Here’s where a Church hierarchy can still play an important role.
Since the beginning of the Church there were offshoots of Christianity to deal with. Separate groups of followers had a different story to tell. Much of early Church history is about deciding exactly which group is telling the most authentic story.
Early leaders looked for sources with the most direct connections with Christ. They sought to verify connections. That’s how we arrived at today’s approved Bible, which isn’t about to change soon. Nevertheless, scholars with the help of archeologists still find new texts to add to our knowledge of the early Church.
For example, most Protestant churches teach very little from the Apocrypha. Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions include these books.
The challenge for today’s Church is that the Church is accustomed to dictating what the true story is. They will now have to live in a world that challenges their authority.
That’s most easily done in an atmosphere of open dialog. Dialog is easy in today’s world, but the Church needs to be where the people are—and it’s not in church on Sunday morning.
The Church is inexperienced at open dialog. How much dialog really happens at Synod Assemblies or Church-wide Assemblies? They are pretty well orchestrated to limit dialog.
Frequently, dialog is open in the Church only on approved topics and only up to a point. The cast of players is hand-chosen and properly vetted.
The parameters of the dialog are likely to be narrow and the results are likely to be predictable. Their discussions may be published, but few will read them. The people in the pew know their input is not particularly welcome. Why bother? The dialog was taking place so that we could all be told what to think and believe.
Yet it was never more important. The Scriptures can be easily distorted for selfish purposes. Every 10-year-old holds in his or her hands tools more powerful than ever before in history.
The telling of the story is often a tool of charismatic people who crave control, power or are following any number of dangerous urges. This is how cults gain traction. Cults can be big movements. They can exist in little congregations. They can be led by outsiders. They can be led by church leaders.
The Church won’t be able to check this if they aren’t part of the dialog. When they abandon churches—waiting for them to die, they open the door to all kinds of potential bad teaching.
It may seem insignificant. After all, they are waiting for churches to die. What does it matter?
But the damage can be devastating—even life-threatening. The stories of loving parents following the lead of faith healers right until their child (or children) die regularly make the news. So, too, the stories of innocent youth lured into inappropriate situations.
The Church needs to address this on every level. The story must be told nationally and internationally, regionally and in every neighborhood congregation. Every congregation must (and can) be part of the ongoing dialog of faith.
1. Direct communication and commerce between produces and consumers.
This is so prevalent that it is today’s expectation.
Several times recently I’ve witnessed customers getting rough treatment from a salesperson. They are incredulous. So are the onlookers. They are mumbling to their companions.
What gives? Haven’t they heard of customer service?
There are still a few that haven’t. Sadly, they will always be with us. For the most part, corporate leaders know that they can’t simply ask employees to cite “policy” as a way to dismiss a disgruntled customer. The disgruntled have new power. Their story will be told around the world before nightfall.
The ability of everyone to tell their story to a vast audience has changed the business world. It’s made the business world a better place, I think!
What about Church?
Church relies on storytelling. It always has! Today, the storyteller is truly powerful. The filters are gone.
Church publications were once controlled by the people who could pay the enormous expenses for printing and broadcasting. No one outside an elite circle had a chance at being heard.
The costs are negligible today. That changes the nature of storytelling.
There is tremendous power in storytelling—whether the story is benevolent or critical. The Church can no longer rely on unhappy parishioners going home to sulk unnoticed.
That puts the same burden on Church leaders as business leaders carry.
We MUST deal with the problems and sensitivities that are raised among our members.
The Church has very little practice at this!
The standard reaction from the structured Church is to cite rules (which can be fickle) and expect the faithful to obey. End of story.
One of the strongest and most traditional hierarchies in the world is having trouble with this. Roman Catholic religious leaders are beginning to respond to world problems with their own sense of right. They are pledging their obedience to God more than to man. They have the attention of national media.
Hierarchical pronouncements carry far less weight and there is really no way in the modern world to stop it. But the Church will keep trying. They’ve been in this business a very long time!
They will be slower to realize what business is already recognizing.
The average church member increasingly expects his or her voice to be heard. Christians will be far less likely to accept “Because I’m the Father” reasoning when they start to weigh important decisions.
By the way, this is the topic of next Sunday’s Gospel. Read Luke 13:10-17. Compare Jesus reaction to the Church leaders who cited rules in response to his Sunday ministry.
This very same dialog is going on in today’s Church. And that’s a good thing. A godly thing.
More to the Story
There’s more to this story however. Denominations used to put a lot of money and effort into providing resources for their member churches. They expected their constituency to buy their publications and curriculums without question.
Congregations now have easy access to publications and services from an endless array of sources—many of them FREE!
Denominations will have to compete for market share. They will have to see their constituency as reaching beyond the faithful—who may be more faithful than loyal!.
When Dorothy left home with no particular plan for her future, she ended up visiting the land of Oz. She returned to the world she knew wiser for her visit and assured that the place she called home was heaven on earth. She needed to leave in order to appreciate it.
Not so in the mainline church. Fifty years ago there were six major mainline denominations that accounted for the majority of people who called themselves Protestant Christians. Lutherans were one of the six.
Today these six denominations are in serious decline. Non-denominational churches or smaller denominations have a bigger piece of the Protestant pie. But the pie is being nibbled away.
I’ve been reading the statistical studies of George Barna. His Group did research the scientific way, issuing a report in 2008.
Redeemer’s Ambassadors just started visiting churches of our denomination. Nothing scientific about it. But our findings are empirical. We look up a church on Saturday afternoon and visit on Sunday. We’ve visited close to half the congregations in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. We’ve found the Barna Group statistics to be true. If anything, they are even more dire today, five years later.
The average age of a mainline pastor in 2008 was 55. We’ve seen only a few younger than that and most are considerably older.
His report talks about today’s short pastoral tenure. Most pastors stay in one parish only about four years. Since the current custom in our denomination is to place an interim pastor for as long as two years when a pastor leaves, there is really no realistic expectation that any pastor will become a “settled” pastor. The key leadership position in most churches is a revolving door. Smaller churches tend to be waiting rooms for pastors hoping for openings in larger congregations with bigger budgets.
We hear pastor after pastor talk about taking the training for serving as an interim. They may soon be the majority! That this is so widespread disproves the tendency of church leaders to blame congregations when tenures are short. The commitment level seems to be low.
Shorter tenures may not be a bad thing. Society is no longer settled. But how this is to work while maintaining congregational polity and the interest of lay people will be the challenge. Lay leadership is bound to wane when lay Christians provide the continuity in ministry but must exist under synodical scrutiny for an undesignated period of time—every four years.
This 2008 report reveals that 35% of people attending church are 60-plus. Our experience is that number can be easily doubled. The elderly are the majority in almost every congregation we have visited. Children in worship are rare. Frequently, there are none. Youth are even rarer. Young adults are in the minority.
The report cites the inability of the mainline church to attract racial and ethnic minorities, particularly Hispanic and Asian. Our visits reinforce that finding. In addition, we see very little diversity within congregations. There are just a few that have any measurable diversity. Most are either predominantly black or white—mostly white. Synod Assemblies can crow all they want about diversity. Statistics don’t back it up.
Interestingly, the report points to the quality of leadership as presenting serious challenges. “especially regarding vision, creativity, strategic thinking, and the courage to take risks.” Our experience mirrors and magnifies this finding. Church leadership is in a rut. It cries to the laity to pull them out of the rut, but it gives them no power to do so. In fact, it can be very judgmental, even punitive, towards lay leadership if they attempt differing approaches to ministry. Yet the need for transformation is regularly preached.
Our visits and experience attest that this is a critical problem and perhaps the biggest threat to the future of the Church. The professional leadership model just isn’t working at any level and is unlikely to change without some major fresh blood. The Church has a hard time generating or recognizing talent that can make a difference. Laity are valued for their support not their talent and initiative. Pastors tend to exist in their own worlds. They are rewarded for being good followers, not leaders.
The report goes on to talk about emerging options for Christians and their greater exposure to different religious expressions as changing the face of the mainline Church.
Perhaps we should have been paying more attention to independent churches and the religious expression of smaller denominations all this time. We might have learned something. We still can.
Perhaps our Oz is a “melting pot” phenomenon. Maybe the lessons we need to learn have something to do with recognizing that we and our neighbors are not who we think we are. Congregants are likely to find this refreshing and exciting. Mainline church structure may find it bewildering and threatening.
But most alarming may be the economic statistics. Those who attend church are less well to do than they used to be. The wealthy have found other, more rewarding places to spend their money.
The educational level of church leaders has dipped. Salaries have risen.
Offerings have dropped. More than a third of those who attend church do not contribute at all. At the same time church budgets have doubled.
In our experience the aging of the church-going population has sparked a move by church institutions to corner the market on endowment giving. Seminaries, social service agencies and regional bodies encourage the donors to think of them when planning their estates. Any questions, just call their development officer. Be wined and dined while the papers are drawn up.
Fifty years ago, those bequests might have been designated for the local churches. Small churches don’t have development staff to work with members. In addition, regional bodies are assuming powers to claim gifts bestowed on small congregations. Future gifts are unlikely. People want their money to go where they want it to go! A lot of dollars that could be supporting congregations are disappearing.
We are in the Land of Oz. Are we learning any lessons?
If we can ever return to the health and influence of decades past, what might we do differently?
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We were all once strangers, the weakest, the outcasts, until someone came to our defense, included us, empowered us, reconciled us (1 Cor. 2; Eph. 2).
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On Isaiah 30:15b
Be calm. Wait. Wait. Commit your cause to God. He will make it succeed. Look for Him a little at a time. Wait. Wait. But since this waiting seems long to the flesh and appears like death, the flesh always wavers. But keep faith. Patience will overcome wickedness.
—Martin Luther
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