Bad Company
The Reason We Do Not Prosper
Stop The Ringing.
Any business that wants to stay in business
knows you return every call. Every single one.
Without fail and as soon as possible. You never
know who that is: the caller could just be some
crank or some looky-loo who won't actually buy
anything. Or it could be Donald Trump looking
for a tax shelter. You just never know.
More important: I tend to gage the spirituality
of a ministry based on its responsiveness and
attentiveness. A ministry’s job is to minister:
to serve the community it is in. Of course, few
ministries, of any ethnicity, actually do that.
Most churches are where they are because they
got a good deal on the land. And they'll move in
an eyeblink, without ever looking back, when
they get a better deal. Most parishioners come
from hither and yon to the church and then
dismiss back to hither and yon, without ever
knowing the people who live on the same block as
the church.
But, ideally, serving your community is what
you’re supposed to be doing. When my phone call
to your church goes unanswered, it diminishes
the truthfulness of your stated purpose.
Emblazoned on the front of your building is a
word: CHURCH. A CHURCH cannot and must not be
selective in terms of which calls are returned
and which are not.
It is unreasonable to expect God to enrich you
when you operate outside of His will. It is His
will that we love one another (John 15:17) and
that we see to the needs of one another (John
21:16-17). Deciding, based on whatever criteria,
that these calls will be returned but these will
not, is simply unscriptural. More than that,
it’s bad business.
That person whose voice or name you don't
recognize, therefore you didn't call back, might
have been wanting to visit with you or
fellowship with you. He or she may have been a
loan officer or a grant writer or, heck, just
some wealthy type— or a conduit to all of the
above. The fact that you don't know these people
or what they want is precisely why the call must
be returned. Even worse is when you assume,
based on whatever criteria, that you do know
what they want, and that call is, therefore, not
worth returning.
Equally important is your voice messaging
service itself. Of the forty one calls, I think
about six churches had excellent voicemail
systems, most notably Israelite COGIC’s system,
which is easy to navigate, friendly, and also
ties into its web site for more information on
the church and its ministries and also provides
a 24-hour prayer line that is closely monitored.
Israelite is serious about ministry and serious
about the business of ministry. They are a model
for business administration and information
systems of today’s church, where a voice
messaging system and a web-based information
system are mandatory tools. These are not luxury
items or the stuff of starry-eyed techno-geeks.
They are the life blood of your ministry.
Beyond the handful of churches with excellent
messaging systems, there were, maybe, another
dozen with adequate systems., Adequate in that
they are voicemail and not answering machines
(NEVER use an answering machine), and they
provided some minimum information about the
church such as (1) where you are, (2) what your
service times are, (3) the name of your pastor.
These three things are the most vital
information a typical visitor will need. If your
messaging system does not offer these three
pieces of information right up front, you need
to change it so that it does. Forcing someone
through too many menus can cause them to give up
and go somewhere else (Emmanuel, for instance,
has one of the best information systems in town,
but it requires you to call the Administry
office to find out service times— only the
recording doesn't tell you that. I had no idea
how to access service times until I called the
Administry office— what I mistook for their
advertising department; again, the recording
offers no explanation for what “Administry”
means).
The remaining 60% of the black churches I called
had either poor voice messaging systems or none
at all. A poor messaging system is a cheap
answering machine, where someone says, “You have
reached Thus And So Church. Please leave a
message and someone will return your call as
soon as possible. Have a blessed day.” BLEEP.
Now, you've just told a lie. You just said you'd
return my call. But you didn't. And you won't.
It’s better to NOT use language like, “...we
will return your call,” if you’re not studious
about returning calls. If your church has an
administration problem, as many black churches
do, then, seriously, don't use that phrasing
because you are, in fact, telling a lie. And
that lie undermines your credibility as a church
and as a professionally-run institution.
Messages like the above tell me absolutely
nothing about your church. I have no idea what
time your services are, I have no idea where you
are located. I have no idea even what your
pastor’s name is. If I am calling to reach a
specific party at the church, I have to leave my
message amid all the other messages you’re not
returning, which makes more work for you. This
old style of answering machine typically has a
message limit feature, which limits the caller’s
message time to sixty seconds. A curious visitor
or grieving church member can rarely provide a
coherent message before your machine rudely and
abruptly disconnects them. Message limits have
no place in a church. C'mon, you are a church.
You’re not Pizza Hut. You’re not the Dollar
Theater. You are a place of hope and compassion,
not hope and compassion so long as your problem
can be expressed in under sixty seconds.
Whatever insanity is motivating some churches
here to use message limits on incoming calls—
whatever financial motivation (I guess maybe
this saves money somehow)— is greatly offset by
the bad will it creates in the callers. Callers
who now know better than to bother you with
their problems or concerns.
At least two churches I called had voicemail but
their voice mailboxes were full and thus could
not accept any incoming calls. This is
criminally dumb behavior. This is incredibly bad
business. This is worse, in its own way, than
not having voicemail at all. Not having
voicemail at all tells me you’re not interested
in me, my issues, my membership or my wallet.
Actually having voicemail, but not checking it
(and thus it becomes full) says something worse
about you: it says you’re irresponsible. An
irresponsible ministry will never see a single
dime of my money.
In my experience, the majority of our churches
are in real need of a serious administration
overhaul. Information, the life blood of your
ministry, does not move efficiently through the
church body. Still dependent on an oral
tradition that dates back to the plantation,
most black churches today rely on word of mouth
rather than paper or electronic media. The long
and dull reading of the announcements— a
completely bad idea as this is typically the
dullest point of your morning worship and it, in
fact, takes us completely out of worship and now
the ministers have to start completely from
scratch re-building the momentum the reading of
the announcements typically does away with.
Announcements most people tune out, anyway, as
later in the week, we miss things because,
“Well, I didn't hear it announced on Sunday.” A
great many of us don't even read the church
bulletins the officers invest so much time in
publishing every week. You could trim an average
of twenty minutes off of your service times if
we could only convince people to read. But
reading is not our tradition, listening is.
For the entirety of its existence, the black
church has relied on a largely oral tradition
that, to this day, eschews paperwork: memos,
business plans, contracts. We do it all on a
handshake because that’s how we've always done
it. But, then, six months later, we’re arguing
because everybody’s memory of the specific game
plan is different. I've been to countless
high-level meetings in black churches where
nobody took down even a single word of the
meeting, and where no follow-up memorandum,
summarizing the meeting and what we agreed to
do, was ever drawn up. The fact is, a great many
leaders in our community lean on the old
handshake rule because they can't type.
Literally; that’s the main reason many old
school church leaders and department heads
perpetuate the old school handshake method is
they, literally, can't type. Writing, therefore,
becomes a torture for them because they've grown
up in a world where typing was something women
did, or was viewed as an optional skill. These
days, everybody types. Many of our leaders today
are ashamed or embarrassed that they can't type
and so dismiss the notion of paperwork in a
folksy, “Aww, it don't take all that.” This is
what we do: rather than admit our insecurities
or our shortcomings, we go on the attack. We
demonize and villainize whatever it is that we
can't do, whatever makes us feel insecure,
making a virtue of our cowardice. And this
mindset continues to stunt church growth to this
day.
Because we don't read, paper— memos, proposals,
and yes, phone messages— flutter around the
ministry offices or are left abandoned in
departmental mailboxes. Most churches I know
have these 1960’s-style hanging files for each
department. These file boxes are typically
overflowing, mostly with junk mail and
solicitations and magazines. But, somewhere amid
the stuff you don't need is something you do.
Maybe my phone message. But since we’re not
terribly studious about clearing our
department’s mailbox, the clutter masks the
important stuff, and this is how phone calls go
unreturned and how blessings are missed. Poor
administration is usually the main reason why
churches don't grow. People who want to be
department heads because they are innately
insecure and so want or need the external
validation of a title and an “office” are
precisely the wrong people you want heading
anything. These are people more in love with the
idea of being in charge than they are
knowledgeable about the responsibility of good
stewardship. Their departments are, typically,
dead letter offices where no paper is moving and
where they are difficult to reach unless you get
in your car and drive down to the church and lie
in wait for them. God cannot possibly be pleased
or magnified by these people, as they tend to
impede God’s work and tend to set a bad example
for God and for your ministry.
These days, maintaining adequate records is
absolutely imperative to your church’s survival.
Moving information around is like moving blood
around your body and vital organs. But most
churches are still on the old handshake
tradition. Most churches, in this town, still do
everything by telephone. Which, actually,
explains why my calls don't get returned: many
of these poor messaging systems are, likely,
overwhelmed by common calls with common
questions that could more efficiently have been
handled by a proper combination of voice
information and web-based information systems.
The most basic and common reaction I get from
church folk at the mention of this subject is a
laugh. Nice church ladies crack a smile,
followed by cutting sarcasm, like, “Yeah, well,
this is my eMail right here [phone dialing
gesture].”
We’re scared of technology because that is the
example that has been set for us. By
well-meaning elders who are intimidated by
technology. And by some who overcompensate for
deep insecurity with loud bluster and thunderous
assurances that their way is right and true and
that, “It don't take all that.” Many pastors, in
this town, don't even know how to turn a
computer on. Don't have one in their office.
Aren't online. Have no eMail. And, of the very
few who have eMail, many do not check it
regularly. And, frankly, a great many church
folk in leadership here in town are not
interested in this website or anything I have to
say. Many church folk will, in fact, go on the
attack. Having never even seen the PraiseNet,
this site will, inevitably, be villainized by
some ministry or ministries here. This is what
we do: we attack that which makes us insecure.
Hit Reply
These days, having a website and an eMail address is not an
option. Any business wanting to stay in business has a web site
and eMail. The web is no longer some exotic neverland, some
wondrous and frightening place of pornographers and Satan
worshippers. The web is exactly like the telephone: it is only
as good or as evil as the people using it. Simply having a
website does not mean you will burn in hell or see porn or, I
dunno, burst into flames. You must have a web site. It really is
that simple. Many white churches post their announcements on
their web sites and send out eMail newsletters to an eMailing
list of their congregants. They partner that with sophisticated
voicemail where churchgoers can access specific mailboxes to
hear announcements read or receive specific information from
specific departments. This is not some far-flung future
technology. This technology is not super-expensive, either.
We've got to overcome our cultural technophobia to even begin to
approach this quite simple and quite low standard of
communication— a common standard among churches of other
ethnicities.
You must have a website. The PraiseNet offers you a way to get
your toe in the water and begin to explore the benefits of
web-based communication, but eventually you must build a site of
your own. All of your department heads must have eMail and must
RETURN the MESSAGES they receive in a timely fashion, or they
need not be department heads.
The small group of committed Christians who have partnered to
develop the Colorado PraiseNet will be making another couple
rounds of phone calls, inviting these ministries (again) to make
use of this online ministry. This time we will be targeting
specific ministries with specific people because, well, if
Church “B” knows Jack, they'll call Jack back. If Church “G”
knows Fred, they'll call him back, etc. This is an extremely
sophomoric way for grownups to have to strategize something as
simple as getting a phone call returned, but this is the reality
of the black church today: if it is an unfamiliar voice on the
line, the odds of getting a return call are practically zero.
This is why we continue to struggle and sweat and toil and sell
pies and chicken and hammer our people for endless building
funds and capital programs. This is why our program and
resources remain limited and our growth stunted. Because we run
our churches like this. But it’s not our church we’re running
like this, it’s God’s church. It’s God’s business.
What would happen if God operated like that? If God answered
certain prayers from certain people, but people He didn't like
or people He was uncomfortable with went ignored? What if God
ran His business the way we run ours? What if nothing got done
in heaven or earth because God’s mailbox was full and He wasn't
getting His messages?
But, isn't the reality of the matter that we, all of us, me you,
white black green— we are engaged in doing God’s business. A
business He financed with the blood of His only Son. Blood we
have on our hands when we run God’s business in a shoddy,
half-baked manner. When we diminish the significance of that
sacrifice, the Bible speaks of us “crucifying Him afresh
(Hebrews 6:6).”
That, my friends, is God’s phone. It’s not your phone. It’s
God’s phone. You have no right to not return phone calls placed
to God’s house. You have no right to be selective about whose
call you will return because you are only a steward, a
doorkeeper, in God’s house.
Your church lives and dies by its administrative function. By
its ability to interface with its membership and with the
greater world around it. This is not a place for bad attitudes
or teeth-sucking dismissive demagoguery. All of that, at the end
of the day, is simple immaturity and insecurity. You don't want
insecure people answering your phones. It’s a grown-up
responsibility that requires committed, Spirit-endowed people to
keep the blood flowing through the Body of Christ. The bible
speaks of entertaining angels unawares [Hebrews 13:2]. Many of
those angels may have tried calling your church, may have waited
and waited and waited to hear from you that they might deliver
God’s message to you. But you never called back.
Amazing Tech
This “new” technology of voicemail and internet is more than a
quarter of a century old, now. It is so commonly used that
schools, pizza shops, gas stations, laundromats— the most common
and seemingly ordinary corners of your life have voicemail and
web sites. But the black church is, in large measure, still
making excuses. Still retreating behind sarcasm and jokes
because, frankly, we can't type. Not being able to type well is
no sin, and there are ways around that (excellent voice
recognition software is available dirt cheap these days). Not
knowing anything about the internet or the web is no sin,
either. We'll be happy to take you through it. Church growth is
largely a measure of (1) Christ being lifted up [John 12:32],
and (2) the efficiency of your church’s administration. Think of
the example you set, when you greet visitors— either in person
or on the phone or on the web— that is, assuming they can visit
you on the web. What net impression are they leaving with? A
warm greeting, with lots of information and options, like
Israelite, Solid Rock and Emmanuel? Or, like the majority of our
churches, little or no information, no web presence at all, and
no return calls.
Don't wait to become a big church to start acting like a big
church. Big or small, if you want success you have to conduct
yourself like a successful ministry, without the tired excuses
or the hostility. Paul exhorts us, in 1 Corinthians 7:17-24,
“But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath
called every one, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all
churches.” If you want growth, conduct yourself like the church
you want to be. Start now. Re-educate your ministry leaders now.
You want classrooms and office space? Act like a ministry that
already has those assets, and speak of those things as though
they were [Romans 4:17]. Walk in victory. Hold your head up. You
are administrators of a multi-million dollar ministry.
Multi-million dollar ministries have web sites. Multi-million
dollar ministries use eMail. Multi-million dollar ministries
manage resources to care for their membership. Multi-million
dollar ministries return phone calls.
Drive around and visit some of these massive churches, built by
prayer and supplication, yes, but also built by vigilant
administration and grant proposals. Most of us know nothing
whatsoever about grant proposals, about endowments, because we
don't read. We don't write. We don't surf the net. We don't
return phone calls. But we can and often do envy the resources
of our brothers and sisters of other ethnic groups. A waste of
time, to be sure, because they worship the same God we do. Our
God doesn't move any less than their God. Our God isn't any less
powerful or any less loving or generous than their God. It’s the
same God. But they have a nursery and we don't. They have office
and classroom space, but we don't. They have multimedia
presentation equipment, but we don't. They have spacious and
comfortable auditoriums, but we don't. They have cappuccino in
the lobby, but we don't.
This isn't about them and us. This isn't about keeping pace with
other ethnic groups. This is simply about being the very best
because our God deserves no less from us. A God who cannot lie
and cannot play favorites. In the final analysis, our worst
enemy is often us. Our wounds are mostly self-inflicted. Our
growth impeded by our own insecurity. Having a website and
adequate voicemail, and returning messages, isn't a guarantee of
ministerial prosperity. It’s not the answer for everything or
everyone. But no ministry will ever be effective if they are not
diligently consistent with the principles they espouse. You
simply cannot expect to prosper if you are giving God shoddy
work. If you are doing a half-baked job.
After all, God gave us His best.
Christopher J. Priest
24 November 2002
editor@praisenet.org
TOP OF PAGE
