With more than 37 years experience serving in staff and other positions, Skip Fendley has learned a thing or two about what makes churches tick.
He has been a minister of youth, of education and of music at various churches in his career, and has served as an interim and associate pastor. And as head of church programs at First Baptist Church in Hendersonville, N.C., Fendley often has occasion to call upon that experience.
As if that weren't enough, Fendley recently added another title to his resume: church consultant.
He joins a growing number of church leaders who attend advanced training seminars and courses that help position them as experts in areas such as church health and church growth.
While the demand for church consultants is on the rise  one estimate suggests demand has more than doubled in the last two years  only a handful of organizations offer such training.
Among them are Easum, Bandy and Associates, the Alban Institute, The Church Doctor and Church Central Associates.
Church Central Associates, in cooperation with The Rainer Group, headed by church health expert Dr. Thom Rainer, has emerged as a leader in church consultant training. (ChurchCentral.com is owned by Church Central Associates)
Fendley is one of more than 170 church leaders trained in at least the first of five levels offered by Church Central. At $395 per level, not including travel and lodging expenses, the training comes at no small cost to those who attend.
Regardless of the money and time spent, a large number take advantage of the more advanced seminars offered. Fendley is one of nearly 50 primed to complete the fifth and final level of training for church consultant certification conveyed by Church Central and The Rainer Group.
"I pretty much used up my conference money for the year," Fendley said. "But I feel like it is an investment."
Not only will the churches with which he consults benefit from the training, his church will also.
"I'll use it in my every day ministry as well," he said.
What's Involved?
Church consultant programs typically focus on training leaders to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a church and how to offer recommendations for improvement.
In the case of Church Central, for example, emphasis is placed on such things as planning and goal setting, outreach and evangelism, assimilation, facilities analysis, leadership effectiveness, and ministry staff alignment among others.
Each level of training delves deeper into the mechanics of consulting so students can accurately identify growth barriers. They are taught to analyze statistical, congregational and financial data and to help churches develop a strategic plan for strengthening weaknesses and building upon successes.
Sandy Eastlick, a Tampa, Fla.-based church consultant, said the advanced levels (levels 3-5) are well worth the extra time and money because the training helps students gain a level of expertise church leaders would expect from a consultant charging a fee ranging from between $40 to $150 an hour.
"The primary message of Level 3 is to gather information from diverse sources to gain a complete and accurate perspective of issues confronting a church," Eastlick said. "Level 4's value is in the various ways to communicate an understanding of the issues, proposing an agreeable approach to study the issues and the recommended solutions to resolve the problem issues."
What's in It for Consultants?
Much of the training per level offered by Church Central  a full day per level  is taught
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-- Skip Fendley, |
I feel like the credentials I have now, as someone who has been trained by the Rainer Group, are as good as you get. It brings a whole level of credibility to what I want to do to assist churches.
Dr. Charles Lawless, also of Southern Seminary, and Dr. Glen Martin of Community Baptist Church in Manhattan Beach, Calif., teach the seminars as well.
Fendley said the training he received gives him a degree of credibility in the eyes of church leaders he might otherwise lack.
"I feel like the credentials I have now, as someone who has been trained by the Rainer Group, are as good as you get. It brings a whole level of credibility to what I want to do to assist churches," he said. "Nobody does it better or knows more about what's going on in the lives of churches today than Thom Rainer."
Eugene McCormick, African American ministries director for the Jacksonville (Fla.) Baptist Association, said even the most veteran church leader can gain from the training.
"Consultant training is a tremendous complement to the practical experience gained from prior ministry involvement because it gives definition to prior experiences and provides a solid framework for handling future consultant opportunities," said McCormick, who is currently completing the fifth level of training, involving a field evaluation by Rainer.
What it also gives consultants is access to Rainer's Church Health Survey, a tool that assesses a congregation's perception of their church as it relates to the six purposes of the church outlined in Acts 2: 42-48: worship, discipleship, fellowship, prayer, ministry and evangelism.
That diagnostic tool, one of only two widely used to measure church health, consists of a 160-item questionnaire that is completed by a minimum 15 percent of the congregation. Their responses are then analyzed and a 50-page report is generated from the responses. The survey allows consultants to bring something fresh and tangible to the consultation table.
"It's given me something specific to base (evaluations) on," said Dr. Henry S. "Sandy" Beck III, director of missions for the Carolina Baptist Association. "It seems to me the church is so much more participatory in the whole process. You can sit down with the pastor or pastoral staff and say, ‘Here's what it shows. Here are some possible directions you can go.' They end up, really, doing it. You don't do it for them; you just give them a lot of different choices."
What's in It for Churches?
Churches benefit from consulting because leaders can obtain an objective opinion from a trained, professional onlooker who can look more deeply into the church body. A consultant can detect and help correct conditions that cause current manifestations of poor church health or reveal conditions that could lead to future unhealthiness.
"You can look at things differently and if you are tactful enough, you can just show it to them. It's amazing," said Beck, whose association includes 63 churches. "They generally respond positively. They generally say, ‘I've never thought of that.'"
The decision to bring in a consultant can be the result of proactive, forward thinking.
"Since no church is lacking in opportunities to improve, the proactive pastor looks for these opportunities, often with the aide of a church consultant," said Eastlick.
More often, though, most churches bring in a consultant to quench fires that may have
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-- The Rev. Deron Cobb, |
The Rev. Deron Cobb, senior pastor of Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn., said he brought in a consultant to evaluate his 166-year-old church because he wanted to find out why membership experienced a period of growth, only to plateau and later decline.
Cobb, who has only pastored the church for about 18 months, suspected the church suffered because they focused inwardly and became complacent.
"We needed a consultant to come in and say to the congregation, ‘You are here to attract people who are outside of the kingdom and not just to make each other feel good and hold each other's hand when you are hurting,'" he said. "Sometimes a pastor needs somebody besides himself to say that."
Sometimes what consultants say may not be what a pastor wants to hear.
"They can be objective and painfully honest," Cobb said. "They've seen hundreds of churches and they can use the statistics and the resources to point out, ‘This is where you are on the Bell curve of a church's life.'"
From McCormick's point of view, pastors like Cobb demonstrate a keen understanding that they sometimes need a fresh set of eyes and a helping hand.
"When a pastor or other church leaders are willing to bring in an outsider to consult with their church, it shows their willingness to accept constructive admonishment," McCormick said. "It also signals their realization that the ministry doesn't belong to them, but to God."
