Managing and Maximizing Capital 

 
The big picture:  the role of every congregation is to offer ministries that change persons and communities in a Christlike way.  
 
We often categorize our ministries into ministry lines such as worship, education, spiritual growth, fellowship, member care, mission, pastoral care, evangelism, healing, small groups, ministries for children, youth, young adults, families, seniors, women, men, projects with other churches and secular groups, etc.   
 
Capital consists of all the resources a church uses in order to produce and deliver its various ministries.  When a church is organized, it is essential to have people who will manage and maximize the congregation’s capital assets.  There are twenty capital assets to be managed in every church, even a small one.  (I use the word “capital” in a very broad sense of the word.  Furthermore, not all our capital is owned by us: it might also be loaned, rented, or simply available to anyone in the public.)  
 
The twenty types of church capital:

1. Buildings, land, and structures:  church buildings, garages, outdoor shelters and benches, parking lots, meadows and wooded areas, storage sheds, parsonages, utilities….
2. Equipment:  vehicles, copy machines, computers, printers, lawn mowers, dish washers, kitchen appliances, elevators, safety equipment, phones, coffee machines, service-ware for meals, pots and pans and utensils, chairs and benches, library materials, AV equipment….
3. Supplies:  kitchen, Sunday School supply cabinets, office supplies, janitor supplies, bathroom supplies….
4. Financial capital:  endowment funds, investments, savings accounts, other accounts….
5. Income flow:  tithes, regular offerings, special offerings, sales, rents, fees, investment income, fund raisers, fund drives….
6. Technology:  internet, web site, social media accounts, emailing programs, software (including programs such as Power Church or Church Planner), Zoom, online education and broadcasting….
7. Data capital: membership data, attendance data, contact data, financial data and reports, instructions and warrantees, passwords and managers of software and accounts, vendors, budgets, officers, calendars, charge conference, personnel files, policies, job descriptions and duties, directories, organizational structure….
8. Platform capital: website, emails programs, mail, posters, signage, TV monitors, newspaper ads, bulletins, handouts, verbal announcements, radio/TV, social media….
9. Location capital:  nearby parks, forests, lakes, rivers, trails; public utilities, roadways, government entities…
10.  Alliance capital:  organizations that partially align with one or more ministry goal; Annual Conference, ecumenical organizations, service organizations, businesses, schools, hospitals, access to experts and skilled workers when needed….
11. Human capital: organizers, labor, entrepreneurs….
12. Spiritual capital:  common understanding of and widespread allegiance to Jesus Christ, mood of joy, well developed and flexible “other-centered” hospitality, grace toward all, social atmosphere for making friends, pastoral care of one another

13.Linguistic capital: ability to communicate in languages other than those belonging to one’s own generation, economic class, ethnicity, gender, native tongue, political tribe, religion, theological stance, race, or nationality….
 
14.Time capital:  the average number of hours each week/month/season that people will make available for interacting with church projects and events—and when:  what blocks of time will they make available.  Example:  Sunday morning—for an hour? Two hours? Three hours?
 
15.Reputation capital:  the amount of goodwill and trust the church has—both among its members and the people in the community—or beyond.
 
16.Political capital:  effective coalition builders and change agents, organizational architects able to build workable systems—including organizational structures, processes, and policies/rules….
 
17.Social capital:  social networks of people who have sense of responsibility and duty to anyone in a given environment; it can bind people together in their homogeneity or it can be a bridge between groups that are quite different; it can be charted—naming names….

18. Cultural capital:  music, arts, heritage, traditions, sacred times and spaces and people, recreation, hobbies, customs; one can draw more deeply and broadly from one’s own culture or adventure into other cultures to be enriched

19. Knowledge capital:  a learning church is continually growing in knowledge of Bible, church history, theology, sociology, psychology, economics, and strategy

1. 20. Energy capital:  sources of energy are dyads and triads—cultivated and harvested and God’s blessings—absorbed and transformed as energy for ministry

Stewardship of the Church’s Capital Resources
 
The various capital assets of the church require cataloguing, oversight, management, maximizing, and occasional conversion (into a different form of capital)  
 
In United Methodist Churches, management of capital resources is the responsibility of several boards, councils, and committees:  Church Council, Finance Committee, Board of Trustees, Committee on Lay Leadership and Personnel (Nominating Committee), and the Staff-Parish Relations Committee.  
 
The traditional management structure for United Methodist congregations is often unwieldy and ineffective.  Fortunately, the Book of Discipline gives each local church other options for designing its own management system.
 
The following is an approach I often recommend for churches that I’ve worked with:

1. Assign management of all capital assets to one team:  The Church Council.  By the Book of Discipline, it is the fundamental responsibility of the Church Council to manage and maximize all the church’s capital assets.  
2. The number of people on the church council should be determined by the following formula:  130% of the average weekly worship attendance divided by 12.  (Rationale:  this puts one person on the management team for every 12 active people in the church.  Any fewer people and the responsibilities become too overwhelming.  Any more than that and efficiency and communication suffer.)  St. James average weekly worship attendance is 115.  Our approximate number of active members is 150 (130% of the active worship attendance.)  Divide the number of our active members by 12—and the result is 12. 
3. For St. James Church, we should have a management team of 12 people—plus pastor and relevant staff.  We currently have 51 different church members managing our capital assets, yet many of those assets are unassigned, neglected, or under-managed.  
4. In order to comply with the Book of Discipline, a Church Council of 12 people would look something like the following—with each council member assigned to one or more required committees:
   1. Member 1:  Lay Leader and Chair of the Council, nominating committee
   2. Member 2:  Lay Member of Conference and Staff Parish Relations Chair
   3. Member 3:  Trustee and member of Finance committee
   4. Member 4:  Church Treasurer and member of Finance committee
   5. Member 5:  Finance Secretary, member of Finance committee, member of nominating committee
   6. Member 6:  Finance Chair
   7. Member 7:  Trustees chair
   8. Member 8:  Member Trustees
   9. Member 9:  Member Trustees
   10. Member 10: Member nominations and Staff Parish Relations 
   11. Member 11: Staff Parish Relations
   12. Member 12:  Staff Parish Relations

 
Our current administrative process uses an expansive structure.  In other words, the Church Council is made up of officers (lay leader, lay member to annual conference, treasurer, financial secretary), committee chairs, and at large members.  From the Church Council, the administrative structure expands outward into various committees and boards—made up of many people who are not on the Council itself. 
 
The process presented here is an inverted structure.  Only the minimal and necessary number of people are selected to coordinate and supervise the church’s capital assets.  Everything is tightly integrated.  People serve together on the church council—and the membership all the administrative committees is drawn from the Council membership.  The business of trustees, nominating committee, staff parish relations committee, and finance committee is done prior to the Council meeting.  There are times the individual committees need to meet in person, but much of the business can be done efficiently by text messaging and briefer conference calls. Church administration is basically a centripetal activity—focused on the inner dynamics of church life and its need for unity and coordination.  Thus the proposal for an inverted administrative structure. 
 
Two final thoughts for today:

1.  What about organizing for the REAL reason we have a church?  After all, the reason we have a church isn’t to have buildings, personnel, and budgets.  It is to have worship, education, spiritual growth, fellowship, member care, mission, pastoral care, evangelism, healing, small groups, ministries for children, youth, young adults, families, seniors, women, men, projects with other churches and secular groups, etc.  I will share some thoughts and suggestions about that in tomorrow’s post.  But for today—a hint:  The reason any church exists is for its centrifugal work:  moving outward, involving more people in partnership, touching more and more lives as we move beyond our walls.  When it comes to programming and ministry, we need an expansive structure.  Yet the traditional committee system for programming is actually inverted—often resulting in unnecessary red tape and bottlenecks.  If we move our management organization from an expansive structure to an inverted one, we should also be moving our ministry and program structure from an inverted one to an expansive one.  I’ll explain more tomorrow.

2. Why go to all this trouble to change how we do things?  Short answer:  while people here clearly love St. James Church, almost nobody is happy with the declines and losses the church has been experiencing.  My work as an interim pastor is to listen carefully to people, to honor the strengths and joys that are part of the church, and to introduce strategies that will help our congregation pivot toward what people feel is God’s call. 

But remember—there is only one gospel truth—and changes I suggest must be analyzed, challenged, tested, and improved—so—I look forward to hearing back from you as we continue to serve our church.  Write me directly at jms754@gmail.com or text me to set up a time to talk face to face 217-898-3148.  That’s why I’m here.