Barnabas File

A friend recently told me that when he came to his new church, a member who is an attorney asked, “How can you use a guy like me in church?”   This gave birth to a new legal aid group made up of almost 30 attorneys to help people in the community. The mindset of many established churches is to maintain the most visible of their assets—people, property, and programs—without digging deeper to discover the rich resources that may be available just below the surface.  There are people in every congregation whose abilities are not being used.  In Growing an Engaged Church , Albert Winseman suggests that disengaged church members may just be seeking the right place to serve. He writes, “If you want to grow a spiritually healthy, vibrant, dynamic congregation, focus on increasing the engagement level of your members.” To engage such people, however, we need to a new mindset.  Rather than thinking about how we can “use” them (a rather selfish approach) in the es...

As I am involved in discussions with pastors and other church leaders, a question that surfaces frequently is “How do you measure success in the church?”  Traditionally, we have used the “nickels and noses” (giving and attendance) approach.  Some measure their success by baptismal rate and others by the numbers involved in Christian education programs or weekday ministries. Many leaders are moving beyond these metrics because they do not always reflect what the leaders are really seeking to form—committed followers of Jesus Christ.  Several years ago, Willow Creek church commissioned a study that revealed (it was called REVEAL) that the church was not achieving its goal:  “Willow Creek exists to turn irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Christ.”Some used this as a basis of criticizing the church and its methodologies.  In reality, the church should be praised for being willing to ask the hard question, “Are we really doing what we say we ...

“God expects nothing more from you than to live that life for which you were created.   He [sic] wants you to be yourself.”    This is the simple but profound message of Living Your Strengths , a book based on the Clifton StrengthsFinder ® and the research of the Gallup Organization. I was first introduced to the idea of Strengths Psychology through First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman and Now, Discover Your Strengths by Buckingham and Donald Clifton (the designer of the inventory).     My attention was focused on the concept once more when I heard Marcus Buckingham speak at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit several years ago and began thinking about this in relation to the church.   Living Your Strengths by Albert Winseman, Donald Clifton, and Curt Liesveld makes the application of the idea directly to the believer and the   life of the church. The approach is summarized in this way: “God has created the one...

Seth Godin’s primary field is marketing, but he shares some ideas in his daily blog that must be applied to the church.   In a recent blog, he commented on “Marketing to Nobody” :   Nobody wears a watch any more. Nobody wears a tie either.  Nobody shops at a bookstore, at least nobody I know. The market of nobody is big indeed. You can do really well selling to nobody if you do your homework. In fact, most companies selling to nobody outperform those that are trying to sell to everyone. In my reading, I come across a lot of information about declining church attendance.  I also read the comments of some that “nobody goes to church anymore.”  Declining attendance is pretty well documented but complete lack of attendance is not.  On any given Sunday (or Saturday night), millions will make their way to a place of worship and participate in the services offered there.  This provides an opportunity for the church to move these individuals from ...