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What To Do During Merger Talks
Here are a few more thoughts:
- Leaders should keep the discussion confidential until they agree uniting is best. If the leaders aren’t sure, involving lots of people from the church body will not likely lead to anything good.
- During the discussion phase, each church should do its due diligence. You’ll want to uncover any landmines before going public with the plans. It is better for one or both leadership groups to walk away than to involve the whole church in a failed merger attempt.
- Each church should be willing to “walk away.” If at any point the majority of the top leaders aren’t on board, it would be wise not to move forward. A public, and failed merger, is generally painful for everyone—especially if one church has already been struggling.
- If the stronger church doesn’t believe they can truly help the weaker one and serve them with integrity, the stronger church should not move forward. I’ve seen stronger church leaders make unrealistic promises all in an attempt to get a building from a struggling church. Remember—it is not all about buildings! It is all about people! (We have declined far more merger possibilities than we’ve accepted because we didn’t think it would be in the best interest of the other church.)
- Once the leaders reach an agreement, I suggest one or two public meetings. We’ll go into detail about this meeting(s) tomorrow.
Thoughts or questions…
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when I was in serious talks with LifeChurch.tv about the merger/adoption, I had one in one meetings with my top leaders and Elders. Then I had a meeting with all of the leaders together.
At the same time, LifeChurch.tv was doing a full investigation on the opportunity to see if it was the right fit. Once the leaders were on board and both churches had a full understanding of the merger implications, then we had 2 church meetings.
If you have any questions about these steps in the process, then ask away. Like Craig said, I’ll talk more about the meetings on Thursday.
Josh, Thanks for sharing some of the “behind the scenes” info. Even more important to me than all the leadership steps we walked through together was the “God-moment” we had that Saturday night a couple of years ago. I’ll remember that one forever.
This is something we are seriously praying about right now. We are a one and half year old church and we want to maximize our effectiveness. We want to do whatever we can to reach people for Christ. There is too much a risk not to do whatever we can to reach people. I want to stand before God one day knowing I lead my church to maximum effectivness, not wasting what he has given us or neglecting a partnership with another church that may be God ordained.
Thanks for the posts this week. They have inspired me, informed, and moved me to take next steps. It will be exciting to see what God does in the days and weeks ahead.
For all those reading this week, don’t let the hurdles to maximizing your church stop you from seeking what God may have for your church. We serve an amazing God that wants to work in ways we may have never thought.
This is good stuff Craig, keep it coming! I am looking at two possible opportunities and this is really helping.
Our first exposure to LifeChurch was a trip that my wife and I took with one of our Elders and his wife.
Several months later, after much prayer I went to the Elder team and told them that I needed their help in either pursuing a partnership with LifeChurch or helping me put it to bed. It was becoming a distraction to my teaching and leading.
They were more than willing to help so I suggested we take a trip to Oklahoma together and investigate. About 6 weeks later we had our first LifeChurch.tv Experience in Wellington.
As Craig points out, Josh and Larry both had the essential ingredient to a merger…they both heard clearly from God on it. As with anything, leaders can push through when they know God is confirming the direction to them personally and to other leaders involved in the merger talks.
Brian—the only clarity I/elders had was that we needed to take this opportunity to the church membership, our bylaws said that this decision was theirs. I told the membership that they needed to pray and fast as all I was told by God was to bring this opportunity to you. I had no guarantee from God that this would go through or that I would not lose my postition at this church, but I did know that no matter what, our church would not be the same having gone through this process.
What was the “God moment”??????
I’m with Jared what was the God Moment that finally sealed the deal for you both parties that this indeed was the Fathers plan & purpose?
I’m with Jared what was the God Moment that finally sealed the deal for both parties that this indeed was the Fathers plan & purpose?
It is a long story, but I’ll try to keep it short.
Josh was in town visiting on a Saturday night. I didn’t meet him for some reason After the experiences, he asked God that if this was His will, that we’d meet. At about that same moment, I was driving home and decided to try to meet Josh.
I found out what hotel he was staying in and waited for him in the lobby. In over 12 years of pastoring, I’ve always driven straight home on Saturdays. That night Amy “happened” to be busy so I took the time to run Josh down. Once we compared notes, we were convinced God arranged the meeting.
Just a couple of thoughts. I agree with Greg on one point. A couple of years ago we tried to merge the congrgation I serve with another one. Ours was thriving, theirs was dying. We took too much time. We did picnics together, socials, all kinds of stuff for a year. Too long. There were some leaders at the other congregation who did not share our core values- it gave them time to entrench. It also gave a couple of our leaders who did not want to move time to offend some members from the other congregation. Out of 400 people involved, there were probably a total of 6 who were against the merger. We gave those six time to wreck the whole thing. Secondly, my business background tells me one a business has failed on a site, it is very difficult for any other business to be successful on the site. I don’t think congregations are any different. If two failing congregations merge it should be onto a new site. I’ve thought for a long time about partnering between congregations, but am not even sure what I mean. I haven’t had time to think through it. I know Mike Slaughter was trying some of it for a while. Final thought, from a human perspective when merging a strong and a weak congregation you need to give the weak congregation the opportunity to save face, without allowing them to continue in their “sin”. (I think many times when a congregation has become weak there is sin involved.)
Interesting! I have been doing work regarding the issue of churches collaborating with non profits for the purpose of community development. Some of the points you bring up are relevant to building strong and effective collaborations. I have found it difficult for churches to work together and to get along. In many communities it would seem that for congregations to merge and work together there can be a greater impact.
In preparation I find there needs to be discussion on the non-negotiable that a church has. What are those things that there is no compromise on. Obviously the list must be short. If it is long that is a sign that merging or collaborating will be very difficult.