How To Avoid Killing Anyone While Builidng Community

People often get very excited when they hear how we eat meals together to build authentic community. This biblical practice is not only really effective, it's really easy to do. Just tell people bring food and set up tables for the food and for eating, right? Simplest plan ever to build relationships in your church.

But without a little additional planning, you run the risk of spreading food-borne illness through bacteria and viruses, which in extreme cases literally kills people.

Here's what I've learned about food safety (largely through being a consultant for Chick-fil-A):

Avoid Room Temperature

Nationally required food safety courses talk about the “temperature danger zone” where bacteria and viruses thrive. It just happens to be room temperature. Specifically, restaurants are required to keep food either below 40 or above 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Food that sits for 4 hours or more in the temperature danger zone can’t be served anymore (restaurants are supposed to throw it away).

Use Food Servers

Station volunteers behind the tables full of food and only allow these food servers to dish out food to the plates the others hold. If someone shows up with germs on their hands (maybe their already sick and don’t know it), this will save everyone who comes in line after them. And it’s a great way to serve people and make them feel special.

Wash, Wash, Wash

Food Servers should wash their hands AND use hand sanitizer--maybe multiple times while serving. Of course, they should wash before serving. But if they touch their hair, their mouth, the floor, or even shake hands with someone else, they need to wash again before serving. You might be surprised how much illness can be avoided by simply washing your hands frequently.

Don’t Underestimate Hand Sanitizer

In the same vein as above, place a lot of hand sanitizer pumps around the room and encourage everyone, not just the food servers, to clean their hands.

Announce Allergy-Risky Ingredients

Even when general food safety standards are met, food allergies can pose serious risks for those who have them. Either make an announcement and/or put a simple signs up to identify food that has things like nuts, gluten, etc. If necessary, you can have a volunteer ask people when they drop off the food what allergy risks they may have (a simple allergy checklist helps with this).

Final note:

I don't make a big deal about bacteria, etc. Most of us violate food safety standards in our home kitchens on a daily basis. Fear is not our goal and the risk of death is only real for those who are already seriously ill or severely allergic. Otherwise it just looks like a 24 hour sickness. If asked, I’ll mention safety briefly, then I’ll explain how following these guidelines is also a great way to make people feel served (food table servers) and make the food taste better (keep it hot or cold).

Which Leader Holds the Key to Fixing America? (Hint--not who you might think)

Presidential Primaries are all over the news. I think leadership matters (I did get a Masters Degree in Leadership). But I think we're leaving someone out the conversation.  You and me.

We seem to think that if we pick the right uber-man, a Great Leader, then he or she will do it all and solve our problems. Our national strategy: 1) Pick the right leader. 2) Go back to our regular life and leave it all to them to fix the country.

Is that strategy really going to work?

For example, we want our President to grow the economy. But what am I doing to grow the economy? Instead, over the next four years, 300 million of us regular people could be a little more creative (i.e. think up one new product or service to our company) and a little more disciplined (save a little more and spent more carefully). Wouldn't 300 million of us making just one small improvement make a huge difference?

Yes, I’m know improving the economy is more complicated than just working harder. And, again, I'm NOT saying that leaders don't matter. For example, the President can sign into law something stupid that ruins a whole sector of the economy. I'm not saying we ignore the leader's role. Let's keep debating who should be our President.

But we shouldn't ignore our role, either. Let's not forget that we can be leaders, too.

If we want a better America, then everyday Americans, like you and me, have to step up and do at least one thing differently--one thing better than we did in the last four years. We are America. If we want a better America, we're saying we want a better us. And even the best leader can't make us different. Only we can choose to improve.

This "leader who will do it all for us" bias isn't restricted to politics, either.

For example, we do this in our churches, too. We pick leaders (pastors, priests, rectors, etc) and then we leave all the ministry to them. But no matter how great our pastors are, they'll never come close to matching the impact of a whole church fully engaged. God has called all of us to be ministers--leaders representing Him to the world.

Making a better America, or a better church, isn't just the leader's job. It's our job, too. Choosing one great leader helps. But 300 million leaders can radically change their nation. Let's not lose the involvement and energy we're spending on which leader is better. Let's carry that energy beyond elections and, maybe, in our own spheres of influence, become the more like the kind of leader we want.

What can you do differently in the next year? How can you be the leader who changes your part of America? Because you and I are the leaders who really hold the key to fixing America.

Breaking The Routine (even for us)

Ten days ago we had an unusual service. Ok, so maybe all of our services are unusual, when compared to most churches. But it was unusual--and special--even for us.

We had a farewell service.

A founding family in our church is moving to another state and we decided to focus for a Sunday gathering on them. It's not a small move, either in distance or impact on their family. It's the first step in pursuing a big dream that God put on their hearts.

Rather than just add a side item in a “normal” service, we dedicated the entire day to this event.

Here's what it looked like:

First, as usual, we had a meal, including a large cake with "I know the plan I have for you…" written on it (a rich, moist chocolate cake with white icing…I love a good cake!)

We began with some worship music. Some of our musicians had chosen songs and came ready to play.

Then, we invited the couple leaving to sit in chairs and share their life stories (myself and another elder interviewed the couple). They both happen to have been born into very troubled situations, radically changed by Christ, and now are leaders in our church with two precious daughters.

After that, members of our church were invited to share how they had been blessed by them over the years. Some powerful words, verses, even songs played via iPhone, were offered and we had to pass tissue boxes around the room to dry tears several times.

Then, representing the whole church, elders washed their feet, praying blessings over them out loud while we did so.

Then more worship music and a few more verses and personal messages.

Finally, I stood, reminding the church that their story is just what Jesus came to do: to bind up the broken-hearted, set the captives free, and proclaim the Year of Jubilee (Luke ??). We cheered and clapped our praise for God's goodness.

And we closed with the farewell family standing in the middle of the room while we laid hands on them in prayer to commission them to proclaim to others the same healing, health, and freedom that God had granted them.

It was one of the best services we’ve had, full of the bittersweet emotions that mark Christian farewells. And I’m so glad we didn’t feel obligated to do a “normal” (for us) service.

What’s going on in your church that might benefit from a special service? Not just a special announcement during a normal service, but a totally different service?

Member-Driven Approach to Kids Ministry

Some have asked what crazy ministry we do with kids in a member-driven church? How have we broken free of the centuries old assumptions about children's ministry that keep typical churches stuck?

Actually, for kids 12 and under, our children's ministry is basically identical--even using the same curriculum--as typical churches.  Seriously.

We're not trying to change things just to be different. Different doesn't equal better. So, despite how passionate I am about the need to change some aspects of church, I'm only going to change an element if a clearly better approach comes along.

And let's face it, children's ministry in most churches is awesome. I don't know exactly how or when it changed (there aren't a lot of church history books dedicated to children's ministry), but the kids portion of church somehow got a free pass from medieval restrictions.

They don't teach lecture style, but are creative in how they engage the kids with interactive teaching. They have lots of dialogue, where the kids get to share what they think and apply the lesson to their life. They get to play together and build friendships. They even get to eat together every week. To this day, every time I eat a flower-shaped shortbread cookie--you know, the one with the hole in the middle you can put your finger through--I feel like I'm back in Sunday School. Especially if I can get some apple juice or fruit punch with it.

In fact, if adult services were more like kids service, we wouldn't need to talk about member-driven churches--we'd already be doing it.

I don't know why kids have enjoyed a freedom adults denied themselves. All I know is there's no biblical or strategic reason to change the typical model for kids under the age of 12. If anything, our church is working hard to keep up with typical children's ministry.

Yes, our kids do eat the meal we all eat at the beginning of our gatherings, so they are a part of the first hour with the whole church together. But once we go into either bible study or open ministry, we have a typical children's church program.

Now, our teenagers are handled differently…but that's another post.

Busy For Jesus (Values & Practices concluded--Part 15)

Some churches schedule so many events throughout the week to talk about being Christians that their members don't have much time leftover to apply those ideas. This is especially true for families with children. After they go to work, church events (for both adults and kids), try to spend quality time together as a family, care for the house and car and yard…there's hardly any time left to sleep, let alone be salt & light in the world.

It's like the mission of those churches degenerated into "more and better meetings for Christ". Being busy for Jesus isn’t necessarily good. God doesn’t always want us to do more for Him.

So we try to keep a Simple Schedule—the last defining practice listed in the values & practices of a member-driven church.

We meet on Sunday afternoons for three hours.  The first hour is the meal, followed by two hours of ministry (either bible study or open ministry). The rest of the week, members have the time to invest in their own families, be in community with each other, spend time seeking God's voice, find a way to be salt & light in the world, and just rest and enjoy God's presence.

Members aren't prohibited from getting together or from using our church building to do so. We have had bible studies and food distribution ministries and prayer groups during the week. But they're all member-driven gatherings, not staff-mandated. If some of members are called to do that for a season, they can. But there’s no expectation or pressure from the leaders of the church to attend those meetings. We don’t even make regular announcements about them on Sunday (though we don’t mind talking about them if necessary).

Think about Mary and Martha, sisters and disciples of Jesus. In Luke 10:38-42, Jesus rebuked Martha (not Mary) for being too busy working on tasks for God. So many churches are pushing their people to become Martha-style disciples: busy, busy , busy for the kingdom of God.

Are you more like Martha or Mary? 

In the end, we don't measure spiritual maturity by the number of meetings our members attend. How is your church measuring spiritual maturity? How are you evaluating your own maturity?

No Tithe-No Offering Plate (Value & Practices: Part 14)

You may need to sit down before you read about our next defining practice, Member-Driven Funding. We don't collect a tithe. We don't pass an offering plate/bag/bucket around. We don't even collect money for a general fund.

Instead, we post a list of the basic needs of the church, including building rent, children's supplies, staff salaries, etc.  That list also includes all the needs our church members and also some needs from outside our church body. (The elders coordinate what goes on that list.)

Our members then choose how much to give to whom, as the Lord leads them. And they don' t need to give it to the leaders first. In fact, I discourage people from just giving me undesignated money. Yes, there have been times when the Lord leads people to give to the church, and I'll accept it. There's no command in the Bible against giving undesignated funds.

So, if there's no rule against it, why aren't we handling our giving like everyone else? Why not the 10% tithe and why not the general fund?

First, why not promote the number 10%. I mean, that's in the Bible, right?

It is. But only in the Old Testament. It's clearly a part of the Levitical system God established with Moses. The tribe of priests were not giving a plot of land to farm or ranch. They were to focus on being priests for the nation. The other tribes were asked to bring a tenth of their supplies to them as sacrifices to God (that the Levites got to keep and eat). And God promised to bless them for faithful giving. But it's not mentioned after Malachi (the last book of the Old Testament).

We don't require any other element of the sacrificial system, today. Why this number?

The New Testament does call us to give. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying giving is only for Old Testament times. There are many verses urging us to give in the New Testament. But the 10% standard isn't in any of those verses. Instead, as usual, the New Testament ups the ante.

In the Old Testament, you just had to follow specific behaviors: don't eat pork, don't commit adultery, give 10%, etc. But the New Testament moves beyond behavior only and makes it about the heart. You can eat any meat--but you have to pay attention to the weakness of your brother and decide meal by meal what you should or shouldn't eat. Adultery isn't limited to physical behavior, but happens in your heart even when you lust. And we should give how much the Lord leads us to give. It may be less than or much more than 10%.

2 Corinthians 9:6-7 NASB

Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Second, how about the general fund? Isn't that in the New Testament stories?

Actually, there's plenty of examples of church leaders collecting money from many believers--but not for an undesignated cause. Some early churches gave money to Paul to help the church in Jerusalem, for example. But it was a response to a specific request for Jerusalem. Paul does urge people to put some money aside each week so they're able to give when the need arises. But that's a general savings plan, not a general fund giving plan. In fact, that's much more like what we do. We urge our members to save up their own money and spend their month in prayer thinking about how God wants them to use their money. They can even use their own tithe to fund their own ministry efforts. I don't make them give it to me and then ask for it right back to do the ministry project God has laid on their heart.

I want to be clear--the general fund issue isn't required one way or the other in the Bible. They didn't have 501(c)3 bank accounts in the days of the early church. So I do accept checks from members who say God told them to give the money to our church's general fund (we do have a bank account).

But I found that our decentralized process, where money often doesn't even pass through my hands, produces better growth than the general fund plan.

In the typical model, members give a fixed amount to a general fund and they're done. Aside from once or twice a year when a special offering request is made, they don't need to think much or pray much about it. The message is simply: obey. Obedience isn't wrong (and sometimes requires prayer and thought). But our approach requires them to hear from God on how much to give to whom.

It inspires a closer walk with God and a more personal connection with the ministry efforts of their church. And isn't what we're trying to design church to do?

Mindless Overstatement--I Apologize

I need to apologize. It's been weeks since I posted--getting back in to the routine after vacation has been tough. But that's not what I'm apologizing for.

I spoke with a blog reader yesterday (thanks for your comments, Mike) and he shared that he was a bit frustrated with the way I talked about mindless giving, how I made it sound like anyone giving to a general fund was necessarily mindless when they did it. He had a good point and I'm sorry for my overstatements on this an maybe other topics.

I've been thinking about how I went wrong, and it's reminded me of go-karts. I do love go-kart racing and I think there's a good analogy here.

Go-kart racing is great fun--but it's really a smaller, tamer version of real racing. Yes, you get to press the gas pedal all the way down and you don't have to stay in a lane. But the go-kart does have governor on the engine, limiting your max speed. And the go-kart track is like one big lane you have to stay in.

Compared to actually being in a high-speed race on real roads, go-kart racing looks very restricted.

No, I haven't had the chance to do a real high-speed car chase (except for that one time chasing my friends' car at 2am when I was 18 and almost rolled the family conversion van…yeah, that's another story of poor judgment for another post).

But, to return to the metaphor, if I was used to real life chases on the road, go-karting would feel trite and tame and mindless. I would probably find myself discussing all go-kart tracks as lame.

But I'd be wrong. Not all go-kart courses are the same.

I have had the opportunity to drive on several tracks. Disney's track in the Magic Kingdom is probably the worst (it is for little kids). Your engine's governor is so strict that 10 miles an hour is a good guess on the top speed and a metal rail under your car limits your steering to 3 feet to the right or left. My six year old thought it was amazing. I only did it for her sake.

But I've also done Mario Andretti's Go-Kart course in the Atlanta area. Those karts got up to probably 45 miles an hour and you could literally spin out (I did, at least). That experience was far from tame!

And lumping Andretti's karts in with Disney's as the same experience is downright wrong.

So I need to apologize. In my excitement over the live street racing I'm doing these days (unfortunately, only metaphorically), I have come across as dismissive of many in typical churches who exceed the minimum requirement of their church model and are very thoughtful, prayerful, and Spirit-led in their giving, serving, teaching, etc.

Not all churches are the same and there are some fully engaged members in typical churches. And for implying that all typical churches are full of only mindless members, I apologize.

Ministry Beyond Our Members (Part 13: Values & Practices)

Being in an community of rich relationships tempts churches to become internally focused and forget that the Bible repeatedly calls Christians to make a difference in the world--to be salt and light as Matthew 5:13-16 puts it.
 
So a core practice for us it to help our members get involved in a ministry project that serves those beyond our community. My job as a leader in our church is to help them figure out how best to use their time, treasure, and talents to make a difference. My job as leader is NOT to decide what ministry activities they're supposed to do, but to enhance their decision making process.
 

This involves asking the right questions and making them aware of resources. And their decisions change from person to person. The stay-at-home mom with small children has a very different range of options than the just-retired schoolteacher, for example. Members need to learn how to choose the best options for them in each season of their life. Spiritual gifts should affect their decision. And the needs of the community they're in should matter, too.
 
By the way, this is a picture of one of our members, a stay-at-home mom, doing the ministry project she launched which now includes multiple churches and huge impact in a poor community--I'll share that story in a later post. Apparently, face painting was involved that day. :) It's awesome what can happen when you empower "regular" members.
  
So I don't decide what the ministry departments are for the church. Except for our Sunday gathering, which requires a kids ministry department, everything we do is chosen by a member in our church.
 
After getting an idea on how they want to minister, we tell them to first search for someone in our region doing that kind of ministry. Why should we compete with them? Why not join them? Who cares who's name is on the ministry? It's about Jesus, not our church.
 
If they can't find anyone doing it (or, sadly, who will let them participate), then we'll help them start their ministry project.  This can include doing it through our church's non-profit status or even helping them set up a local non-profit (not hard or expensive where I live).
 
We've designed a church structure that requires members to step up and be mature. Is it risky? Sort of. But you might be surprised at what your people do when you give them the opportunity to live like they really do have the Holy Spirit indwelling and empowering them. You might be surprised at what happens if you really let your members drive the ministry of your church.
 
(For those of you thinking ahead, you're right. You can't do the money collection the normal way if you want to empower your members like this. More on that in a coming post.)

The Risk of Weekly Teaching--Teaching at Practice Speed (Part 12: Values & Practices)

How do we find the time for a meal, Bible Study, and Open Ministry in our Sunday services? If you've read the last few posts on our defining practices (Eating MealsTogether, Bible Study, and Open Ministry), you might be doing the math and trying to figure out how we fit this all in one hour on Sunday morning.

We don't. And we're better off because we do less.

Seriously. Your math skills are on the money. First, we meet for much three hours (and it's not in the morning). But even still, we don't do all of those practices every week. Even with a longer service, we don't have time to do it all every week. We do eat a meal every week--it's the first hour of the service--and then we alternate with our after meal ministry theme for the day. One week we do Bible Study and the next week is Open Ministry, then Bible Study…you get the idea.

But I thought you had to have a teaching every week for it to count as a church service!

Show me the verse that says that, because I've never read one. What's I have seen calls us to study the scripture. But a deep dive into the scripture every week isn't required. In fact, engaging in powerful, life challenging teaching every single week can actually be counterproductive.

Yes, I said counterproductive. And it's not about sermons versus interactive studies (see earlier post on that). The more powerful the content, the more this applies.

See, people can learn more and grow more when we teach them less often.

Typical pastors spend hours and hours crafting powerful sermons--sometimes as much as twenty hours a week! I used to do that myself, when I worked at more typical churches. And on Sunday they deliver a message that grips your heart, stirs your soul, and convinces you to change your life.

It's awesome.

Then, seven days later, while you're still working on changing, he brings up another area of your life and does that same thing. Now you have two deep changes your convicted about. Then another challenge the next week, and another, and another, week after week, year after year. It's like trying to drink from a furiously gushing fire hose.

  Truly changing something in your life takes a lot longer than seven days to accomplish. Time and emotional energy and serious persistence are required. People need to process the ideas fully. People need to practice multiple times to move from sloppy to smooth execution.

But every Sunday, members in a typical church are masterfully persuaded that if they really love God they need to change this new area, too. It's overwhelming and discouraging and after a while can make people numb to the need to change.

So churches end up with over-educated and under practiced Christians. (Sound familiar?) They know all about dozens of changes they could make it their lives, but they gave up implementing them all years ago. They no longer plan to change after most of the sermons they hear.

Instead, in our member-driven church, we deliberately slow down our teaching pace to give our members more time to process and implement. We usually have themes we stay with for a few months, to give us all time to practice properly. Remember, we believe in Growth Through Practice.

We call this teaching at practice speed.

SCAD, Design Thinking, & Pews

The new differentiator in business is innovation. Thanks to my role at Chick-fil-A's corporate HQ, I had the chance to go through an innovation certification. In fact, just last night a group of us returned from spending three days at Savannah College of Art & Design, studying the creative thinking process they call design thinking.
In general, you begin with walking a mile, so to speak, in the intended user's shoes. You go to the field and note details: specific actions, phrases, even facial expressions. You can take pictures or video clips, etc.
Then you use that data to identify what problems/frustrations they might have and how you could solve them--especially those that they aren't verbalizing. There are many tools for this.
Then you go through a series of exercises to generate a lot of ideas, then evaluate and combine your ideas. This is classic brainstorming. The problem is that most people only do this slice of the process when they want to be creative.
Then you do a quick and dirty prototype of the idea and show it to others for feedback--try it out and learn from it. Lot's of ways to do this, too, from drawings to foam models to live improv (yes, like Who's Line Is It?).
Then you "reframe". Before you finish, you go back to your core assumptions and rethink them all over again. This may result in a modest adjustment--or even starting the entire process over.
NOTE: I'm trying to capture a two year degree program into a handful of sentences, so there's a lot more I'm sure I'm leaving out (in part because I don't know it myself).
 

But a bonus feature of the trip was that each day we were in a different one of the more than 70 buildings that SCAD has purchased and restored in Savannah.
The last one was an old nunnery/school (which is where Clarence Thomas was educated as a child, incidentally). Check out what they did to the room to make it more friendly and functional for creative dialogue and learning. I couldn't help but think that many old, dying churches should consider a layout like this. It wasn't just okay, it was actually very cool to do creative thinking in an ancient setting.
They turned some of the pews in the back of the "church" around and put tables in between them. Plus, they put some cool pillows on the pews. That's not a weird idea or complicated. The building didn't need to be remodeled. But that simple switch completely changed the experience of the back half of the room.
What simple changes could you make to your space to improve the experience in your church or your home?