Church Relevance’s May newsletter, Learn Like A Painter, has been added to the site.

Another church’s formula for success may not work for your church. Do not replicate what other churches do, but study what principles and techniques make them successful. Learn like a painter.

Great painters study other artists, but they blend what they learn with their own artistic expression. Although other artists influence them, their passion and self-awareness are the driving forces of their artform.

In the same way, you should study other ministries, but you need to be able to discern which techniques will work with your church’s unique calling and circumstances. You can learn from and be inspired by others without becoming a clone of them.

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I will be posting articles from Church Relevance’s newsletter a few months after I send them to subscribers. If you would like to receive the latest issues of Church Relevance’s newsletter as soon as possible, you may sign up to begin your free monthly subscription to the newsletter.

In July 2005, Barry Schwartz, the author of The Paradox of Choice, spoke at the TED Conference about how too many choices leave people less satisfied. Some excerpts are:

The more options there are, the easier it is to regret anything at all that is disappointing about the option that you chose.

The way in which we value things depends on what we compare them to.

Adding options to people’s lives can’t help but increase the expectations people have about how good those options will be. And what that’s going to produce is less satisfaction with the results even when they’re good results.

The reason that everything was better back when everything was worse is that when everything was worse, it was actually possible for people to have experiences that were a pleasant surprise. You will never be pleasantly surprised because your expectations, my expectations, have gone through the roof.

What does this mean for the church?

Most communities have a wide spectrum of churches from which to choose. In previous decades, the differences among churches were largely theological, but today, choosing a church also considers worship styles, facilities, programs, and a slew of other options.

With so many types of churches available, it is much easier today to disappoint people with how you do church even if your level of excellence is better than ever before. People’s expectations of an ideal church will only increase as they are given more church options.

The United States is a culture filled with choices, and this plethora of choice only makes it more difficult to meet the expectations people may have for your worship service, preaching delivery, or children’s ministry. But I do believe that churches have the ability to still leave people “pleasantly surprised,” and that ability is to communicate the love of Jesus Christ. No expectations can exceed the impact that being Christ-like has on an individual.

First focus on being a Christ-like church, and then you can consider what you can do to meet some of the ever-evolving expectations people have for your church. Just remember that you can’t please everyone.

You can watch Barry Schwartz’s presentation on TED’s website.

I am excited to announce a new section on Church Relevance called 10Q.

It is a 10 question interview with ministry leaders from around the world. I love learning the principles that have brought success to leaders and their ministries, and I hope that these 10Q interviews will expand and challenge your thinking too as we get an insider’s perspective of numerous successful ministries.

Keep reading Church Relevance and expect to see the first interview soon.

On Episode 31 of the Catalyst Podcast, Perry Noble of NewSpring Church (Anderson, SC) shared the following insight about ministry creativity:

One of the myths is that creativity costs money. If you’ve got to go out and spend a bunch of money to be creative, guess what?

You’re not creative!

Creativity is finding a way to communicate a message that people can understand and relate to.

Ministry creativity is about what you do, not how much you spend.

The United States has been undergoing some dramatic culture shifts in recent decades. USA Today has been reporting on a few of them.

The Hispanic Shift (the article)

• The nation’s Hispanic population is growing fastest on the East Coast and in the Midwest, far from border areas that have been traditional immigration strongholds.
• The number of Hispanics more than doubled in 135 counties, with some of the fastest growth in suburban counties in Georgia and Virginia.
• In the 1990s, Hispanics accounted for 18.9% of the growth in suburbs. That number has jumped to 24.5% since 2000.

The African-American Shift (the article)

• The nation’s black population is decreasing around Northern cities as blacks continue moving to the South.
• Black population increased by the thousands in counties in Georgia, Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Maryland, and Virgina.
• In the 1990s, blacks accounted for 12.4% of the growth in suburbs. That number has jumped to 16.6% since 2000.

The new theme for blacks this decade is that they’re moving to places that had been primary destinations for whites. They’re moving to the suburbs and… fast-growing areas.
- William Frey :: Demographer :: Brookings Institution

The Dwindling Whites (the article)

•  Whites are now in the minority in nearly 1 in 10 U.S. counties.

The Young People Shift

• Young people are moving out of cities for neighborhoods in the suburbs and beyond. The 20- to 34-year-old population dropped in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, New York, and Seattle, while their numbers grew rapidly in nearby counties where housing is cheaper.

When a church’s community undergoes a dramatic culture shift, what was effective ministry in the past may no longer work. Keep an eye on your community. How is it changing?

LifeWay Research recently discovered why 70% of Protestant young adults ages 18-22 stop attending church regularly for at least a year, why 30% continue attending church, and why 75% of those who dropout return to church at ages 23-30.

AMONG THOSE WHO STOP ATTENDING CHURCH

• 27% say they simply wanted a break from church
  >> 20% planned on taking a break from church once they finished high school
• 25% say they moved to college and stopped attending church
• 23% say work responsibilities prevented them from attending
• 22% say they moved too far away from the church to continue attending
• 22% became too busy, though still wanted to attend
• 17% chose to spend more time with friends outside the church

Relationships are often the glue that keep people in church or serve as the attraction to begin attending again following a period of absenteeism. Many people are deeply influenced by friends and loved ones.
- Brad Waggoner :: VP of Research & Ministry Development :: LifeWay

AMONG THOSE WHO CONTINUE ATTENDING CHURCH

• 65% say church was a vital part of their relationship with God
• 58% say they wanted the church to guide their decisions in everyday life
• 50% say they felt that church was helping them become a better person
• 42% were committed to the purpose and work of the church

WHY 70% OF DROPOUTS RETURN AT AGES 23-30

• 51% were influenced by the encouragement of either family or friends
  >> 39% say parents or family members encouraged them to attend
  >> 21% say friends or acquaintances encouraged them to attend
• 34% simply felt a desire to return
  >> 41% women
  >> 22% men
• 28% felt that God was calling them to return to the church
  >> 34% women
  >> 18% men
• 24% had children and felt it was time for them to start attending
  >> 31% women
  >> 13% men
• 20% got married and wanted to attend with their spouse

As Brad Waggoner put it, relationships are a powerful factor in church attendance. How can your church create a stronger, friendlier community? How can you build relationships?

The New York Times reports that after using the same font on highway signs for over 50 years, America’s Federal Highway Administration has approved a new font, ClearviewHwy. Clearview is replacing Highway Gothic which has been in use since Eisenhower decided to expand the Interstate System in 1956.

Why the change?

Highway Gothic’s letter shapes were never tested for readability, but Clearview is the result of rigorous testing in the pursuit of a more legible font. So just how much better is Clearview than Highway Gothic?

Signs that you’d be hard pressed to read at 700 feet were legible at 900 or 1,000 feet.
-James Montalbano :: Founder :: Terminal Design

That is a 28% to 43% improvement.

What does this mean to the church?

Test your signage. Church graphic designers should always be mindful of how their aesthetic decisions will influence the effectiveness of their design’s purpose. Here are some tips to help you design and implement great church signs from Paco Underhill’s book Why We Buy. Note: I have replaced the word “store” with “church” and replaced “shoppers” and “customers” with “visitors.”

• To say whether a sign or any in-church media works or not, there’s only one way to assess it — in place.
• The difference between an inadvertent glance at a sign and a thorough reading might be two or three seconds.
• If you’ve put the right sign in the wrong place, [it] is actually worse than putting a so-so sign in the perfect place.
• If you don’t get their attention first, nothing else will register.
• You can’t just look around your church, see where there are empty spots on the walls and put signs there.
• Every church is a collection of zones, and you’ve got to map them out before you can place a single sign. You’ve got to get up and walk around, asking yourself with every step: What will visitors be doing here? Where will their eyes be focused when they stand here? And what will they be thinking about over there?
• Each zone is right for one kind of message and wrong for all others. Putting a sign that requires twelve seconds to read in a place where visitors spend four seconds is just slightly more effective than putting it in your garage.
• When it comes to positioning a sign, the difference between an ideal viewing spot and a terrible one is often just a few feet.

Paco Underhill also addresses 9 principles that make highway signs effective:

1. no extra words
2. the right sign at the right place
3. enough signs that drivers don’t feel ignored or underinformed
4. not so many signs that there’s clutter or confusion
5. use a vocabulary of icons
6. the color combination provides enough contrast
7. the lettering is large
8. the lighting is good
9. the positioning is just so

And with the introduction of Clearview, principle #10 is “choosing the right font.”

Design and implement your church signs like they are highway signs. These are 10 principles that work.

[via Trend Hunter]

Jim Wideman has made a list (part 1 & part 2) of his top 10 principles for ministry management. My favorites are:

#2 :: Plan for Growth
Remember that people follow people with a plan. Have a plan for spiritual growth, organizational growth, and numerical growth.

#3 :: Get Some Help
Make some calls. Network. Read a book. Listen to a CD. Get a Mentor. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel.

#6 :: Plan for Interruptions
When everything is said and done, there is more said than done. Things don’t always happen as you plan them.

#8 :: Plan Your Time Offensively
Act like your time belongs to you! Learn to say “no” to the things you don’t need to do.

Ministry management is about stewardship. It is about making the most of the calling that God has given you. Always be looking for ways to make your ministry more efficient.