MondayMorningInsight - Leadership & Encouragement for Church Leaders

Have You Ever Wanted to Become a Church Consultant?

Posted by: Todd
Posted on: Wed, June 13, 2007
Viewed 748
(46) comments so far

If you have a passion to revitalize churches, Christ can use you in exciting ways to turn around hurting congregations.

Are you a veteran of the business world? Your experience and skills may be sought after by the church. Is an extensive pastorate in your background? Your wisdom could help a pastor deal with the challenges in his church.

But many consulting veterans urge a slow approach to exploring a consulting career. It’s not for everyone. Obstacles like lack of money or experience can cripple a promising consultant before he or she accepts client number one.

If you’re currently in the marketplace, keep your current job for a while. If you’re a recent seminary grad, find a way to pay the bills. If you work on staff at a church, stay there. Lucky you if you’re retiring and have a nest egg to cover expenses.

Financial concerns aside, starting a consulting ministry isn’t easy. But the rewards can be rich.

Before you chase your dream, pause to consider the following strategies that may increase your chances of success.

1. Get professional training. By now you know about the consulting courses offered by the Society. I also recommend theology classes if you’ve never worked in a church. Many seminaries and universities offer convenient distance-learning courses.

2. Read leadership and consulting books. You can browse Amazon.com or visit any book store and peruse the business section for titles by the likes of John Maxwell, Bill Hybels, Ken Blanchard, Jim Collins, and others. Also check out these books on building a consulting practice by Karl Weiss: How to Acquire Clients, How to Establish a Unique Brand in the Consulting Profession, and Value-Based Fees. Also helpful are The Interventionist by Lyle Shaller and Biblical Church Growth by Gary McIntosh.

3. Find a guinea pig. In the Society’s Level 5 training, you’ll be coached as you work with a real church. Even if you don’t enroll in the formal training, find a willing church that could use some free help (but don’t make any promises you can’t back up). When you create your own personal case study, your learning accelerates. You’ll develop a valuable repertoire of anecdotes that will serve you in future consultations. If you succeed in this first exercise with a real church client, you’ll know whether to pursue consulting.

4. Write a business plan. Now that your calling is a little more sure, it’s time to strategize. Approach your plan this way: “If I went into consulting full-time, what would my practice look like? What kinds of churches would I work with? What would be my area of expertise?” Think about how you would promote your services and find clients. Consider how much you’d charge (I don’t recommend charging by the hour; it’s better to start off quoting on a project basis). Flesh out every aspect of your dream as if you were jumping into it full force. Now scale it back and fit a separate paying job into the picture. If you build a profitable practice on the side, rather than putting full-time financial pressure on it right away, you’ll find more joy and success.

5. Get a mentor. If you’re serious about this, get advice from people you trust. Talk to pastors and other consultants. Some people build a personal advisory board and have formal meetings. If you don’t know anyone who’s currently consulting, join the Society to meet certified members and talk to the instructors. Ask them tough questions and listen to their war stories.

6. Get published. The Society offers its certified members a mini-Web site and a personal blog. So getting published is easy. But writing stuff people want to read is the tricky part. Once you feel confident in your writing, submit articles to ChurchCentral.com (which publishes general articles on church health), or query the publications and Web sites you read often.

I applaud you for your interest in church consulting. It’s an exciting calling for anyone with experience leading businesses or churches. But a final (repetitive) word of caution. If your resume doesn’t boast years in either ministry or the marketplace, I urge you to delay your dream. That doesn’t mean cancel it – but first invest time in getting some real-world experience. Dr. Glen Martin, one of our instructors, says you need “blood on your tunic” before you’re qualified to work with a church. War wounds signify wisdom. Experience ultimately benefits the churches you’ll work with.

After all, church consulting is not a hobby. It is a calling worthy of your highest efforts. It requires diligence, experience, education and excellence. Advising a church can cause a ripple effect throughout eternity.

When you realize God has a dream of greatness for his church, your heart should quicken at the thought of participating in it.

I pray the Lord gives you a personal dream of fortifying the church. If he does, may he also inspire you with a perfect plan for your consulting ministry.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tom Harper is author of Career Crossover: Leaving the Marketplace for Ministry (B&H, May 2007). He is president of Church Central, which has trained more than 800 church consultants (www.churchcentral.com), and maintains a marketplace job as president of NetWorld Alliance, which publishes business magazines and news portals.

Have you ever considered a future as a church consultant? My friend Tom Harper has recently written this piece to help those who may be considering entering the consultation area of ministry...

Comments

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California Animation College on Thu, June 25, 2009

If you’re currently in the marketplace, keep your current job for a while. If you’re a recent seminary grad, find a way to pay the bills
California Animation College on Thu, June 25, 2009

Now you know about the consulting courses offered by the Society. I also recommend theology classes if you’ve never worked in a church. Many seminaries and universities offer convenient distance-learning courses.
Paula on Sun, July 05, 2009

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this is so good to see. keep up the good work.

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Miami airport transportation on Wed, July 22, 2009

To meet this growing need for qualified church consultants, the Interim Ministry Network, in partnership with The Center for Congregational Health®, is offering a process to train and develop church consultants. Through this partnership, we hope to help others discover this important ministry and equip them to offer their services as church consultants to congregations.

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uk education consultants on Mon, January 11, 2010

yes I want to be a church consultant…..quite interesting topic Can you give some tips about that please
Jorge on Fri, February 12, 2010

Great idea - so many times we can think that we can only try one of these tips at a time to get the results we desire. How much further from the truth could that be? When they are all used in conjunction we can multiply our return.
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Jhon Black on Sat, February 13, 2010

What a great post. What an inspiration for everyone who is asking �Where is all this stuff I�ve asked for?� and getting frustrated. I am in love the way you express yourself, and I thank you for doing it with such passion and honest reflection.
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Jhon Black on Sat, February 13, 2010

I actually still need advice, myself! I�m not qualified to answer that one, except to say - just film it! just keep doing it so that you develop the skills.
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They are indeed some of the most wonderful individuals I know though. Their hearts are almost bigger than the state of Texas�