Learning from the Religion of Our Heritage
Transformational Ministry—No!
Adaptive Ministry—Yes!
Today, we can learn from Jewish neighbors and colleagues.
A problem with religion in general is that we all live in our own worlds. We approach problems as if they are unique, threatening only to what we in our self-imposed isolation are doing.
In fact, most churches, denominations, and faiths face the same challenges.
We just don’t identify the challenges correctly.
We all live in the same world with the same changing demographics, the same societal changes, the same economic dilemmas.
Churches die before they can adapt. They die because they are chasing the transformational dream. They die because they are encouraged to change while lacking the tools or structure that will foster change.
It is time to admit that the emphasis of the of last 20 years has been wrong. Churches do not need to transform. We don’t need to change who we are or our message. We DO need to adapt to the world we all live in if we hope to reach the world we live in.
What we need to pursue is adaptive ministry.
The Church’s two-decade old quest for transformation has failed because we all have been looking at each other, waiting for someone else to do the transforming. We isolate the few successes—without really analyzing why they were successful or waiting to see if the success is sustainable. We try to copy one trendy methodology after another.
The last thing we would think to change is the structure of the Church. Heaven forbid!
This approach blinds the church to truly adaptive ministry.
Rabbi Hayim Herring addresses this in his blog today. He talks about many of the things 2×2 discusses—the need to reach people where they are in ways they can actually relate—and sustain.
He calls it “building a platform.” Platforms are structures!
What is an organizational platform (and I can highlight only a few dimensions in this space)? A platform is an enabling space for people to interact and act upon issues. An organization that becomes a platform enables individuals to self direct their Jewish choices and express their Jewish values within the organization’s mission. That is a radical shift from organizational leaders directing people how, when, where, why and with whom to be Jewish—in other words, the dominant paradigm of more established Jewish organizations and synagogues!
Becoming a platform is also a mindset. It means embracing the desire of individuals to co-create their experiences, opt in and opt out of Jewish life, do new things and old things in new ways-of course, within the organization’s mission. This mindset operates within the building, outside of the building, on the website, and anywhere else. It also requires a much more creative and intentional use of technologies to tell individual stories and organizational stories and a redefinition of professional and volunteer leaders’ roles, new governance models and even new professional and volunteer positions.
There is little need for traditional church structure in today’s world. People know this. Church leaders don’t. That’s why churches, large and small, are failing. That’s why the population in the sanctuary is quickly aging.
This failure of the Church to adapt its structure will continue to strangle the breath from the Church. If we can adapt structure, we can avoid a sure and certain death.
Redeemer was leading the way in this regard—still is. We didn’t really know that we were building a platform—but we were!
Redeemer was doing many things in ministry right. We hadn’t gotten there without stumbling a few times, but we had learned a lot in facing problems. We had identified a niche ministry that was growing quickly. We had faced the economic challenges of small church ministry head on. We came to realize that associating with just one pastor was impeding ministry—limiting us to one vision while sapping our resources. We had found pastors willing to work within the new paradigm that was needed for success, while our regional body had only one position: there were no leaders willing to serve us.
The ELCA, while stumping for transformation, couldn’t deal with transformation when it bit them on their Achilles heel. Ouch! What was that?
Regional bodies have serious problems of their own and they have only one way out—getting fewer lay people to give more. If that doesn’t work, take it.
That’s what they did in East Falls. They took what did not belong to them, attempting to destroy ministry to salvage structure. It hasn’t worked very well.
Redeemer’s transformation continues. Our online ministry teaches and involves people who would never bother with Sunday School or religious education. We are discovering our own world view—not waiting for a national church to point out needs and remedies to select problems. We continue to pursue the economic challenges of all neighborhood ministries and we think we have some answers. There is no reason to lock the members of Redeemer out of Church life—except the desire for our assets.
We have built a platform. We work at it every day. We work at it with no help from the structured church. We have learned a lot about ministry in today’s world.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, for the most part, is not listening. They are worried about their retirement years. Their ears are growing old, their eyesight is growing dim. But we, their faithful children, still love them.