Deacon Data Dump

Back when I was one of them, I suggested that Christian teachers in my state should create an online forum to share lessons learned, etc. My superintendent took it to one of his statewide meetings, but the idea was met with cold shoulders. Back when I was one of them, I suggested that deacons in my state should create an online forum to share lessons learned, etc. My pastor took it to a district meeting, but the idea fell on deaf ears.

Hmm. Is there a tendency for bosses to keep their underlings from looking outside of the local box? When confronted with a problem, why reinvent the wheel every single time? Whatever challenge we might be facing, I guarantee you that others have already been through it (and hopefully solved it).

Introducing D3...Deacon Data Dump. If you have a thought, question, idea or link pertaining to church leadership, post it here. Somebody out there will benefit from it.

Tracking church attendance, whether for Royal Rangers or Sunday morning, can often reveal trends that need attention. For example, the COVID effect has definitely had an impact, with studies showing a 40% drop in attendance.

At a glance, most of us can see that playing out in our own churches. Many people have chosen to permanently stay away. Maybe it's because the media and government (but I repeat myself) have done such a great job in scaring them to death. Or maybe it's because marginally affiliated people got out of the habit, because it wasn't more than a habit.

I've been tracking our own attendance and it's been frustrating to not see any real growth month to month. At the same time, I know that on any given Sunday, some people are going to be gone for whatever reason. So I thought I would count the numbers in a different way and see what happens.

I decided to define a "regular" attendee as someone who comes at least twice a month. (Back in the old days, I might have said three or four times.) Anyway, the new numbers boosted the average attendance count by nearly 40%. That was encouraging, for sure, and who doesn't need encouragement these days? I'm going to track it in the coming months and see if it doesn't reveal something that is actionable.

For those of you who are interested, "The Pentecostal Deacon - Empowered To Serve" is a pretty good read. It talks of qualifications, selection, ministry and partnership with the pastor.

joecool wrote:I've been tracking our own attendance and it's been frustrating to not see any real growth month to month.

I see the same thing. attendance is stagnant . BUt of course the bible tells us there will be a great falling away.

2 weeks ago, we went to a State-Level Church Retreat.  There were about 78 folks there.  'Most everyone there was a Pastor or a member of the State Staff.  In the last meeting of the last day, the Retreat Organizing Staff said that they wanted to see growth.  They joked that we should start by, everyone who is not married, get married and bring your spouse next year, and that will start immediate growth.

However, earlier in the seminar, they had games and contests, and most of it was, "Who can tell me what Song #115 in the Red-Backed-Hymnal was?", bragging about how many families are third-generation-Pentecostal, or guessing "Smith Wigglesworth" in a game of charades.

Also, at breakfast on the last day, we were sharing the dining room with about 80 high school students on a Catholic Youth Retreat.  I overheard some of the kids respectfully asking each other about Pentecostal churches.

About 20 feet away, I heard a 75-year-old pastor from our group remark about those, "...beautiful little Catholic kids..." and what a great evangelistic opportunity could be there.

Within 5 minutes, on our side of the dining hall, I saw one of our senior pastors make a joke, in which he made the sign of the cross with his hands, strike his shoulder about 4 times, and state the punch-line, "...a Nun with a stutter...".

Moral:

As long as we are short-sighted, conceited, have a Pentecostal pecking order, and our churches are private clubs that make fun of other folks' traditions and feelings, don't expect to see any growth.

Back in the flush days of my church, and during my first tour as a deacon, I suggested that we divvy up responsibilities into portfolios for us to manage. The reactions ranged from empty stares to glares. Flash forward several years, and we have a 75% cut in pastoral staff, and I'm beginning my second tour. Asking about portfolios again, this time around the reaction was different. We've done a little tweaking, and of course, portfolios will differ from church to church, but I include them to start a conversation.

Outreach
Buildings
Grounds
Vehicles
Security/Safety

In coming posts, I will share some thoughts about each of the portfolios.

joecool wrote: In coming posts, I will share some thoughts about each of the portfolios.

Outreach. Over the span of the last couple of years, the deacon in charge of this portfolio has covered a lot of needs. These include the Christmas Shoe Box, Angel Tree, Salvation Army food bank, Trunk 'r Treat, backpacks for kids, etc. She starts up each drive, collects the items and delivers them. She has gotten a lot of people involved with donations. She is terming out of her position and this portfolio will go to someone else. This is a good opportunity for a reset. Why?

- Other than donating the items, no one is actually involved in the ministry itself.
- To date, all the drives have been filling needs, which is good. But I don't think its actually outreach.

I think the ultimate goal of outreach is to expose people to the Gospel, so they can make a decision for Christ...or not. And that needs face-to-face contact. It's been 5 years since anyone came to our church and accepted Christ. And in that same time frame, only two people have visited (and for only a single time) as a result of our "outreach" efforts. Something needs to change, for sure, because the world has changed. We need to be better stewards of our limited resources.

Almost time for a conversation with the carry-over deacons. Does the new portfolio manager recruit others to run each of the drives? Or do we engage in real outreach?

Security/Safety.

As society continues to slide downward, there's no doubt that churches are less safe than they used to be. There are a multitude of websites and organizations that help churches to evaluate their security posture. My church did it in-house, as we have a couple of guys with experience in these areas. What did we end up doing?

- Armored our glass doors and some windows with a special 3-M film. Demonstration videos show a suspect trying to shoot his way through a mostly glass door with this film. Minutes go by before he is able to push through. Plenty of time for a defensive response. We went through this expense. It paid off earlier this year when someone tried to break in, probably to burglarize us. She gave up. This film is expensive and requires a certified installer. Many glass companies now have cheaper alternatives.

- Installed security cameras. These things are very affordable and gave the local police what they needed in order to arrest the above burglar.

- Started a Sheepdog Team. First, study your state's laws to see if there are any limitations on what you can do. Once the service is well under way, lock the front doors and leave an armed person in the foyer. He can let late-comers in. He has a 2-way radio and his partner in the sanctuary wears an ear bud. Don't be militant about training requirements., as it might drive people off the team. It happened to us.

- General Safety. Make a (long) list of all the fire extinguishers, emergency exit lights, carbon monoxide alarms, sprinkler systems, boilers, AEDs, etc. Make a schedule so everything gets checked on time.

Grounds.

A few years ago, I took a look at what we paid a company each year to mow our church's substantial lawn area. I then checked out the price of a zero-turn ride-on mower. They were the same. No-brainer. We bought the mower.

That first year, having ownership of this portfolio, I did all the work by myself. Got smart in the off-season and formed up 4 mowing teams, mostly comprised of retired guys.

That's a lessons-learned for any of these portfolios. Don't feel like you have to do everything by yourself. Chances are there are other people that would like to help. And honestly, who wouldn't like to drive a Binford 3000 mower?

Excellent point.

I would consider proposing the same, except that everyone that we have contracted with are family members of high-ranking church members.

(I ain't jumpin' inta THAT Briar Patch, Bre'r Rabbit.)

Vehicles.

At our church's zenith, we had 2 vans and a bus. A nice bus that had drop-down TV screens and A/C. They were primarily used to shuttle people to the summer church camps. But they were maintenance-intensive ($$) and used less as time went by. Eventually, we sold them off and put the money into a set-aside fund, in case we want to buy another.

Before we had portfolios, and when we still had the vehicles, I took it upon myself to improve things. I developed pre-trip inspection checklists and mileage logs. Unfortunately, the pastoral staff never bothered to use them. Outside of the summer trips, the vehicles were used and abused. I suppose that I could have confiscated the keys until things improved, but I didn't have that kind of pull back then.

Buildings.

Again, the key to successfully managing a portfolio is to not try and do it all by yourself, especially the Buildings one. Schedule a walk-about every month or so, to identify any work that needs to be done. If the scope of the work, or its difficulty level, is beyond your ability, reach out to others. Who knows? You may encourage another person to get more involved in other things.

Finally, something that applies to any portfolio. Over time, it's natural for your eyes to start missing things. The longer you have a portfolio, the more this will happen. It's good to rotate portfolios among the deacons from time to time, as a fresh set of eyes is always an advantage. I have found that two or three years is the optimum amount of time to have a portfolio.