George Bullard's Journey

Operation Inasmuch Comes Alive in 1000 Congregations in One Day

If you have not heard about it, I want to share with you that nearly 1000 congregations--mostly Baptists in North Carolina--engaged in simultaneous servant evangelism and ministry efforts called Operation Inasmuch on Saturday, April 19th. Operation Inasmuch, in the spirit of Matthew 25:40, is a non-profit organization headed by David Crocker of Knoxville, TN. It is a movement that began in his former church, Snyder Memorial Baptist Church in Fayetteville, NC, about thirteen years ago when he was serving as pastor.

"Operation Inasmuch empowers congregations worldwide to catalyze community ministry with the Operation Inasmuch model and create a culture of compassion ministry."

You need to know more about this! Here is how to connect: www.OperationInasmuch.com. You need to get the book entitled Operation Inasmuch: Mobilizing Believers Beyond the Walls of the Church by clicking HERE. To see the stories of the April 19th Operation Inasmuch blitz, go to the Biblical Recorder site.

Adaptive Change for Mainline Congregations

[This review written by George first appeared at http://books.leadnet.org.]

Dick Hamm has written an informative, insightful, and inspirational book on congregational transformation for mainline Protestant congregations. With Dick's experience in the Christian Church [Disciples of Christ] as a pastor and denominational leader, he understands the dilemma faced by many mainline congregations. In this volume he effectively communications a pathway for these congregations to experience being recreated.

His efforts at applying the work of leadership guru Ron Heifetz [author of Leadership Without Easy Answers] on adaptive change versus technical change are powerful for many congregations. He effectively weaves the concept of the perfect storm to show how congregations in many mainline denominations have been hit by a perfect storm which makes it difficult for them to effectively navigate a path to continual transformation. He uses the metaphor of the perfect storm to describe the factors that have come together to form the need to recreate the mainline denominations and congregations in this postmodern age. The mainline church has turned toward maintenance and survival as opposed to mission.

Dick sees transformation not as a destination, but as a journey "a way of being every day . . . until that day when the reign of God is fully realized." [p.7] To get on this transformation journey, he suggests that congregations ask themselves three very simply, but powerful questions: What time is it? Where am I? What am I doing here?

Coupled with three other resources, this book makes a great guide for mainline and other progressive congregations to use to engage in a congregational and denominational transformational journey. These resources are,

Renew Your Congregation: Healing the Sick, Raising the Dead (TCP Leadership Series)

Pursuing the Full Kingdom Potential of Your Congregation (TCP Leadership Series)

Reaching People Under 40 While Keeping People Over 60: Being Church for All Generations (TCP Leadership Series)

Have You Seen the New Book by Ed Stetzer and . . .

. . . Philip Nation? It is entitled, Compelled by Love: The Most Excellent Way to Missional Living. It is published by some of my favorite people--New Hope Publishers, a division of WMU [a Baptist missions organizations focused around women and girls]. I finished reading the book today, but will read through it again before I write a review for Books @ Leadership Network.

I was reading it on an airplane while traveling to Ohio. I was sitting in the exit row, the flight attendant had just come by to be sure we knew what to do in case of a crash landing [always a comforting thought], when I got to page 58 where Ed talks about being a hero while sitting in the exit row of an airplane. You've got the get the book if for no other reason than to read page 58!

Look for the review later. Check on the Leadership Network book site at http://books.leadnet.org. Hey, while you are at it, check out New Hope Publishers at www.newhopepublishers.com.

Do What Adds Value

I have have spent the last two days with middle judicatory leaders from a major USA-based Protestant denomination. We have been talking about ways to restructure their judicatories for ministry effectiveness. Today in response to some large group sharing, I had an "ah ha" that I want to share with you:

Denominational middle judicatories should focus on adding value to the congregations who are adding value to the work of God's kingdom.

This does not mean other congregations are ignored. But, it does mean that prioritizing time, staff, finances, learning, and strategies around congregations that add value should be a clear focus.

What do you think?

Low Threshold Community Cultivation Events

How can your congregation reconnect with its community context? How can it get community residents into a relationship with the congregation? Often a congregation has a great fellowship that is inviting, but many community residents have no way of learning this without actually interacting with congregational participants.

I would suggest the use of low threshold community cultivation events. These are action-oriented events that connect the congregation with its context to meet a real ministry need or a consensus cause that would even attract participation from community residents unrelated to the congregation.

They are low threshold because they are generally easy, do not call on congregational participants to do anything that would fit the category of being confrontational with people, and a large percentage of your congregation may be willing to participate in them. Also, when community residents participate, they do not feel they are being rushed or pressured by the church to do something religious with which they feel uncomfortable.

What are these low threshold community cultivation events?

A great example I encountered recently was a congregation participating in a CROP walk for hunger relief. About 50 persons from this congregation participated in the walk on a Sunday afternoon. In debriefing that event, we realized this was one of many great starting places for a congregation seeking to reconnect with its community. The context around the church seems to be populated by many people who would be interested in social action that is cause related. A CROP walk is perfect!

Why not next year seek to add 50 people from the community who are not related to the congregation to the CROP walk? Why not think of other events a congregation engages in throughout the year that would connect with the community residents? This congregation has a great group of people in it. Few of them are inclined, or feel gifted, in doing evangelism and new member recruitment. However, inviting someone to join them for an afternoon walk to raise money to fight hunger seems like a "no-brainer."

This is but one example of an action-reflection approach to congregational ministry in its context. What better way to reflect on a CROP walk then to reflect on its meaning by talking about Jesus, the Luke 4:18-19 missional mandate, and such things as the feeding of the 5000? Pretty New Testament, huh?

In a few days I hope to share a report on a massive community ministry and evangelism project that involved over 800 congregations in North Carolina this past weekend. It was Operation Inasmuch which can be learned about at www.OperationInasmuch.com.

What are some other examples of community cultivation events you would like to share? Click on the comment button below and offer them up for us all to read.

George Begins Writing Book Reviews for Leadership Network

Beginning this week George will be writing regular book reviews for Leadership Network. These will appear on their site called Books@LeadershipNetwork. Visit this site and check out what is going on. It is another great service brought to you by Leadership Network.

George's first book review is on The Church of the Perfect Storm edited by Leonard Sweet. To purchase this book go to Bullard Journal Book Store.

Where Have All the Younger Adults Gone?

Insight Five by George Bullard on the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey 2008. [Conducted by The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life at www.pewforum.org.]

Learning: “More than six-in-ten Americans age 70 and older (62%) are Protestant but . . . this number is only about four-in-ten (43%) among American ages 18-29.” [p. 7]

Note: This is one of the insights from the research that may be a snapshot, but it is impossible to figure out the trends, and challenging to see the implications. Insights such as this will be of greater value if this research is repeated about every five to ten years using the same research framework.

Implications for Congregations: 1. Protestant congregations may be losing the younger generations. Certainly younger generations are more diverse in their religious expression and affiliations. 2. Some of this statistical difference may be explained by the stereo-typical understanding that twentysomethings are less engaged in congregation than any other adult age decade. 3. Congregation must adapt their approaches to address the spiritual search of young adults.

Implications for Denominations: 1. The reality of this situation, and choices to address it must be part of the work of denominations with congregations. As with man other insights, this presents an opportunity to start new congregations among twentysomethings that speak to their spiritual search. 3. Because it is typically older adults who are involved in denominational activities, denominational organizations must be intentional in demonstrating the added value for young adults to be involved in the denomination, or there will not be adequate leadership in the next generation.

What Is and Is Not Congregational Transformation?

What is congregational transformation?

1. It is an ongoing spiritual and strategic journey.
2. It is about reaching the full kingdom potential of a congregation in response to God's call.
3. It is about building an enduring visionary leadership community as carriers of the vision of the congregation.
4. It is about allowing God's call to pull the congregation forward into the future.
5. It is a deep long-term solution.
6. It is an affirmation of past, present, and future generations of people.
7. It is a process of continual transformation that acknowledges the dynamic nature of congregational life.
8. It is about the transition of people in relationship to God and one another before changing programs, ministries, and activities.
9. It is about re-imaging a congregation in the image of God.
10. It is about soaring with the God-inspired strengths present within the gifts, skills, and preference of the congregational participants.

What is not congregational transformation?

1. It is not a one-time destination that allows a congregation to say they are finished with transformation.
2. It is not about extending current trends into the future.
3. It is not about focusing around the vision that is only held by the pastor, or expecting the pastor to provide vision.
4. It is not about seeking to push the congregation forward into the future through established objectives, goals, and action plans.
5. It is not a surface short-term fix.
6. It is not an affirmation of only past generations of people.
7. It is not transformation that assumes once a congregation is transformed that they will never have to transform again.
8. It is not about changing programs, ministries, and activities that challenges people to transition in response.
9. It is not about re-imaging a congregation in the image of the program, project, or process used to bring about change.
10. It is not about focusing on fixing the problems or weaknesses in a congregation in the hope that it will magically soar when these gone.

So, what is congregational transformation?

Congregational transformation is an ongoing spiritual and strategic journey that empowers congregations to travel in the direction of their unique full kingdom potential in response to God's call that is expressed through a captivating vision for future ministry championed by an enduring visionary leadership community.

Objects in This Future Story Are Closer Than They Appear

On the outside, right-hand mirror of many cars is a helpful message on the mirror. It says something like this: "Objects seen in this mirror are closer than they appear." The purpose of this message is to warn the driver that due to the curvature of the mirror, that cars, trucks, and other objects on the right-hand side of the car may not be as far away as they appear. 

A similar situation is true when congregations and other organisms or organizations are writing their future story. It is difficult for both individuals and organisms or organizations to imagine with clarity and detail what the future might be like. Often they are myopic. They believe they are projecting experiences, emphases, and priorities far into the future. Perhaps eight to ten years or more. Actually they may only be projecting things that will occur within the next two to three years as they move at a steady pace into the future.

What they think is far away may actually be much closer. Goals that appear to be a long distance into the future may actually start happening much sooner. Part of this is the phenomena of experiencing what can be a positive, self-fulfilling prophecy. If you imagine something can happen. If you believe it is of God. If you act in a way that could empower it to happen. If you talk about it with multiple people. If you pray earnestly for God's will to be done. Then often that which seemed both impossible and far away begins to happen.

Perhaps a warning statement needs to be placed at the beginning of all future stories. "Warning: Vision fulfillment priorities, strategies, and actions in this story may be closer to reality than they appear."