How to Explore Collaboration
You are reading this because you suspect that some form of
collaboration might be a good move for your congregation. But
how do you find prospective partners and how do start the
conversation? There is no “match.com” for churches, but here are
four steps to get started.
1. Consider potential partners
An Episcopal church in Minnesota has a facility with expensive
structural problems coupled with aging and decline. It
considered a Shared Campus with two nearby churches but decided
that merger would be a better choice. The leaders of this church
listed the five closest Episcopal churches and arranged for
members to visit each one at worship. They then met with the
clergy and leaders of the prospective partners that appeared
viable, followed by shared worship and fellowship with the two
that seemed to be the best match. After visits, meetings prayer
and discernment they started merger talked with one of the
churches.
Another approach is to initiate informal conversations with the
leaders of nearby churches that might be possible partners.
These leaders often know each other and start with some measure
of trust. Sometimes pastors approach each other to gauge
interest in partnering. It’s smart to start by talking about
partnership instead of a specific option like merger.
A great way to identify prospective partners is to ask your
conference or synod to sponsor a “Church
Opportunities
Workshop”
and invite churches that might be looking for new solutions.
This workshop describes all the possible collaboration and
non-collaboration options with more case studies and much more
detail than this web site. The workshop enables leaders to sit
informally with the leaders of other similarly-situated churches
to get to know each other. More information about a Church
Opportunities Workshop is at
https://churchfuture.com/discovery-workshops
2. Honest Assessment
Before you approach a partner it’s a good idea to take a frank look
at your own church. It’s also a good idea to ask prospective
partners to do the same as you start talking together. This
assessment doesn’t have to be a long drawn out process—you can
do a good job with discussion at two or three council or board
meetings along with some homework. Assemble a few key facts and
hold frank conversations on these basic
topics:
-
Trends in giving and participation over the past few years.
Measuring participation is becoming trickier because a drop
in worship attendance doesn’t always mean that participation
is declining. Even faithful members are tending to worship
less often these days. Look
at attendance in the context of the trend in giving
units—attendance decline may not be as significant if the
number of households that give regularly is stable.
Membership is a poor indicator because people who leave
churches don’t usually cancel or transfer their memberships.
The trendline of new members is very
important, however.
The ratio of deaths in the congregation to baptisms is a
good future barometer. After you assemble the trend numbers
put them in a spreadsheet so you can create graphs. When you
track key trends over the past few years you can make a good
guess where you might be in the future if nothing changes.
-
As part of these discussions list your strengths and weaknesses as
a congregation and identify the
demographic changes
in your neighborhood.
-
Talk about how members live out their faith, and how effective the
congregation is at faith building. Collaborations that are
grounded in a commitment to share God’s love are often
effective. Collaboration for survival is a lot of work for
an iffy outcome.
3. Identify the viable options.
This site—and a workshop if you can arrange that—can be a good way
to narrow the dozen or so options into those that seem best for
your circumstances. Both—or all—the churches should participate
in this step. One option might stand out, but keeping two or
three on the table gives you more flexibility and members won’t
be as apt to feel like the leaders are trying to cram something
down their throats.
At this point joint worship services and opportunities for joint
fellowship are invaluable, to give members a chance to know each
other and see the similarities and differences in the
congregations.
4. Form a joint team and start the process
Each church should have an equal number of members on the team
along with the pastors. We’ve found that about 6 people from
each church—or 5 if there are 3 or more churches—seems to work
best. Make sure that the team includes at least one board or
council member and that team members represent different groups
in the congregation.
At this point an outside coach or consultant is invaluable. An
outside consultant can keep the process fair to all parties, and
an experienced consultant can keep your collaboration from the
pitfalls that others have faces.
Your conference or synod may have some recommendations,
and you can feel free to contact Dave Raymond at
dave@churchfuture.com
or 612-227-0526.