STRATEGIC LEVERAGE POINTS
First Congregational Church
This document represents a summary of key strategic issues from the consultation with Paul Nixon May 2 and 6, 2009. We are dealing with a ‘window of opportunity’ situation which demands that we work with some urgency in getting the following things done – this is due to the rapid aging of the congregation – you have the strength today to do some things that will become harder ten years from now, unless we succeed in the short run. In short, it is time to flood First Congregational Church with some new people. Some younger people. Some more diverse people.
I am also attaching a guide for how to do community focus groups.
1. CALLING THE NEXT ASSOCIATE PASTOR – AND GETTING THE RIGHT ONE
Sooner, rather than later, we need an associate pastor in place to help us run fast and effectively in ministry. We are looking for a person with the following characteristics: vibrant faith, internal drive for excellence, good public communicator, strong relational abilities with persons age 20-40, leadership abilities (demonstrated in past experience) of being able to start things that succeed and/or bringing others along on big projects. I urge us to run our top candidates through some sort of assessment process, either by Gallup Organization (at about $300 each) or via the UCC office in Cleveland (online at about $75 each). I am asking Paul Nickerson of Massachusetts Conference to advise us, as he is the leading expert in new church development that I can find in the UCC. (Paul is also on the board of Epicenter Group, with which you are in contract.) This will be the top item on my list for discussion when Tom and I chat on Thursday morning, May 14.
2. REDUCING THE DEBT BURDEN BY AT LEAST HALF ASAP
I think the church leadership beat me to the punch on this one. I salute the way this has been handled thus far, and I hope that we can get debt service down to less than 10% of budget by the time we refinance. If the church wishes to do a capital campaign – I suggest that you listen closely to the advice of your capital campaign advisor from RSI (or wherever) in her/his assessment of the church’s readiness. (I also suggest that we ask about long term endowment development in conjunction or just after this campaign – as we have a window closing with a LOT of money in the congregation about to be handed over via inheritance to people who will not be giving much to First Congregational Church.)
3. INTENTIONALLY CREATING A MORE DIVERSE CHURCH
The O and A process is opening up an evangelistic opportunity for gay and lesbian persons, their families and others with progressive social values – it will be an opportunity both for a positive prophetic witness in the community and to market First Congregational Church as an excellent and unique option for persons who are rejected or offended by the policies of most churches in town.
Alongside this outreach, we need to have some sort of process for connecting with young working class and professional Battle Creek adults – with 20 somethings and young 30s. I suggest a series of home-based focus groups to build relationships and simply to learn from these folks. I will send a document to assist in developing this, and can walk your leadership through it in the near future. This could be an assignment for the new associate pastor to complete in her first 3-6 months. Or you could do a couple now and four or five more then. The sooner you begin learning what local young adults are asking for and what they are not asking for, the better.
To reach a younger constituency, paid childcare worker should be provided at all major events in the nursery, to work alongside volunteers.
4. WORKING SMALL GROUPS HARD UNTIL AT LEAST HALF THE WORSHIP ATTENDANCE IS IN ONE WEEKLY.
I think you may have a person within your congregation who can lead this. If not him, then it needs to be high on the associate pastor’s plate. I think with this area, experience is helpful, much more helpful than youth. When I say half the worship attendance, I do not mean half the current worshippers. It could be largely a new group of people, many of whom do not yet attend worship. I encourage the exploration of a small adjunct pastoral position to replace David’s position – but to focus on small groups rather than pastoral care.
5. THINKING FAMILIES WITH KIDS IN ALL THINGS
The deal here is we have to be able to make the case with a straight face to families with progressive instincts and values that we are a better bet for your family and kids than the big box evangelical alternatives in this area. This will likely be something that the new associate pastor will have to oversee: strategies that provide critical mass of kids for activities so that a good time is had by all. Your youth ministry (junior and senior high) will likely need a new strategy within a year or two, as so many of your group is graduating, and there are not many elementary kids coming up. You may wish to create a joint youth ministry with two other liberal Protestant churches in town, and to work a very close partnership to do excellent ministry together. I have done this in the past in churches with small youth groups, and found it a very effective strategy IF the youth ministry is really rooted in the congregations and does not become para-church.
6. PAYING CLOSE (AND RESPONSIVE) ATTENTION TO WORSHIP GROWTH
Both of your current services (Wed PM and Sunday AM) have growth potential. We need to grow them. Now, on Sunday morning, I will accept a steadily and measurably dropping median age as evidence of growth, even if numbers hold steady.
As you do focus groups with young adults, please ask about times that work for them to do things aside from their regular routines – my agenda of questions will cover this.
If your overall attendance does not keep increasing next year versus this year, you will probably need to begin making plans for a second Sunday morning service, that will compliment the two you have, but with guitar driven music and younger musicians.
I would like to visit with Tom about worship visitor follow up, discussing how a staff member might lead the charge, along with a lay team, in offering very intentional follow up to visitors, in order to raise the percentage who stick around.
I believe that with three services, given your facility and congregational personality, you can run about 350 on Sunday mornings and about 100 on Wednesday night within five to seven years. (The wildcard is the degree to which growth will be a matter of simply replacing older persons who become unable to attend regularly anymore.)
