Besides clutter and noise, what pitfalls do churches fall into…
Thu, Dec 1, 2011
Aside from “clutter and noise,” what are some of the major pitfalls many churches run into in their communications?
Ah, easy. The ministry silos. You’ve seen it: the missions department does its own thing. The student leaders do their own thing. The women’s ministry does their own thing. And, the pattern repeats throughout the whole church. The result? Individual departments end up competing against each other with a carnival communication style trying to out-yell or out-explain.
If we each serve up a different experience, run off in our own individual directions—information gets lost or isolated. People and projects proliferate—as does confusion. This creates real liabilities for the church as a whole and puts a lid on overall impact.
A lot of churches acknowledge it’s a problem, but find it too exhausting to tackle. It’s simply easier to just ignore silos and let people do their own thing. The only way to resolve these types of issues is to connect multiple areas to operate as part of a larger family. Some examples:
- One mission statement. If everyone is working toward the same goal, there will be less territorialism and more teamwork.
- One budget. There are different categories for each ministry, but one church budget.
- One database. A single version of reality—reports and contacts.
- One URL. One church, multiple ministries. Not the other way around. A house has one front door—so should your web site.
(Excerpt from Ministry Matters Interview | 6 in series of 6)
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Interesting enough a church can develop the mentality that there are not enough people to go around. If you’re struggling to get members to commit or attend to what’s going on maybe that’s a sign that the church needs to engage the community more.