During the Thanksgiving weekend I read an article in Vanity Fair magazine, the source of much good journalism, titled on the cover, “Inside the Murdoch-family Fortress.” It had all the earmarks of a good thriller: the father patriarch, conniving daughter and spouse, a son aspiring for the father’s media empire, a wife with undue influence, and much money at stake.

It might just as well been titled, “Inside the Schuller-family Fortress,” that just a week prior saw Robert H. Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral sold off by the bankruptcy court to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Orange to cover some $50 million in debts the 56-year-old ministry owed to vendors and others.

The congregation may sustain itself in a diminished way, elsewhere, but the television ministry won’t likely survive. The four daughters and their spouses share the blame for a great congregation’s demise. But interestingly, if there are any bright spots in the sordid mess, it is with the grandchildren, the adult son and daughter of Robert Anthony and Donna Schuller.

Three years ago I interviewed Bobby Schuller and was immediately struck by his character and intelligence; if anyone in the family had a chance of making a success of succeeding his grandfather, it was Bobby, but it wasn’t to be his timing. He formed his own congregation near Garden Grove that continues today.

The daughter, Angie Schuller Wyatt, is an author, motivation speaker, and businesswoman. She brought an incisive intelligence and open mind when she wrote for Christian Post in November about the bankruptcy decision: “I liken my grief of the Crystal Cathedral’s death to grieving a loved one with a terminal illness.”

Her transparency on the issue is refreshing: “There was nothing I could do to stop my misguided family members. Others in the family seemed to be holding on to ‘a miracle’ that would come just in time. I knew better. Something that defined my life, something I hoped would define my children’s lives, was about to die …

“Eventually the madness worsened to the point that death itself signaled relief. If you’ve ever held the hand of a dying loved one, you know that death becomes the final blessing. Yet, during that final moment, you pause in respect. It’s a holy moment to reflect on what was and to grieve what shall never be again. Yesterday [Nov. 17], Crystal Cathedral Ministries died.”

Angie wrote: “Its problems were not terminal. They could have been solved. My father attempted to fix these problems during his short tenure as senior pastor. He saw the Crystal Cathedral was headed toward bankruptcy. He attempted to restructure the board, cut his siblings’ salaries and establish fiscal responsibility. For these actions, he was fired by the board [July 9, 2008] which consisted of, you guessed it, his siblings.”

A daughter’s love for her father aside, there is a ring of truth to her testimony. Sometimes truth skips a generation.

There was a book written some years back about the administration of President Lyndon Johnson, called “The Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson.” When challenged on the meaning of the word tragedy, the author said he meant it not as “Oh, how terrible,” but rather as “Oh, what it could have been.” The Crystal Cathedral had a long run and did much good, but oh, how much more it could have been.

Got a question or comment? Email Ron@ChurchExecutive.com

By Ronald E. Keener

John Ortberg: Senior Pastor, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, Menlo Park, CA

Pastor for eight years at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in the San Francisco Bay Area, John Ortberg observes, “There’s a very strong performance culture out here, but that includes a terrific amount of pressure to maintain an image, and so there are vast amounts of anxiety, addictions, difficulties, emptiness, exhaustion, just about an inch under the surface.”

“The biggest misconception that people have of the Silicon Valley is that people have their lives together and don’t really need God,” Ortberg, 54, says.

It’s been said that the Bay Area is 90 percent unchurched, de-churched, or anti-church. How does a church engage a culture like that?

One of the ways that our church is seeking to reach the Bay Area has been by opening up different venues and sites so that we can try to penetrate more areas. We’re also working very hard on a project called Catalyst, which is looking at how do we unleash rather than bottleneck folks in ministry.

We have a terrific team of people who are doing research and looking at the whole area of mission shaped communities, and strategies to tap into the innate motivations, passions, and gifts of people.

Who was the pastor of your youth and what is your conversion experience?

When I was growing up in Rockford, IL the pastor of our church was Harold Christensen. His wife Evelyn Christensen recently passed away at about the age of 90. She wrote a book called, What Happens When Women Pray. I grew up in a Christian family and accepted

Christ when I was a seven-year-old boy, and it’s still a very vivid memory for me.

If you had not chosen ministry, what might your profession have been?

If I had not gone into pastoral ministry, I probably would have gone into something in the field of psychology. I received my M.Div. from Fuller Seminary and a PhD in Clinical Psychology, but it turns out I’m a really bad therapist. However, I’m very interested in teaching and writing, and I probably would have gone in that direction.

What is it like living in such an affluent area?

The Bay Area is a very stimulating place. There are lots of things going on educationally with Stanford University next door, in terms of business with Silicon Valley, and a tremendous amount of ethnic diversity. And also there’s a fair amount of spiritual resistance to institutional Christianity, particularly as you get close to the city of San Francisco.

What do you think is your calling to address this population?

My preaching has probably moved in the direction of being somewhat more oriented towards an intellectual approach to the faith, simply because education tends to be such a kind of prominent aspect of life out here.

Did you ever meet Steve Jobs or interact with his staff?

I never did meet with Steve Jobs. Ron Johnson, who reported to Steve and is a guy who launched and led the Apple Store movement, and is now the CEO of JC Penney, attends our church and is a good friend and remarkable leader and great Christian.

Your wife Nancy is nearly as well known as you are. Have you ever thought of yourself as a “celebrity” pastor?

Nancy Ortberg is a force of nature in her own right. I think that in general our culture tends to be celebrity oriented in ways that are pretty negative and unfortunately the church always wrestles with mirroring its culture too much. Political issues are very important but when the church narrows its appeal or identifies too heavily with one political party or ideology it can make people close the door to Jesus who otherwise would leave it open.

I was always confused about the circumstances of your coming to Menlo Park. Were you the senior pastor or was there a transition of sorts?

Circumstances of my coming to Menlo Park were a bit complex because of Presbyterian polity. I initially came as a teaching pastor, and there were three or four transitional steps to becoming senior pastor, which is my current role.

I’ve been fascinated with what is called nominal Christianity — people who love the label but don’t wish to live the life. What do you make of nominal Christians?

Nominal Christianity is a great problem in our day and certainly in our area. If you think about the early century of the church, there was no such thing as a nominal Christian because the cost of becoming a Christian was so high.

And then, after the conversion of Constantine when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, the cost for becoming a pagan actually became higher than the cost of being a Christian, so then you get a lot of nominal Christianity. That still is a problem in our culture and one of the great challenges is how we clarify the cost of following Jesus without giving into legalism or spiritual elitism.

Menlo Park is now multi-site; what have you learned from going with this approach?

We actually had long conversations this last week about how concretely we move forward as one movement with different expressions, trying to do the dance of independence, autonomy, togetherness, unity, and relational connectedness, which is a very complex one and is a constant learning process. Probably my most recent learning is a re-appreciation for the importance of relational connectedness, particularly for leaders.

What is the importance of training leadership?

Leadership is hugely important. We were talking about Nancy a moment ago, and developing and training and raising up leaders is one of her great passions. Helping people who have leadership gifts in recognizing their giftedness, and embrace them and use them in the service of Christ, is one of the great needs of our day. I think generally churches are becoming more aware of the need for leadership identification, recruitment and training.

How do you get your inspiration for your books?

I would say that writing for me flows very much out of doing church ministry. People ask me, from time to time, do you ever think about not working as a pastor at a church and just speaking and writing. For me, the discipline of regular sermon preparation, the creation of fresh material, being part of a community, helps me to stay learning and refreshing myself, and I think that informs my thinking and my communicating.

So there’s a close connection between preaching and writing. Preaching also gives me a feedback loop. If I just write something, I might think it’s good, and it’s really only the caffeine. When you have to stand up in front of a group of people and say stuff you find out from their faces and bodies if it’s actually connecting, or if it’s not being helpful at all.

That actually helps a lot when it comes to sitting and writing material. I’m actually just in the process of finishing a book about the impact Jesus has had on history. Its been a wonderful project and a different one, kind of a stretch for me.

Who are your favorite authors when you read for pleasure?

I love to read C.S. Lewis and I love the writings of Frederick Buechner. Dallas Willard has influenced me more than any other single human author or thinker. Richard Foster, Henry Nouwen, Thomas Merton, Ken Bailey and N.T. Wright would also be on that list.

How do you manage your time, and discipline your life?

Saying “no” is one of the most important disciplines in my life. I have regular meetings with Linda Barker, who works with me administratively, and with my wife, to go over schedule commitments and most of that involves saying “no.” I fight my own optimism when I’m in a good mood and I fight guilt when I say too many “no’s.”

What does the near future look like for the Ortbergs?

For Nancy and me, the next five to 10 years we hope will involve being right here in Menlo Park and serving at our church, growing in love for God, and each other, and our community, and being able to serve the broader church together. We have also, over this last year, gotten into surfing so we’re hoping to do more of that and not get eaten by a shark.  www.MPPC.org

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Spiritual formation through Monvee

Monvee is an attempt to leverage technology to do spiritual formation. It’s a way for people to assess what their own spiritual wiring is, their spiritual temperament, pathway, signature sin, learning styles, and so on, so they can know better how to grow spiritually.

It really grew out of Heartland Community Church, a group of folks that I know in my old hometown of Rockford, IL. It can be helpful for churches in a single site or multi-site because it’s really geared towards helping people get a roadmap of their individual spiritual lives.

I think that spiritual formation and church growth or evangelism are really connected with each other. Jesus is the most spiritually mature person who ever lived and he’s also the most evangelistically effective person who ever lived.

I think sometimes we confuse spiritual formation with “churchliness” and sometimes we confuse church growth or evangelism with sheer numbers. Either of those problems will get us off track, but if we’re growing closer to God it will make our lives more winsome to those around us. Of course some people will always be turned off by the actual Gospel itself, but I want to make sure it’s the Gospel that’s turning them off and not me.  — JO www.monvee.com

“People don’t have a giving problem; they have a giving to their church problem. Some simply never developed that habit.” People increasingly choose designated giving.

I once attended a Lutheran ELCA church and I still receive The Lutheran magazine, one of the best among denominations. Its editor wrote about the trends in the ELCA’s statistical reports, many of them on a downward line when it comes to funding. It’s not an uncommon story for most denominations.

But it was the last sentence that caught my attention, when he spoke of “a decline in undesignated giving represents one of the top challenges facing the entire ELCA.” When you parse those words, it’s a pretty disturbing observation. “Donations sent directly to causes and campaigns,” he also said, “result in less money moving on as mission support to synods and the churchwide organization.”

“To say that undesignated giving is under fire is an understatement at best,” says Ben Stroup, an author and writer on stewardship, in commenting to Church Executive. “It seems that church leaders are the last to recognize the shift in giving taking place among the people in the pew. When Passing the Plate (Oxford, 2008) announced that 20 percent of American Christians give nothing to the church, why are we surprised that undesignated giving amounts are falling among regular churchgoers? The church may be losing ground on traditional giving techniques, but people have not stopped giving.”

It wasn’t until the Industrial Revolution, he says, when people were paid at a predictable frequency, and the New Deal, when labor laws were enacted to protect income and jobs. This created a sustainable income stream for churches who quickly adapted their tactics to match the consistent income streams of their parishioners. Such a change is taking place again.

Stroup says, “Given the tumultuous economic realities for everyone, this ‘new normal’ has created a more empowered giver who is asking more questions, expecting more say in how funds are used, and are more demanding of the results. This is the antithesis of the traditional church’s approach to undesignated giving which believes the giver gives to God, while the leader disburses the funds with limited accountability from the person in the pew.”

Well, that rather describes my wife and I in our giving pattern. We make up our minds each week whether our offering will go to operating, building, or benevolence. And other weeks we also give to BGEA, Samaritan’s Purse, Open Doors and Voice of the Martyrs.

Stroup knocks it out of the ballpark when he observes: “People don’t have a giving problem; they have a giving to their church problem.

Some simply never developed that habit. Their parents didn’t do it. They’ve never done it.

“The bottom line is this: American Christians see their money as theirs, not God’s. This fundamental shift in perspective moves the decision from a disciplined response informed by principles of stewardship to arbitrary generosity acted upon in the midst of an emotional experience.

This puts churches in direct competition with traditional nonprofits, who are – quite frankly – more skilled at talking about money, connecting dollars to impact, and calling people to action. In the absence of the practice and belief in storehouse tithing, undesignated giving disappears,” says Stroup.

“The challenge for church leaders is to borrow the time-tested techniques of the traditional nonprofit world and translate that into the language and practice of the church,” he says. (See Stroup’s article on capital campaigns in this issue too.)

Ken Whitten: Senior Pastor, Idlewild Baptist Church, Lutz, FL

Ken Whitten admits that his weakness can be that he allows too many opinions to come to the table. “I am a collective leader, which means I detest making decisions or casting vision from a vacuum.” He sees his church, Idlewild Baptist Church, a 12,000-member church in Lutz, FL, as being pastor-led, deacon-served, ministry-organized and church-approved.

A growing new campus of 143 acres — in fact, they have relocated twice in 12 years — and 725 new members just last year, it is an exciting time for the congregation. In fact “exciting” is the slogan for the congregation. “’Exciting Idlewild’ was a name I joyfully and gratefully inherited more than 22 years ago,” Whitten, 57, says. “The former pastor and staff coined that phrase because that’s who we are. I have always said jokingly that my fear is being sued for false advertisement. But Idlewild is a body of believers who are excited about loving and serving Jesus.”

Who was the pastor of your youth and what is your conversion story?

My pastor growing up was my Uncle Archie Grigg, a man who was a soul-winner, loved God’s Word, and taught me to love Jesus. I was saved at age 7, but much like being married, I had so much to learn. It seems back then all the sermons had only five themes. We heard a different sermon each week, but when they were finished, each could fit in any one of these categories: Hell’s Hot – Sin’s Dark – Judgment isSure – Heaven’s Sweet – and Jesus Saves.

At age 7 I knew I was a sinner and in need of a Savior. I gave all I knew of me to all I knew of him. He took me then and has kept me now.

What a Savior!

Who were your parents, and was there any one thing in your family that made you the person you are today?

I was the youngest of six children born to my parents, Casey and Elsie Whitten. If you looked closely, you could tell I was the youngest because my cheeks were pinched more than all my siblings. Dad went home to be with the Lord in 2004 at age 86. Mom is now 93. She’s my greatest prayer warrior. Both my parents were people of humble means. My dad taught me to tithe, and mom taught me to read God’s Word daily.

Dad was a deacon, and mom was everything a pastor would want in a church member. I am a man who loves Jesus, loves the church, and loves people because of them. Going back to church on Sunday evening and Wednesday night was never up for a vote. Because the “Wizard of Oz” came on TV on Sunday night, I never saw the entire movie until I was in college. We were poor from the world’s standard, but in heaven’s economy, very, very rich.

You appear to be a very approachable, relational man. Is there any one thing that accounts for that today?

Perhaps growing up with six siblings and with three older sisters, and at times feeling like I had four moms – may have contributed to me loving people, wanting to “mother” them a little, and be their friend. My dad was a lot like my grandmother (his mother): humble, friendly, respectful of others, and he knew how to love and get along with people.

Obviously, family plays a big part, but faith does as well. God’s grace is overwhelming to me. At the foot of the cross, it’s level. No one struts in his presence. The more I look into God’s Word, the more it looks and lives into me. Paul said it better than me, but it’s how I want to live: “For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake.” (2 Cor. 4:5, NKJV) (Emphasis added.)

You’ve been called “sincere, genuine and transparent” and “not a preacher; he’s a people’s pastor.” Do you see yourself that way?
At this question I feel a little like the man who received a medal for being humble. He wore it so they took it away from him. I try to be those things, but that’s not how I would want to describe myself. It is true – I love people, sometimes too much because I’ll make myself sick to make others well. That’s not good. I can say this: If that’s how people see me it is because they do see Jesus in me because surely he is all of those things.

Is there anything that can really make you angry?

I always marvel at the emotions of Jesus Christ because he never was angry for himself. He became angry at how poor people were treated, how his Father was not revered and worshipped, how religious rulers became more important than real relationships. He was angry at injustice, prejudice, sin and Satan.

I get angry when a goal of mine gets blocked. My anger is not always righteous. When I do not feel respected at home,

I get angry. When I see people use the church, but not love the church,

I get angry. There’s only one letter different in “anger” and “danger.” I want to be “good and mad.” I want to “be angry and sin not.” But truthfully some days my anger is so self-serving and immature, I’m ashamed when I get angry.

I’m a lover, not a fighter, so anger isn’t something you see a whole lot from me. I love life, people and the Lord too much. Life’s too short to be angry. My wife, Ginny, always says, “Dogs get mad, you shouldn’t.” So true.

You mention family as being important to you. I know you take a long vacation annually with the entire extended family at Sanibel Island (far right photo). What takes place, other than relaxation, during that time?

Each of our four children – two sons, two daughters  – and their spouses are responsible one day for the evening meal, family games and devotions. We laugh a lot, and whether it’s golfing, fishing, shopping or just hanging out at the pool or the beach, one thing is for sure, it’s a sweet week of being with just family.

Is there anything you and Ginny have done over the years of your kids’ growing up that has made “family” so special — and apparently so successful?

Our children’s walk with God is more of a tribute to their mom than their pastor. As you know in ministry, family time and church time can really be a competition for one’s devotion and heart. Never, and let me say it again, never have I heard Ginny say to the kids, “Well, your dad can’t be there because he has a ‘church thing’ to go to.” Or, “You know your dad, church always comes first.”

First of all, she knew that wasn’t true. There have been times my wife has taken second place, and over the years, I’ve learned to repent and change that, but Ginny and I both have always felt our kids belong to the Lord and to us and not to the church. Years ago I made a pact with my kids: You come hear me preach, and I’ll be there at your swim meets, ballet recitals, baseball games, soccer games, and band and choir concerts. They’ve kept their end and still do, and I have as well. Ginny is a great mom, and while they know their parents aren’t perfect (far from it!), we try to be the real deal. My kids are the real deal too – all four of them and their spouses.

Our October issue carried a story about the difficulties that pastors’ wives have in the shadows of their husbands’ ministries. Was there anything that you and Ginny talked about or agreed to early in your marriage/ministry that has carried both of you though the strains of ministry that so many other pastors face — not always successfully?

Perhaps not consciously, but I can tell you this. Ginny has never seen herself living in anybody’s shadow, especially mine. I am free to be available to meet our church’s needs and our staff’s desires because of her. She makes it easy to do that. We are a team. We are both called.

She is my greatest cheerleader and a great prayer warrior. She knows when I’m quiet, I’m thinking – probably about church. She sits in different locations in church, she sings in the choir and is very active in the body, but if faced with the choice to hear her husband preach or watch our son pitch, guess what she’ll choose? A sermon CD only costs $4.00. She’s probably heard that one before, but there’s only one high school baseball career. She’s going with my blessing to represent us both. Only difference is — she won’t yell at the umpire like I might. Oh yeah, that’s another thing that can make me mad.

I count 126 deacons of the church in the ministry plan; what functions do so many people carry out? Where are the month to month decisions made?

Our deacons play a vital role in this body we call Idlewild. They are not a board – we do not find that in the Bible. In fact, the only board in the Bible is the one Paul floated on in the Mediterranean. They are servants. They serve widows in our fellowship, and they do something else. They give great collective counsel to their pastor. It’s a great marriage when you have a group of men who are close to the church family and serve them; why wouldn’t you want to know their answers to the questions of “Are we going to fast, too slow? Are we okay? Are we clear in communicating the vision? Is there something that needs changed?”

We have very few committees, but three very busy committees in our structure — Personnel, Finance and Stewardship, and Missions.

Deacons trust staff. Staff trusts committees. Committees trust staff, and the church trusts staff and structure.

For a physical plant that large on 143 acres, is there a management structure that you use to get the work done in an orderly fashion? Do staff have annual goals to meet?

We have 22 pastors and an incredible staff of managers and directors that I have the privilege of doing life with and who are the arms and legs of our ministry. We have a Leadership Team comprised of department heads that meet weekly for two hours. Additionally, we have a weekly two-hour pastoral staff meeting for encouragement, biblical instruction and communication, and a monthly two-hour M2 meeting (ministers and managers) for vision casting, planning, and settling staff and scheduling conflicts. Then monthly our entire staff gathers for our All Staff Breakfast – we call this meeting our Monthly Rally. We publish the Rally Rag listing birthdays, anniversaries and special recognition for the month. We have door prizes, reward staff with praise and encouraging cards, and sometimes monetary gifts as well. Rally stands for R – Recognition; A – Appreciation; L – Laugh; L – Look Ahead; and Y – Your Pastor.

How many direct reports to you have? How close are you to most of the decisions, or are you more engaged with the vision of the church and what is coming on line?

My executive pastor, Brian McDougall, reports to me, and I am indirectly responsible for all of our pastoral staff. They know I am available to them, and Brian knows they have access to me any day, any time, and anywhere. One of the things we are getting better at every day is evaluating everything we do after we do it. What worked? What would we do different? What didn’t work? Why did we have the response we had? Who did well? Who did not?

You’ve served on the SBC’s International Mission Board and other missions units. Your church budgeted last year for $1,840,070 for missions work. The Great Commission Resurgence of the SBC has brought recommendations for evangelization. What do you see being accomplished there now that will be meaningful?

One of the highlights of my life was serving as a trustee for eight years with our International Mission Board. I was privileged to serve on the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force (GCR). For the GCR to be effective, it has to be more than a byline or a slogan. Churches have to catch the vision for the thousands of people groups without the gospel and sacrifice personal and corporate wealth to get the gospel to penetrate lostness. Two things have always brought Southern Baptists together – missions and evangelism. I see great days ahead for the SBC in those two areas.  www.Idlewild.org

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When the congregation has ‘celebrity’ members

Tony Dungy was very active while he was head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He and Lauren served in our preschool ministry, served ice cream at Vacation Bible School, helped with our recreation ministry, and when we planted a church in central Tampa, they became very active there. Their children are active in our Saturday recreation ministry, and his kids sing in our Children’s Choir programs on Wednesday evenings. Tony and Lauren have never seen themselves as celebrities, only as servants. They are the real deal.
I feel a little uncomfortable talking about high profile people who attend Idlewild. James reminds us the ground at the foot of the cross is level.

One great characteristic about Idlewild is that even though the Yankees Spring Training is in Tampa and people like Andy Pettitte, Joe Giraldi and Mariano Rivera have attended, and people like Lou Piniella, who is a member and active here, we do not get star struck, and those folks are treated like everyone else. That’s the way the Lord wants it, they want it, and we want it. — KW

When Bill Hybels came to the podium and told the Global Leadership Summit in August that he had bad news and good news, one might guess there was a cancellation (and replacement) in the conference lineup. There was, but the reasons were unexpected.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz had cancelled out because a gay rights group said it was inappropriate for him to be speaking at an “anti-gay church,” that is, Willow Creek.

Hybels shared that his team and the management of Starbucks had been in conversations over the matter during the week, but that in the end, Schultz decided not to speak.

The gay rights group said that “it is unacceptable” that Schultz would appear on the stage, saying “the church has long practiced dangerous conversion therapy to ‘cure’ people of their sexual orientation … Not denouncing these practices is tacit approval.”

Hybels was gracious and generous in his explanation about the Starbucks CEO’s decision. But others, judging from the Christianity
Today blog, saw it differently.

Said one, “At some point the pro-gay movement is going to be called out for its blatant hyprocrisy and agenda against evangelicals. They’re overplaying their hand and almost forcing anyone who might appear to not automatically acquiesce to their agenda to bow down to them.”

“Well, let’s face it folks,” wrote another, “The guy [Schultz] did the best thing for his position. He knows full well that there won’t be blowback from his backing out of an event at a Christian church because of the protest.”

Well, that aside, is this just a one-time irritant, or does it hold deeper meaning, especially in view of other such challenges by the gay community? There are three implications to consider:

First, the gay community isn’t interested in being accepted by the culture — they want approval, a vastly different thing. We’ve reached the point where churches are being pushed to not simply tolerate their lifestyle, but to approve it — and all that comes with that, including marriage.

Second, the confrontation of the gays is a larger movement against Christian businesses and organizations. Now it is Starbucks, earlier it was the Chick-fil-A restaurant chain, where one incident with the chicken sandwich firm is all about, said one observer, “controlling the narrative.”

Third, biblical authority is at stake. Some churches aren’t talking about the issues that affect their own denominations. I asked one Lutheran (ELCA) pastor what his congregation was going to do about the denomination’s acceptance of gay clergy two years ago, and in so many words, he said: “Most in my church aren’t following the issue, don’t have strong feelings about it, and I’m not likely to raise it with them, if I don’t need to do so.” It’s called avoidance.

A friend in the media told me, “Have we reached a point where a serious Christian [read that, one who believes that the gay lifestyle is sin] will never be able to achieve public office? Issues like marriage, submission, evil, and plenty of other things are not just disapproved of, they are made out to look ridiculous [by the media and gay community].”

He went on: “It does not bode well, and I’m not sure I see a way out of it. Christians are increasingly being marginalized to the point where anyone who seriously tried to defend these values is becoming ostracized. At what point do we start getting hunted?”

Maggie Gallagher, writing in the National Review in August, said, “Gay-marriage advocates have successfully shut down most public avenues for opposition: In entertainment, media, and the academy, opposition to gay marriage is considered suicidal.

“Ordinary Americans hear messages in support of marriage as the union of husband and wife in only two ways at this point: at church or synagogue, and in politics,” Gallagher wrote.

Seminary president Al Mohler  reminds us: “Our greatest fear is not that homosexuality will be normalized and accepted, but that homosexuals will not come to know of their own need for Christ and the forgiveness of their sins.”

Elsewhere he commented: “It is not the world around us that is being tested, so much as the believing church. We are about to find out just how much we believe the Gospel we so eagerly preach.”

COMMENTS?  RON@CHURCHEXECUTIVE.COM

By Ronald E. Keener

Two respected researchers call for listening to members and learning what passionately motivates them.

It is the old truism in the worlds of membership groups such as the church that 20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work.

“And,” says researcher Scott Thumma, “almost no church has more than half of its membership actively engaged and fully participating.”

Thumma, professor of sociology of religion at Hartford Seminary and researcher at Hartford Institute for Religion Research, and Warren Bird, director of research and intellectual capital development for Leadership Network, expound on that theme in The Other 80 Percent: Turning Your Church’s Spectators into Active Participants, (Jossey-Bass and a Leadership Network Publication).

“We are calling pastors and lay leaders of churches to reach out and attempt to minister to those sheep that have drifted away, never show up and are disconnected. This will take work, and it may mean doing ‘church’ differently but the alternative implies that these members of the congregation are unimportant and insignificant to God’s kingdom,” Thumma says in responding to Church Executive’s questions for himself and his co-author.

You speak in the book to a malaise seen in the decline of membership, involvement, and commitment in congregational life. Does that go to the larger societal issues as well?

Indeed, the trials and tribulations that plague the church from within are only minor compared to the larger societal spiritual malaise. The dramatic rise in those Americans who say they have no religious affiliation is one such indication.

Additionally, younger generations of unchurched persons claim not hostility to “churchianity,” but an indifference to it. They see pursuing spiritual maturity within a church context as irrelevant to them.

What is it you are suggesting to turn that around?

We suggest that if pastors continue to lead church as they have in the past, the best they can expect is a church functioning at a third to a half of its potential. Even worse, more than 50 percent of its membership is spiritually unmotivated, stagnant and not being ministered to. We don’t come out and call for a dramatic revolution of church life, however, in a sense this scenario is implied in our several chapters of leadership suggestions.

What did the research for the book tell you about American churches?

Most American churches, whether mainline or Evangelical, liberal or conservative, are doing a lousy job of caring for all their membership, their entire flock. Looking in depth at which factors correlated with greater involvement and conversely, a lack of commitment, dramatically demonstrated that churches must do a better job of understanding why people are engaged or disconnected from congregational involvement. Most churches need to reform their ways of doing church, training volunteers, creating avenues for participation and maturing people spiritually throughout their involvement with the church.

What do “shepherds” need to do to draw near that 80 percent?

First, pastors need to remember that the 20/80 rule isn’t one of the Ten Commandments. They need to stop being complacent about the fact that half their membership never shows up. They must make a serious attempt to reach out to all their flock by engaging in a process and multiple strategies to address the lack of participation and commitment among their membership.

In the book we outline a practical series of steps related to listening to “the other 80 percent,” learning about the unique context of one’s church, and then leading the entire church toward greater spiritual growth.

What kind of listening should the church be doing?

Leadership teams need to listen to all their members. The core, committed folks serve well but they don’t always serve happily or passionately. Hear from them about what motivates them and why they are inclined to serve – and what they might like to be doing.

Listen to those drifting away and those now gone for some time; what underlies their disconnection?  Is it personal life changes, interpersonal squabbles, or a deeper disillusionment with congregational dynamics?   Then commit to addressing the needs and patterns that are uncovered; be willing to fix those who are hurt, what is in need of repair, or replace what is broken.

Isn’t it likely that most churches are listening to their staff and not to members’ desires, with the view “we know what you need”?

True, we found that most clergy and staff thought all members would “get with the program” and conform to the staff’s plan for involvement. We live in a world of choice and individual customization. Different people are motivated and fulfilled by a wide variety of options. The church successful at connecting a greater percent of members provided multiple paths to involvement, a diversity of engagement tracks, and countless options for ministry, education, training and involvement.

What does any particular church look like that has come close to turning spectators into active participants?

One of the most surprising findings from the research was how many people want to grow spiritually, but aren’t. We also found a direct relationship between involvement and spiritual growth, such that the more people engage in their church, the more they report that they’re growing spiritually.

Can you share the names of a couple churches who are actively engaging members, and how that is being demonstrated?

We’re not allowed to reveal the names of the churches we surveyed, but our sense is that few churches seem to be doing this really well. Smaller congregations have an advantage: They have to actively engage a higher percentage of their people to get anything done. Churches that equate being a good church participant with a robust spiritual life that involves continued education, ministry training and leadership, service to the church and community and growth in spiritual depth, stimulate involvement and participation in a greater number of their members.

What is it that you want the reader to take away from having read the book?

That if they continue to do church the way they always have in the past, nothing will change. To stimulate the involvement of their disconnected members, congregations will have to do outreach, ministry, education, training and service differently. We want to give them hope that their situation can change, and that Jesus’ story about the shepherd who went looking for his lost sheep still works and bears fruit today.

There is no single solution for every church. The answer for each church must be contextualized, but the answers can be found by listening to the membership and learning from the wider community about what passionately motivates their people.

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How to approach the task of change

Many readers have commented on the helpfulness of the 27 tables and charts spread across the book, all of which offer a window on “the other 80 percent” in the typical church.

At the heart our book argues that increasing involvement rests on spiritual growth, maturity and above all personal spiritual fulfillment. Such spiritual maturity excites one to greater involvement, promotes commitment and engages one to actively live out a Christian faith. However, programmatic, organizational and functional changes have to take place in most traditional churches to make this happen for more than the “easy” 20 to 40 percent of members.

Congregational leaders have to work at bringing the lost sheep back into the fold, not to fill the church but to feed them spiritually.  The book offers a process to begin to address that task   — ST

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The state of the church in 239 words

The few fast-growing churches that grab newspaper headlines unfortunately represent only a fraction of church life. While the start of new churches is at an all-time high, the percent of people who never attend church is likewise at an all-time high. The majority of churches, evangelical and otherwise, are plateaued or declining, and nearly all denominations are facing decline in both membership and baptisms (or equivalent).

Almost no denomination is exhibiting growth that is greater than national population increases. Additionally surveys show that attendance percentages have declined slightly in recent decades, but more troublesome is the indication that a significant percentage of weekly worshippers have dropped back to two to three times a month.

Looking specifically at those who do attend, one can see a decrease in the level of participation and lack of involvement. However, the challenges for the church are even greater than these symptoms if the evaluation of the health of the American church is extended to younger generations. The average age of churches in most denominations is more than 50 years.

Many of the mainline congregations have a third to a half of their attendees over the age of 65. A decreasing percentage of those under 50 are found in church, and combined with a decline in birth rates, economic woes, and population migration, indicate that the traditional church form must seriously reconsider how it does ministry if it is to survive with any vitality.  — ST

Are you hiring the right person for that position? How do you know if the person is the right candidate? Do you have a formalized process that identifies the unique capabilities and talents of your prospective candidates?

Often churches hire the best servant ministers since they have served the church, they have the right servant’s heart and they know the church business already. This may seem to be the correct avenue, but utilizing these criteria as the decision factor leads to higher turn-over, decreased employee morale and lower productivity. Churches, more often than the business community, experience negative repercussions from not having an established process because congregants will leave the church and possibly the entire church community, if they do not feel they were given the right response in applying for a position.

Last year Mission Community Church in Gilbert, AZ implemented a formalized hiring process. Executive Pastor Mike Work says that “by implementing a formal process of candidate selection, behavioral assessments and formalized interviewing, we’ve been able to find staff members (employees) who have a heart for the mission of our church as well as a true giftedness in the work they are hired to do.”
There is an equation to successful candidate hiring. Are you using all components of this equation or just pieces of it?

Competence: This is the initial review of the position and the candidates. Ensure you have an appropriate job description that identifies the top three to six competencies and skills required for the position. This is not a job listing of every responsibility the employee will have; these are the essential functions and experiences only.

Once the job description is clearly written, then all candidates need to submit a resume against that particular job description.

Character: In this second phase of the hiring process, each position goes through a job assessment to ensure that the position is clearly identified, scoped and understood. Without a third-party assessment, it is difficult to understand what candidate behaviors are expected from the position. A “best guess” gets you just that – a best guess employee (someone who might do the job right but also likely will not).

Chemistry: By the third phase of the candidate selection process, your candidate pool may be quite small. The candidates left are the only ones who go through the formal interview process. In this phase and to ensure that you hire the right person, implement a process of structured interviews for at least one round of interviews. Ask the candidates the same questions, interview them in the same style and have the same people do the interviews.

Once the three phases of your process have been completed, the entire interview team meets to discuss the candidates. Each interviewer, including the initial consultant, will review their notes and score each candidate in every area, include a score for each phase of the process. To ensure fairness in your hiring processes, each interviewer score should be calculated. The person with the highest overall score is the one to whom you should make your offer.

As Mike Work sees it, “The new process has decreased our turnover, enabled happier employees and increased productivity since we are now hiring the right candidates for the right positions. To our surprise, it has also helped us better disposition volunteers who applied for these paid ministry positions but were not the right fit.”

Jessica Pierce is founder and president of Accelerated Team Dynamics, LLC, Phoenix, AZ, and is a certified behavior coach. She is executive director of Career Connectors, a community outreach program.  www.atdsuccess.com

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Candidate assessment tools

Wopodo is a candidate assessment tool www.wopodo.com/cc that matches job seekers to specific openings by using a screening process on more than 80 dimensions of workplace compatibility.

A program such as this pre-screens candidates using the DISC assessment and guarantees that applicant for the same price as a typical job board posting.

Essentially, it moves phase two into the pre-screening process saving time, money and resources. Wopodo founder and chairman, Richard Swenson, says that “the patent-pending process will enable almost anyone to make the “perfect hire” the first time because all applicants are pre-screened on more than 80 dimensions of workplace compatibility before you even look at their resume.”

By Ronald E. Keener

When Alan Danielson, 39, spoke to his congregation at New Life Bible Church for the first time as its senior pastor earlier this year, he included comments about small groups. By his third week he had his first small group campaign, and within his first six weeks at the church they had nearly 60 percent of the church in groups. “To me, groups are not a program, they are how we do church,” he says. If small groups are on a fast track at New Life, you might expect it of the pastor who had much to do with the groups strategy at LifeChurch.tv in Oklahoma City, where he worked with Craig Groeschel for four years.

“When I started, LifeChurch.tv was running 9,000 per week on five campuses, all in Oklahoma. During my four years there – I left in 2009 – the church grew to more than 25,000 on 13 campuses in six states, the largest in Oklahoma City with nearly 7,000 and the smallest in Albany, NY, at about 300,” he says.

In his first 18 months he was the LifeGroups pastor on the OKC campus, responsible for all aspects of the small group ministry on that campus. Then for six months the roles for groups and missions were combined, making him responsible for all groups and local mission efforts from the OKC campus. Then he became executive director of LifeGroups and was responsible for all group ministries on all 13 campuses of the church.

Are there foundational principles you worked from in groups development?

Our strategy for growth was nothing original to us. We leveraged the campaign method that Saddleback innovated during the 40 Days of Purpose craze. Twice per year Craig would have a group-centric series. We’d provide video curriculum for leaders, ask everyone to get in a group, and it worked well for us.

In terms of foundational principles: I couldn’t articulate it at the time, but looking back in hindsight, we structured the small group ministry for numerical growth rather than control. I once heard Rick Warren say: “You can structure for growth or you can structure for control, but you can’t structure for both.” That statement helped me recognize that we habitually structured for growth. Whenever growth would stall, it was because we were trying to structure for control.

Here’s what I mean: Structuring for growth means removing obstacles that inhibit growth. The results of such methods are explosive numerical expansion which is exciting, but messy. Structuring for control means putting some barriers in place that will slow numerical increase, but the trade off is less messy.

Do you have a knack for growing groups and campuses?

I don’t know that I have a knack for growing groups, campuses or churches. I have a knack for relationships. I have a gift for remembering lots of names and trying to make as many people as possible feel valued. As a result, lots of people will follow my leadership. It’s the abilities of those who I led and lead that grew the ministries I was a part of and that grow them now.

Can you apply the practices of managing and leading to growing small groups?

I sometimes get annoyed by the fuzzy “managing” and “leading” line. All leaders have to manage, and all managers have to lead. I believe that anyone in leadership has to at least be marginally capable in three areas: casting vision, executing strategy and fostering relationships. I don’t think these three areas can be compromised — ever! Few leaders/managers are going to be naturally gifted in all three areas, but all people in leadership must be able to do all three.

I explain this in detail in my eBook, Triple-Threat Leadership (only available on www.3threat.net), but the gist is this: Every leader has strengths and weaknesses. Wise leaders play to their strengths and downplay their weaknesses. However, a weakness in casting vision, executing strategy or fostering relationships is not just a weakness: it’s a liability. Leaders do not have the luxury of playing to their strengths while ignoring their liabilities. Leaders must learn to implement all three basic leadership skills on some level.

I, for example, lean heavily on my abilities to foster relationships and cast vision. Yet no matter how well I do those two things, it is inexcusable if I don’t execute! Talking about the goal (vision) and having fun with people along the way (relationships) will never get things done (execution). The effective leader must do all three.

These facts of course apply to small group ministry all the way from the pastor down to the individual small group leader.

What might have been a fumble on your way to learning groups management?

After our first initial surge in small group growth at LifeChurch.tv, I sort of panicked: “What if a Lesbian Skin Head decides to start a group? Before we do this again, I need to have some leadership training meetings to keep that from happening!” When I implemented those training events before someone could start a group, our ability to grow immediately halted! That’s when I realized that I needed to let go and structure for growth. Thankfully, we never had a Lesbian Skin Head start a group, but we had some pretty unqualified people start them. This was hard to address and sometimes a group had to be “put down,” but 99 percent of the time the right people self-selected for leadership.

Based on that experience I’d say do some soul searching and decide whether growth or control resonates most with you. Then commit to the side you lean toward!

What have you learned from other churches when consulting; what couple issues do they often address with you, and how did you resolve them?

One of the biggest eye-openers for my clients is the growth/control question. Sometimes it takes me half a day to sell them on the idea because they want to be able to value both equally, but once they make up their minds to lean heavily in one direction or the other, suddenly they gain momentum.

In my consulting experience, church leaders often start with the wrong questions. They start out by asking questions like:

• How do I double groups?
• How can I recruit coaches/leaders?
• How do I train leaders?
• How do I know what curriculums to suggest/use?

It’s only natural, because these questions reveal their most urgent need/want. However, our most urgent need isn’t always the first thing to address. All of these questions are procedural questions, and when church leaders ask procedural questions, they tend to cut and paste the next “hot strategy” from some superstar church. If the strategy works, they are glad, but they don’t really know why it worked. Inevitably, when a cut-and-pasted strategy doesn’t work for them, they blame the process and move on to the next “hot strategy.” The root of the problem is that they are asking how instead of why questions. The questions they should start with should investigate their own church DNA and structure. They should ask questions like:

• What’s keeping our group ministry from growing?
• Why can’t we seem to hang on to coaches?
• What are we doing in our ministry that runs against the cultural DNA of our organization?
• If I were fired, what would my replacement do?
• What do I know in my heart that I should be doing that I really don’t want to do, or I’m just not good at?

These questions don’t start with process. They start with self-evaluation. Understanding the nature of your own church culture, your own leadership strengths/weaknesses, and your own biases will explain a lot about the things that you are frustrated with and help you identify steps you need to take in order to gain momentum.

What is it about small groups [“the little church”] that is so important today in large and megachurches? Is it mostly about growth?

This is an interesting question. Sadly for many pastors the small group question is just about growth. They see small groups as a way to close the back door of the church or plug the drain in the bottom of the tub. This is tragic because what small group leader ever signed up just to keep people from leaving the church? Isn’t discipleship about much more than that? Inevitably, if groups are just a keep-people-from-leaving-tool in a church, that church will never have a thriving group ministry. I believe this is why many pastors are saying small groups don’t work; they tried it to keep people from leaving, the ministry never took off, people left, so groups must not work.

The problem is much deeper than small groups. It’s about discipleship. Are we really committed to getting people into Christian relationships? Discipleship in the New Testament never happens through programs; it always happens through relationships. Healthy small group ministries never have church growth as their main goal. Their main goal is personal, spiritual growth. This kind of growth doesn’t come in a vacuum and it certainly doesn’t come in a class. It comes when real people connect with other real people who are pushing each other to become like Christ.

How do you get groups to go from sitting to serving?

A key for us at LifeChurch.tv was merging the groups and missions positions on staff. Our slogan became “Everyone in a LifeGroup, every LifeGroup on mission.” This caused us to set measurable goals regarding groups on mission. It caused us to start creating curriculums and resources about groups being on mission. And it caused us to talk about mission all the time to our groups!

Simply put, I tell my clients who want their groups to serve, “Mission has to be in your heart, on your lips and in your strategy.” By “heart” I mean the pastor or ministry leader must be passionate about mission. By “lips” I mean that the pastor or ministry leader must talk about mission to their groups all the time. By “strategy” I mean the ministry leader must create systems and set goals that facilitate mission.

You are new to your current church, so how will groups work into the strategy at New Life Bible and its outreach?

To me groups are not a program, they are how we do church. Missions are not “projects” in our group ministry; groups are how we do missions!  From moment one, the definition of a “group win” is for the group to identify its unique mission and act on it together. Of course, some groups understand this better than others, but all of our groups serve on mission at some point because it’s a clear expectation. So you could say that outreach is done through our groups.

A few of our small groups have taken on the task of building, running and maintaining a food pantry in our church. They are passionate about making this happen and I couldn’t be more proud of them! Another group organized an interview skills coaching event where they taught unemployed people how to improve their resumes and their interview skills. They’ve gone on to help several of those people find jobs. It’s been really exciting to watch.

This fall we had another groups campaign and we partnered with Family-id.com to produce a four week curriculum about discovering, developing, living out and passing on your family’s vision, mission and values. We’re the first church in history to use this material for a church-wide campaign encompassing Sunday messages, groups and family ministry. I think every church in the world needs to do this kind of campaign.

Family ID is a powerful tool for making the family the primary discipleship engine of the church rather than the children’s ministry. At New Life, our goal is to have a dynamic family ministry rather than a children’s ministry. Again, tons of people stepped up, started groups, joined groups and lives were changed! This created lots of crossover between our groups ministry and our family ministry, as well as lots of synergy. From now on Family ID will be a cornerstone in our family ministry as well as our small group ministry!

You’re commented about “the pain I felt for many of my client small group pastors.” What is their frustration?

The biggest frustration for thousands of small group pastors is the fact that their senior pastor doesn’t truly buy in to groups. Their senior pastors see groups as a way to keep people from leaving the church, so it’s just another church program. I’m passionate about telling senior pastors that they should expect nothing from their group ministries until they themselves completely commit to them.

The senior pastor sets the tone. Our church in six weeks launched groups and got nearly 60 percent of our people in groups! This is because I’m the person who has most bought into our group ministry. I lead a group. I talk about them all the time. I depend on my group. I love my group. As a result our people are following my lead. You might say I’m the Senior Pastor of Small Groups in
our church.

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Small groups at Lifechurch.TV

At LifeChurch.tv I was responsible for providing direction, support, and resources for the overall small group ministry. Each campus had a LifeGroup/Mission Pastor (LGMP) and it was my job to set the overall course for all 13 campus group ministries, support the campus LGMPs, and give them the resources (curriculum, videos, print materials, etc.) that they needed to succeed.

We had more than 1,000 groups and we provided weekly downloadable curriculum that aligned with Craig Groeschel’s sermons, as well as video curriculum every week. The downloadable print curriculum always aligned with Craig’s messages, but the video curriculum didn’t always align with his weekend talks.

The point of both resources was to make it easy for a leader to facilitate discussion in their groups. The .pdf discussion guides were easy to use because they related directly to the previous weekend’s teaching. The videos made it easy for leaders who were reluctant to “teach,” so the video did the teaching for them.    — AD

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‘Neighborhood model’ for small groups

Christ’s Church of the Valley in Peoria, AZ is an interesting case study. They are using the “Neighborhood Model” that Randy Frazee wrote about in his book, The Connecting Church. The Neighborhood Model sometimes gets a bad rap because it didn’t work for Willow Creek. Since so many have looked to Willow for years regarding groups, they immediately throw out what didn’t work there.

This is truly sad because the Neighborhood Model is ideal for churches with the right DNA. When I was working with CCV they had decided that their church did two things: The weekend and neighborhood groups. They used the New Testament and Frazee’s book as their blueprints, and the results were great.

I was excited to see this under-utilized approach gaining such traction. CCV didn’t come to me with process questions (how questions), instead they came with DNA and evaluation questions (why questions). It was one of the healthiest and most fun exchanges I’ve ever had with a client.  — AD

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Keeping track of the groups

The software my church uses is ChurchTeams. It’s the tool I’ve found churches are most satisfied with for group management. Unlike many group management tools, it allows you to track attendance without it feeling like you’re implementing some kind of control.

Attendance reporting happens via a weekly email to leaders, but the reason they fill out the reports is not primarily attendance.

Instead it is a communication tool from the leader to the entire group. They share prayer needs, communicate about mission opportunities, note the next meeting’s activities, and then send it to the entire group. Those group communications are then copied to the person who leads the small group ministry. The system automatically gathers attendance information from the emails and reports that monthly to the small group ministry point person.

ChurchTeams reporting is a system that provides a simple platform for the group to communicate regularly. This makes the group leaders feel that the main benefit of the software is for them rather than the church. The side benefit of this is that the church gets the attendance data without it feeling like a burden to the small group leader.   — AD

By Ron Keener

Church members are wise to check out “a too good to be true” investment, that could dash their trust in those who are their fellow Christians.

Larry and Shirley Lee thought they were investing their life savings with trusted acquaintances – the music director at their church and a long-time member of the church – when they put $400,000 into what they thought was a fund that promised (in a brochure) “Safety, Strength, Stability” and a “locked-in” interest rate of 7.9 percent to investors who would put in a minimum of $25,000.

Moreover, not only did the Ohio Lees find their trust violated, but 89 other investors were cheated of $9 million. Elsewhere, in February an Amish man – yes, Amish – age 77, in Sugarcreek, OH, was charged with stealing $33 million from mostly Amish investors in an affinity fraud case.

Affinity fraud is when a shyster takes advantage of a special kind of bond, such as membership in the same church, to cheat or steal from someone. It happened this year to three families in the City on the Hill Church in Boulder, CO in a $750,000 Ponzi scheme. Kevin Lauritsen, 50, in cahoots with the former pastor and another former member of the church, were convicted; Lauritsen was not a member of the church.

Said one of the victims, who lost $275,000 in the scheme, to the local newspaper, “They represented themselves as Christians. They gained our trust. This is breaching trust at the most basic level.” The judge on the case said, “It is not a simple theft for them. It was a theft of their faith in God, which is profound.”

It is all too easy to say it happens all the time, with fraudsters preying on members of the deaf community, religious groups, and minority groups. The schemer violates the trust of his or her own community by falsely promising high returns and little or no risk. You would think that is enough to make any investor think twice, but it happens too often in churches to turn a blind eye to it.

It happens in a variety of settings other than churches: country clubs, senior centers, neighborhood groups. Says one observer, “The hallmark of the fraud is that the scammer looks like or talks like a member of that group. He may be a member of the congregation or a country club golf pro.” It could be an Asian person preying on Asian people, or an African American scamming other African Americans.

In churches, the con man may be “the most Christian of all” in his talk and presentations. Security expert Jeffrey Hawkins tells the story of another kind of fraud:

“What would you do if a woman walks into your church and describes herself as a single mother who needed money to support her two kids. She says she gave her son a $5 bill to put in the collection basket, but realized it was a $50 bill and needed the money back.

“Turns out a couple churches in Florida gave her the money; later police arrested three people in connection with these thefts and for planning to do this to many more churches for gas, cigarettes and ‘pills,’” Hawkins relates.

Hawkins tells too of a man caught sending fake invoices to churches for different services said to have been rendered for electrical work, plumbing, supplies or printing. None of the “invoices” were for large amounts of money, he says, and many churches paid them because they looked genuine — and they were services that churches would normally incur.

“The one thing about ‘scam artists’ or criminals that use deception as a means of theft, is that they are very smart, manipulative and don’t often follow the same methods — they adapt,” Hawkins says. “Where you can take some basic measures to keep out a burglar, more awareness needs to be asserted when dealing with fraudsters.”

I serve on the benevolence team of my congregation, each week making decisions about whether to help on rent or pay for utility bills to individuals really hurting from the down economy. We are guided by a policy we’ve adapted from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. In a year’s time the church probably provides $50,000 to those in need, taking up a mercy offering once a month to replenish the fund.

Con artists are targeting the church and its members. Common sense should prevail, but often isn’t enough. Ronald Reagan said it, in another context, but it is still good advice: “Trust, but verify.”

COMMENTS? RON@CHURCHEXECUTIVE.COM

By Ronald E. Keener

Robert Jeffress uses the public media to address a broad audience, not just Christians.

The pulpit of well-known First Baptist Church in Dallas is a “megaphone” from which to be easily heard in evangelical Christianity, and Senior Pastor Robert Jeffress has amplified it even further in his skillful use of radio and television.

“As our culture continues to deteriorate, I believe there is an increasing need to act as salt and light in a decaying and darkening world by presenting God’s truth through every avenue that is available,” he explains his use of media. “Many times Christians just end up talking to themselves, rather than those outside the church. I view invitations to speak on television and radio as an opportunity to share God’s truth with a broader audience.”

Church Executive fielded a few questions to him about his media ministry:

What has been your ministry in radio and television in the past 20 years of your pastorates?

Media has always played an important part in my ministry. In my first pastorate, we broadcast our services on a 1000-watt station in a town of 5,200 people. During the time I was pastor of my previous church, First Baptist Church, Wichita Falls, TX, a businessman in our church approached me about taking our local ministry broadcast to a national audience and underwrote the first year’s cost.

The ministry, Pathway to Victory, has continued to grow since I became pastor of First Baptist Dallas and now airs on hundreds of television stations and cable systems around the world. The radio version of our program launched nationally August 1 with 283 stations. Media is just one more way to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It seems you have ratcheted up considerably your appearances on Fox News and perhaps other talk outlets. Do you find that Fox is more open to receiving opinions and viewpoints from you than other networks and shows?

My experience has been that, in spite of what many believe, the Fox News Channel is not composed of a bunch of ideologues pushing a particular viewpoint, but instead they are serious journalists who are interested in exploring all points of view when it comes to controversial topics. The phrase “fair and balanced” is more than a slogan for them, it really is their objective. I believe that is why they enjoy consistently high ratings.

Do you have a strategy in appearing on particular talk shows and news programs?

We have a wonderful media department that really takes care of all that. They just tell me where to go – so to speak! – and when.

What sort of help do you get from the church’s communications staff in preparing for these occasions?

Our media team handles all the logistics of any appearances, makes our church members aware of them, and offers helpful critiques.

What would you have said if Piers Morgan (on CNN) had asked you if homosexuality was a sin – as he did to Joel Osteen?

Read my book! Seriously, I have never backed away from that subject. I would have said that yes, homosexuality is a sin just as is adultery and premarital sex. They are all distortions of God’s plan for sexual fulfillment. Since God thought up the idea of sex, he knows how it can be enjoyed best: in a lifetime commitment called marriage between one man and one woman.

What do you suggest to other pastors in terms of speaking out on the tough topics, and how they can handle them well?

Every pastor must remember his prophetic mandate to deliver a “Thus says the Lord” to both believers and unbelievers. In both the Old Testament and New Testament, God’s messengers did not restrict their messages to believers only but they spoke to the world at large. Of course, you know what happened. Very few prophets had fan clubs! They were stoned, flogged, beaten and beheaded.

One pastor has told me: “Pastors who shy away from being ‘political,’ develop a casuistry for being silent. They claim they should not be involved in ‘political’ things when the real problem is spineless wimpish-ness.” How do you feel about that?

Here is the real question: Does God care about the slaughter of millions of children through abortion, the wholesale effort to remove any mention of his name from the public sector, or the efforts to legitimize homosexual behavior? All you have to do is look at the Bible to answer that question. If God has not changed and hates those practices, promising to judge those nations that engage in them, then every pastor has the responsibility to speak out.

What would you advise pastors when dealing with the media?

First, be courteous. Even if you disagree with their point of view, there is never a need to be rude. Second, be brief. Anticipate what questions you might be asked and carefully craft your answers in sound bites. Finally, be relaxed. Smiling while you speak can be very disarming, even to the harshest critic.

How can pastors say the “hard truths” of the Gospel while loving people and explaining unrepentant behavior?

I think we follow Jesus’ example of being what I call a “velvet-covered brick.” Jesus was always hard in his convictions, while being soft with people.

What do your congregants say to you on Sundays after you have been a commentator that week?

They are always very affirming. I serve a great church filled with great people! I have a team of 300 prayer partners in the church who pray for me during those interviews.

Robert Jeffress is the author of Outrageous Truths — Seven Absolutes You Can Still Believe (WaterBrook Press, 2008). His media ministry has recently published the first issue of Pathways, a monthly magazine.

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Truth is abhorred by masses

You have had some controversy since you came to Dallas when you preached on the gay agenda, and maybe other topics. How were these occasions handled?

Actually, my first experience with controversy occurred when I was pastoring in Wichita Falls, TX, and spoke out against two homosexual children’s books Daddy’s Roommate and Heather Has Two Mommies. A member of our church had checked out the books from our local library, and I refused to return them.

The resulting two-year firestorm gained national attention. We were attacked by the ACLU, People for the American Way, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and just about every left-leaning group you can imagine.

Recently, Alan Colmes interviewed me on Fox News radio and played excerpts of some of my sermons since I’ve been in Dallas about Islam, Mitt Romney and Mormonism, and homosexuality. Suffice it to say, Alan is not a fan!  My experience has been that the seventeenth-century Jesuit Priest Baltasar Gracian was correct when he said, “Truth is abhorred by the masses.”