By Wayne Pederson
“The Lord has made everything for His own purpose, even the wicked for a day of disaster.” ”
I’ve been asked to assemble a gathering (virtually) of a dozen or so global ministry leaders to address the issues and adjustments they’re forced to make out to the COVID pandemic. No one could have imagined as we began the new year the challenges we would be facing in our ministries, in our relationships, our finances and our personal lives caused by the “invisible enemy” COVID-19.
However, we’re finding that all the news is not bad news. This ad hoc group of think-tank ministry leaders is discovering there’s a silver lining in the midst of all of the confusion and anxiety in our culture.
Passion and Vision
One of the leaders in our group who’s based in Africa works collaboratively with a large number of indigenous partner ministries. According to his report, partner ministries that have a clearly defined mission along with a fervent passion for their calling are thriving. Ministries without a clear mission and vision see COVID as a disaster and they are struggling.
David Willis of National Christian Foundation and chair of ECFA stated in a podcast recently those ministries built on a solid foundation of strategic funding, carefully laid-out strategy and solid board governance and staff management will not only survive, but thrive. Those ministries that have not built a solid financial, strategy, leadership base will not survive the crisis. Recent case studies are bearing this out.
Audience Response
Almost every ministry represented in the group reported greater response to the Gospel. Sheila Leech of FEBA in the UK said listenership has increased. And her team is working on ways to be sure that growth is sustained long-term.
Jan-Eric Nauman of IBRA reported more people are coming to Christ. Numbers are growing by the week. More listeners are responding with questions about knowing Christ. International ministries are receiving more inquiries via text or email from listeners who are anxious, confused, fearful and needy. He reported 40% of inquiries result in that person accepting Christ as Savior for the first time.
Focus on the Gospel
Given the above information, ministry leaders are re-doubling their focus on presenting the Gospel, keeping the Gospel front and center in their content. Lauren Libby, CEO of TWR is challenging staff to stay on the Gospel core. Provide eternally rich content. Doug Hastings of Moody Radio said they’re presenting the plan of salvation on the air every hour. And Moody postponed their on-air fundraiser feeling it was more important to focus on ministry than raising funds.
Core Calling
This is not the time to delve into projects outside of our core mission. Ed Cannon, CEO of Far East Broadcasting stated: Stay on your singular focus. Stop doing things that are not core to the mission. In the process of adjusting to the “new normal”, ministries are finding the need to abandon projects and strategies that have become obsolete or are peripheral in order to refocus on their basic, foundational calling.
More Virtual, Less Face-to-Face
Various opinions on the dependence on Zoom and GoToMeeting. For Chuck Bentley of Crown Financial, they had already adopted the work from home model, which required almost no adjustment with the pandemic. They are now 100% remote. Productivity and creativity is up. However, they’re finding staff are working longer hours, because work is at home.
Others have discovered that virtual meetings have actually increased connection with staff, partners, volunteers, and donors. One leader noted increased creativity and efficiency from partners and staff working from home away from distractions in the office. One coalition member has been out of the office for 3 month, but is actually doing more team care from home that he did at the office. And his management style has become more pastoral, less management. This from a leader who previously tended to be more managerial, less people-oriented.
Another reported that he wasn’t missing the 45 minute commute every morning and every night. Another found that without those15 hours flights on a plane, his “think time” has decreased, because of handling one Zoom call after another.
Fund Raising
Covid has forever changed the way we raise funds. The era of the “chicken dinner circuit” is over. One global ministry CEO stated that getting on a plane, staying in a hotel, eating at restaurants, to meet with donors can take a whole weekend or the better part of a week. Now, he can Skype, Zoom or Facetime a half dozens donors in a day at no cost and in a fraction of the time. And most donors have expressed preference for this method.
In fact, Crown Financial has enjoyed their annual Fall dinner with hundreds of ministry partners, meeting with them face to face, telling stories and casting vision for the ministry. This year they surveyed their donors asking whether they preferred an in-person banquet or instead a virtual fund-raising event. A surprising 89% of their donors indicated a preference for visual. So in October Crown Financial will have their very first virtual fund raising event, with greater attendance, videos from staff all over the world, and at practically zero cost!
An urban Chicago ministry called By The Hand cancelled their expensive annual gala. In it’s place they held an all-day Saturday funding event that included an morning prayer time, videos from staff, and the children and families impacted by their outreach in the community. it was an astounding success in storytelling, vision-casting and fund raising
One of our participants said this: Donors are not interested in responding to the “Help. We’re in trouble” type of appeals. His bottom take-away line: “People want plans, not pleas!” If we can truly describe how our ministries are focused on their core mission during this time of crisis, they WILL respond. In fact, a number of our think-tank team indicated even in the crisis, with limited personal contact, donations are up 12%!
Isn’t it just like God to turn turmoil and tragedy into opportunity and triumph!
Allocation of Resources
Ministries are saving tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars because of cancelled flights and travel restrictions. The result is incredible opportunity to re-allocate spending towards more ministry. One global ministry cancelled plans for a gather ing in the Philippines for 200 ministry partners By cancelling airfares, accommodations, meals and other meeting expenses, they achieved a six-figure saving. They have re-allocated those funds to help hurting partner ministries in Indonesia, Philippines, India, Bangladesh who are suffering because of the pandemic. And donors have responded enthusiastically to that reallocation from expensive travel to expanded ministry.
Tim Whitehead, executive director of Galcom is using funds normally spent on global travel and doing more advertising buys on Facebook and Google. Because of the cutbacks by many companies on advertising, ad rates on social media sites are cheap. It’s a good time to be buying.
Shorter, More Frequent Communication
Chuck Bentley is using input from his under 35 staff to help reshape the way they communicate. They’re telling him we need 10X more content and 1/10 the length. Crown is now editing their 50 minute daily program to 10 five-minute features. That allows them to have more frequent contact with listeners and constituents.
In fact, a number of our team stressed shorter, more frequent connection. And that applied to print as well. Supporters are more prone to read a concise one-page report than an extensive 8 page newsletter, which they may put aside with “maybe later”.
Greg Thornton, VP of Media for Moody has turned his creative staff loose to create shorter content and even free e-books.
Greg told an amazing story. Gary Chapman is Moody’s top selling author. Every weekend Gary is out on the road presenting his 8 hour seminar on 5 Love Languages to married couples in cities across the nation. Now, Gary and Moody have produced a 2-hour virtual Strengthen Your Marriage seminar. That 2 hour virtual seminar is attended by more couples attended the previous on-site model in a whole year!
“The church has left the building.” Somewhere along history, “church” has come to mean a building. But Jesus made it clear, so did Paul, that the church is not a buildling. Church is the people, the ecclesia, the “called out ones.” A church in Cary North Carolina with a normal weekend attendance of 8,000 now has 25,000 weekly virtual attendees. Many churches are now going to “huddles” or smaller groups of believers meeting together.
Real Estate vs. At Home
A number of ministries are finding that having a large corporate office is no longer necessary. Staff are finding greater flexibility, higher efficiency, greater creativity, higher job satisfaction working from home. Yes, many miss the chats, the coffee breaks, the personal connection afforded by being physically together. One manager expressed concern that some employees had adopted a kind of “vacation” mentality and needed to tighten up expectations and policies related to remote work. Zoom actually did a study which showed efficiency actually increased 40% when people were working remotely. The study also indicated greater job satisfaction, less stress, greater longevity without the daily time spent commuting to an office.
One of our members is seriously questioning the need for a large corporate office. Rather looking at ways to segment staff into smaller work groups, while maintaining a much smaller office for financial and development functions. Selling the building and re-allocating those funds for reserves or expansion seemed to make a lot of sense.
In home, remote or at the office? What will it be? I’m guessing it will be some new kind of hybrid of the the best of both worlds.
Dr. Alan Cureton, president of University of Northwestern-St. Paul said: Stay true to your mission. But adjust applications to your mission. Will we stay with on-line learning, or will students return to the classroom? More likely it will be some sort of hybrid.
Alan continued: The virus is not going away. How do we anticipate a COVID resurgence: How do we live with it long term. In budgeting we must define a new paradigm to live on 1 year’s revenue for 2 years expenses.
Take-away Bottom Line
Are we making decisions outside our comfort zone? Yes! Leaders are finding it increasingly challenging to make decisions in uncertain, ambiguous times. One leader said: We’re learning from our mistakes. That’s why the book of Proverbs says: “The prudent carefully consider their steps. The wise are cautious and avoid danger.” Proverbs 14:15,16
How much of these adjustments are temporary? How many will be permanent. Someone mentioned their staff is growing in their desire to be physically together. Others have said we will never to back to how we did things a year ago.
Leaders must lead with calmness, clarity, speed, and steadiness in crisis times.
Leaders must acknowledge the uncertain, the ambiguous, the “I don’t know”..
Leaders cannot be territorial. We must collaborate and coordinate.
Leaders have to work with resources that we have, not what we don’t have.
Leaders have to be creative, flexible, transparent, decisive.
Leaders have to prioritize what’s crisis and what’s not.
Leaders have to keep in plan for the immediate AND the long-term.
And we do know this:
We will continue to meet more frequently using virtual meetings.
We will make greater use of digital, interactive, virtual tools for communication.
We will reallocate spending vast amounts on travel.
We will examine the benefits of owning or leasing a large corporate office.
We will adopt shorter, more concise, more frequent communication models.
We will stay focused on our core mission.
We will stop doing things NOT core to the mission.
We will keep the Gospel front and center in our content.
We will make use of virtual tools to connect with more donors more frequently.
We will not measure activity or hours. only measure results.
We will allow our younger creative staff more input into ministry leadership.
We will view this season as opportunity to create long-term contingency plans.
I’m finding the book of Proverbs exceptionally relevant to ministry leadership these days. In an ambiguous, uncertain culture, we need to seek God’s combination of knowledge, wisdom, understanding, insight, discernment. God promises in James 1 that when we humbly ask for God’s wisdom He will give it.
“The prudent understand where they are going.” Proverbs 14:8
For sure, that’s where we go from here! “
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Wayne Pederson was the former President of Reach Beyond and NRB and now sits as the Chair Board member of Resource Global. Prior to Reach Beyond and his work with NRB, Wayne served as vice president for Radio at Moody in Chicago, with 35 owned and operated stations, reaching 1 Million listeners each week, plus 800 radio outlets nationwide. He’s a writer, speaker and air personality for a number of organizations. Wayne graduated from the University of Minnesota and the Free Lutheran Theological Seminary in Minneapolis. He has two daughters, Christy and Michelle and 9 grandchildren, all in Minnesota.