Megachurches Are Going Small….no kidding

Seth Godin said it first, “Small is the new big.”  Now it appears, big churches are the new small churches.

Let me explain. The Austin Stone Community Church in Austin, Texas is sponsoring Verge, a missional community conference.  Felicity Dale of simplychurch.com and a leader in the simple church movement, comments about the new interest megachurches are showing in microchurches:

Just over a year ago, within the space of 72 hours, Tony and I had three megachurches ask us about simple church.  We may be fairly slow on the uptake at times, but even we couldn’t miss the fact that this might be the Lord.  Since then we have had a two national meetings with megachurch and microchurch leaders meeting together, and even the theme of last year’s national conference “The Rabbit and the Elephant” reflected this potential.

Austin Stone Community Church is one of those megachurches interested in using microchurches (missional communities) to reach Austin.  So, small is the new big, as Seth Godin said.

Megachurches are coming to the realization that you can only build so many 100,000 square foot buildings and 1,000-space parking lots.  The economies of scale, both economically and organizationally, favor smaller groupings of people.  The original and most successful model of this small-to-big idea is Yoido Full Gospel Church founded by David Yonggi Cho in Korea.  Built on cell groups, Cho grew Yoido to over 700,000 members.  But the church’s goal now is to start 5,000 new churches, a kind of reverse of what Cho originally did.  Of course, not everyone likes Cho, but regardless of what you think of his theology, his organizational gifts are evident.

So, small is the new big as megachurches move out from their gigantic worship centers into neighborhoods, coffee shops, apartment complexes, and homes.  Is this a trend, or just an isolated example of the big church to small church phenomena? Stay tuned.

You Can’t Change a Tribe

I’m reading Seth Godin’s new book, Tribes.  Godin packs his small book with pithy observations about the nature of “tribes” and the qualities tribes are looking for in leaders.  Although he doesn’t explicitly say this, it occurred to me that a small church is a tribe.  Small churches tend to be held together by families, tradition, or both.  

Pastors spend a lot of time trying to change the small church tribe into one with more appeal to outsiders. But, if we do, we kill the tribe.  Now there are times that tribe might need to be killed, but most of the time small churches serve their purpose well and the members of that tribe are fiercely loyal.  But that doesn’t mean that church leaders, pastors especially, shouldn’t be trying to gather a new tribe.  New tribes like a different type worship than the existing tribe.  New tribes dress casually, while the old tribe dresses in their Sunday best.  The new tribe might be younger than the existing tribe.  Or, the new tribe might be single instead of predominantly married.  You can’t change a tribe, but you can start a new one alongside it.  

Years ago Lyle Schaller remarked that “new people need new groups.”  Schaller was referring mostly to Sunday School classes for newcomers, but the same applies today to entire congregations.  Godin might say it this way, “New people need a new tribe.”  I’m going to try this one out.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Tribes and church

A friend of mine sent me Seth Godin’s new book, Tribes.  All Godin’s books pack lots of new thinking between their small covers.  I’ll post more about it after I’m finished, but already I’ve run across these gems:

• “A  tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea.” -p 1.
• “Heretics are the new leaders. The ones who challenge the status quo, who get out in front of their tribes, who create movements.” -p 11.
• “Leaders have followers. Managers have employees. Managers make widgets. Leaders make change.” – p 14. 
• “‘Established in 1906’ used to be important. Now, apparently, it’s a liability.” -p 17.
• “People yearn for change, they relish being part of a movement.” -p 18.
• “Great leaders create movements by empowering the tribe to communicate.  They establish the foundation for people to make connections, as opposed to commanding people to follow them.” -p 23. 

Okay, more later, but you get the picture.  Tribes is about leaders, followers, connection and movements.  Sounds like the first century when the church was young.  Maybe it can happen again — a real movement, a genuine groundswell of people gathered around Jesus, connecting with each other, passionate about doing God’s work in God’s world.  Anybody up for a movement?

Two blogs I always read…and one new one

I pared down my Google reader list several weeks ago.  I was trying to keep up with too many blogs, too many bloggers, and too many categories.  Now I have 5 categories — culture, emerging church, marketing, simple life, and small church — 33 subscriptions in all, down from about 100.

But, even with my reduced list, I still don’t get to read everybody everyday.  Sometimes I hit the ‘mark as read’ button and just start over the next day.  (Sorry, but it’s true.)  But, there are two blogs I always read — Seth Godin and anything Kevin Kelly writes.  Seth always has a pithy, slightly off-beat post.  Which you might expect from the guy who wrote “All Marketers Are Liars” and “Purple Cow” and so on.  Kevin Kelly is one of the founders of Wired magazine, a Christian, and an amazing thinker.

Now I’ve added one new blog to my list, Reaching the Online Generation.  The guys at CityTeam have some really good ideas about using the wired world to reach people for Christ.  Now, in my setting I don’t get to use all their ideas, but I don’t get to use all of Seth Godin’s or Kevin Kelly’s either.  I just find them interesting.  Hope you do, too.

The stories we tell ourselves

I was actually going to write a post about “the stories we tell ourselves” tomorrow, but then I read Seth Godin’s post “Which comes first (why stories matter)” and he says it very well. Substitute “ministry” for “work” in his piece and you’ll see how this applies to church.

Some thoughts to tide you over

The community center is coming along nicely, and we are about 75-days away from getting the keys.  Which means a lot of work ordering furnishings, contacting utility companies, planning the opening, and so on.  All seems to be piling in at once, plus the continuing change-orders, additions, and problem-solving that go with building a 16,000-square foot building.  But, it’s going well, just fast and furious.  Which explains my lack of posts this week.  So, until I get my sermon for Sunday up, here’s some good stuff I’ve been reading:

• Seth Godin, The Forces of Mediocrity,  on why everyone doesn’t rally to your good ideas.
•  Kevin Kelly, Tools for Big Love, a great illustration on why the internet runs of love, and how love applies to technology and Shinto temples.  Watch for this in this week’s sermon.
• Steve Taylor on How should we use the Bible?
• iMonk on the Religious-Industrial Complex.
• And finally, if you haven’t read Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw’s new book, Jesus For President, a review will happen this weekend.  After the sermon.

More later.

Ideas that can change your ministry

From around blogdom, some good ideas that have translation potential for churches:

1. 20/20 powerpoints — Kevin Kelley points to a new trend among business presenters to limit their presentation to 20-slides that flash for no more than 20-seconds each. Total presentation time: 6-1/2 minutes. Do I hear “sermon” anybody?
2. Renaming — Seth Godin suggests that human resource (HR) departments change their name to “Talent.” Godin thinks this raises the perception of employees from a commodity (resource) to an integral part of a company’s mission. Churches might want to rename “prospects” or “lost” or other names for outsiders with new names like “friends” or “guests” or “neighbors.” Radical, huh?
3. Self-supporting ministry — Andrew Jones has written a nice piece on self-supporting ministry, calling on the writing of Henry Venn of a century ago. Jones picks up on the “fourth sector” label, and applies it to ministry today. The church-as-abbey picks up the same idea from Celtic Christian abbeys that sustained themselves, and provided economic benefit to the community they served. Rather than ask for donations, ministry can actually make enough to support its own operation. Remember tent-making?
4. Spirit2go — Steve Taylor creates worship and art experiences like nobody else. He’s way down there in New Zealand, but what a creative guy. Spirit2go is for Lent this year (okay, I’m a little late getting this up), and was designed for people who don’t come into the church. Check out his stuff, you’ll think differently afterward.
5. Books — Suzanne posts up a nice list of books for the “small membership” church, which is a term I like, but has too many syllables.

That’s it for today. Let me know what you think of any or all. Be warm and well-fed.

‘Small’ no longer means ‘small’

A long time ago, before Al Gore invented the internet, small churches were thought to be, well, small. Which really meant that small churches suffered from —

• Lack of resources.
• Limited reach.
• Low quality.
• Little impact.
• Less appeal.

The Five Deadly L’s, I call them. But no more. Now small churches have nothing to apologize for in any of these categories, and here’s why:

• Resources. Small churches have access to the same resources as megachurches, but may need to partner, collaborate, or join in with others to share and complement. Remember how the internet could make a small business look really big. Works for churches, too.
• Reach. Small churches now send international missions teams, email prayer partners around the globe, and touch lives directly anywhere. Reach is no longer limited to large congregations.
• Quality. Years ago Lyle Schaller suggested small churches take advantage of video to provide high quality teaching to their congregations. Now that is easier than ever, but it’s also easier than ever for small churches to produce quality in their own audio, video, websites, printed materials, congregational care, and ministries thanks to low-cost, low-threshold entry for technical solutions.
• Impact. Small churches like ours are impacting their communities by partnering with others to offer arts, sports, training, help, and economic redevelopment. Church size is no longer a barrier to community impact. When our state Baptist paper reported on our community projects they titled the article, Small Church, Big Impact.
• Appeal. See my post on the appeal of small churches in of the Long Tail of diversity and choice that many people are seeking. Not everyone wants to be a mini-member of a mega-church. Small churches appeal to the people who like opportunity for involvement and hands-on participation.

That, my friends, is why ‘small’ no longer means ‘small.’ Small, as Seth Godin says, is the new big.

Monday mashup: Community

I’ve been thinking about this idea for sometime, so here’s the first of what I hope will be regular Monday mashups — related ideas, links, and stuff that you can mashup for your own ministry. 

Today’s topic:  community.

• Definition of mashup, for starters. 
• Church of the Customer post on community, from a business/marketing POV.  How we think about community.
• Jonny Baker reimagines the traditional 9 lessons-and-carols as alternative worship here and here.  How we do creative worship for the community.
• Read Seth Godin’s blog on monopolies, then read take some time to poke around Larry Lessig’s blog about copyright, creative commons, and the future of how intellectual property will be shared.  Takes some digging but has real implications for how we do creativity.  Hint:  we live in a gift economy now.   How we value things in community is the idea here.
• Ubercool says rude behavior is part of the new casual.  How we act in community is changing. 

What do you think?  See my trends blog, or my one-stop blog for more stuff. 

Thanks!

This week we went over 40,000 views and still going!  Thank you for stopping by now-and-then, and making this a real gathering place for the small church community. 

Seth Godin said “thanks” better today than I can —

Every time you read something I write here, you’re giving me a gift… attention. It’s getting more precious all the time, you have more choices every day, and it’s harder and harder to find the time. I know. I’m grateful. I’m doing my best to make your attention worth it.

So, have a great Thanksgiving. And thanks.

So, thanks from me.  And have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day! — Chuck