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Judith Gotwald

Can the Church Be Fixed?

Are our church doors truly open?

Are our church doors truly open?

The Alban Institute’s Roundtable is unusually active this week. The weekly topic laid out all the failings of the mainline church. The resulting dialog was a mild outrage.

“Why are we going over what’s wrong? We know what’s wrong? How can we fix it?” Among the most desperate and honest questions is, “Can it be fixed?”

There is still a disconnect between church leadership and church members which may be at the heart of a general disillusionment with the Church.

Why do people become involved in church?

  • Some are born into church-respecting families.
  • Some seek answers to life’s problems.
  • Some are looking for peace and comfort
  • Some are seeking validation or acceptance.
  • Some are seeking God.

One way or another, many people find something in the church worth making it part of their lives. Something attracted them. It was probably someone humbly modeling the teachings of Christ.

That opens the door. Then what?

Church always asks more of us. It asks us to learn and to grow. It encourages us to take stands on issues. We are asked to influence others.

And then the rules begin. Rules are prompted by leaders who want order and power. This lessens the potential of the Church.

The laity hit a glass ceiling. Take a stand—but follow us.

Laity have a choice. We choose to become involved when our initial needs are met and we can make a difference. We don’t join churches to take on more financial woes. We don’t join to have more authority figures. We want to feel loved. We want to know God.

Part of the gift of the Reformation — a cause for which many gave their lives — was the empowerment of the laity. Grace is freely given. No middle man is needed. That message is clouded today in a Church where any “stand” is accepted only if it is politically correct.

The Church is at its strongest when it fosters courage by example.

There is an old Sunday School hymn, probably long forgotten by most:

Dare to be brave. Dare to be true.
Fight for the right for the Lord is with you.
He knows your trials, when your heart quails.
Call Him to rescue His grace never fails.

The Church often speaks out of both sides of its mouth. Be brave. Do as we say.

One commenter in the Roundtable discussion wrote an impassioned essay on his frustrations on spreading the Gospel. He concluded with his own battle cry—that he would remain faithful in knowing God.

He is correct. That is the foundation of all that is good and can be better in the Church. It is fundamental. Work at knowing God and the message we send will ring loud and clear. Then we will know when to follow and when to lead. We will be empowered to do both.

photo credit: Autumnsonata via photopin cc
05 Apr 2012

Social Media Helps the Church Say Yes

Maybe we should blame the Ten Commandments for setting the stage. Early in the formation of our religion, the faithful were presented with “No” Lists or “Don’t” Lists.

  • Do not eat of the fruit . . .
  • Thou shalt not . . . .

The New Testament shifts to the positive with ideas of what the people of God CAN do and SHOULD do. It is all summed up in “Love one another.”

Leaders in authority often rely on “No” to exert their power. In reality, it exposes their weaknesses.

“Yes” is a much more powerful word. Good parents instinctively know that the more they can say “yes” to their children’s wants and dreams, the more the children will listen when “no” is needed, the more they will feel loved, and the more they will explore their true potential. Parents who attempt control with stern prohibitions that defy explanation are headed for trouble!

And yet the Church clings to “No” Lists.

“No” shuts down the work. Things seem safe.

When in doubt, say “No.” Don’t do that outreach. Don’t spend that money. Don’t dance. Don’t play that music. Don’t wear those clothes. Don’t take on that project. Why? Because the person saying “No” said so.

Saying “No” is a way of exerting power. Questions will be discouraged. Innovations will be few and far between — left to the most tenacious who will be labeled “troublemakers.”

The regular use of the word “No” is probably at the root of the Church’s precarious state.

Saying “Yes” is empowering to others, but it is more work. “Yes” means things will happen (but not necessarily the way we thought)! “Yes” means entering the unknown. “Yes” means loss of control. “Yes” means change.

The Church can no longer afford to follow “No”sayers. We no longer have to.

“Yes” has never been more possible. The resources of the world are at our keyboards. We can so easily find the people with energy, hope and ideas. It has never been easier to follow the Church’s positive mandates.

That’s the great thing about Social Media’s potential for the Church. Social Media makes it easier for us to look outside of ourselves and who we think we are. We can look beyond our church walls, our membership, our community, our denomination.

Anybody can join the conversation. We will be trailblazers.

But then, so were those disciples. Jesus had good advice for them in dealing with “No”sayers—shake off the dust and move on!

Say “Yes” to Social Media.

04 Apr 2012

Palm Sunday in Pakistan

Our sister church in Pakistan sent us many pictures of their fellowship’s Palm Sunday celebration, witnessing in the city streets. Here is just one!

Our congregations correspond weekly and pray for one another.

Blessings for their ministry.

03 Apr 2012

As SEPA Synod Assembly 2012 approaches . . .

“Why don’t ‘you people’ just find another church and stop all the anger?” a pastor asked one of our ambassadors on a recent visit.

That would make life so easy—if only victims would not fight back when they are bullied.

We assure the people of SEPA that Redeemer does not like being angry. Sometimes anger is appropriate.

Jesus became angry at the sight of the moneylenders defiling the Temple. For the last four years, Redeemer has watched those with financial interests in our property behave in similarly greedy and self-serving ways in our sacred space.

Anger is not fun. The alternative — to ignore anger—is to deny our sense of worth, our passion, our community…and not least…our faith. SEPA demands we mothball our memories and our heritage and that we break our friendships and connections with the community where we still live. We are expected to hide our light under a bushel and become passive pew-warming Christians in some other place than our own community.

SEPA discredits the volunteer hours that went into making Redeemer grow in the last ten years. Our documented successes go unrecognized; they collide with SEPA’s prejudice and true goals — acquisition of our assets.

The resulting conflict was needless. Despite reports to the contrary, there was NO forum for mutual discernment, NO long period of working together, NO consideration for the elected leaders of Redeemer.

There WAS ample abuse of the constitutional processes.

Lawsuits could have been avoided. Financial challenges could have been minimized. There were numerous paths to peace. SEPA leadership chose aggression at every turn.

In another synod, a congregation much smaller than Redeemer appealed a similar synodical decision to close. Their story is much like Redeemer’s, complete with a locksmith raid. But comparisons end there. Their Synod Assembly supported the congregation. This congregation is still small but has started community outreach that is funding their church well. They have been helping Redeemer.

Redeemer, easily five times the size of this church, had similar plans which by now would have been quite lucrative and supporting an exciting ministry in East Falls.

Instead Bishop Burkat continues to create a widening wake of hurt, anger and destruction.

Lutheran constitutions and government depend on the understanding that laity and clergy are equals and the organizations within the church are interdependent. Lutherans are supposed to work together.

This cannot happen as long as SEPA Lutherans stand on the sidelines and watch in silence as member churches endure abuse.

Back to the pastor who advised us to just stop being angry.

Why don’t we just find another church?

Our answer. We’ve been vagabond Lutherans for nearly three years. We’ve reached out to 43 of SEPA’s 160 congregations. We’ve visited. We’ve left contact information. We’ve written letters. We’ve made some friends along the way, but the fact is . . . none of the congregations still within the ELCA have reached out to us. No active pastor has visited our members to offer any kind of pastoral care. (Two retired pastors have helped.)

SEPA, the conflict is in your hands. You could turn this around at May’s Synod Assembly by demanding your leadership work to reconcile with the Lutherans of East Falls.

We repeat a wonderful quote all congregations should take to heart.

People should not have to find a church.
The church should find them.

03 Apr 2012

Stop Blaming Congregations for Failure

Let Social Media Save the Day

We lay people have been taking it on the chin for years.

  • We’ve been ridiculed. We don’t tithe. We don’t evangelize. We aren’t welcoming. We don’t volunteer.
  • We’ve been labeled. If we aren’t strong, we are backward and resistant to change, and dying. If we are strong, insisting on answers, we are adversarial and resistant to authority.
  • We are made to feel inferior and inadequate, unable to find our way in the world without hanging onto the robes of the clergy.

—all because mainline churches are failing.

IT’S NOT OUR FAULT.

  • It’s not our fault that the church is structured to nurture homogenous cultures of yesteryear that  naturally replenish and grow in numbers from generation to generation.
  • It’s not our fault that, in the New World, community demographics shift every decade
  • It’s not our fault that even the least dysfunctional families experience their own diasporas every generation or so.
  • It’s not our fault that fewer people enter the ministry as a life call and see the only road to advancement as moving to suburban settings, making neighborhood ministries less desirable.
  • It’s not our fault that leadership has been just as unprepared for changes in society as we were.
  • It’s not our fault that the Church, despite a strong start in the Reformation, managed to sit out the Renaissance and stayed mired in the Middle Ages for the last 500 years.

Now that we are in a new age yet to be named (the Information Age?, the Digital Age? the Age of Globalization?) we’re all playing catch up.

In the hierarchical past, this meant creating a position headed by a well-paid think tank leader with an alphabet of credentials after his name. It meant funding an office with a staff, providing an adequate budget for developing resources, allowing three to five years for development, and the creation of a network to implement resulting initiatives. Implementation would be easy because all churches would be alike, waiting for answers to their problems to be delivered to them. After all, there would be nowhere else for them to turn.

Today, we are standing at the door of the future. The answers will come by inspiring community. There will be much less need for a centralized office of any sort.

The church of the future will be led by a conductor who stands at the podium, signals the opening downbeat and walks away, allowing the musicians to get their cues from one another, to take off in an imaginative riff, to return to the group to enjoy another artist’s take.

Welcome to the Information Age, the Age of Social Media, the Age of Globalization. It’s all coming together just in time to save the mainline church . . . if the mainline church is paying attention.

There is a lot of rethinking that needs to be done. Lay people might be best equipped to lead the way!

photo credit: DeusXFlorida via photopin cc
02 Apr 2012

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer

Today’s Alban Institute Roundtable weekly post is depressing. It features an excerpt from a book on the condition of the church, written by Kenneth J. McFayden.

It is a “Litany of Loss”—a list of ten losses to the modern church which seems all the longer for its hopelessness.

Very few in the church are unaware of the fragile state of the neighborhood church. Perhaps larger churches, in modern, squeaky clean facilities, in thriving suburbs can escape (for the time being), but small town/country churches and urban churches face challenges.

There is commonality. They are older than suburban churches (in most cases) and have experienced shifts in their communities that the Church never foresaw. Suburban churches have yet to face the same challenges — the same litany of losses.

They will.

Let’s learn from experience.

The challenges facing so many neighborhood churches might never have happened had the need for change been addressed decades ago.

Too much was left unattended. This is a failure of leadership, not of Christian community.

As long as bills were paid, the coming challenges were ignored. As times grew tougher, less was done but more was needed. Part time pastors were called when full-time effort was called for. Paying the existing bills became the mission when money was needed for change. All church activity was scaled around maintaining church as it was known. When things changed, the Church was unable to meet its fundamental mission — to reach first its nearest neighbors.

This didn’t happen overnight. It took years of neglect.

The lessons:

  • If we focus ministry on existing community, we will face trouble when that community ages or relocates.
  • If ministry focuses on tradition (including denominational traditions), there is little to attract new members from different traditions.
  • Little changes are hard. Big changes are closer to impossible. The Church must foster an atmosphere where little changes are not so momentous as to shake traditions or threaten security. Make change a habit.

For denominational leaders and professional leaders to neglect their congregations’ needs for little changes over the years and then descend upon congregations with domineering strength when they face challenges damaging to the foundation of Christian community—fails fundamentally to nurture and empower the faithful.

Small congregations do not need dramatic overhauls. They need love. They need it now.

Love feeds hope. Hope fuels action. Action brings change.

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Romans 12:12 (NIV)

02 Apr 2012

Significant progress made in healing SEPA/Redeemer conflict

Redeemer is happy on this joyous Palm Sunday to report significant progress in reconciling  all differences with the bishop and representatives of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

In a lengthy arbitration process, SEPA leaders agreed to drop all lawsuits against the congregation and its individual members and work together toward peace. It was noted with pride that SEPA is a reconciling denomination.

In a statement read by a SEPA representative, it was further noted that the Bible recognizes that differences will arise within the church, but by following biblical remedies, peace can be attained with love and mutual respect. “How can we expect to reconcile with people of different faiths if we cannot reconcile with our own people?” a SEPA spokesperson asked.

It was announced that the congregation will worship in the sanctuary (that has been locked for three years) beginning this Easter. The service will be presided over by a clergy representative from SEPA’s roster, chosen by the congregation. The service will follow both African and East Falls worship traditions within a traditional Lutheran liturgical structure, reflective of Redeemer’s congregational makeup.

A series of biweekly meetings will be held to include the congregation’s remaining church council, Redeemer members, and synodical representatives. Regular worship and the reopening of the congregation’s day care and after-school programs will be first on the each meeting’s agenda with projected revenues supporting Redeemer’s ministry.

The synod will assign a pastor to visit every Redeemer member to extend an olive branch of peace and reconciliation.

Redeemer will be restored to the list of active congregations with full voice and vote in Synod Assembly with its rightful number of delegates as a multi-racial/cultural church under SEPA’s constitution.

A summer outreach will be conducted focusing on a two-week Vacation Church School, led by members and local college students. The school will feature a major community service project. Redeemer has worked on this concept during its three years of exile from the Lutheran Church.

The congregation will approach the neighboring public school to work on a flex-time religious education offering.

A long-term plan for settling the debts incurred from four years of litigation will be negotiated. A low-interest loan will be sought to pay off the congregation’s high interest loan, thus ending third-party claims against the church and the synod. The congregation’s loan has been in default since January 2010 after SEPA was granted the deed to Redeemer’s property by Commonwealth Courts in a suit which resulted in a split PA Commonwealth Court decision favoring SEPA. Redeemer will repay the loan under 20-year terms.

A first congregational meeting will be held a week after Easter to restore Redeemer’s  council and government. Semi-annual meetings will be held with SEPA leadership to monitor progress in reestablishing the congregation.

The congregation’s comprehensive mission plan, presented to SEPA in 2007, will be revised to take into account new realities. The congregation will vote on the revisions at a meeting to be held within six months. A SEPA staff person who recently approached East Falls community members requesting ideas for use of the Redeemer property was pleased with the careful thought put into the plan by Redeemer members.

A pastor skilled in multicultural outreach will be sought with input from Redeemer members. The search process will begin immediately.

A Reconciliation and Atonement service with transfer of the property to Redeemer Lutherans will be scheduled to be held after the details of Redeemer’s government are worked out.

Redeemer and SEPA leaders, in a joint news conference, announced that they were pleased to be working together in mission and to the glory of God. “Forgiveness and compassion are key qualities of the church,” a spokesperson for Redeemer said. “We long to take any and every step possible to reach out to our brothers and sisters in Christ in the spirit of Christian unity.”

A SEPA representative noted that Palm Sunday, the day the people of Jerusalem lauded Jesus as King and begged for salvation, was a fitting time to exercise the teachings of the Church and to begin working together interdependently in the Lutheran tradition.

Happy April Fools Day!
(A Church can dream, can’t it!)

And if all of this doesn’t happen today, on April 1, it never will!

01 Apr 2012

Church Competition (It’s not who you think!)

Did watch manufacturers ever predict that their major competitors would be cell phones? That’s what has happened. Cell phones display the time prominently. No need for a watch. Bulova, Timex, and Seiko were watching each other while T-mobile and the Iphone began to make them obsolete.

Understanding your competition is important to successful honing and implementation of mission.

Many churches have no clue that there is competition. There is.

We often address symptoms of the competition and miss the diagnosis. The competition is not:

  • the neighboring church of a different denomination
  • the church with the charismatic pastor or hefty endowment
  • the bigger church of your same denomination
  • Saturday morning sports
  • demands of the schools on family time
  • dysfunctional families
  • televangelism

These are symptoms.

The competition is the force that separates people from God and wanting to be in communion with the people of God. There was a time when the religious were bold enough to give it a name . . . Satan.

Most churches act as if their mission were to attract the biggest piece of the existing religious pie.

That’s what happens when you rely on demographers to direct mission efforts. Demographers can measure the known. Careful studies count the number of existing “Lutherans” in a geographic area. They compare it to how many “Lutherans” were in that area a decade ago. They measure the household income of the people in the neighborhood.

That’s where the train jumps the track.

Mission is about reaching those who are not measured by demographers and will not have the inclination to support ministry with a piece of their household income for some time.

The biggest problem (and there are many) in this approach to mission is that it keeps churches from working together.

Denominational church structures are designed to facilitate mission, but in tough economic times they can become self-focused, making decisions that protect their own status quo.

Denominations and congregations cannot serve our neighbors while we are coveting their people, their money, their staff, and their property.

When each visitor is seen as a potential “sell,” we fail to reach the soul of a seeker longing to know God. When each congregation is measured by its ability to support the denomination, not its community or mission, we fail the Church as a whole.

There is a trickle down effect. Unaddressed problems spread over the years. Failure to help one struggling church becomes ten neglected churches within a decade or so.

Our Ambassadors have visited many congregations. We have seen separate communities facing the same challenges—most of them in isolation. Some of them are within a three-mile radius (in well-populated areas). Some of them face closure—one at a time—over the next decade or two. Since the ability to support an expensive structure is put before mission, they fight an uphill battle even within their denomination.

There is untapped power in working together. Yet the Church that talks about unity is crippled as they seek success and solutions that help their bottom lines today.

When the church understands that their mission is to reach the world outside their demographics, progress will be made.

We offer a quote prominently displayed on another website.

People shouldn’t have to find a church.

The church should find them.

photo credit: mbgrigby via photopin cc

31 Mar 2012

Women Are Key Influencers in the Church (always have been!)

A business blogger recently posted statistics claiming that women are the most powerful “brand ambassadors” in the world. The business world sometimes uses a church term, evangelist, for this job description. Once again, the church can learn from the world of business.

Steve Olenski, in socialmediatoday, cited a study that showed that:

  • Women are 80% more likely than men to try new products/services based on advice of a friend.
  • Women are 74% more likely than men to encourage friends to try new products and services.
  • Women tend to stay more engaged (74%) with products and services they like.
  • Women are 42% less likely to share negative experiences with products or services.
  • Women are only 32% less likely to avoid products or services based on a friend’s negative experience.

These interesting statistics remind us of something we encountered in our own experience and on our Ambassador visits. Redeemer’s greatest period of growth was nurtured less by pastors but by the presence of a deaconess, who ran the educational and social programs in the church. Older Redeemer members could tell us the names of pastors but they talked about the work of the deaconess. In our visits we encountered several churches that referred lovingly to a long-departed deaconess.

And then we remembered the power of the women’s group at Redeemer, which operated independently with their own budget and bank account. Unhampered by church council they chose their own social pursuits — all of which reflected well on Redeemer as a whole. We thought back to the days of the Women’s Auxiliaries and Ladies Aid Societies.

Many of the churches that struggle today to afford pastors have their roots in the less recognized and less compensated devotion of women.

In a television program that follows well-known entertainers as they research geneology, Actress Helen Hunt appeared to be mortified by the revelation that her great grandmother had been a powerful force in the women’s temperance movement of the 19th century and early 20th century. She sat with an historian who pointed out to her that this movement was actually revolutionary, fighting serious societal problems that were affecting their communities in a world that gave women no vote or voice.

Women have always had a voice — just not a publicly recognized one. Their voice was easily overlooked because men controlled publishing as well as the board room. The powerful women’s groups of the era grew from passion, commitment and perseverance to make a difference in a world that refused to recognize their abilities.

No more!

The church would be considerably stronger today if it recognized and unleashed women’s powerful inclination to nurture — which is what the statistics quoted above reveal.

Consider this as you make plans for church growth. The challenge is to find modern, equitable ways to do this.

30 Mar 2012

Facebook Changes the Rules in Two Days

For churches using Facebook:

As of April 1, all Facebook users will have to conform to new Facebook guidelines.

The biggest change is that the Timeline feature will be incorporated across the board. You must create a banner. Facebook calls it a cover photo. You have two days to do it!

So go into Photoshop or your imaging program and create a file 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall.

Add the name of your church at least and think about what else you can do with the banner.

Facebook has new rules about this.

The biggest “don’t” for churches is DON’T include any contact information on the banner. NO website address. NO Address. NO Phone.

Also: You cannot use a Call to Action. That means you cannot say “Visit us,” “Come to” or “Give to.” You can say “We welcome you.”

Just give basic facts: The Who, What, When and Where and Why. Telling How might be considered a Call to Action.

You can include:

  • Mission Statement
  • Service Times
  • Programs or Events
  • Event Times and Places
  • Pastor Names

Your site can be taken down if you do not comply.

Here is the banner we created. Note: We put the programs we emphasize on our site and used the basic words and imagery of our web site. It won’t be hard for anyone to find us in  a search engine. And we are doing this without breaking the Facebook rules.

There are more changes afoot. We’ll cover them later! Get to work on your timeline cover photo!

29 Mar 2012