Love Loud: The Southern Baptist Convention 2009

Tomorrow I will fly to Louisville to attend the Southern Baptist Convention. It’s the annual meeting of the denomination to which I belong. This year’s theme is “love loud: actions speak louder than words.” I’ve been a Southern Baptist my entire life. Growing up a PK, the annual meeting also doubled for family vacation. Thanks Dad I don’t go after the freebies at the booths as much anymore, but I still enjoy the convention.

I don’t hang my hat on any denomination. God can use any Kingdom citizen willing to serve. But I believe the SBC is one of the best representations of how believers can do more together than alone. Cooperating for the Great Commission is what most excites me about my denomination.

There’s always some measure of spirited banter at the annual convention. This year will be no exception, but I believe it will be a good meeting overall. I believe the SBC has a good future, but we do have our hurdles.

There are many worthy issues at the forefront – jumping on a Great Commission Resurgence, squelching our squabbles over tertiary and secondary doctrinal issues, changing the name of the denomination, increasing cooperative program giving at our churches, and empowering young leaders (I guess I’m one of the really younger ones at 29). All of which are important.

I see two issues that are critical to the future health of the denomination. I won’t pretend my concerns should be a priority, but my personal burden for the SBC involves these two areas.

More church plants where there is little evangelical presence. New churches reach people faster than established churches. We need droves of bold people willing to take risks for the gospel where soil is harder. Urban communities. Non-Bible-belt areas. Stable rural towns. College communities. We need to be louder in these areas.

An increased passion for small and traditional churches. There’s a lot of focus on large contemporary churches. Deservedly so. Many (obviously not all) of them are highly evangelistic and effective at assimilating people. Much can be learned from their successes. But the majority of churches in the U.S. could be described as “traditional,” “established,” or the “county seat first church.” The Southern Baptist Convention is no exception.

I’ll echo the sentiments of my father – don’t give up on the established or small church. If all the established and small churches went away, we could not replace them fast enough with church plants. And every church becomes established at some point.

Sure, many of these churches would budget for a flux capacitor and a DeLorean if it could take them back to 1955. But many of these churches have a strong desire to reach their communities. They’ve simply never had the right leaders to show them how. Southern Baptists need to be louder supporters of the small and traditional churches.

I believe the SBC loves loud. I believe we can turn the world upside down for Jesus. And I’m looking forward to a great future of partnering with my friends for the sake of the gospel. I’m stoked about loving loud.

Generation F and the Mega Church

Warren Bird and Scott Thumma have released new research on the mega church. The report comes out of the Hartford Institute of Religious Research and involved 25,000 people from 12 U.S. congregations. USA Today also reported on the research and noted a few key findings:

The average age of megachurch attenders is 40, compared to nearly 53 at a typical Protestant church. Nearly two-thirds of megachurch attenders are under 45, double the numbers in Protestant congregations of all sizes. The vast majority are between 18 and 44.

Nearly a third of megachurch attenders are single, compared to 10% in a typical Protestant church.

Today Jesse Phillips at catalystspace pointed to a recent post by Gary Hamel at the WSJ. Hamel discusses the influence of Generation F – the Facebook Generation. Specifically, how they expect the social environments of work to reflect the web. Hamel states, “these are the post-bureaucratic realities that tomorrow’s employees will use as yardsticks in determining whether your company is ‘with it’ or ‘past it.’” I’ve listed his main points.

• All ideas compete on an equal footing.
• Contribution counts for more than credentials.
• Hierarchies are natural, not prescribed.
• Leaders serve rather than preside.
• Tasks are chosen, not assigned.
• Groups are self-defining and -organizing.
• Resources get attracted, not allocated.
• Power comes from sharing information, not hoarding it.
• Opinions compound and decisions are peer-reviewed.
• Users can veto most policy decisions.
• Intrinsic rewards matter most.
• Hackers are heroes.

So mega churches have a large share of the Facebook Generation. And this generation has certain ideals they look for in social environments. Do you think these realities apply to the church? If so, are mega churches engaging Hamel’s noted realities correctly? Should they cater to, ignore, correct, or address any specific one?

10 Bad Church Work Habits

CNN.com recently posted on 10 of the worst work habits. After reading the article, I could not help but to view these bad habits through the lens of church life. So I’ve reworked the top ten list as it pertains to the daily tasks of ministry. You can read the original article here.

1. Procrastination. It’s harmful at any level, but the effects of this bad habit are compounded at higher leadership levels. If a ministry leader or senior pastor consistently procrastinates, then everyone is forced into a last minute fiasco. If top leaders don’t plan ahead, then by default no one plans ahead.

2. Sloppy communication. My second biggest pet peeve is poor grammar and careless writing. Write in complete sentences. Proof the worship guide. Check press releases for time and location errors. Stop splitting infinitives. Fill in the email subject line. And don’t chew gum or crunch ice in a meeting, which is my biggest pet peeve.

3. Confusing informal with disrespectful. I doubt most pastors would prefer to be called “The Most Holy Reverend Doctor.” In my experience, most church staff are on a first name basis. In church work, a direct superior may also be a best friend, but authority and submission must remain intact.

4. Taking advantage of leeway. For me, one of the most refreshing parts of being called into ministry from the corporate world was flexible hours. I work longer, more intense hours at the church, but I don’t have to be at my desk for specific times anymore. I’ve seen many workaholic pastors and many lazy pastors, with very few in between. Neither extreme is admirable, but lazy pastors are especially harmful to Kingdom work.

5. Refusing to mingle. It’s a sad truth, but you can work at a church and never be among the people.

6. Consistently running late or going over. A person who does not honor time parameters erodes trust. Occasional offenses are forgivable. A pattern of time abuse shows disrespect for others.

7. Staying in a silo. Most midsize to large churches have departments, programs, and separate ministries. Clear distinctions of job responsibilities accompany these silos. The mission killer is usually not the silo. The mission killer is the “it’s not my job” attitude.

8. Acting as the resident contrarian. “Yes” men and women are annoying. People who always believe their ideas are better are doubly annoying.

9. Electronically badmouthing the church. A blog is tantamount to speaking on a street corner with a megaphone. Not too many people would air dirty laundry that way. An even more cowardly action is blog-bashing a church.

10. Politicking. Church work requires smoothing edges and rubbing shoulders with the right people. Consistent politicking, however, makes people question a person’s motivation.

The list is not exhaustive, so feel free to add any long-term bad behaviors that you believe are detrimental to the church.

The Demographic Shift in Metropolitan America

It’s clear that many churches have experienced or will experience large changes in their communities and contexts in the near future. Studying these changes helps churches develop intentional outward strategies to reach people. The Brookings Institution recently uncovered shifts in American demographics and reveals future changes in metro areas. They pulled data from a variety of U.S. Census Bureau sources and examined several population trends currently reshaping Metropolitan America. Here’s a few examples from their report:

Migration. People moving across state lines to different metro areas has slowed considerably since the 1990s and early 2000s. This slowed movement correlates with the housing bust.

Immigration. Both the source and destination of the foreign-born U.S. population has undergone major shifts in the last several decades. In 1970, only 30% of the foreign-born population came from Latin America and Asia. Today that number is 80%. The new destination for this influx of people is the Southeast, including the metro areas of Raleigh, NC; Nashville, TN; and Atlanta, GA.

Aging. The massive growth of aging boomers will occur in areas unaccustomed to housing older people, specifically in the suburbs of metro areas. Some of the cities with the fastest “graying” areas: Raleigh, NC; Austin, TX; Atlanta, GA; and Boise, ID. Some of the regions projected to gray the fastest: Mountain West, Texas, and the Southeast.

Read the full report here.

(HT: Ed Stetzer)

What You Are Reading

My father, Thom S. Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, wrote the following post after doing an unscientific Twitter survey. Feel free to chime in with your comments and some of your favorite books of the last two years.

I returned to the Twitterverse to listen to what people are reading these days. Since I have 13,000 “followers,” it seemed likely that we could at least get an idea of the books that are really capturing the attention of folks.

Once again, I must remind you that a Twitter survey is not a scientific poll. Though there were many responses, this approach does not use validated sampling techniques. It is at best an indication of interest. A majority of my Twitter followers are Christians, so you shouldn’t be surprised at the choices.

Some selections had to be eliminated. I asked for books of choice of the past two years, so I allowed any book with a copyright of 2007, 2008, and 2009 to be considered. Some folks provided older books. In fact, Simple Church by Eric Geiger and me would have made the top five, but its publication date of 2006 eliminated it from consideration. I should have thought about that when I asked my question! Also, some people selected more than two books when the question asked for one or two books. In those cases, I eliminated any books listed after the first two.

So here are your selections from my modest slice of the Twitterverse. It will be interesting to read your reactions.

1. The Reason for God by Timothy Keller (2008)
2. Death by Love by Mark Driscoll (2008)
3. The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller (2008)
4. Crazy Love by Francis Chan (2008)
5. Tribes by Seth Godin (2008)