What is in Kelvin's Head?

75 questions for people who want to help churches to grow

22/09/2017
Helping churches to grow is hard work but there are some things that need to be addressed to help congregations to grow which seem to be fairly consistent across churches which are otherwise very different in style. Some time ago I published two lots of 25 questions for people who want to help churches to grow.

I thought it was time for 25 more. The new ones are the first 25 below and then come the ones that I’ve published before.
1. If someone were to hear about the congregation from a non-congregational member, what is the most likely thing they would be told?
2. What is the smallest number of words you could use to accurately explain the ethos of the congregation?
3. What are those words?
4. What strategies do you have to get good quality photographs of life of the congregation to use online?
5. Which of the arts does the congregation use in its worship and regular life?
6. How do the church education programmes relate to contemporary culture?
7. Do things start on time?
8. What steps have you implemented to ensure you don’t have the same meetings over and over again?
9. Do you have a set length of time for meetings and does someone stop them after they have gone on enough?
10. How do you stop people making decisions in the car park before or after the meetings?
11. Who chooses the hymns?
12. Why do they choose the hymns they do?
13. When was the last time the congregation learned a new hymn it sang more than once?
14. How many different styles of singing the psalms do you use and is that enough?
15. How many opportunities are there for weekly non-eucharistic worship?
16. Which would attract more people, a course in meditation or a course on prayer?
17. Is anyone working for the local congregation underpaid?
18. Does your bishop/presbytery/judicatory body or person help enable growth or are they a distraction from it?
19. Is there are three year budget?
20. Is the congregation moving into or out of debt?
21. What percentage of people in the congregation would have a basic understanding about the congregation’s finances?
22. Does anyone ever break copyright law whilst acting for the congregation?
23. How do you share good news about the denomination that you belong to?
24. When did you last issue a call to prayer for the congregation and what was it for?
25. If someone wants to make a confession is it clear who they should approach and how they should get in touch?
26. If you didn’t have to go to your church on Sunday would you still go?
27. Are the clergy happy?
28. Are the musicians happy?
29. Does the congregation have a stronger ethos than that of its denomination?
30. What one thing could you change this week to make the worship better?
31. Why didn’t you make that change last week?
32. What steps are you taking to make the phrase “All are Welcome” come true?
33. Do you do church business on a Sunday after church or is there a better time for that?
34. In the next month are you more likely to spend time on ecumenical activities or church growth activities?
35. Do people who leave become ex-members who have disappeared or do they still contribute to the life and ministry of the place?
36. What is the noticeboard like?
37. What is the first thing you see when you come through the door?
38. Did you implement the recommendations of the last “mystery worshipper” you asked to give you a candid assessment?
39. Which church events in the next six months will be newsworthy locally?
40. Which church events in the next six months will be reported in the local media?
41. Do you have enough staff and who decides this?
42. What would your clergy really like to do that they can’t because of the laity?
43. What would your laity really like to do that they can’t because of the clergy?
44. Which would attract young families more – a bible-based week long summer activity for children or letting it be known that gay people are welcome in your church?
45. Can you email those members of your congregation who want to receive regular updates?
46. Do you email those members of your congregation who want to receive regular updates?
47. Has someone done the work required to make sure emails sent to large numbers of people don’t end up in spam boxes?
48. Who in the congregation has gifts that could be better used doing a different job in the congregation than what they are currently doing?
49. Who is your volunteer co-ordinator and is it obvious how to contact them?
50. Can you volunteer without being a member of the church?
51. Do you have a decent church website?
52. Is it up to date?
53. Is it responsive – ie does it work on mobile phones?
54. Does your own online profile feature your ideas and hopes and dreams other than a desire for people to turn up to church?
55. Do you know what you are doing with twitter and facebook?
56. Who could you learn more about social media from?
57. Do you have a compelling reason why people should come to your church other than where it is or what denomination it belongs to?
58. Can everyone in the church tell you in one sentence what that compelling reason is?
59. What is your beginners’ course like?
60. What comes after the beginners’ course?
61. Do people like the preaching?
62. Do people enjoy the music?
63. Have you dealt with conflicts from the past?
64. Are the people friendly?
65. Do you have any new groups starting soon?
66. Do you talk about making the world a better place?
67. How will people experience joy if they come to your congregation?
68. If someone from your past turned up unexpectedly at worship how would it make you feel?
69. How do you identify newcomers and what do you offer them?
70. What problems will arise if you do grow and how will you deal with them?
71. Do claims that you welcome everyone stop you working at welcoming those who traditionally find it hard to find a home in church?
72. Do you use language that is inclusive of everyone?
73. How do you know?
74. Is there any identifiable group of people that you can’t explicitly say are welcome because of how an individual or group in the congregation will react?
75. Do you want to grow or not?
growth, mission, questions

10 responses to “Blogging”

Lisa

18/01/2007

First, let me argue that Bishop Paul Marshall — who wrote that letter you cite — is not one of the great liberals of the Episcopal Church in the U.S. He is widely respected and regarded as a moderate. What he wrote in that letter is a frustration that many of us share: Why can the Archbishop meet privately with the most extreme conservatives of the Episcopal Church in the U.S., but consistently refuses to meet with our bishops assembled? I think that is a fair and valid question. I would urge folks to read Bishop Marshall’s whole letter and not just Ruth Gledhill’s biased “gloss” on it.

I agree the overall tenor of dialogue on U.S. Episcopalians’ blogs is worrisome. But I do not believe it’s the “liberals” that have gone out of bounds. If you want to read true venom, go to Virtue Online or StandFirm.

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David

18/01/2007

It would be great to have a meet up and blether!

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kelvin

18/01/2007

Thanks for the comments

Lisa – it was precisely standfirm and virtueonline that I had in mind.

You’re presuming that I don’t have sympathy for Paul Marshall. I have a great deal of sympathy for his position. I think he is angry. And I think he is right to be angry. I deliberately linked directly to his piece rather than Ruth Gledhill’s stuff about it, which people can find for themselves.

Perhaps if I had written “Those of us with strong liberal convictions…” my own position would have been clearer.

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Tim

18/01/2007

Sociability good. (And arguably good for online interactions too – there are several notable folks whose adventures I read, whom I could happily put in a room together with a football and lock the door 😉

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Frank

18/01/2007

There comes a time to toss convention and start communicating. I have a tea party in mind.

cheers

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Raspberry Rabbit

18/01/2007

Kelvin, I think the whole blogging machine on the right in the U.S. has been set up for a good long while now. They’ve become proficient at it – the ‘blog storm’ if you like which sees itself quite self consciously as ‘generating’ public opinion for particular ends. The amount of support which ‘social conservatives’ will lend to religious conservatives as ‘deserving cousins’ allows those involved in the present TEC dispute access to an immense network.

I agree with the first comment about Bishop Marshall being middle of the road and not particularly liberal.

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Raspberry Rabbit

18/01/2007

Oh and with respect to SEC bloggers. A meeting might be a good idea

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Dennis

18/01/2007

Kevin: Just discovered your blog through MadPriest’s blog. I’ll add you to my regular visits.

It is exciting for me, an American far away from the Episcopal Church of Scotland, since I was confirmed at St Mary’s Glasgow back on Pentecost Sunday in 1988 – your church is where I became an Episcopalian – Fr John Turner was the chaplain at GU. Fr Malcolm was provost.

How exciting. Glad to find your blog.

Dennis

The world of political blogs in the US isn’t really that bad. The most important blog in the US for political progressives is DailyKos (www.dailykos.com) – I’m over there quite a lot – worth watching – it has a lot of voice and influence in the US Democratic party for supporting and raising money for underdog candidates last year who happened to win.

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Dennis

18/01/2007

make that Kelvin, not Kevin. sorry about that!

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Lisa

20/01/2007

I’ve corresponded privately with Kelvin about this, but let me make a few comments here in public.

I usually have to do my reading and writing on “things Anglican” after a full day at work. I regret to say that means I am sometimes too tired, and I miss the nuances. Which clearly happened in my public reply here. I apologize for that, and I apologize for making unwarranted assumptions about Kelvin’s stance.

One of the things I am realizing is that we in the Anglican Communion really do not understand enough about each other’s cultures and ethos. Over here in the U.S., we are very much hoping that the churches in the U.K. (and a few other provinces) will allow us to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling,” as St. Paul urged. I fear that our colonial past [of which most U.S. Episcopalians repent most sincerely] is working against us. We do not want to “export” our positions to others in the Communion; we don’t want to tell others they must do as we have done. We simply want the space in which to walk the path that seems right to us — and that path already has a 30-year history of prayerful discernment, both about the place of women in ordained ministry and about the place of gay men and lesbians in the Church and ordination.

Unfortunately, in the larger U.S. culture now, both “liberal” and “moderate” are anathema. A very scary conservativism (verging on — dare I use the term? — fascism) is taking hold.

When folks say the Episcopal Church is “bowing to popular culture,” they could not possibly be more wrong. “Popular culture” now in the U.S. is strongly capitalist, imperialist, nationalist, sexist, and anti-gay. Our church is “bucking” that tide, and we are paying a great price for what we truly believe to be a Spirit-led, prophetic witness.

It remains to be seen whether others in the Anglican Communion will trust us to continue in this time of discernment.

These are very, very hard times for all of us. And I hate how the positions are being polarized.

At our church’s General Convention [Do you call it a synod?], several people spoke about how the “diverse center” had spoken. I hope and pray that the “diverse center” will find their voices in Tanzania.

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