I never thought I would write a blog post with a title, “How VUCA is Impacting Your Church and What You Can Do About It!” VUCA? What is that? I first heard about the term reading Blackbaud Institutes new study entitled, “The Next Generation of American Giving.” Here is a direct quote from that study…
Amidst the political turmoil, economic uncertainty, biblical-scale natural disasters, widening gap between rich and poor, and the dizzying explosion of social media, each of us,
predictably, ages exactly one day every 24 hours. No more, no less. Military planners call our new reality ‘VUCA,’ short for ‘volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous.’
VUCA. Doesn’t that sum up what we are experiencing on an almost daily basis? My Southern Baptist and Methodist clients will say an Amen to VUCA being a reality. In truth all of us in the Church world are experiencing VUCA. We are facing more complex issues than ever before. We have seen attendance continue to fall. Giving to the Church continues to decline and the next generations of Americans are giving less proportionally than their grandparents and parents. We are already in troubling times and it looks like more trouble is brewing.
The question we are all scratching our heads about is what can we do about it? Here are my thoughts…
Keep the main thing the main thing! I know this is a trite statement. Yet it is true. One of my clients recently wrote this…
“I have discovered that like Peter, when my gaze is fixed upon the waves I begin to sink but when my eyes are focused upon Jesus, I begin to walk in miraculous hope! I believe the best hope for our region, our state, our nation and our world rests in the church being the church! And for the church to exert influence in our manic culture, we must get our eyes focused upon our savior, our mission, our present and our future!”
Basically this pastor is saying to his church, we are going to stay the course. Your churches mission is still the same as it has always been. The Apostle Paul did not fold up his tent because he lived in a godless society with a government working against him. He simply continued to preach Jesus and make disciples.
Be aware of what is happening and how this is impacting your church and community. In my comments above I am not suggesting that you ignore what is happening around us. We MUST be current and up to date on how our target audience thinks, feels and processes information. That is why studies on current trends in giving are so important. If you have not already read the Blackbaud report you can download your own version here, Blackbaud Study
One of the key findings of this report, which should not surprise us, is that The Greatest Generation is in its sunset years. They helped build our churches but now in retirement their giving impact is much diminished. The challenge for us is to connect to the next generations. Here is a key quote from the Blackbaud study about this…
It’s also worth noting that the current philanthropy infrastructure, along with its best practices, strategies, and methods, was built for this generation. As new generations become dominant among givers, it is increasingly important to reconsider whether the founding assumptions that give rise to philanthropy as we know it still hold.
Evaluate everything. We serve in perhaps the most change adverse institution on the planet. While we might not all be Calvinists the vast majority of churches believe that once a program is started it cannot lose its place. How much of what we do is simply out of date and out of step? If what you continue to do is not working then it is time to do something different. This is especially true when it comes to making sure our churches are fully funded. Newer generations process information differently from previous ones. We need to find how best to communicate our message in the day and age we live in.
The church that survives into the future is the church that plans today for tomorrow! We must realize that our methodology changes constantly but NOT our message. Our message, the Good News, is always relevant. Yet how we communicate that message is rapidly changing. We must use today’s technology and tools to communicate that message of hope. We can’t keep doing what we have always been doing and expect the same results.
VUCA is here and it will not go away. You can’t change that. However you can change how you react to VUCA. It might be time to start working a new way!
Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach