People care about ethos, not tribe.
Very early on in my ministry, I started to get invited to speak in other denominational traditions. Some from my own denomination were offended. Practically speaking, if you’re basing the future livelihood of your denomination on your people maintaining a sense of tribal identity, you will be sorely disappointed. For good or for bad, the next generation doesn’t care too much about commitment to a denomination compared to the cause of the kingdom.
Ultimately it’s the ethos: “I want to be here cause we’re in this together.” In this growing network-oriented world, we have to strive to replace tribalism with ethos and a kingdom-mindedness. I’ve said before, “My denomination should be my home, not my prison.” We are in this together.
People respond to near, not distant.
I understand there is a greater efficiency in giving to a cooperative funding strategy than there is to directly supporting a church planter. I agree with cooperative giving and have said so repeatedly. But that is not the way most people think and that’s definitely not the way Millennials think.
What people have in networks that they don’t have in denominations is a nearness to the mission. Denominations often maintain a distance from the mission. But the best denominations are helping churches better understand the missionary’s nearness.
With the advent of technology and the Internet, it’s no longer that difficult. Nearness is the call of the day. If denominations don’t address this effectively enough, people will continue to migrate to networks that provide greater nearness.
People want digital, not analog.
The modes and methods of communication have changed dramatically. Gone are the days when information and communication took weeks or months to flow from the denominational headquarters through the various leadership structures and out to the grassroots. Too many denominations act as if they can communicate in the way they did 50 years ago. To become more like a network, denominations need to develop a better digital communication plan.
Compare network websites to denominational ones. What’s the mission? What’s it pointing to? How do I get involved? For virtually every network, those answers are easily visible on an attractive, engaging site. For denominations, that is rarely the case. To keep and reach the next generation of leaders, denominations must develop better digital communication.
Denominations and Networks
Ultimately, networks are growing because people are being drawn to them. That’s just the facts.
Denominations need to ask what they need to be doing to be more like networks when appropriate.
In denominations, the fire has to be what drives us, the partnership has to be what gathers us, the ethos has to be what excites us, the nearness has to be what enables us and the digital tool has to be what equips us.
That’s what networks appear to be doing better than denominations (or at least those are people’s perceptions), and that’s what denominations have to improve if they want to continue existing in the new religious culture.
