The Power of Ownership

In this discussion about making what matters, matter in a church it is essential that we talk about how the attendees feel about the church. The fact is their feelings and the resultant contribution they make will determine the impact of it.

For years churches have labored to engender strong feelings in people for their church. Two things have been emphasized: assimilation and membership. Assimilation is simply the process for creating more and more connection between the attendee and the church. It is the church's version of matriculation. And then membership is seen as the goal of assimilation. When they join, the conventional wisdom is that they are completely assimilated.

There is an inherent weakness that I have seen played out over and over again. The number of members a church has hardly represents how a church is doing. Members are among those who quit coming, leave for another church, never serve, never give, cause dissension, etc. Churches have attempted to resolve this by making membership more clear and the requirements more heavy. This does not solve the problem because members still do what they want to do. Apparently being a member does not generate the kind of passion and commitment that one would think. I do not really believe the problem is membership however--I think the problem is assimilation.

First of all I don't even like the word, assimilation. It reminds me of the Borg from Star Trek. Who wants to disappear into a cold, lifeless machine as some invisible cog? I think we have incorrectly looked at assimilation as mostly relational. If they have friends at our church we see them as assimilated. But having a friend in an organization does not create a passion for the organization. It is simply a playground.

Now people certainly need friends and the church needs the people to have friendships too. But this does not directly advance the organization. If those friends however share a passion for the church and that passion is focused on certain common goals and vision then you have something truly powerful.

I think real power is found when people feel not like members or even partners, but like owners. The way someone treats a rental car or house vs. their own car or house illustrates the difference. The transition that must occur to really see people acting with great commitment and passion is get people not to feel like they belong to the church but to feel like the church belongs to them. Let's talk about how we can do that in the next few days...the power of ownership.