I am writing not expecting anyone to listen, nor am I on a crusade to change minds. All I want to do is say what I see. As a pastor who has spent the past 20 years in the same church, I have learned some things that I really think could be helpful to people, both in and outside of ministry. However, I have also found over these 20 years, people don’t care about what you have to say as much as you think they do – – so I have decided not to “sweat-it” if no one listens. I will share my mind anyway.
So I am going to start a Monday series the next couple weeks called, “Screaming into the Void.”
Today’s discussion is going to be one part marketing, and another part pastoral intuition. The subject I want to discuss is why churches of the conservative Baptist and independent Bible flavor that I have been serving at, are losing members and dying. It is true numbers in Mainline denominations are declining as well, but for far different reasons; I may talk about this another time.
I want to start my thoughts by explaining the common “Bell Curve.” I first learned about this chart while studying marketing at The University of Dayton. The Bell Curve is a general way to describe how organizations grow and die based on statistical research. I have found this pattern to show itself true in businesses, television shows, music genres, and especially in church life – – something I have come to know very well.
It is composed of four groups that represent the whole of any given organization. They represent different types of people and their responsiveness to change and innovation. Here is a general overview:
Group One: “Innovators”
This group, even though statistically small, contains those who generate new ideas and are excited about change. They often have a good pulse when it comes to understanding trends and tastes outside of the group, so they are always pushing the rest of the organization to move outside of the box (organizational traditions, values, and expectations). For any group to change, they need to really allow this group to have a voice.
Group Two: “Early Adopters”
This group, along with the late adopters, contains the majority of the organization’s people. This group is composed of those who are both very supportive of the organization but are flexible when it comes to change. People in this group do not generate change, but they are accepting of the new innovations that bring positive growth. They still value loyalty to the organization, so in order for them to adopt drastic changes, the innovators must persuasively convince them the change will be good for the whole in the long run.
Group Three: “Late Adopters”
This group is composed of those who are both very loyal to the organization but are inflexible when it comes to change. People in this group do not understand the need for change, and they become suspicious of the innovators when they try to push change. Because they value loyalty above everything else, they often will demand rock-solid reasons why they should even entertain the idea of doing things differently. Loyalty to tradition often trumps love for outreach.
Group Four: “The Laggards”
This group, even though statistically small, has tremendous power over the rest of the group. They contain those who hate new ideas and abhor change. They often are so insulated and ignorant when it comes to understanding trends and tastes outside of the group, that they are convinced of their own tried and true ways as always being the right ways. For any group to change, they need to learn how to not allow this group to poison the majority.
Understanding the Bell Curve is essential if you really want to grow and still be able to both attract and speak to those outside the organization. If someone says, “we don’t need to change who we are in order to attract those outside” it’s a sure bet you are hearing from the Laggards. Just this past Sunday as I was thinking about this post, our congregation sang a song that had a strong beat to clap too. It was funny to watch how each of these groups clap.
The Innovators just clap naturally. They understand beat patterns and they are not clapping because they think they are supposed to, they are clapping because for them it feels natural. Innovators also know when clapping is not cool, while others keep clapping.
The Early Adopters see the Innovators clapping, so they smile and start clapping along. They see clapping as an expression of their newfound freedom, and they even start clapping extra loud to try to get more people to clap as well. Often their clapping can be off-beat and held a little too long, sometimes they will clap at songs you can’t really clap at – – you see, for them clapping is a new window of opportunity to show how relevant they are.
The Late Adopters hate clapping but will do it if the leader in the front encourages clapping. They will feel very awkward and will look for the moment when they can stop clapping. They also will only clap at songs where it is proper to clap, but no more than that.
The Laggard sees clapping as an instrument of the devil. So they will hold their arms crossed refusing to follow the crowd even if the worship leader has stopped playing and is expecting everyone to join him with large clapping gestures.
This example is very trivial but it shows how the different groups respond. When issues get more important, the tensions between groups will ramp up accordingly. Music Wars, evangelism techniques, dress preferences, meeting times will all be sources of strife if the leader is not aware of the values of each group.
A church dies when the Laggards keep getting their way. Often Baptist circles are run by the Laggards to the detriment of the whole. The way you can best tell a church is run by Laggards is when you have no Innovators attending and there is only a small group of Early Adopters. Why stay when your voice doesn’t matter? Why be at a church when only one group sets the direction for a church? This is not an issue of being relevant for relevance sake, but of valuing the different groups in your organization and seeing them as a gift to your community to help you go outside your four walls.
I am by nature both an Innovator and Early Adopter – and I have been blessed with a church that values doing whatever it can to reach people who don’t know Christ. I have also been at places that see me simply as an instigator throwing out unneeded criticism when things seem to be going fine.
Needless to say, for Innovators like me, we will not stay at places like that for long. And that is why some churches die.
