Leadership During Crisis: Guiding the Ship through the Storm
The Lord has made everything for His own purpose, even the wicked for a day of disaster.” Proverbs 16:4
No one could have imagined as we began the new year the challenges we would be facing in our ministries, in our relationships, our finances and our personal lives caused by the “invisible enemy” Covid-19.
I’ve been asked under the auspices of Far East Broadcasting to convene a gathering (virtually, of course!) of a dozen or so global ministry leaders. This Covid Response Partners Forum is addressing the issues and adjustments they’re being forced to make because of the Covid pandemic. All the news is not bad news. This ad hoc group think-tank of ministry leaders are discovering there’s a silver lining in the midst of all of the confusion and anxiety in our culture.
Passion and Vision
One of the leaders in our group Jan-Erik Nauman of IBRA Africa in collaboration with a number of indigenous partner ministries. According to Jan-Erik, partner ministries with a clearly defined mission along with a fervent passion for their calling are thriving. Ministries without a clear mission and half-hearted vision are seeing Covid as a disaster and they’re struggling to survive.
David Wills with National Christian Foundation and chairman of ECFA stated recently in a podcast those ministries which have built on a solid foundation of strategic funding, carefully laid-out strategy along with solid board governance and team leadership will not only survive, but thrive. Those ministries which have not built a solid financial, clear mission, land strong leadership base may not survive the crisis. Recent case studies are already bearing this out.
Audience Response
Almost every ministry leader in the group reported unprecedented response to the Gospel. Sheila Leech of FEBA in the UK said listenership has increased. And her global ministry team is working on ways to assure that growth is sustained long-term.
Jan-Erik Nauman reported more people than ever are coming to Christ. Numbers are growing by the week. More listeners are responding with direct questions about how to know Christ. International ministries are receiving more inquiries via text or email from listeners who are anxious, confused, fearful and needy. He reported 40% of inquiries result in that person accepting Christ as Savior for the first time. This added one-on-one workload has added significantly to the stress on their limited staff.
Focus on the Gospel
Given the above information, ministry leaders are re-doubling their focus on keeping the Gospel front and center in their content. Lauren Libby, CEO of TWR is challenging staff to stay on the Gospel core. Provide eternally rich content. Doug Hastings of VP for Moody Radio said they’re presenting the Gospel, presenting the plan of salvation on the air every hour. And Moody postponed their on-air fundraiser sensing it was more important to focus on ministry than raising funds.
Core Calling
This is not the time to delve into projects outside of our core mission. Ed Cannon, CEO of Far East Broadcasting stated: Stay with your singular focus. Stop doing things not core to your mission. In the process of adjusting to the “new normal”, ministries are finding they need to abandon projects and strategies that have become obsolete or are peripheral so they can refocus on their basic, foundational calling.
More Virtual, Less Face-to-Face
Various opinions are emerging regarding our dependence on Zoom and GoToMeeting. For Chuck Bentley, CEO for Crown Financial, they had already adopted the work-from-home model. So they needed almost no adjustment with the onset of the pandemic. They are now 100% remote. Productivity and creativity are definitely up. On the flip side they’re finding staff are now working longer hours, because work is at home.
Others have discovered that virtual meetings have actually increased connection with staff, partners, volunteers, and donors. One leader noted increased creativity and efficiency from partners and staff working from home away from distractions in the office. One leader has been out of the office for three months, but is actually doing more of team care from home that he did at the office. And he stated his management style has become more pastoral, less management.
Several global leaders reported doing their training seminars virtually, on-line, saving their ministry and their ministry partners (especially in high-poverty, inaccessible areas) huge amounts of funding.
Several mentioned they don’t miss the one-hour commute every morning and every night. But Ed Cannon discovered that without those15 hour international flights his “think time” has decreased, being replaced by one Zoom call after another.
Fund Raising
Covid has forever changed the way we raise funds. The era of the “chicken dinner circuit” is over. One global ministry CEO stated that getting on a plane, staying in a hotel, eating at restaurants, to meet with donors can take a whole weekend or the better part of a week. Now, he can Skype, Zoom or FaceTme a half dozens donors in a day at no cost in a fraction of the time. And even most donors express preference for this method of communication.
Crown Financial is a case in point. They have always enjoyed their annual Fall dinner with hundreds of ministry partners, meeting with them face to face, telling stories and casting vision for the ministry. This year they surveyed their donors asking whether they would prefer an in-person banquet or rather a virtual fund-raising event. They were astounded! 89% of their donors indicated they would prefer virtual. So this October Crown Financial plans to have their first virtual fund raising event. They anticipate greater attendance, videos from staff all over the world, and at practically zero cost!
Greg Thornton VP for Media at Moody reported on a partner Chicago ministry for urban children called By The Hand. BTH cancelled their expensive annual gala. In its place they held an all-day Saturday funding event that included a morning prayer time, videos from staff, and the children and families explaining how they had been impacted by their outreach in the community. it was an astounding success in storytelling, vision-casting and fund raising
One CEO said this: Donors are not interested in responding to “Help-We’re in trouble” type of appeals. His take-away line: “People want plans, not pleas!” If we clearly describe to our supporters how, during this crisis our ministry is focused on the core mission, they WILL respond. In fact, a number of our think-tank team indicated even with the lessened face-to-face contact, donations are up 12%!
Isn’t it just like God to turn turmoil and tragedy into opportunity and triumph!
Allocation of Resources
Ministries are saving tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars from cancelled flights and increased travel restrictions. As a result there’s an incredible opportunity to re-allocate spending to more ministry. FEBC cancelled plans for their leadership team gathering and 75th anniversary celebration in the Philippines. Cancelling airfares, accommodations, meals and other meeting expenses for 200 people achieved a six-figure savings. They have now re-allocated those funds to help hurting partner ministries in Indonesia, Philippines, India, Bangladesh who are suffering because of the pandemic. And donors have responded enthusiastically when they hear of the reallocation from admin costs and travel to expanded ministry opportunities.
Tim Whitehead, executive director of Galcom is allocating funds normally used for global travel and doing buying more advertising on Facebook and Google. Because of cutbacks on advertising by many companies, ad rates on social media are cheap. It’s a good time to be buying social media advertising.
Shorter, More Frequent Communication
Chuck Bentley has utilized input from his “under 35” staff to help reshape how they communicate. The young staff has said we need 10X more content and 1/10 the length. Crown is now using social media to capture more daily engagement and soliciting feedback on their content projects. That allows more frequent contact with listeners and partners.
In fact, several leaders on our team stressed using shorter, more frequent connections. That applies to print messaging as well. Supporters are more apt to read a concise one-page report than an extensive eight-page newsletter, which they may likely put aside in the “maybe later” file.
Greg Thornton has turned his creative Moody Publishing staff loose to create more and shorter content, and even creating free e-books.
Greg told an amazing, insightful story. Gary Chapman is a top selling author. Every weekend Gary is on the road presenting his 8 hour 5 Love Languages seminar to married couples in cities across the nation. Now, with limited travel and gathering opportunities, Gary and Moody have produced a 2-hour virtual video Strengthen Your Marriage seminar. That 2 hour virtual seminar was attended by more couples than attended the whole year with the on-site model!
Lauren Libby, CEO of TWR said: “The church has left the building.” Somewhere along in history, the word “church” has come to mean a building. Jesus made it clear, so did Paul, that the church is NOT a building. Church is the people, the ecclesia, the “called out ones.” Lauren’s church in Cary North Carolina with a normal weekend attendance of 8,000 now has 25,000 weekly virtual attendees. Our church in Colorado Springs is now going to “huddles” or smaller groups of believers meeting together at various venues including homes and parks. Sounds like the first century church. Or like most churches around the world.
Real Estate vs. At Home
A number of CEO’s are finding that having a large corporate office is no longer necessary. Staff are experiencing greater flexibility, higher efficiency, more creativity, higher job satisfaction working from home. Yes, some miss the chats, the coffee breaks, the personal connection of being physically together. One leader expressed concern that some employees have adopted a kind of “vacation” mentality. His organization found a need to tighten expectations and policies related to remote work.
Zoom actually did a study which showed efficiency actually increased 40% when people were working remotely. The research also indicated greater job satisfaction, less stress, greater longevity without the daily time spent commuting to an office.
One of our members is seriously questioning the need for a large corporate office. They are instead looking at ways to segment staff into smaller work groups while maintaining a much smaller office for financial and development functions. Selling the building and re-allocating funds for reserves or expansion seems to make a lot of sense.
In home, remote or at the office? What will it be? I’m guessing it will be some new kind of hybrid of the the best of both worlds.
Dr. Alan Cureton, president of University of Northwestern-St. Paul said: Stay true to your mission. But adjust applications to your mission. Will Northwestern stay with on-line learning, or will students return to the classroom? More likely it will be some sort of hybrid.
Take-away Bottom Line
Are we all making decisions outside our comfort zone? Yes! Leaders are finding it increasingly challenging to make decisions in these uncertain, ambiguous times. One leader said: “We’re learning from our mistakes.” I quote the book of Proverbs says: “The prudent carefully consider their steps. The wise are cautious and avoid danger.” Proverbs 14:15,16
How many of these adjustments are temporary? How many will be permanent? Some mentioned their staff’s growing desire to be physically together. Others have said we’ll never go back to how we did things a year ago. Alan Cureton said: The virus is not going away. How do we handle a Covid resurgence? How do we live with it long term? In our budgeting we need to define a new paradigm to live on 1 year’s revenue for 2 years expenses.
So what! Now what?
We will continue to meet more frequently using virtual meetings.
We will make greater use of digital, interactive, virtual tools for communication.
We will reallocate spending on vast amounts on travel costs.
We will re-examine benefits of owning or leasing a large corporate office.
We will adopt shorter, more concise, more frequent communication models.
We will stay focused on our core mission.
We will stop doing things NOT core to the mission.
We will keep the Gospel front and center in our content.
We will make use of virtual tools to connect with more donors more frequently.
We will not measure activity or hours. rather measure results.
We will allow younger creative staff more input into ministry operations.
We will view this season as opportunity to create long-term contingency plans.
And we do know this:
Leaders must lead with calmness, clarity, speed, and steadiness in crisis times.
Leaders must acknowledge the uncertain, the ambiguous, the “I don’t know”.
Leaders cannot be territorial. We must collaborate and coordinate.
Leaders must work with resources we have, not what we don’t have.
Leaders have to be creative, flexible, transparent, decisive.
Leaders have to prioritize what’s crisis and what’s not.
Leaders have to keep a plan for the immediate AND the long-term.
I’m finding the book of Proverbs exceptionally relevant to ministry leadership these days. In an ambiguous, uncertain culture, we need to seek God’s combination of knowledge, wisdom, understanding, insight, discernment. God promises in James 1 that when we humbly ask for God’s wisdom He will give it.
“The prudent understand where they are going.” Proverbs 14:8
For sure, that’s where we go from here! “
Wayne Pederson
Executive Liaison
Far East Broadcasting
