Bad Company

THE REASONS WE DO NOT PROSPER

TEN

“But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. Those who spoke Greek complained against those who spoke Hebrew, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers.” We apostles should spend our time preaching and teaching the word of God, not administering a food program,” they said. “Now look around among yourselves, brothers, and select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. We will put them in charge of this business... These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them. God’s message was preached in ever-widening circles. The number of believers greatly increased...” —The Acts of The Apostles 6:1-7 (New Living Translation)

3Previous  200 Weeks  Print  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  Close  Next4

I knew, from the beginning,

that getting this website up and running would be a real challenge. Not the computer code or the graphics— that I could control. I knew the challenge would be in getting the attention of church folk in this town. When I say “church folk,” I am invariably referring to black churchgoers, as white churchgoers are usually spoken of as Christians, while we tend to refer to ourselves as church folk. I can. most likely, call any white church in town and get a call back within twenty-four hours. In fact, in 25 years of ministry, six of them here in this town, I have never once failed to get a return call from a white church. These days, I can eMail a white church and receive a reply within the same time span, typically twenty-four hours. The black church, on the other hand, is, typically, a dead letter office.

Of the forty-one phone calls I made to various black churches introducing the PraiseNet, I received about seven callbacks. Of the seven, two were within 24 hours, another two came in the Monday after the weekend (still reasonable), and the remaining three came at odd times later in the week. I only sent out a handful of eMails to black churches because the majority of black churches either have no eMail or do not make that information available on their church bulletins or voicemail (while the majority of white churches in town have both eMail and a web site). Of the few eMails I sent out, I received no replies at all (I received two replies after sending follow-up eMails, those replies taking roughly four or more days to come). If you ran a business this way, you'd be out on the street.

For the entirety of its existence, the black church has relied on a largely oral tradition that, to this day, eschews paperwork: memos, business plans, contracts. We do it all on a handshake because that’s how we've always done it. But, then, six months later, we’re arguing because everybody’s memory of the specific game plan is different. I've been to countless high-level meetings in black churches where nobody took down even a single word of the meeting, and where no follow-up memorandum, summarizing the meeting and what we agreed to do, was ever drawn up. The fact is, a great many leaders in our community lean on the old handshake rule because they can't type. Literally; that’s the main reason many old school church leaders and department heads perpetuate the old school handshake method is they, literally, can't type. Writing, therefore, becomes a torture for them because they've grown up in a world where typing was something women did, or was viewed as an optional skill. These days, everybody types. Many of our leaders today are ashamed or embarrassed that they can't type and so dismiss the notion of paperwork in a folksy, “Aww, it don't take all that.” This is what we do: rather than admit our insecurities or our shortcomings, we go on the attack. We demonize and villainize whatever it is that we can't do, whatever makes us feel insecure, making a virtue of our cowardice. And this mindset continues to stunt church growth to this day.

Because we don't read, paper— memos, proposals, and yes, phone messages— flutter around the ministry offices or are left abandoned in departmental mailboxes. Most churches I know have these 1960’s-style hanging files for each department. These file boxes are typically overflowing, mostly with junk mail and solicitations and magazines. But, somewhere amid the stuff you don't need is something you do. Maybe my phone message. But since we’re not terribly studious about clearing our department’s mailbox, the clutter masks the important stuff, and this is how phone calls go unreturned and how blessings are missed. Poor administration is usually the main reason why churches don't grow. People who want to be department heads because they are innately insecure and so want or need the external validation of a title and an “office” are precisely the wrong people you want heading anything. These are people more in love with the idea of being in charge than they are knowledgeable about the responsibility of good stewardship. Their departments are, typically, dead letter offices where no paper is moving and where they are difficult to reach unless you get in your car and drive down to the church and lie in wait for them. God cannot possibly be pleased or magnified by these people, as they tend to impede God’s work and tend to set a bad example for God and for your ministry.

These days, maintaining adequate records is absolutely imperative to your church’s survival. Moving information around is like moving blood around your body and vital organs. But most churches are still on the old handshake tradition. Most churches, in this town, still do everything by telephone. Which, actually, explains why my calls don't get returned: many of these poor messaging systems are, likely, overwhelmed by common calls with common questions that could more efficiently have been handled by a proper combination of voice information and web-based information systems. The most basic and common reaction I get from church folk at the mention of this subject is a laugh. Nice church ladies crack a smile, followed by cutting sarcasm, like, “Yeah, well, this is my eMail right here [phone dialing gesture].”

We’re scared of technology because that is the example that has been set for us. By well-meaning elders who are intimidated by technology. And by some who overcompensate for deep insecurity with loud bluster and thunderous assurances that their way is right and true and that, “It don't take all that.” Many pastors, in this town, don't even know how to turn a computer on. Don't have one in their office. Aren't online. Have no eMail. And, of the very few who have eMail, many do not check it regularly. And, frankly, a great many church folk in leadership here in town are not interested in this website or anything I have to say. Many church folk will, in fact, go on the attack. Having never even seen the PraiseNet, this site will, inevitably, be villainized by some ministry or ministries here. This is what we do: we attack that which makes us insecure.

These days, having a website and an eMail address is not an option. Any business wanting to stay in business has a web site and eMail. The web is no longer some exotic neverland, some wondrous and frightening place of pornographers and Satan worshippers. The web is exactly like the telephone: it is only as good or as evil as the people using it. Simply having a website does not mean you will burn in hell or see porn or, I dunno, burst into flames. You must have a web site. It really is that simple. Many white churches post their announcements on their web sites and send out eMail newsletters to an eMailing list of their congregants. They partner that with sophisticated voicemail where churchgoers can access specific mailboxes to hear announcements read or receive specific information from specific departments. This is not some far-flung future technology. This technology is not super-expensive, either. We've got to overcome our cultural technophobia to even begin to approach this quite simple and quite low standard of communication— a common standard among churches of other ethnicities.

You must have a website. The PraiseNet offers you a way to get your toe in the water and begin to explore the benefits of web-based communication, but eventually you must build a site of your own. All of your department heads must have eMail and must RETURN the MESSAGES they receive in a timely fashion, or they need not be department heads.

The small group of committed Christians who have partnered to develop the Colorado PraiseNet will be making another couple rounds of phone calls, inviting these ministries (again) to make use of this online ministry. This time we will be targeting specific ministries with specific people because, well, if Church “B” knows Jack, they'll call Jack back. If Church “G” knows Fred, they'll call him back, etc. This is an extremely sophomoric way for grownups to have to strategize something as simple as getting a phone call returned, but this is the reality of the black church today: if it is an unfamiliar voice on the line, the odds of getting a return call are practically zero.
This is why we continue to struggle and sweat and toil and sell pies and chicken and hammer our people for endless building funds and capital programs. This is why our program and resources remain limited and our growth stunted. Because we run our churches like this. But it’s not our church we’re running like this, it’s God’s church. It’s God’s business.

What would happen if God operated like that? If God answered certain prayers from certain people, but people He didn't like or people He was uncomfortable with went ignored? What if God ran His business the way we run ours? What if nothing got done in heaven or earth because God’s mailbox was full and He wasn't getting His messages?

But, isn't the reality of the matter that we, all of us, me you, white black green— we are engaged in doing God’s business. A business He financed with the blood of His only Son. Blood we have on our hands when we run God’s business in a shoddy, half-baked manner. When we diminish the significance of that sacrifice, the Bible speaks of us “crucifying Him afresh (Hebrews 6:6).”

That, my friends, is God’s phone. It’s not your phone. It’s God’s phone. You have no right to not return phone calls placed to God’s house. You have no right to be selective about whose call you will return because you are only a steward, a doorkeeper, in God’s house.

Your church lives and dies by its administrative function. By its ability to interface with its membership and with the greater world around it. This is not a place for bad attitudes or teeth-sucking dismissive demagoguery. All of that, at the end of the day, is simple immaturity and insecurity. You don't want insecure people answering your phones. It’s a grown-up responsibility that requires committed, Spirit-endowed people to keep the blood flowing through the Body of Christ. The bible speaks of entertaining angels unawares [Hebrews 13:2]. Many of those angels may have tried calling your church, may have waited and waited and waited to hear from you that they might deliver God’s message to you. But you never called back.



This “new” technology of voicemail and internet is more than a quarter of a century old, now. It is so commonly used that schools, pizza shops, gas stations, laundromats— the most common and seemingly ordinary corners of your life have voicemail and web sites. But the black church is, in large measure, still making excuses. Still retreating behind sarcasm and jokes because, frankly, we can't type. Not being able to type well is no sin, and there are ways around that (excellent voice recognition software is available dirt cheap these days). Not knowing anything about the internet or the web is no sin, either. We'll be happy to take you through it. Church growth is largely a measure of (1) Christ being lifted up [John 12:32], and (2) the efficiency of your church’s administration. Think of the example you set, when you greet visitors— either in person or on the phone or on the web— that is, assuming they can visit you on the web. What net impression are they leaving with? A warm greeting, with lots of information and options, like Israelite, Solid Rock and Emmanuel? Or, like the majority of our churches, little or no information, no web presence at all, and no return calls.

Don't wait to become a big church to start acting like a big church. Big or small, if you want success you have to conduct yourself like a successful ministry, without the tired excuses or the hostility. Paul exhorts us, in 1 Corinthians 7:17-24, “But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all churches.” If you want growth, conduct yourself like the church you want to be. Start now. Re-educate your ministry leaders now. You want classrooms and office space? Act like a ministry that already has those assets, and speak of those things as though they were [Romans 4:17]. Walk in victory. Hold your head up. You are administrators of a multi-million dollar ministry. Multi-million dollar ministries have web sites. Multi-million dollar ministries use eMail. Multi-million dollar ministries manage resources to care for their membership. Multi-million dollar ministries return phone calls.

Drive around and visit some of these massive churches, built by prayer and supplication, yes, but also built by vigilant administration and grant proposals. Most of us know nothing whatsoever about grant proposals, about endowments, because we don't read. We don't write. We don't surf the net. We don't return phone calls. But we can and often do envy the resources of our brothers and sisters of other ethnic groups. A waste of time, to be sure, because they worship the same God we do. Our God doesn't move any less than their God. Our God isn't any less powerful or any less loving or generous than their God. It’s the same God. But they have a nursery and we don't. They have office and classroom space, but we don't. They have multimedia presentation equipment, but we don't. They have spacious and comfortable auditoriums, but we don't. They have cappuccino in the lobby, but we don't.

This isn't about them and us. This isn't about keeping pace with other ethnic groups. This is simply about being the very best because our God deserves no less from us. A God who cannot lie and cannot play favorites. In the final analysis, our worst enemy is often us. Our wounds are mostly self-inflicted. Our growth impeded by our own insecurity. Having a website and adequate voicemail, and returning messages, isn't a guarantee of ministerial prosperity. It’s not the answer for everything or everyone. But no ministry will ever be effective if they are not diligently consistent with the principles they espouse. You simply cannot expect to prosper if you are giving God shoddy work. If you are doing a half-baked job.

After all, God gave us His best.

Christopher J. Priest
24 November 2002
editor@praisenet.org
DISCUSS THIS ESSAY

TOP OF PAGE
Text Copyright © 2008 PraiseNet eMedia Except As Noted. All Rights Reserved. 

3Previous  200 Weeks  Print  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  Close  Next4