Wired Parish Blog

Willow Creek Was Wrong . . . Sort Of

If you haven't seen this video from Greg Hawkins, the Executive Pastor at Willow Creek, you owe it to yourself to watch it. It's a short version of Reveal, a book-form of qualitative research results on the effectiveness of the Willow Creek ministry philosophy and approach.

I won't rehash the video here. You can watch it for yourself or read what lots of other bloggers are saying, but the basic message from Willow Creek is 'Oops. We were wrong.'

A couple of thoughts I've not seen elsewhere:

1. It appears their strategy works as people move from non-followers to young followers. It breaks down the longer someone is a Christian. That's unquestionably not a good thing, but it's not as if their strategy had not value. It simply looks like it didn't have the capacity to reliably move people beyond early growth stages as followers.

2. My bet is most ministry leaders who followed Willow Creek in the Dao of the Big Box will look to Willow Creek to chart the new course. I don't get the sense that WC is losing credibility in this--mainly because most people trust that they will actually work to correct the HUGE problem.

3. I'm EXTREMELY interested to see whether other Big Box churches own up to the findings of Reveal or pretend that the findings aren't true for their church. What 'Reveal,' um, reveals is that the problem is systemic. It's not particular to Willow Creek. So if you're a Big Box ministry leader, you need a pretty good argument as to why your church is exempt from the problems their research uncovered.

Confucius on Missional Living

In a grad class on the Confucian Analects this semester. This will NOT be the only quote from Confucius. :)

From 2.21

Someone asked Confucius, 'Why are you not employed in governing?'

The Master replied, The Book of Documents says: "It is all filial conduct! Just being filial to your parents and befriending your brothers is carrying out the work of governing. In doing this I am employed in governing. Why must I be 'employed in governing'?"

Suppose you replaced 'filial conduct' with 'ministry' and 'governing' with 'pastoring' . . .

Think this might have some parallels with missional living??

Why Are Pastors So Discontent?

Why do I continue hearing reports from pastors who are discontent?

Discontent with the members of their church. Discontent with their senior pastor. Discontent with their staff. Discontent with their elders/board.

Not hopeful, holy discontent that leads to action and change, but 'I don't want to do this anymore' discontent.

At least 6 pastors in the last 6 months have told me they're seriously considering leaving paid ministry, getting a 'real job,' and doing ministry as a lay person.

Is this as prevalent as it seems?  Or do I attract these stories since many moons ago I was a discontent pastor who left paid ministry for a 'real job'?

If it is truly as common as it appears from my vantage point, why is this? Is it something wrong with pastors? Something wrong with the way church is done? Something wrong with Christianity?

I'd love your opinions.

Check Out Soularize--in the Bahamas, No Less!

Wanted to pass this along from our friend Spencer Burke. You should go. Seriously.

N.T. Wright, Brennan Manning, our very own Jim Palmer, Dwight Friesen (who we love), and Gareth Higgins (who we also love--purely for his wonderful accent :) ).

All-star cast. Love it.

Soularize – a learning party – Oct. 25-27, 2007

Beyond Our Borders

Two Years in the Planning – Less Than 90 Days to Register

Host Spencer Burke has popped the creative cork off Soularize the original / catalytic emerging church gathering

Key Note Line Up of the Decade

N.T. Wright, Brennan Manning, Rita Nakashima Brock, and Fr. Richard Rohr

International Conversation and Venue – Nassau Bahamas

Take advantage of off season rates and ease of travel for our international friends

Five Learning Modes of Engagement

Keynote, Small Groups, Extended Experience, Reflective Time, 24/7 Web Collaboration

Varied Relational Environments

Private Island, Art Studios, Swim w/Sharks, Social Network, Lecture Hall, Limited to 500 attendees

Totally Wired Conference

Free T-1 wireless access, Live Web Interface with polling, chat, webcams, whiteboard

Most Progressive and Diverse Workshop Facilitators

Frank Viola, Becky Garrison, Karen Ward, Mark Scandrette, Kristyn Komarnicki, Michael Dowd, Barry Taylor, Dwight Friesen, Jim Palmer, Gareth Higgins, Ron Martoia…

Knowing that all have limited budgets to invest in annual learning opportunities, we hope you take opportunity to compare the Soularize learning experience with a few of the other national learning opportunities happening this coming year. Perhaps you'll be as surprised as we were that an event in the Bahamas is actually cheaper than attending an event in San Diego (see comparison chart http://www.soularize.net/compare-conferences.php ) . So if you're looking for a more progressive, independent, and cost-effective learning experience in a tropical setting, perhaps you should consider joining us for the Soularize learning experience.

What makes Soularize unique is the learning environment. We create a casual, safe and interactive place where you can wrestle with issues your church and faith are facing today. You’ll engage in a wide variety of learning experiences like facilitated groups of less than 50 people, hands-on learning experiences, main sessions with keynote speakers, and workshops. Open times in the schedule offer chances for you to reflect and refresh in a hammock overlooking the Caribbean.

Come and lend your voice, your experience, and your dreams as we explore the Evolving Church – rethinking and reinventing what the Church could be in years ahead. Learn more - http://www.soularize.net/

Missional Communities: Input Wanted

Putting together a side project. Looking for input/feedback from people who are involved in/leading missional communities. If you'd be open to a few questions, I'd love to drop you an email. You can email me here.

The Problem with Preaching

Been preaching quite a bit lately. Gave two talks this morning at my beloved church. Thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

However . . .

I gotta confess that preaching wears me out. Why? Because it's not a context where people can easily talk back, ask questions, or disagree out loud.

I'm fairly intentional about putting together talks designed to make people think, question, even disagree. But preaching at a Sunday morning church service isn't the best venue for that kind of content.

Not sure what to say about that.

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! :)