Churches excel in programming and many church members (and especially church leaders!) delight in talking about their programming. In many cases the programs are advertised with carefully constructed marketing pieces that present aesthetically pleasing menus of opportunities for prospective participants.
The Voice of Experience
I have served in several congregations that assumed more was better (also that bigger was better if and when possible). As a lay program staff member in multiple large congregations I was often tasked with directing complex and growing (emphasis on growing!) programs designed to serve a specific demographic group.
A Call to Under-Program
While there are congregations that would benefit from increasing programming, most Protestant congregations would benefit from decreasing programming. Jared C. Wilson, Director of Content Strategy at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Kansas City, MO), recently identified ten reasons congregations should simplify and shift toward less programming. His list includes
- You can do a lot of things in a mediocre way, or you can do a few things extremely well.
- Over-programming creates an illusion of fruitfulness that may just be busyness.
- Over-programming leads to segmentation among ages, life stages, and affinities, which can create divisions in church bodies.
- Over-programming reduces margin in the lives of church members.
- Over-programming is usually the result of unself-reflective reflex reactions to perceived needs, and inability to kill sacred cows that are actually already dead (The Prodigal Church: A Gentle Manifesto Against the Status Quo, Crossway, 2015, p.134-136).
So What?
Regardless of size, most congregations
- do a poor job of defining the role of programs within congregational identity,
- provide inadequate evaluative protocols (or worse still excuse certain programs from being subject to any real evaluation), and
- mistake numeric success (more people showing up and/or more income) as the #1 goal.
I believe programs are an important component of healthy, vibrant, and growing congregations. It is important, however, that those tasked with leading a program know why it exists, what success looks like, how the program will be evaluated, and that nearly all programs are for a season (some seasons last a few weeks and others a few decades).
- What (if any) role do you think consumerism and a consumer mentality plays in a tendency for congregations to over-program?
- Is your congregation over-programmed, under-programmed, or adequately-programmed? Explain.
- Which of Wilson’s reasons congregations should simplify and shift toward less programming resonates most with you? Explain.