6. And Murphy’s Law of human nature…
uncertainty
disunity conformity
7. To survive a ride thru this wormhole…
must be lean, flexible, experimental, & driven by a…
8. Minimum Viable Belief
What
How
Why
What
How
Why
Why
of
Whys
A vision that transcends existence
9. Rapid Iteration Prototyping (R.I.P.)
Because it’s okay to let bad ideas die…
APPLY
program/product
seasonal experiment
ASSESS
our assumptions
ADAPT
MVB
vision
Toss?
10. 20 years of experimentation
Startup & Expansion
Member marketing, engagement, & giving
Community relief & development
Worship & education
Conflict transformation & social change
11. Prototyping program – Round 1
Need: more young families with children
Fall 2010
Summer 2010
Children’s service
Children’s service
pilot
Spring 2011
Focus group eval.
■■
design
VISION
■ ”it’s just what we asked for”
12. Prototyping program – Round 2
Summer 2011
Design tweak
Fall 2011
Children’s service
launch
Spring 2012
Team data analysis
■■■
VISION
■ adults missed sermon
13. Prototyping program – Round 3
Summer 2012
Combined service
(best of both)
Fall 2012
Intergenerational
launch
Winter break 2013
Team data analysis
■■■■
VISION
■ nursing moms not staying for fellowship
14. Prototyping program – Round 4
Winter break 2013
Holy Nursing
campaign design
Winter 2014
Holy Nursing
campaign launch
Spring 2014
Team data analysis
■■■■■
VISION
■ staying, but more kids = more noise (tweaking continues)
15. Prototyping member giving – Round 1
Need: giving consistent with vision
Summer 2007
Bells & Whistles
program purchase
Fall 2007
“B & W” pilot
Keep
one term
Winter 2008
Team review
■■■■■
VISION
Toss
“B & W”
16. Prototyping member giving – Round 2
Spring 2008
Keep
“Giving Estimate”
Fall 2008
“Giving Estimate”
campaign
Winter 2009
Team review
■■■■
VISION
■■■ more gave, sooner, more generously
17. Prototyping member giving– Round 3
Spring 2009
“Reasons not to give”
Fall 2009
“Reasons”
implementation
Spring 2010
Team review
■■■■■
VISION
■■■■ increased giving (during a recession)
18. Prototyping member giving – Round 4
Winter 2014
Killing the campaign
Spring-Fall 2014
Qtrly Town Halls +
Annual Ingathering
Winter 2015
Team review
? ? ?
VISION
19. What could startups steal from us?
Vision creates Culture
A lean, transcendent vision can create a
flexible, durable, self-guiding culture that
can outlast its founder.
20. Contact Info.
The Rev. Ken Howard
Rector
St. Nicholas Episcopal Church
about.me/ken.howard
saintnicks.com
practicingparadoxy.com
301-704-3290
Notes de l'éditeur
I know… Churches? Startups? Seriously?
SERIOUSLY.
I’ve started companies, non-profits, and faith communities.
They may look different, but they’ve got a lot more in common than you think.
Consider…
How entrepreneurial church leaders actually lead churches:
They start them…grow them…revitalize them…experiment with them.
And today’s faith communities are almost always lean, at least financially.
Consider… the forces at work…
Like startups, today’s churches and faith communities
live at the intersection of extreme uncertainty and exponential change,
within and without. (Just like startups)
Examples:
Uncertainty…
The “Rise of the NONES”…
Those who check “none of the above” for religious preference in polls.
In 1972, less that 1 in 30.
Now, more than 1 in 5.
Change…
All faiths fracture…
Christianity’s no different.
First slowly: 1,600 denominations, 1,900 years.
Then it went exponential, jumping to 45,000 by 2014.
A singularity. (And we’re beyond the event horizon.)
Exacerbated by common misconception:
That conformity leads to community.
And the antidote to uncertainty and change? More conformity, of course.
When human nature is such that the opposite is true.
These were the forces we faced starting our church.
Like a ride through a wormhole.
To survive, we knew we had to be
Lean, Flexible, Experimental…
and driven by a Minimum Viable Belief.
A Core Belief
A Foundational Vision.
A WHY of WHYs.
Transcending success… or survival.
For us, that the transforming power of God’s love made all other considerations secondary.
Everything revolved around our MVB.
A cycle of experimentation: ADAPT… APPLY… ASSESS…
Which we called Rapid Iteration Programming (RIP)…
to remind ourselves it was okay to bad ideas die.
For nearly 20 years, we’ve been applying this Lean-like approach
to every aspect of congregational life,
from startup to worship to giving campaigns.
Let’s walk through two examples:
Young families were underrepresented.
So we convened a parent focus group, defined, designed, refined, piloted a children’s service,
and got a green light from the group:
T’was everything they asked for.
But not entirely what they wanted…
We launched… Initial response was strong…
But over time many young families moved to our main service.
Seems parents missed their adult sermons.
So… we merged… best of both…
Holy Play area… Adult sermons… Called it “Intergenerational”…
They loved it!
But some parents weren’t staying for fellowship.
Nursing moms worried they might be frowned upon…
So we designed & launched a “Nursing is Holy” campaign.
Our assisting priest (a nursing mom) was game…
Social media posts… discussions… being present…
And…Success!
With unintended consequences more noise (fine tuning continues)
Example 2…
Member giving. Always tweaking.
Found a great turnkey giving campaign others thought was easy, effective, and fun,
so we bought it… tried it… HATED IT!... Dumped it.
Except for… A single term.
Their word, “Giving Estimate,”
was simpler, less contractual, and less churchy, requiring less explanation
than our term, “Pledge.”
So we ran a regular campaign with the new term.
Response? More responded, sooner, and more generously.
Why?
Communicated freedom rather than obligation.
So next year we went one step further,
holding discussions about things that might hold people back from giving.
Response: 20% increase (during a recession).
That was 2010.
This year, another big step into freedom,
we killed the annual giving campaign
in favor of year-round conversations about mission, ministry, member engagement, and money.
Response? We’ll let you know…
Lean, transcendent vision
creates flexible, durable, self-guiding culture
that can outlast its founder… from startup to maturity…
Minimum Viable Belief.