mission | Mike Bonem

What Is Your Moon Shot?

Mike Bonem — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 02:41:54 +0000

On September 12, 1962, President John F. Kennedy gave his famous “moon shot” speech in which he declared that the United States would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. It was an audacious goal, especially since NASA’s greatest accomplishment up to that time was a space flight that orbited the earth 3 times.

The most famous line in JFK’s speech is “We choose to go to the moon, not because it is easy, but because it is hard.” The 60th anniversary remembrances of the speech caused me to wonder about mission commitment in churches and ministries. Would the people you’re leading agree that “we choose to pursue our mission, not because it’s easy, but because it is hard”?

Every church and ministry should have a compelling, God-given mission that reflects its context. The mission should energize people to pursue it, even though it’s hard. If you long for that kind of commitment, JFK’s speech offers some important insights.

Even though the speech focused on the space race and getting to the moon, it was framed in the context of a bigger and nobler mission. President Kennedy described the space program as a “quest for knowledge and progress” and as a way to “solve mysteries … for the good of all men.” Do the people you’re leading grasp the noble calling of your church or ministry? Do you help them connect the dots between the tasks of ministry and that calling?

JFK’s speech was given during a period of tremendous global tension. The Berlin wall had been built just a year earlier. The Soviet Union had been first to launch a manned spaceship. The American space program was offered as a response to an existential threat and as a “hope for peace and security.” While Jesus was clear that the Church will prevail (“the gates of Hades will not overcome it”), the shifts in our society still represent a threat for many congregations. Are your church’s members indifferent to the challenges we’re facing? How might you raise their level of awareness and urgency?

The speech names a number of scientific and engineering challenges that would have to be overcome to reach the moon. Indeed, NASA scientists at the time did not have a complete roadmap for turning the dream into reality. But rather than backing away from the challenge, JFK embraced the uncertainty: “This is in some measure an act of faith and vision, for we do not now know what benefits await us.” Does uncertainty cause you to run forward in faith or to run away?

If you’re thinking, “The President of the United States has access to almost unlimited resources,” you’d be right. But what ”moon shot” would be appropriate for your church or ministry? What would stretch you toward a bold future? Before you answer, remember that we serve a God whose resources are infinitely more than those of any world leader.

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A Lesson from the Movies

Mike Bonem — Mon, 06 Jun 2022 11:30:37 +0000

Pastors love to use illustrations from movies. But what about leadership lessons from movie theaters? If you owned a chain of movie theaters, how would you feel about your investment? I heard a news story about CinemaCon, which is a large conference for movie theater owners. The reporter described the decline in ticket sales that began before the pandemic and wondered how theaters would recover. But what struck me were interviews with participants at the conference, who expressed great optimism about the future and acted as if they were one blockbuster movie away from a return to the good old days. I kept thinking, “Don’t they know the world has fundamentally changed?”

Then I began to wonder about the similarities with churches. If there was a large convention for pastors called “CongregationCon,” what would a reporter say? Consider these parallels in the landscape for movie theaters and churches:

Just like movie theaters, church attendance was declining before the pandemic, and current attendance is significantly below pre-pandemic levels.
People have a wide range of options for entertainment, and they became more accustomed to those options during the pandemic. People who are looking to fill the “God-shaped void” in their lives are also presented with many options for doing so.
Movie theaters are tied to their physical facilities, just like many churches.
Regardless of the optimism expressed by CinemaCon participants, the future is very uncertain for movie theaters. While I am absolutely confident that the big “C” Church will prevail, the way that plays out for individual congregations is not at all clear.

Despite these realities, I am not pessimistic about the future landscape for ministry. We should, however, avoid the head-in-the-sand thinking I heard from the theater executives. Rather than waiting for the next blockbuster, the theater industry should rethink it’s strategy. The same can be said for churches. I am not saying we should rethink our mission of sharing the gospel and loving people as Jesus did. “Strategy” describes the ways that we are pursuing the mission.

I don’t know what your new strategy should be, but my hunch is that it should include several elements. One is a strong external orientation that seeks to reach unchurched people and make a positive difference in your community. Another is an increase in experimentation. Trying several different short-term ministry efforts can help you determine what will be most effective in your context. A third element is more honest evaluation of what is working. Finally, the new strategy may result in fewer internally-focused programs and less staff to lead/support those programs.

I wouldn’t want to invest in a movie theater right now. But I’m all in for an investment in the church … as long as we’re willing to take a fresh look at the strategies that will help us accomplish our God-given mission.

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Rethinking Planning … Beyond the Pandemic

Mike Bonem — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 06:31:00 +0000

A denominational leader recently asked how my work has changed in the pandemic. I explained that the number of churches doing strategic planning had decreased considerably. He responded with disappointment at this missed opportunity to think creatively about the future.

My first reaction was to defend pastors who are exhausted and overwhelmed. Few decisions today can be put on autopilot, and planning for Advent feels “long range” even when it’s only a few weeks away. Who has time for strategic planning? And yet, the opportunity of this moment should not be overlooked. My solution is to rethink planning.

What does it mean to rethink planning? What kind of planning process would be appropriate when we’re still in a pandemic and the future seems so uncertain? A fresh way to engage planning in this season will be based on:

A foundational belief that God is at work. Some people treat this season as if God took the early train to the next year, leaving us to survive on our own. A better perspective is to wonder what God might want to teach us and do through us in this moment.
Reaffirmed (or clarified) mission. The context for every church and ministry is quite different today than it was a year ago, but your mission and values should be unchanged. This is the north star to guide any plans. A mission to “make disciples” will be just as relevant in 2021 as in 2019. Only the plan for how to make disciples needs to change.
Assumptions that have been exposed and tested. We bring a variety of unspoken (and often unconscious) assumptions into conversations about the future – the importance of being face-to-face, the necessity of certain programs and staff to lead them, the ways in which people grow in their faith, and more. Now more than ever, those assumptions need to be named and their validity examined.
Shorter time horizon. Rather than extra reading and analysis to anticipate an unpredictable future, planning energies should focus on the next 6 to 18 months. For example, we can’t know what portion of a congregation will return for in-person worship on the other side of the pandemic. But we can be confident that many will return and that a considerable number will permanently shift to the online option. How should that inform plans for the next year?
More little bets and less big ones. In the past, planning often led to a few major initiatives, such as launching a new campus or deepening local mission partnerships. In today’s context we should creatively generate experiments that can be tried on a small scale. Multiple small experiments require less resources, are easier to start and stop, and collectively lead to more learning that will ultimately show where to place big bets.
New metrics. Rethinking planning calls for fresh ways to define success. The old metrics work against short time horizons and small experiments. What if we measured the number of different experiments? Or the total number of people that were engaged in those experiments?

This is still a challenging season in which to do any kind of planning. But by rethinking planning, you may develop renewed hope and fresh dreams about God’s preferred future for your church or ministry.

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Trick or Treat

Mike — Tue, 05 Nov 2019 12:09:43 +0000

We have just observed the annual ritual in which costumed strangers knock on our doors, and after they say a magic phrase, we gladly give them candy. When you think about it that way, Halloween is a strange holiday.

One of the strangest aspects is that even as society has become less neighborly – much has been written about how we don’t know our neighbors the way we did in past generations – we still willingly open our doors and give away treats. Why do we do that? I don’t know about your answer, but I feel a certain cultural expectation to have the lights on and a bucket of candy ready, even if I don’t know the kids who are knocking on the door.

That makes me wonder what it would take to create a similar cultural expectation in our churches and ministries. What if your organization was full of people who were this open-handed? What if when you “knocked,” they gave happily and generously of their time and financial resources?

Based on my Halloween analogy, here are 3 factors that can help your church or ministry:

Be willing to ask. The number of people that did NOT knock on our door but got candy from us anyway? Exactly zero. Leaders must ask if they want to get a generous response. Sure, some people will say “no,” but don’t let that stop you.
Be clear what is needed. I know what the kids coming to my door are looking for. Are you as clear about you’d like others to contribute? Can you articulate the specific needs you have for volunteers? And while money may seem much easier, you need to paint a compelling picture of the positive impact of those contributions.
Create the culture. The real point of leverage is when an open-handed spirit in your organizational is just “how we do things.” In my neighborhood, we turn on lights and give out candy on October 31. When generosity becomes the norm, you won’t need to ask as often because newcomers will pick up on the contextual clues to be open-handed.

You may be thinking that this is a poor analogy because candy is cheap compared to the time or financial resources that you’re asking for. While that’s true, I also hope that the people in your church or ministry are much more committed to the mission than I am to giving away candy.

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