Maintaining Church Membership and Sustaining Commitment

: beyond prayer, fasting and anointing

Samuel Tengey, PhD. (CEO, Strategic Resourcers Ltd, UK)

‘There is time for sowing and reaping, for working and resting’, says Ecclessiates 11: 1. Sadly, for most pastors, theirs is an unending, frustrating process of sowing without reaping, and working without resting. The greatest frustrations of most pastors, is just how to maintain and sustain the commitment of their members to help lessen ministry burden. Churches do face substantial competition although unintentionally in competition, and members’ decision to remain is largely influenced by the extent to which their needs are met by church. Of course, churches cannot practically meet all need; we can maximize our ability to achieve this, nonetheless.

One other frustration faced by many (especially charismatic and Pentecostal) churches is the hard fact that they struggle to attract, retain and benefit from the support of certain caliber of people. This includes intellectuals, professionals, top managers and chief executives, business people and entrepreneurs, and a range of socially-influential, the intellectually powerful and the economically affluent. While, thankfully, this trend seems to be changing, this is occurring at a rather gradual pace, and in only a limited number of cases! Surprisingly, when these categories of people do find themselves in certain predicaments and challenges, where it becomes obvious they need spiritual assistance, they tend to find refuge in these charismatic/Pentecostal churches. However, if you would follow the statistics, you would note that few of them remain members, let alone committed to these churches.

The question that this raises is why does it happen this way? Could it be that they do not believe God is present in these churches, or that they simply do not want to attend such churches? I suggest the answer in most cases is a NO! The fact that in times of serious problems, some do find solution in visiting these churches is a basis for my argument. Of course, I am not oblivious of the fact that some people may shun the charismatic/Pentecostal churches in order to shield their diabolical and cultic acts [I do not, by this, imply non-charismatic/Pentecostal churches do not meet people’s spiritual needs or that they do shield diabolical acts either!] Thus, to most churches, the issue of arresting and sustaining members’ commitment as well as attracting and retaining a certain caliber of people remains two of their highest dreams.

But just how we achieve this remains a paradox, however. By applying the principles I share below, (I have enumerated three but elaborated on only one; I will share the others in separate articles), many churches have succeeded in addressing this challenge. These principles, which I am confident, will work for most churches are not lifted from any book but they evolved from my own experience with ministry frustrations in various ways: as a pastor’s son; a church worker and leader in various capacities, and around the world; and several years of consulting in church growth and leadership/management development, and as an organisational development researcher. I do hope you will find them useful as well, and will truly appreciate your sincere comments.

In addition to prayer, anointing and eloquence, to be successful in ministry, every church must be able function in at least three distinct ways.

(I) As a human organization with an effective administrative structure as in any human organisation. This means ministry has a managerial dimension, which unfortunately has been largely ignored. Most churches are organised as a one-man business or few peoples’ show with virtually no structure or just a skeletal one that easily crumbles under the slightest distress

(II) As a generic church organisation-part of a larger body. Some churches are struggling with legitimacy in the face of the public and their members as they seem to be operating in an island; their members either find it difficult to fit in with Christians from any other denomination outside of their own Sect. Some churches do not care to provide any of the services that other churches provide for their members, yet members are entitled to give all the contributions (Don’t get me wrong, I am not theoretically opposed to giving at church; I do preach, pay tithes, support church projects and help raise funds). Do we have the humility to find out what other churches are doing, and services they provide for their members?

(III) (III) As a unique organisation with specific ministry focus. Every minister or ministry truly called by God, has a specific focus of concentration. While they might be doing several other things that other churches do, they would have an area that constitutes their strength. It is this area that sets them apart from all other churches. Without this, they would be involved in an endless competition because there is nothing they offer, which members cannot find anywhere else. Whatever else they may be doing, they might be strong on teaching, evangelism, deliverance, poverty reduction, youth, family cohesion, education and enlightenment, entrepreneurial development, etc. People will travel miles just to get what they have. That is their unique flavour. For instance, Dr Mensah Otabil (education, enlightenment and entrepreneurial development); Rev Duncan-Williams (prayer and the supernatural); Rev Agyin Asare (evangelism and healing); Dr Dag-Heward Mills (teaching and healing); Rev Titi-Ofei (leadership development); Dr Myles Munroe and John Maxwell (leadership); Dr Murdock (giving and miracle living); Pastor Matthew Ashomolowo (kingdom prosperity); Derek Prince (teaching). I may not be entirely right, but the above people, in spite of whatever else they might be doing, they have a strength in one area.

I now turn to discuss the first point relating to structure, organisation and management. While churches exist fundamentally to meet spiritual needs, they remain first and foremost human/social organisations. There is thus an administrative/managerial dimension to church work. To be effective churches, like other human organisations, need:

(i) A well defined vision/mission statement: clearly shared and owned by members. Vision shows where you are going; it helps set a limit to what you would or would not do. Vision defines your priorities and commitments, and keeps you going even while all others have given up. A shared vision is a good thing, but a vision which church members believe they are part of shaping and designing is great because it tends more often than not to unleash a high level of commitment.

(ii) An appropriate structure that both supports the vision and establishes relationships of various kinds among the members of the church. Structure is means of realizing an organisation’s objective as it defines what does what, who reports to whom, and who supervises who?

(iii) Following from the structure, a clear definition of roles, responsibilities, and lines of accountability. Once responsibilities are so defined and given out, members need to be empowered and supported to perform effectively. Appropriate training and orientation is crucial for people’s effectiveness in performing in their roles.

(iv) A robust strategy defining, in doable, measurable terms, how the vision and mission statement would be realized. It simply articulates how what is to be achieved will be achieved by defining the how of actions and activities. It also spells out what challenges and opportunities there are, suggesting relevant lines of actions to confront or take advantage of these.

(v) Unambiguous distinction between operational & strategic issues, with individuals assigned to playing each set of roles. Where this is lacking, everybody does anything, and nobody is looking ahead and planning for and creating the future. We will soon find ourselves suddenly overtaken by the future and its challenges. There must be a Moses on God’s mountain, with people supporting his hands up, but there must also be warriors fighting on the battlefield. There must be a Peter and the Apostles, committed to prayer and the word of God but there must also be the Philips and co sharing the food (Acts 6: 1-7)!

(vi) Appropriate tools for and frequency of measuring performance and success, and defining ways of rewarding success and desirable behaviour. If we set no standards and benchmarks, we will achieve none. Good visions must be supported by standards of performance, and the frequency by which performance gets measured. We must push for quality. We must ask if we are making the marks. The only justification for spending God’s money on projects is our preparedness to measure, assess and evaluate the outcomes of such projects, and plan how to improve upon them.

(vii) Intelligence and Research Unit, which ascertains people’s opinion about their products or services; and in the case of churches, the general feelings and opinions, and the extent of the satisfaction of members about the church and its activities and services. You say God speaks to us? Yes, I agree but Jesus had to ask the disciples, ‘What do you say that I, the Son of man, am? And of the crowd, ‘What do men say that I am? How can we hope to meet the needs of people if we do not know exactly what they need? How can we continue to give the same thing to people without having a way of finding out if they liked, and still it? Why do governments have Intelligence Units? Why does Ghana have the BNI? Why do organisations have marketing, Research and Development departments?

(viii) A department designed and empowered for dealing with people’s needs; and for motivating people for higher levels of performance (Human Resources and Rewards). Most churches believe members are obliged to support church, but not the other way round. Yet, our master fed the hungry for at least two times; supplied wine at a wedding supper; and finally set aside his garment (honour, dignity, fame, etc) and served the Apostles during their final supper soon before his arrest and passion.

Conclusion

(i) The absence of some or all of the above in most churches can jeopardize members respect for and allegiance to church and its leadership. This would tend to reduce church and its leadership’s ability to sustain their members, especially those who belong to managerial positions in their workplaces and understand the dynamics of an effective organisation. Most of them do not take their churches serious. Church growth and prosperity is collaborative effort: God supplies His part, and we do ours too. God has not given us the brain for fun. I don’t know what the Pastors and Theologians will say but in my candid opinion, not every problem requires prayer; some simply call for thinking and applying common sense; otherwise, our brain is useless! I am convinced God will only spend His precious time doing what we cannot do; not what he has empowered us to do. It is my strongest belief that the church can become more vibrant, more economically powerful, and attract all segments of society including intellectuals of all categories. But I am afraid; this will remain a wild-goose-chase until we begin to deal with these common-sense issues.

Samuel Tengey holds PhD from Open University Business School, UK. He is Human Resource Development and Outsourcing Consultant, consulting with private corporate organisations, and non-profit, including church and government organisations. Besides lecturing on some MBA programmes, he is currently Director of School of Business and Ag Executive Vice President of African University College of Communications, Accra, Ghana.

Contact email samuel@strategicresourcers.co.uk URL: www.strategicresourcers.com Tel +233 265 084 067