Bobette Baber has used her experience as a church financial administrator to help other congregations put their financial records and procedures in order.
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Level 1 Church Consultant Training Among the areas covered during the one-day conference are:
The training, which costs $395 per person, includes a free Church Health Survey for use in one church (a $320 value) and a training manual. The participants can recoup most of their training fee by selling the Church Health Survey package. Graduates of the Level 1 Church Consultant Training can become agent consultants for Church Central Associates for an additional $345. The consultant then earns $100 for every Church Health Survey he or she sells for $320. |
While Baber is adamant about church leaders being good stewards of financial resources, she wants to advise churches in other areas, too.
"The church is a whole package," she said. "If we want healthy churches, we have to address a number of issues."
Baber was one of 17 church leaders attending Church Central Associate's Level 1 Church Consultant Training Sept. 5 in Louisville, Ky. Participants in the one-day course learned how to administer the Church Health Survey and help churches build on their strengths and improve their weaknesses.
The survey, a tool developed in 1994 by church consultant Thom Rainer, measures a congregation's perceptions in six key areas: worship, evangelism, discipleship, ministry, prayer and fellowship. (See related story: Church Health Survey helps staff determine congregations' perceptions)
"We live in a day when the church has never been unhealthier," said Rainer, president of Church Central Associates, ChurchCentral.com's publisher. "Over half the churches that contact me don't even know their symptoms. They don't know what it is that is keeping them from reaching the unchurched."
Rainer, who also serves as dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wants to see churches grow.
The church consultant's role, he said, is to be an outside observer, pinpointing areas a church can improve.
The consultation
Church consultants should think of themselves as physicians, Rainer said. Some consultants will specialize in particular areas, but a comprehensive consultation -- covered in-depth during various levels of the church consultant training -- covers the following areas:
- Finance;
- Planning/goal setting;
- Growth barriers;
- Outreach/evangelistic approaches;
- Community analysis;
- Mission/vision;
- Assimilation effectiveness;
- Perceptions/attitudes;
- Data and statistical analysis;
- Small group/Sunday school;
- Worship issues;
- Leadership effectiveness;
- Prayer emphasis;
- Missions;
- Personnel issues;
- Programming/ministries analysis;
- Facilities analysis;
- Denominational issues; and,
- Ministry staff alignment.
Jim Shaw examined many of those areas when he became pastor of Mill Creek Baptist Church in 1990. Shaw said the Radcliff, Ky., church is healthy, noting more than 800 people have accepted Christ as their personal Savior there in the last 12 years.
"It doesn't end there, of course," Shaw said. "Churches have to be in a mode of continuous improvement, continuous outreach. I think the reason so many people are unchurched is that they've been once."
Shaw wants to take what he's learned from his own congregation and help other churches. As moderator of the Severns Valley Baptist Association, Shaw said the consultant training and the Church Health Survey provide diagnostic tools he can use with churches under his leadership.
"I know the problems my own church has faced, and we can make generalizations about other churches," he said, "but having a tool that can help us pinpoint areas of strength or weakness is key. It gives the church something substantial to work with."
Becoming a consultant
According to Rainer's research, just 4 percent of America's 400,000 churches were willing to hire a consultant five years ago. Today nearly 10 percent are looking for help, he said. He expects more churches to seek consultation in the next few years.
"Very few church consultants can earn a full-time livelihood," said Rainer, who has consulted more than 400 churches. "Church consultants do the job because we are mandated to reach people for Christ."
Additional levels of training will be offered beginning in 2003, Rainer said. The final level of training, Level 5, requires a full consultation process at a local church, including writing a final report for the congregation. Participants will work one-on-one with a Church Central instructor during the process.
The next Level 1 training is scheduled for Nov. 8 at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
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Additional Church Consultant Training Additional levels of church consultation training will be scheduled beginning in 2003. They include: Level 2 (Intermediate):
Level 3 (Advanced):
Level 4 (Superior):
Level 5 (Comprehensive): This level of training requires a full consultation process at a local church, including writing a final report for the congregation. Participants will work one-on-one with a Church Central instructor during the process. |
