Command & Control and Prime Time Churches

"I think the Web lives an always Prime Time model. I think older channels, like television, still think they control what is Prime Time."

Mitch Joel of Twist Image

It's the end of the world as we know it --and, I feel fine!

The sky is falling!

Chicken Little

The landscape under our feet is shifting & shakin and rockin & rollin' but the sky is definitely not falling -- at least not today.

I'm 4 months into the full-on Launch of Phos Hilaron Church and most of the time it's total blast because we get to think about what we're doing in new ways and ask important BIG QUESTIONS about why we do what we do in churches and about where 'church in America' is going. Thus, where we need to be trekking on our journey with God to bring the Great News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to life in their lives.

I spent 3 years of hard study and prayer and near desperate attempts to get God to quit bugging me about launching Phos Hilaron Church. In that study time I learned that the church in America is being 'de-centered' and pushed to the fringes of society. I think a partial reason that many push back on Christian Churches these days is because so many of our churches are based on Command and Control and there's an inherent distrust of that mode of operation among the American public overall. When people sniff command and control in a setting they catch a deep visceral sense that somethings amiss and they run for cover like seeking shelter from a frayed power line whipping & sparking on a wet side road after a thunder storm. Yet, most churches run on a command and control model that would make General Patton proud.

The challenge is that most churches don't know that they've been de-centered and still try to play as if they control all the chips in the game and that they get to 'broker God' to the masses. They operate as if God is only available at our fine retail establishment -- aka 'our church building' --where we'll dispense a little God to you in return for some of your time, attention & cash. But, we'll dole Him out to you, hungering peasant, when we want and how we want.

Now these ideas of 'brokering God', 'de-centered church' and 'command and control' all work together. Overall we in the Church Leadership Positions haven't figured out that 'God has left the building' a long time ago and He's out dancing in the streets with real people who are encountering Him whenever and wherever they choose. That is, He insists on doing what He wants when He wants with whom He wants through whatever medium He wants -- He simply won't allow us to 'broker' Him. It's a seismic shift from the 'Communism Model of Chruch' where the Clergy decide when, where, and how the peasants will get some God to a web empowered people who can get what they want when they want it in whatever size, shape and color they want it NOW. This shift is more hugemongous than we can imagine.

I was in Poland a few years ago and I was mesmerized by the Poles who were running out of the shadows of command and control communism into the bright free sunlight of the Online world. I've never met people who knew how to get more from a laptop over the Internet than these bright people. Their pent up hunger, almost desperation. for 'more' of everything, pushes them to leverage the Internet in bold new ways to deliver the goods that they seek. God is on the loose in the world with a power that dwarfs what the Internet is bringing to people and He's been 'online' for all of eternity and his 'Universe Wide Web' (UWW, not just WWW, is a massive tome waiting to be mined!) is available to all -- whether they ever come to our 'church' (aka, building)! This is HUGE and demands our immediate attention. We must change NOW rapidly.

We, in the Church business, face the same challenge that the Network Television Industry does. We can no longer dictate when 'Prime Time' is nor how people will 'consume' our product. So, the quote that I opened this blog with reminded me of what we wrestled with in early 2007 at JAVA--my favorite Coffee shop so far. (Although, I really like LaVida Java a lot, too / conversely not a big 'Bucks fan because they don't offer free wi-fi which is the bread of life for a nomadic church starter !)

Our core launch team wrestled with the notion of buiding a church for 2017, not just for 2007 and we realized that we're up against an incredible task -- like racing across shifting sand barefoot in a sandstorm. The terrain is being shifted by wind and seismic forces that have been pent up for decades at least while we try to navigate back to 'center' so we can set up shop and dictate the game via a 'command & control' model. The reality is that there is really no more 'center' for us in the Church world just like there's no more 'Prime Time' for Network Television. The best they & we can do is try to garner market share from an increasingly multiplexed consumer who holds all the 'attention' cards in her/his hand.

I think American Idol is getting this right -- they've got a show that does garner feverish 'prime-time' behavior AND they also allow people access to much of their content online so that people can consume the show in a variety of ways. Plus, they allow the audience to participate in what's going on by voting for contestants, thus giving the 'Wii' Generations a way to play along. Now, at Phos Hilaron Church, we're wondering how to do the same sorts of things -- allow people to 'consume' what we're producing in a variety of ways --both in 'Prime Time' settings (Sundays at 10 AM at Tinseltown in Springhurst a couple of Sundays a month and throughout the community the other Sundays doing Service Worship & Parable Worship Experiences) and via the web. We're working hard to produce live Worship experience that go beyond just consuming another worship experience (the # 1 hobby of the average American consumer-Christian), but we've got a long way to go. The good news is we're asking some tough questions about why we do what we do and how we can morph consumers into contributors and spectators into participators (thanks Rick Warren and the P.E.A.C.E. Plan for some great ways to think about this). ,

Some things we're always wondering are things like this....
-how we can help our people be a part of Worship experience rather than just watch the 'professional Christians' worship for them?
-how can we invite participation rather than just spectation (is that a word?)
-how can we allow the people of Phos Hilaron Church to collaborate in building the worship experience?
-how can we invite people to share in our experiences via the web -- and, not just how they can download a podcast of our worship event, rather, how we can empower a collaborative learning network of wanna-be Apprentices of Jesus?

And, these notions, force me as the point-leader to always question Command and Control and it begs me to share power and to allow others to play along and to participate --not just to watch me and consume what I'm 'preaching'. Some days I'm better at this than others!

So, in an always ON/Non-PrimeTime world where people can TiVo most experiences of their lives how can we, in the church-business, continue to engage participators and not just passify consumers?

At Phos Hilaron Church we're wrestling with these issues moment by moment and we're building a 'high-participation' model by asking people to worship in new, more participatory ways like Service Worship Experiences. And, it's risky, because Consumer-Christians have a hard time shifting from spectating to playing. But, we believe that the 'Wii' Generations want to be 'in the game' rather than watch the game, so we're choosing to race after P.O.W.s and M.I.A.s who need church to allow them to participate & contribute rather than just consumer another mash-up of songs, prayers, & preaching.

We're tinkering, toying, and plowing new ground so pray for us that we'll have stamina and resources for the Westward Expansion needed to help the Church in America move along on shifting sand.

We're leaning into 2017 as we build out Phos Hilaron Church and I've got to tell you that God has provisioned this journey in miraculous ways over and over again. (yes, there have been some sleepless nites for a few of us as we've wondered if we can pay the bills one more time and every single time, right on time, God has given us just what we need) WOW, what a ride.

De-Centered, recovering command and control leader, on a mission from God! (Blues Brothers)

Have a great day!
Jeff Fuson

p.s. One of the most excellent resources that helped me begin to think about this was Reggie McNeal's work called "Present Future". I read the book and then our Core Launch Team for Phos Hilaron Church studied the Present Future DVD series. This got a lot of the academic stuff and theological stuff that was pounding on my heart into a format that people with a lot less time and energy for that sort of thing could get and take action on quickly. Big KUDDOS to Reggie McNeal for a fine piece of work that brings a lot of Theology, Demography, and other 'ologies' into an actionable package.