Church Library?

Thanks to all of you who gave me feedback on the idea of lending out the book The Hole in Our Gospel. (If you don't recall the post, link here.) Quite a few people emailed, commented or Facebooked me about some kind of church library. I have to be honest with you, though--I'm not a fan of church libraries for several reasons including that they take up a room but are rarely used and the books in them are usually second-rate or badly damaged. They seem to quickly fall into disrepair and obscurity after the initial flurry of use. Maybe some of you have had a different experience and could convince me otherwise, but that's my honest opinion.

That doesn't mean we can't have one, though. The world doesn't revolve around my preferences, as much as I wish it did sometimes. :-)

So..........We can have a church "library" if...

• someone "owns" it as a ministry (no staff will be involved except to okay the plans)
• people are okay with it dying if the person who owns it quits doing it and doesn't get a replacement (again, no staff will come in to "save the program")
• it doesn't take up a room (it can take up some of our storage space, but we simply don't have a room available, even if we wanted to give one up for that purpose)
• it's not an eye-sore when it is in service (it has to fit our ambiance)
• there's a system for ensuring the books are worth lending out
• no one asks for money from the church budget to get this going or keep it going. In other words, it will need to be creative and (please don't take this wrongly) it won't be modeled after the library at your grandmother's church. :-) 

I think it can be done, but it would take a leader (not just a book lover).

Most of what I listed can be applied to other ministry ideas you might have. I want to see more of our people take this kind of initiative and innovation in ministry. But we can't and should not fund every idea for a whole bunch of reasons. I like the way David Browning puts it in Deliberate Simplicity. Their church staff and budget focus on three things only: Worship, Small Groups and Outreach. But their members have started a variety of other ministries. Browning writes:

While there are a limited number of programs that a Deliberately Simple church may initiate, there are an unlimited number of ministries that individuals may initiate. While corporate programs are discouraged, individual ministries are encouraged.

So, I think it would be pretty cool if someone started something I don't think is worth starting and proved me wrong. That's not only cool, it's healthy.

Book Highlights: Focus

Focus: The Top Ten Things People Want and Need from You and Your Church is the third book based on REVEAL research. The gist of the book is to look at what people want from their church and what they actually need for spiritual growth and vitality. Then they do the same thing for what people want and need from their senior pastor. The idea is to help church ministries and pastors prioritize.

Top Highlights:

• Based on their research what people want most and need most match. People's top want is spiritual guidance and that's their top need. 
• Spiritual guidance = helps me develop a personal relationship with Christ; challenges me to grow and take next steps; provides a clear pathway that helps guide my spiritual growth; church leaders model and consistently reinforce how to grow spiritually; helps me understand the Bible in greater depth.
• Belonging (not meaning ownership but affiliation, like with a favorite sports team) is the second most powerful driver for satisfaction and needs to be prioritized by churches, even though it is not a spiritual growth driver, otherwise they won't stay around for spiritual guidance.
• Although "encourages me to take responsibility for my own spiritual growth" didn't factor for satisfaction, it is one of the most important needs and therefore needs to be creatively prioritized.
• People want preaching and vision casting from their senior pastor but most need spiritual challenge for growth. No match.
• The match comes when you look at what people want out of preaching/vision casting: Bible learning, modeling spiritual growth and challenge to grow and take next steps.
• One of the huge surprises: for senior pastors, the role of leading the church had four times the impact on satisfaction with the church's role in spiritual growth compared to the role of teaching/preaching. Even the best sermon doesn't have nearly the spiritual impact as do the day-to-day decisions a senior pastor makes about how to lead a church--specifically the decisions that deliver spiritual guidance through the church.
• We catalyze their spiritual growth by helping them understand the Bible in greater depth, by challenging them to apply Scriptures with specific next steps and by modeling how we are taking those steps ourselves.