Raising the Roof: About: About Raising the Roof

What is Raising the Roof?

Raising the Roof^SM is a learning, discernment and planning approach for congregations considering the transition from pastoral-to-program size. Congregations with average year-round attendance (all services, all ages) approximately 150 to 250 find themselves in a “transition zone” between two very different ways of being a church. Many “pastoral size” congregations encounter unexpected difficulty and conflict when they attempt to grow through this zone and reorient themselves to operate effectively as a “program size” church.

The best-selling Alban book, Raising the Roof: The Pastoral-to-Program Size Transition by Alban senior consultant Alice Mann provides concepts, research, strategies, and a wealth of practical tools related to this growth challenge. The book is a revealing and encouraging step-by-step guide for congregational leaders.

Beyond the book, the Alban Institute annually offers two different Raising the Roof seminars. Raising the Roof: The Pastoral-to-Program Size Transition introduces participants to size transition concepts and tools and prepares them to use the learning and planning process in Chapter 4 of the book. Raising the Roof II is for congregations that have already undertaken the learning and planning work described in Chapter 4, and have begun to implement their resulting plan. Each event is an intensive three-day experience including both leader input and structured peer learning.

Some approaches to church growth presume that a congregation already embraces (or will embrace with pastoral leadership) a simple biblical mandate to grow numerically. Raising the Roof is based on the premise that numerical growth efforts are likely to fail unless leaders engage in shared discernment about the church’s current community context and its distinctive sense of identity and call. Some congregations may determine that God is calling them to some priority other than dramatic size change at this particular time. Leaders who do hear God calling them to seek numerical growth will need to “excavate their church’s religious culture” to discover sources of authority robust enough to undergird a dramatic transformation of congregational life.

Who Should Read the Book?

Any congregation seeking to grow through the transition zone between pastoral and program size will find a wealth of insight and practical help in Raising the Roof. The book is especially useful, however, for mainline Protestant (and other) congregations that do not share two common premises of church growth literature—that the Bible requires every congregation to make numerical growth a top priority, and that God grants the true vision for a church to the pastor alone.

The book provides support for congregations who are ready to undertake shared discernment of their identity, vision and call. This discernment work takes place among the congregation’s “wider circle of leaders,” people with formal and informal influence who are active in the congregation.

This core group is well decribed in Be Not Afraid: Building Your Church on Faith and Knowledge by Fredric M. Roberts. The book features research findings from several churches that have used the discernment and planning resources from Raising the Roof.

Are You Ready to Raise the Roof?

Congregations of many sizes and situations have used elements of Raising the Roof to enhance their development. However, the book is designed to be of special help to a particular subset of congregations. If you answer “yes” to most or all of the questions below, you are likley to find Raising the Roof resources highly relevant to your congregation’s life.

1. Has the congregation hit a plateau somewhere between 150-250 in average worship attendance? _Yes _No

Here are some hints about how we count people in the Raising the Roof approach. Combine into one number your attendance at all regular weekend services, if you have more than one. Include all children and teachers present in the building in connection with weekend services, even if they do not attend adult worship. People who attend more than one event on a weekend should only be counted once. Your number is most reliable if it is based on the sum of your actual weekend counts for a whole year divided by 52.

2. Is your community context favorable to numerical growth? _Yes _No

Likely indicators might be ongoing population growth in the surrounding community and/or steady increases in total church membership while attendance remains stuck at the same level.

3. Does your congregation regularly attract first-time visitors to worship? _Yes _No

4. Do the pastor and lay opinion leaders agree that the congregation may be called to “step up” to the next size, and are they ready to engage in discernment and planning? _Yes _No

5. Does basic trust exist among pastor, lay leadership, and the congregation? _Yes _No

6. Can a small team of leaders be found with the skill and motivation to guide others through a learning experience? _Yes _No

You may not have answered yes to all of these questions. But the more yes answers, the greater your readiness to begin this process.

Who Should Attend the Seminars?

Raising the Roof: The Pastoral-to-Program Size Transition is a popular choice among clergy in mid-sized congregations, clergy who hope to serve a mid-sized church in the future, interim ministers, denominational staff members who wish to assist such churches, and people who serve as congregational coaches or consultants. Many clergy on sabbatical attend Raising the Roof.

Raising the Roof II is an advanced learning opportunity for congregations that have undertaken self-assessment and planning work using the book Raising the Roof, have begun to implement their plan and now want to go further in discernment, strategy work, and implementation. By participating in Raising the Roof II, congregations will become included in Alban’s current Raising the Roof research study. Each participating congregation serves as a case study of the challenges and opportunities of this distinctive size transition.

Raising the Roof II is designed for congregations where clergy and lay leaders have:

Studied the material in Raising the Roof.
Completed the System Change Index (Appendix E).
Used all or part of the discernment and planning process described in Chapter 4 of Raising the Roof.
Developed goals based on this material and have at least begun the process of implementing these.
Identified new questions and issues related to size transition that they would like to explore in more depth.