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Judith Gotwald

Risk-taking: What Is the Church Risking?

risk-taking6 Things to Consider Before Taking A Risk

Risk-taking in the church is an interesting topic.

It may facilitate risk-taking if we first examine what we are risking.

Let’s not name the innovation. For now, let’s focus on the process of implementing change by adopting risk.

Here are some things to consider:

  • Tradition.

    Tradition is important. It provides continuity. It helps groups of people define themselves. It is not, however, necessarily sacred—even though most of what we call “church” stems from tradition!

    Abandoning tradition cold turkey is asking for trouble. Handle with care.
    You need your current members!Here’s a hard reality.

    Most people do not go to church to move and shake the world. Most people consider a $5 bill in the offering plate the biggest risk they are willing to take. Most people get involved in church for their own comfort and peace of mind.

    Every church has two populations — the people who are happy and think everything is already great and church leaders who are responsible not only for peace and happiness but for moving the church in a mission-oriented direction, which may threaten happiness. Leaders, clergy and lay alike, can fall into the trap of thinking that things are moving forward if everyone is happy. Upsetting the status quo without imploding contentment is the job of true leadership. (It’s not easy!)

    Existing members are your potential evangelists. New members will be watching how you treat existing members.It’s a new world. Ten years ago you could ignore people and they had no voice. Everyone has a soapbox these days. Ignore existing members at your own peril. Honor tradition with sensitivity.

  • Expenses.

    Risk involves change. Change costs money. Every entrepreneur knows that you must spend some money to implement change.
    The church has not yet learned this lesson.

    Every dollar in the church today is coveted. Regional leadership does not want financial risk that might be passed on to them if failure might occur. They therefore keep an eye on troubled churches to guess what the optimal time might be to shut down ministry and gain the assets. They encourage risk in theory, but in practice—watch out! If your identified risk threatens cash or property assets, the regional body is likely to try to become involved. They are likely to have their own interests in mind—not the congregations.

  • Relationships with professional leaders.
     Your leaders will not want your church’s failure on their résumé. They may encourage risk-taking in theory but disappear when the going gets tough—and it will!

    Change isn’t easy.

    Risks may lead your congregation to areas of ministry for which your current leaders have no skills. The pastor everyone loves may be very uncomfortable with the direction you decide to take.

    Same goes with auxiliary staff. An organist might be threatened by the idea of a praise band. A Christian education director may not understand online learning in the religious sphere. Be prepared to deal with this. Reassure your leaders that they will be supported with training and lay support. If you cannot provide this assurance and your leaders seem unlikely to cooperate, be prepared to look for new leadership with the skills you need.

    This is often necessary but traditional church custom values the concept of a settled pastor over innovation. Be prepared for stonewalling from three places—some members, pastors, and regional managers. (A key priority of regional managers is placing and pleasing clergy.)

  • Alienation.

    Your current happy members may not recognize the church you are about to become. Address this early. Try to make everyone a part of innovation. Move slowly when possible. When speed is needed, give those who are slower to accept change something to hang on to. Find something within their comfort zone for which they can be responsible with success.

    Good leaders nurture all. Poor leaders pick and choose followers and consider anyone who may resist to be expendable

    Risk-taking is not all about you and your leadership. The focus is mission.

  • Transparency.

    Transparency is easy when things are rolling along with no intentional plan for the future. When planning for innovation and risk-taking, leaders have a tendency to become less transparent. They think they are avoiding trouble.

    Wrong!

    If leaders expect anyone to follow, they must be clear about the risks. Communicate all aspects of your potentially risky mission plan clearly, often, and in different formats.

    It shouldn’t hurt to point out that risk-taking is part of Jesus’ plan. He was pretty open about that with his disciples. He promised rewards. He also promised danger.

  • Failure. 
    Innovation requires both risk and failure. We learn from mistakes. Risk-taking demands a mindset that understands failure. Unfortunately, the move toward risk-taking is overdue and so the risks are more expensive and the consequences potentially more dire. A struggling congregation may have resources for only one or two risks before its infrastructure will crumble.

    That’s all the more reason to be careful. But it is not a reason to avoid risks.

    There are probably “I told you so’s” waiting to be delivered at the first sign of failure.

    Prepare for the inevitable troubles with flexibility. Have a Plan B, C, and D, in place before you implement Plan A.The irony of risk-taking: Failure to take risks may lead to ultimate and permanent failure.

In Conclusion

People avoid risks. But they also glory in the success that taking risks can bring about. Take risks. But be prepared. Risk-taking is a leadership skill. Make sure your congregation has this skill. If you don’t have it, find it! It’s worth the cost.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

photo credit: Cayusa via photopin cc
26 May 2013

Risk Taking in Today’s Church

SEPA Leadership Encourages Risk-taking

At the 2013 Assembly of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod, Bishop Claire Burkat exhorted member churches to take risks. Start small. Just take one risk in mission.

I beleive in risk-taking.

Many of the risks that need to be taken in the Church are long overdue.

The climate of SEPA Synod is not conducive to risk-taking.

If congregations are to take risks they must be assured that failures

  • will not be used as excuses for hierarchical seizure of everything they own.
  • will not cause them to be excommunicated from Lutheran fellowship.
  • will not put their personal welfare and that of their families in danger.

SEPA cannot provide these assurances.

Consequently, risks will not be taken.

The biggest obstacle? Involuntary Synodical Administration.

Involuntary Synodical Administration, now so common that it is referred to by the acronym ISA, did not exist in the founding documents of the ELCA. The Articles of Incorporation still forbid it.

ISA is the determination of the bishop that a church cannot survive. The Synod assumes all cash and property assets. Trustees are appointed. They serve the bishop’s interests, not the congregation’s. It is theft by constitutional tweaking.

The original constitutional statute allowed for synodical administration only with the consent of the congregation and as a temporary measure.

Synodical Administration was intended to be a tool to help struggling congregations overcome difficulty. Congregations were part of the process—the Lutheran way. Help was offered, but assets remained owned by the congregations.

Involuntary Synodical Administration is a monstrous contrivance.

The Synod’s model constitution has been tweaked to negate the promises made to the congregations when they joined the ELCA.

Consequently, congregational polity, precious to Lutherans, no longer exists in SEPA Synod.

Too bad. Congregational polity encourages risk-taking.

Without congregational polity every congregation must consider what big brother or sister will do if their risks fail —as measured by the bishop not by the congregation.  

If congregations are to take Bishop Burkat’s advice and take risks, they should seriously review and revise their own governing documents.

Taking risks, after all, is risky. You could fail.

Failure leads to knowledge which can then be put to new ministry use. Innovation is usually the result of multiple attempts that failed.

But in the world of SEPA, failure of any sort, as measured by no one but the bishop (who has minimal knowledge of congregations), leads to long-term Lutheran assets lost to short-term synodical needs.

Here’s what I know about SEPA and their ability to accept congregational risk-taking:

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, there was a small urban congregation facing the same challenges many small congregations face. The founding members who predated decades of urban unrest were dying off. The landscape for ministry was changing dramatically and at a faster pace than the “settled” Church had ever encountered.

This congregation had resources. A founding member had left an endowment with the stipulation that it be used for ministry in that neighborhood.

That endowment had already been an attractive target for s financially troubled synod, but that had been resolved eight years before. However, the memory was still fresh. The Synod refused to follow the call process after the resolution. They were betting that without help, the congregation would fall apart. SEPA need wait only a bit longer to get to the assets.

This congregation had unusually strong lay leadership. The absence of professional leaders had actually helped develop the congregation’s sense of mission. They knew they had to serve a multicultural neighborhood. Without the burden of salaries, they were free to engage pastors for specific tasks as needed.

Money was not yet a problem, but it was clear that it would become a problem if congregational leaders didn’t address the needs of the future immediately.

The congregational leaders spent six months drafting a plan. They consulted pastors, real estate experts, an accountant and a lawyer in drafting a five-year plan. Funds were needed to bring facilities up to modern standards. The congregation was willing to risk a third of their property for a short-term mortgage that might catapult them into a solid future.

The congregation had been renting its educational building to a Lutheran agency, but the congregation knew that this was no longer in their interests. The property had more potential for congregational ministry if the congregation ran its own school with the important added benefit of being able to witness in mission as the Lutheran agency was unable to do.

Two members of the congregation already experienced in childcare took the training necessary for licensure. The school was projected to bring in $100,000 annually to the congregation’s ministry within two years. Meanwhile, other sources of income were also identified and a stewardship program was implemented. 

Previous pastors were not comfortable in multicultural settings. They promised to find help but reported regularly, “There is no one.” When the last pastor left, the congregation found excellent, qualified professional leaders within a few weeks.

52 members joined in the first year and there was every indication that this was only the start of a vibrant new ministry. 

Meanwhile, the congregation presented the mission plan to Bishop Claire Burkat along with a resolution to call one of the pastors who had already been working with the congregation successfully for seven months.

There were risks, but there were strong indications that the risks would pay off.

Bishop Claire Burkat accepted the resolution and ministry plan and promised to review them. She also promised that the congregation could work with the Synod’s Mission Developer. Four months passed with no communication from anyone in the bishop’s office.

Was there to be a period of discussion and review of the 24-page mission plan? Would the bishop make suggestions or offer help?

No.

Bishop Burkat abruptly sent a letter to the congregation announcing the church was closed and all assets were to be assumed by her office (which had recently announced they were within $75,000 of depleting every available resource).  

The risks quickly escalated with law suits and personal attacks on members that continued for five years. Although Bishop Burkat wrote to clergy that all issues are settled, the fact is the case is still in the courts.

If Bishop Burkat truly believed in risk-taking, she could have taken a chance on Redeemer’s carefully crafted mission plan. She could have joined interdependently in a carefully calculated mission adventure that was already succeeding. She could have taken credit!

Bishop Burkat couldn’t risk Redeemer’s resources slipping from syndical control twice in one decade. Some of the motivation was SEPA’s own financial needs. Power and pride also entered the picture.

Risk-taking does not happen in this atmosphere.

Lay members are sitting ducks for abuse. Clergy will protect their standing.

If SEPA congregations truly want to be risk-takers for mission, they must revisit their constitutions and make risk-taking a little less risky.

Redeemer is still ready to take risks.

We’ve been pioneering mission while SEPA has been attacking us. There is nothing stopping Redeemer’s mission plan from being implemented even today.

SEPA prefers the expenses of locked churches to the expenses of mission. They spend more than $170,000 a year keeping those doors locked. Taking a risk on Redeemer’s mission plan would have cost them nothing (and it was already succeeding!)

There is more mission potential in open churches than in closed churches.

There is more economic potential in open churches than in closed churches.

 

23 May 2013

Adult Object Lesson: Trinity Sunday

tricycleIt’s A Wonderful Gift! (What Is It?)

If ever there was a Sunday that cried for an object lesson it is Trinity Sunday. On this day we concentrate on a key teaching of Christianity — and one that puzzles even great theological thinkers.

But what objects work?

St. Patrick  plucked a shamrock from the lush meadows of Ireland and talked about the single plant with three leaves. Artists intertwine circles or draw equilateral triangles. 

I always like the image of the tricycle. The three wheels give us balance. The front wheel (representing the Spirit) drives all three and makes an inert, well-balanced vehicle get somewhere.

But here’s a new image for you.

The gift you don’t quite know what to do with.

Think of your own example. It might be something unusual in appearance or difficult to  put together. A puzzle, perhaps.

I think of one Christmas when I opened a small package. It contained a small jar of liquid and a few sticks of wood. I thanked the giver graciously, went home and pondered. I sat it on the kitchen table and looked at it for a while. At last, I called someone at the party whose discretion I trusted and said, “I am sure this is a wonderful gift but I have to confess. I haven’t the slightest idea what it is. Can you tell me? I want to write a thank you note and I don’t know what to say!”

She was so patient with me. The jar contained a scented liquid. You opened the jar and placed a stick in the jar. The stick would draw the scent from the jar to freshen a room.

Ahh! I see!

Now I understood and knew what I was supposed to do with the gift. The “Spirit” had spoken.

These few verses from John are like a gift we don’t quite know what to do with.

Only in this case the giver knows He is presenting us with a puzzle!

Jesus warns his listeners. “You are not ready for this.” There is a puzzling transfer of ownership taking place. It starts with the Holy Spirit’s guidance and voice. Jesus tries to explain. “All that the Father has is mine. He will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

  • The Father has everything.
  • The Father  shares everything with the Son.
  • Through the voice of the Holy Spirit, everything is declared to us.

Do you get it? Don’t worry if you don’t. No one really does.

We are still not ready! All we can do is listen to the voice of the Spirit and do our best.

And don’t forget to thank the Giver.

photo credit: Yelnoc via photopin cc

23 May 2013

Cartoon: Expectations of Modern Christians

Expectations of Modern Christians

22 May 2013

Ambassadors Visit St. Andrew’s, Audubon

Beautiful Pentecost Service

We weren’t the usual Ambassadors but three Ambassadors from Redeemer spent this Pentecost at St. Andrew’s, Audubon.

St. Andrew’s pastor, the Rev. William Mueller, writes a blog. He is the first pastor of now more than sixty we have encountered to make any attempt to reach out regularly on the internet. Kudos. Here’s a link.

This is the first church website (excepting Redeemer, East Falls) to use blogging as the focal point of a web presence. It looks like they have tried both Twitter and Facebook with less frequency, but at least they are trying. Both Twitter and Facebook are harder to maintain and require a lot of babysitting. That’s why we favor blogging as a starting point for churches wanting to use social media.

It looks like St. Andrew’s started blogging in March and kept at it pretty regularly through April with activity dropping a bit in May. We hope they keep it up! We’ve been at it for more than two years. Our experience is that it takes at least six months to begin to see results. Things move remarkably quickly when you start blogging more than three times per week. (We now, after some 750 posts, have as many as 4000 readers each month.)

Pastor Mueller’s sign-off is reminiscent of one of Redeemer’s former pastors. He often ended his pre-internet sermons with “See you at the Acme.” Pastor Mueller signs off with “See you at church.”

A friendly man greeted us as we came through the door and told us about their ministry to the homeless in Pottstown. He was the only member to speak to us. He told us about their group of guitar enthusiasts who center a ministry around music.

Music and the arts are key elements in worship at St. Andrew’s. They recently produced The Wizard of Oz. They are justly proud of their modern stained glass windows and their altar cross.

Musical offerings were varied and rich from a solo (“Day by Day”) to a bell choir prelude of a hymn which had been running through my head all week, prior to today’s worship, (“Oh, How I Love Jesus”) to still another prelude or introit (“This Little Light of Mine”). The choir anthem brought a smile, the tune was borrowed from Les Miserables. Much of the music was modern but the final hymn was by Hildegard of Bingen, dating back a thousand years. Great breadth of church tradition. This was the first church we’ve encountered in a long time that sang the psalm. (Redeemer always sang the psalm.)

The opening hymn was one Redeemer often sang in Swahili. I was surprised that four years after all of us were locked out of our multicultural church that I still remember the Swahili words. I sang them. The organ was so loud no one could notice and it felt good. Besides, it’s Pentecost, a day for many languages.

St. Andrew’s confirmed ten young people today in a nice ceremony. Even though our visits are totally random, we’ve encountered several confirmations and this was the largest group of youth. 

The church was well-attended with families of the young people filling several pews.

The ceremony featured family members participating in the laying on of hands. Two of our Ambassadors, both pastors, compared that to how they conducted confirmation. They liked the custom, although one commented that he considered confirmation to be the young people standing on tbeir own in their faith—as they may have to some day.

How well we know!

The sanctuary is wide with two rows of long pews. For the first time in many visits, the ushers actually passed the plate. It seems like many churches are afraid to let go of the plate, requiring worshipers to reach across several people. This is always a bit awkward and kind of insulting. It felt good to be trusted to pass the plate. (We didn’t take anything of yours!)

There were about a dozen children present for a children’s sermon delivered by the Christian Education director. This is the first we’ve seen children at worship in a while! I doubt the children understood that the balloon represented the Holy Spirit. Object lessons appeal more to adults. They seemed to still be interested in last Sunday’s sermon which apparently focused on their Ascension stained glass window. One child commented, “We were going to say goodbye but we never did.” That seemed to stick with them!

Pastor Mueller gave a sermon that was interesting to us. He spoke about church persecution and mentioned this also in the prayers.

Once again, we see a disconnect. Why is it that SEPA clergy do not see what is happening at the hands of their leaders in East Falls as bullying and persecution?

82 men, women and children are locked out of their church home—built and paid for with their offerings and the sacrifices of their families. Allegations are made but never documented or discussed with the congregation. Although court accusations reference  “church discipline,” no matters of church discipline were ever raised with our congregation. We were paying our own way and had a very active and innovative ministry, with which no fault was ever found. SEPA claimed every available asset with no discussion whatsoever. They used our assets to pursue us in court. They are still looking for more. They stripped Redeemer members of all rights within the Lutheran Church, also with no discussion and no constitutional basis. They vilified our people when we dared to stand up for our faith — as our church taught us to do when we studied for confirmation. Our clergy were intimidated and left. This was designed to leave the laity lost and vulnerable. Instead, Redeemer’s lay leaders (which included two retired clergy) picked up the pieces and successfully grew our church community with no expectation of pay. SEPA personally attacked individual church members in court for five years, putting us in a position where we couldn’t just submit; we had to stand up for what we thought was right. Court accusations of fraud never held up. The latest judge repeated with exasperation, “Where’s the fraud? They were doing what they thought was right. Where’s the fraud?”

The Church persecutes its own.

Well, at least St. Andrew’s prayed for the persecuted, even if they don’t recognize us in their midst.

The Holy Spirit at Work in East Falls this Week?

In other Redeemer news, two leaders of Redeemer’s community music programs chanced to meet three times this week.

SEPA is not the only religious authority raping East Falls Christians of the use of their sacred property! Hierarchical need and greed are running rampant. St. James the Less was locked to members about eight years ago. SEPA locked Redeemer in 2009. St. Bridget’s Roman Catholic School just down the street was locked in 2012. Their leaders thought this fairly healthy school should bolster a struggling church a couple miles away. Both ended up closing.

We discussed how to restore Christian music education for the children of East Falls. Hard to do without property, but we hope not impossible. Redeemer had hosted a community children’s choir and summer music camp and St. Bridget’s School had a strong musical tradition. Our worship leaders had worked together before.

Three chance meetings in three days! Perhaps the Holy Spirit is at work this Pentecost!

20 May 2013

The ELCA needs a few gunslingers

This quote is from a comment on a lay leader’s blog:

Most groups in decline are in a stage of development where they are presently being led by bureaucrats. What is needed are entrepeneurs, gunslingers, if you will. The evolution of the church long ago removed these kinds of leaders. Yet, this is what they need to re-vision their organization. The ELCA will continue to decline. Most groups do. When confronted with what it takes to change their future, the leadership will choose to die.—Bill Blair

18 May 2013

Are We Playing God in the Church?

Something must die for new life to occur.

We’ve heard the adage before. It is presented in today’s church almost as if it were romantic. There are hints that it might be biblical.  

It is not biblical—at least in the way it is being used to justify self-serving actions by regional bodies and church leaders.

This month in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (SEPA) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), this thinking was passed on to the rank and file.

SEPA’s 2013 Synod Assembly had a guest speaker deliver this message. His address figures prominently on SEPA’s web site. It is not original thinking. Bishop Burkat wrote about this concept in 2001. 

Good idea to have an outsider reinforce the ideas that are hurting so many SEPA member churches.

From SEPA’s web site:

Jay Gamelin urged congregational leaders to focus on making disciples instead of taking care of members and warned that sometimes new life requires death to occur first. “What needs to die in your church?” he asked the Assembly. “Because you know what God does with death? He makes an empty tomb out of it.”

Actually, that was not Christ’s approach to mission. True, his Resurrection saved us, but He didn’t tear down the people He encountered. He taught. He nurtured new leadership. He counseled established leaders. He empowered ordinary people—people who had no wealth to give but were welcomed all the same. He cured. He encouraged. He gave hope to the marginally served in society and within the religious structures of the day. He loved.

Christ wanted sin to die. Not churches.

He didn’t teach taking financial assessments of congregations and abandoning the weak. In fact, the sense of economics in His parables often puzzles us. He found strength and promise in places no one else did!

This death-oriented ministry philosophy may create an occasional statistical success story, but church statistics don’t reveal that resulting success is the norm or automatic or has longevity. Of course, time will tell.

Something must die. Any volunteers?

Why is it that our church leaders look to find somebody else to do the dying? Why is it the efforts of lay people that are targeted?

This is an abuse of the Resurrection story. Why do we embrace this thinking? Why do we sit in Synod Assembly and listen to it being taught?

Noble-sounding words mask a dangerous idea. The Church is playing with power—group power and some individuals’ sense of power. 

Power doesn’t take much encouragement before it runs seriously amok. The idea that one person or group knows better how to use another person’s or group’s assets is the root of much crime.

ELCA documents protect us from this misuse of power, but they are routinely ignored.

This pseudo-resurrection concept is rooted in a sense of superiority. It masks leadership failures. “We didn’t fail as professional church leaders. It was their time to die. We’ll help them grieve on the way to the bank.”

They are playing God.

The temptation to play God when exercised by mortals results in skewed or lazy assessments of ministries, with property and cash assets the focus — not mission.

Christ’s power grew from humility. It has no time for arrogance.

When money is a problem for everyone, including the regional body and national church, things get crazy fast. No one looks for mission solutions. We look for easy answers that won’t take work, time, or commitment or an investment of any kind. We find it easy to judge others as unworthy of God’s blessings. We stop providing mission services and tell ourselves it’s OK.  We decide which congregations will die (not “might die” but “will die”) in ten years. TEN YEARS!

The dereliction of duty is intentional and horrific. We not only do nothing but we plot to speed the process. We provide a “caretaker” minister. This caretaker expects to be paid as if he or she were actually doing ministry, but they are there to do nothing more than hold hands while resources and spirit are drained. They are there to facilitate the conveyance of assets.

Let’s look at what can happen in ten years.

Ten years — enough time to fight most wars, including World Wars. Enough time to reverse a serious recession. Long enough to see a high school student through seminary. Time enough for the Civil Rights Movement to begin to see results. Ten years—the entire history of social media!

What could happen in a church in ten years?

Endowments might be enriched. New populations could move in. Mission initiatives might take hold. Community outreach might take root. New housing might be built. New businesses might move in. A new generation will be born.

If the Church’s attention is on fostering failure, they will miss out on important mission opportunities.

One Bad Idea Leads to Another

This philosophy quickly jumps to even more erroneous thinking.

“You are not here to serve your membership, you are here to serve God.” Jay Gamelin concludes.

Serving your members IS serving God. Your constitution probably spells out your duties and it undoubtedly mandates care of members.

We ARE  here to serve members. Their needs and preferences DO count. It is THEIR expression of worship and ministry. They are not the only thing that counts but they DO count. Love would tell us that.

The minute we give our leaders permission to NOT serve members, we devalue our message to all. Problems will result. They may not be immediate, but they will result.

Where there is life there is hope and there is God. God can play God all He wants.

And He will.

Don’t expect this philosophy that results from our leaders playing God to spread without problems.

Take a look at what’s happened in NW Philadelphia in the last ten years or so while this philosophy has reigned.

17 May 2013

Taking Inventory of the Church at Pentecost

Do you do your job today, whatever it might be, the same way you did it 10 years ago. How about 20 years ago? Or 50? 

How about 2000?

This Sunday we will celebrate the birthday of the “Church.” 

Let’s consider this Pentecost to be one of those important birthdays — like reaching 30 or 40, when we take stock of our lives and consider what the last years have meant and what will carry us into the future.

Pentecost marks the occasion when all the gathered disciples came to understand that what they would do from this point on mattered. They were no longer just followers. They were leaders.

We’ve drawn a great deal from that Pentecostal experience over the centuries. Lots of roles and structures were defined. Some of it was good, efficient and served the Pentecostal mission. Some of it made life easier and richer for those in control. 

Let’s give ourselves the benefit of the doubt and assume that every Church custom or procedure is rooted in God’s love. Let’s also assume that the people who created the structure of the Church were doing the best they could with the resources, tools and environment they had to work with. That includes their understanding of their mission.

So here we are in Pentecost 2013. Everything in every aspect of our lives has been dramatically restructured in the last two decades—the workplace, the family, community and international relations, education, leisure—everything.

Everything except Church. In Church, we continue to assume that systems have to be the way they are—even as we witness wholesale failure in many aspects of Church life.

This Pentecost could be a pivotal birthday for the Church. 

It is  good time to reflect on what the Church might become if we could reassess what we do—all of what we do.

Start with the basic message. God loves us. Pay attention to the biblical mandates. Go into all the world. Preach the Gospel. Baptize. Make disciples.

The Church may think it does this already. They assess and examine, but mostly they do their assessments within tightly drawn parameters and expectations — and support of the hierarchy — keeping things running smoothly — is a key expectation.

Can we put aside centuries of assumptions? 

In the next few posts we’ll take inventory on the customary Church. What’s good? What’s not so good? What can we do better?

15 May 2013

Adult Object Lesson: Pentecost

Why concentrate on diversity?

It’s Pentecost!

Part of the Pentecost story that we gloss over is the list of hometowns of those who heard the commotion that followed the descent of the Holy Spirit like tongues of fire.

The eleven were meeting privately when the Holy Spirit struck. But things changed very quickly.

Jerusalem was crowded with Jews celebrating the ancient Jewish holiday of Pentecost. Pentecost was a harvest festival. This particular Pentecost would surely have been charged with excitement at the recent two months of gossip, which included the crucifixion of Jesus and the many reported sightings of the risen Lord. 

There was a new account. Jesus had recently disappeared into the heavens.

Now, perhaps, things would settle down.

What was that noise?

People came running. They encountered a lot of people speaking strangely but they heard the din in their own languages.

They heard. They understood. Their understanding led to bewilderment.

Then comes the list of foreign regions and our modern ears turn off. The reader may stumble over the names. We graciously jump ahead, mentally putting the lector out of misery.

All the confusion is to fulfill a prophecy.

It is an inclusive prophecy. 

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Everyone.

It’s high time we work at it!

Today’s object is the list of foreign places in the reading from Acts 2:1-21.

Read the list (vv. 9-11) and have your congregation repeat the names after you. They may think you are giving them a lesson in pronunciation.

When you reach the end of the biblical list extend the list to include neighborhoods your congregation will recognize and needs to serve. Continue the list just as if your local neighborhoods were listed in the Bible. Have them continue to echo the names of the local neighborhoods or groups of people—the ones they know how to pronounce!

14 May 2013

Achieving Diversity in the Church

The road to diversity. Who has the map?

How does a denomination reach diversity goals when diversity is so difficult to measure?

Here’s what probably won’t work:

  • assigning a pastor who brings along personal friends who fit diverse criteria and adds them to a congregation’s membership roster without going through the constitutional membership process.
  • pigeon-holing already diverse populations and directing them to churches where you think they will be happier.
  • assuming that individual personal worship preferences are dictated by skin color or ethnicity.
  • assuming that one congregation can serve only one demographic—the one they served 40 years ago.
  • trying so hard to appeal to new populations (that might not even be local) that the long-time supporters feel like strangers.
  • locking out an already diverse community, which has made major contributions to the denomination, with a stated goal of replacing them.

Each of these tactics was tried by SEPA leadership at Redeemer. Each failed.

What does work?

  • consciously welcoming whomever walks through the door.
  • consciously creating a fellowship that draws newcomers in. (Just setting up a coffee urn and snack table isn’t enough.)
  • empowering all to invite others. (Find a way to model this  to make it part of your congregation’s personality.)
  • providing a quality worship experience despite numbers. (This doesn’t mean hiring a lot of professional musicians. It means nurturing the worship experience, not always going with the obvious, expanding the experience so that there is something for new worshipers to connect with and something for older members to own and cherish.)
  • expanding or changing the worship experience incrementally, not all at once.
  • fostering participatory worship every week. (Let go of the reins. Really engage worshipers and give them a leadership role in planning worship.)
  • not forcing old ways on new people.
  • not forcing new ways on old people.
  • using repetition. (Introduce new elements slowly and repeat them often until they are accepted.)
  • re-examining the “givens” in our worship life to determine if they are understood and appreciated by the current group of worshipers or if a change might make an overall difference. (Example: Are an opening hymn, sermon hymn and closing hymn enough musically? Is the frequency of communion attracting people or keeping them away? Would shorter or longer sermons be appreciated? Should children be excused for most of the service? Is the time of worship interfering with attendance?)
  • listening to newcomers to understand their worship preferences.

Redeemer used these methods with success. We didn’t know all this when we started. We worked at it. We made mistakes. What we learned from mistakes makes us more certain of our success.

We hope our experience serves as a roadmap.

 

13 May 2013