“If you cannot serve all congregations, you give up your right to serve any congregation.” This was a wise word of advice from my best mentor for denominational service. He called it a nonnegotiable principle.
I got it. It made sense, especially if a denominational servant is fully committed to the Baptist movement. I wanted to be that kind of servant.
Later as he continued to mentor me — specifically in the ministry of Baptist associations — he added a second characteristic of denominational service: “But you do not serve all congregations the same way. You must differentiate and customize your service to the context of each congregation.”
These are just two of the gems I received from my father, who served as the lead staff person in three associations during his life of Baptist ministry and also in two state conventions where his work included a primary relationship with associations.
The richness of his ministry helped me understand the complexity of great Baptist associational ministry, particularly the mandate to serve all congregations but to do it in ways that uniquely serve each congregation.
Helpful segmentation
As I sought to follow these two mandates, it occurred to me at one point that some form of typology was needed to uniquely serve congregations. Should it be according to their size, their location, their ministry style, their doctrinal focus or something else?
As a lifelong strategist, I ultimately decided it should be according to their understanding of God’s mission and vision for them and the presence of a vital and vibrant ministry pattern.
About 30 years ago, I developed the first edition of my congregation segmentation typology. I began teaching and coaching associations in the use of it. I discovered that it revolutionized how congregations were served and moved many associations from a maintenance ministry to a movement ministry.
The current edition of the segmentation designates five categories of congregations: soaring churches, strong churches, stumbling churches, struggling churches and spiritless churches.
A Soaring Church is exceptional in its understanding of its mission, purpose and core values. It is captured by God’s empowering vision for its full Kingdom potential. Clearly present are substantive vitality and vibrancy, leadership competency and trust, external local and global missional focus, effective disciple making and ministry innovation. Serve them through peer learning communities.
A Strong Church has good clarity about its mission, purpose, core values and vision. It has excellent programs, ministries and activities intensely focused on discipleship development and active church membership. It is pursuing church growth through strategic plans it continually updates. Its missional engagement and ministry innovation are significant. Serve them through coaching ministries.
A Stumbling Church needs clarity about its mission, purpose, core values and vision. Management of programs, ministries and activities, plus financial and facilities resources, is the focus. The leadership wants a short-term fix but not a long-term solution. They need a spiritual and strategic journey but lack necessary readiness for change. Serve them through consulting services.
A Struggling Church is smothered by their overly churched culture with an internal focus on making tomorrow a return of yesterday. The direct, dramatic, divine intervention of God is their faithful hope. They struggle to keep their programs alive. Empty nesters and senior adults are the core of their congregations. Serve them as a clinician who helps them figure out how to use available annual programmatic resources.
A Spiritless Church is a remnant group that is so culturally bound that they cannot see the new thing God might do through them. The remnant is dependent on their church friends, rituals and facilities. Their goal is to survive one more year. Without radical relaunching or replanting they will die. They are fragile. Serve them as a trauma chaplain until there is an open door to confront them with the reality of their situation and the tough choices they must address.
In the typical association, no more than one-fourth of the churches are either soaring or strong. The other three types — stumbling, struggling or spiritless — make up the other three-fourths. However, each association is unique regarding these percentages.
Over the next several months, I will write full columns about each of these types and provide strategies for helping them take their next steps in Christian ministry.
