GrowthStarts

Organized religion's management problem

Gary Hamel writes with insight on organized religion's management problem and their need to reinvent church. An excerpt:

Over the centuries, religion has become institutionalized, and in the process encrusted with elaborate hierarchies, top-heavy bureaucracies, highly specialized roles and reflexive routines. (Kinda like your company, but only more so). Religion won’t regain its relevance until church leaders chip off these calcified layers, rediscover their sense of mission, and set themselves free to reinvent “church” for a new age.

Doing this is going to take a management revolution. Back in the first century, the Christian church was organic, communal and mostly free of ritual—and it needs to become so again—as does every organization, public or private, large or small.

More here.

HT: Tony Morgan

QuickLinks

Some interesting links of late:

• Over at Catalyst, Nancy Ortberg gives three steps to creating momentum to take you to the next level.
• Mark Waltz is in the middle of an engaging series of posts about best practices for the guest services ministry of your church. But the secret is that these ideas are applicable on many other levels. I particularly like this one about always being on.
• Tony Morgan has a new job. He's the executive director of ministries at West Ridge Church (one of NorthStar's partner churches) in Dallas, Georgia.
• Tim Stevens offers up a moving nine-minute video from one of Granger's services. Very creative. The topic: victory via surrender.
• The newest Narnia movie has begun filming in Australia's Gold Coast. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is being directed by Michael Apted.

Can the church change?

I finished listening today to a recording of a session from Willow Creek's A2 conference from 2006. (I am a little late to the game listening to this.) It featured Gene Appel with a talk on "Can Willow Change?" as well as a Q&A time with Gene and Bill Hybels.

I am fascinated with the findings he presented about Willow Creek and how they might apply to NorthStar. Here are some bullet points on what they found:

1. Willow is aging. Ten years ago the average age of a Willow Creek attender was 38; now it's 48. The average age at their midweek service for believers is 51.
2. Demographics are shifting. Their area is no longer primarily white, but ethnically diverse.
3. Seekers, who have historically wanted anonymity in the church, now are open to community and a sense of belonging. Belonging and community many times get them started on a pathway to belief. And they are also open to more interactive, transformational experiences (rather than just sitting and listening).
4. People are increasingly leading busier, more fragmented lives. With both Mom & Dad working, kids in several extracurricular activities, etc., the pace of life has quickened, and they are tired.
5. A waning number of Willow Creekers really know their neighbors. This is because of #4 above. They are away from home so much and so busy that when they are at home, they are too tired. There is no time or energy to get to know their neighbors.
6. A deepening avenue of compassion is growing in the church, both through serving in the community and through giving to causes. There is a growing concern for the poor, the sick, the underprivileged, the disenfranchised, those in crisis, etc.
7. Their "Reveal" study on spiritual growth has shown that increased activity in church doesn't necessarily translate into spiritual growth (i.e., increased love for God and increased love for people). And their best people were the ones most in danger of leaving Willow, because they didn't feel the church was helping them grow spiritually.
8. Their top senior leaders were spread too wide, with margins too thin.

These findings are leading them to change strategy somewhat. Some of the shifts they are making:

• Calling weekend services "weekend experiences where all people encounter the transforming power of God wherever they're at on their spiritual journey."
• "Neighborhood Life Ministry." Since church activities tend to take people out of their own neighborhoods, they are exploring ways in which those activities can be done in the context of their own neighborhood.
• In the area of spiritual growth, moving from an activity-based approach to a next-step or journey approach.

This is a fascinating, revealing look at Willow. It really makes me think about NorthStar and where we are at on these issues.

You can order a CD or DVD recording of this here or an mp3 recording here. For more notes, check out Charlie Dean's blog posts here and here.

NorthStar PCB

Check out this post over at www.churchcommunicationspro.com where Cory Miller spotlights NorthStar Church Panama City's website as a "Rockin' Cool Church Website." This is one of the many NorthStar churches that my church has helped to start!