Your Church's Facebook Score?

Apparently the vast majority of churches rate as poor or mediocre when it comes to facebook usage - according to the Our Church survey.


But there's good news too. For churches that are keen to make their ministry more effective, there are 5 main areas the study suggests would be most helpful.

1. Communicate More
2. Ministry Pages
3. Facilitate Connections
4. Evangelism Training
5. Facebook Ads

Oh, and there's sometimes a temptation to think "oh, that's young people's stuff". But the full survey results show that more than 60% of respondents were aged 45+. (But of course, even if it was "just young people's stuff" we should still do it - because Jesus' message is for young people too).

Why Men Aren't Singing

David Murrow has a great piece on Men v Praise Music. A big part of the problem is songs that paint God as "a lover rather than a leader", which means they verge on homoerotic when sung by a man. But there's other stuff too.


The result is that "women are worshipping robustly while most men stand for 20 minutes with their hands in their pockets, dutifully mouthing words that fail to resonate with their hearts."

Essentially, there are 3 reasons we ended up this way. Fortunately, there are also 7 practical ideas to help make the music time less anti-men.

The Priests' Confession

ABC's Spirit of Things did an episode titled Candid Clerics - discussing with the authors the revelations of their study Our Fathers (What Australian priests really think). One of the first points was that the burdens and demands of the system prevent priests from doing effective ministry.

they were having to spend their time doing things that had to be done rather than things that should be done.

Instead of outreach, or spiritual matters, priests admitted that "their life was becoming bureaucratised and they were reduced to ritual plus administration."

And it seems that the ritual isn't actually helping people connect with Jesus.

A lot of priests argued that the parish is now obsolete, it is not the way that we connect with people or can connect to people. We're spending all our time trying to maintain a parish structure when the parish structure is not the way to connect with people. We can't do what we should do because we have to do what we must do.

When asked about alternatives, one of the authors said they were "completely opposite to the current structure of the Church. They all spoke about the need for smaller church communities, a lot spoke about house-based communities..."

Quite a few confessed "we are keeping alive a structure which really needs to collapse and lead to some rebirth".

It seems the powers-that-be continue to prop up ineffective ministry, rather than engage with anything new or different. Alternatives which (according to the priests) would be more effective are simply ignored in favour of patching up the status quo.

[Listen to the whole discussion]

Lifetree Cafe

Came across Lifetree Cafe the other day. It was refreshing to see the tagline "reach the people you aren't reaching".

It's great to see that some people are starting to think outside the black box, and embrace different methods of introducing people to Jesus.


How is it different? The website blurb uses words and phrases like "real people", "conversation", "build relationships". That's quiet different to sitting silently, looking at the back of people's heads, and listening to a monologue.

Lifetree talks of "churched people and unchurched people" discussing the "stuff that shapes our lives. Family. Friends. Fears.Busyness. Money. Peace. Purpose."

Ok, some of it sounds a bit like church, but it seems more authentic and community-bsed, and less superficial or commercial.

There's no admission fee; people are accepted regardless of beliefs, or demographic; it takes place in a comfortable environment; and people are allowed share their opinion (if they want). There's no membership, no preaching and no singing.

Sounds a lot less like church, and a lot more like Jesus.

Pulpit Clangers - 2

I briefly mentioned my experience at the church i visited this Easter. Aside from an hour and a half of tedium, there was one semi-amusing semi-awkard moment.

Selected children roamed around the auditorium distributing small easter eggs from wicker baskets. Once every adult had received an egg, the minister said:

If all of my helpers could come and see me after the service, then I can thank them in a special way.

Now i'm sure he meant just by giving them each an Easter egg - probably larger than those they were handing out. But i would have thought that if anyone ever writes the book "Things religious leaders should never say in this day and age", then such a phrase should be in chapter 1. Probably on the first page. :)

Easter Day Worship

This is the kind of sign that gives Crummy Church Signs its name:


I could ask why this church feels the need to insult (or guilt) anyone passing by; or why (contrary to the gospel) they measure faith by church attendance. But instead i'm asking a different question - on behalf of the person their sign is aimed* at:

Why on earth should i come more than once?

I reckon any church should be able to answer this question. "Holiday attenders" won't ask it out loud, but that's what buzzing around in their head. Our answer should be evident on Easter (or any other) Sunday.

Instead we give them no answer - or even 1hr 34 mins worth of reasons to stay home next year. It's quite bizarre to plead with people to attend, only to then deter them from ever returning. To berate people for not showing up, only to then behave as if we want them to keep away.

Until such time as we can articulate (and demonstrate) the answer to their question, we should change our sign to something more positive, while we consider what it means to love our neighbour.
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* - yes i use the word "aimed" deliberately. More and more church signs are being used as (verbal) weapons, rather than a means to communicate the gospel.

Boys and Girls Toys

Saw a word cloud of the phrases used to advertise toys to boys: (most frequently used words appear the largest)


and then the corresponding one for girls' toys.


Toymakers know that different genders respond in different ways, but do churches? You'd think if there was one weekend a year where we could be relevant to men it would be Easter.

Jesus's internal battle (knowing what lay ahead). The torture. the nails. the pain. The courage in the face of mockery. The determination to stick to God's plan. The toughness. The spear into the guts. The shedding of blood for the cause. Overall, the most powerful sacrifice in history.

But for some reason, even on this weekend, it's all 'sharing', 'friendship', and 'perfect love'. Sounds more like My Little Pony than the Transformers - and hardly anything like the gospel account of the Ultimate Transformer.