INTRODUCTION

Bethel Reformed Church has a rich history of bringing the life-changing message of Christ to the people of Aplington and the surrounding area. God has blessed you with many people who have a heart for seeing their faith passed on to the next generation. It seems people are drawn to the church because of its warmth and emphasis on teaching children. Indeed, we experienced Bethel as a warm community of dedicated Christ-followers. There is much to celebrate at Bethel!

However, with growth comes challenges and Bethel Church is being stretched thin in many ways. A church of over 200 people cannot continue to function as a church of 100. If churches cannot adapt to new ways of doing things, growth will be stifled or even decline over time. In fact, your total attendance has decreased by 10% over the last four years.

It is to your credit that you have recognized this unique season of your church and have sought out guidance in moving forward. One of the keys to a successful organization is its ability to learn and adapt. It has been an honor and privilege for us at Living Stones to serve Bethel Reformed Church as part of that learning process.

Goals of the consultation

In your self-study, as part of this consultation process, you asked us to help you with the following issues:

1. Increasing involvemen: How do we encourage people to serve?

2. Staffin: What are the future staffing needs?

3. Overcrowding of facilities: How do we make efficient use of our building space and current property? What is the best way to address space constraints?

4. Help with finance: How can we strengthen our base and solidify our budget development and stewardship?

The growing pains you are experiencing prompt many of these questions. You have done a tremendous job of maximizing the space in your current facility, but you recognize its future limits. Of course, additional staffing or ministry space requires additional funding so that leads to the issue of creating a solid financial footing.

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Through the consultation process, some additional issues also surfaced. As the church grows, you must be more intentional about integrating new people and offering clear discipleship pathways in order for spiritual development to take place. Governance needs to change as the church grows and news ways of functioning take shape.

All these questions are important and finding and implementing good answers is strategic for the church’s continued growth in both ministry effectiveness and reaching more people. The purpose of this consulting process, including this report, is to guide you in finding workable answers to these questions.

Living Stones specifically incorporated the concepts of the book When NOT to Build in addressing the goals of the consultation. The three key principals in the book are:

Focus: keeping your energy on what God wants your particular congregation to be doing in ministry as you follow His call

Use: making full use of your resources wisely and efficiently, practicing good stewardship in everything that you do

Provision: understanding fully what God has already provided

1The nature of an Integrated Planning Consultation

Our view of church is organic rather than organizational. We believe it is the nature of a healthy church to grow, and that it is God who grows the church, not us, though we have critical roles to play (planting and watering). A mechanical approach to church growth assumes that we can make the church grow with the right combination of programs and hard work. An organic approach assumes that a healthy church will experience growth, certainly spiritually, and over time numerically. If a church is not experiencing healthy growth, our responsibility is not to work harder or look for a better program, but rather to identify the barriers to growth and remove them. Just as a gardener cannot make her garden grow but can pull weeds that interfere with growth, we can identify barriers to healthy church growth and remove them to “let” it grow.

In an Integrated Planning Consultation, we study four areas of church life: Ministries, Staffing, Facilities, and Finances. We identify signs of health as well as barriers to growth in each of these areas, and then develop a sequential plan for removing barriers to growth in each of these areas. The purpose of an Integrated Planning consultation is to look closely at these areas in a holistic way, identifying both your strengths and weaknesses and identifying barriers that hinder health and growth. Once major barriers have been identified, recommendations are offered that provide a framework for understanding and removing those barriers.

The term “integrated” is used because we have found it an ineffective change strategy to address just one component—all four areas are interrelated. The complexity of your ministries, the needs in your equipping and support staff, and how you handle financial resources all fit together to determine how you should address facility needs.

The process for an Integrated Planning Consultation involves four phases.

1. You first completed an extensive self-study covering these four areas of church life. This included taking the Natural Church Development survey. 2. The second phase was the on-site visit of your Living Stones consulting team. This visit included oral recommendations to your leadership team.

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3. This written report is the third phase of your Integrated Planning Consultation. You are free to copy all or parts of this document, physically or electronically, as you see fit for use within the church. Some churches post the report on their church web site.4. The fourth phase of the consultation process is implementation. Thousands of churches have spent millions of dollars developing good strategic plans that end up collecting dust on the shelf of the church office.

It is this fourth phase, then that determines the benefit the church receives from this consulting process. Those churches that implement well receive great value. You are forming an implementation team whose responsibility is to make sure these recommendations do not collect dust, but are translated into effective action. Your Church Health Team has primary responsibility for studying these ministry recommendations, developing an Action Plan to improve church health, and monitoring the implementation of those action steps. You will also want to develop a Facility Task Force to be responsible for guiding continued development and implementation of a facility plan.

This report is not a master plan or the end of your planning process. Rather, our report and recommendations identify what we believe to be your greatest barriers to healthy growth and suggest some action steps that are potentially helpful for removing those barriers. It is up to you, however, to adapt these recommendations to your situation. You have a more intimate understanding of the details of your situation than we ever could have. You will need to apply these concepts in light of changing details. You will apply some recommendations exactly as suggested. Others you will modify before applying. In some cases, you will recognize the barrier we have highlighted but come up with a different approach for removing it. And in a few cases, you will find that our recommendations don't fit the culture or values of the church or community. This is exactly as it should be if you use this report as intended. The goal of the process is to help you learn to think about all these areas differently.

We encourage your staff, board, Church Health Team, and Facility Task Force to use this report not as a plan to be implemented, but as a tool for prayerfully working through the next steps God has for Bethel Church as you participate in God’s mission.

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Bethel Reformed Church – Leadership Session Schedule

SATURDAY, November 16, 2013 Background 9:00-9:30 Introductions

Living Stones Philosophy

Ministry 9:30-10:30 Organic Growth – Focus on health to get growth naturallyNatural Church Development (NCD) Survey Your Strength – Effective Structures Your Minimum Factor – Passionate Spirituality Uncovering Causes*

10:30-10:45 Break

10:45-Noon Church Size Dynamics Life Transforming Small Groups“My King Is”Prayer in Triads*

12:00-12:45 Lunch

Staffing 12:45-2:00 Governance that Empowers MinistryBudgeting Future Equipping Staff

2:00-2:15 Break Facilities 2:15- 3:15 Facility Issues

Facility Recommendations

Finances 3:15-4:00 Financial OpportunitiesCultivating GenerosityConclusion – “A Thousand Questions”Prayer

SUNDAY, November 17, 2013 Ministry & 11:30-1:30 LunchFacilities Reflections on Sunday morning’s activities

Church Health Team & Facility Task Force OrientationNext steps …

*An interactive exercise

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MINISTRIES

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The church as a living organism

God designed his church as a living organism, not a religious organization. Scripture pictures the church as a living body with many parts and one unique head in Jesus Christ. The church is not a building or a place, but living, breathing, flesh-and-blood people. It’s a body, not an institution. You don’t go to Bethel Reformed Church—you are Bethel Reformed Church. Jesus illustrated in Mark 4:26-29 the idea that healthy things seem to grow “all by themselves,” like plants in nature. Just as God alone produces a tree from an acorn, it is God alone who produces genuine growth in his church.

When we attempt to artificially “grow” the church in ways God did not design, we only add to the base of another social organization rather than God’s eternal kingdom. Paul echoed the concept when he said, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6). Jesus reserved the task of producing the authentic harvest for himself when he said, “I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18).

When he did that, though, he also assigned us the task of being good farmers. He expects us to make sure the soil—the church environment—is healthy enough for growth by removing barriers that hinder it. The job of pulling weeds, adding fertilizer, or watering and breaking up the dry ground is ours. The goal is to maintain a healthy church environment where seeds of life can sprout and barriers to God’s “all-by-itself” growth are removed.

In our work with churches, our approach is to work with you to identify barriers to growth in four key areas of church life—ministries, staffing, facilities, and finances—then to offer practical recommendations for how to remove those barriers.

Our ministry philosophy

It is our belief that ministries should drive the staffing, facilities, and financial decisions of our churches. We can boil “church” down to its core essentials. Those three essentials are:

• Love God• Love Others• As you go….make disciples

These three commands of Christ represent the essence of all ministry--relationships. It’s all about relationships. If we are not creating environments where these essential things are the focus of what’s happening, then the ministry will be shallow, or even hollow.

Along with the Great Commandment and Great Commission referenced above, we also have the Great Invitation of Matthew 11:28-30, "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live

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freely and lightly" (The Message). Jesus has not asked us to fulfill his commands apart from life-giving relationship and ongoing connection to him (John 15). We believe that for a ministry to be long-lasting, it must result from the overflow of the leader’s walk with God. This is why, in our consultations, we also give attention to the health of the leaders’ souls (especially the pastor’s) in addressing the health of the church.

Natural Church Development survey

One tool we use to identify barriers to growth in the ministry area is the Natural Church Development survey. As part of your self-study process, your senior pastor filled out a pastor's questionnaire, and thirty of your core members filled out member questionnaires, each consisting of about eighty questions. This survey measures your church's relative strength or weakness in eight areas demonstrated to be essential to healthy growth.

From your strongest factor to your minimum factor, here is how each of your quality characteristics scored:

Effective Structures 38 Gift-based Ministry 36 Need-oriented Evangelism 33 Empowering Leadership 30 Inspiring Worship 27 Loving Relationships 26 Holistic Small Groups 21 Passionate Spirituality 21

What do these scores mean? A score of 50 is a median score which is normed for English-speaking churches in the U.S. This means a church that scores 50 is healthier than half the English-speaking American churches and less healthy than half those churches. As you see, based on your responses, Bethel has below average scores in all eight areas.

These are not percentile scores. Rather, the scores measure how far above or below the median a church falls. In addition to the dashed line on the graphs at the average of 50, there are two additional horizontal lines at 35 and 65. (See graphs at the end of this section.) These represent the standard deviation of +/- 15 from the average, based on the survey’s statistics. That means that about 70% of all churches score between 35 and 65. Again, Bethel’s scores are below that range and would all be considered low.

The goal for a church engaged in the NCD process is to raise the scores of all eight characteristics to 65 or higher and keep them there. When a church scores 65 or higher on all 8 characteristics, there is a 99+% probability that it will also be growing numerically. The idea is that when a church keeps its focus on becoming healthier, numerical growth becomes the byproduct.

Bethel Church’s overall average health score of 29 is low among comparison churches. If you have been blessed with a solid ministry with low scores, just think of the potential as you continue to improve your church’s health!

Strengths

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Your highest score was in the area of Effective Structures. As we read the Vision Surveys and conversed with people at Bethel, it was apparent that individuals knew the goals that the church was working towards. The effective communication that you have established will be an asset to you as you embark on further changes and communicate those to the congregation. It is also to your credit that the church has exhibited a willingness to try to new things. The responses on the NCD and Vision Surveys also revealed that people who were serving felt their positions and areas of service were suited to their gifts and abilities. They seemed to experience joy and satisfaction from contributing to the ministry of the church.

Your Highest 10 chart also shows that you have many points of strength across the eight characteristics. Recognizing and celebrating these strengths will become important as your Church Health Team develops strategies that leverage them to address Passionate Spirituality issues.

Your Minimum Factor

Every church, no matter how healthy, has a Minimum Factor. This is the Quality Characteristic with the lowest score. A church’s Minimum Factor limits its capacity for healthy growth, so strengthening that Minimum Factor is a high-leverage strategy for improving a church’s health.

We discussed the illustration of a barrel with eight staves of varying lengths. Each stave represents a Quality Characteristic. If we envision water being poured into the barrel, the shortest stave always limits the capacity of the barrel to hold water. In this illustration, the water symbolizes God’s blessings and kingdom harvest flowing into the church—more can be contained if the shortest stave is lengthened.

Your Minimum Factor is Passionate Spirituality with a score of 21. This is the area that most limits your growth capacity. It also means that even moderate improvement in this area can

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produce big results. A major purpose of the NCD survey is to help you know where to focus your efforts so they are not spread too thin and become ineffective. We believe that Passionate Spirituality is the strategic place to focus your immediate attention.

Passionate Spirituality

Natural Church Development describes a church environment that demonstrates health in this area as a place where people experience the presence of God, have a passion for the body of Christ, exhibit a deep desire for devotions and the spiritual disciplines, and are growing in their spiritual interconnectedness. We noticed that Bethel has placed an emphasis on correct belief which we applaud as a critical foundation. However, there also needs to be an understanding of how the things we say we believe ought to affect every area of our lives. And most importantly, God doesn’t only want our intellectual assent to core doctrines; he desires an ongoing vibrant relationship with each of us in our daily lives — wherever we live, play, or work!

The chart detailing the Lowest 10 responses shows that two of those ten responses to individual questions relate to your Minimum Factor. That means there are points of weakness in those other eight responses from the other Quality Characteristics. While the focus remains on the area of Passionate Spirituality, paying attention to how these other low responses might connect to your Minimum Factor is important. For instance, the lowest scoring question was Q50: I can easily explain why I come to the worship service. Is the worship service experience affecting people’s connectedness to God?

Since your Holistic Small Groups score was also 21, we suggest you take a good look at those specific questions and explore how these two areas are related. For instance, a factor contributing to your low score in Passionate Spirituality was your answer to these questions: Q29: I know that other church members pray for me regularly and Q41: I often tell other Christians when I have experienced something from God. Although these questions apply to the Passionate Spirituality area, you can see how they might also relate to a lack of holistic small groups where members would be sharing with one another and supporting one another with prayer. One of your lowest scoring questions in the Holistic Small Groups category was Q21: My small group helps me to grow in my spiritual life. How might a lacking in this area affect Passionate Spirituality?

The Church Health Team will spend time probing for the underlying attitudes—the reasons why we would say these things about ourselves—in these areas and the other questions on the Lowest 10 chart. They should do this by meeting with various groups of people, asking strategic questions, and listening very carefully. What do the answers to these questions reveal about what may have been going on at the time? What circumstances may have been influential? How are these answers interrelated? What past experiences or baggage might have influenced our attitude? What can we learn about our culture, the times, and ourselves through this? Identifying root causes enables you to develop action plans that address the reasons rather than just dealing with the symptoms.

MINISTRY RECOMMENDATIONS

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Role of the Church Health Team

This team needs to be fully identified and agree upon how they will function in terms of meeting times, individual task assignments and communications between meetings. The Church Health Team (CHT) is to bring focus to the process of understanding your NCD Minimum Factor and removing the barriers identified in this report which impact overall church health. Use the example of a CHT charter in the Appendix as a model to create your own. Once your charter is created and agreed to by the team members, make sure you send a copy to your Living Stones coach.

The CHT is not a policy-making body but a resource team charged with developing recommendations for positive steps forward. Action plans and recommendations are to be made through the usual channels and under the supervision of the current governance structures at Bethel Reformed Church. However, since this team has been charged with the responsibility for church renewal and has done much prayerful investigative work, its recommendations should carry great weight from their authority as respected leaders.

The CHT also is not the group charged with implementing the resulting action plans, but they will be responsible for making sure actions are taken by other appropriate ministries or teams. They should meet on a regular basis and will likely need to meet more often for the first few months than they will later in the year. They will also be the team that periodically reviews the progress of actions taken relative to the results desired.

Intentional communication strategy

The first and most important task for the Church Health Team is to develop and implement a comprehensive communication strategy. Be deliberate about how you keep each other, the consistory, staff, ministry team leaders, the broader congregation and your Living Stones coach informed as you make progress on the journey. Ask yourselves: Who do we need to talk to? Who do we need to hear from? What do we need to say? How often will we communicate? What forms of communications should we use?

Your Living Stones ministry coach expects you to develop this part of your strategy right away. You should immediately open the lines of communication and set up a regular schedule of email updates and telephone coaching sessions that keep your Living Stones coach informed of CHT activities and issues related to the process. You have unlimited access to your coach by email and should also schedule an hour of telephone coaching monthly for the duration of the four months of coaching you opted for in your IPC acceptance. This access will not help you if you don’t use it. We can only guide you when we know what direction you are moving or not moving.

You must also be intentional about seeking feedback and guidance from each ministry and church leadership group. Communication is two parts listening and one part telling. It is extremely difficult to over-communicate. Be diligent to communicate regularly with the congregation about where you are in the process. While there are no secrets, not everyone can be or should be part of the detailed process. That often makes some individual or groups feel as though they are on the outside. Use your intentional communication strategy to get the word out in as many ways as you can, to as many people as you can, as often as you can.

The best form of communication is face-to-face. It is critical that the CHT spends the last few minutes of each meeting asking, “What are we going to tell our people?” Spend a few minutes reviewing your discussion and deciding which decisions are ready to be communicated.

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Clarify what needs to be shared, then tell other leaders and ask them to pass it along to those they minister alongside. In this way, communication will cascade throughout the organization.

Find creative ways to communicate what you are doing as you make progress. Give an update during announcements, stick a half-page note into the bulletin, publish something on a website, send church-wide emails, mail postcards, but find ways to let folks know you are moving forward. Don’t wait until you have all your action plans in place to let people hear about the appropriate aspects of your deliberations and how they fit with where God is calling the church. In times of significant transition, it is very difficult to over-communicate.

When you do your next NCD survey in about a year, you will likely have a different Minimum Factor. At that point you may choose to have a few members of the CHT rotate off to make room for others who, because of their spiritual giftedness and passions, might be more effective in addressing that new Minimum Factor.

Prioritize report recommendations

The Church Health Team should take time to review this report together in detail. Team members should understand the major themes of the report individually. Each person should read the entire report with a highlighter in hand. Only then will you be ready to work together to evaluate the recommendations, work with them to make them fit with the direction God is leading Bethel, and begin the process of prioritizing them for action by appropriate ministries, individuals, or committees.

Build on the good work you and other Bethel teams have already done to bring focus and energy into the church. Also, remember that your goal is not to fix everything at once, but to work toward the three to five potential actions that, once taken, have the greatest potential to remove barrier to what’s healthy. Make sure you celebrate what has been done that brought you to this place and respect your decision-making processes, but be strategic and intentional with the recommendations and actions plans that will move you in the direction God intends.

Analyze the NCD Information

The Church Health Team should complete its analysis of the detailed NCD survey information. (Pastor Scott has the complete NCD report.) Look for underlying reasons for the identified barriers to health in your Minimum Factor of Passionate Spirituality (and possibly Holistic Small Groups). Conduct targeted focus groups to help you get to the root issues. Keep asking, “Why do you think that is?” with each answer as you talk with and listen to others. As you probe deeper by asking “why” questions a few times, you will get to the real root issues that are needed for a more accurate diagnosis.

We introduced you to one tool for this process during our Saturday leadership session when we collected responses on post-it notes for the CHT to later sort and analyze. Brainstorm and evaluate potential solutions to the identified issues, and then develop three to five action steps for addressing those issues. The action steps should include what is to be done, who will be responsible for implementation, a timetable for implementation, and how and when the effectiveness of each action will be evaluated.

Recommendations Related to Passionate Spirituality

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Your Church Health Team is charged with recommending an Action Plan consisting of 3 to 5 action steps designed to strengthen church health. While these action steps do not have to be limited to the area of Passionate Spirituality, this area calls for your first attention.

Add sharing and prayer to all leadership team meetings

Since passionate spirituality and modeling holistic small groups begins with the leadership, we suggest you experiment with ways to foster this in staff, church health team, and consistory meetings. Some possibilities include:

Each one sharing something God has impressed upon them lately Each person sharing their high and low of the past week and then praying together Each person sharing a new insight gleaned from God’s Word and how they will apply it Asking what’s one thing you need Jesus to do in your life and then praying for each other Each person listing someone that they have contact with who needs a church and as a

group consistently praying for these people and watching for the Spirit’s work in response.

Add prayer in 2’s or 3’s to all existing group meetings

This simple powerful practice can begin to strengthen Passionate Spirituality very quickly. You can do this as part of every meeting of every “small group” within the church. You can do this in adult Sunday school classes, consistory meetings, team meetings, CHT meetings, staff meetings, Bible study groups, music rehearsals, etc. Take 5 to 10 minutes at the beginning or end of the meeting to have people form groups of two or three. Each person answers the question, “What do you need Jesus to do for you today?” then another group member prays for that need. If time is tight, you can do this in five minutes with groups of just two. If you do it in groups of three, allow ten minutes. If you want to take more time to do this, you can share in a larger group. For example, a group of five or six can take 20 to 25 minutes. To start this practice, begin with staff meetings, consistory meetings, and Church Health Team meetings. Then charge the leaders in these groups to introduce the practice in every other group that they are a part of. Ask your adult and teen Sunday school teachers to include this in every session.

Once you have done this for a few meetings in a row, it will become part of the culture of that group and will not be hard to continue. But you will need to be intentional about following through on it to establish the habit during those first several meetings.

As a way to encourage the practice, once you have started this, watch for stories to come out of this. What is God doing though this simple discipline? When you find a story, invite that person to share that story briefly as part of the Sunday morning service.

Recommendation: Embrace Change

"The Church is the only institution that exists for those who are not yet its members." -William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1942-1944

If a church is going to grow and continue to reach people in need of Christ or a church home, the church will have to deal with change. Growth automatically changes things. While we were with you, we spent time discussing church size dynamics and the shifts that have to take place if

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a church is going to continue to grow. If a church fails to make the needed changes, the church will usually slide back to a smaller size. In reality, Bethel Reformed Church is becoming a medium sized church but in some respects, it is still attempting to function as a small church. We highlighted five things that must change if a church is going to grow beyond 200:

Assimilation of newcomers must become more intentional. Shepherding must be done by more than the pastor. Decision-making must be streamlined. Staff must be added. Multiple worship options must be created.

The shifts that must occur are fleshed out in an article by Timothy Keller entitled Leadership and Church Size Dynamics which has been furnished as an extra resource to you. You may want to print applicable portions of it for a discussion at a Consistory or Church Health Team meeting. Another resource that is helpful for understanding these shifts is One Size Doesn’t Fit All by Gary McIntosh. Written in story form, it relates the transitions that are part of a healthy growth process. The article, To Make Big Changes, Start with Baby Steps included at the end of this section gives helpful advice on navigating change.

Governance and Decision-making Shifts

The larger you grow, the more important it becomes to streamline and clarify decision-making. A governance structure that empowers ministry will have the governing board setting policy, the pastor leading and teaching, the staff equipping and coordinating, and the members conducting the ministry. A couple of resources that explain this in detail are: High Impact Church Boards by T. J. Addington and Winning on Purpose by John Edmund Kaiser.

Recommendation: Empower People for Ministry

From program-driven to call-guided ministry

Bethel has been very intentional about helping people discover their spiritual gifts and this shows! Some of your strongest NCD responses were in the questions related to Gift-based Ministry. An empowering church helps equip and encourage each individual to discover and fulfill his/her unique ministry calling. One of the struggles that you mentioned was how to increase involvement in ministry. Bethel Reformed Church is not unique in this issue. Many churches struggle with how to get new people involved or how to find enough willing workers to carry out all the good programs in the church. It relates to both the mobilization of ordinary people for their God-ordained “works of service” and the development of current and future leaders.

The most common way to connect people to ministry tasks is to put people into open slots in existing ministry programs. This sometimes includes spiritual gift testing and providing trained ministry mentors to help people find the right places of ministry. You survey responses indicate you already do a good job of getting people into ministry slots that match their gifts. A church that does gifts assessment will likely do a better job of placing people in more appropriate ministries, but doing a better job of slot-filling only partially addresses the problem.

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A more thorough solution requires a fundamentally different approach to mobilizing people into ministry. Rather than starting with the open slot and asking, “Who could do this job?” we begin by helping every member in the congregation discern their gifts and discover their call, and then asking, “How can we empower you to do what God is calling you do to?” In some cases, people get connected to an existing church ministry. In others, it requires the church to see an individual’s ministry outside the walls as missionary work, then equipping them for it.

A program-driven or slot-filling approach tends to concentrate workers on maintaining programs that primarily serve church members. A call-guided approach that begins by helping members get in touch with their God-given passions tends to result in an approximately equal balance between ministries of outreach and ministries of nurture. Remember—once you become authentic followers of Jesus, it’s no longer just about you.

Bethel’s leadership, at all levels, must consciously provide the empowerment and equipping mechanisms needed to transition the entire culture to a call-driven approach. Doing so requires the courage and willingness to release people from maintaining church programs so they are free to invest time and energy into touching those outside the church for whom God has given them a passion. This may require letting go of some church programs, including good ones; streamlining programs and committees so they require fewer workers; or combining programs with similar purposes so they don't need as many workers.

If we start with people's passions and gifts and watch where God is calling them to minister, it really becomes a matter of letting God have greater influence in our ministry and programming priorities, and sometimes beginning new ministries in areas where God is calling people. It means letting previously fruitful ministries die a natural death once the people whom God at one time called to lead them have moved on, and coming up with creative ways to do other ministries that may be less worker-intensive.

Clues to Call

Many churches today have become institutionalized “consumer” churches. As the label suggests, these churches see ministry and growth in terms of giving people what they want. Consumers choose churches on the basis of “What will this church do for me?” or “How can I get the preaching, the programs, or the ministries I need for myself and my family?” In contrast to the consumer church is the empowering church. This type of church sees its purpose as growing disciples and empowering these disciples to serve others and make other disciples.

The core values of a consumer church focus on meeting the needs of members; the empowering church reaches out to hurting people outside the faith family. A consumer church is program-driven (finding people to fit ministry positions in our programs); the empowering church is call-guided (equipping every member to minister according to their passions, gifts, and call). The consumer church sees professional staff as “ministers for hire.” Empowering churches understand that the most important task of professional ministry staff is to equip every member for ministry. An empowering church sees itself as missional (a Christ-centered spiritual community that incarnates Christ in the larger community using “Go” strategies); a consumer church is primarily attractional (seeing itself as the place others must join to be served, mostly “Come” strategies).

Clues to call often involve asking and answering two critical questions: “What need do I see around me that breaks the heart of God that also breaks my heart?” and “What kind of personal ministry would you love to do, along with others, to touch this pain with God’s love?” Clues to

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call, both individually and corporately, are found in discovering passions and gifting for ministry.

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” - Frederick Buechner

Bill Hybels advises us to look for our “Popeye moments” in his book Holy Discontent as he reminds us to pay attention to what angers us. What injustice finally makes you say, “That’s all I can stands, and I can’t stands no more!”? Chances are, this righteous anger is a clue to our calling.

Many churches offer a class or assessment to help participants discover their spiritual gifts. A call-guided ministry really moves beyond simply assessing and understanding spiritual gifts. Knowing your spiritual gift will tell you what role to play on a team, but knowing your passion will tell you which team “play on” (ministry to join).

The book When There’s No Burning Bush by Eddy Hall and Gary Morsch is a great resource for the process of helping individuals discern God’s call. Use this resource in a classroom settings or small groups.

The 3-Time-Slot Principle

With today’s hectic pace of life, it is no longer realistic to expect people to be there every time the doors are open. Too many choices and not enough time are just facts of life. A more realistic expectation is for people to fit into the 3-time-slot principle. Most committed members will only give three significant time periods a week to church life. If worship is one and Christian education or a small group is another, that only leaves one more for some sort of hands-on ministry or serving opportunity.

Maintain an eternal perspective regarding hands-on ministry. Remember to tie the smallest task anyone does to the greater Kingdom story. Bob Logan state, “If you can’t tie the most menial task you ask someone to do in the church to the overarching plan of God in history, then don’t ask them to do it.” Help everyone realize that his or her contribution to the work of God is valuable and needed.

As Bethel continues to grow, recognize the benefit of this principle. Decide what core things are important for the development of authentic disciples and make sure your structure and expectations do not pour more on someone’s plate than they can manage. That is not to say you don’t stretch people when the purpose is right and the need is great. The best is too often the victim of the good. Everyone is so busy doing a bunch of good things that they don’t have enough energy to do with excellence the few things it would be best to do. Be intentional about learning how God gifts and calls people, help them learn to prioritize the time they devote to the church and its ministries, and teach them to say no with grace when they should.

The 2-hat Principle

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Often in churches we find some people serving in three or four ministry programs on a regular basis. To those who fall into that category we suggest the 2-hat principle. Simply put, this means that as a general rule, non-staff members should wear no more than two ministry hats in the church: one large hat and one small hat.

The large hat represents a ministry requiring more than two hours a week in preparation and execution, like preaching, leading the music ministry, teaching a Sunday school class, or leading a small group. The small hat would be something requiring less than two hours a week on a regular basis, such as being a greeter, a children’s ministry helper, a prayer partner, assisting with the coffee time, or spending a session in the nursery as a helper.

It is better to do two things that bring you energy and joy and do them with excellence than it is to do five things grudgingly, with little or no enthusiasm. It’s not a sin to say ‘no’ in many cases. Sometimes making a “stop doing” list can be more production in the long run than making a bigger “to do” list. The 2-hat principle can free those who were just filling slots to discover what God wants them to do, then to do it with all their heart. Make it a guiding principle, not a hard-and-fast rule. The goal is to prevent people from wearing too many “hats” as a normal way of doing ministry and, instead, to create a church culture where people focus on their best contributions to the church body.

The 80/20 Rule

Churches emphasizing giftedness and passions should also note that everyone has a responsibility to serve. Who has the gift of toilet cleaning? The picking-up-trash gift? These are jobs that must be done regardless of passion or giftedness.

It is helpful to remind people that 80 percent of their time should be spent doing the good works that they have been created for and called to do (Ephesians 2:10). However, just as Jesus washed his disciple’s feet, it helps us grow in Christlikeness to serve in other ways that assist the church body. Help people figure out their “80 percent zone” in which they should be spending most of their time but also acknowledge the “20 percent zone” and express appreciation when you see someone fulfilling a role that isn’t very fun but needs to be done.

Recommendation: Enlisting Volunteers

Don’t Ask for Help

Churches can always use more volunteers. However, communicating a need for volunteers or asking for help can be counterproductive. If you beg for volunteer help, you might be admitting, “I have no compelling vision for this area of our ministry, and, therefore, no one willingly serves.” Most people will not jump onto a sinking ship. Yes, a few people will respond from guilt or to keep the ship from sinking, but then they will likely wind up frustrated or burned out.

Instead of telling people what you need, tell them how you can help them use their gifts and experiences. Explain how they can find purpose and fulfillment. Communicate the mission and vision of the ministry, and then tell them how they could influence the lives of others by filling a particular role. Share stories about people who are already serving, and let them explain why

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they love to give their time and talents to the cause. Better yet, share stories about people who have benefited directly from the ministry.

Instead of asking for help, offer opportunities for people to contribute to the lives of others. The focus isn’t on the ministry role; it’s on the person who’s interested in finding a ministry. The emphasis isn’t on the service that needs to be performed; it’s on the people whose lives are affected by the servant.

Teach Shoulder Tapping

Sometimes ministry leaders or volunteers can fall into the pattern of thinking it is the pastor’s job to recruit additional volunteers. However, a plea from the pulpit or a bulletin announcement seldom yields the desired results. Most people serve because they want to make a difference with their lives or because they want deeper relational connections with others.

So what’s the alternative? Teach “shoulder-tapping.” All leaders and volunteers must believe that it is their responsibility to “tap the shoulders” of others in their relational networks and invite them into ministry. It can be so inviting to hear, “Join me.” If I am the person hearing those words, it tells me that you want to be with me, that I have worth, and that I can make a difference.

When a ministry is looking for additional help, challenge the people already involved with this question, “Who do you know who you could invite to serve with you next week?” Since everyone involved in a ministry has different relational connections, recruiting through the existing volunteers greatly expands the number of potential co-laborers.

Commission Your Leaders

Another way to raise the value of volunteerism is to publically recognize volunteers and have a “commissioning time.” For instance, in the fall you might ask all those involved in the children or youth ministries to come forward and pray for them and their ministry for the coming school year. If you select elders, deacons, or other leaders at the beginning of the year, that might also be a time to commission them in their service to the Lord.

This is an opportunity to not only express appreciation but also build credibility and transfer authority to the teachers or leaders. God commanded Moses to do this for Joshua in Number 27: 19-20 — “Publicly commission him with the responsibility of leading the people. Transfer your authority to him so the whole community of Israel will obey him.”

These ideas and more can be found in the book, Simply Strategic Volunteers: Empowering People for Ministry by Tony Morgan and Tim Stevens.

Recommendation: Connections Ministry

Connecting people to a journey with Jesus is part of what it takes to fulfill the Great Commission mandate to make disciples. Notice it doesn’t just say “make converts” or “make new members.” Discipleship is much more than getting folks to join the church: it’s walking with them on their lifelong journey of becoming more like Christ and teaching them to do the same with someone else. Doing that starts by getting to know them the first time you meet them, and intentionally connecting them to the community of faith that is Bethel Reformed Church.

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The church must not only be hospitable to guests, but must also be intentional about connecting people into disciple-making relationships for the long haul.

We recommend you have a staff person or high capacity volunteer in charge of this ministry. The Connections Ministry will be responsible for your hosting (greeting) and ushering, for guest follow up, and for looking at your services, building, and programs through the eyes of first-time guests to suggest ways they can be more visitor-sensitive. They will also be responsible to make sure every new person finds their way into the hands of Bethel’s small groups or other disciple-making ministries for enfolding fully into the life of the faith community. While this process occurred somewhat naturally when you were a small church, you are now at the size where there must be a more intentional process for integrating people into the life of the church.

Creating a welcoming environment for first time guests is important. Studies reveal that a guest will decide whether to come again in the first few minutes following their arrival. (This is before they have heard the pastor’s message.) Creating a welcoming atmosphere can only be done when the people involved in the ministry are gifted and passionate about making new people feel welcome. You are blessed to have gifted people to greet, usher, and serve at your welcome center. You have even gone “above and beyond” with your valet parking service!

You are on the right track to doing what we generally recommend, but by coordinating your efforts and strategizing about your process, you will increase your retention of guests. We recommend that you start tracking how many of your guests you are able to retain and enfold into the life of the church. A retention rate of 20% to 25% would be considered very good. The saying that “what gets measured, gets done” is true and helping integrate people into the family of Bethel is definitely a measurement that matters!

Because welcoming is a ministry to which people are called, hosting (greeting) should not be considered a chore that everyone has to take a turn at. It should be done by those who are most passionate about making people feel welcome. The same is true of those who do the 24- to 48-hour follow up. This can be a minor ministry hat that many people can wear, but it should not be something people do as an assignment or out of guilt. It should be something people do because they really want to make newcomers feel welcome.

We suggest that you charge this ministry team with four goals, then leave it to them to experiment to find the best ways to achieve these goals.

Connection 1: Every weekend guest who does not wish to be invisible will not leave the building until he or

she has made at least one friend--a person who, when that guest returns a second time, will know their name and be looking forward to seeing them again. The friendliness of the congregation is determined by the first 10 minutes following the service. Once guests "hit the aisle" they are more anxious to leave but they will linger for conversation if approached while they are still at their seats.

Connection 2: Every first-time guest who discloses information about himself will receive a doorstep visit,

email, or phone call from a Bethel member (not a staff member) within 24 to 48 hours of their first visit to the church. If you make a follow-up contact within 48 hours, it leads to a high return rate. If, however, acknowledgement of that first visit is delayed until the end of the week, guests are much less likely to return. (Some studies say the difference is about 85% verses 15%) If visiting the guest’s home, the caller will leave a gift and information about the church, but will

Public

Social

Personal

Intimate

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not go into their home. Let your Connections Team determine what will work best in your context.

Connection 3: The Connections Ministry Team will facilitate a process of helping newcomers find a place

in some form of small group (home-based small group, class, men's fellowship, service project team, etc.) within six weeks of their first visit. (Research shows that if they haven't connected in this way within six weeks, you've probably lost them.) This connection is necessary to go beyond being a “friendly” church to a place where you can easily make friends.

Connection 4: The Connections Ministry Team will make sure new people find their way into the church’s

process of helping newcomers identify their spiritual gifts and call, and move them into intentional personal ministry within three to six months after their initial visit. This does not mean that the Connection Team does the ministry of gift/call counseling, but that they will work closely with that ministry to make sure newcomers are connected to that ministry.

The ultimate goal of the Connection Ministry is to lead people into meaningful relationships, meaningful service/ministry, and a meaningful connection with God. However, it is unrealistic to expect a first-time guest to leap immediately to dedicated service. Instead, we must approach the process with incremental smaller steps. As you consider the process of integrating people into the faith community of Bethel Church learn to “think steps.” What is it that we want people to do next? Where do we want them to go? Is it an introductory class? A social event? A small group? Each step should be easy, obvious, strategic, and relational.

When evaluating the steps that you hope people will take as they become involved at Bethel Church it is helpful to ask:

Are they easy? — Do people think they can do it? Are they obvious? — Do people know what to do? Are they strategic? — Do they believe it is going to lead them somewhere? Are they relational? — Do they know who is involved?

Each person has four relational spaces: Public places of interaction, social interactions, personal friendships, and intimate relationships. (Most people only have 2-3 truly intimate relationships which are usually reserved for family members.) In a church, the public space would be the worship service. Studies reveal that significant life-change happens in the personal setting. However, most people do not immediately progress to a personal setting such as a small group or triad without first getting comfortable in a social situation. Therefore, a connections team needs to think about what fellowship opportunities the church is creating that could serve as a potential stepping-stone into a more personal setting.

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It is helpful for a church to think of the Connections Ministry as a continuous circle that produces healthy growth. It begins when someone becomes acquainted with Bethel, visits a worship service or event, fills out the information card, is integrated through various steps leading to loving relationships, deepens their walk with Christ and follows His call to service and witness back into the community so others can, in turn, become acquainted with Bethel.

When a new guest has found a home in a small group setting and moved into an intentional personal ministry, they can be considered a part of the congregation. According to Charles Arn, the average non-growing church enfolds one out of ten visitors into the congregation. Churches that are growing at the rate of 5% or more a year enfold two in ten visitors into the congregation. Having an effective Connections Ministry may be the single simplest thing you can do to increase the growth capacity of your church.

Give this ministry team the authority and the budget to do whatever they need to do to fulfill their ministry goals. Empower them to create a welcoming atmosphere. Encourage them to try different approaches to making people feel welcome, to always be on the lookout for ways to improve your welcome. Be prepared to try lots of things that don't work very well before finding those that do work well. Charge this group with evaluating what you are now doing and sorting through what parts of it work well and which might be improved upon. We have already provided a 25-page Connections Ministry Handbook to Pastor Scott for your Church Health

THE CONNECTION

CIRCLE

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Team. The books Beyond the First Visit by Gary McIntosh, Fusion by Nelson Searcy and Lasting Impressions by Mark Waltz are additional resources to assist. Have fun with this!

Recommendation: Consider Triads

Many small churches struggle to maintain a strong small group system. One small group solution that is easier to launch and maintain is the option of “triads.” The article at the end of this section details the advantages that this form of discipleship offers.

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DISCIPLESHIP TRIADS

Multiplying Disciples Three at a Time

by Eddy Hall

© Copyright Eddy Hall 2008 All rights reserved

“I admit I stumbled onto a discovery; yet it has become one of the most amazing ahas of my pastoral ministry,” writes Greg Ogden.1 For many years he had championed one-on-one discipling–the Paul-Timothy model. Then came the experiment.

As his final project for his doctor of ministry program, Ogden was testing a discipleship curriculum he had written. At his adviser’s suggestion, he experimented with the curriculum in three settings: one-on-one, a group of ten, and a group of three. While all three settings produced growth, to Ogden’s surprise, the triad led to the greatest life change. “I did not anticipate the potency that would be unleashed in what I have since come to call a triad,” he says. “It would forever change my understanding of the means that the Holy Spirit uses to transform people into Christ’s image.”2

Why three?

How could adding just one person to the one-on-one model change the entire feel of what happened in the relationship, Ogden wondered? Here is what he has come to believe.3

When a third person is added, there is a shift from the discipler as focal point to the discipler as fellow participant.

There is a shift from hierarchical to relational. There is a shift from dialogue to dynamic interchange. There is a shift from limited input to wisdom in numbers. There is a shift from addition to multiplication.

This last point needs to be unpacked. In theory, one-on-one discipling should lead to reproduction. Once someone is discipled, he or she disciples someone else. But Ogden admits that in practice, the reproduction rate was low. He now believes that this is becauseone-on-one discipling relationships tend to be hierarchical, and hierarchy tends to create dependency. Those being mentored see themselves as receivers, not givers. Ogden observes: “As long as there is the sense that one person is over another by virtue of superior spiritual authority, however that is measured, few people will see themselves as qualified to disciple others.”4

1 Transforming Discipleship: Making Disciples a Few at a Time (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2003), 9.2 Ibid.3 Ibid, pp. 146 ff.4 Ibid, p. 43.

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What do triads do?

A triad is a group of three, usually all men or all women (same-gender groups tend to produce faster spiritual growth) who meet regularly to share life, encourage one another, pray for one another, and, optionally, to study. In a slightly different version of the triad, Life Transformation Groups (see Neil Cole’s Cultivating a Life for God), a heavy commitment to Scripture reading serves as the curriculum.

However, even when triads use curriculum, the study is not the group’s primary focus; the focus is relationships. Ogden makes a compelling biblical case that it is relationship, not book learning, that drives the process of transforming discipleship. My triad meets for breakfast every other week for a couple of hours. Some triads meet weekly for a lunch or breakfast. Moms with young children can meet at the park or at a home while they watch their kids play. Exercisers can walk together, sharing and praying as they walk. I think it is important that a triad not fill up a “prime time” slot such as an evening, as that makes the meeting too much of a time burden. You’re going to eat breakfast and lunch anyway. If you can meet over a meal, it costs you very little time.

One purpose of a triad is mutual accountability. My own working definition of accountability is to be in a relationship with someone who knows me so well that I cannot screw up without his knowing it. A triad can become that kind of relationship.

“Fast track” small groups

As a church consultant, it is not unusual for me to work with churches that need help with small groups. Sometimes we recommend that a church develop one or two prototype small groups, get outside training for small group leaders, identify a qualified person to be the small groups coordinator (paid or unpaid), then after several months, multiply the prototype small groups. Group leaders need a wide range of skills: facilitating meetings, leading worship, identifying and training apprentices, mentoring group members in evangelism, etc. Such leaders are actually pastors, and it’s an exciting and high calling.But, growing that kind of small group culture throughout a church usually takes years in the best of circumstances. When a church needs small group help right now and it does not have leaders with the experience and passion to develop of a traditional small group ministry, we now usually recommend that the church promote triads.

Why?

Starting triads is simple. Someone prays about whom to invite to join him or her, then extends the invitation. When inviting someone, I usually hand him Transforming Discipleship and ask him to read it so he understands the purpose and biblical basis of the triad.

Triads don’t require trained leaders. By the time a person has come to three or four triad meetings, she knows enough to start another triad.

Triads need no administrative support. A traditional church-wide small group ministry requires extensive administration and coaching from staff or a key volunteer. Triads are self-

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governing.

At one church where we suggested triads, we returned a year later to find nine triads operating. Their Holistic Small Groups score on their Natural Church Development survey (a widely used survey that measures church health) had gone up 15 points over the year–a huge increase–even though this church had few traditional small groups.

Triads as building blocks

The formation of triads or Life Transformation Groups is a proven strategy for church planting. Triads need not be limited to Christ-followers, but can include anyone who is serious enough about seeking God that they want to participate. Neil Cole’s Life Transformation Groups are the basic building block used in his church planting. (The book to read is Organic Church by Neil Cole.) Once several triads are formed, three or four can be combined into a small group or house church.

Synergy with small groups

Triads can also be a powerful complement to traditional small groups. They are the best way I’ve found to address the ever-present small-group tension between outreach and community. Except for recovery groups or certain leadership development groups, I’m a big believer that small groups need to not only be open, but that they need to build intentional outreach into their DNA. Why? Because Jesus calls us to go and make disciples.

However, this limits the potential for intimacy. With the joining of every new member, the trust level of the group drops and must be rebuilt. And many open groups include a person or two whose presence requires you to guard your sharing. In about 30 years of small group life, about half of the groups I have belonged to have developed intimacy and about half have not. Given the nature of open groups, I don’t expect that percentage to improve.

So, rather than being frustrated when my group doesn’t meet my need for a place to share intimately, what if I look to another setting–my triad–to meet that need? Then in my small group I’m free to give outreach priority over intimacy, knowing that my need for intimate sharing is being met elsewhere. If I also experience intimacy in my small group, I gratefully accept that as a gift.

If your triad members are from your small group, that creates a special synergy. When your small group meets, you are strengthening your triad relationships; when your triad meets, you are strengthening your small group. Far from competing with each other, your small group and triad build up one another.

Triad multiplication

Since the goal is to multiply disciples, triads, like cell groups, need to multiply. A typical life cycle for a triad is 18 to 24 months. The simplest way to multiply is for each member to invite two others to form a new triad. In some cases, that’s the right option. But if you prefer (as I do) greater relational continuity, you can invite a fourth member to join the triad for two to four

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months. This time of pregnancy is temporary, since experience shows that groups of four are generally less effective than groups of three. After a brief pregnancy, the foursome divides into two groups of two, each of which invites a third person to join them, and two new triads are born.

If you need intimate companions for your journey, or if your church needs a simple, powerful way to inject new life into your small group ministry, discipleship triads may be just what you’re looking for.

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Navigating Change Without Crashing

To Make Big Changes, Start with Baby Steps© Eddy Hall 2012

Every church goes through major changes. Most churches eventually make changes that blow up on them. Do these stories sound familiar?

Small groups: When Pastor Brian came to Sand Creek Baptist, the traditional mid-size congregation was aging. Unless something changed, within a decade the church would be in hospice mode. Brian’s vision was to lead the church to become more missional and organic, with missional home-based Life Groups at the heart of the church’s life. Brian envisioned multiple campuses throughout the rural region served by church, with the goal of growing the church to over a thousand in attendance.

Within a few years, two new campuses had been launched, and a good number of Life Groups were up and running. Brian was asked to lead a workshop at a national conference on leading a church through change.

Then the wheels starting coming off the wagon. Tensions between Brian and his allies and old guard leaders turned into open conflict. Over a period of 18 months or so, about a third of the congregation left, and many who remained were hurt and discouraged. They no longer invited their friends to church. In the community, the church was known not for being missional, but for its ugly conflicts.

__________________

Children’s ministry: The children’s ministry at Bethel Church constantly struggled to recruit volunteers, especially for their Wednesday night AWANA program. Being spread too thin was also hurting children’s Sunday school. After consulting with a few children’s ministry leaders, Pastor Rafael ended the AWANA program so the children’s ministry could focus on developing a top quality Sunday morning ministry. He sent a postcard to all the AWANA families listing other churches AWANA programs in town where they could take their children.

Months later, the fury over “farming out” children’s ministry had not died down.

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__________________

In both of these situations, the pastors’ visions were good. The changes they dreamed of were changes our consulting team often recommends. Yet each of these attempts to navigate major change ended in disaster. Why? And how could it have turned out differently?

Small groups: Broadway Baptist Church was a traditional Southern Baptist Church more than 100 years old. Then along came a team of young seminarians who led the congregation through an enormous culture change, making Koinonia Groups, rather than the Sunday service, the heart of congregational life. When a team of leaders from our church visited Broadway on a weekend to learn from what they were doing, it was clear that their new way of doing church was thriving. But I was curious about something. I asked one of the pastors, “How do your older adults who are not part of the K Groups feel about all the changes?” I loved his answer: “Recently one of our old saints said to me, ‘I really don’t understand all the changes our church is making, but I do know that I’m now more loved than I ever have been before, so I’m fine with the changes.’”

____________

Children’s ministry: Like Bethel, Riverside Church in Big Lake, Minnesota, was struggling to staff its Wednesday night AWANA program. The staff knew their model of children’s ministry was not sustainable. At Riverside, though, it was the AWANA leaders who pointed out that as the national AWANA program was updating its methods, AWANA was looking more and more like their Sunday morning children’s ministry. They wondered, “Does it make sense to have two similar children’s ministries when we don’t have enough workers to fully staff both?” When Riverside stopped AWANA to ramp up Sunday morning, there was almost unanimous support from the families and workers involved.

__________________

While many factors may have contributed to the failure of the first two change processes and the success of the latter two, ultimately a church’s ability to navigate major change without crashing comes down to how well they live out one core principle:

CHANGE VALUES BEFORE YOU CHANGE STRUCTURES.

If a pastor of a traditional church launches a new worship service with a different style of music to reach unchurched people who don’t relate to hymns, but the congregation has little passion for reaching unchurched people, the new service will fail. People will gripe about the music, about not everyone being in the same worship service, about the pastor dividing his attention, about the schedule, and more. Why? Because they value other things more than they value reaching unchurched people.

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On the other hand, if the pastor can ignite a passion to reach unchurched people, the people themselves will generate creative ideas for doing that. Those ideas may or may not include launching a new service, but people will be willing to be inconvenienced, to set aside their personal preferences, to step outside their comfort zones, for the sake of the people not yet a part of the church.

The secret to navigating change without crashing, then, is to change values before you change structures. If you skip this step, brace for a crash landing.

How to change values

The principles for how to lead a church in changing its values are simple, but they’re not easy.

1. The leaders model the new values.

A pastor who exhorts his people to evangelize but who is not intentionally building relationships with people who are far from God lacks credibility. If you as a leader want your congregation to make decisions based on a passion for reaching unchurched people, they need to be hearing stories of how you delight in hanging out with your nonChristian friends.

2. The leaders build strong team relationships with core leaders.

“Change values before you change structures” does not mean that 100% of the congregation has to buy into a new value before you introduce change. It means that a critical mass of your core leaders must embrace the new values. How does this happen? Through heart sharing. Through transparency. The change leaders must invest deeply in relationship with the core leaders (formal, informal, and emerging) of the congregation. While leaders do need to spend time on management decisions, they need to spend even more time sharing joys and sorrows, sharing deep personal needs, and praying for one another. They need to become an intimate community, a working laboratory where heart change is constantly taking place. Why? First, because heart change is what God is up to in our lives, but also because heart change equals values change. Healthy changes in values take place in the context of deep, safe, trusting relationships. Over time, your leaders can come to deeply share a cluster of core values. These shared values provide the soil from which shared vision grows.

3. Start small.

When Hilltop Urban Church began our transition to becoming a church of house churches, we didn’t launch multiple house churches; we began with one. That pilot group met for eight months to figure out the DNA that fit the culture we were serving and to train the

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shepherds who would lead house churches. Only once we were confident we had the DNA right did we launch multiple house churches.

When we began our transition from boards and committees to ministry teams, we began with one team. Over the next four years, all of our ministries transitioned to a team approach. Now our leaders would never go back to the old way, but had we tried to transition every ministry at once, it would have blown up, and many would have soured on ministry teams.

Why start small? First, so we can learn by trial and error without involving the whole church in our beginner mistakes. Second, so we can start with those who are eager to experiment rather than pushing change on people who don’t see a need for it. Third, because most people won’t catch a vision of the new just by reading or hearing about it. They need to see how it works before they can embrace it. When we start with a prototype, skeptics get to see the new way and hear the enthusiasm of those doing it, and their enthusiasm is contagious.

4. Share stories that showcase the new values.

To encourage the growth of a small group culture, regularly invite people in small groups to share as a part of the worship service what God is doing in their small groups. To promote ministry teams, highlight reports of God at work in ministry teams. Often include in sermons stories that model the new values. Caution: Preaching alone cannot drive culture change, but sermons that grow out of what God is doing among the core leaders can invite others to join in.

5. Don’t get too far ahead of your people.

You’ve probably heard the saying, “If you’re ahead of your people but they’re not following you, you’re not leading; you’re just taking a walk.”

We are sometimes tempted to see those who are slow to embrace change as obstacles. Yes, there are a few people who will never embrace change, but they are a tiny minority. When you see good people holding back, people who you know love God and the church, don’t treat them as adversaries. Talk with them.

About a year into Hilltop’s “extreme church makeover” we took a survey that suggested that trust between the pastor and some in the congregation had been damaged. This surprised the staff. When we took the results to the team responsible for interpreting the survey, they said, “It’s obvious: Some of our old guard don’t understand the changes.” They charged the pastor and me with meeting with these people to hear their concerns and answer their questions. When we did that we were blown away by how enthusiastic our old guard were about what God was doing once they had a safe place to process their questions, even when they weren’t personally going to be part of all the new things. Trust was restored.

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6. Signal your turns.

When it’s time to roll out a change that impacts much of the congregation--a new service, a new staff position, a change in worship format, the launch of a new ministry--take great pains to avoid surprises. Confronted with a big change they haven’t had time to process, most people will feel afraid. Turn signals were invented to prevent wrecks. Before you make a big turn, start signaling well ahead of time. Explain. Take questions. Explain some more. Create safe places for people to process. Adopt a “no surprises” rule. If you’re practically fanatical about signaling turns, then in rare emergencies when sudden turns can’t be avoided, your people will tend to trust you.

6. Let frustration build before changing formal structures.

If you push for structural change before people’s values change, you will probably create division. As people’s values change, the structures that grew out of the old values get in the way of living out their new values. When people start saying, “We need to change our bylaws; they don’t fit the way we are trying to do ministry now,” only then is it time to change bylaws. If you have your proposals ready but hold back until a critical mass of your leaders are asking for change, implementing the change will likely be smooth sailing.

7. Help people grieve.

No matter how healthy a change is, all change involves loss. These losses are real. Be clear about the tradeoffs--what you gain from the change, what you have to give up. Acknowledge the price people are paying. Never shame people--“Don’t you care about unchurched people?”--because they find loss painful.

For those of us eager for change, taking the time to change values before changing structures may seem slow. Yes, it does take longer to lay the groundwork. But aside from avoiding disaster, once that groundwork is laid, the pace of change accelerates, and as your people internalize new values, the innovations that grow out of them will far surpass anything the staff alone could have dreamed up. Rather than introducing a single innovation, you will have created a culture of innovation.

Ministry doesn’t get much more fun than that.

Eddy Hall is Director of Ministry Development at Hilltop Urban Church (EFCA) in Wichita, Kansas. He is also a senior consultant with Living Stones Associates (www.living-

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stones.com) a church consulting team that helps churches throughout the U.S. and Canada

navigate change.

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MINISTRY RECOMMENDATIONS CHECKLIST

If you have not already done so, solidify your Church Health Team. Develop an intentional strategy to communicate with each other, the consistory, the congregation, other Bethel Reformed Church leadership, and your Living Stones coach.

Drawing on your NCD survey results and this report, and guided by your Church Health Team, develop 3 to 5 specific Action Steps to strengthen church health.

Focus on raising the spiritual temperature of people of Bethel by increasingly sharing life stories and praying together at every possible level of the organization.

Continue to foster an understanding of the shifts that need to take place in order to function in a healthy manner and accommodate the growth that has taken place. Be watchful of instances where your governance may be inhibiting ministry.

Begin creating an empowering church culture by empowering existing leaders and training them to create empowered ministry teams. Commission your leaders and teach them to recruit others with shared ministry passions. Move from consistory oversight to staff oversight.

Form a Connections Ministry Team to handle the challenge of creating intentional pathways for integrating people into the church family. This is a key component to successfully transition to a medium-sized church. Begin tracking your guest retention rate. Consider purchasing a vertical banner to highlight your welcome table and make it visible amidst the congested foyer. (See examples of 2’x8’ banners at www.outreach.com)

In 12-16 months, make plans to continue the NCD cycle by completing your follow-up NCD survey. Determine the value of continuing your extended coaching relationship with Living Stones beyond March 2014 to assist with the follow-up survey. Continue the process of review and evaluation of overall progress with the report recommendations.

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STAFFING

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1A biblical basis for staffing

“The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” (Eph. 4:11-12, NRSV)

This familiar passage teaches us a couple of key principles about ministry roles in the church. First, every believer is called to do the work of ministry; ministry is not for the special few. Second, God has called some within the church to a specialized role, the role of equipping others for ministry. These equippers are not more important; they just fulfill a specialized function for which God has given them gifts. The other members of the body likewise are all gifted by God to fulfill ministry roles to which God has called them.

Understanding these two principles is foundational to developing a biblical approach to church staffing. They have two important implications for how we staff a local church:

1. We are not to hire staff to “take care of us” or “to do ministry on our behalf.” Rather, we are to hire staff to equip the rest of us to do the work of ministry. The traditional image of a pastor in America is the image of a caregiver. Paul is telling us that this is a distortion. Yes, pastors are to be caring people, but their job is not to be the “ministers” to all the members of the congregation, but rather to equip all the members of the congregation for ministry, which includes caring for one another. In fact, one of the most important responsibilities of equippers in the local church is the nurture of caring communities in which people are equipped to be caregivers for one another.

2. Because God has called certain among us to ministries of equipping, it is important that the church recognize these equippers and empower them to devote themselves to the specialized ministry to which God has called them rather than expecting them to do caregiving, secretarial work, or facility work. This principle is illustrated by the appointment of the seven in Acts 6 who were chosen to free up the apostles for “prayer and the ministry of the word.”

Now, we know that not all equippers are paid church staff. You can name people in your own congregation who have a ministry of equipping others for ministry, and this is as it should be. But when we hire pastors to work on staff, we need to be clear biblically about what their job is and what their job isn’t. This is the starting point for a biblical and optimally effective approach to church staffing.

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A Great Staff Team

You are very blessed at Bethel to have people on staff who seem to enjoy their responsibilities and have a long-term commitment to the church. We found Scott, Jackie, LeAnn, and the Junglings to all be people who cared about their roles and strived to do them with excellence!

Church size requires a shift in roles

As God continues to mold Bethel Reformed Church through its transitions, the shape and understanding of your staff and lay leadership roles will also change. If the church is to move to being call-guided in ministry, and to embrace what it means to more fully connect people to Christ and each other as disciples, your equipping staff will have to do more equipping and the congregation will need to do more hands-on, person-to-person ministry.

As the church continues to grow, the roles of your pastoral staff need to change from doing a majority of the ministry to that of equipping the equippers and leading the leaders. A larger portion of their energy will need to be invested in identifying, equipping, and empowering others in the church. They will need to devote less time to daily issues of operational details, and more time with other leaders understanding and casting God’s vision for Bethel Church’s role in the community and the world.

Other decision-making leadership bodies, like the consistory, will also need to shift as they invest less time on command and control issues. They need to spend more time encouraging, resourcing, guiding, evaluating, and providing accountability for staff, ministry teams, and those other individual leaders who desire to touch their world in Jesus’ name.

The book, Taking Your Church to the Next Level, by Gary L. McIntosh is a good resource that highlights the many shifts that need to take place as a church moves from small, to medium, to large.

Recommendation: Empower and Enlarge the Staff Team

In an empowering church, the people making most of the management decisions related to a particular ministry are the ones who are closest to the ministry. Presumably, they are the ones who are most knowledgeable about what is needed and most gifted and passionate about that particular area. In fact, they are encouraged to experiment with different ways of doing their ministry to discover the most effective approaches. Innovation and experimentation is encouraged, not discouraged (as long as it is within the general policies set forth by the governing board).

One of the ideas that we presented to you was to view all of your core ministry leaders as staff whether they are paid or volunteer. Presently your staff meetings include the pastor and two children’s ministry leaders. Most churches would also include the point people for worship, adult discipleship, and connections ministry as part of this staff team. We recommend you include other core ministry leaders in staff meetings as much as their schedules will allow.

This staff team needs to be entrusted with the day-to-day management of the church ministries. They plan and coordinate the activities of the church. Only rarely would a decision be

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major enough to require input from the Consistory. At this point, Pastor Scott is the communication link between the governing board and the staff team. If the church eventually hires an Executive Directory of Ministries, then he/she could also sit in on the consistory meetings and be a possible connecting link.

As head-of-staff, the pastor would ordinarily conduct these staff meetings in a small church. However, if someone else is better at facilitating a meeting, it is fine to have him or her navigate through the items on the agenda but the agenda still needs to be formed with Pastor Scott’s input and direction. Once you have someone in place to fulfill the recommended role of Executive Director of Ministries, that person will usually lead these planning meetings.

For the church’s core ministries, staff members should be the ones to equip and coordinate the efforts of the team members they lead and they should be entrusted with the responsibility of screening the others involved in their ministries. Oftentimes, the members of the team will recognize others who share the same interest and can do a better job of recruiting.

One area of ministry where this could prove especially useful is in the area of children’s ministry. Jackie and LeAnn are doing an excellent job of this and we have already furnished with a copy of an article highlighting a team approach to teaching children. Large-group team teaching uses space more efficiently than small-group solo teaching so it can also be a solution to some of your facility issues. The article is included in the Appendix of this report.

Recommendation: Next Staff Addition

One widely used staffing ratio says a pastor can serve about 125-150 people in their span of care. To sustain growth beyond that level requires additional equipping staff. Equipping staff levels becomes a barrier to sustainable growth if staff is not added ahead of the growth. Your current total average attendance is around 190. That means, with Bethel Church’s current staff of one full time pastor and an additional 12 hours of part-time children’s equipping staff, your present pastoral staff is has reached its limit. You need to hire additional equipping staff.

We identified three part-time staff positions that are currently needed at Bethel — a Worship Leader, a Small Groups Director, and an Executive Director of Ministries (EDM). You have been making financial arrangements to hire an additional full-time staff person. When we were with you, we discussed two possible scenarios to create a full-time job description — either combining worship with small groups or pairing the small groups with the Executive Director of Ministries. The gifting and personalities that are required for the worship leader and executive director are so divergent that it would be unusual to find someone who could adequately fulfill both roles.

There are various ways to fill these three positions and the sequencing may depend on whom God raises up or brings to you. We suggest that you look first within your own church body to see if there is anyone that could fulfill any of these three responsibilities. Hiring within has several advantages — you already know the person’s track record, they share the same DNA of the organization, they know the members of the congregation, and are a “fit” for the community.

You may also find a highly capable volunteer who is willing to serve in one of these capacities as unpaid staff. An unpaid staff person is more than a volunteer. He/she is given the same support as paid staff such as administrative assistance and office space. They also operate under a specific job description, set goals for their ministry, and are evaluated. Unpaid staff members are in every way regarded as staff, the only difference being that they are contributing

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their time rather than being paid. We have included the specialists, worship and small groups, in our recommendations because

the area of passionate spirituality (tying in with worship) and small groups were particularly weak. These positions also become increasing necessary as you transition to a medium-sized church. The expectations for consistency and excellence in worship increases and there is a need for the church to “grow smaller as it grows larger” via small groups.

In the case of Bethel, it is also important to find someone for the executive director position who can partner with Scott in the administrative responsibilities of the church. Pastor Scott’s primary gifts are teaching, exhorting, and shepherding. His administrative ability has been sufficient to carry the church to the 200 size but, to take the church to the next level, it will require additional input from someone whose primary gifting is administration.

Pastor Wayne Corderio in his book, Doing Church as a Team, recommends, “Don’t hire those who can do it well. Hire those who can facilitate others who will do it well.” This EDM should understand the philosophy of empowerment and realize that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. The job description for an Executive Director of Ministries at at the end of this section can be used in formulating your own job description. Note that this next hire does not have to be a pastor. In fact, your best choice may be a non-ordained person who has some kind of management or entrepreneurial experience since it will be important that this person be gifted in administration.

1 Corinthians 12:12-30 says that the healthiest body has many parts, all of which are important to the whole. As good as your current ministry staff is, it does not have the time or contain the scope of gifts needed as you grow. That is precisely why developing an empowering leadership culture and engaging others in ministry leadership must become part of your focus and the church’s commitment.

In other words, pastoral and program staff members need to have skills and gifts that augment rather than clone the current staff. They should bring gifts and abilities that provide a more complete balance of talents and perspectives to the team so the broader needs of the congregation are addressed in healthy ways. They should also be someone with proven ability to work with others in a team environment, and with the appropriate people skills to effectively engage and empower others in their areas of responsibility to reach their full God-given potential. Ultimately, they must be people Pastor Scott can work closely with in ministry partnership, so his opinion about which candidate should be hired must carry the most weight.

Recommendation: Monitor Support Staff Needs

You are all aware that Jackie is a blessing and a great support to your staff team. She is very capable and cares greatly about the life and ministry of Bethel Reformed Church. As your equipping staff expands, you will need to be aware that your capacity to support the “equippers” will also need to grow.

A general rule of thumb is that you need at least one full time support staff for every two full-time equipping staff. It is not effective, scriptural, or even good financial stewardship for your salaried ministry staff to perform routine office tasks that others are better gifted to handle. They should be free from doing things others can do more effectively in order to do more of what they have been called and gifted to do. Rather than spending time doing routine clerical activities, their energies should be concentrated more on listening, learning, leading, equipping, and

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teaching. The administrative and clerical duties of an office are best done by people who are fitted and skilled for those tasks.

There are ways to use volunteers to add support capacity without hiring, but the larger the church grows, the more important it will become for you to staff these roles with employees who fit the team and who can be held appropriately accountable for accomplishing their respective tasks.

Another way to extend the support staff is by contracting out specific services such as graphic design or website development. Allowing professionals to produce brochures or promotional materials not only raises the level of quality but also can free up time for office staff and ministry leaders.

Recommendation: Sabbath

As a general rule, the spiritual health of a congregation will not be any greater than the spiritual health of its pastor and leaders. One of the most powerful things you can do to support the spiritual health of your pastoral staff is to empower them to give priority to personal Sabbath.

We find that the majority of the pastors we work with usually minister out of an emotional tank that is below half full. As a rule, pastors are on call 24/7. While Sunday may be a day of rest for many of the members of the church, it is the most intense and exhausting day of work for most pastors. Bill Hybels admits that at one point in his ministry, “The way I was doing the work of God was destroying the work of God in me.”

In Acts 6, the apostles appointed seven helpers (support staff) so they could devote themselves to the priorities God had called them to–“prayer and the ministry of the word.” We are convinced that one of the greatest needs of any church is for the pastoral leadership to regularly spend uninterrupted blocks of time with God for personal spiritual renewal and to hear from God. If your pastor isn’t hearing from God, the whole church is in trouble. If your pastor(s) are running on empty, they can’t minister to you out of the overflow.

We recommend that you make it the number one item in the job description of your pastor and any other full-time equipping staff the requirement that they regularly take extended times of solitude to hear from God and for spiritual renewal. This is not a day off! The pastor’s day off is to spend with family and to take care of needs at home. Rather, as with the apostles, prayer should be the number one item in a pastor’s job description. We recommend that pastors spend a half day every week or a full day every other week practicing personal Sabbath in this way.

Ordinarily, we suggest this Sabbath time not be taken at the office or at home, but at a place where the pastor is available only in the case of emergency–a retreat center, a cabin, a lake, a seminary library, etc. Regardless of where pastors observes their Sabbath, your elders are to be responsible for creating accountability for this regular appointment time with God; otherwise, good things will interfere with it. The spiritual vitality and missional focus of the pastors are too important to the church to let this slide. Your pastor should report regularly on his practice of this spiritual discipline.

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Recommendation: Church Management Software

We recommend that you invest in integrated church management software that will assist the pastors and staff by tracking member information, attendance, activities, contributions, and sending group emails, all from one database. This becomes essential to functioning well as the church grows. Church management software is designed for the unique needs of churches, is much more efficient, and provides better reporting than regular office software. PowerChurch (www.powerchurch.com) is one of many good ones on the market. You may want to form a team composed of the office staff, connection leader, treasurer, and children’s ministry leader to research the available options and make recommendations suited to Bethel’s needs. Whatever software you select, be sure to include training for as many leaders as possible so they will become comfortable and take full advantage of the opportunities the software affords.

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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF MINISTRIES

Core job description

Primary functions

1. Head of equipping staff. The Executive Director of Ministries (EDM) serves as the immediate supervisor to all members of the equipping staff and ministry leaders except the senior pastor. 2. Staff coaching. The EDM is responsible to coach and mentor these staff members, to champion their ministries, to be an advocate for removing any functional barriers that might inhibit their ministry effectiveness.3. Staff team-building. The EDM will lead the process of replacing the present “silo” culture of the equipping staff in which each staff member is CEO of his/her ministry area with a synergistic team culture in which staff members work together in teams to enhance ministry effectiveness in all areas.4. Community-building. The EDM will champion the building of community within the staff so that the staff becomes and remains a strong, positive example of healthy Christian community to the congregation and your surrounding community. 5. Spiritual formation. The EDM will nurture a culture of intimacy with God among the staff members by personal example and by championing consistent efforts to make the practice of sabbath days and other spiritual formation disciplines integral to the culture of the Church staff, elders, and the congregation.6. Hiring, reassignment, and firing of equipping staff. The EDM plays a key role in the hiring, reassignment, and firing of equipping staff. Because the EDM is charged with putting together a strong, synergistic team, all hirings for equipping staff require the wholehearted agreement of both the senior pastor and the EDM. In other words, both the senior pastor and EDM have veto power over any proposed equipping staff hire. The EDM has the authority to authorize modest changes in the duties of equipping duties as part of the routine functioning of the staff. Reassignment of staff members to substantially new positions requires the consent of the senior pastor and the governing body responsible for oversight of equipping staff.7. General oversight of support staff. The EDM will supervise the staff member(s) charged with direct supervision of the office support staff and facility staff. 8. Budget preparation. The EDM will facilitate the budget preparation process with primary responsibility to see that the budget reflects the church’s ministry priorities and that the highest ministry priorities are all fully funded.9. Leadership development. The EDM should be able to guide the development and implementation of a comprehensive, church-wide system for leadership development. An excellent resource for beginning to think through a church-wide equipping strategy is THE LEADERSHIP BATON: An Intentional Strategy for Developing Leaders in Your Church. In most cases, this will not be one of the first projects the EDM takes on, but the capacity to give leadership to this area, along with others, when the time is right is an important competency for this person.

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Core qualifications

1. The EDM must be a person whom the senior pastor implicitly trusts. While the senior pastor has primary responsibility for articulating vision (though not for coming up with vision single-handedly), the EDM is the point person for translating vision into reality. Therefore, the senior pastor and EDM must have deeply shared values and a deeply shared vision of church. The senior pastor must be able to safely entrust most aspect of vision implementation to the EDM. This almost certainly means that the senior pastor and the person who fills this role must have a tested working relationship. (Note: If you must hire from the outside someone with whom the senior pastor hasn’t previously worked closely, consider hiring initially for a smaller scope of responsibility as a way to test the relationship. If the relationship works well, expand the responsibilities accordingly.)2. The EDM must be a person whose life strongly exemplifies the core values of intimacy with God and a commitment to Christian community.3. The EDM must be a person who does not have a recent history of over-commitment to work, but whose lifestyle exhibits a healthy balance among work, relationships, and rest.4. The EDM must be a superb team-builder. This means that he/she must have a strong track record of (1) recruiting the right people for the right positions so that their gifts are released and their productivity maximized, and (2) creating an environment in which people work together collaboratively to achieve far more together than they could accomplish working alongside each other. The EDM must understand the disciplines of teamwork and be able to teach them to people who have little previous experience with teamwork.5. The EDM must be a superb community-builder. Community-building and team-building overlap and enhance each other, but are in some ways distinct. Community-building refers to nurturing an atmosphere of committed love to one another. Team-building refers to nurturing an environment of collaborative work. The EDM must have a strong track record in building both teams and community.6. The EDM must have a passion for empowering people to do ministry. This relates not only to the staff, but to the entire congregation. Further, ministry must not be viewed narrowly as church-operated programs. In fact, most ministry takes place outside of church-operated programs, and the EDM must be a person who has a great passion for empowering workplace ministry, home-based ministry, etc., as well as church-based ministry.7. The EDM must be a strategic thinker and planner. The EDM is charged with the primary responsibility for translating vision into strategic plans and guiding the execution of the plans.8. The EDM must be skilled with functional structures. The EDM needs to be someone who has a track record of developing lean, efficient systems for handling tasks; whose basic mindset is one of continual improvement (systems are almost constantly being improved, never static). The EDM does not spend a great deal of time doing administrative tasks, but rather shapes the systems by which administrative and office support staff do administrative tasks in streamlined, efficient ways consistent with a culture of empowerment.

Pastor or layperson?

This job description avoids the term “Executive Pastor” so as to avoid prejudicing the issue of

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whether this position should be filled by a pastor or layperson. It is safe to say that few (if any) of the skills required for this role are taught in seminary. Therefore, seminary education is irrelevant to this position. Where are the kinds of skills necessary to this position to be found? You are looking for a person who has demonstrated outstanding leadership as a team leader in business, in leading a not-for-profit organization or parachurch ministry, in directing a social service organization, or perhaps as a school administrator. If you find a pastor who fits this bill, it will likely be a second-career pastor who has previous experience in a field like one of these listed. While some single-career pastors have these skills, they are rare.

It is, of course, fine for the person you hire to have teaching gifts and to do some teaching and preaching. It just needs to be understood that such gifts are optional and secondary to the gifts needed to bring healthy functioning to the staff, and the teaching load should be light enough that it does not interfere with the EDM’s primary responsibilities.

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STAFF RECOMMENDATIONS CHECKLIST

Make sure the budget makes allowance for equipping and training of upcoming lay ministers and key volunteers.

Empower the current staff team entrusting them with ministry decisions and supporting their initiatives. Consider expanding the staff team to include the new part-time positions or other current volunteers in key roles.

Add part-time staff for three areas as God provides: Worship Leader, Small Groups Director, and Executive Director of Ministries.

Monitor support staff needs and increase hours as needed.

Formalize the practice of a regular Sabbath day for your equipping staff. Recognize the purpose as refreshing their spirit and nurturing their personal relationships with the Lord. Have the elders develop and maintain accountability for this consistent appointment time.

Research and purchase integrated church management software. Provide training for all possible users from each area such as office, children, youth, connections, pastors, etc.

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Facilities

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Introduction

Bethel Reformed has some work to do. Your NCD scores indicate that you need to make adjustments in how you do church which will have impacts on your facilities choices. Making the choices that change the culture of Bethel from a small country church to a mid-size church will lead to a different facility answer. These facility recommendations are dependent on those outcomes. The assumption here is that your heart is willing to make those adjustments and the church will be healthier and grow; that the children’s programming will play a great role in your future; and that you will sacrifice your comfort for the younger generations that will come.

Most churches just think of the near term. What do we do to accommodate growth now? The problem with that mindset is that it only provides near term or temporary answers. The better mindset is to ask what happens when you reach the limits of the site you’re on. You only have two choices; you can tell God that you don’t want Him to send any more people or you can figure out how to effectively disciple those He entrusts to you. If you are obedient to God you really have no choice but to grow. So let’s begin to consider the long term growth options and work back from there.

Over the last twenty years a multitude of growth strategies have emerged. They really boil down to three; growing your campus, church plants, and multi-site strategies. There is nothing wrong with any of these choices or with combining options. Each does have its limitations.

Campus strategies focus on functional growth on one campus. Just build more and bigger. The limitations are land size and travel distance. Success with this strategy involves moving functions off campus where possible. For example, youth programs may be relocated to leased space in a storefront or coffee house environment. Adult education may be transitioned to small groups, etc.

Church planting is the traditional strategy for off-site growth. This method for growth has the end goal of an independent self-sustaining congregation with the limitation of duplication of staff, overhead and facilities.

The multi-site strategies accommodate multiple large congregations in multiple venues in multiple geographies without duplicating staff, services or expense. Much more information is available to you through church visits and the internet.

Investigating and making an intentional choice is important so that you don’t hinder your ability to move forward later. You are already in this situation with some of the choices you’ve previously made (e.g., the lack of elevator access and the location of the sound booth).Some of the choices you will make for the future are tied to your ability to make cultural adjustment. Some at Bethel feel that multiple services mean multiple congregations and they are right. Some feel that church planting means multiple congregations and they are right. Some feel that multiple site venues mean multiple congregations and they are right. The right question to ask is what are you willing to do to further the Kingdom? How much comfort will you sacrifice

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for others? Are you willing to tell God not to send new families? The shift in thinking and culture from small church to mid-size and large church requires adjustment of what church looks like to you. Are you willing to make those changes?

The facility issues that comprise barriers to health and growth at Bethel are pretty well understood by those responsible for the building. However, selecting which issues to prioritize and which possible resolutions to implement are not well understood or agreed upon. This has led to some degree of paralysis.

First, let’s categorize. Some facility issues are classified as deferred maintenance. These include everyday facility repairs such as a roof leak, some air distribution adjustments, etc. These issues are not addressed here and should be corrected within your normal facility budgeting. Short term capital improvements, those which are not classified as deferred maintenance and can be budgeted and undertaken within the fiscal year, are also not covered by this report. Your facility deacons will have a good handle on these and don’t require our assistance.

The more important category is the near term capital improvements which is the focus of this report. I would classify these issues as those which will have impact on the use of your building, will likely require some fundraising and take longer than one fiscal year. These are the choices that must be made within the context of your vision for the future informed by the culture of Bethel. The direction these take will aid or deter ministry and health. FACILITY NEEDS

1. Accessibility The building lacks accessible paths to the lower and upper floors.

2. Flexible Large Group Meeting / Classroom SpaceClassroom space is limited and most rooms are relatively small and inflexible

3. Worship Capacity OptionsThe existing worship venue lacks capacity for growth and is inflexible.

4. Administration and OfficesThere is no capacity for staff growth.

5. Nursery Capacity and SecurityThe nursery is too small and lacks security provisions.

6. Congestion in the Entryway CorridorThe crowding in this area impedes traffic flow.

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FACILITY RECOMMENDATIONS

After review of the information you’ve provided and on-site observations and interviews it seems obvious that while there are some adjustments you can make to increase capacity in the existing building, you will need to expand if growth continues.

We have seen the expansion plans you previously developed and have some concerns with that direction. Building a church gymnasium space is almost never a good idea. High bay gymnasium space is very difficult and expensive to use for classrooms. Dividers, acoustic separation, flexible lighting, and appropriate floor covering are all more costly. I can’t think of one church we’ve worked with that had a gym than hasn’t asked how they can renovate to get more use of the gymnasium space.

We would favor building flexible activity space that can easily be configured for large group classrooms. Such program space would have lower ceilings and different room dimensions but could be used for children’s activities not requiring a high ceiling. Some have suggested that the gymnasium would serve as an attractor for community outreach. This is not statistically supported. The “build it and they will come” approach doesn’t work. You’re better off sponsoring or hosting community events at non-church venues if that is your goal.

Building more dedicated classroom space is also not something we would recommend. Relatively small hard-walled classrooms do not provide flexibility for change. As you move forward with the discovery of a more detailed vision and calling for Bethel the space needs to accommodate that vision may be different than you currently think. Flexibility is key to adjust along the way.

1. Elevator Accessibility

I was told that when the current building was planned the basement space and the attic space were intended for storage. The problem is that no means to move large equipment, such as tables and chairs, was provided. Since occupancy of the building, both floors have been at least partially converted to program space increasing the need for accessible (elevator) access. Retrofitting for a holeless hydraulic elevator will make the space you’ve already paid for much more flexible and usable.

2. Flexible Large Group Meeting / Classroom Space

You need more classroom space for the growing number of children God is sending to you. The plans you made correctly recognize this need but the type of space and location planned will limit your future. Creating a corridor along the north side that does not go through the fellowship hall provides access to newly created space on the west side and additional toilet rooms. This helps make the fellowship hall and the adjacent existing classrooms more flexible for program space. (RE Worship Capacity Options) Ideally, a parallel corridor on the south side would enhance access more but the cost of renovating the library, fireplace and kitchen prohibits this option. It may be possible to add a connecting corridor along the exterior wall to the south, but the vestibule and library would also need modification.

By extending the fellowship hall and creating a corridor next to the existing exterior west wall, access to the added rooms with minimal disruption is possible. By creating two large

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spaces on each side of the fellowship hall maximum program flexibility is achieved between meeting space, children’s activity space and worship space. This spacial arrangement also gives more phasing (and financing) options. The two subdivisible program spaces (43x25) on either side of the fellowship hall extension would handle about 70 children each. Converting the existing classroom next to the janitor’s room to storage enhances flexibility for all the spaces.

The program space would be 25-30’x112’ with a ceiling height of 10’ minimum, 12-15’ would be better if the ceiling is flat. Opening up the ceiling to slope can provide visual interest and improve acoustic performance for team teaching. The movable walls (http://www.modernfold.com/project.aspx?Id=4) should be a high quality, high STC (42 minimum) product with writable / tackable surfacing at least part way up. Flooring can be carpet squares or vinyl or some combination. Dimmable LED indirect lighting will provide maximum flexibility. If windows are provided I recommend considering window systems that allow for darkening. Keep at least one wall for electronic installations such as large screen video projection and provide underfloor or wireless network / data capability.

3. Worship Capacity Options

We always make a goal of providing a plan that allows for doubling your weekend capacity. Right now you could double your worship attendance by making provision for two services. We got some push back on multiple services which I would expect from a small country church. The truth is that you will start to shrink without making the cultural changes necessary to move from a small church (<200) to a mid-size church (200-500). Nothing in God’s Kingdom remains static. You’re either growing or dying.

Most people think that multiple services mean multiple congregations and it does. History shows if you decide that the priority is to know everyone in the church then you will remain a small church. Sociological studies show that we personally know and have a relationship with only about 60-100 people. That means you already have multiple congregations within the body. Meeting in multiple services provides increased capacity and options that enhance worship experiences that don’t currently exist for you.

We know that congregational research was conducted leading you to choose pews for seating in the worship center. We congratulate you on being sensitive to that issue. The downside of that choice is less seating capacity. In pews the average person takes 24-30” per seat and usually there are empty seats in the center of the pew. Chairs come in different widths from 16-22” and there are usually fewer empty seats in the center of rows. The back to back row spacing is sometimes less with chairs as well, yielding more rows. The resultant increase in capacity is around 20%. Seating is considered full at about 80%. Pew capacity is calculated at 220x80%=176 according to your numbers, which means switching to chairs would provide seating for about 220. Since it is not likely you would use the worship center for other flat floor activities, this is not a recommendation to change the pews for chairs as much as information for consideration.

The other issue for worship capacity is the use of chairs in the foyer for families with children. This use creates some other problems including added congestion and restricted flow. I suggest you consider a change in your Sunday morning programming that splits children’s attendance with the family to dismiss children after the story time to children’s church. This will allow the adults to focus on the message but still allow multigenerational worship. There is

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nothing wrong with overflow seating in the foyer, but if needed it should be set up by the ushers one row at a time to encourage seating in the main hall. If the fellowship hall is used for another worship venue during the same time slot, the glass doors will need to be closed for acoustics which will make foyer seating impractical.

A second worship venue would increase capacity and provide choice of style. We would recommend you start with a simulcast of the message with different worship teams and styles in each service. By rearranging the corridor access to the side rooms the existing fellowship hall could be used as a worship venue. A portable platform can be placed along the west wall, and a café style (tables and chairs), less formal worship service can easily accommodated. When the fellowship hall is extended you’ll have more choices. Using the existing hall (26x30+platform) you should seat about 50. With the extended hall (26x60+platform) using chairs you should seat about 170x80%=136. Worship capacity in both venues using chair seating would provide for 356 per service without using the foyer for seating.

4. Administration and Offices

The office area is one of the most important parts of a well-designed facility. Since the primary function of staff is to equip the saints, it is imperative that the staff function as a team, not as individuals with silo responsibilities. Staff may be credentialed or not, paid or not, full time or not. They may be classified as equipping or support staff. For staff to operate as a team they need to have shared work space.

You have no place to add staff accommodations in the current plan without expanding. There was a comment to us questioning my recommendation to expand the office suite to the east. That recommendation is predicated on a couple of important considerations. The office needs to be visible from the entrance; it needs to be safely accessible when the rest of the church is not open (most work done from the office is not during church functions); and it needs access to a conference workspace which the library provides now. Relocating the office suite would likely cost more and another use would need to be programmed for the current office locations. That does not mean that you should not consider relocating the office suite if preferred. Relocating for exterior design concerns however is not valid.

As the church grows, more space will be needed for office support staff including support for unpaid ministry leaders. Space for materials, copying, collating, mail, computer workstations, etc. will all be needed. Some of that is needed now. Staff will need places to meet and work together--conference or team space. A small kitchenette with sink, refrigerator, microwave etc., is usually a good idea. Though you don’t need everything with the hire of one additional staff, you should be thinking longer term with provision for equipping staff of four or five (paid or not) plus support space. See the article on church offices at the end of this section for further information.

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5. Nursery Capacity and Security

The nursery is one of the most important functions tied to retaining newcomers with infants. If visiting parents don’t feel comfortable that their children will be safe and well cared for they won’t come back. Your nursery needs some work to reflect these values.

When visitors with small children arrive, one of the first things they‘ll look for is the nursery. It therefore needs to be located where it can easily be found; yours is, though signage might be better. Remember to see your facility through the eyes of a first time visitor. If you move the nursery to the new addition to the west, it will likely not be as visible when entering the front door on Sunday without requiring visitors with small children to use a different entrance point which is not very welcoming. There is not room for more children in the nursery. Separating infants from toddlers with different environments for cribs and active toddlers, dedicated changing stations with provisions for sanitizing, and refrigerated food storage are important for parents to feel comfortable. There should be a secure check in and check out desk where parental identity is verified, and an electronic paging system should be in place (either a hand held pager or a number system with worship center LED display).

The easiest way to expand the nursery is with an addition to the east. In addition to the availability of plumbing and the visibility issues, the same caveats for expanding east vs relocation to the west apply to the nursery as delineated for the office suite. The difficulty with expanding to the east, like that for the office suite, is a built-in limitation on how much you can expand in the future. If the nursery is relocated to the west, ideally it would be off the main entrance south corridor connection and, like the office suite, would not interfere with future program space expansion.

6. Congestion in the Entryway Corridor

You also have a problem with Sunday morning congestion in the entryway which functions as the primary corridor for people moving through the building. This is not as much a facility shortage, as a facility usage problem. People have become accustomed to congregating for conversation in this high traffic area instead of utilizing the adjacent fellowship hall. We recommend that you close the small kitchen window that opens into that area and only provide access to refreshments through the fellowship hall. You may even want to experiment with having refreshments set up on a table at the far side of the fellowship area so that people are drawn into the room rather than lining up in the foyer area.

When making these kinds of changes, it is important to communicate why you are doing it. What is the value that you are prioritizing with this structural change? For instance, in this situation, you are trying to be sensitive to guests who can easily be overwhelmed or lost in the confusion. Help people understand the value Jesus placed on hospitality. Explain how your current practice of hospitality is being hampered because the welcome table is lost in the crowd.

We also recommend that you reserve a few parking places for first time guests. Not only will that give them the preferred spaces, but it will also identify the guests as they arrive so that greeters will be ready “host” them by helping them get to the welcome table or find the nursery and introducing them to others, etc.

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Phasing of Facility Improvements

The order of these phase recommendations is not necessarily fixed. They may be combined or shuffled as your Facility Task Force deems appropriate. The pricing listed here is simply an educated guess. The design team your FTF selects will have the time to define the work and provide better estimates. These numbers are for planning purposes only and should not be relied upon for budgeting. The national average for new church construction is $120/SF nonunion labor. The regional index for Iowa is negligible at 1.01.

Phase 1Elevator$75,000

Phase 2Office Suite Expansion$80,000

Phase 3Nursery Expansion$80,000

Phase 4Fellowship Hall Expansion$100,000

Phase 5North side Large Group Program Space + Toilet Rooms$150,000

Phase 6South side Large Group Program Space + Classroom$150,000

Total $635,000

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Three Things Great Church Offices Do

by Ray Bowman and Eddy Hall

© Copyright Eddy Hall 2012. All Rights Reserved.

To reach the church secretary’s office, I had to enter the front door, pass through the auditorium, climb stairs, go through a balcony, and finally open the door into the bell tower. The other offices were equally well hidden. The pastor’s office was in the far corner of the sanctuary off the platform. The youth pastor’s office was in a windowless room off a dimly lit basement hallway. None of the offices were identified.

The front door was kept locked even during office hours. If someone pushed the door buzzer and the secretary was in—which was less than half the time and not on any particular schedule—she would come down from the bell tower and open the door. Otherwise a person seeking help might never get in, even if the pastors were there.

As extreme as this actual example may seem, it is not all that rare. Even if a church doesn't make all these mistakes, offices that are unwelcoming, inefficient, and which cripple teamwork are amazingly common. Many church offices are cobbled together with little or no thought about what offices are supposed to do.

Because an effective staff team is at the heart of an effective church, one of the most strategic facility moves you can make is to give your staff (paid and unpaid) office space that enhances their effectiveness. When a church fails to do this, it ties the staff's hands, wasting staff time and money.

Great church offices do three things: welcome people, maximize efficiency, and promote team building.

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1. Great offices are welcoming.

When laying out church offices, the first question we ask is, "Where should the reception office go?" The reception office should be just inside the outside office entrance. The office entrance can be either the main (worship) entrance or a separate entrance just for the offices.

The office entrance should be clearly marked, with signs directing people who are entering the parking lot for the first time where to find the offices. Hours and an emergency phone number should be posted at the outside entrance.

Whenever possible, the reception area should be placed so visitors can see the receptionist as soon as they enter the building. Plus, it enhances security when the receptionist can monitor who is coming and going. Sometimes a large window, glass door, or partial glass wall can open up a line of sight between the receptionist and the office entrance. If it is not practical for the reception office to be just inside the outside entrance, signs should direct visitors to the office.

Ideally, the receptionist should serve as a gatekeeper for equipping staff. Office visitors should not have direct access to the offices of pastors or other equipping staff without first checking in at--or passing through--the reception office. This is least important in small churches. Once a church reaches 200 in average attendance, failure to do this creates problems. By the time a church reaches 350, this reception function becomes critical. Obviously, for the receptionist to be able to do this, all equipping staff must office in the same area.

Provide a comfortable waiting area either inside or just outside the reception office with comfortable chairs, reading material, a relaxing environment, and convenient drinks. Of course, in making visitors welcome, a warm, friendly receptionist is most important of all.

In some churches, a foyer doubles as the reception office and waiting area during office hours. Lockable office furniture, perhaps an armoire, that is attractive and yet can protect the computer and office records from the curious may be helpful. Some churches have a reception counter in the foyer that doubles as a welcome center for worship services.

2. Great offices are efficient.

Whenever Christina printed from her computer, she had to make a trip to the other end of the building--almost a half block away--to get her document

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from the printer. Pastor Doug seldom delegated work to his assistant whose office was in a

different part of the building. He spent about ten hours a week doing work that could have been better handled by an assistant.

When Valerie was printing the Sunday bulletin, she found it almost impossible to take phone calls because the noisy copier was just a few feet from her desk.

While staff members may find these inconveniences frustrating, rarely do church leaders recognize how costly they are. If a church is spending $200,000 a year on salaries and benefits and staff' efficiency is 10% less than it should be due to poor office layout, the church is wasting $20,000 a year of its staffing budget.

Reconfiguring offices can be one of the simplest ways to eliminate waste from a church's budget and empower the staff to do its ministry.

One of the most common inefficiencies in small churches is that the secretary/reception office doubles as the workroom. When volunteers come to use the copier or other office equipment, they work in the reception office, interrupting the secretary's work. The secretary cannot even talk on the phone because a copier or folding machine is too noisy.

The first step, therefore, to creating an efficient workspace is to create a central workroom. This room should include generous cabinet storage for office supplies, countertop workspace, and office equipment. This is often a great place to put your computer work station for volunteer ministry leaders. If possible, the workroom should connect to the reception office and all the other support staff offices. Ideally, all support staff offices will cluster around a central workroom which they all share.

When asked if they prefer private or shared work space, most office support staff tell us they prefer shared space. Financial secretaries need private space so confidential giving records are not visible to wandering eyes. Some administrative assistants who do computer work that is best done without interruption prefer private work space. If in doubt about what kind of space will best serve your office staff, ask them.

3. Great offices promote team building.

Multiple studies have shown that one factor more than any other predicts how closely coworkers relate to one another: proximity. It's not how close two people are on the organization chart; it's how close their work spaces are.

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A great office brings all the members of the staff team together physically. It puts administrative assistants next to the equipping staff members whom they support. And, perhaps the single most important space in the whole office complex is a commons area that is the hub of office activity. This is a break/lunch room with a coffeepot, microwave, mini-fridge, and round table. This room should be at the center of the traffic flow of the office, a magnet that draws every staff member. Its purpose is to spark much heart sharing and many spontaneous brainstorming sessions throughout the day. Many of your best ministry ideas will be born, not in a scheduled meeting, but in spontaneous conversations over coffee in the break room. In some churches, the workroom and break room may be different ends of the same room.

Just having this space changes behavior. It gets staff to spend more time together spontaneously. They share life more deeply. They share more ideas. While creating a break room doesn't guarantee a healthy staff team, it is one of the most simple, practical, powerful steps a church can take to grow a team culture within the staff.

On the other hand, offices scattered through the building undermine teamwork, no matter how committed staff members say they are to being a team. If the youth pastor's office is in the youth building, not with the other staff offices, that almost guarantees that youth ministry will not be truly integrated into the daily life of the church but will function in its own silo. If the youth pastor needs a room in the youth building where teens can hang out with him or her during youth activities, that is great, but the primary youth ministry office should be with the rest of the staff team. The same applies, of course, to worship pastors and children's directors. If the worship pastor needs a work space in the choir room, that's fine, but if the worship pastor works during office hours, his or her primary office needs to be with the rest of the staff team.

Of course, administrative assistants and the equipping staff members they serve need to work next to each other. If a pastor is at one end of the building and his assistant is at the other end, chances are close to zero that they are working effectively as a team.

A few tips

In addition to getting these "big three" right, attention to a few other details will help you create an office space that enhances ministry.

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A conference room for staff meetings and other ministry team meetings should be included in the office area or right next to the offices. Of course, this room can also double as a classroom.

Many pastors like to have a small round conference table in their offices for when they are meeting with one to three people.

Offices used for counseling should be soundproofed and have a window in the door. Some pastors who do counseling like to have a direct exit from their offices so that distraught counselees do not have to leave through the reception area. Churches that have professional counselors on staff often provide a separate counseling entrance and the counseling office may be separate from other staff offices to provide greater privacy.

A children's ministry workroom in the children's ministry area equipped with a copier, paper cutter, staplers, paper punches, and office and craft supplies--is a great way to resource your children's ministry workers. It also relieves congestion in the office workroom.

In small- to medium-sized churches, facility staff (custodial and maintenance) usually do not office in the staff team area. In large churches, it is a good for the facility manager (who oversees all the facility staff) to office with the staff team.

Adequate office storage is a key to optimizing efficiency. This starts with generous storage in the workroom. A children’s ministry workroom with plenty of storage for office and craft supplies is huge. Make sure your music practice room has plenty of storage for music and (if applicable) choir robes. Musical instruments and staging are best stored next to the stage area. Avoid using prime office space for archive storage. Attics and garages make great archive storage. Also, be clear about who is responsible to keep each storage area organized. Consistently getting rid of items that are no longer used can double your available storage space.

Design your office area for growth. If you create an office area that is just barely big enough for your present staff team, as soon as your team grows you have a problem. This doesn't mean you need to have empty offices collecting cobwebs. It does mean that you have space in the administrative area that can be converted to offices as needed. For example, if a growing church is building a new office building, it may be wise to build twice as many square feet as are needed now, and use half the space for other purposes until it is needed for offices.

Consider converting a residence. When churches have outgrown their office space resulting in offices being scattered through the building, one of the best solutions can be to convert a neighboring house to offices. While not all jurisdictions will permit this, most homes can be easily adapted to church offices. If the church owns a parsonage next door to

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the church, providing the pastor with a housing allowance and converting the parsonage to offices is often a great solution.

Creating great office space isn't about giving employees a big, juicy perk; it's about three big things: welcoming those God sends to you, increasing efficiency (quit wasting staff dollars), and building teamwork that multiplies effectiveness. It's not about comfort or luxury; it's about empowering your staff to more effectively lead the church in carrying out its mission. As counterintuitive as it may seem to the average person in the pew, creating a great office space is often the most strategic facility improvement a church can make.

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Finances

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Bethel Church is financially healthy. You have much to be thankful for in the area of your finances including the fact that you are debt free!

Your current giving level

Based on the information you provided in your self-study (from 78 respondents), the average household income at Bethel is $60,000. Your leadership told us that you have around 120 households attending the church. However, in 2012 only 42 households were identifiable givers (donating via either an envelope or check). Using the figure of $209,000 (2012 regular offerings) and dividing it among the 120 households, this represents a giving level of $1,741/household or 2.9% of their income. Among identified givers, 19% gave less than $500 for the year.

Among the churches that Living Stones works with, the average giving for the healthy churches (NCD scores over 50) is 5.7%. A high level of giving doesn’t actually produce growth, but it allows it.

As you continue to grow, it may be helpful for you to know that it costs more to grow a church than to maintain a church at its present size. Many factors enter into this:

New members usually take about five years to begin to give at the same level as long-time members do, yet the cost of staffing and programming for them is the same as for anyone else. The faster the rate of growth, the more newcomers there are to “subsidize.”

A growing church must staff ahead of growth. A growing church will have to regularly invest in remodeling or adding onto facilities to

accommodate growth. A growing church must invest significantly in outreach; a maintenance church doesn’t have

to.

One of the ways Ray Bowman has successfully worked with churches to increase the giving level is by challenging each giver, starting with the core leadership, to examine their own giving history individually to determine what percentage of their income they use to support the church. Once that is determined, the challenge is then to commit to increase that percentage by 1 percentage point for the coming year. The same 1 percentage point increase is repeated in the second and then the third years. For example, if I find that my current giving level is at 2% of my income, I would commit to increasing that to 3% starting now, for a year, then increasing it to 4% in the second year, then again to 5% in the third year. Someone starting at 8% would increase it to 9% immediately, then 10%, then 11% in the third year.

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The impact of meeting this very reachable challenge can be substantial. Based on your average household income and the estimated 120 attending households, you would see an additional $72,000 in the first year alone! In the second year, the additional giving would reach $144,000. By the end of the third year, the amount of additional giving, over-and-above your 2012 giving, would amount to an added $216,000 annually. That is more than double from last year’s receipts! That’s even before you work to enfold others into the life and mission of Bethel Reformed Church, teaching them healthy principles of authentic biblical stewardship.

Your budget priorities

Based on the 2012 information provided to us in your self-study, Bethel Reformed Church spent 13% of actual expenses on Operations, 18% on the Facilities, 50% on Staffing, and 19% on Missions/Outreach. Your giving and commitment to missions is commendable but we should issue a word of caution here. From the churches we have worked with, those giving 15% or more of their income to outside missions grew at a much rate. We encourage you to think about your entire budget as a ministry plan for accomplishing the mission into which God is calling the church.

Recommendation: 1Invest in equipping

According to your self-study, your budget had very little designated for equipping of unpaid ministry leaders and team members. We believe one of the most strategic financial investments you can make would be to designate a portion of your total spending for ministry equipping. We usually recommend a big chunk of this equipping fund be used for a single ministry area each year–perhaps worship one year, small groups another year, children’s ministry another year–depending on where the growing edge is. Eventually, each ministry program will want to include a line item for equipping unpaid ministry leaders and workers. This can be used for equipping and training purposes such as:

Taking a group of youth leaders to a student conference. Bringing in an outside resource person to train small group leaders. Purchasing DVD seminar training to educate leaders on connection strategies for your

ministry of enfolding.

Our observation is that some of the most powerful training experiences are those that involve taking an entire ministry team, not just an individual or two, to a training event sponsored by a teaching church that is actually modeling what you desire to learn. This may not be practical in your location but it is another option to explore.

Recommendation: Refine financial processes

From our conversations with you, it became clear that part of the reason decision-making is bogged down is because the consistory is often asked to approve expenditures. When a budgeting process is done correctly, this is not ordinarily necessary. A budgeting process that

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empowers other leaders will have them giving input to the annual budget development and result in them knowing the final budget limits that have been approved. We suggested you develop an annual ministry plan (or budget) through a 4-step process:

1. Provide ministry team leaders with a record of the previous year’s spending related to their area

2. Ask them to submit their primary budget needs and “wish list” requests for the coming year

3. Have your financial team (deacons or consistory) review the feedback from ministry leaders to create a proposed budget

4. Present the budget to the congregation for approval

From that point continuing throughout the year, the treasurer can monitor the receipts and expenditures against the budget. If there are significant deviations, then the financial team can discuss the issue and communicate adjustments to the ministry leaders if needed.

When this process is used, the ministry leaders know the amounts that they are allowed to spend and they have the freedom to make purchases within their limits. As you use this process consistently from year-to-year, you will find that leaders and the financial team get very good at anticipating expenditures and seldom will there be surprises so extreme that it needs consistory involvement.

Another area that Bethel needs to develop is the process of receipting donors. Contributors to your church seeking a federal income tax charitable contribution deduction must have a written receipt from the charity if a single contribution’s value is $250 or more. Donors cannot substantiate individual contributions of $250 or more with canceled checks. They must have a written acknowledgement from the church. As you will see in the best practices section that follows, receipting donors is not only for tax purposes but can also become a tool for spurring generosity. You may want to consider having some sort of generic offering envelopes available in the back of the pews so that people who are not yet part of your numbered offering system can still have their cash donations receipted.

Purchasing church management software, as recommended in the staffing portion of this report, would greatly enhance the capabilities and ease of budgeting, bookkeeping, and tracking contributions.

We suggest the church furnish the treasurer with the annual Church and Nonprofit Tax & Financial Guide published each year by Zondervan as a guiding resource for church financial matters. Following this user-friendly book will help assure that Bethel is complying with the many unique laws related to churches.

Debt and growth potential

You currently have no indebtedness and you have some money set aside in savings. This is a tremendous advantage and allows you to more quickly respond whenever God leads you into ministry requiring a financial commitment. We recommend that you set a goal of remaining free of long-term debt. Occasionally, when a church’s need to remove facility barriers is so urgent, we advocate short-term borrowing.

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1Use of a “future fund” instead of a building fund

We encourage you to save for future expansion needs to minimize or avoid borrowing, but we do not believe in designated building funds. The problem with a building fund is that it is earmarked strictly for building. We sometimes work with churches with a significant balance in a building fund, but the church’s greatest barriers to growth are not in the area of facilities. In those situations, not only is the church not free to use those funds to remove the immediate barrier to growth, but the presence of a large balance in a building fund discourages giving. Members tend to think, “The church really doesn’t need more money; after all, they have lots of money in the bank!”

Future facility needs can be paid for largely from a future fund, but the fund is also available to remove other barriers to growth. For example, to continue to expand worship capacity, a church might have two options: build a larger worship space or add another service. However, to add another service will require hiring additional staff and developing additional worship team and leadership capacity. It is more cost-effective to hire additional staff than to build a new worship center, so wouldn’t it be nice to be able to use your future fund to pay the first year’s salary for the new staff member? Or your church might feel led to plant a new church 25 miles away. Wouldn’t you want to be free to invest your future fund in planting a new church if that was the most effective strategy?

We also generally advise against endowments. Though exceptions are possible, they are often more of a liability than an asset. Large endowments tend to be a disincentive to regular ministry support. This does not mean, though, that we discourage wills, bequests, and large gifts as a way to honor people or events. We encourage churches to adopt a policy that such gifts are placed in the church’s unrestricted future fund as a way people can give for upcoming capital improvements as well as new ministry opportunities. Make clear that the purpose of the future fund is to remove barriers to growth in whatever forms you encounter them. This gives you the flexibility to consider a wide range of strategies for accommodating growth, not just brick-and-mortar strategies, and helps to insure that the money spent on bricks and mortar is actually your best value for the money.

Best stewardship practices

“If you’re going to form the vision, you have to fund the vision. Whoever writes the agenda has to be able to underwrite the agenda. … Raising money for ministry IS ministry! One of the most important tasks of leadership is to teach people how to give.”—Pastor Rick Warren

The quotes above highlight two reasons to develop an intentional stewardship plan for your church. One, it takes money to accomplish the ministry of the church. Two, your people will not become like Christ and reflect the generous nature of God until they have learned to give. “God so loved the world that he gave…” We believe that generous living should be an essential element of discipleship. Pastor Andy Stanley offers this perspective to his congregation: “We talk about money, not because of what we want from you, but because of what we want want for you.” You want them to reflect the generous nature of God’s heart. You want their hearts to be invested in the mission of God and to learn to trust the Lord as their provider. When stewardship

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is approached as part of a holistic process of developing people, it becomes much easier to ask people to contribute to the ministry.

The following is a list of stewardship practices some churches have used to increase their giving. We suggest you prayerfully consider this list and your church’s culture to find the combination of practices for Bethel Reformed Church.

Send out quarterly statements instead of simply an annual one.

Include a letter with the statement that expresses appreciation for their involvement in the ministry. Consider including a financial update, ministry highlights to celebrate, or visionary plans to accomplish. This is an opportunity to reinforce the mission and vision!

Follow up first-time givers with a note of appreciation. When someone contributes to your ministry for the first time this is not only a financial decision, it is a spiritual one.

Provide financial education classes. There are many good resources for this. One well-respected stewardship education resource is Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University: http://www.daveramsey.com/fpu/home. Not only does it equip your members to get out of debt and stay out of debt and otherwise align their family finances with biblical principles, but it is a potential outreach tool for churches that use it. Forty percent of those who attend Financial Peace University classes in churches are people who do not attend that church.

Experience a financial journey together as a church by conducting a 30 or 40-day generosity initiative. Brian Kluth of Maximum Generosity has developed two such experiences which include sermons, small group discussions, and private devotional readings and practices. Learn more at his website: http://www.generouslife.info.

Provide inspiration for generous living in an offertory giving moment with a Scripture on a PowerPoint slide or a personal testimony.

Offer a 90-day tithing challenge. This is an opportunity for members to “test” God as in Malachi 3:10. See sample form at the end of this section.

Offer forms of electronic giving. There are several avenues of electronic giving:

Online through the church’s website Customer initiated bank drafts Church arranged electronic drafts A giving kiosk in the church to accept debit or credit cards Mobile giving through a cell phone

One strategic reason it is important to promote alternative forms of giving/receiving donations is the impact of discipleship of the younger generations. Young adults today do not carry checks or even very much cash. They are accustomed to the convenience of debit cards. Studies have shown that generous giving habits begin young—60% of adults who give generously today began tithing before they were 30 years of age. 27% developed that habit before they were even 20 years old! If we are to raise up the next generation of generous

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donors, we must find ways to receive their gifts that are suited to their means of handling finances.

Raising capital funds

When you decide to expand your facility, the construction costs will be large enough that you will need a capital campaign. Most campaigns continue for three years. You do not need to have all your funds in hand before beginning construction. Once you have enough cash and pledges on hand to pay for the project within the 3-year period of a capital campaign, we encourage you to proceed with the project.

There are three basic ways you can approach raising capital funds:

1. Do it yourself.2. Hire a fund-raising coach.3. Employ complete campaign services.

For smaller amounts, it is often possible to do the fund-raising yourself. For larger amounts, the expertise of someone trained and experienced in fund-raising is called for. Without the assistance of an experienced fund-raiser, you run a serious risk of not reaching your fund-raising goal, which puts at risk your basic purpose of removing barriers to healthy growth. The greatest advantage of hiring a fund-raising group is that you are almost certain to achieve your goal. The downside is that outside fund-raisers are expensive, often costing the church thousands of dollars. You need to weigh the benefits against your investment in the help.

We encourage you to approach hiring a fund-raiser just as you would in hiring staff. Fund-raising ministries each have their own “flavor” and style and you will need to talk with several to find one that “fits” you. Look for one that is interested in not only helping you raise funds, but also using the project to help clarify the church’s vision and teach stewardship to the people of Bethel.

Keep the focus on ministry

As you present any future needs to your congregation, remember two things: Leaders must lead first by example. That is just as true in the area of giving as anywhere else. If you as leaders are not passionate enough about a project to dig in and do whatever you must to make this vision a reality, it is foolish to think anyone else will be inspired to give sacrificially. Commitment begins with the leaders.

Second, sometimes churches make the mistake of focusing on the physical project during a capital campaign. It is possible to overstate the case of the importance of the building, and people end up with the idea that the building is the work of the church. Take care through any future emphasis to keep your focus on ministering to the people of Aplington and the surrounding area. People contribute to your ministry because they believe that ultimately lives are going to be changed through the ministry the project provides. A building makes ministry easier, but the building isn’t the most important thing. So, keep your focus on reaching people.

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Embarking on a church expansion and capital campaign is a unique opportunity and season to be embraced for God’s purposes. You may want to spend time thinking through how this time can be leveraged to further the church’s purposes of worship, spiritual growth, and mission. We are confident God can use it for His glory!

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FINANCIAL RECOMMENDATIONS CHECKLIST

We encourage you to make a commitment to stay out of debt, with the possible exception of very short-term debt for urgent facility needs.

Include the expense of equipping unpaid ministry team members and leaders in your budget.

Establish a Future Fund as soon as possible.

Challenge your congregation to increase their individual giving level by 1%-point each of the next three years to support the addition of staff, equipping for volunteer leaders, or making capital improvements.

Implement a comprehensive stewardship development plan aimed at helping the people of Bethel Reformed Church experience financial stability and generous living.

Implement avenues of electronic giving that will fit with your church culture.

Improve your financial processes for budgeting and receipting donors

When the plans are formalized and the congregation is ready, conduct a capital campaign to raise money to allow you remove growth barriers and remain debt free.

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90-DAY TITHING CHALLENGE

Name: __________________________________________

Address: ________________________________________

City, State, Zip ____________________________________

Phone: ___________________________________________

Email ____________________________________________

1. I understand this form must be completed and received by the (Church Name) Finance Team prior to the beginning of the 3 Month Tithe Challenge period. Therefore, the start date must be today's date or a future date.

2. I understand my household qualifies for participation because we have not been tithing for the last six months.

3. I understand I cannot seek a refund prior to the end of the Three-Month Tithing Challenge Period, and I cannot seek a refund for any contributions made prior to the beginning of the Three-Month Tithing Challenge Period.

4. I understand any request for refund must be received by the Finance Team within 30 days of the end of the Three-Month Tithing Challenge Period.

5. I understand if paid at a physical location, my tithe must be paid by check, or by completed offering envelope, so that my tithe can be properly credited.

6. I understand that if given electronically, it must be identifiable so that my tithe can be properly credited.

7. I would like to test God's faithfulness by accepting the Three-Month Tithe Challenge. I agree for the three-month period, my household will contribute to God, through (Church Name), a tithe equal to 10% of our income. At the end of the three-month period, if I am not convinced of God's faithfulness to bless my life as a result of my obedience to His Word, then I will be entitled to request a refund of the full amount of contributions made during that 90-day period.

Today’s Date (Start of Challenge) ________________________

By my signature below, I agree to the requirement of this Challenge.

Signature _____________________________________________

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Conclusion

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Health Brings Growth and Change

Bethel Reformed Church has much to be thankful for and celebrate. You have wonderful leaders who truly desire to follow the Lord’s direction. Your members have a desire to train up the next generation in their faith. You have experienced some growth through the years and that is a blessing. However, that growth also presents many challenges.

Many of the pressures Bethel is experiencing relate to the shift the ministry needs to make in order to function as a medium-sized church instead of a smaller one. It is evident that God has more good work planned for the people of Bethel, but in order to accomplish those dreams and to continue to grow, you must make changes. Like the changes in a young child’s growing body, there will be times of awkwardness and confusion, and even times of pain.

The goal for your leaders is to manage the change process so it remains healthy and productive. You will have to rekindle the flame of passionate spirituality and work together to create environments that lead people towards a vibrant walk with the Lord. As you do, you will see God bring you ever-expanding opportunities to share the love of Christ with the people of the Aplington area.

Part of the change process for Bethel Reformed Church in the near future will include times of discovery and times of evaluation. The process will help you crystallize and communicate a clear, shared, compelling picture of the preferred future to which God is calling you. As you evaluate everything you do now in light of what God says in his word and where he is calling you to go, you will rejoice to find you are doing many things well. Take time to celebrate them together.

As you work (and it is work) at managing the changes you face, be of good cheer. Remember you are not alone. It will be God who leads you through it all, and he already knows the way! Be faithful to pray, and just as faithful in listening and following. Do the work of equipping and maturing, and God will be faithful to continue producing healthy, “all-by-itself” growth in his kingdom through Bethel Reformed Church.

We’re on your payroll

The sheer volume of information and recommendations created by an Integrated Planning Consultation seems a bit like eating an elephant. It looks like an impossible task at first, but is doable one bite at a time. Many churches have struggled with the implementation phase of this process and found themselves putting the bulk of the recommendations on the shelf.

When your consultation package was created, you opted to engage the Living Stones team for the four-month level of coaching in the implementation phase. We will work with you through this period and gladly interact with the Church Health Team. This includes unlimited email access for questions or updates, or scheduled phone sessions. We encourage you to take

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advantage of the fact that Living Stones are now adjunct staff members for this portion of the journey. We can’t coach you through issues we are not aware of, so be sure to provide regular updates.

Extended coaching

Some of the changes facing the church will take time to implement. Navigating these changes will go well beyond the scope of your present four-month coaching contract, so you will want to consider continued coaching after the initial phase. Refer to your original consultation proposal or talk with Peggy Heid or Eddy Hall to review the details and benefits before the end of your initial arrangement.

Thanks for the privilege

Thank you so much for inviting us to partner with you in this discernment process. It was a pleasure for your Living Stones team to spend time with you. Being with you and seeing what God is doing among you fed our spirits. We know it is no small thing to have outsiders come in and poke around in your stuff. Like going to the doctor’s office, we don’t always feel comfortable having outsiders look that closely for our faults and weaknesses. But like most dedicated medical professionals, your Living Stones team counts it a privilege to have been invited to help you diagnose a few areas that need attention. We don’t take that invitation lightly.

We hope you remember that we also celebrated your strengths with you as we pointed out many of the good and healthy things you already do. It will be a joy for us to watch how Bethel Church grows deeper in its faith, more focused in its mission, and stronger in its witness to the Good News of the Gospel. Thank you for allowing us to share it with you in a small way!

Your Living Stones team,

Peggy Heid Greg PetersonEddy Hall

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Appendix 1

SVLC Church Health Team Charter

Name Church Health Team (CHT)

MembershipThere are members with three-year terms to provide overall continuity to the CHT mission and members with one-year terms selected to accomplish short-term goals.

Three-Year Members: Peter K. (Leader), Bill Randall, Ellen Schmidt, Michele Spaulding One-Year Members: Bill Chambers, Nevette Orth, Katy Trautman

Role of the Church Health TeamThe Church Health Team acts as a strategic planning, advisory, and accountability resource to continually identify and address church health issues that are barriers to growth. This is a core ministry team of SVLC.

MissionTo develop a strategic action plan that addresses current barriers to the growth and health of SVLC including, but not limited to, the issues revealed in the NCD Survey and self-study.

Short-term goals: Develop a strategic plan for addressing urgent and then critical barriers to growth as presented by the LSA consultation. Evaluate the one-year follow-up survey provided by LSA. Long-term goals: Continue the planning process into the future, as new barriers to growth are identified.

Main Communication Channels The CHT will communicate directly with the following entities: Pastor (Bill C.), Elders (Bill R.), Council (Nevette O.), Congregation (Michele S. and Katy T.), and Living Stones (Peter K.).

Responsibilities Spend time in prayer and active listening to God Identify and prioritize issues to be addressed Develop a strategic plan for the upcoming year that includes: (1) What issue is to be addressed

(2) Who needs to address the issue (3) When it will be addressed Identify potential hurdles/risks issues and provide guidance to overcome these hurdles (e.g.

identify training needs or provide facilitation for teams as they work through issues) Provide expertise to teams as they address issues – Assign one CHT member to each team Review team progress and serve as an “Accountability Partner” ensuring that plans are being

carried out as planned Primary point of contact for Living Stones Consultants Work in close cooperation with pastor, the elders, the council and appropriate teams Provide timely progress reports to church leadership and the congregation Receive input from church leadership and the congregation on church health issues

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Appendix 2

Church Health Team ~~ Activity Planning Guide

Activity Name: ________________________ Date: ___________________

WHAT

Objective: (What is to be accomplished?)

Goal: (What will the result look like? What are the specific tasks involved?)

WHO

1) The team assigned to accomplish this task will be selected by:________________2) The team will be comprised of: (to be completed by team)

3) The team leader will be: (to be completed by team)4) The Church Health Team member assigned to this team will be:_______________5) The Church Health Team participant will report team member names to the Church

Health Team

WHEN

1) The activity will be completed by:_____________________________________2) Periodic check-in dates are scheduled as follows:

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3) The team leader is to report to the following Church Health Team member: _______________________________________

Other: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Appendix 3

THE MORE WE TEACH TOGETHER

by Eddy Hall

(c) Copyright Eddy Hall 1999, 2000. All rights reserved.

When Delora agreed to teach third grade Sunday school at Faith Lutheran in Derby, Kansas, she said yes, but on one condition: "It's one year at a time." After a year, she quit. Why? "I had such high expectations of myself that it was exhausting to meet them."

Delora is neither underqualified (professionally she teaches fifth grade in a private school) nor is she a victim of unrealistically high expectations. In fact, today she is teaching Sunday school again and says, "I can't tell you how much fun it is!"

What's made the difference? Team teaching.

Every summer thousands of churches scramble to find enough teachers for fall Sunday school. As tempting as it is to blame this annual frustration on low commitment, the real culprit may be how we structure our classes.

Solo teaching with small classes, our most common way of conducting Sunday school, can make teaching children a lot harder--and less effective--than it needs to be. A team approach, where each ministry team works with a larger group of children, can bring out the best in children's workers and make children's ministry far more rewarding and effective. Here's why.

* Team teaching empowers every team member to minister out of his or her spiritual gifts. Almost every church has a few teachers who can make the Bible come alive for children, but probably none can unearth a master teacher for every small children's class. Some people are great at leading children in worship. Others are gifted with crafts or memory work. Rarely is any one person good at all these things, yet we expect solo teachers to do them all. Should we be surprised then when teachers feel overwhelmed?

Delora's three-member team teaches 20 to 30 fourth- through sixth-graders. Phyllis is great with pencil and paper games. David comes up with creative role plays. Delora shines at physical play. "I learn so much from watching how my teammates teach," Delora says. When every member of the team is ministering out of his or her gifts, ministry is more fun and more effective.

* Team teaching cuts preparation time. One approach to team teaching is for a master teacher to do all the preparation and for the other team members to assist. It's a lot easier to find people who enjoy working as care givers than it is to recruit solo teachers.

Another system is to divide preparation among team members. At Hope Mennonite in Wichita, after a large-group opening, the primary class breaks into three smaller groups. Each group goes to one of three activity centers. After ten minutes, the children rotate to different centers. Each worker leads the same activity three times with a different group of children. Each teacher needs only one-third the preparation time she needed under the old system.

* Team teaching builds in support. Four years ago when Faith Lutheran collected the teacher feedback forms after its vacation Bible school, teacher after teacher wrote, "I'll never do this again." Something had to change. The next year, the VBS directors decided to try team teaching. Several new VBS workers enjoyed it so much they volunteered to work regularly in

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Sunday school. In fact, since starting teaching teams in Sunday school, Faith has had almost no teacher turnover. "Phyllis thought about quitting," Delora says, "but it looks like she probably won't because of her friendships with the team."

* Team teaching requires fewer workers. Consider, for example, a church that averages 24 children in grades one through three--a first grade class of four students, and second and third grade classes of ten students each. To have one teacher for every six students, this department needs five teachers (one for grade one, and two each for grades two and three), plus a primary department supervisor--a total of six workers.

With a team approach, the work can be done, and done more effectively, by four workers, still providing the needed one to six ratio. Since each ministry team has internal leadership, no separate department supervisor is needed. Stillmeadow Nazarene in York, Pennsylvania, eliminated seven department supervisor positions this way.

* Team teaching eliminates the substitute problem. If one team member has to be gone one Sunday, the others may feel able to carry on without a substitute for one day. Or if a substitute is called in, he won't have any preparation.

Even more important is the impact on students. The heart of children's ministry isn't the printed curriculum, but the loving relationship between teachers and students through which a Christlike life is modeled. A team guarantees that students will be with teachers they know well even when one team member is away.

* Team teaching models Christian community. As children watch adults ministering as a team, they learn more about how God designed the body of Christ to work than they can learn from any Bible lesson on body life. As they watch mature Christians love, support, and forgive each other, they learn what it means to live in Christian community.

* Team teaching can make discipline problems almost disappear. Disruptive children can drive teachers away because they are so exhausting. Delora has found that team teaching has solved this problem in her class. "We take turns teaching the lesson," she explains. "When David or Phyllis is teaching, I sit in the circle on the floor with the other students. For that week, I am a student, not a teacher. Sometimes I sit beside a student who needs extra attention, but by being part of the class, I become a friend with these children. Because we're relating as friends, the disruptive behavior has practically disappeared."

* As a bonus, team teaching saves money on facilities. Large-group team teaching uses space more efficiently than small-group solo teaching. Olivet Evangelical Free Church in Muskegon, Michigan, needed growing room for their children's and teen's Sunday school classes. They considered building a 3000-square-foot youth building, but discovered that even that wouldn't meet their needs.

The solution they finally came up with was to tear out all their interior basement walls to eliminate their little classrooms and create a few large open areas--one for grades 1-3, one for grades 4-6, and one for teens. They would reconfigure their small classes into larger team-taught groups meeting in flexible multi-purpose space. Each space would have multiple work stations so students could work in smaller groups as appropriate. All furnishings would be portable with a room for active storage nearby so the space could also be used at other times for larger scale activities such as recreation.

Remodeling their basement and switching to team teaching will give Olivet's children's and teens' classes room to grow by 60% to 70% for a fraction of the cost of new construction.

If team teaching is new to your church, how can you introduce it? By experimenting.

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Almost every teacher who gets a taste of team teaching will jump at the chance to do it regularly. Try it out in vacation Bible school or a weeknight activity program. Or introduce it in one or two classes and let everyone see how it works before suggesting the whole children's department take the plunge.

What you'll discover, I suspect, is that the more we teach together, the more rewarding and effective our ministry with children will be.