Most of what it does isn’t all that new. You’ve seen it before: On-Site ministries like Sunday worship and Wednesday suppers; Off-Site ministries like small home-based groups and mission work; and On-Line ministries like Web sites and Facebook groups.
What’s new:
» All are happening with equal urgency
» Success is measured by total “touches,” not Sunday attendance
» Filling the church building isn’t seen as a primary value
Let’s take these one at a time, because they represent a sea change in attitudes and strategies for church development.
Even the smallest congregation must do more than Sunday worship, unless its goal is to die gracefully. Sunday worship just doesn’t reach enough people. The congregation’s assets — its human assets, faithfulness, big-hearted concern for the community, desire to serve — can only be deployed adequately if the congregation is touching a broader sphere.
Off-Site ministries aren’t just a strategy for getting people into church on Sunday. They serve important purposes in their own right. The home-based small group, for example, becomes the primary locus of pastoral care. The mission activity puts faith on the line. The workplace study group builds an essential bridge between Sunday and Monday.
While Sunday worship does touch many lives, it might not touch some of them as deeply as, say, hanging drywall at a Habitat house. And most of the lives a congregation could touch might never attend services.
We err grievously when we term all non-Sunday folks as “unchurched.” They are children of God who know God in varying degrees, some quite deeply and some shallowly. Our call isn’t to steer them to a Sunday pew but to help them go deeper with God.
Like a family that is “upside down” in the mortgage on a house purchased for yesterday’s lifestyle, many congregations own facilities that they can’t afford, don’t need and yet feel obligated to preserve. Taking steps to jettison the building isn’t likely to happen.
What the Multichannel Church concept says is, Don’t make the problem worse by letting the building drive the congregation’s agenda. Drawing people to the central site isn’t the ultimate measure of any activity. It’s about serving people, not about getting bodies inside the doors.
The implications of such attitudes are enormous.
A growth strategy, for example, won’t focus on improving Sunday morning, but on touching more lives all week long.
Hiring committees won’t look just for excellence in leading Sunday worship, but for entrepreneurial skills in deploying human assets and decentralizing church life.
Seminaries will teach students how to build organizations, motivate colleagues, and leverage resources, not just how to preach and teach.
To take the congregation’s pulse, church leaders will visit home groups, show up at mission sites, examine statistics on Web site usage, assess “touches,” and not just count the house on Sunday.
The budget will look different, because less of it will go into the staffing and housing of Sunday worship, and more into broadening and diversifying the congregation’s reach.
