By Kevin Ford

“I’m so frustrated,” Pastor Bill groaned. “Seems like every new idea I bring to the table gets shot down. We are living in a new era. Our neighborhood has changed. The demographics are not what they were when this church was founded twenty years ago. We are living in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood. But look at our church. We are 97% white! And the elders and old-timers just balk every time I mention needing to add a Spanish service, or teach ESL classes. I’m at the end of my rope here!”

Sound familiar? Pastor Bill had hired us to develop a strategic plan primarily because he had not been able to generate support for a new direction. As he explained his situation to me, I concurred. Yes, they were in the midst of a huge demographic swing. Yes, the church needed to become more Hispanic-friendly. No, the members were not supporting his ideas. He was stuck. He had the right ideas – but the wrong approach. Pastor Bill had failed to pay attention to the most significant issue in this entire process: the church’s code.

Defining Code
Every organization in the world has its own unique code. Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, school boards, mom-and-pop shops, and churches – they all have a code. By code, I mean the essence or soul of that organization. The code of any organization can usually be captured in a handful of words of short phrases. The code of an organization really has nothing to do with the organization’s mission, purpose, or industry. For example, consider the fast food industry. All fast food restaurants do virtually the same thing – they sell mediocre food quickly and inexpensively. But look at the differences between the codes of each fast food restaurant (see chart).

Code in the Fast Food Industry
McDonalds - Consistency and Kids
Burger King - Customization
Subway - Healthy and Fresh
Taco Bell - Cheap
Arby’s - Grown-ups
Krispy Kreme - Decadence

Think about this. Each of these restaurants is in the same industry, they compete for similar customers, they draw from the same employee pool – but their personalities are very different. Taco Bell was the first to introduce the value menu – remember those 39 cent tacos? High school kids would order 10 at a time! And Subway has made a fortune off of one guy who lost a lot of weight eating Subway sandwiches every day. And before anyone knew what fast food was, McDonalds sold us on the idea that we could walk into a restaurant in Des Moines and it would be no different from a restaurant in New York. Krispy Kreme makes no bones about the fact that you will gain weight just by looking at one of their doughnuts. But that is part of their code – a little indulgence every now and then is good for the soul. And when we want to indulge, we don’t look for 7 grams of fat or less at Subway. We go to Krispy Kreme and down 4 or 5 doughnuts in a couple of bites. Each of these restaurants has a clearly defined code. And that code makes them unique from others in their industry.

The problem with code is that, over time, an industry begins to develop a code. The genetic DNA of the prominent players within that industry begins to merge. Pretty soon, they all look the same. Think of McDonalds. Forty years ago, consistency was a novel approach to restaurant management. Today, all fast food restaurants employ a strategy of consistency – its become part of the industry code. And now McDonalds is floundering in a lack of identity and unable to differentiate itself. When Taco Bell introduced the value menu, they were mavericks. Now McDonalds, Burger King, Hardees, and many others have followed suit. As identities become diluted, customers become apathetic. Organizations must constantly look at their code – and understand their code as unique from the industry.

And that’s where the modern American church has experienced problems. The average American has no clue what makes one church different from another, or one denomination different from another. Sure, the insiders can distinguish the theological differences between the ELCA and LCMS, or the PCA from the PC/USA. But theological distinctions do not constitute code. Code is not about beliefs. It is about personality. It is about identity. It is about who we are. The average American thinks “church” in very stereotypical terms. Face it – most of our churches get lumped in with what the media portrays. That is our “industry” code.

But a healthy, productive and successful church is built upon a clear guiding and distinctive code. Every church has a code. Very few have taken the time to discover it. What makes your church different from the church down the street? What makes your church’s code different from the codes of the prominent teaching churches such as Willow Creek, Saddleback, and the Community Church of Joy? What makes your code unique within your own denomination?

Code is based on archetypes. It is based on intuitive responses that individuals have to certain symbols. Most BMW drivers have similar responses to the code of BMW. They don’t buy cars for fuel efficiency or cost. There is something deep within their personality that resonates with the code of BMW. And that’s why they don’t buy Hondas. As church leaders, we must ask “why do people choose our church?” I’d bet that the majority of your members do not choose your church for theology. We make significant life decisions based on intuition – not reason. But then most of us have learned to use reason to justify our decisions after the fact. We don’t choose our spouse based on reason. Our personal code attracts us to others who have similar codes. Your members have chosen your church because they are attracted to your church’s code – even if you haven’t yet discovered it.

The code shapes church culture, values, focus, and mission. It creates the core ideology. It creates a context for vision and strategy to emerge. It shapes the stories we tell, the rituals we observe, the unspoken rules we follow. It is crucial that all the people in the organization be committed to a healthy code. The code sets the direction for all the members of the church. It is the church’s lodestar or compass point. The code keeps everyone in the "boat" rowing in sync and in the same direction. When the code is clear and every member buys into it, allying himself or herself with that code, then the entire church pulls together. When a few people lack commitment to the code--either because they don't grasp it or because they actively disagree with it--you have people rowing out of sync and in the wrong direction. Before long, the "boat" is going around in circles instead of moving forward. Most change initiatives in churches, like Pastor Bob’s, fail for one reason: the pastors and leaders ignore the church’s code. The vast majority of member turnover is due to a mismatch between church code and personal code. By cracking the code, a church unlocks the power of its people, its ministries, and its services. And only then can the church experience true transformation.

Cracking Your Code
Code is usually shaped by the church’s founders. Pastor Bob walked into a situation where he was the 10th pastor in eleven years – and everyone of them left because they say the lay people as controlling. The founding pastor served the church for nine years. He loved and served the people. He visited them on a regular basis and made everyone feel safe and secure. The string of new pastors, all visionaries, were frustrated that the lay people didn’t seem to want the church to grow.

The demographics in their community had changed drastically over a ten year period. Twenty years ago, the church was started in the middle of a new, growing community comprised of young white families. The ministries and programs of the church were all geared toward these young families – and the church had a heyday. But things had changed. The neighborhood’s growth was in decline. Families were moving out further into the suburbs. The community was now older and predominantly Hispanic. And the church was in decline. The remaining members wanted the strategic plan to focus on improving its ailing children and youth ministries. Pastor Bob wanted to reach out to the neighborhood in all its diversity. Conflict emerged and the church was in trouble. A strategic plan would have been useless without first helping the church crack their code.

The lay leaders thought their code was all about “family” – and Pastor Bob was resistant to this. He knew the church would die if it didn’t somehow reflect the demographics of the surrounding community. As I conducted focus groups and interviews with members and non-members, the true code began to emerge. The “family” metaphor was simply an expression of the church’s real code: safety. The existing members wanted a place where they could feel safe. They were threatened by the changing community. Pastor Bob’s vision didn’t seem to protect the church’s code, the need for safety. But once we understood that part of the church’s code was related to “safety”, we were able to move forward in the planning process. A new church slogan was developed: A Safe Place. Core values were created out of the code: A Safe Community; Unconditional Acceptance; Focus on People; Loving Our Neighborhood.

Once the lay leaders began to actually feel safe, they were able to move into a strategic plan – one that protected the code. Interestingly, the code became the launching pad for a new direction – and the lay leaders were the ones who pushed for creating a place that would be safe for the neighborhood. They began to realize that their current ministries were not “safe” for the Hispanic and elderly populations in their neighborhood. Existing programs for young families were closed down. New ministries were created that were geared toward the demographics of the neighborhood. The church lost a few members in the process. But for the most part, everyone was excited about the new direction of the church. And the new direction of the church could never have taken root if we had not first understand the church’s code.

To break your code, you must begin with the symbolic expressions of your code. Like it or not, your architecture and décor reflect your code. Your church’s heroes (former pastors and lay leaders) symbolize your code. Your churches stories, myths, and rituals reflect your code. Once you understand your code, your church’s planning process should then make sure that your core values, vision, mission, and strategy account for your code. If there is no alignment, this will create conflict that requires resolution. It will require a change either in your strategic plan or in your symbolic expressions of the code (which tend to be more resistant to change). Enron’s core values (according to their 2000 Annual Report) included integrity and respect. But their unspoken symbols (which reflect the true code) were incongruent. Enron needed to realign their practices and unspoken symbols. They failed. Enron needed to change their code. Many organizations, including churches, also need to change their code. But that process is painful and difficult.

Changing Your Code
Can a church change its code? Absolutely! But there are only two viable options: you must introduce genetic diversity or you must produce offspring. Genetic diversity splices two codes together to form a new code. This sometimes occurs through mergers. But mergers can be tricky – and the newly formed code is often not attractive to either side of the merger (which is why the turnover rate is so high in merged companies even ten years after the merger). Consider Hewlett-Packard. When Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard formed their company, they were management mavericks. They created a culture that, above all, valued people. This came to be known as their code – the HP Way. When the company spun off its metrics division in the late 90’s, the initiative was called “Clone and Go” because HP was so committed to preserving its code. But when Carly Fiorina took the reigns of H-P, her first major initiative was a merger with Compaq. She was met with enormous shareholder resistance, led by Walter Hewlett. The merger would result in thousands of lay-offs at H-P offices around the country -- a direct challenge to the H-P Way, the code.

The merger was finally pushed through. Since then, stock prices have plummeted, lay-offs have occurred, and many of the top execs have left. H-P has had a successful public relations campaign since that point, but the jury is out on the future success of that company. Perhaps a merger was absolutely necessary. But, like a heart transplant, the new code is still in formation. Only time will tell if the new code will be accepted or rejected. In general, mergers are not the best alternative – for companies or for churches. They rock an organization at its very core – the code.

Genetic diversity can occur less painfully by introducing a large group of new people into the church through backdoor ministries and alternative services. Many churches are finding that in order to reach postmoderns, they cannot do this in their Sunday morning worship. I worked with a large evangelical Boomer church in Canada who developed a midnight service on Friday nights to attract postmoderns. Sunday morning was a fairly typical “evangelical contemporary” style of worship with a few praise songs and good expository preaching. But the Friday night service was filled with an array of experiences – candlelight, visual arts, interaction, story-telling, and various forms of liturgy. It attracted a group of people who would never consider the Sunday morning service. Eventually, this group of people became informal leaders within the church. The ministries and programs throughout the week began to change form. The Sunday morning folks began to take notice. Some left. Some began to embrace the alternative approach. Over time, the church was able to successfully change its code from being a church firmly rooted in the modern era, to being a church that acted as a bridge from modernity to postmodernity.

The second option for changing your code is to produce offspring. Your church’s code doesn’t fundamentally change, however. What you are doing is creating a new code somewhere else. In this scenario, you must accept that the physical location and genetic make-up of your existing church will eventually die. Messiah Lutheran Church, a growing LCMS church in the St. Louis area, recently decided not to buy new property or build a new building to accommodate their growth. Rather, they have enlisted other LCMS churches in St. Louis to launch a church-planting initiative with a vision of planting 10 new churches over 10 years. They understand their church as an organism that changes and reproduces –rather than an institutional bureaucracy that exists to perpetuate itself.

Aligning Your Code
Once your church has truly defined its code, you will want to build everything around the code. Your values should protect the code. Your mission statement should reinforce your code. Your vision should express your code in the coming years. Your code should guide decision-making. It should define who leads, who is hired, and who is fired.

Your brand (marketing message, collateral materials, church newsletter, bulletin, and other printed matter) should be designed with your code in mind. Your church’s architecture, décor, and design should symbolize the code. Do not enter a new building program without first understanding your code. Your church’s code should be integrated throughout your entire church.

One of the greatest questions of human existence is simple. Who am I? If you are new to the church, you will need to take a year or two to ask this question – of your church and of yourself. Without a clear answer, you will not be able to lead effectively. But once you’ve cracked the code, you will unlock the power of your church’s DNA in ways that are potentially beyond your wildest dreams.

About the Author
Kevin Ford is the Chief Visionary Officer of TAG, a sponsor of Cornerstone Conferences. He provides consulting services and strategic planning services to businesses, government agencies, and churches around the world. He is the author of The Thing in the Bushes (Pinon Press, 2001) and Jesus For a New Generation (IVP, 1995). In addition, he is the co-author of the nationally acclaimed congregational survey, the Healthy Church Index. He can be reached via e-mail at kford@877tagline.com.

The Cornerstone Knowledge Network is a central source for fact-based, experience-tested information that can help churches clarify their missions, improve organizational leadership and successfully complete building projects. For more information call 1-888-595-7360 or visit www.theckn.com.

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