About Stronger Churches Consulting

A Little About Me

Hi! I'm Dr. Darrin Hanson.  I must confess that I may be an odd choice for a church consultant.  Most church consultants have either been in full-time ministry for years or they come from the business world.  Despite being a pk (pastor's kid), pg (pastor's grandkid), and mk (missionary's kid--although to be fair, my parents didn't become missionaries until I was an adult), I have never been in full-time ministry myself.  And, in spite of owning and operating an education consulting business, I would not claim to be from the business world either.

My background is somewhat unorthodox.  I have a Ph.D. in Government from the University of Texas.  Yep, government.  (I told you--unorthodox.)  There I learned how to do research, how to effectively (and ineffectively) structure organizations, and how to navigate competing interests to effectively solve problems.

After grad school I served as an assistant professor at a small liberal arts school for five years.  While there I was asked by the administration to serve on multiple university committees.  Most notably, I chaired the "quality of life" committee where we figured out the needs of the faculty/staff through conducting a study.  My work there led to several significant and concrete improvements in employee satisfaction.  After my success there, the administration put me on the college's assessment committee, where I was in charge of revamping the departmental assessment procedures for the humanities and social sciences.

When I got married, I moved to Wisconsin to support my wife's career.  Since I was unable to get a teaching position here, I started an educational consulting firm.  Part of it is geared toward helping high school students get into highly selective colleges.  The other part works with educational organizations to help them break through their limits and achieve greater success.

As you probably gathered from my being a pk, I grew up in the church.  Although I have never served in full-time ministry, I have served in ministry as a volunteer for most of my life.  The following is a small portion of the things I have done in the church:

1. Started a children's ministry.
2. Re-structured two adult-education/Bible study programs.
3. Instituted a spiritual gifts awareness program to increase lay participation in the operation of the church.
4. Led an independent financial literacy program for both individuals and the church.
5. After-school tutoring.
6. Personal sounding-board for pastors at two different churches.

So, while I don't know first-hand the struggles of those in full-time ministry, I did grow up with it and have put myself in positions within churches to ease those struggles.

Should you consider having me serve as a consultant for your church?

 First let me get out of the way some reasons to not hire me.  If you are looking for any of the following,  you should probably look elsewhere:

1. You are looking for a slick marketing program.
2. You want to develop technologies and a worship band so that your services are "cool".
3. You want your congregation to grow from 150 to over 1000 in the next year.
4. You want to implement a planned giving program to build the fanciest church facilities in town.
5. You are starting a church from scratch (a.k.a. "church plant").

So, in what areas might I be a good choice for your church?

1. Your church wants to match up its ministries to the people already there.
2. You want an outside perspective that is neither too "churchy" nor too "businessy".
3. You want someone who actually knows how to conduct and interpret surveys.
4. You want someone with education and church experience to evaluate curriculum.
5. You want to find some way to improve the basic administrative functions at your church.
6. You can tell something isn't quite right at your church, but you have no idea where to begin.
7. You are more concerned with the spiritual growth of your congregation than the numerical growth of your congregation (although numerical growth isn't necessarily bad).
8. You want someone to help your church with its organizational structures/constitution.
9. Your congregation needs help getting giving into their family budgets (or they need help setting up budgets in the first place).
10. You are facing culture or socio-economic clashes in your congregation.

 If you think I might be a good fit but aren't quite sure, here is a little incentive for you.  I'm relatively cheap.  (I charge my education clients a lot more than churches.)  In some cases, I might be virtually free.  As I am building up my reputation in churches, I will offer my services at rock-bottom prices.  If you are a small church and are within 45 miles of Madison,Wisconsin, I will do a consultation at cost.  (That means you pay for making copies, mailing materials if necessary, and you provide lunch on the days of meetings.)  That is up until June, 2013.  After that, the deal goes to any small church within 45 miles of Houston, Texas. 

If you are interested in having me work with your church, please email me at strongerchurches@gmail.com.  Thanks and let God take care of you.


Darrin