How to Solve Church Problems with a Hackathon

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A novel suggestion from the Presbyterians could yield a source of wisdom and enthusiasm for all that is before many churches, parachurches, and denominational bodies.

Hackathon, Amsterdam 2013

Source: Pneumatrix Presbyterians

The non-profit PneuMatrix recently contributed a blog post to the periodical Presbyterian Outlook where they called for a hackathon to update Presbyterian Church (USA) polity:

Hackathons have proven their value to a wide variety of groups for problems large and small. They are used for design and problem-solving on large scales by tech companies to birth new modes of transportation and new ways of communicating (Uber and Twitter were born in hackathons).

The Pentagon has used civilian hack challenges to solve problems with self-driving cars, create humanoid robots, re-assemble shredded paper into the original document, locate red weather balloons using social networking tools, and create the spy drones of the future. Fortune 500 companies have used them to redesign internal structuring, revamp supply chains, and develop new product lines. City and State governments use hackathons to problem solve issues from infrastructure to natural disaster response.

Non-profits use them to coordinate programs across entity boundaries and rid large issues of duplicate services. We even have churches using hackathons now to discern the best and highest uses of their buildings and depleting resources.

The following is an adaptation of their proposal, with permission from Jim Kitchens and Deborah Wright, principals at PneuMatrix. Take a read:

Hackathon Process

Churches, parachurch bodies, and denominations can use a Hackathon process to harness both the creativity of their membership and the elected/appointed authority to make decisions for their groups. Here’s what it could look like:

Phase 1: Challenge and Converge

  • Issue the hackathon challenge to address a systemic or vexing issue within an organization. It can be as large as a reorganization plan, or as small as how to address homelessness in a particular community. The mission of the organization should be clear, resources should be clear, and the outcomes should be clear.
  • Give the data needed to succeed. If it’s a reorganization, full details of positions and budgets should be made available. If its a local situation, full data of resources and demographics should be made available. Teams can then get other data on their own, but the more data is provided up-front, the better. Finally, articulate who the Review Team is and what the process is.
  • Call for teams. Invite teams of six to register as hackathon participants. Any lay member in good standing of a congregation or clergyperson is eligible, which is especially important if you are examining parachurch or denominational entities. Consider charging a nominal team registration fee, issue a finalist’s prize, and other incentives to participate. Encourage it to be fun with team names, t-shirts, websites, etc.

Phase 2: Hack away!

  • Designate a 2-3 month period for the hack teams to create their designs and build their proposal.
  • Have a ‘pivot’ review (common to design hackathons) whereby a review team would read the proposals and offer critiques. Then have a one-month period for teams to pivot and tweak their designs.
  • Share all the submissions. Have a social media blast of all the proposals. If possible, offer a physical locale where folks can wander the submissions – much like a ‘poster presentation’ at a science fair or medical forum, with a member of the team available to answer questions. Especially awesome at an organization’s annual meeting to piggyback on regular attendee participation.

Phase 3: Selection and Implementation

  • Three top finalists, chosen by the review team, leads to dialogue, further responses from teams based on critiques and engagement, and perhaps even a straw poll.
  • Submit a ranked list of the top proposal(s) from the finalist(s) to the decision-making body for its prayerful consideration and discernment.
  • Wrap it in prayer. Have a spiritual practice of prayer, meditation, etc. attached to the social media blasts and hackathon period, holding the process in prayer.
  • At the end, let it go. The “winners” may or may not see their designs taken on by the organization. But hopefully the process will elicit something more intangible and valuable than a good idea. As PneuMatrix concludes:

Across the board, apart from the intended results of hackathon challenges, all these entities agree that the huge unintended consequences of using the hackathon approach to problem solving and innovation is the dramatic increase in engagement and trust.

Case Study: Methodist Implementations

I believe my denomination of the United Methodist Church would benefit from hackathons to solve four systemic issues before us as a church body:

  1. What to do with local church buildings?
  • As congregations dwindle, deciding how to best use real estate would either transform the community or help it transition from active ministry. A single challenge hackathon on this topic (using one locality as an example–being too vague won’t be effective) would yield dozens of novel ideas for every local church to consider as it decides what to do with aging infrastructure.
  1. What does the annual conference look like?
  • Ask what a nimble and effective annual conference would look like. Have each Annual Conference Sessions Committee (or Council) provide an employment tree of all the current Conference departments/divisions (by job title & responsibilities, no names), as well as a listing of all committees, task forces, and program teams. They would provide broad-stroke budget numbers for each entity/division, as well as a concise summary budget of the income side. 
  1. What does the parachurch look like?
  1. What does the global church look like?
  • Similar to the NEJ proposal for the global church, invite proposals for how the global UMC can better relate that eradicates colonialism and honors regional diversity with a common polity. Have the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters provide population and borders and boundaries of current conferences, a list of the differences in polity from the standard Book of Discipline, and other resources. This would also invite the global church to participate in something of relevance to their context.

Wisdom from the margins

The wisdom for the organization is not always in the center. The wisdom is also from the edges, the margins, and sometimes from the outside. By providing clear, effective ability for organizational transformation by a fun and engaging process like this, the local church, parachurch, or denomination will reap invaluable benefits beyond solutions to problems. May we all consider a freewheeling but faith-filled and gifts-honoring process like this for all that is before us.

Thoughts?

The Rev. Jeremy Smith serves as minister of discipleship for First United Methodist Church in Portland, Ore. He blogs at Hacking Christianity.