. (Convergent Books, 2018). It is available at Cokesbury and Amazon.
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Leading Ideas Talks Podcast: "Moving beyond Fear" Featuring Adam Hamilton
Why does fear so often prevent leaders and congregations from taking action? In this episode Lewis Center Associate Director Ann Michel speaks with Rev. Adam Hamilton, author of the new book Unafraid: Living with Courage and Hope in Uncertain Times, about how people of faith can move beyond the paralysis of fear.
Listen now.
From Parking Lot to Pew: Turning Building Users into Worshipers
Many churches provide meeting space for community groups hoping that building users will eventually show up for worship. But for a church to reach new people through its facility, it must engage in an active, intentional process of building relationships with those using the building, according to Kay Kotan and Phil Schroeder.
Who is in and out of your church building on a weekly or monthly basis? Who uses the building? And what is your relationship with them? Many congregations allow groups to use the church and think that somehow by being in the building during the week those groups might somehow decide to come to worship on Sunday.The church is in the relationship business, not the landlord business.
How do we expect that to happen? Will someone get up on Sunday morning and think because he or she attended a Boy Scout or Girl Scout meeting in a particular fellowship hall on Tuesday evening that he or she will suddenly have an interest in worship? At one time, this might have worked, but in today’s non-church-centric world, it is naive for us to believe this will happen.
Offering presence and hospitality
If a church is to use its facility to reach new people, it must be through an active, intentional process of building relationships with those who are using the building. We must be willing to offer our presence and hospitality in addition to the building.
Consider the example of Grayson United Methodist Church. Their trustees had to consider whether or not to let area homeowners’ associations meet at the church. They debated what to charge the HOAs to use the space. After a great deal of spirited conversation, instead of charging HOAs, the church decided to be evangelistic and offer the space for free and have someone available to greet and welcome the HOA members to the church. That same person invited the attendees to visit the church for a specific event if they did not have a church home. The diverse growth of that church can be traced back to those HOA meetings because the neighborhoods around the church were far more diverse than the church was originally.
From parking lot to pew
People from all over the community were visiting Grayson UMC, so church leaders decided that the HOAs would meet in the church’s sanctuary instead of some other space because they wanted people to be comfortable in the sanctuary as they learned the route from the parking lot to the pew. Too often, we put visiting groups in other spaces, but getting them used to the worship space may be the first step in getting them to worship!
This excerpt is taken and adapted from the book Small-Church Checkup: Assessing Your Church’s Health and Creating a Treatment Plan, by Kay Kotan and Phil Schroeder. Copyright © 2018 by Discipleship Resources, Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved. Used by permission. The book is available at Upper Room Books, Cokesbury, and Amazon.
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The Right Question
Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the right questions.
Christians should never despair and think that positive change is impossible. Carlos Correa Bernier reminds believers that what appears complex and overwhelming must drive us back to the most elemental questions of our faith and character as well as what we believe about the future. His questions are:
  • What is it that I believe?
  • And what am I going to do about it?
Want more Right Questions? Read Right Questions for Church Leaders.
"More Church Leaders | Stronger Church Leaders" Video Tool Kit
Learn strategies to identify and support new leaders and build and maintain effective ministry teams. More Church Leaders | Stronger Church Leaders helps clergy and lay leaders, in churches both large and small, discover a more synergistic and fruitful way of being in ministry together. The tool kit includes engaging videos, handouts, and supplementary materials.
Learn more and watch videos previews.
50 Ways to Welcome New People
One key to effective outreach is making sure that worship visitors feel truly welcome. From helping newcomers feel at home in worship to following up with visitors, the strategies and tips in "50 Ways to Welcome New People" will help your congregation make a good first impression and extend hospitality in meaningful ways.
One key to effective outreach is making sure that worship visitors feel truly welcome. These 50 Ways will help your congregation make a good first impression and extend hospitality in meaningful ways.
Engage your leaders and members
  1. Teach that hospitality is at the core of the Gospel.
  2. Teach your congregation to honor Christ in everyone and that God seeks to be in relationship with ALL persons.
Make a good first Impression
  1. Convey a clear invitation and a statement of welcome in all communications directed at the external community — advertisements, banners, flyers, website, etc.
  2. Know that 40% of visitors make up their mind about a church before they even see the pastor, according to Barna Research. Within two minutes of the beginning of a service visitors have formed an opinion about whether the congregation is friendly.
  3. Care for your building and grounds as a way of honoring your attendees and honoring God. A well-cared-for building demonstrates a commitment to excellence and communicates that what the church does is important.
  4. Have clear exterior and interior signage that guides visitors everywhere they need to go.
  5. Reserve special parking places for visitors. Encourage church members and staff to park offsite or in more remote spaces. If parking lot congestion is an issue, recruit volunteer parking attendants.
  6. Make your nursery clean, safe, sanitary, well-equipped, and visually appealing to children and their parents. Use a space that is easy to find and convenient to the sanctuary. Make sure your nursery workers and procedures inspire confidence on the part of parents.
  7. Make sure your restrooms and neat and clean.
Be intentional about saying hello and goodbye
  1. Station greeters at all entrances, in classroom areas, and in the parking lot or entry walks, if appropriate.
  2. Identify your greeters and ushers with a special badge or name tag so visitors who need information can easily identify them.
  3. Encourage friendly, out-going persons with the gift of “hospitality” to serve as greeters and ushers. Don’t expect that just anyone can do these jobs well. Provide regular training that helps them see the church through a visitor’s eyes.
  4. Escort newcomers to the nursery, classrooms, coffee hour, etc. Don’t just point the way or give directions.
  5. Adopt the “rule of three,” which says members will not talk to other members in the first three minutes following the service — typically how long it takes guests to exit.
  6. Enact the “circle of ten” rule — that each member will greet anyone, member or guest, who comes within ten feet of them.
  7. Say, “I don’t think we’ve met before. …” if you are not sure if the person next to you is a member or a visitor.
  8. Ask outgoing church members to sit in the pews where visitors most commonly sit, often near the entrance or in the back.
  9. Post someone at every exit to shake hands and thank people for coming. Ask worship participants (readers, music leaders, liturgists, etc.,) to do this since their faces will be familiar.
Help newcomers feel at home in worship
  1. Accept and encourage casual attire.
  2. Do not ask visitors to stand and identify themselves. Seventy percent of new attendees feel negatively about being recognized. However, they do expect people to be friendly and welcoming.
  3. Provide nametags for the whole congregation and develop the habit of wearing them. Form a “tag team” to organize and promote name tag use.
  4. Review your church bulletin and other printed material to make sure information is not “insider oriented.” Avoid church jargon and assuming that people understand the context.
  5. Make sure your order of worship is easy for a visitor to follow. Include written or verbal explanations of what is going on and why. Print the words to all prayers, songs, and responses.
  6. Sing at least one hymn each Sunday that is well known outside the church, such as “Amazing Grace,” “Joyful Joyful,” or “Morning Has Broken.”
  7. Include a welcome to visitors in the open words before the service. Make sure the person speaking identifies him or herself. It is best for the pastor to issue this welcome.
  8. Remember that visitors sometimes arrive a few minutes late. Don’t front load all the information directed at them.
  9. Place information about your church’s ministries where a visitor can easily find it — preferably in the pew, or a clearly marked location near the entry points used by visitors. Don’t expect them to go someplace else to find it.
  10. Prepare Visitors Packets to be handed out by greeters with information about your church programs.
  11. Give visitors with small children a small activity packet (with crayons, pipe cleaners, stickers, etc.) as they enter worship.
  12. Avoid all talk about money with visitors.
  13. Keep the discussion of “family business” to a minimum in the services. Limit announcements.
Follow up with your visitors
  1. Get the names and addresses of first-time visitors. Some churches use visitors’ cards, but asking ALL worshippers to record attendance makes it more likely visitors will sign. Visitors don’t want to be singled out.
  2. Make a special effort to remember visitors’ names and call them by name.
  3. Make at least one follow-up contact with first-time visitors within 24 to 36 hours of their visit — a letter from the pastor, a phone call, a hand-written note, an email message. Many churches deliver a gift, such as freshly baked cookies or a church coffee mug, to visitors’ homes. The purpose is to communicate friendliness, not get a membership commitment.
  4. Develop a system or data base for keeping track of visitors, their contact information, and the frequency of visits. A mailing list of persons who have visited in the past is one of your best marketing tools.
  5. Don’t overlook visitors who come to the church for the first time for an event other than worship.
  6. Once someone has attended three times, they should be invited to join the church with a pastoral visit and/or an invitation to take part in an inquirers or new member class.
  7. Encourage visitors to get connected with activities and groups, even if they are not ready to join.
Be more inviting
  1. Hold an Open House Sunday at least once a year.
  2. Organize a “bring-a-friend” Sunday at least once a year.
  3. Extend extra hospitality during back-to-school time, Christmas and Easter, when persons are most likely to consider visiting a church.
  4. Start a personal invitation ministry. Three out of four people attend a church for the first time because they were invited. Yet less than half of church members say they have invited someone in the last year.
  5. Provide training to members on how to invite others to church.
  6. Print special invitations to Christmas Eve services that people can deliver to friends.
  7. Plan special events — concerts, lectures, etc. — that appeal to those outside the church and that members feel comfortable inviting someone to.
  8. Have special recognition Sundays for scout groups, preschool families, or other community groups meeting in your church to encourage them to attend worship.
Become more aware of visitors and their concerns
  1. Gather feedback on how visitors respond to your church through surveys, focus groups, or interviews.
  2. Conduct a “welcome audit” annually.
  3. Provide training on welcoming at least once a year.
  4. Send your welcome team to visit other churches and report back on how they experienced their reception.

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Quotable Leadership
There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period. (Brené Brown)
Learn how to work for genuine and effective change in your church without trying to throw out everything that has gone before.
Pastors and other congregational leaders are eager to institute meaningful and effective change in their congregations. They know that old attitudes and perspectives prevent the church from fulfilling its mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Yet too often church advocates insist that if genuine change is to occur in the church, then everything must change. The board must be wiped clean, and new technologies, new worship styles, and even new theologies must replace what has come before.
The problem with such calls for radical change, says Lovett Weems, Jr., is that they are not true to the way that genuine and lasting change takes place. Like every other organization, churches rest on a cultural foundation of shared assumptions, values, and practices. The paradox of successful change is that this foundation is at the same time the source of resistance to change and what makes change possible. Lasting, transformational change grows out of the congregation’s current sense of its story and its mission. Transformational leaders know how to build on the church’s identity, making new ministries and emphases the natural extension of what has gone before. In other words they know how to make the story of change the next chapter in the book of the congregation’s life, rather than throwing the book away and trying to start over.
An astute student of management and leadership theory, Weems offers congregational leaders essential insights into how they can work with and through their churches’ ministries to bring about authentic and faithful growth.
Read "Take the Next Step: Leading Lasting Change in the Church"Too often church advocates insist that if genuine change is to occur in the church, then they must throw out everything that has gone before. The problem with such calls for radical change is that they are not true to the way that genuine and lasting change takes place, says author Lovett H. Weems, Jr. In his book Take the Next Step he offers congregational leaders essential insights into how they can work with and through their churches' ministries to bring about authentic and faithful growth.
Learn more and order now.
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 Tool Kit, 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.
Learn more and watch a video preview.
Connect with the Lewis Center:
Lewis Center for Church Leadership, Wesley Theological Seminary
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