There's no difference between bulletins and missionary slideshows

Missionary slideshows are more and more a thing of the past, but when they were common place, I'd heard someone say that missionary slideshows were more for the missionary than they were for the group watching the slideshow. In many cases, the group watching the slideshow had little connection with those pictured in the slides, the faces in the pictures could've been photoshopped out of a National Geographic for all they knew. To the missionary, however, they'd invested their life into those people creating a deep bond. So while the audience, I'm sure appreciated seeing the pictures and hearing about the ministry, it probably meant more to the missionary. I've realized in recent months that bulletins (both the Sunday bulletin and bulletin boards) have a lot of similarities with slideshows.

Among church office circles, the Sunday bulletin is often viewed as one of the most ineffective channels of communication though for some reason it's the default channel utilized in many churches. If people read the Sunday bulletin, it's rare that they remember to respond to the items that caught their interest when they read it during the worship service. At least, that's the perception in the offices I've worked in. Bulletin boards run a close second.

My epiphany in recent months is that the Sunday bulletin or bulletin board is of high interest to the ministry or person who submitted the information for that publication. The group who requested a bulletin announcement for their upcoming excursion, flips through the bulletin to see their announcement printed. The ministry that requested a bulletin board to highlight their summer ministry week, looks to see the bulletin board. So even though it may not be the most effective communication method, it's important to those groups because they want to see their interest promoted in print. That's as far as I've gotten in my breakdown; I'm still extrapolating further conclusions as to where this leads and the impact it has on our communication methods.

Late addition - I found this correlating post today

A sanctuary for 25,000 people

During the course of another trip to my Dad's neurologist in Philadelphia, I had the chance to ponder the forethought that went into the famed Pennsylvania Railroad 30th Street Station. Granted, the Pennsy constructed the edifice at a time when railroad traffic was near it's peak, but having been constructed in 1934, the station has met the daily volume of passengers, some 25,000 daily, that pass through it's hallowed halls. To my knowledge, this has been accomplished over the past 74 years without any expansion program. Each time I'm in the station I marvel at the design. To anticipate the need for so much open space, someone apparently figured, planned for and banked on a lot of people lining to board numerous trains in regular succession. And the impressive statement of the massive ceiling and the roman columns; just exquisite architecture. And while to the daily commuters it's likely just a station, to a Pennsylvania Railroad fan like myself, it's a sanctuary.

I wonder if it is at all possible to create a worship sanctuary along the same lines. A structure that is designed with enough forethought to serve the needs of a congregation for 75 years. Or do church organisms, in harvest rich environments especially, naturally outgrow spaces?

I'm still mulling the answer to that, but I do know that the 30th Street Station is one of numerous examples of why the Pennsy is renowned as "The Standard Railroad of the World."

Opportunities & Threats to Grace Church

A strategic planning tool is assessing an organizations strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, commonly referred to as a SWOT analysis. The strengths and weaknesses are easy enough to understand, but I find organizations struggle to differentiate strengths from opportunities and weaknesses from threats. In short...

Strengths/Weaknesses focus on the internal characteristics that currently make up the organization

Opportunities/Threats focus on the external factors that could impact the organization

There's a difference in the internal/external and a difference in timing - current/potential. Let me share some of my opportunity/threat analysis of the ministries at Grace that may help clarify the differences. Items listed are not prioritized in anyway.

Threats

Downsizing at the Johnson & Johnson plant in Lititz - the ongoing downsizing and the potential for even more job losses at the Johnson & Johnson plant in Lititz is a threat to our daycare ministry as several families who are employed at the plant bring their kids to our daycare because we're less than a mile away from the plant. The potential loss of those daycare customers is a threat to the future of our daycare.

Warwick and Manheim School Districts continuing to provide a conservative education - So long as the Warwick and Manheim School Districts provide a conservative education (recognizing that's a relative concept) the difference between a Christian education and a public education will remain less noticeable and thus a threat to our Christian school ministry. It's a double-edged concept because this sounds like I'd want the school districts to shift and I don't. But I can't rule out that as parents weigh the options available for educating their children and compare the costs of a Christian education against a free public education at Warwick/Manheim, the differences are not as stark as they are in other parts of the country.

Satellite churches coming to Lancaster - I can't imagine it won't be long before a church or churches establish satellite locations in our area giving families and individuals the option of going to a church where they get to hear nationally-known Pastors on a weekly basis.

The local economy - If, as mentioned previously, Johnson & Johnson continues to downsize the Lititz plant, and if other area businesses follow suit, it will negatively impact the local economy. A drop in the local economy presents a threat to all of our ministries as it will inevitably affect our finances. Fewer families will be able to make the sacrifice for a Christian education causing school enrollment to decline and with less income in the local area, I would anticipate Church giving to decline too.

Future facility expansion - While I dream of us expanding our facilities in the coming years, such projects have been known to divide a church. I'd be negligent to not state that our dream of future expansion could be a potential threat to our ministry.

Opportunities

772 relocated to West Lincoln Ave - The Township/County's consideration of relocating Route 772 to pass right in front of the church is a potential opportunity, possibly sending more traffic and people past the church and giving us a chance to make our presence and existence known. Just think of more traffic having passed by during the Rodeo last June.

Regional or Community Church - we're positioned geographically in such a way that we have the option of choosing whether we want to configure our ministries to serve our local community or to serve the broader region.

Diversity - I don't have consensus data to back this up, but my hunch is that our area is becoming more diverse and will continue to do so in the coming years giving us an opportunity to reach more people.

Draw families together - our culture is naturally spreading families apart with numerous activities. The church has an opportunity to unite families by structuring our ministries to involve family members together.

North Lititz gathering place - Lancaster and some points south of Lancaster provide gathering opportunities... Park City, Penn Cinema etc. But in Lititz itself and north, there aren't many gathering places. It's a role Grace Church has an opportunity to play.

Wedding Chapel ministry - with the recent renovations to the Chapel we can once again provide a service to the community in hosting weddings.



By no means a comprehensive list nor official, just my attempt to show how a list of opportunities and threats differs from a list of strengths and weaknesses.

Instead of a new building, I'd rather see a successful restoration project

As a relatively new homeowner without good handyman skills (I can't hang curtains without turning the drywall into Swiss cheese - it's painful), I appreciate watching the masters on This Old House restore old houses.


Maybe because of the facility challenges faced at the first church I served in, early on I had a desire to be a part of a facility expansion. I've held that hope, but more than being a part of a facility expansion project, at this point, I think I'd rather see a full restoration project.

Throughout my journey as a Christian, like an expedition to summit Mt Everest, I've passed the lives of men and women who didn't make it, their corpses laying along the side of the path. Lives spiritually destroyed in one way or another, ones who've lost credibility and respect. It's sobering and frankly scares me. I have a good idea of what I'm capable of and that but for the grace of God, I could be next. According to Scripture, this is not an accurate illustration, no life is exempt from God's grace, but I haven't had the privilege of seeing it play out firsthand.

Restoration is a tough task, if that wasn't evidenced by how few actually succeed. The issues that lead up to the need for restoration are complex in and of themselves. Add to that the restoration dynamics, usually multiple parties involved, there's typically some sort of public disclosure and a need on all sides to dedicate significant effort... it is very, very complicated. Not having witnessed a successful restoration that I can recall in my lifetime, it's easy to hear restoration-talk and interpret it solely as lip-service, but I have to fight those cynical thoughts.

I don't comprehend how it's supposed to work, trust is such a valuable, yet immeasurable commodity, that, once lost seems, in my insignificant human mind to be impossible to reestablish. But I cling to Scripture's promises and hope that some day I have the opportunity to see it exemplified. Wouldn't it be amazing to see an equal number of restorations in the American church as there are expansion projects?

See you a Mickey G's on Sunday

The Worship Design Team has rolled out another catchy way to package the next message series. Don't let the packaging fool you though, just cause it's a culturally relevant wrapper that's easy for us to remember, doesn't necessarily mean the content's like a watered down drink from the soda fountain.

But in a whole different context, out of nowhere I think we stumbled upon the next wave that's going to spread across churches. For the past, boy, I don't know when it started, so for the sake of this post... several years, gourmet coffee bars seem to be the in thing at churches. I've been asked countless times over the past several years as to whether Grace will take the coffee plunge. Though there are a ton of practical reasons, there's one response I enjoy sharing just for the fun of it.

The coffee-craze has been around for a while and instead of joining the dance years late as yet another follower, I'd rather find and pursue the next thing our culture will associate with casual social gatherings. To date I haven't come up with much more than an ice creamery akin to Cold Stone. That was until today.

Various fast food menu items adorn the main lobby doors, leading one of our guests to the building this Friday morning to excitedly exclaim, "Are you guys getting a McDonald's!" That's it, a Mickey D's! The next church craze.

This is actually a great microcosm of target audiences. Those who come to a service on a Sunday morning understand why there are McDonald's posters in the main lobby or why there are Happy Birthday balloons around the front desk. But to the non-Sunday guest who visit during the week these things have no context other than our front desk personnel, Charlene and Megan.

I felt for them the entire month they were asked over and over by every different guest, "Oh, is it your birthday today?" The target audience of Sunday mornings gets the message, but there are other audiences that receive the message. And, like the man who laughs last, they don't get it.

Pride and hurt feelings can be pretty overwhelming emotions

Sometime in 2007 I discovered, well, re-discovered, that you can borrow books for FREE at the local library. What a concept! I'm often too lazy or preoccupied with watching sports to take time to read. And to load my shelves with books that I only want to read once and don't desire to read again; I just have other things I'd rather invest in.

But the library, wow, all those books - any of which you can borrow and in many cases if they don't have it, you can reserve it from one of the other libraries in the network, is tremendous. I love to walk the aisles just scanning the titles. I probably sound like a moron, but libraries are non-existent in the 3rd world. Yeah, our research papers necessitated my visiting the East German and West German embassies to get the information to compare their economies. Okay, it's no longer in question... my moronic state that is. As someone recently proclaimed as they walked into my office, "You're a bizarre individual!" I digress.

I recently completed Tony Dungy's Quiet Strength; a fascinating account of his life with a behind-the-scenes look at life in the NFL. I enjoyed it immensely and though I've only heard a interview or two of his, I could hear Tony's voice reading the book to me as I read. The one quote that really caught my attention was "...pride and hurt feelings can be pretty overwhelming emotions."

In a way only Tony can achieve, it's stated so matter of fact-ly with an even-keeled approach in the midst of chaos. And from my experience, it's dead-on. A good reminder for me as I often have to see beyond the initial symptoms to try and assess the root cause of problems. I hope I continue to develop just a small aspect of the quiet strength Tony Dungy exudes.

US Television reception is changing in just over a year

For my US readers, you may have heard that television broadcasts are slated to change in just over a year. The good news is you don't have to run out and buy a flat screen HDTV to receive the new digital broadcasts, though it would be nice.

A quick aside here, hi-definition TV has been the rave of the past few years with viewers marvelling at the crisp quality of the enhanced pictures, but I had to laugh when I heard a sports-talk show host lamenting that the Christmas Mass from the Vatican this year was only broadcast in standard definition. He apparently had looked forward to seeing the church in the crispness and clarity of HD. A strong testament to how much better the picture must be.

You don't have to purchase a new TV set, you just need a converter box (they're not available as of yet, but they're coming soon). For some reason the government feels responsible to cover the cost of up to two boxes per household; an indicator of how much they anticipate they'll make off the newly freed-up frequencies maybe?!? You can go to this website to sign-up for your coupons and this site explains things a little bit.

I just signed up for mine.