Thom S. Rainer's Blog, page 59

Five Reasons Your Church’s Giving Is Increasing Even Though Attendance Is Lower

“Our attendance is down 20 percent, but our giving is up 10 percent!”

We hear similar comments like that one frequently. When the first quarantine began, there was a clear and valid concern that churches would not have the funds to continue their ministries and keep their staff.

Then the surprise came for some churches. To be clear, not all churches have benefitted from increased financial giving. Indeed, in our informal social media and webinar polls, Church Answers found that 44 percent of congregations experienced decreased giving since the pandemic began. But that means that 56 percent of the churches experienced either increased or level giving.

We have been analyzing this phenomenon to attempt to discern why and how giving increases when attendance decreases. It seems counterintuitive. But when we began asking more questions, we found five good explanations for increased giving.

1. Attendance frequency is down, but churches have not lost as many members as the attendance would indicate. Many members have not left; they just attend less frequently. They are also continuing to give even though you don’t see them as much. But leaders need to watch this trend carefully. Over time, less frequent attendees give less. You could be experiencing the financial calm before the storm.

2. The core and committed members are stepping up in their giving. They love their churches. They do not want to see ministry hindered or discontinued because of lower financial giving. Again, watch this trend carefully. We have heard from several church leaders who know some of their members cannot sustain the higher level of giving. They are doing so for a season.

3. Digital and planned giving have increased. This one factor has major positive implications. When the church was not gathering in person, the most common way church members gave was digitally. Many of those digital givers had never given online before. It was a major breakthrough. Even better, some of the digital givers became planned givers, meaning that the funds came out of their accounts to the church without them having to think about it. Church leaders would do well to monitor the percentage of total giving that is digital and the percentage that is digital and planned. Those metrics will give a good indication of where giving is headed.

4. There has been significant government liquidity injected into the market. Families and individuals have received payments from the government. Businesses likewise have benefitted from such programs as the Paycheck Protection Program. Those payments were only provided for relief from the damage COVID inflicted on the economy. Many of your church members generously donated a portion of these funds. Those government funds will likely not last much longer.

5. Church leaders have been less hesitant to ask church members to give. Many churches do not receive funds members are willing to give because they do not cast a vision and ask them to give. But other charitable and institutional leaders don’t hesitate to ask your church members to give to their organizations. As church leaders have become bolder about asking during the pandemic, church members have responded.

We are grateful for the stewardship and faithfulness of church members during these challenging times. But church leaders should consider each of these five factors as they plan for God’s future for their congregations.

I am grateful for you, church leaders. You are my heroes.

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Make the Connection, Keep the Connection

In our weekend worship services, a first-time guest is a fragile guest. They are on high alert for anything that pushes them out of their comfort zone, and constantly looking for anything that feels familiar and safe. That’s why making a connection with a first-time guest is crucial.

To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, it’s not enough to make the connection. You also have to keep the connection. And one of the best ways to keep it is to utilize the volunteer who made the connection in the first place.

Years ago, I read a study that said if a first-time guest doesn’t have at least seven meaningful relationships within the first year at a church, they won’t stick around for a second year. That means we must help facilitate those meaningful relationships, and the entry-point volunteer can be the best one to do so.

Here are a few simple ideas, but stick around for some very important rules of engagement.

7 Simple Ways to Keep the Connection

Remember their name after the service. This is an easy win. If a volunteer meets a guest before the service, that same volunteer should make a point to “seek and speak” after the service. (“Tasha! How was the service? Hope to see you next week!”) Drop a postcard in the mail. Keep a stack of church-branded cards in your First-Time Guest tent or Volunteer Headquarters. During the service, vols can jot a quick note to guests they interacted with. Then they leave the postcards to be mailed by the church on Monday.Send an email. Use a generic email address (guestservices@firstbaptist.org, for example) with staff- and volunteer-only access to touch base immediately following the service. This can get tricky with replies, so make sure a staffer is monitoring during the week.Involve the volunteer in follow up. In our context our staff does all of the guest follow up, but consider having that same volunteer make a call later in the week.Schedule a check in at one, three, and six months. Bring your vols into the assimilation process, and have them contact the guest at specific intervals during their first year.Offer to pay for lunch or coffee. If your budget allows it, provide a small stipend or offer to reimburse a volunteer who treats a guest to a meal within the first two weeks of their visit.Invite them to small group. I have a Guest Services volunteer who is also a small group leader, and the number of women in her group who began as a meeting at the First-Time Guest tent…well, that’s a number no one can calculate. She’s a connection machine. Rather than trying to get them in a group, why not just encourage the vol to invite them to theirs?

The rules of engagement

The volunteer connector should know their role and agree to their role. If the volunteer is the one person who is following up with a particular guest, they should know that and feel the weight of that. It’s not as simple as leaving out a “finishing touch,” it’s leaving out the touch, period.

Your volunteers should know the role they play in the bigger picture. They should know how their position (parking, seating, First-Time Guest tent, etc.) connects to other positions, and where their tasks land in the overall First-Time Guest process.

And if you’re moving to a make vs. keep model, the volunteer should agree to the new expectations. What you’re asking them to do will go beyond the original ask. [related post: I Didn’t Sign Up For This]

And in some situations, there can be privacy / safety / boundary concerns that you and the volunteer should keep top-of-mind. Don’t put a volunteer in a situation they are not ready for or shouldn’t be in. Use wisdom and caution when asking a vol to follow up with a guest using any of the means above. Don’t put a 19 year old college volunteer in a position where you’re asking her to make regular calls to a 45 year old single man. (And remember that these concerns go both ways. Guest information should never be distributed carelessly.)

How do you involve volunteers in keeping the connection?

This post originally appeared on dfranks.com .

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How Pastors Can Use Feelings of Restlessness in a Positive Way

I have a tendency towards restlessness. Leading through a pandemic did not help. Feeling restlessness is a common phenomenon among pastors and church leaders right now. Maybe you can relate.

Leadership restlessness is something most leaders feel—usually more often than not. It’s the nagging question that keeps you thinking . . . what’s next? In the case of the church, this question can be corporate, meaning you’re thinking what’s next? for the entire congregation. This question can also be personal, meaning what’s next? for me individually.

Some pastors and church leaders are struggling to know what’s next, and it makes them restless. Others are wondering if they have it in them to continue.

There is a biblical call to contentment in ministry, regardless of “success” or not. One way Satan derails churches is to create a negative sense of restlessness in church leaders. Of course, not all restlessness is damaging, so how can church leaders use it in a positive way?

Use restlessness to create opportunities to serve others. Make restlessness about the people you serve. Many established church pastors feel like planting a church every Monday morning. The anonymous notes in the offering plates can get to you. Many church planters feel like transitioning to an established church every Monday morning. The fact that the offering plates lack much of anything in them can get to you. If you have a pattern of restlessness, then fill your calendar at those times with ways to serve others.

Don’t use others to satisfy your restlessness. When I’m selfish in my restlessness, I tend to drag others through endless twists and turns of ideas. It’s one thing to brainstorm. It’s something else to satisfy restlessness by pulling people into the tornado of ideas blowing around in your head.

Start writing. Rather than using others to satisfy my restlessness, I channel the energy into a keyboard. Most of the time, this restless writing ends up as word flotsam—wrecked and floating ideas devoid of purpose. Even if you don’t like to write, restless writing may be of value to you. Sometimes it’s good to get it out of your system.

Don’t fear restlessness, but don’t embrace it either. Followers can think restless leaders are upset or unhappy. Those who work under you can be anxious. Restlessness is both a curse and a blessing. Here is how I lean towards the latter: I make every decision as if I’m leaving the church tomorrow. I also make every decision as if I’m never leaving the church. Thinking about those two extremes keeps me balanced in my restlessness. I don’t fear it, but I don’t fully embrace it either.

Push forward; don’t retreat. Any time restlessness causes you to retreat, from a decision or from others, then it’s not a positive influence on your leadership. Sometimes restlessness may cause you to pause, but it should never pull you backward. When restless leaders retreat, they often start looking for a way out of their current situation. And you can’t lead others while you’re looking for a way out for yourself.

Remember, your restlessness isn’t about you. It should be about the people you serve. Leaders will experience restlessness. Channel these feelings positively so they don’t take you backward.

 

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Four Simple Steps You Can Take Right Now To Grow Generosity At Your Church!

We see it happen all the time…

A church is struggling to meet their operating budget. Yet, they also have some pressing capital needs and wonder if it is even possible to raise that kind of money. In faith, they launch a capital campaign to fund a much-needed facility improvement, and, to the leader’s amazement, the congregation raises significant new dollars. But they weren’t meeting budget – how can this be?

Here’s the sad truth: generosity best practices that are routinely used in successful capital campaigns are often ignored with the general budget. Why cast a vision? Aren’t people supposed to give? Do we need to tell life change stories, we are just funding the budget? You get the idea.

However, sometimes church leaders have an amazing ability to make the simple too complex. This often happens in the realm of growing the generosity of your congregation. And, as the complexity goes up, the probability of doing something goes down (often to zero and nothing is done). All that’s really needed are some basic steps that every pastor can take right now to begin developing a culture of generosity.

To grow generosity at your church, we are huge fans of the KIS principal — Keep It Simple. So, here is our simple four-step process — communicate, communicate, communicate, communicate!

Communicate — say thank you. When was the last time you publicly thanked your congregation for their financial generosity? If it has been more than two months, you’re overdue. Thank them whether you are over budget or under budget. It doesn’t matter. Whoever decided that we only thank God‘s people when we are “meeting budget“? You can thank your people into faithfulness.  Take action: Identify a Sunday when you will express a heartfelt personal thank you for your people’s financial generosity.Communicate — share ministry impact. Did you recently launch a new ministry that is experiencing early success? What about those unsung heroes serving in a long-standing ministry that just keep grinding out spiritual impact year after year? Simply tell one of those stories. But, when you do, be sure to connect the dots — “this ministry was able to be launched (or exists) because of your generosity.” Take action : Identify a ministry impact story to share. Schedule a Sunday and include someone from the ministry to help tell the story.Communicate — celebrate a changed life. Let’s face it, the primary purpose of the church is to see spiritual life change (not fund buildings or budgets). So, identify life change moments and celebrate them. Whether it is a testimony of personal faith in Christ, a marriage restored, or a homeless person given shelter, tell the story. Watch your people’s eyes light up as they lean in just a bit closer. Changed lives represent a believer’s spiritual “return on investment.” Show them the huge ministry dividends that are being paid. Take action: Identify a life change story and schedule a Sunday to celebrate it.Communicate — the Word! All of the above happens because of the power of God ‘s Word. As you communicate, always draw in relevant Scripture. Look no further than the apostle Paul for your inspiration. He was constantly thanking his churches (Philippians 4:14-19), sharing ministry impact (I Thessalonians 1:2-10), and celebrating changed lives (I Timothy 1:12-17). Paul had a simple first century plan to encourage generosity — it still works today!ged lives (I Timothy 1:12-17). Paul had a simple first century plan to encourage generosity — it still works today!

So, there you have it — simplicity reigns! You don’t need a complex program, large committee, or a glossy brochure. All you need is a bit of creativity and the determination to “just do it.“ And the beauty of the above plan is that you can “rinse and repeat,” thereby creating a virtuous cycle of growing generosity.

Want to drill deeper? Download our latest ebook. It picks up where we are leaving off by expanding from these foundational communication best practices into a comprehensive, long-term game plan that becomes self-sustaining. This resource is made available FREE exclusively to Church Answers readers from Church Growth Services. 

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Five Things Church Leaders Wish They Had Done Differently During the Pandemic

The pastor who asked the question demonstrated both maturity and wisdom. He asked our community of church leaders at Church Answers what they wished they had done differently during the pandemic.

His question was not one of remorse. Instead, he wanted to learn some lessons for the future. I watched the community of church leaders respond to him. They loved his approach; they made great contributions to the conversation.

Here are five of the most frequent responses. What are things you wish your church had done differently during the pandemic?

1. More evangelism. Here is a great direct quote from one of our members at Church Answers: “We treated it more as a time simply to endure so we could return to the status quo. And while few things did change following COVID, most of those changes ended up being pretty superficial. We had an opportunity to completely examine how we reach our community, but none of that actually changed. I truly regret not pushing harder for us to follow through.”

2. More one-on-one contact. Some of the church leaders look back and realize they could have done a better job staying in touch with the members. They were so accustomed to seeing them on a regular basis in person that some of them did not move proactively to contact them during the quarantine.

3. Less panic about finances. For the most part, these church leaders feel like they overreacted, some to the point of panic, to the possibility of declining income. The common refrain was, “God provided.”

4. Better care of staff and key leaders. Only time will tell the toll the pandemic has been on all of us. A pastor I coached shared, “I was dealing with multiple issues I’d never had to deal with before. I dealt with criticisms I didn’t know existed. I’ve been exhausted and, at times, depressed. As a consequence, I didn’t check on my leaders enough. I wish I had been more attentive to them.”

5. Greater knowledge of the community. Some of the church leaders shared with us that the quarantine would have been a great opportunity to get to know their community and neighborhood better. They saw other church leaders doing a good job taking prayer requests from the community on social media during the pandemic. They wish they had done likewise. They’ve also heard from other churches recently about their use of the time to study the demographics and psychographics of the community. As the church regathered, they were better prepared to reach and minister to the community where God has placed them.

At the risk of redundancy, let me repeat that the attitudes of the leaders from whom we heard were not ones of wallowing in self-pity. Sure, they wish they had done some things differently. But, even more, they see the opportunity to turn their regrets into gospel-centered ministry.

It is for this reason and others I believe the best days are ahead for many of our churches.

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A Simple Framework for Using Social Media for Your Church

You may have recently seen research indicating that TikTok has surpassed YouTube in viewing time per user. If you’re like most pastors I know, you may have rolled your eyes and thought to yourself, “I just can’t keep up with it all.” Between doing the day to day ministry of the church and balancing other life priorities, you don’t want to add one more thing to your plate. 

However, I think there’s a way to reduce the stress when thinking through social media for your church and when or if you should create a social media account. In this post, I’m going to give you a three step framework to determine when you should start a social media account for your church.

Identify where your audience is

Churches put a lot of effort in determining what the future looks like. Most of this effort is used to determine where their people are going to be. What do the trends look like? How do we reach the next generation for Christ? How do we preach the Gospel to a generation of digital natives?

Those questions are valid. The problem is that when it comes to social media if you spend the majority of time figuring out where your audience will be, you can miss out on where your audience already is. 

For example, if you believe that the next generation of people who will attend your church will be on TikTok, there could be a temptation to create an account and spend your time there with the hopes of attracting the next generation. However, if the majority of your congregation is currently on Facebook, you would be better off spending the majority of your time creating content for Facebook. 

Why? Because if you’re just starting out on social media, you’ll need some early wins and feedback in order to get the momentum going in the right direction. If you’re totally focused on the future, you’ll get easily frustrated and start to feel defeated. Just like any other new endeavor, social media will require momentum to keep you going. 

Identify key volunteers to run the day to day

Don’t be afraid to delegate your church’s social media. Yes, you will need to keep an eye on it, but in order to keep up with creating content and interacting with your audience you’re going to need to bring in volunteers. 

This is where I see most church’s run astray. They’ll find the right volunteers to run social media, but then soon the volunteer gets overwhelmed, they quit, and the church’s social media channels go silent. 

This can be avoided by bringing in a team of volunteers. The team aspect of this is important. Just like you wouldn’t have a single greeter manning the church doors on Sunday morning, you need a team of volunteers to monitor and create social media content. 

The reason for the team aspect of social media is that social media is a 24/7 operation. You can’t ask a volunteer to be on call 24/7, so you’ll need to spread the work out across multiple volunteers.

Identify what you can budget for social media

For the first ten years of social media you didn’t need to pay to use social media. However, in the last five years the rules of social media have changed. Gone are the days where you could post your ministry event on social media and then assume that people would see it. Instead, we’re in an era where you are required to spend money in order for your content to be seen. 

Most churches look at social media spending as something that they cannot afford to do. Yet, I would argue that this is something that churches cannot afford NOT to do. As more and more people spend time on mobile devices with the majority of that time being on social media, your church will continue to need to find ways to keep your content in front of people.

Also, keep in mind that if you spend your money on social media wisely, you can target an audience in a way that no other media channel will allow. I’m not going to get in the particulars of how to create social media ads, but know that when they’re done right, the benefits far exceed the costs. 

To recap, identify where your audience is at, what volunteers can help you, and what budget you can spend. Doing those three things will help you prevent major headaches with social media in the future. 

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Nine Realities Your Church Will Face in 2022

Presuming we get on the other side of COVID by the end of this year, the picture for churches in America is mostly clear. Of course, none of us can know the future with certainty, and another COVID spike could change the conversation dramatically.

Still, we see nine realities your church will face in 2022. This research is based on our conversations and data from hundreds of churches with whom we work. In no particular order, here are the nine realities:

1. There is a lot of reason for hope. Biblically, there is always hope in Christ. Additionally, we see many churches reaching more people than they ever have. Close to a majority of churches have not experienced declining finances. Attendance is close or even better than 2019 numbers in one of six churches. Simply stated, if God is not done with these churches, there is reason to believe your church can be one of those breakout churches.

2. Churches that grow will move evangelism to a priority ministry. Most church leaders attest to this reality, but few practice it. Evangelism can’t be just another activity or ministry of the church. Breakout churches will focus on evangelism more than any point in their history. That will be the only way they will grow in post-Christian culture. As an anecdotal comment, our most popular resource is called “Pray and Go.” Its popularity is a good sign that more churches are taking prayer and evangelism seriously.

3. Denominational support will wane significantly. Most denominations, like the churches they serve, are struggling. They don’t have the resources they once had to help churches. New networks will form, and new affinity groups will be established among churches so they may help one another.

4. Attitudes toward Christians and churches are not monolithic. Don’t assume that every non-Christian you meet is anti-Christian. For certain, there are some that have antipathy toward our faith, but many do not. Regardless, the Holy Spirit can work in any culture. The first-century culture did not begin with a favorable cultural view of Christianity, but the early churches did okay anyway.

5. Part-time vocational ministry will become the norm. We estimate there are currently one million part-time pastors and staff in North America. That number will continue to grow. This trend is not completely due to financial limitations. Many bi-vocational pastors and staff choose to go this path. We call that reality “co-vocational ministry.”

6. Horizontal growth will become a key strategy for growing churches. Horizontal growth takes place when a church establishes a new site, a new service other than Sunday morning, a new venue, or adopts an existing church. Vertical growth has been the key strategy of the past. Churches attempted to grow as much as possible in the Sunday morning timeframe at one site. In growing churches, horizontal and vertical growth will complement each other.

7. We estimate that as many as 15,000 churches will be confronted with the choice of closing or being adopted. This number is higher than the closings of past years. COVID has certainly accelerated and exacerbated this trend. While the issue of closure is a sad reality, the option to be adopted (sometimes called replanted or acquired) is a growing and healthy trend.

8. Churches that resist change will decline more rapidly. It is hard to effect change in many churches. That sad mantra of “We’ve never done it that way before” is the verbiage of decline and death. Change resistance will result in faster decline than ever before. In the past, these churches could count on modest growth from cultural Christians to offset some of their losses. Cultural Christianity, however, is all but gone. So will be the churches who hold to non-essential traditions of the past.

9. More churches will struggle to find pastors. We hear from pastorless churches every week. The refrain is common. The churches simply cannot find a pastor they deem to be a fit for their congregations. From the perspective of the pastors, they are being very careful, if not selective, before moving to another church. If they hear the church has fired or run off pastors, there has been a staff coup, or if the church has a reputation for negativity and fighting, they will not allow themselves to be considered by the church.

As you read these nine realities for churches in 2022, please read again the first point. Amid all these challenges, there is an abundance of hope. What is no longer an option is a middle road of “doing church” as usual.

Churches will either focus on God-given priorities, or they will decline and die. It’s that basic.

 

 

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How the Neighborhood Church Could Make a Comeback

Incredible potential is right around the corner. Imagine what could happen if neighborhood churches got healthy on a large scale.

I believe the neighborhood church movement is primed for a launch.

The neighborhood church is associated with a particular neighborhood. It is common for them to carry the name of the community. They were originally started in the community and for the community. They are built into the fabric of the community and are often landlocked, surrounded by residences. Neighborhood churches tend to be smaller or midsize and are established. For years, we have dismissed the potential for these churches. I believe they are primed for a comeback. They are numerous and in the heart of places with lots of people.

I wish I could write these churches will make a comeback, but it’s unknown at this juncture. If this comeback occurred, what might it look like?

The stigma becomes the advantage. Some have bemoaned the “on every street corner” nature of the established church. I get why. It seems churches are everywhere and doing nothing. But a shift is occurring. The megachurch movement is fading. The number of megachurches in the United States is no more than it was ten years ago. The younger generations do not prefer giant sanctuaries on sprawling campuses like their Boomer parents. The neighborhood church has a long way to go before having a movement of its own, but the stigma is fading. Smaller churches buried in neighborhoods have an appeal. If these churches step up, then the stigma will shift to an advantage.

Church fostering becomes more common. The term fostering is usually connected to a child with a family. But a new movement is emerging with the realm of church revitalization. Fostering is the process where a relatively healthy church provides people and other resources for a relatively unhealthy church over a specified time—usually six months to a year. A healthier church may provide someone to preach when an unhealthier church has no pastor. In many cases, the fostering relationship involves improving the worship ministry and restarting programming for children. The most successful fostering relationships occur when a healthier church helps an unhealthier church do outreach in the surrounding neighborhood.

Local pastors become less like islands and make friends. In too many communities, pastors treat their church campuses like islands instead of an interconnected network of kingdom outposts. Pastors need to get off their islands and go make friends with other pastors. When pastors are friends with each other, tenure becomes longer and churches compete less. Neighborhood churches will start to make a comeback when they spend more energy working together and less energy competing.

Community revitalization becomes part of the mission. Church revitalization should include community revitalization. The way to better church health is an outward movement, not an inward focus. You cannot revitalize a church without also leading that church to help revitalize the community. Imagine a movement of neighborhood churches each revitalizing a one-mile radius around their campuses. It would change the nation!

It’s time for the neighborhood church to make a comeback. The stigma of small churches is fading. Fostering is becoming more common. Pastors should feel free to leave the islands of their campuses and make friends. The opportunity to revitalize neighborhoods is as big as ever. The neighborhood church movement is primed for a launch.

Originally published at Idea Network.

 

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A Message to All COVID Medical Personnel

Our church recently concluded our services by asking all who attend to write thank you notes to all the medical personnel in our regional medical center, specifically those who have looked after COVID patients for two years. It was a reminder to me that I have a forum that can be used to express my gratitude to medical personnel all around the world. Shame on me that I have not done so until now.

To the doctors, nurses, technicians, and other medical personnel: Thank you. You have been through a horrendous schedule. You have wept to see so many lives lost. You have consoled countless family members. You have been the recipients of anger, frustrations, criticisms, grief, and fear.

You have worked until you’ve had no physical and emotional strength to carry on. Yet, somehow, you managed to get up the next day and do it again. You have cared selflessly for others while you often had no one to care for you.

Allow me to say it again: Thank you. Please hear some of the areas where my heart has immense gratitude.

Thank You for Your Courage

You are literally putting your lives on the line to save other lives. You probably know medical personnel who lost their lives to COVID.

The best definition of a courageous person is a man or woman who puts others first even while recognizing the personal risk in doing so. You demonstrate courage. You embody courage. You personify courage.

Thank You for Your Sacrifices

For certain, your sacrifices include your willingness to put your lives on the line for others. But you have sacrificed time and energy. You have often worked past the point of exhaustion. You have sacrificed your own personal schedule. You didn’t get to do so many of the things the rest of us were able to do.

You sacrificed your family at times. Perhaps your family understood that you are like the soldiers who go to battle to protect their nation. You did the same. The battlefield was different, but it was still a battlefield. Or perhaps your family did not understand. You lived under the constant pressure of saving lives while saving your family.

Thank You for Your Hope

You held the hands of dying patients and whispered hope to them. You exhorted other patients to fight for their lives and for their families.

You gave kind words and hope to the families of the COVID victims. You witnessed tragedy after tragedy, but you personified hope for countless persons. When the COVID patient could not see his or her family, you were there for them. And for some of them you were the only person, the only hope, they could see as they took their final breaths.

Thank You . . .

My words are insufficient. I have personally thanked many medical personnel. I have written letters of encouragement. I have prayed for those I know by name. And I have prayed in aggregate for the millions I don’t know.

I will continue to pray for you. I will continue to encourage you. And I will continue to acclaim that you are my heroes and my heroines.

We often refer to Jesus as the Great Physician. I pray for you he will be the Great Encourager as well. I pray he will be the Great Comfort too.

You deserve my prayers and so much more. Infinitely more.

Thank you. May the God who loves his children without condition be a blessing of love, encouragement, and comfort to you.

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Five Dangers of Speaking in Hyperbole and How It Can Backfire

Most pastors communicate with good intentions, and most pastors are genuinely excited about God’s work in their churches. In fact, one of the main questions I get when I consult with pastors is How can I get my church more excited? I start by telling them it’s unlikely anyone in your congregation will have the same level of passion as you do. As a pastor, you’re the shepherd. You lead by example. Leading out with passion is part of shepherding people.

But I’ve noticed a recurring theme among pastors, especially with social media. We tend to exaggerate. I’m among the guilty bunch. For example, every Sunday isn’t the best ever. Not every social media post about your church needs three exclamation points!!! Additionally, it’s easy in today’s environment to be overly negative with hyperbole. Though we’re all living in a general malaise right now, not every church is a sinking ship in crisis mode. So don’t talk like it.

These kinds of statements are misleading. If you’re like me, you don’t intend to be disingenuous with hyperboles. They simply overflow from passion. The danger with speaking in hyperbole is it can backfire. Badly. How can hyperbole backfire? I’ll give you five ways. 

1. Passion detached from reality moves people backward, not forward. Hyperboles are exaggerated statements not meant to be taken literally. Making use of literal hyperboles (“We PACKED.IT.OUT on Sunday!”) confuses reality. If by PACKED.IT.OUT you mean it was an average Sunday with a typical number of seats filled, then you’re detached from reality. And leaders that can’t recognize reality will lead people backward, not forward.

2. A constant barrage of hyperboles compromises true celebration. Leaders who consistently exaggerate diminish true celebrations. When everything is THE GREATEST! then nothing is the greatest.

3. Hyperboles can have a longer life cycle than you want. Early in my ministry,  I made the mistake of telling a church member, “This is truly the greatest banana pudding I’ve ever tasted.” For the next two years, I received weekly tubs of her banana pudding.  From a negative perspective, saying the church is doomed to fail might not be the best strategy to get people re-engaged. Negative hyperbole tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy in churches.

4. Leading with hyperboles eventually sinks into a game of one-upmanship. If the church down the road has a big event, then the temptation is to one-up their best. They invite [insert big name] to speak on Sunday, so you invite [insert bigger name]. This kind of competition is not healthy for God’s kingdom.

5. Hyperboles have diminishing returns. Generating excitement with hyperboles has the effect of diminishing returns. You may draw a crowd the first time you say, “Be here tonight! It will be our biggest event ever!” But each time you employ the tactic, the result is inevitably less than the previous time. The same principle applies to negative hyperbole. You can only use crisis language for so long before people stop listening.

The root cause of leading with hyperboles is an unhealthy focus on self. It’s hard to write these words because I’m guilty. A leader who consistently uses hyperboles is passionate, no doubt. The problem is this passion isn’t for Jesus. It’s rather a passion for attention.

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