Put money into people, not buildings. Here’s why
iStock
The following is based on a ReclaimedLeader.com interview by Jason Tucker and Jesse Skiffington.
The new model of planting and growth is not focused on buildings. Café churches, pub churches, online churches, and churches that meet in homes are popular new options.
Researcher George Barna says that by 2025, 35% of the churches in North America will be house churches. These are churches meeting in homes, with very little overhead.
The younger generation is realizing the Achilles heel of their parents' church was the expense and upkeep of the facilities. Many churches feel stuck in a building larger than they need. They can't find a buyer for their church and they really don't want to sell it anyway, because it holds decades of spiritual memories. For those churches stuck with a big building, there are innovative new ways to leverage a building so it can make money in other ways.
Mark DeYmaz wrote a fantastic book about how to create new income streams from an older church facility. It's called The Coming Revolution in Church Economics: Why Tithes and Offerings Are No Longer Enough, and What You Can Do about It. In it, he shows how aging facilities can be leased out for schools or other community venues. I believe becoming less dependent on a facility and its upkeep is an important strategy, which the online church options help address.
Staffing is another important issue. I'm seeing healthy churches putting less money into facilities and more money into people who deal with electronic communications in the church. And this is not just the sound or video crew. These are the people in charge of social media communication and who lead online small groups.
Since in the future facilities will wane in importance, and communication will increase in importance, these electronic evangelists will be indispensable.
This is forcing the church to also assess electronic teaching, which we've been hesitant to do for some time.
I taught for a university that was one of the early adopters of online education. And I didn't really like online teaching. I was hired primarily as a face-to-face professor. But when I saw how students who couldn't physically drive to our campus could connect online with my content, I began to reevaluate what I was doing.
I retired after almost 24 years of teaching, but I've brought my online teaching skills to my coaching and consulting firm. I've added an electronic element for every client. And, it is growing fantastically. When a client hires me as a consultant, I include an online preparatory course that was previously the first hour of my initial face-to-face workshop. Now they can watch that preparatory lecture anytime in a video, at their leisure and before I arrive.
A pastor can likewise offer preparatory video teachings before a sermon or for a small group. For example, a Bible study group can watch a video created by the small group director or a teaching pastor beforehand, then gather together and discuss it. It creates more time at small group meetings for discussion and less on covering the basics.
I often hear from committee and board members that it's a drain having to go physically back and forth to meetings. Maybe in days when people lived nearby the church that wasn't such a problem. But today, the commute time can make the church business meeting less well attended.
I admit, you can lose something not being in the same room all the time. A hybrid model of both online and onsite opportunities can increase convenience and thus increase participation in our committee meetings. And the flexibility of the online meeting usually yields three benefits:
- More participation because of convenience
- Recording the meeting for absent members and church records
- Less overhead because the meeting is conducted online
 |
Bob Whitesel (D.Min., Ph.D.) is a foresight coach, professor, and award-winning author of 14 books. For over 30 years, he has guided leaders and churches to pivot and engage what’s next. He holds two earned doctorates from Fuller Theological Seminary and teaches on leadership foresight, church health, and organizational change. His website is www.ChurchForesight.com. Learn More » |
More on HR and Staffing
- How to develop an effective exit strategy for your business (by Christian Muntean)
- CEO transition plan: proven steps to ensure smooth leadership change (by Christian Muntean)
- Effective CEO succession planning: building a preliminary strategy (by Christian Muntean)
- Assume someone is recruiting your best employees. What will you do? (by Christian Muntean)
