“Our Outplacement Specialist Is Ready to Serve You”
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Mon, December 11, 2006
- Viewed 210
- (64) comments so far
1. Expectations: transfers may consider their “last church” as God’s new default position and are perplexed when your congregation isn’t like that. Or, they may have left the last place over some issues they plan to bring with them.
2. Infrastructure: integrating transfers into the congregation consumes time, energy, and resources that could be invested elsewhere—like in evangelism
If George Barna is right, though, “More than 80% of the current growth registered by Protestant churches is biological or transfer growth – very little of the growth comes from penetrating the ranks of the unchurched.” William Chadwick’s book, Sheep Stealing deals with the same theme. So we’ve got a problem, and I lived it first hand in our congregation.
Now, let’s be clear. Since 50% of growth by conversion is considered world class, transfers are just going to happen. I’ve been one. Also, there are some advantages to this type of growth. Paul came to Antioch, for example, because Barnabas brought him. An infusion of Christian talent can be exactly what a ministry needs to get on mission.
The key for me, then, is attracting missional transfers, believers who want to live in a way that affords a credible hearing for the gospel in their community.
I want to suggest two factors that can attract missional Christians:
1. Culture: Every pastor knows that musicians are attracted to good music. I believe mission works the same way.
2. Outplacement Specialist: The back cover of every Sunday bulletin in our last church carried a paragraph about Daryl, our Outplacement Specialist. A student at my seminary working on a counseling degree, Daryl was responsible for much of the telephone follow-up for all of our visitors. But we also advertised that he would assist anyone who was not feeling like they fit into our congregation with finding another church more suitable to their preferences. We had some takers.
The existence of an Outplacement Specialist sends a couple of strong cultural messages. One is that we are unapologetic about our identity. Our culture and approach are simply not for everyone. The second message is that we do not view integrating transfers as the core of our mission and are delighted to help them find another church.
For discussion:
1. Should every church advertise the services of an “Outplacement Specialist”?
2. Transfer growth takes a beating all the time. Is it really as bad as many observers claim? Does it have benefits we overlook too often?
The last congregation that Jan and I pastored is located in a Midwestern city that serves as the home of our denomination’s national headquarters and several of our colleges. With large pools of believers (including thousands of Christian college students) in town, we faced the possibility of investing years of our lives filling seats with Christians who used to have a seat in someone else’s building. This seemed like a grim prospect for a couple reasons...
Comments
if you want a Globally Recognized Avatar (the images next to your profile) get them here. Once you sign up, they will displayed on any website that supports them.
Rev.K on Tue, September 09, 2008
Pat…
Amen, Amen, Amen…
you said it right…
everybody today knows what’s best for the church…even though they don’t understand the Bible…even though they don’t understand ministry…but they know it all…and if you try to impart bibical knowledge they would argue you down pleading their case no matter how wrong and un-biblical it is…
i was recently in a class where a member raised a question on why the church follow such & such rules…and i showed the individual why we follow it and where it’s found in the Bible…this member argued their case despite me showing them in the Bible why we follow it….(some members have a Doctorate in ministry even though they never been to seminary…)
I don’t think its the sheep fault on this…it’s the church that has shone away from biblical authority…the church has become too sensitive to feelings…the church dosen’t want to lose the members or their money…so the church allows any and everthing to happen…
what ever happened to the day when pastors would rebuke the people right in front of the whole church?
what ever happened to pastors who wasn’t concerned about how many was in their congregation…who wasn’t concerned if you liked what was said or done…because he was commisioned by God to uphold bibilcal authority and biblical standards?
yes its challenging to enforce…but it must be upheld…we may not be popular with the people…at least we’re not being disobedient to God….
Pat on Tue, September 09, 2008
Rev. K, I think you’re right, the church did ease up on its responsibility, but I also think that everyone, leaders and congregants alike have given in to the culture. The Church is supposed to be different and while the world was talking about it’s rights and privacy, we the Church should have been emphasizing how the kingdom operates on different principles. Instead, we caved in and became a subset of the dominant culture.
Rev.K on Tue, September 09, 2008
Pat…
Amen,
I believe God is raising up some pastors who’s not going to bend to the idols and fads of this world…
God is raising up some pastors who’s main concern isn’t popularity, conformity, or how many congrets they pastor…but whose main focus and concenrn is Biblical standards and Biblical principles…
we must stop conforming to the world and the business attitutdes it has…because you can’t operate a ministry like you operate a business…in a business the focus in on the consumer…but in a ministry the focus is God…
Yule on Mon, July 06, 2009
Give please. I’m moving, but don’t worry! [Someone once] told me we’re all on the same planet, so I’ll be okay!
I am from Slovenia and know bad English, give true I wrote the following sentence: “The real impact of the credit card reform act by joaquin costafinally, change has come to the credit card industry after president obama penned into law the long awaited credit card reform act.However, as the base interest rate has plunged average credit card interest rates have rockets, and it is now reported that credit card rates have now smashed through the eighteen percent barrier.”
Best regards http://www.mondaymorninginsight.com/images/smileys/wink.gif, Tully.
Page 5 of 5 pages « First < 3 4 5
Post a Comment