Wired Parish Blog

VBS Redux: The Emergence of Winston Wolfe

Apparently, Matthew is doing a four-stop VBS tour this summer. I was thinking 'big time overkill' on the way to Holy Trinity Lutheran this morning, but his strong response to the sink-or-swim nature of walking into a new classroom full of people he doesn't know is truly remarkable. He's done this four times this summer, and I've watched him each time on his first day. Very confident. Very comfortable. I'm really impressed. The dude is growing up.

But that's not my point.

My point is that upon arrival at check-in, we ran into the 'we don't have his registration' problem again. Different church. Same story. I am immediately thinking, 'No way this happens twice in a row with two different churches. We're the common denominator here. We're the problem.'

Turns out, his age was recorded incorrectly. He was pre-registered, and they found it after a few minutes of looking.

Here's the kicker: When it was apparent there was a problem, the lady helping us stepped away, conferred with someone else, and the someone else came back to us to say, 'I'm Winston Wolfe. I solve problems. Yours is solved.'

She gave off a 'I'm in charge around here' vibe; so I'm assuming she was the director. Didn't ask. Didn't need to. All I cared about was getting the problem fixed, and she did it.

The place was an absolute madhouse. There was a line out the door of people registering. Much crazier than the previous VBS I blogged about. Yet, Holy Trinity Lutheran--God bless 'em--had a system in place to handle curve balls when (not 'if') they occurred.

Learn it. Know it. Live it.

(Read about the previous VBS saga here.)

YouVersion.com: I'm Sold

I posted yesterday about YouVersion.com. Had lunch today w/ Bobby Gruenewald who blogged about it yesterday on the Life Church blog. I was really interested to get more detail on the project.

(I was also interested in trying the fried green beans he ordered, but he didn't offer, and I didn't want to risk a fork in my hand by reaching across the table to grab one.)

Short version: What I thought it was going to be and what it's actually going to be were miles apart. I thought it would be really cool. Um, it's not. It's aaaamazing. Incredibly ambitious. Freakish.

Bobby will say much more about it in the coming weeks, and I won't attempt to steal any thunder. My take? It's the most creative and broadly useful Scripture-based web tool I've ever seen.

Consider this: The iPod wasn't new technology. But the iPod reshaped existing technology and pushed the envelope of the MP3 market in a profound way. The iPhone appears to do the same thing with cell phones.

Looks like YouVersion is doing the same thing. No new technology per se, but it is using existing technologies in a way that will dramatically re-form how Scripture-centric projects utilize the web.

He answered the questions I raised in my blog post very clearly, and I was thrilled to hear the level of thought that's going into the process. In particular, I was curious how it compared to eBible.com, and as we'll see in the coming months, it's just not the same sort of thing.

But our conversation raised a more serious concern--that I'll spend an inordinate amount of time on the site.

As I re-read this, I realize I sound like a total fanboy. Hey, the LifeChurch.tv name still drives me nuts. :) But I gotta tell ya . . . They're hitting the ball out of the stadium on this one.

Bottom line: I'm completely sold.

YouVersion.com: A New eBible?

Life Church announced the upcoming launch of YouVersion.com today. From visiting the site and reading the blog post, it appears that it will be similar to eBible.com with more substantial community features (the ability to upload digital files, for instance).

I'm interested in this for several reasons:

1. Virtually everything Life Church does is done really, really well. I expect this to be no different. I'm sure it will be a blowout service.

2. Launching any kind of social network is intensely difficult from the standpoint of generating a sufficient user base to get real traction. Life Church has a significant built-in potential user base simply because of the size of their church. I'm sure that will go a long way to getting traction--not to mention other ministry leaders who pay close attention to what Life Church does.

I have no doubt of their capacity to make it happen, but I'm sure they recognize the enormity of the task.

3. Given the parallels with eBible and the fact that eBible has an open API, I'm curious as to why they didn't simply piggyback on what eBible has already built. I'm sure there are good reasons. I'm just curious as to what they are.

4. This sort of project raises some incredibly interesting questions about the intersection of church and business.

Consider this: Suppose YouVersion has 100,000 users within a year or so. That's not just a cool service. That's a pretty valuable asset.

Of course, churches have owned assets for years in the way of real estate. But if a church owns real estate, it doesn't necessarily have to do anything for that asset to appreciate. Not so with a web property. Software upgrades, maintenance, etc. are all labor intensive--they require expenditure of financial and human resources.

But this is a service--a real ministry. Nothing wrong with devoting time and money to development and upkeep. A huge percentage of the user base will likely not give anything back to Life Church.

Unless it sells.

Of course, I have no idea whether or not Life Church would ever have any desire to sell YouVersion if it exploded and had massive traffic. Knowing their strong disposition toward giving stuff away, I would be surprised if they did.

But suppose it did sell (or suppose it was monetized through ads or sponsorships). Shareholders wouldn't benefit because there are none. But stakeholders would. Additional staff could be added. New facilities could be built. New web properties could be developed. Heck, it could fund Life Church Labs--a division of the church staff devoted to building new web properties. (I like the sound of Life Church Labs, by the way. That's catchy.)

Here's my takewaway: This feels like a business embedded in a church. Even if that's a million miles from the intentions of Life Church, it's a VERY short putt for other churches to get there.

The implications range from 'that just feels weird' to 'will the IRS be okay with that?'

Am I being overly sensitive? Am I out to lunch? I have mixed feelings--great idea; scary idea. Can anybody help me see this more clearly?

Terrible Customer Service: A Tale of Woe from Vacation Bible School

Took my 5 year old Matthew to Vacation Bible School this morning at a church here in Oklahoma City.

This was his second VBS at the church. Last year we had a little hiccup since his pre-registration had somehow been lost. No biggie. Just re-registered him, and all was well.

When we walked in, I searched the classes for his name and found zero matches. Hmm . . . Maybe the babysitter had not pre-registered him . . . Ran into her in the hall a minute later. Nope. She pre-registered him along with her two kids, but somehow the pre-registration had been lost again.

Hey, no big deal. I'll wade through all the people, fill out another card, and the world will be right.

However . . .

When I turned in Matthew's card, the lady at the registration desk told me there was no room for him. His age group was full and there was nothing she could do.

End of story.

Go home.

See you next year.

Really?? Just . . . sorry? Can't do anything for you? Next please? Really????

Now, the good news is that Matthew was fine. No big deal to him. He had been to two VBSs the last two weeks; so he was probably already at his limit.

But this experience REALLY got me thinking about 'customer service' in the church.

A few observations:

The Good News . . .

1. The lady that 'helped' me was really friendly. Like genuinely friendly. Not fake friendly. I'm sure she's a wonderful person. She was a good pick to be at the registration table at least from an attitude standpoint.

2. Can't think of anything else, but (1) really was very true.

The Bad News . . .

1. The church was unprepared for walk-up registrations. This is going to happen from time to time. You can't bat 1.000. Not even close. Getting overwhelmed will (hopefully!) happen at times. That's excusable and should probably be celebrated even.

But not having a backup plan? That's a bad thing.

2. She offered no alternative other than an apology. No room at the inn? No possible way to accommodate us? Then keep the registration card and mail Matthew a gift certificate to Toys'R'Us or Chic-Fil-A as a concrete way of saying 'We goofed!'

3. She viewed the situation through her eyes, not mine. She explained that there was no room 'because of the construction.' 'THE construction.' What construction? I don't know anything about any construction. I'm a visitor. I've been in your church once before today.

If I can be a bit picky . . . She said this in a way that said, 'The construction thing gets me off the hook. It's not my fault.'

But here's the thing . . . I don't care about construction. I care that my 5 year old was looking forward to going to your VBS, and now he's not being allowed to. I'm sure this an inconvenience to you to have to tell people this bad news, but I can assure you it's more of an inconvenience to us.

What I wish she had said is something like, 'I know this is probably a disappointment and it's definitely an inconvenience. We simply didn't plan well. This is totally our fault. But here's the deal: We're going to make Matthew glad this happened.'

I don't really care what that solution looks like. Doesn't even have to cost the church money. But help us understand that YOU understand that problems arose that you care about fixing.

To her defense, it's a very special person who can disregard the pain that's being experienced personally over a snafu and pay attention to the person on the other side of the table, but that's precisely the kind of person the church should have sitting in that chair.

4. VBS tends to be a high visitor, high unchurched participation event. Turns out I was in fact a visitor. Given that I was wearing a U2 concert tshirt, jeans, and flip flops, I probably didn't look like the most churched human being in the world. So the likelihood that you're potentially hacking off a visitor and/or an unchurched person is really, really high.

Word of advice: Handle with care. Lots of it. She didn't. She wasn't rude. She was very friendly. She just wasn't interested in making my problem her problem. But that's precisely what good customer service does.

So what might they have done differently?

Couple of thoughts:

1. Have a staff person at the registration table--or at least have someone who can and will fix problems when problems arise. It would have thrilled my soul if someone had stepped in to say, 'I'm Winston Wolfe. I solve problems.'

2. Remind EVERYONE that VBS is a high-visitor, high-unchurched kind of event. Then assume that everyone you don't recognize is both.

3. Make sure there is a reporting system for problems so that if Winston Wolfe isn't within 30 minutes away (he'll be there in 10), there's a way to fix the problem later.

I'm not upset by the situation. Believe me, I've been personally and solely responsible for much, much worse. But a little bit of planning and foresight would have made this a complete non-issue. I wish that had been the case! :)

Digg for Sermon Illustrations

I mentioned CoRank.com yesterday. Thought of a new use you might find helpful . . .

A hub for sermon illustrations for you and your pastor/teacher compadres.

Find an interesting story or article? Post it to your CoRank site so a) you'll have it filed away and b) your fellow teachers will have access to it.

Again, the voting mechanism comes in extremely handy here.

Where Ministry Evaluation Goes Wrong

When it comes to evaluating the effectiveness of a church's ministry, there's a significant distinction to be made that VERY often goes ignored or unnoticed.

Forgive the terminology below. It's a bit too 'business-y' for my taste, but it's the best I've come up with.

There's a distinction between a church's product and its production tools.

A church's product, plain and simple, is its people. If churches are in the business of making followers of Jesus, then significant attention should be given to evaluate whether or not the church is actually doing this.

Not simply evaluating decisions for Christ (whatever that means) or baptisms or whether or not a visitor is being converted to a member, but evaluating whether people are developing relationships with not-yet-followers of Jesus, serving those in need (vs. 'serving' the machinery of the church), and whatever other specific metrics a church decides are fairly good indicators of the development of the fruit of the Spirit in a person's life.

I am completely unaware of any church that intentionally and aggressively attempts to evaluate its product--Are people who are a part of church community actually becoming more Christlike?

(I would LOOOVE for someone to point me to churches who are actually doing that. I would totally make my day. They certainly probably exist. I just don't know who they are.)

Evaluation of production tools is another matter entirely. I've been in many a meeting as a paid minister and as a volunteer where we evaluated whether or not our tools were working well and how they could be tweaked to work better. Sermons, worship music, small group resources and systems, etc.

I'm grateful that I've been in ministry settings that by and large were very open to evaluating and improving these things. But they are not a church's product. They are its production tools. They are the things that (hopefully) aid in the production of a follower of Jesus.

My experience suggests churches have this attitude: If we get the production tools right, the product will take care of itself. (And that's assuming a church is actually clear on the distinction between product and production tools, which I'm guessing is a rarity.)

But that ignores at least two possible problems:

1. What if you're using the wrong tools? (Is a single adult ministry really a legitimate production tool? Totally an open question for me. Definitely not saying it's not, but having led a single adult ministry for several years, I'm not convinced it is, either.)

2. What if you're using the right tools incorrectly? (I'm pretty clear that worship music is an appropriate tool, but what if the 'rock star worship leader' iteration of worship music is a counter-productive application of the tool?)

Bottom line: My fears are

1) Churches focus more on evaluating production tools rather than their product, and
2) Evaluation of production tools rarely takes the form of asking meta-questions like 'What if we're doing the wrong stuff or the right stuff in a counter-productive way?'

Am I thinking about this correctly?

NOTE: Ben left this comment. Didn't want anyone to miss it. Thanks, Ben!

Actually, The Connecting Church has developed a great tool many churches are using to do exactly what you are talking about. My understanding is that Willow Creek is working on a tool as we speak.

Saddleback/Purpose Driven have the "Purpose Driven Spiritual Health Assessment" which I think is a great tool.

We recently did a church-wide evaluative survey and a large section of it was evaluating how people are growing in the areas of beliefs, practices, and virtues--based on the Connecting Church materials.

I'd be curious if there is other stuff out there...

Fascinating Agnostic Blog

Normally I would just add this to Delicious so blog subscribers could see, but I'll throw this one out to everyone.

Basic Premise: An agnostic couple visits and rates churches. Very insightful.

Check it out.