THE SYNOPSIS OF A FIVE-STAR CHURCH BOOK AUTHORED BY STAN TOLER AND ALAN NELSON

INTRODUCTION

When you enter a five-star establishment, you discover a world of state-of-the-art facilities and unparalleled service. The management, ambiance, customer service and dinning must be worthy of meriting five stars – the highest rating – for superior service in attitude, accommodations and resources. In a five-star hotel the customer is sure to get undisturbed rest. In a church environment, people should also look for quality and promote excellence in fellowship functions, building designs and spiritual lives – a body that seeks excellence for the Lord in every endeavour. Some churches have outstanding preaching, but they do very little in pastoral care for their members. Some have outstanding facilities and lovely worship atmosphere but the sermon is weak and the teaching is shallow. However, this book encourages Christians to nurture hearts and minds devoted to excellence in our service to God.

 CHAPTER ONE

THE PEOPLE-FOCUSED CHURCH

It all started with a warm visit to a five-star hotel in which the atmosphere, customer care and majestic response of the workers to customer stirs up this write-up. There was an interaction with the owner of the hotel and the dialogue gave the principles that a church can borrow to grow a people-focused church. Jeff the Owner of the hotels said: they are only five-star because people love coming here. They come because we provide great service and constantly strive to meet their needs. They come because they know that once they get here, they will be treated like kings and queens. Putting people first looks commercial it has to start from putting God first and loving the ones He created. How? 1 Cor. 9:22 – “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.” A market-sensitive church need not to compromise on its message, but it must change its method if it is to meet the spiritual needs of people. However, God deserves our best. We have to put the customer first if we are going to obey God and bring Him glory. We have to attract people to the kingdom and help them find a better way in life. Jeff concluded that this is a place to be for quality service. We do very little outside marketing.

Why we need customer orientation? Firstly, we need to strive for excellence and care about our church property, programming and publicity because God deserves the best. We as the local church are His local franchise within a community. We represent Him yet we offer mediocre music, have unfriendly ushers and ho-hum services, and the present ourselves as a reflection of God’s love and character, we insult Him. The Great Commission requires us to do whatever we can do to win some, obviously within the parameters of the gospel. Quality counts more now than it ever has in terms of attracting people and keeping them. Secondly, people are motivated by quality care and to pursue a customer-oriented ministry mind-set. If we do not, we will lose touch and eventually close our doors. A customer-service, market-oriented church will be constantly changing so that it will stay fresh, healthy and vibrant as an organization, as well as to its mission to honour God and reach people.

PRINCIPLES OF PEOPLE-FOCUSED CHURCH

1.     Christ first, others a close second

2.     Identifying potential customers

3.     Executing the excuses

CHRIST FIRST, OTHERS A CLOSE SECOND

Courtesy, follow-through, giving the benefit of the doubt and service with a smile characterize service-oriented companies. Jesus emphasized the importance of prioritizing others, second only to loving God with all our strength (Mark 12:33). The way we love others is by serving them and meeting their needs. The church is a service-oriented organization. For us to develop an authentic customer-service orientation, we must understand who the customers are, what their needs are, and how they need to be served.

IDENTIFYING POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS

Most churches are structured to provide ministries for those who are already inside the doors. The more a congregation considers its people customers the more likely it is to develop a broader range of ministries to relate to varying needs, interests and priorities. Creating a user-friendly, customer-oriented culture means a church is suitable to have more of its existing people involved and committed.

EXECUTING THE EXCUSES

Someone once said, “An excuse is a reason wrapped up in a lie.” Jesus dealt with human excuse of not following Him. It’s a disease of human nature. Why not seeking service-oriented ministry?

§  We are too busy doing what we are doing now to take on any new projects.

§  We do not have staff (committed member) or budget to do more.

§  We have programmes, event and meetings to do.

§  New people might start coming to our church and that would upset our delicate balance.

§  I like the way things are now.

These excuses relate to an underlying problem of denial.

1.     Things are not that bad. Why do we need to improve? People still come.

2.     The building looks fine to me.

3.     We are a church, not some profit-driven organization; besides, God will understand.

4.     We are a charitable, volunteer institution. People do not expect as much from us.

5.     If it is okay for us, it’s okay for everyone else.

6.     If they don’t like us the way we are, they can excuse us.

It is tough to hit a target you cannot see well. The vision of a leader is needed to execute people-focused church. The vision has to be cast by the leaders. If there are no leaders with like-minded vision, and then you will need to find lay leaders who possess the ability to cast the vision for a customer orientation.

CONCLUSION

The process by which we present the gospel is as important as the product. Too often we emphasize the product, downplay the process and then wonder why people refuse the product. People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. They do not know you care unless you respond to their perceived needs or their real needs in way that are loving and accepting. Always give people more than they expect to get. The best churches are not perfect, but they are forever pursuing the ideal.

Chapter two

Deming comes to church

The dialogue between the Five-star hotel owner, Jeff and his guest; Gary and Beth from his church got to the point of using conference hall for more unique discussion. Jeff made more emphasis on a man called, “W. Edwards Deming” who developed incorporating excellence, though rejected by American industry but accepted by Japanese whereby industries came up from – Sony, Toyota, Toshiba, and Honda. He now explained that: Before any changes take place, there needs to be some sense of dissatisfaction with the status quo, along with a realization of a better way of doing things.  Many of us are closed to new ideas when we think we are doing everything okay.  Deming principles can be applied in the church also. They are:

PRINCIPLE ONE: We want to be the best we can be, reach our potential, serve people better and glorify God. To do this, we must be intentional and perpetual. It means innovation, research and education, continuous improvement, and even the maintenance of equipment, furnishings and facilities reflect who we are and what we do – means to improve every aspect of our ministry.

If we cannot clearly communicate our methods for quality improvement, the chances are that nothing will be done because concern for quality is nearly always a conscious, intentional pursuit.

PRINCIPLE TWO: Let’s practice what we preach and put thorns in our laurels (accomplishment of the past). One point of man is that we end to rest on our laurels. Just because a church has been effective in the past does not mean it will be that way in the present or future. “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22).

PRINCIPLE THREE: Everyone on the ministry team is involved in analyzing what we do, how we do it and how we can do it better to serve people best. It shouldn’t be up to the pastor to make sure we focus on improvement. We all take responsibility for keeping a look out for quality and areas of improvement.

Personal ownership will help when each worker sees the work as theirs rather than Pastor’s work. They will develop a sense that this ministry is theirs. It will become owners versus renters in our thinking.

PRINCIPLE FOUR: Who are the best people for the ministry tasks and what are the best resources we can afford? We should not confuse stewardship with cheapness. We could use our relationship with God; knowing the right persons and also our new ministry gifts, and profile database here to help us better determine the right person for the right role. Note, people are willing does not necessarily qualify them for a certain ministry role.

Sometimes the cheapest way to go is the worst stewardship. We turn people off with less-than professional publicity, lousy sound, bad flooring and naira instead of attracting people and naira.

PRINCIPLE FIVE: We need to discuss the Q (quality) factor when we plan a project, after an event and in our scheduled staff meetings. It has to be done with depth of your commitment. Constant improvement must be intentional. We are talking about being proactive (practical, down to business, positive) versus reactive (hasty, unthinking, imprudent, rash).

After a programme, the planning workers should schedule debriefing meeting to celebrate what went well and also record what could be done better the next time around. Without this information, we tend to repeat our performance. Practice does not make perfect, it makes permanent. Notice the little things; send thank-you notes, gift and appreciation. Never be cheap in giving thanks; it is theologically and organizationally sound.

PRINCIPLE SIX: Invest the time and money to teach, train and retrain people to develop their skills and to implement quality ministry methods. Somehow, in the church realm, we are significantly undertrained. There is need for periodic training and recasting of vision. Training should be part of our ministry agreement. Some may want to leave but it is better to train people and lose them than not train them and keep them. Church should be a place in a community where corporations could send employees to our leadership sessions.

PRINCIPLE SEVEN: The leader’s job is to buy the concept for quality concern, cast the vision and never delegate the core value. Helping people find their places of effectiveness is the responsibility of leaders. Vision can be cast via messages, board meetings, newsletters and workers gatherings.

You can delegate the accountability and strategic development phases, but the vision and constant verbalization of the need for quality concern must be a job for leaders. It starts at the top. Budgets and time resources allocated to empower and train leaders are factors in expressing quality improvement as a core value.

CHAPTER THREE

MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST

After a short break, the trio-excellent pursuers continued in their dialogue. This chapter wrapped up the remaining principle which was tagged on the book o Oswald Chambers.

PRINCIPLE EIGHT: Provide a safe, secure environment to share ideas. There is place for critique yet we should create an atmosphere of freedom to bring up ideas for change. New ideas are like newborns. They need to be nurtured and treated delicately.  Idea shared should not be taken personal, and make sure that the new ideas and the peoples who bring them feel accepted and affirmed.

PRINCIPLE NINE: Build a team mind-set to avoid departmental barriers. The goal is to get us thinking and acting like a single team instead of many little teams. As church grows, it tends to become departmentalized. The more we think of OUR OWN little ministry domains, the less prone we are to see the big picture and help each other. Whenever you raise the benchmark with new expectations, you also have to give people the freedom to decline. Help them also see benefits of everyone brainstorming about our children’s ministry. The youth, worship and mission leaders must not feel you are wasting their time even though they may not be directly involved in children’s ministry. Always help the leaders to see one BIG PICTURE.

PRINCIPLE TEN: Eliminate slogans and short-term goals. Quality improvement is long term, ongoing.  Avoid short-term thinking that provides only temporary motivation and improvement.

PRINCIPLE ELEVEN: Avoid numerical goals. It is not the issue of members, money or worship service attendance. Figures can fool you. It is not unimportant but should not be our main goal. When quality service becomes the main thing, growth usually follows.  Therefore, our goal is not to bear fruit, but to abide, because if we abide, we will be fruitful.

PRINCIPLE TWELVE: Give people ownership. Tear down barriers that prevent the people from developing a healthy pride in what they do. Provide a freedom to do what it takes to add their personal touch. True empowerment means an unleashing of influence and resources, not just verbal permission.

PRINCIPLE THIRTEEN: Vigorously educate people. Principle Six has to do with training, which emphasizes behaviour and skills while Principle thirteen is about continuous education, which has to do with BIG-PICTURE ideas and understanding them. Training focuses on application – what we do. Education emphasizes the bigger picture – what we can learn about the field. Training without education tends to turn us toward becoming robots who may be programmed to perform certain skills, but are not apt to improve the skills because we have run across new ideas. Education keeps us fresh mentally and exposes us to a wider range of information that helps us improve our quality.

PRINCIPLE FOURTEEN: Head into action. It is the moment of action. Sit down, develop a BIG-PICTURE and plan to do all. Without this step, the other thirteen are mere expenditures of time and energy. Jesus had many people who said they wanted to follow Him, but very few took action.

CONCLUSION

The rest of the book is designed to help you implement the principles we have introduced. However, think in terms of baby steps, not giant leaps. The journey is long, but do not let the length intimidate you.