WAYS CONGREGATIONS CAN USE OUTSIDE HELP WELL

"I'm an expert, and I'm here to help you."

Words to the Wise for Congregations
 

Over the past two decades sources of help for congregations have multiplied. Through our own consulting practices at the Alban Institute and at the Indianapolis Center for Congregations we have learned a great deal about how congregations use us well and badly. Through working with middle judicatories we have learned a great deal also about what a congregation can do to make the most of assistance from middle judicatory staff person. We offer the following list as general principles for how congregations can use well all types of outside expertise.

1. Assess your readiness. There are lots of ways a congregation should change. There are a many experiments that it would be interesting to attempt. “Should” and “I wonder if” are not enough-at least alone. To change a congregation must feel sufficient pain or hope in the right places.
   
   
2. Look for a good match. It is good that an expert be convenient, a reputation for excellence, or a designated denominational role. It is not enough. To help your congregation, the expert must be a good fit. Interview the potential outside expert, better yet, interview two. Be sure to weigh subjective factors as strongly as objective ones.
   
   
3. If money is short, allow for extra time and invest your own resources. Use your consultant only for critical pieces. Substitute your investment of time for money you might have invested in use of the outside expert. You must consider carefully which pieces the outside expert really needs to do. Investment of the congregation’s time can reduce costs and also raise investment in and understanding of the process.
   
   
4. Beware of false economies. When outside assistance doesn’t help, the reason often can be traced to the feeling that the congregation felt forced into decisions by limits of time or money. Don’t just consider the money in the budget this year or the time congregation members have this week to research a solution. Consider also the cost of not doing the work now.
   
   
5. Communicate clearly. Any time an outside expert works in a congregation it is crucial to communicate, preferably in writing what is expected, who will represent the congregation to the person doing the work, who from the congregation will be involved in the work, and who must be informed about the work. Good communication with the outside expert and within the congregation is crucial both to avoiding misunderstandings and to focusing an issue or challenge sufficiently that good work can be done.
   
   
6. Don’t expect the outside expert to do the work for you. When you are in a tough spot, the idea that outside help will solve things is wonderfully reassuring. Outside experts also have an understandable tendency to believe in their own capacities. There can be a toxic chemistry between the hopefulness of clients and the self-confidence of consultants. Consultants succeed only if the client understands the help as an invitation to do their own work.
   
   
7. Channel energy into the process. Once a process for working an issue is established, all involved must work to channel energy in that process. In a group that is working energetically, there are many temptations to allow energy to move in ways that can either drain or undermine the agreed process. As people become excited about the process, they often need to be reminded stay in touch with the original course.
   
   
8. Voice reservations-as part of the process. In any group faced with a daunting task, doubts are natural. They need to be heard and honored even when they cannot be accommodated. Participants need to guard against the tendency to feel that they are being wet blankets for voicing doubts publicly-especially if they have an intention of expressing them privately. Most insidious is the temptation to maintain “plausible deniability”-which is voicing dissent not quite loud enough to be heard but loud enough that afterwards you can say “I told you so” or “I knew it would not work.” Be sure to surface these concerns as an important part of the dialogue.
   
   
9. Make use of your other experiences-carefully. Often leaders in congregations are in a quandary about how to use well their experiences from work or other parts of their lives. When is it appropriate to use models of evaluation or models of planning from the business world or the non-profit management world? There is no easy answer to this. The best advice is to make use of all your experience in working with an outside expert. Be prepared for the fact that anything used will need to be translated and some things simply won’t translate at all.
   
   
10. Expect the best. The need for outside assistance often arises out of an experience of failure or brokenness. Even so-and especially so-it is important to move forward with a broad sense of the possible. Every consultation should look beyond the immediate challenge and ask also: How can we use this situation as an opportunity to build our capacity for the future? It is often very difficult to look past an immediate and often painful challenge. Yet great crisis and transition also open a congregation to new ways of thinking and acting. Good congregational leadership uses these moments well.

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