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Effective ministry is relevant ministry (part 1)
Rev. Paul Nixon gives "clues" for designing relevant, effective ministry in local churches. (photo by Susan Cooper) |
Written: 2/11/2010
By Susan Cooper
Associate director of Marketing and Communications
WICHITA—“Sometimes the name of the game is just finding out what’s going on.”
Rev. Dr. Paul Nixon believes effective ministry hinges on relevancy to the community. He addressed “Designing ministry for (and with) your community” at the 2010 Kansas Area Professional Ministry Seminar Jan. 11-14 in Wichita.
Nixon is a part-time pastor at Epicenter Church in Washington, D.C., and author of “Finding Jesus on the Metro,” “I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church!” and other books.
He gave 10 of what he termed “clues” for designing relevant and effective ministry in his afternoon presentation.
Clue 1: Every neighborhood in the United States is a changing neighborhood.
“We used to think of [a changing neighborhood] as an inner city neighborhood. That’s one kind, but every neighborhood is going through changes today. Your church is in a changing neighborhood,” Nixon said.
Churches were largely designed for the 1960s, according to Nixon.
However, the churches that reached the original neighborhood residents need to find a way to reach the current residents.
“We can change to fit the demographics of the neighborhood, or we can fade away,” he said.
It’s important to invite young adults to the table to plan ministry for your community, while still keeping the saints—the ones that pay the bills.
“You have to take care of those people. Like my mother. She loves the Doxology. She likes routine. She wants to park in the same place. She needs a comfort zone,” Nixon said.
Clue 2: Buddha is not our enemy; the Buddha Bar is.
“I live in a community with a lot of non-Christians. But you live in a community where young people are questioning if they’re Christian. You have a lot of non-Christians in your community,” Nixon said.
“What is a Buddha bar?” he asked.
Nixon showed a photo of a Paris restaurant with people drinking alcoholic beverages in close proximity to a large statue of Buddha.
“The owners [of the restaurant] are using an image that’s sacred to some people to create a cool ambiance. Are we doing that in our churches? Imagine a crucifix over a group of people eating. Would we do that? People can tell when we’re using the symbols and language of the faith to get a cheap crowd,” he said.
Don’t cheapen the holy to attract crowds.
Clue 3: We are so incredibly busy.
“This is a cultural anxiety issue, I think. We’ve busied up our lives with things we feel we have no choice about. We don’t seem to like being this busy,” Nixon said.
There are a lot of young people in cross-country relationships.
“When do they see each other? On the weekends. What else is on the weekends? Church! We might see these people in church once a month,” he said.
United Methodist churches aren’t just competing with the Presbyterians but with golf, soccer games and the like.
“Sunday morning is not a good time for everyone. But in a church launch, a Sunday morning service is more successful. New people aren’t used to going to church on a Wednesday or Sunday evening. They’re still looking at Sunday morning if they’re interested,” he said.
He gave an example of church that launched with a Sunday evening service that had about 106 people in attendance after a year. But they concluded that they should change the service to Sunday mornings. In four months, they had 288 people in worship. No one dropped out due to the time change.
“The point is, even though Sunday morning isn’t a good time for everybody, in this part of the world—in the Central time zone—Sunday morning is still going to be the best time to have them stick with you. But be aware that soccer and other realities aren’t going away,” Nixon said.
“If you launch something on Sunday night, you’re going to reach people you might not reach on Sunday morning. But it may be only 40-60 people.
“In a busy world, we need to think about offering some form of time flexibility. That’s not only true of worship, but of small groups,” he said.
Clue 4: We’re desperate for authentic community.
Even in small towns, there’s a problem with people not having privacy and not trusting living in the small fish bowl of a small town.
“A sense of community is more important than performance. It’s far more important than the pastor,” Nixon said.
“A worship community is what people are hungry for—coming together as the people of God in the presence of God with an eye on the transformation of the world. People are flocking to churches that give them a sense of community.
“I hope when people move to your town, you’re out there welcoming them, regardless of their faith affiliation. Even if we cannot get them in church from the get-go, we can get them to the church barbeque. It’s not rocket science to be neighborly. You’re helping those people network within the community.”
He recommended sending members to greet the new people whose demographic characteristics match.
“Let grandma make the banana bread, but send someone who looks like the new people to deliver it.”
Nixon also pointed out that worship should have interactive elements to help build a sense of community.
He talked about a congregation in Alabama he had visited, where they had noticed everyone was leaving immediately after the service. They were not partaking of the coffee and cookie time and not building fellowship.
They split their worship into two parts and had their fellowship time during the break in the worship service. They also had people working the congregation, saying, “I’m so glad you’re here today” and similar things.
“When I left, I felt like six people knew me,” Nixon said.
Clue 5: We’ve mastered the art of compartmentalizing.
“You can’t assume everyone in your church is on the same page as you. I was naïve when I was young. I thought all people that joined the [United] Methodist Church were in agreement with the Social Principles. But some are like, ‘We signed onto the Bible. We didn’t sign on to these Social Principles,’” Nixon said.
“Realize it’s a buffet. Not everyone is going to like everything at your church.”
Read about the second five clues in Part 2.