new normal Archives - Passion for Planting

A New Normal

Esther Ritchey — Fri, 07 Aug 2020 09:00:43 +0000

By: New Churches

Home > Blog > A New Normal

A New Normal

By Ed Stetzer

As states have begun varied and nuanced approaches to reopening businesses, parks, and more, we find ourselves asking more and more “How do we move forward?” I’m concerned about life after the pandemic, but my concern is in a direction that may surprise you.

Many say they are concerned that after the pandemic the church will never be the same again. Some wonder, for instance, if the day of the large church is over. The thing that resonates with me is the statement that the church will “never be the same again.”

I’m more concerned the church will be the same again. Let me explain. For 2,000 years, we’ve had epidemics or pandemics. What’s happened in and during and after the pandemics hasn’t drastically changed the structure of church for most of the previous 2,000 years.

We built cathedrals and gathered in them. Then the Black Death came. After the Black Death, we gathered in cathedrals again. Don’t assume the church was unaware that gathering together accelerated the spread of sickness. They might not have known about flattening the curve, but they knew that gathering together exposed them to more illness.

I’m less concerned that the church will be forever changed and more concerned that we will snap right back into the status quo. Why? Because the best predictor of future behavior is the immediate past.

History doesn’t always repeat itself, but it tends to rhyme. We must not go back to normal. Instead, we must take the best of what we are seeing now and continue those things. Let me share three things that I hope we will keep moving forward.

First, that God’s people would be deployed.

God’s people are deployed at a higher level, a more faithful level, and a more fruitful level than before this pandemic began. We’ve seen small group leaders functioning like pastors or lay pastors. We’ve seen ministry leaders engaged in new ways of doing things. We’ve seen people caring for one another at higher levels. We’ve seen people making phone lists and calling one another, praying for one another, and then serving the poor and the marginalized in their community.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if we didn’t go back to consumer-driven Christianity where people line up like customers outside of Costco? Wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t come in like consumers of religious goods and services but instead continued to see ourselves as the co-laborers in the gospel?

Some of those people who you’ve seen step up might meet those qualifications in 1 Timothy 3. You might think about how to raise them up as pastors and leaders. But how do we keep deploying people? We need to remind people that, in God’s good plan, he wants all of his people to join him on mission.

First Peter 4:10 says, “As each one has received a special gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” May this be true before, during and, especially, after the pandemic.

Second, that we would keep worship central but not at the center.

God’s gathered worship is central, but it’s not the center of church life. Conversely, the church is not the center of God’s plan in the world, but it is central to God’s plan in the world. Ephesians 3:10 says, “God has chosen the church to make known his manifold wisdom in the world.” God has chosen the church.

The church has not been able to gather in ways that we enjoy and love. Not only do we value that, but gathering is a mark of a biblical church. However, the lack of gathering has actually helped us to emphasize other areas in the life of the church.

I often use the example of chess. I played competitive chess in high school. Our chess club teacher taught us not to rely on the queen. He had us remove the queen, leaving two chess players with no queen on either side. When you do this, you are forced to use all the pieces: the pawns, the rooks, the knights, and the bishops.

The gathered worship of God is not the center, though it is important. Indeed, it’s one of the marks of the biblical church that was taken from us, which is why it was so hard.

But look at how the people are deployed. My hope is that God’s worship would be central to our lives but not but not the center of all we do.

Third, that we would see the heart of God more clearly.

I’ve heard a lot more people talk about the poor, the hurting, and the marginalized. There’s a fresh perspective on the “least of these.”

This crisis has focused us on the impact this has had on marginalized people. We’ve seen incarcerated persons who can’t social distance. We’ve seen the homeless.

We’ve seen the devastation in nursing homes, the elderly, the sick, and people with compromised immune systems. And, we’ve seen heroes like those who helped and served the poor, and stories of first responders and healthcare workers sacrificing greatly.

As we look forward, how can we continue on the positive movements and focus that we have seen emerge? Returning to normal after such a historic moment would be nothing short of missing one of the greatest opportunities of our lifetime. We’ve been handed the chance to be better and do better. Let us go and do it.

Source: A New Normal

The post A New Normal appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Navigating Social Media in the Next Normal with Advice from Facebook’s Nona Jones

Esther Ritchey — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 09:00:03 +0000

By: UnSeminary

Thanks for tuning in to this week’s episode of the unSeminary podcast. In June we helped cohost The Next Normal Conference with our friends at Leadership Network and Church Communications in order to inspire church leaders and spur collaboration between their teams about where we are all heading next. Today we’re bringing you a re-broadcast from that conference with Kenny Jahng interviewing Nona Jones, the Head of Global Faith-Based Partnerships for Facebook.

Develop a digital presence. // More than 80% of Americans have a Facebook account and are active on it, so it makes sense for churches to be there too. Even in spite of these facts, many pastors have been hesitant to have social media accounts. In a way, this season is forcing churches to play catch-up as they realize the importance of having a digital presence and developing these connections and relationships online. Understand that people have robust lives on social media. Be present whether it’s on Facebook, Instagram or another place your community is active.Create engaging content. // As a company Facebook is always asking: How do we make digital connections and relationships meaningful to people? Look for ways to use Facebook’s tools to capture more people’s attention as well as develop more online connections and communities. This will enable you to minister to more people more effectively. Practically speaking this looks like treating your online service differently than you would if people were in your building. For example, get rid of your countdown timer. The average attention span on Facebook is three seconds and if people scrolling by see a countdown clock, they will move on. It doesn’t serve the same function as it would if people were physically in your building. Make your content super-engaging and super hard-hitting so that people immediately feel as though it’s something relevant to them.Interact with your audience. // Whether you are doing a livestream on Facebook or posting content throughout the week, make sure you are engaging people. Respond to people’s comments and questions. Welcome them when a service is streamed. Tag them in comments. You want people to feel like they are actually a part of the experience. Rememeber that broadcast media has a passive message going out to a passive audience, but social media is an active message going out to an active community.Creatively use the tools available. // More and more people are gathering and participating online for bible studies and church services. It’s not uncommon for four or five times the number of people that would attend your church to watch your livestream. Facebook Groups can offer opportunities for engagement that are harder to do at a church building, for example 24-hour prayer. Use the tools that Facebook provides to get creative with how you can serve your people. Even Facebook Live provides an opportunity for people to access their pastors as authentic individuals, rather than just see who they are in a pulpit.Refocus your efforts online. // It takes effort to create social media content so work to repurpose the resources you already have. Where you were previously focused on in-person ministry, now think about how you can offer the same level of connection and engagement digitally. Literally think outside the “box” of your building. It’s not about replicating what others are doing. Rather take a step back, figure out what your goals are and what experience you want people to have, and then use the digital tools available to bring forth that vision.

You can visit www.facebook.com/community/faith to learn about the resources and tools available and you can connect with Nona at www.nonajones.com.

Thank you for tuning in!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!

Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!

Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Plain Joe Studios

Ministry Grid makes it simple to train every volunteer and leader in your church. With a library of over 3,500 videos and 850 courses, you will find training for every ministry area and leadership level.

To get unlimited access to Ministry Grid for just $597, just go to? MinistryGrid.com/unSeminary?

Source: Navigating Social Media in the Next Normal with Advice from Facebook’s Nona Jones

The post Navigating Social Media in the Next Normal with Advice from Facebook’s Nona Jones appeared first on Passion for Planting.

8 Easy Ways to Blow It In This Next Season of Ministry

Esther Ritchey — Sun, 21 Jun 2020 09:00:00 +0000

By: Carey Nieuwhof

The good news is it feels like we’re entering a new season of leadership and ministry.

Although the coronavirus is still with us, churches and businesses are reopening and things that weren’t possible a month or two ago are now possible again.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the new season is perhaps even more complicated than the season of crisis we just left. And it’s way more complicated than having a second wave of the virus (as serious as that might be).

I also realize you’re likely tempted to stop reading right here.

After all, you really can’t handle one more person saying more change is ahead.

I get it. Some days, neither can I.

We’re all more than a little fatigued, frazzled and irritated. And everybody (including me) is long for some semblance of normal.

Everything in you wants to go back to as much normal as you can possibly find. And that would be great, if it wasn’t also deadly.

The good news is we’re entering a new season. The bad news is that it’s likely more complicated than the season of crisis we just left.Click To Tweet

When change is as profound and disruptive as what we’re going through right now, this next season isn’t a finish line, it’s a start line.

Right now, every church is a startup and if you see it that way, you can advance your mission. There are so many people to reach, and an entire next generation in need of the Gospel.

And as hard as it is to hear, the next season will probably require more leadership from you, not less.

But, because of deep fatigue, a longing for normal and a hope that all the problems go away, too many church leaders will default into managing what was rather than leading into what will be— trying to bring the past back, to normalize ministry and to recreate what was lost rather than moving ahead into a new future.

But your work is too important to do that. You know it. I know it.

For all of those reasons and more, it’s just far too easy to blow it in this next season of ministry and leadership.

Here are 8 easy ways to do it.

When change is as profound and disruptive as what we’re going through right now, this next season isn’t a finish line, it’s a start line.Click To Tweet

1. Don’t Take Time off To Restore Yourself

I was going to put this last, but let’s lead with it instead and call an audible.

The reason you don’t want to read this post, let alone act on it, is because you’re tired. I get it. This has been a very tiring season.

And one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to not take time off to restore yourself.

While this isn’t a clinical definition, having burned out years ago, I’m sensing three levels of weariness in myself and amongst other leaders right now:

Tired

Fatigued

Exhausted

Tired responds quickly to cause and effect. You put in a long, hard day, you eat well, get some exercise and get some sleep, and soon you bounce back. If not the next day, then shortly thereafter.

Fatigued is a level of weariness beyond just tired. Fatigue will respond to stimulus (sleep, rest, diet, exercise, prayer) but it just takes longer. You’re not burning out, but there’s a slow drain going on that you really can’t ignore.

Exhausted is a place you find yourself in where you’re more than just tired or fatigued. The recovery is longer, harder and you need more time for restoration. It can easily lead to burnout if you let it (here are 11 signs you may be burning out).

Again, those aren’t clinical definitions, but I hope they’re helpful definitions.

The point is regardless of which stage you’re at, you need time to truly restore yourself this summer. The more tired you are, the more intentional your plan for recovery should be.

Leaders, the more tired you are, the more intentional your plan for recovery should be. Click To Tweet

So what’s your plan? If in fact you’re going into a prolonged season of uncertainty and dislocation, you need stamina for the long haul.

Maybe the best thing you can do as a response to this post and the challenges ahead is to book some downtime and then figure out a sustainable pace that will take you through the next few years.

I share the strategies I use to find a sustainable pace here.

If self-care is important in normal times, it’s 10x more important now.

And please hear me…the work you’re doing is so important, and you want to be well and stay well for the road ahead.

Because, as you know, the work is both important and challenging.

Which leads us to the second way to blow it in the next season of leadership.

If self-care is important in normal times, it’s 10x more important now. Click To Tweet

2. Let Your Fatigue Drive Your Decisions

Your level of fatigue as a leader impacts more than you and your family. It also impacts your organization.

Why? Well, it can be so easy to let your fatigue drive your decision making. You avoid the hard decisions, take the complicated things off the agenda and go into robot mode or stick with what you know because it’s just, well, easier.

Don’t let your fatigue drive your decision making.Click To Tweet

So how do you counter that?

The best way to gain energy for the decisions you know you need to make is to simply your model of ministry.

If you only do a few things and do them well, you’ll be able to put most of your energy into the things that need it most, rather than diffusing it across a dozen things.

Think about it this way: Doing the right thing, even if it’s the hard thing, ultimately energizes you.

Taking the path of least resistance ultimately drains you when you discover you’ve lost ground and grown irrelevant and ineffective.

Hint: in leadership, the right thing is almost always the hard thing.

So get some good rest, and then rally the team and do the things you know you need to do.

In leadership, the right thing is almost always the hard thing.Click To Tweet

3. Play The Short Game

Another easy way to blow it in leadership is to play the short game.

The short game right now probably looks like this: get back to normal as quickly as possible with in-person services and pick up where you left off or recreate what you lost.

What’s even more challenging is that for a meaningful percentage of churches, online attendance is up and so is giving, or at least it’s steady.

That kind of success or stability will keep your focus on the short game while you ignore the tectonic shifts happening in culture.

The long game is about preparing your church to reach unchurched people in the future. (For more on that, see this and this.)

And that’s as complex and challenging as it sounds.

So many of the methods the church has used broke long before COVID. Trying to resurrect them isn’t going to resurrect your church for the long term.

So many of the methods the church has used broke long before COVID. Trying to resurrect them isn’t going to resurrect your church for the long term.Click To Tweet

4. Ignore Volunteers

Because most churches were staffed and programmed for in-person ministry, one of the thing that went dormant almost instantly was the volunteer corp at most churches.

When church went online, what used to take dozens or hundreds of people to run suddenly only took a handful.

As a result, many churches have dozens (or hundreds or thousands) of volunteers who haven’t served in months.

Many early indications are that many volunteers, worried about the virus and having swapped a 5 hour Sunday commitment for a 1 hour Sunday commitment, like many others, might not return.

Connecting with your volunteers, encouraging them to serve in their community and remobilizing them even before you need them will prepare you for a strong future.

Many early indications are that many volunteers, worried about the virus and having swapped a 5 hour Sunday commitment for a 1 hour Sunday commitment, like many others, might not return. Click To Tweet

5. Assume Families are Just Fine

I realize it’s been a crisis, so it’s understandable that many leaders haven’t had the bandwidth to think about volunteers. But there’s another group that probably needs your attention: families.

Families will likely not be the first to return to in-person services because of a variety of factors, not the least of which is the lack of kids ministry upon re-opening in many cases.

Frank and Jessica Bealer, who have served at several mega-churches, including Elevation Church, have some very powerful and insightful ideas and strategies about how to come alongside families who attend in person and those who attend online in these unusual times.

You can listen to the conversation they had with David Kinnaman and me here.

Just know this: ignoring families tends to produce less effective ministry than serving them does.

Ignoring families tends to produce less effective ministry than serving them does.Click To Tweet

6. Don’t Reposition Your Staff

The staffing structure you had heading into the crisis is likely not the staffing structure you need heading into the future.

Why? Well, when things change, you need to change too.

Most churches are currently staffed for in-person ministry, and that’s about it. As complex as in-person ministry is right now, online church is probably a big part of the future.

And if that’s the case, how are you positioned for it?

Tagging it onto your creative team’s job description or handing it to a 19-year-old volunteer is probably not a great long term strategy.

Further, it’s probably going to require a skillset you may not have on your current team. So recruiting volunteers and staff around that is wise.

So is allocating some of your budget. Most churches spend 99% of their budget on in-person ministry.

If everyone you want to reach is online, you may want to rethink that.

Most churches spend 99% of their budget on in-person ministry. If everyone you want to reach is online, you may want to rethink that. Click To Tweet

7. Put Online on Autopilot

Most churches have made significant progress with their online ministry: either they’ve started one or seen the existing online outreach and ministry grow.

That’s incredible.

And right now, the big temptation is to leave all that on auto-pilot as assume it will grow automatically. Which of course, as soon as you say it out loud, you realize won’t happen.

When you invest in digital ministry, you’re investing in the future and in reaching the world.

When you invest in digital ministry, you’re investing in the future and in reaching the world. Click To Tweet

8. Put All Your Focus On Sunday

In the early days of the crisis, churches were trying all kinds of things online.

Maybe you’ve noticed too. Almost everyone has pivoted back to focusing only on Sunday.

For all the reasons already listed in this post (especially fatigue), that’s understandable. It’s also a mistake.

For the first time in history, online ministry allows church leaders to come alongside people 7 days a week in an easy, accessible way.

I’ve written about this extensively elsewhere, but church-in-a-box was already past its expiry date.

Returning your focus to one day—Sunday—and taking your eye off of all the other opportunities positions your church for the past, not for the future.

Here are some ideas on the future church.

In the future, churches will shift their focus from Sunday to every day, because people need to find faith and live out their faith every day.

In the future, churches will shift their focus from Sunday to every day, because people need to find faith and live out their faith every day. Click To Tweet

If You Want a Simple Framework For Change, This Is It

Yes, there’s a ton of change happening right now.

Some organizations will survive, some will thrive, and others won’t make it.

I’d love for you to be one of the thrivers.

Who will thrive in the new normal? The future belongs to the pivoters.

How well-positioned are you for future pivots?

My brand new online training, the 30-Day Pivot, will show you how to develop your agility as a leader and as an organization to position yourself for growth.

The 30-Day Pivot is a simple 3-step process you and your team can utilize every as often as every 30 days to respond to the change around you and capitalize on it.

In the 30-Day Pivot, you’ll learn:

A simple 3-step process your team can use to arrive at your next pivot in 90 minutes or less.
An approach that fosters team-generated innovation.
An implementation and evaluation framework that will help your team move quickly and accurately.

I’ve led teams through multiple pivots, and in the 30 Day Pivot, I show you the strategy and framework you need to make quick, accurate and responsive moves that can position your organization for growth, even in the midst of deep uncertainty and change.

Some organizations and churches will thrive in the new normal.

Others won’t.

While the future is uncertain, yours doesn’t have to be.

You can learn more and gain instant access to the 30 Day Pivot here.

What Do You See?

I realize how tiring all the change ahead can be. So please, get some meaningful rest and find a sustainable pace.

I hear you. I’m with you.

But you know this, as leaders, truth is our friend.

And just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

The future is unkind to the unprepared, so I’m grateful we get to think through this together.

What else are you seeing?

What other things can catch us off guard in this season?

Scroll down and leave a comment!

The post 8 Easy Ways to Blow It In This Next Season of Ministry appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: 8 Easy Ways to Blow It In This Next Season of Ministry

The post 8 Easy Ways to Blow It In This Next Season of Ministry appeared first on Passion for Planting.

In-Person Attendance v. Online Attendance and The Emerging Trap Of Doing Nothing Well

Esther Ritchey — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 09:00:40 +0000

By: Carey Nieuwhof

As you know, these are some of the most complex times in church leadership in decades.

As churches reopen their in-person gatherings, there’s one particular trap to watch out for.

The early indications are that in-person church attendance is lower than anyone expected. Most leaders I connect with who have reopened public worship say they are seeing between 10-40% of their former in-person attendance.

Whether that’s a temporary trend or something more permanent remains to be seen (sadly, I suspect lower in-person attendance is a more permanent trend), the reality is that almost everyone’s expectations of a great return to church have been dashed.

While so many leaders imagined that the first Sunday back would be like Chris Farley’s famous entrance on Letterman, that hope has given way to the tough reality of social distancing, the current inability to offer kids ministry, older or at-risk adults understandably staying away and a lot of people seeming to prefer digital church or non-attendance than in-person attendance.

Which leads into very real trap that’s emerging for church leaders. Most churches are now doing both in-person and online services as they reopen.

The trap: what if you end up doing neither well?

Regardless of your church size, that’s a very real trap for at least three reasons.

As hard as it is to acknowledge, in-person church attendance isn’t returning to pre-COVID levels any time soon. Click To Tweet

1. COVID Probably Accelerated Trends That Have Been Happening for Decades

While the full story of what happened to church post-COVID has yet to play out, I suspect that the disruption has accelerated at least two trends we’ve seen for decades.

First, declining church attendance has been intensifying for decades.

Second, even Christians who attend church are attending less often.

So what does that mean?

Mybe the low numbers of in-person worship attendance isn’t just COVID related. Perhaps it’s an acceleration of the non-attendance trends the church has seen for decades.

Maybe the low numbers of in-person worship attendance isn’t just COVID related. Perhaps it’s an acceleration of the non-attendance trends the church has seen for decades. Click To Tweet

I certainly hope I’m wrong. In fact, I’d be delighted to be wrong.

I also realize I’m stepping on sensitive ground for church leaders who are already tired. But wise leaders don’t let their fatigue make decisions for them.

Whenever I suggest people won’t rush back to church, I get a string of comments and messages from church leaders who deny it, are angry about it, or argue incessantly that the church has always gathered and it will always gather.

I understand.

But denial isn’t a strategy. Or at least not a good one. Neither is anger.

And if this is, in fact, an intensification of trends that have been happening for decades, perhaps it’s time for a new strategy.

I outline some broad strokes for the future church in this post where I outline 7 new disruptive church trends.

Just know this (as hard as it is to admit): adopting a ‘they’re all going to come back just like before” mindset can land you right in the middle of the trap.

Denial isn’t a strategy. Wise leaders don’t let their fatigue make decisions for them. Click To Tweet

2. You’re Currently Staffed for Where You’re Seeing Low Returns

If it’s actually the case that in-person attendance numbers will continue to be lower even after COVID is completely a non-issue (which could be months or years from now), then that creates a challenge.

Namely, that many churches have the highest level of staff and budgets invested where they’re seeing the lowest returns.

Many churches have the highest level of staff and budgets invested where they’re seeing the lowest returns. Click To Tweet

Sure, in-person worship and gathering isn’t going away. As long as there are people, people will want to gather in person.

But in the same way almost every CEO is rethinking how much office space they really need in light of how well their teams are working from home, church leaders may want to rethink why they’re spending the vast majority of their time, budget and human resources at in-person services that very few people attend.

If this is indeed an acceleration of in-person attendance trends that have been in-play for decades, you could easily end up behaving like the CD salesperson in the age of Spotify or like a mall owner in the age of Amazon.

If your mission is to fill buildings, then keep going with your current strategy. But if your mission is to reach people, it might be time to rethink things.

If your mission is to fill buildings, then keep going with your current strategy. But if your mission is to reach people, it might be time to rethink things. Click To Tweet

3. You’re Deeply Understaffed for Where You’re Seeing the Highest Reach

The vast majority of churches pivoted to online quickly in March 2020 and saw a large attendance spike over previous levels.

After leaders figured out how to count more accurately and the novelty of online church sagged for leaders and congregants, most churches then saw a drop off in from their initial online attendance numbers (I share reasons as to why that happened here).

Consequently, when the option of resuming in-person worship again became available, many leaders put all their effort back into that.

A few notes on this.

First, it’s probably wise to see where you’re currently getting the highest reach. My guess is that for many re-opened churches, the higher reach remains online.

Second, even if your in-person numbers are higher than your live-stream audience, take the time to add in the number of on-demand views you get for a message or service within the first week a service goes live. My guess is it at least matches your in-person attendance, and in most cases will be higher.

What’s strange is that experiencing higher online attendance than in-person attendance has been true for many churches long before COVID hit. It’s just that nobody was really paying attention to the trend or knew what to do with it if they noticed it.

Third, despite the fact that they’re reaching fewer people than ever in-person, many church leaders are pivoting back to putting 90-95% of their time and attention into in-person services.

To make it even more complicated, the necessary requirements of disinfecting, social distancing, touch-free experiences and a highly safe and secure environment mean that unprecedented levels of effort are going into in-person worship.

The big question is if the future is digital, why the lop-sided investment? Everyone you want to reach is online, and digital ministry scales in a way that physical ministry does not.

Digital ministry scales in a way that physical ministry does not.Click To Tweet

Again, I think in-person worship is here to stay. I think it’s necessary both theologically and practically. And yes, your physical gatherings may still grow once all the dust settles. All that being true, in-person services will still likely be your smaller footprint moving forward.

So…why invest the vast majority of your time, energy and money into the platform that has the lowest return and the lowest potential?

You can invest for the past or invest for the future, but personally, I’d be investing for the future.

Why invest the vast majority of your time, energy and money into the platform that has the lowest return and the lowest potential?Click To Tweet

Your Digital Ministry Is Just Getting Started

So what do you do?

As much as you have dreams, hopes and prayers that seem infinite, you and I both live within the constraints of limited time, energy and resources.

To really positions yourself well for the future, here are three suggestions.

First, staff your online ministry like it was real, because it is. As I outlined here (long before COVID) it was probably wise to start investing 30% of your staff resources in online ministry. Today that’s even more pressing.

You probably won’t have a big impact online when you spend 1% of your staffing resources on it.

You probably won’t have a big impact online when you spend 1% of your staffing resources on it.Click To Tweet

Second, treat the people you’re reaching online as though they’re real people, because they are.

Finally, some of the money you were going to put into physical ministry into better digital ministry. (Hint, digital ministry doesn’t come even close to costing as much as physical ministry does. Here’s why.)

It’s not just new dollars that are needed. You can redeploy existing resources to have a better reach.

Treat the people you’re reaching online as though they’re real people, because they are. Click To Tweet

So here’s the thing about online church and online ministry:

You haven’t even really started yet.

The ‘innovation’ that happened in the first few months of lockdown wasn’t really innovation. It was adaptation.

The ‘innovation’ that happened in the first few months of lockdown wasn’t really innovation. It was adaptation.Click To Tweet

After a month of online church, a lot of church leaders settled into a pattern that would get them through the next few months and stopped experimenting.

Which means the innovation hasn’t even started yet.

If you’re really going to grow your mission, serve your people and reach new people, it’s going to take a lot of innovation and experimentation.

Which means you’ll need to stay curious and agile.

Positioning your church for strong digital ministry positions your church for the future. And if you really want to reach people, it’s the best strategy you have.

Positioning your church for strong digital ministry positions your church for the future. And if you really want to reach people, it’s the best strategy you have. Click To Tweet

Position Yourself to Thrive in the New Normal

Yes, there’s a ton of change happening right now.

Some organizations will survive, some will thrive, and others won’t make it.

I’d love for you to be one of the thrivers.

Who will thrive in the new normal? The future belongs to the pivoters.

How well positioned are you for future pivots?

My brand new online training, the 30-Day Pivot, will show you how to develop your agility as a leader and as an organization to position yourself for growth.

The 30-Day Pivot is a simple 3-step process you and your team can utilize every as often as every 30 days to respond to the change around you and capitalize on it.

In the 30-Day Pivot, you’ll learn:

Some organizations and churches will thrive in the new normal.

Others won’t.

While the future is uncertain, yours doesn’t have to be.

You can learn more and gain instant access to the 30 Day Pivot here.

What’s In Your Future?

I realize not everyone will agree with these ideas…but what do you think about the future?

What’s the best investment for your time, energy and resources?

The post In-Person Attendance v. Online Attendance and The Emerging Trap Of Doing Nothing Well appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: In-Person Attendance v. Online Attendance and The Emerging Trap Of Doing Nothing Well

The post In-Person Attendance v. Online Attendance and The Emerging Trap Of Doing Nothing Well appeared first on Passion for Planting.

5 Staff Roles Churches of Over 1,000 Should Add Now

Sean Cronin — Sun, 31 May 2020 09:00:06 +0000

by UnSeminary: In a recent survey, 66% of church leaders said they believe that when church returns, there will be many differences. [ref]

It would appear that we’re headed towards the next normal. You and I are leading in a season that has drastically changed in a very short period of time.

Is your staff team designed in such a way that you are ready for the next normal?

While we pivoted to church online just a few months ago and altered the roles on our teams as a result, we should be thinking through whether we have the right people in the right seats on the bus as we attempt to address the culture that’s in front of us now.

Our teams are going to look different in the coming weeks and months. What changes do you need to be making in order to pivot your team for the newly formed culture we find ourselves in?

One of the highlights of my ministry career has been my experiences at the center of the multisite movement over these last two decades. It’s been fascinating to watch roles that didn’t exist 20 years ago become central to so many churches across the country. Twenty years ago, if anyone had asked what a campus pastor was, we would have assumed you meant someone ministering on a university or college campus. Audio, video, and lighting tech roles have also become commonplace in multisite churches as we realized how important it was for us to digitally replicate our content.

Through the multisite church movement, we’ve seen all kinds of new configurations of what it means to be a pastor in the local church. That shift in culture took 20 years to happen, but the shift that’s taking place now only took 20 days! Because of the rapid pace of this shift, your church may be treading water a little bit as you try to keep up with how your team needs to look in the future.

Here are five new roles that I think your church should consider adding now to respond to the future realities that are coming your way. I’d love to hear your thoughts as we wrestle through what we are dealing with in this next normal.

Development Director

Even before we found ourselves in this post-COVID era, there was an increasing trend towards adding senior team leaders who are responsible for developing a generosity culture within the church.

A Development Director would help the church leverage all the tools available to encourage people to give back to the mission of the church. They’d be responsible for managing annual campaigns, weekly offering moments, and even core donor relationships.

This role is going to be incredibly important to our churches in the coming years as we deal with a softening economy and the need to bring additional cash onto our balance sheets to respond to future financial changes that may come our way. Having a team member directly associated with raising generosity is an important role for your church to consider in this moment.

Church Online Pastor

This is probably the one that you thought would be at the top of the list. We’re all convinced that we need to do more digital ministry now than ever before. The reality is, we will likely have to manage a prolonged transition between being fully offline and fully in-person and therefore will need to provide a mixed offering of online and offline experiences.

We all pivoted a few months ago and reassigned people on our team to primarily manage and construct our online experiences. However, as we’re heading into reopening, we will need to move many of those team members back to their previous roles running in-person services.

Having a senior leader who is responsible for your church online or digital experience will provide the leadership required in this transitory period. It will be more difficult to develop a mixed environment than the solely online experiences that we’ve been offering recently. The transition to digital will be simple in comparison to the stage of needing to offer a mix of online experiences, small group meetings in homes, video driven experiences, and live in-person experiences. Having someone positioned to head that area up will be a key piece of the puzzle as we move into another time of shifting ministry strategies.

Senior Communications Leader

The message is loud and clear. We all need more robust communication strategies that get the right message to the right people at the right time. Gone are the days where we can just assume people will show up on the weekend; we need to find ways to consistently reach out to them and keep our church on their list of priorities.

Having a senior communications leader responsible for understanding the latest trends in Facebook ad segmentation, email list building, or text blast best practices (and how those work together in concert to push the mission of the church forward) is a vitally important piece for us to add into our operations.

A communications role needs to have a key place at your senior leadership table, and now would be the time for you to add that person to your team.

If your church has an accountant on your team to help manage your money, why don’t you have a communications professional helping you with the important task of communicating with your people? You could choose to do the “money stuff” on your own, but you know that over time you need someone with expertise in that area. Communications is exactly the same.

Data Scientist

Think about all the data that you have access to as a church. Here are just a few types of data that a church of 1,000 people or more has access to regularly:

Church management systemEmail listsVolunteer listsFacebook analyticsYouTube analyticsWebsite analytics

The reality is, most churches are swimming in data that they’re not leveraging. Hiring a data scientist would give us an opportunity to pull that data together in a coherent manner to help us make decisions. We need to go beyond just counting nickels and noses and really drive towards engagement with the information that is available to us.

For a long time, we’ve been saying that churches need to be looking at engagement, not just attendance, and a core part of understanding engagement is looking at all the ways that people leave a digital footprint as they interact with us. We can leverage that information to make coherent representations or to drive decision making in our churches. A data scientist could help you gain a clear picture of the data you have, and more importantly, would give you an understanding of how to make decisions around that data in the coming years.

Remote Team Members

I get it. We’ve all had enough time on Zoom.

But what if we looked at future hires by deliberately considering remote team members rather than just looking at the pool of those available within our zip code or from across state?

Obvious considerations for this would be admin people, graphic designers, or video editors, but you could also look at hiring part-time specialists in communications, connections, or even service programming who don’t work full-time or in-person at your site but could provide a tremendous amount of value and insight for your team going forward.

Instead of hiring a consultant to address one or two issues in this next phase of your journey, you could look instead at hiring remote team members to actually lead your team in the areas that you need help managing.

This crisis has taught us that remote teams are a valuable way to engage and work together. Now might be the time for you to lean into areas that need leadership and to look at who you might want to add to your leadership team by deliberately searching beyond your immediate community for new team members.

More FREE help for you as you navigate the next normal. Enter to win these books.

Sign up before midnight on Sunday, May 31st, 2020 and you’ll be entered to win all of these books designed to help your church have more impact.

An entire library is being made available to help your church reach more people during this season. Enter the draw today to seize your opportunity to win all these books:

Unreasonable Churches: 10 Churches Who Zagged When Others Zigged by Rich Birch People Are the Mission: How Churches Can Welcome Guests Without Compromising the Gospel by Danny FranksTeams That Thrive: Five Disciplines of Collaborative Church Leadership by Ryan T. Hartwig & Warren BirdIt’s Not Over: Leaving Behind Disappointment and Learning to Dream Again by Joshua GagnonLiquid Church: 6 Powerful Currents to Saturate Your City for Christ by Tim Lucas & Warren BirdDidn’t See It Coming: Overcoming the Seven Greatest Challenges That No One Expects and Everyone Experiences by Carey NieuwhofHow to Lead in a World of Distraction: Four Simple Habits for Turning Down the Noise by Clay Scroggins

[Click here to sign up.]

Source: 5 Staff Roles Churches of Over 1,000 Should Add Now

The post 5 Staff Roles Churches of Over 1,000 Should Add Now appeared first on Passion for Planting.

When Your Church ReOpens, What Will Be Left and Who Will Still Come? Some Thoughts.

Sean Cronin — Wed, 20 May 2020 09:00:37 +0000

by Carey Nieuwhof: As churches slowly reopen their physical doors, church leaders are all asking the same question: who will still be around?

It’s a great question.

And not an easy one to answer. A lot of church leaders are nervous, uncertain and longing to get things back to something certain.

With several months of online-only church, it can be hard to know how many new people have come on board, who’s still engaged, who’s left, and who may be drifting.

And even as buildings re-open, it’s hard to get a gauge because of social distancing, limited capacity and, in almost all cases, no kids ministry (leaving families for the most part still at home).

In this post, I’ll take a quick look at the numbers, offer some observations and some strategies that I hope will help your church not just maintain, but advance in the midst of all this uncertainty.

Church Goers Are…A Little Uncertain

As a church leader texted me recently, opening is so much harder than closing.

The Barna Group is doing weekly polling that, leading up to Easter, showed 49% and even 59% reported surging online attendance compared to their former in-person attendance.

Since Easter, that’s dropped.

Now, only 25% of churches are reporting an attendance surge above previous levels, and in talking to leaders every week, more are seeing their online numbers drop.

So what about reopening? Who will be streaming back as doors open again?

A recent related poll of thousands of church leaders facilitated by Gloo showed people have little consensus around when they feel ‘safe’ to gather again in public.

Asked which other type of activity BEST signals to you that it is time to open in-person worship at the church, the most common answer was a low community level of COVID cases (21.5%)

Other responses included when

Social distancing and stay home guidelines are lifted: 17%
Local businesses are open: 14%
Local restaurant seating areas are open 8%
Testing is widely available and utilized 6%
Schools are open 4%
Vaccine available 3%

But the following results also speak volumes:

15% said they would only return when all the conditions are met (low cases, business open, restrictions lifted, vaccine available).
10% admitted they just weren’t sure.

Essentially, 25% either aren’t sure or aren’t coming back for a long time.

An additional 30% of respondents said they’d rather worship at home and only return when they can be mask-free at church.

25% of church attenders aren’t sure when they’re coming back or aren’t coming back for a long time. An additional 30% of respondents said they’d rather worship at home and only return when they can be mask-free at church. Click To Tweet

I know, that’s not encouraging, but it’s both real and understandable.

If you’d like to poll your congregations on these questions (for free) and even add a few questions of your own, you can do that here.

So how do you put this all into perspective?

Here are four thoughts that I hope can help guide you as you make some very pivotal decisions.

After all, re-opening your church is so much more complex than closing it ever was.

Re-opening your church is so much more complex than closing it ever was.Click To Tweet

1. Become a Lot More Agile: Normal Isn’t Coming Back Any Time Soon

Church leaders who are waiting for things to get back to normal will be waiting a long time.

It’s hard to go back to normal when normal disappeared.

So much has changed, not just in terms of what’s legally allowed (or morally responsible) but, as the poll results suggest, in terms of how people think.

And to make it more personal, consider how you think.

For example, even if you could, do you really want to get into a crowded restaurant right now? Would you want general admission floor tickets to hear your favorite band so you could crush in with everyone else?

Probably not. At least I wouldn’t.

The psychology of human behavior has an entirely new dynamic that leaders will have to deal with.

Before you over-spiritualize it, it’s not a question of faith over fear. It’s a sign that this is a deeply confusing, changing time.

People need to be led and cared for, they just need to be led and cared for differently.

Church leaders who are waiting for things to get back to normal will be waiting a long time. It’s hard to go back to normal when normal disappeared.Click To Tweet

Instead, pivot into a new normal.

Don’t be so focused on getting back to “normal” that you step back into the past when you step back into your facility.

To do that, you’ll have to become far more agile in the future than you have been in the past.

In a culture of constant change and uncertainty, agility is ability, and flexibility is a superpower.

If you’re curious as to how well-positioned you are to thrive in the new normal, I have a new, short Agility Quiz that can help you assess whether you’re likely to survive, thrive or struggle in the new normal.

It’s just 14 question and results will be sent to you immediately. Here’s the link.

The bottom line is this: the more agile you are heading into the future, the better you’ll be able to realize (and even advance) your mission.

In a culture of constant change and uncertainty, agility is ability, and flexibility is a superpower. Click To Tweet

2. Remember That You’ve Already Reached New People

The last few months haven’t been all loss. In fact, for many churches, that’s hardly the case.

You’ve likely reached new people online, including many you haven’t yet met.

The challenge with ministry online is a little like the challenge with new people who attend your church. It can be hard to get to know them.

Even with physical attendance, countless churches have new people who attend, sit in the back row and don’t connect with anyone.

Online just amplifies that, which is good and bad. You’re reaching new people…you just don’t know who.

The key is to move toward engagement, encouraging online attenders to:

Fill out an online welcome card or text their info in
Like, comment or follow so you can connect more personally
Take a step into an orientation group, small group or some kind of movement beyond attending service
Join your email list

Engagement is a sign of openness and a desire to connect.

Just because you can’t see an online attender doesn’t mean they aren’t real. So don’t give up on the progress you’ve made.

Just because you can’t see an online attender doesn’t mean they aren’t real.Click To Tweet

3. Realize Some Online Attenders Will Stay Online for a Long Time (and that has nothing to do with COVID)

As we’ve already seen, even as your buildings reopen, not everyone will rush into church. Some of that is COVID related, but it’s actually much deeper than that.

For years now, the trend has been for new people to watch online for weeks, months or even a year before they venture into a church’s physical building.

That trend will not only continue, it will accelerate.

Digital is the new default for our culture, and the current crisis only accelerated that.

Digital is the new default for our culture, and the current crisis only accelerated that. Click To Tweet

Church leaders who take all the resources they have been spending and investing in online church and move them back into physical ministry locations risk losing any online traction they’ve picked up as well as the audience that’s still watching.

In the future, churches that have the largest impact will think of themselves as digital organizations with physical expressions rather than physical organizations with digital presences.

So don’t let your foot off the digital pedal.

In the future, churches that have the largest impact will think of themselves as digital organizations with physical expressions rather than physical organizations with digital presences. Click To Tweet

4. Resist the Urge to Make Online Attenders or Non-Attenders Second-class Citizens

The church has enough dividing lines and judgmentalism already. We don’t need any more, and we should actively eliminate what we have.

But it’s not that hard to imagine that both church leaders and church members would start to divide themselves into two categories

The truly faithful, risk-taking, trusting, in-person attenders who are loyal and deeply Christian

Everybody else

That’s not just sinful, it’s stupid (as well as unstrategic).

Church leaders, if you stand there with a scowl on your face every Sunday angry about empty seats, why would anyone want to sit in one?

When you devalue people—curious people, frightened people, anxious people, cautious people, new people, hurt people—you sabotage the very mission you’re trying to accomplish.

People can smell judgment a mile away. So, church leaders, stop judging.

People can smell judgment a mile away. So, church leaders, stop judging.Click To Tweet

This is a very critical moment for the church moving forward.

Church leaders who embrace infrequent attenders, online attenders and non-attenders will eventually have more attenders.

Those who don’t, won’t.

Church leaders who embrace infrequent attenders, online attenders and non-attenders will eventually have more attenders.Click To Tweet

5. Be Less Controlling: Being Controlling and Being Effective are Usually Mutually Exclusive

I know this sounds axiomatic, but the truth is God is still in control.

Every leader is struggling with a loss of control. I am.

The truth is you can’t control:

The economy
Whether people return to church
When people return to church
Your numbers
Human behaviour
The future

And that’s massively frightening for a lot of leaders.

You had a system that worked…and now, it’s gone.

But that’s okay. God is still in control. You aren’t. You never were.

So what do you do?

For starters, focus on what you can control, not on what you can’t.

You and I can’t manipulate events or people, but you can respond to what’s happening and try to help people in the midst of it.

Second, look for the opportunity instead of the obstacle. My favorite question to ask during the crisis is the simple question “What does this make possible?”

The church has always been at its best when it’s under pressure.

It’s one thing to preach that God is doing a new thing. It’s another thing to embrace it.

I imagine that God is reforming and reshaping the church for the future. You resist that, or you can embrace it.

Here’s a principle I’m reminding myself of these days: Being highly controlling and highly effective are mutually exclusive.

In your desire to control things and get back to ‘normal,’ are you squeezing out new things God may want to do in you and through you?

I don’t know the answer to that question, but I sense the question is important. I’m asking it personally.

Being highly controlling and highly effective are mutually exclusive.Click To Tweet

You Don’t Have to Guess How Your Church Feels. Poll Your Church For Free

For sure there are ways to track where your church is at.

The easiest way to get real-time information on your church reopening is to poll your congregation directly.

I’ve partnered with Gloo, a US-based platform and technology firm, to give leaders access to the Returning to Church Check-In, a way to directly survey your congregation on how they are feeling about a return to church.

There are about a dozen standard questions that will help you benchmark your congregation’s responses against national averages and the check-in allows you to ask your own questions as well, so you don’t have to guess.

You can access the Returning to Church Check-In for free here.

Data-informed decisions are simply better decisions.

Data-informed decisions are simply better decisions. Click To Tweet

The Future is Uncertain. How Agile Are You? Take The Agility Quiz.

Some organizations will thrive in the new normal. Others won’t.

Over 70% of the 700+ leaders who took a recent survey predict that the future for their organization is going to look very different than before the global crisis.

While the future is uncertain, there are clear indicators and characteristics of which organizations will fail which ones will thrive in the new normal.

So, let’s see how you and your organization are positioned.

Take the free, 14 question assessment and have results sent to you immediately.

Take the quiz now.

What Do You See?

What issues are you grappling with as your church reopens or considers reopening?

Scroll down and leave a comment.

The post When Your Church ReOpens, What Will Be Left and Who Will Still Come? Some Thoughts. appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: When Your Church ReOpens, What Will Be Left and Who Will Still Come? Some Thoughts.

The post When Your Church ReOpens, What Will Be Left and Who Will Still Come? Some Thoughts. appeared first on Passion for Planting.