We sigh and celebrate.

The new staff person hopefully gets some formal onboarding with policies, procedures, and the location of the nearest bathroom. Then, we stop by their office and ask how things are going. If they say great, we breathe another sigh of relief. Maybe we even take them to lunch one time! Look at us, responsible and generous! We might even check in with the rest of the staff and ask how they think the new person is working out. If they say great, we breathe another sigh of relief. We keep our ears up, listening for murmurs of discontent or cheers of support from the congregation, too. If all seems to be going ok, another sigh of relief. 

We size up the new hire through a series of sighs.

For existing staff, we lean into staff meetings pretty hard. For many senior pastors, we think “If no one complains at staff meeting, then everything is alright.” To go along with that, we add “If no one in the church is upset with a staff person, then everything is alright.” More sighs of relief. Through past traditions or nervousness over staff morale, we may set up some team building opportunities. This could be playing a game, going on a retreat, grabbing lunch, or the thrill of the whole staff reading a book together. Can’t you just imagine the excitement bubbling up in your staff’s hearts when you hand out copies of your latest “magic cure for what ails the church” book?

To summarize, church staff development can easily degrade into a two-step process: onboarding and then problem solving. 

A week with no problems means that the staff are all set. And this is fine if you have no desire to actually develop your staff. If you have no desire to invest in the future of the church’s leadership, you are done. But that doesn’t feel right, does it? Most of us senior pastors want to be part of a team that is developing. We may have different styles of leadership and motivation, but in the end, we want to see our staff growing, learning, and thriving. However, when the to-do list we made at the beginning of the week continues to taunt us with so many unchecked boxes, we use what time and energy we have for ourselves. And staff development becomes a luxury that we imagine we cannot afford. 

*sigh*

I get it. The senior pastor spends so much time putting out fires and worrying about problems that you aren’t going to invest time in staff development unless it’s a crisis. So, let me make it easier for you. If you are not investing in the development of your staff, your church is in a crisis. The boat is sinking. The basement is on fire. You are designing a system that will reward quiet quitters and frustrate leaders who want to grow. Your sighs of relief are quickly becoming the last fleeting breaths of the dying church. Is that better? Heart rate up a little? Scared enough to take action? Ok, then. Let’s look at four easy ways you can invest in the newer, less experienced, and still-learning people on your staff. (And your long-time, more experienced staff may appreciate some of this, too.)

1. Know the Stories So They Can Be Seen and Known

Your staff come to you with a rich set of stories about their life and former work. Learn their backstories. Be curious. Ask questions. Don’t get creepy digging into their lives, and resist the urge to turn every one of their stories into an opportunity for you to “one-up” them with your incredible escapades. Just take the time to find out what has fueled them and what has used up all of their energy in the past. And, as they create new stories in their work with you, create a non-anxious environment where they feel comfortable telling you about their celebrations and their utter failures. You can help create this culture by sharing more of your failure stories than your success stories. The most basic step in church staff development is creating a culture where people feel seen and known.

Curious how to connect with Gen Z employees? Click here.

2. Carry Around Buckets of Grace Expecting the Fires of Failure

I have a series of favorite phrases that all revolve around the same basic idea: It is ok to fail. 

“We are not in charge of nuclear missiles.”

“If it doesn’t happen, the world will keep on spinning.”

“Around here, we carry big buckets of grace.”

I use these phrases to create a culture where my staff has clear permission to fail. It probably comes from my former days as a technology developer. Nearly every great innovation and success story in technology was preceded by a series of failure stories. Tony Fadell, one of the masterminds behind the Apple iPod and iPhone, racked up a series of failures before striking gold. Thomas Edison created several fires before he got a light bulb to stay on. You don’t need to use my corny phrases, but you do need to decide how you are going to create a safe space for the staff to grow. Very few people can thrive in spaces where failure is met with harsh intolerance. 

3. Provide Accountability Internally and Support Externally

We need to hold our staff members accountable for their actions. Wait! What happened to the buckets of grace? The buckets are still there. When failure, missteps, miscommunications or other issues arise, we pour on the grace and then follow it with reflecting on what happened. In fact, reflecting on how things are going along the way is often only made possible when staff feel safe, seen, known, and forgiven along the way. With that environment in place, we set up clear expectations and then invite the staff to reflect on what went wrong with us. This means, we are all learning from the updates and the missteps. 

Externally, we need to support our staff in their journey of growth and development. We cannot throw our staff under the bus. Staff mistakes are our mistakes. It can be all too tempting to breathe one of those sighs of relief when we realize that a church member is mad at someone else on the staff. It takes a humble and courageous leader to accept blame and commit to solutions in solidarity with their staff. Certainly, someone may commit egregious errors that cannot be defended or supported in any way, but let’s be honest, these instances are rare. Having the backs of our less experienced staff is critical to encouraging their growth and development.

4. Give Them Time and Money to Learn from Others

We are not the single source of wisdom and knowledge in the universe. Hopefully, this is not hard for us to acknowledge. Our staff will learn from the experiences in our context, but they also need to be empowered and encouraged to develop in ways beyond our context. This will lead to valuable lessons and unique perspectives that can be brought back to your church. Every staff member should have access to some funds for continuing education, coaching, spiritual direction, or other outside development activities. 

Need help identifying which support is right? Click here.

As senior staff, we get to encourage these activities with the added benefit that these learning experiences cost us little of our own time, effort, or risk. In addition to the funds, encouraging time for outside learning is key. We cannot ask our staff to sacrifice pay or vacation days in order to attend a growing opportunity or meet with other outside church leaders. While these opportunities will yield lessons in their content, they also help us to create a ministry environment that clearly values the development of our church’s most precious resource, our staff.

We can expect more from people when we invest more in people.

I have tried to implement these four steps in the various ministry areas of my life where I have the privilege to lead others. I’ve failed many times. I’ve missed opportunities to hear someone’s story. I have reacted with fear instead of grace. At times, I’ve failed to set clear expectations. I have not always encouraged staff to find mentors outside of our own context.

The good news is that grace is real and the world will keep on spinning. I have had many second chances to be a better leader. God has continually connected me with unique and amazing staff in a variety of contexts. I am not the perfect leader, but on my better days, I can learn from my failures. And with that, I can breathe out a sigh of relief and breathe in an expectation of what God might do next.

If you’re struggling with church staff development or you would like to talk through how to find time to connect with your teams, let’s talk. 

The post Beyond Onboarding: Why are we so bad at church staff development?  appeared first on Ministry Architects.

This is what it had come to.

I was hoping that my lament about the disorder in our basement would eventually lead to one of my children volunteering. As the father of four, didn’t I know better? How could I be so delusional to think that one of them would suddenly succumb to my cries with a sudden joy for volunteering? I could have made my son clean the basement. But I ended up just paying one of them and the work was completed in a couple hours. 

I’m not sharing this with you in the hopes of getting nominated as Parent of the Year. I’m just confessing that sometimes I solve problems with unhealthy, unsustainable methods. 

How about you?

In our churches, we are experiencing a particular flavor of the Great Resignation that so many are talking about. Yes, we have paid staff who are resigning. But the particular flavor that I’m calling out is the decline of our volunteer base. Our people are not coming out of the pandemic starving for things to do. They aren’t jumping back into all of their old roles and we don’t find ourselves with new volunteers breaking down our doors. Why aren’t people volunteering? What should we do? How can we avoid falling into the trap of unhealthy, unsustainable coping methods?

After many conversations with fellow pastors and church consulting clients, I have noticed the same four reasons keep popping up. And I have some ideas on how your church can try to respond to each.

1) “I Don’t Have Time”

People often tell their ministry leaders that they don’t have time to help at the church because they are too busy with other commitments. They list all of the other activities that they or their family are involved with. Their list disproves their point. It isn’t that they don’t have time. It is that they have chosen to give that time to something else. On some level, the church activity just doesn’t seem worth it. I would guess that if you offered $30,000 college scholarships to any family who volunteered in your youth ministry, many of you could fill your vacancies. Oops! There I go again, just like the $20 basement cleaning solution. 

The “no time” reason is a value reason. They don’t value the opportunity that you are offering.

TRY THIS:

Make it a point to regularly communicate the value of your ministry volunteering opportunities. What is a result or impact that you can lift up when celebrating your current volunteers and recruiting future volunteers? Invest time in communicating the value of your ministries so that potential volunteers can know why they should value them, too.

2) “It’s Just Not My Thing”

Some church leaders are hearing back from their people that they just aren’t interested in any of the activities of the church. This often comes up when we try to recruit younger generations to be part of established ministries that the older generations want to hand off. And, sometimes, ministries just lose their following.

TRY THIS:

First, consider pausing or stopping the ministries that are constantly short of volunteers. The lack of interest may be a sign that this ministry is no longer aligned with the heart of your church. Or you need to try something else. Next, take time to find out what does interest these people. Many churches have started using Ministry Architects’ Volunteer Accelerator tool to help connect people’s interests with ministries that are actually a good fit for them. We need to believe that God has equipped people with interests so that they can serve. We should not fall prey to thinking that people need to bend their interests to fit our church volunteer needs or keep alive something that might need to be laid to rest.

More Volunteers. Guaranteed.
Learn more about the Volunteer Accelerator here.

3) “I’m Really Not Good At That.”

Some people have really low self-esteem. They look at their lives in comparison to the picture-perfect Instagram snapshots of their neighbors and the insecurity creeps over them. The church should be the place where people feel the immeasurable value they have as creations of God. But instead, so often the church just becomes another place where people see superstars outshine them. So, they get caught in the same unhealthy comparison trap that keeps them from contributing anything at all.

TRY THIS:

Find ways to celebrate those who are volunteering without glorifying the volunteers who can do it all. If your church is still picking a “Church Person of the Year,” stop it. Instead, recognize the particular efforts of all volunteers with appreciation events and communications. In addition, remind people that God has plans for everyone in this beautiful, divine family. God makes people sufficient for the calling that He has for them. And the church gets to be a safe place they can discover that calling. We should be investing as much time in learning about the passions of the people as we do in filling the slots of our ministries.

4) “I Just… Can’t.” 

Suffering, wounded, and overwhelmed, the COVID pandemic has created many secondary pandemics, particularly in the areas of stress, anxiety, and overall mental health. Not everyone in our communities is okay. But every psychologist I know is taking appointments over 6-months out, because bookings are that high. Many people simply feel overwhelmed as the rush of normal life returns on top of the lingering pandemic stress levels. Our people are suffering, tired, and still wounded from what has been.

TRY THIS:

Take care of your people. Tend to the wounds of your church people even if it means you have to cancel several events or ministries. Be brave enough to risk the backlash that might come when holding the status quo gets dropped in favor of caring for each other. Perhaps it’s time to teach people how they can lean on their faith in troubled times. Jesus brings a healing presence in our lives. If we invest in a season of kind, steadfast love, there may be a harvest of renewed and healed people in our churches. We need to be seen as places where people find peace, not just worthy jobs to do.

Will these suggested ideas solve all of your volunteer issues? Probably not. But when you look at these suggestions together, they do paint the picture of a healthier, more sustainable approach to engaging volunteers to serve in ministry. 

Try all of these ideas and you may find yourself in a church that is regularly communicating and celebrating the impact that the church is making through volunteering in the name of Christ. That same church could be seeing the potential in every person and reassuring them that God has a purpose for them. This transformed church is also celebrating what God is doing through all the people, eagerly curious about the way God has gifted each person. This responsive church is looking at the suffering of the people and meeting them with compassion, grace, and healing. 

That all sounds like the kind of church I’d like to serve. How about you?

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The post <strong>Four Reasons People Are Not Volunteering and What To Do</strong> appeared first on Ministry Architects.

By Rev. Rob Dyer

If you’re familiar with the Broadway musical Hamilton, then you’ve probably heard the song “You’ll Be Back.” Sung by the character of King George III, this song is a sharp shift in style and tone from the rest of the show and serves to remind the colonists that their attempted revolution will inevitably be just a passing phase. Because, of course, as the King reminds, they’ll be back; he can’t imagine they won’t.

It wasn’t until this past week that I was struck by the irony of just how tragically perfect that song is for this time. Think about it: an authority, who thinks he’s in touch with his people, sweetly sings a song of truth to remind them, compel them, threaten them to return. Assured they will, he recites with disdain their reasons for distancing and counters each one with his own version of reality. As we know, the colonists did not come back. The revolution went forward. And those who once were citizens survived, nay, thrived without the home they once knew. 

Living within the collective trauma of the pandemic, many people have stepped back from their churches. One of the responses from church leaders has been to lament decreased attendance, volunteer shortages, emptier rooms, and reduced giving. While the message of such a response might be conveyed with a mindfulness of people needing the church, the motivation is not without the awareness that the church needs the people, too. How will we survive without their offerings? This may sound harsh, but we are dangerously close to thinking of the people as numbers and seat-fillers we need – barely a step above property.

While we aren’t pulling a full King George III impersonation here with violent threats, there has been disdain. Expressions of frustration and disappointment with people have been shared in a multitude of ways including (but not limited to) passive-aggressive “invitations” in weekly church emails, non-specific but pointed social media posts, and maybe even face-to-face. I’ve seen it, my colleagues have seen it, and, in the end, such a stance with our stanzas will probably produce the same result as that tired king: they won’t come back.

In working to figure out this reality in my own context, here’s where I’ve landed: collective lamenting has its place. Ever since sharing the blog “They’re Not Coming Back,” I’ve been overwhelmed with emails, phone calls, and social media interactions with church leaders from around the nation who are feeling the pains, fears, and confusion of this situation. To be honest, it was so humbling and healing for me simply to be heard and know that I am not alone. But we can’t sit in the land of doom and gloom forever because the Gospel is bigger than all of this. The world still desperately needs a church that shows up where the people are, even if the people aren’t where we are.

In part one of “They’re Not Coming Back”, I shared three steps for addressing this new reality of absent individuals: 

1. We need to stop telling stories that we know are not true.
2. We need to see this situation for what it is.
3. We need to understand why.

It’s with this last one I’d like to springboard into a more specific idea that every church in every town can do next: We need to become spiritual trauma centers for our communities.

What it means to become a spiritual trauma center
In many circles, “spiritual trauma center” is a term that is used for organizations that are trying to help people recover from unhealthy church experiences or other religious trauma. When I use this term, I am more generally speaking of the way we can reframe the role of the church in any community to address trauma from a spiritual perspective. 

The Church is called to see the real pains of the human condition and then to offer the Good News in response, with hopeful reframing and merciful actions. When we do this well, we become a spiritual trauma center for the everyday and the extreme situations of life (like, let’s say, a global pandemic.) Trauma-informed ministry teaches us that we are interacting with wounded people who need help reframing the narrative of how they see themselves in the world and in the image of Christ. 

What it does NOT mean
We cannot approach this work with secret goals of increasing membership, attendance, or giving. Our goal should be to help heal the wounded and show them a path that leads to life abundant.

This means the answer to the collective trauma of the pandemic is probably not found in simply attending our worship services. Our worship services can be good and important, but they aren’t so great that all the world needs is fifty-two Sundays of perfect attendance to experience real healing and wholeness.

Hosea 6:6 and Matthew 9:13 teach us that God desires us to be agents of mercy more than robots of ritual. If we succeeded in bringing all the people back to regular worship, weekly serving roles, and consistent giving, but never helped them heal from the spiritual trauma of the pandemic, that would just be “noisy gong and clanging cymbal” ministry. Sure, our seats would be filled. But then when they return to all the other seats they fill every other day of the week, how will they be doing, really?

How to be Agents of Mercy
First, get everyone in your congregation their own “agent of mercy” cape. They’ll blow everyone away as they walk through town, ready to care for others. 

Actually, the first thing to do is recognize your unique setting and context and consider where you can start. Not everyone in your congregation is ready – or able – to take these steps. And that’s okay. The encouraging news is you don’t need everyone to start doing this work. In fact, none of the steps to becoming a spiritual trauma center require that you get your church’s permission before trying. And, nobody is forced to participate (of course.) But the offering of what you’re about to endeavor to try will, hopefully, start to impact in ways others are drawn to be a part. It should also be noted that the more people who engage in this work, the more likely you’ll find yourself leading a church that is a spiritual trauma center for your community. 

Practical Step #1: Learn to listen for people’s particular pains.
When you talk with people, whether they are an estranged member or someone new that you want to reach, actively listen to what they are experiencing and don’t worry about a response. When people talk about what life is like for them now, don’t try to solve the problem or give your own examples. Just listen to people with the hope that you will learn something and maybe even be changed by what they share. There is healing in being heard and wisdom in listening. 

Taking notes while you are listening to people can be awkward unless you are chatting over the phone. So, as soon as you wrap up talking with someone, give yourself time to make notes on what you heard and think deeply about what they have shared with you. 

If you are in tune with the needs of real people, then your prayerful discernments for the actions of your ministry will be better grounded in the actual human condition, the actual pains of the people. You have an answer for these pains in the next two steps. When the timing is right, trust that the Spirit will guide you in sharing this answer.

Checkpoint #1 to becoming a spiritual trauma center: Do you know the particular pains of the people you are trying to reach?

Practical Step #2: Be ready to articulate the benefits of following Jesus.
How many of us can actually articulate the benefits of following Jesus? When the people in pain open their minds and their hearts, do we just offer a series of wonderful worship services and programs? I hope not. I hope we find a way to fully articulate how Jesus has become the spiritual cure in our own lives – and can be in theirs, too. 

As I type this, I know how ridiculously basic and simple this seems, but each of us needs an elevator speech. Each of us needs that 30-second “here’s why my life is better with Jesus” snapshot that explains why you’re different and life is different because of Him. And then you need to have the deeper version for when someone asks for more. 

Let’s be honest, most of our churches are filled with people who cannot do this. If both the leaders and the people cannot express why the good news is good – then does it really surprise us that connections with the Church have grown so thin amidst all the terrible, very bad news that has monopolized almost every facet of our lives over the last 18 months? 

Checkpoint #2 to becoming a spiritual trauma center: Can you genuinely explain the benefits of following Jesus in a way that is 100% authentic to your experience of life?

Practical Step #3: Invite the people into a generosity of steadfast love.
If we can find ourselves in church communities where both the pains of life and the benefits of the Gospel are known, this next step should be easy: start inviting people to join you in loving others. 

Someone you know needs help. Go help them. Take someone with you. And experience firsthand how those physical, mental, and emotional pains you learned about during step #1 begin to heal through acts of steadfast love from people of faith.

The collective trauma of the pandemic has been predominantly fueled by a lack of connection with others. People need people. And those needs aren’t met solely through a Sunday morning hour or Wednesday night dinner within our church walls. Such an expression of love responding to such a deep need will overflow into the streets of the surrounding neighborhoods and beyond time frames of convenience. We have got to start loving people so extravagantly that they ask us why we are doing it. And it will be in those moments that we will get to tell them about Jesus. Because He loves in these ways. And when we know and follow Him, we can’t help but do the same.

Checkpoint #3 to becoming a spiritual trauma center:  Are you loving people in extravagant ways with the help of other people?

Millions of people have seen the Broadway musical Hamilton. This means millions of people have heard the out-of-touch leader who’s too proud to acknowledge the needs of his people, and instead continues offering solutions for problems they don’t have, eventually losing them for good.

Yet, in the second act of Hamilton, another song is sung. This one by a new kind of leader who simply wants to be in “The Room Where It Happens.” This leader wants to have a role in the important things. He wants to be a part of that which makes a lasting difference in the lives of the people. 

There is a god of attendance that can demand our attention. There is a god of giving and a god of doing-what-we’ve-always-done that can drive our actions too. But then there’s the God of Love. Our God sees pain, weeps with those who weep, offers healing truth, loves deeply, and invites us to do the same. Our God is not worried about how many seats are filled on a Sunday. Our God is wondering how many hearts will be seen and served by the people of God. If we choose this God of Love in our churches, then I imagine many others will want to be in the room where it happens.

The post The Room Where It Happens appeared first on Ministry Architects.

And, so, we edited the story, confident that the returns would happen once their kids reached school age. As school-age children began signing up for all sorts of activities, we figured that our amazing youth programs would make the list of prioritized pursuits. While many congregations saw some waves of church reengagement, many others experienced something entirely different about “their” young adults…

They weren’t coming back.

The reality is, this is the story for many churches for many years; it isn’t a truth we found out in 2020 or even 2021. And surveys and church statistics continue to reveal that missing church members are more likely to stay home than to go to a different church. So it’s not that they’re going somewhere else. They aren’t going anywhere. And they certainly aren’t coming back.

Then came the pandemic.

Churches around the nation had a reset button hit. In-person church was halted and then, slowly, restarted. In the meanwhile, online methods of worship filled the gaps. In the beginning, many churches experienced numbers that exceeded their previous in-person numbers. “We’ve got so many people attending our church from out-of-state!” we exclaimed with delight, as evangelism seemed to thrive despite the pandemic. At the same time, our church members were laying down some of the activities and hustle of everyday life that used to conflict with church options. 

But they were doing this all while at the same time picking up the stress of daily pandemic navigation. And experiencing the rise of political and social tensions. And a general feeling of exhaustion grew in our people.

Then we started to notice that the proverbial back door of the church was propped open.

People were starting to drop off of the Zoom gatherings and online worship events. Online children and youth ministry activities saw an increase of cameras turned off and eventually a decrease in participants. Our masked and socially distanced gatherings that started to emerge attracted fewer numbers, but we figured that the people would return, volunteer, and help us rebuild the church once we reached that “new normal.” We started editing the story that we told each other – making excuses for individuals and families who were not showing up.

While church leaders did the hard work of navigating health guidelines and exercising creative adjustments, many people got used to life with less church. Or, perhaps, even life without church.

As our society is opening up more and more, people are starting to pick up the weight of busy lives again. With the pandemic and virus variants over their heads, people are finding that they have a reduced capacity for weight bearing. Even joyful activities are getting sidelined in this “new normal.” Now, the church is realizing something not just about young adults, but also about people of all ages in our churches. They’re not coming back. 

• The super volunteers who used to carry twenty positions in the church are now looking to do just a few things. 
• Our regular attenders are becoming semi-regular. 
• Our fringe folks are fading away. 

People are not coming back to the church at the same level of engagement. 

So, what do we do? 

1. We need to stop telling stories that we know are not true. 

Our excuses for the absence of others don’t help anyone. We can hope – and speak in goals and prayers and aspirations – for a someday return. But there’s a reality to our relationships, or lack thereof, that’s been hushed or is being ignored. And our stories aren’t as true as they could be.

2. We need to see this situation for what it is. 

It’s not even that people aren’t returning – they might never have been connected in the first place. People have experienced how easy (or how difficult) it is to live without their church. Obligation and duty no longer make up for a lack of connectedness, devotion, or faith itself. People learned who their friends are and some discovered – or finally acknowledged – that the church isn’t a necessary part of their lives. As much as churches miss people, people just aren’t missing back. 

3. We need to understand why.

The story many are not acknowledging is that we are a traumatized people. For each and every one of us – all at once – our world stopped. And, now, every single person – from the ones present to the ones we claim to miss to the ones we don’t even know yet – everyone is recovering from a shared trauma. The events we’ve walked through have had many questioning their livelihoods, their safety, and their relationships.

And if the church hasn’t offered answers for those questions yet, then we need to figure out how to do so now. We need to figure out what it means to be a spiritual trauma center for our communities. We need to reintroduce ourselves as a place that can tend to the wounds this pandemic has opened. Each church needs to consider how they might evangelize to their neighbors (and some of their own members) – almost as if they were launching a new church in 2021.

For years we’ve had no magic answer for the young adult losses that many churches grappled with before the pandemic. In that context, though, we believed too many false narratives and failed to adequately address the motivations involved. Similarly, no magic answer exists for the receding engagement across multiple age groups that we are seeing post-pandemic. 

But what we do know is that the future of the church will require innovative changes. We have experienced how developing healthy systems is essential for all church seasons to not just survive – but thrive – and it’s time to admit we cannot move forward with our pre-pandemic approaches. 

The need for a major pivot is before us, and we know that God will provide for the times and places where we are found. Therefore, let us walk into this valley with eyes wide open, ready to step forward with intention, believing in the presence of the Good Shepherd, the proximity of green pastures, the provided meal amongst adversity, the anointing of our heads, the overflowing of our cups, and our place in the House of the Lord forever.

If this blog resonates with you and you’re thinking you might like to partner with us, start with a free 30-minute coaching call.

Reverend Rob Dyer is Senior Pastor at First United Presbyterian Church of Belleville, IL. Rob has spent the last several years working in the areas of community missions and leadership development in southern Illinois where he lives with his brilliant and supportive wife, Sarah, and their four children. Click here to connect with Rob.

The post They’re Not Coming Back appeared first on Ministry Architects.

The really cool thing about my secret is… it’s fun.
That’s it! That’s the secret. FUN.

I make my ministry fun. 
I make work fun. 
I convert household chores into fun. 

It’s like the day I discovered black soy sauce. I put that stuff on everything now! 
(Author’s Note: If you haven’t experienced the sweet, sticky yumminess of black soy sauce, stop reading this blog right now and google it. Better yet, go order it from Amazon right now and then come back to this blog. No need to send me messages of thanks. I’m sending you a preemptive “You’re welcome.”) 

What was I saying? Oh yeah! Fun! I put that on EVERYTHING – and it gives me more energy than any caffeine infusion ever did.

If you, too, could use some more energy in your days, let me share three quick ways to add fun to any ministry, task, or situation. 

1. Be silly. 

This isn’t for every person and every situation but having a little silly in your ministry is often a gift to others. 

• Wear a fake moustache or silly hat to your next meeting. 
• Invent a secret phrase that you and a few others have to use at least 3 times in your next meeting. 
• Wear something really ugly and secretly enjoy everyone’s reactions. 
• Record a 15-minute video of your standard Zoom background view but at the 14-minute mark, poke your head into the frame for 5 seconds. Then use that video as a virtual background in your next Zoom meeting. 

*If you need more silly ideas, ask that one friend you have. You know who they are.

2. Pregame or postgame your fun. 

Let’s face it – there are a lot of things in ministry that are not inherently fun. And if you try to add fun to these not-fun things, it won’t work. It just won’t. 

For example, I can’t affect a southern accent and wear an oversized cowboy hat to officiate at a funeral. (Trust me. I live in the midwest. That move does not go well!) I can, however, take time before or after an energy-depleting task to insert some fun. For me, singing along to my favorite music in the car with animated enthusiasm is easy to insert between appointments. For you, it could be a simple 15-minute diversion of coloring, dancing, or teaching yourself juggling. The purposeful insertion of fun just before or after energy-depleting ministry can be a sort of quick charge for your ministry battery.

3. Just ask. 

The next time you are planning a church event with others, just ask the question “How could we make this more fun?” The great thing about this approach is that you don’t have to come up with the fun all by yourself. You’re outsourcing the fun! It also communicates the value of fun in our ministry work – and that we all need it. Fun ministry is more attractive to the people we serve, probably because it energizes them, too. And, if you are planning something alone, just call up that same fun friend who has the best silly suggestions and ask them how to add some fun to your event.

I once heard fun described as “active Sabbath.” Fun is an action that gives you rest. We have a lot of work ahead of us to be the Church in the coming summer and fall. You could likely use some rest embedded in your work. You could likely use a new way to recharge your batteries. You could likely use some fun. (And maybe some black soy sauce too! That stuff is so good!)

Reverend Rob Dyer is Senior Pastor at First United Presbyterian Church of Belleville, IL. Rob has spent the last several years working in the areas of community missions and leadership development in southern Illinois. He has worked at both the local church levels as well at the regional level bringing churches, businesses, service agencies, and individuals together for addressing hunger and homeless issues. Before becoming a pastor, Rob had a successful career as a software developer and manager working with the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon. And many years before that, he was an NCAA college mascot. He is used to organizing large numbers of people for transformative experiences, even if it means putting on a tiger costume. Rob lives in Belleville, IL with his brilliant and supportive wife, Sarah, and their four children.

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