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It’s Finally Here!!! My Book Is Ready for Sale

John Pellowe — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 01:00:35 +0000

I feel like a new daddy again tonight as I hold my long-anticipated (but too frequently edited) book that has arrived from the printer. The desire for perfection and the conflicting desire to get it in your hands have finally converged and The Church At Work: A Manual for Excellent Church-Agency Relations has been born!

You can get The Church At Work through the CCCC store (as an e-book and in hard copy with shipping included in the price), at Amazon.com, and Amazon.ca. Login to CCCC as a member to get the member discount. The newest CCCC publication is designed to help Christian ministries work better together and present a better witness to the relational life of the kingdom of God. It examines the most strained relationship, that between churches and independent Christian agencies, and provides both a theology for how they are related to each other and a practical set of principles for how to ensure they have good relations.

The research was based on:

a theological forum I hosted on church structure,
a large attitude survey of pastors and agency leaders and what they think of each other,
a study of specific church-agency relationships in which both parties thought the relationship was great, and
a demographic survey of 100 agency leaders to find out who they are and how they got to their positions.

The research and illustrations are 100% Canadian, although we know the research is equally applicable in the United States. My new baby has practical ‘workbooks’ for churches and agencies to work through to examine themselves and help them be more responsible for their part of the relationship. It also includes sample covenant agreements that some ministries use.

You’ll enjoy reading the stories of people just like you. Some of the people you may know and others may be new to you, but their stories of successful ministry relationships will inspire you to think again about the possibilities that open up when you collaborate with other ministries.

Jerry White, International President Emeritus of The Navigators, wrote the foreword of this book and says in it:

“This is the most complete discussion on the topic that exists. It is an invaluable resource for pastors and Christian workers across the range of ministries in the broader Body of Christ. Dr. Pellowe not only delves into the scriptures and into history, but also gives practical guidelines for relating among the structures. Anyone who is concerned about advancing the Kingdom of God and who wants to see unity in the Body of Christ needs this study and its practical applications.”

I have no financial interest in the success of this book, so I will shamelessly plug it and say, if you are in ministry, “You need to read it!”

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A New Agency or a New Program?

John Pellowe — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 18:22:16 +0000

“We had been around for seven years and had reached our capacity organizationally. We either had to stop, cancel half our programs, compromise in some way, or hire fundraising staff so we could raise more money so we could hire more staff. Or, we could look for someone bigger who could do all that and let me play to my strengths.” Darian Kovacs, founder of CampusFire, speaking at the 2008 CCCC Conference

Darian is a high energy, ministry entrepreneur. He built his organization from scratch to one that had its programs in over 1,200 schools across Canada – all with 3 staff. He faced the question that every entrepreneur faces at some point: Do I stay independent or should I find an organization that will take my idea to the next level?

Darian realized that his only viable option to grow and further fulfill his mission was to join somebody bigger. The solution ended up being to connect with an organization, City in Focus, that can do all the administration, and bring in a new leader, Jason Ballard, to take the ministry to the next level. Darian is now with a software company developing tools for charities to use. With the proper infrastructure, Jason can concentrate on what God has called him to do, instead of having to look after all the organizational needs.

Darian’s story provides a good illustration of why you might want to associate with a larger ministry. And sometimes, to fit in with a larger organization you first have to go it alone and prove the viability of the ministry.

How to Decide

So when you have an idea for a new ministry, what factors might influence your choice about going it alone or joining another ministry right at the start?

One factor is theological and another is discerning your call. I’ve written about discerning your call, so here we’ll just consider the theological factor. (I’ve also written about how a church or agency can decide whether to create its own new program or work through someone else.)

A fundamental characteristic of the people of God is our life in community. Missiologist George W. Peters once said that “Christianity is basically a religion of relationships.” The theological priority is to be in community with other believers. It seems reasonable therefore that we should first ask, “Who can I do this ministry with?” The bias would be towards working with a ministry that already exists rather than starting a new one.

The importance of being in community was made clear in an attitude survey I conducted for my doctoral thesis on church-agency relations (which is now a book). Almost 400 pastors completed an attitude survey about parachurch ministries and they revealed a strong undercurrent of suspicion about why people start their own ministries. One pastor captured the feelings of this group with a very simple judgment about agencies: “Most of them are scamps!” Pastors claimed that:

There is sin in the lives of agency founders, including arrogance, greed, pride, selfishness and laziness;
Agency leaders refuse to be team-players and want to avoid accountability;
Agency staff circumvent “the system” by sidestepping a theological degree;
Agency staff have personal agendas and see agency work as an easy job and a get-rich-quick scheme;
Agency staff are arrogant, narcissistic lone rangers with high egos; and
Agencies attract people who are angry with the church.

So check your motivations for going the independent route. Do any of the above complaints prick your conscience? If so, think again. Assuming you decide to to create a new ministry with a clear conscience, my book also shows how to overcome these negative attitudes and have excellent relations with pastors. It really can be done!

Your options for working with others include working with your church, your denomination or with a Christian agency. Which to approach will depend on what the new ministry idea is, how broadly you have to reach to get the necessary financial and human resources, and perhaps the geographical scope of your ministry.

Creating your own independent ministry could be a suitable choice if:

There is agreement that you are called and gifted but, for resource reasons or differences in priorities, your church or denomination is not able or willing to support the ministry; or
The ministry will have to draw from the wider church beyond your denomination to get enough gifted people to do the work; or
One of the purposes of the ministry includes fostering Christian unity by having Christians from different denominations work together in one organization;
and
There is no existing agency willing to take on the proposed ministry.

If you are already independent, you could remain independent and work cooperatively with another ministry or you could merge with them and become part of a larger organization.

Either way, the way forward is to look for existing ministries that are already doing something close to what you want to do and see if there are any good fits. If working with another organization is not a fit (and you have agreement from others that your logic is sound), then you can proceed to start a new Christian agency in good spirit.

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A Rose by Any Other Name…

John Pellowe — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:00:24 +0000

I surveyed over 500 pastors and executive directors of Christian ministries a while ago (here are the results) and discovered there is a consensus that how we refer to non-local church Christian ministries is a problem. Both pastors and executive directors objected to calling non-denominational ministries “parachurch” because para means alongside (hence outside). They see unaffiliated ministry as the body of Christ at work. We need a better way to refer to these ministries.

Some Proposals

Jerry White proposed the more precise term para-local church back in 1983. John Stackhouse used paracongregational when he spoke at a theological forum I arranged a few years ago to discuss church-parachurch relations. Orlando Costas likewise used the term para-ecclesiastical in his book. I understand their logic, but I do not think it is healthy to define something in terms of what it is not. It is much healthier to define it in terms of what it is. And the problem remains that a parachurch’s staff members are part of the congregations that the parachurch is supposedly standing beside. Furthermore, “beside” does not make sense at all if church refers to the universal church (that is, all Christians), since parachurch workers cannot stand beside themselves. I think we can do better than these terms.

Agency

After several years of thought on church-parachurch relations (writing my dissertation), agency appears to be the best one-word term to describe parachurch organizations. Agency conveys the idea of doing a task on behalf of someone else, and this is what parachurches do. On one level, they work on behalf of churches, denominations and/or the universal church to help get the church’s mission done. On another level, since each parachurch worker is an agent of God’s, they are working on behalf of God too. If the workers are agents, then the organizational structure they work within can be called an agency.

Using this terminology, we would refer to Christian churches and agencies. We could also call them unaffiliated agencies, self-governing agencies or non-denominational agencies if we wanted to emphasize a particular aspect of their governance structure. Agency avoids the baggage that parachurch has accumulated over the years and is a neutral term that makes no judgment about relative priority or value between these organizations and local churches. Agency is simply a descriptor.

I’ve thought about other terms, but to keep the term short, sweet and simple, I haven’t thought of anything better than agency. So, what do you think?

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