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laity

9 Ways to Nurture Church Culture

Change Depends on Nurturing Laity

Laity outnumber clergy in everything but attention. Here are some ways that churches dedicated to transformational change can change that.

1. Assess the Career Path of the Laity

Clergy have an established career path. They have to jump a maze of hurdles to verify their call. They spend three or four years under the watchful eye of mentors in seminary. Then they seek that call. Or is it seeking them? That’s the question.

Once a candidate has heard the call and there is agreement that he or she has heard the correct call—the career path is set. Some pastors will grow and mature with their congregations. Some will bide time as their congregations fail. Some will hop from call to call. Some may discover and hone new skills. Many will stick with their seminary initial training forever.

Here’s a  cartoon describing the Methodist tradition. Every denomination has some form of “process.”

discernment-process

But what about the laity—the field of laborers, the financial backbone of the church.

They are a neglected part of church culture. Their career path starts with baptism and membership. Then what?

2. Recognize that laity change—as a group and individually.

Today’s laity are not the same as the laity of 50 years ago. Collective educational background is much higher. Our cultural experience has matured. The zeitgeist of the time changes. Yet, the church scans the pews and sees the past.

I was recently using a seminary library when I overheard an exchange between a seminarian and the clergy librarian. The student was expressing gratitude that a professor had pointed out how their congregation will view a certain theological point. “I’m so glad he pointed out to me how lay people think. Now I’m ready.”

How do we think? Someone should tell us.

The particular point they were discussing and the supposed viewpoint of the laity was so dated that anyone holding it today would be 150 years old.

Sometimes we get what we expect. If we expect laity to have shallow theological understanding, we will find those people.

This notion that laity are always the same is a cause of church closings. If we keep looking for cookie-cutter members to replace those lost to attrition, we will soon have a difficult time.

Many churches today sit in the middle of vibrant neighborhoods and lament that demographics have changed. That’s one thing that is never going to change!

3. The laity are encouraged to change but are not really allowed to implement change around the set structure of the church.

The churches that will survive the next two decades will have members and clergy who think entrepreneurially. Entrepreneurs have a “can do” attitude. The challenge to congregations will be to ensure that laity have the tools to implement new ideas.

Look at Steve Jobs and his product line, Apple and Macintosh computers. When retailers refused to stock his products, he didn’t adopt an attitude of contrition and defeat. He opened his own retail stores and sold through computer vendors. He soon ruled the market.

The Lutheran Church recognizes lay talents with their Associates in Ministry program. It requires 600 seminary hours and field experience before laity can tap into the church compensation programs. The field experience is in predictable areas (education, social services and music).

Perhaps this is a way of keeping order, but it tends to turn laity into little clergy and puts skilled laity directly under the oversight of clergy. Ultimately, that’s crippling.

What about all the laity that spend 600 or more hours in (or teaching) Sunday School and Confirmation Class and spent another 10,000 hours developing skills that seminaries don’t teach—and who are not looking for the Church’s seal of approval?

Their voice and talents are supposed to be equally valued in Lutheran structure.

They are not. And lay people sense that. And so they sit. Sitting does not produce change.

4. The Good News must be presented to God’s people today.

In today’s world, where life-long learning is expected, laity will not want to hear the same Sunday School lesson over and over. They must provide new and challenging avenues for service that begin with the interests and skills of the laity — not what the church thinks it needs at the moment.

The church must bring this kind of life into their faith communities or younger laity will be gone. They are on their way out the door now.

5. Nurture the attitude of leaders.

The culture of the church feeds off the attitudes of leaders.

When they appear to be self-protective, self-focused  and managerial, only laity conditioned to that will respond. The attitude of modern clergy must be welcoming, positive and nurturing.

I was riding in a cab recently and the cab driver was listening to a dispatcher giving basic business coaching. “Remember to thank your passenger. They have choices.” Good advice for building the culture of church. Today’s laity have choices.

6. Find the laity’s strengths.

Too often the church seeks to fit laity into pre-established service roles. Do you want to sing in the choir, teach children or work in the food bank?

Every individual has at least one strength; some have many. What if it’s “none of the above”?

People like to play their strengths. If there is no opportunity to do so in church, they will find somewhere else to serve.

7. Give the laity ownership of their ministry.

Don’t we already do that?

Constitutionally, yes. Practically, no.

The challenges of today’s church have weighted the hand of hierarchy.

How’s this working for us? It’s not—but we keep at it anyway.

When clergy are assigned, not called, when congregational votes are bypassed, and assembly votes are rigged, the church is sapping the laity for managerial gain.

It’s a dead end. Wait and see. (It won’t be long!)

8. Let the call process work.

Calls are supposed to come through the congregations—not managed or dictated. Any church that is accepting a pastoral match without the skills necessary to nurture the congregation is pouring resources down the drain and sapping the spirit of the church. They are taking advantage of their laity. If there are not enough pastors with the necessary skills, the church professional leadership structure should work to remedy that ASAP, before dozens more congregations fail. Saddling congregations (usually, but not always the smaller ones) with pastors who have no intention of working to grow a congregation is dishonest.

9. Remember the past but celebrate your current culture.

If you have an annual homecoming, make sure you also have an equal celebration of your current history. Each year note how your culture has changed and improved. New people aren’t insensitive. They care about the history of the church. But it’s more important that they know that they fit into the culture here and now.

22 Nov 2013

Lay Leaders As Middle Managers

wwa_three_expressions.ashxLay Leaders Have An Important Job
…if the Church Will Let Us Do It!

The governance of the Evangelical Lutheran Church is murky water. We are proud of our interdependence—our three expressions. Church leaders talk about it a lot.

We are less clear on how this actually works.

The foundation of interdependence is the local congregation. From this foundation comes the talent and resources that support the second interdependent entity (the regional body or synod) and the third interdependent agency (the national church). Entities 2 and 3 cannot exist without Entity 1. Entity 1 can exist without the others, but relationship with 2 and 3 is expected to make the local church stronger and more effective.

Regional clergy often feel a loyalty to the third expression, the National Church. Are they part of the regional expression? Are they a branch of the national expression? Are they beholding to their regional leader? Are they most loyal to the leaders and congregation who issue their call?

There is spillover in the role of the regional leadership—especially the office of bishop. They are elected by and serve the regional churches, but they are close to the national expression. A sort of old boys’ and girls’ club. They know each other and regard each other, but have no clue what they as individuals are doing in their 65 little corners of the United States. Since the highest authority in the ELCA is the regional Synod Assembly, they never find out. At some point the ELCA should review this. It is proving to be a bad idea. Leaders are taking advantage of this weaknesses for their own enrichment.

Lay leaders don’t fit into this structure except on paper. Our constitutions provide the laity considerable control over local ministry—the first of the three expressions and the one that funds the other two!

In practice, regional bodies are taking on powers to unilaterally strip local authority at whim. There is no effective way to check this. Synod Assemblies get their information from the synod office. They don’t have any way of investigating issues independently. In our Region, they haven’t even tried. Their decision in our case was based primarily on gossip—generated by SEPA leaders.

But still, the management of the local congregation is in the hands of the lay people. That’s the way it’s supposed to be in Lutheranland. Lay leaders stand between the people in the pew and the long arms of the clergy which branch from the national expression.

Here’s a quote from management guru Seth Godin.

The work of the middleman is to inspect and recover. If your restaurant gets lousy fish from the boat, you don’t get to serve it and proclaim garbage in garbage out. No, your job is to inspect what you get, and if necessary, change it.

That’s a big responsibilty. When we get lousy guidance from the regional or national office, we have an obligation to say “Wait a minute.”

Lay people must constantly inspect the information passed down to them—double check it, so to speak. We cannot trust that clergy have our interests in mind. It’s been clear in far too many cases that they have their own interests or the regional body’s interests in mind.

Many lay people individually are more than qualified to ask the right questions. Some lay people need to learn these skills. A responsibility of lay people is to make sure their congregations foster these skills among future generations.

Fostering an environment where questions are expected and encouraged is a challenge. Management is always tempted to believe that things run most smoothly when there are no challenges. They are wrong. Challenges, ably and readily met, make a wonderfully creative environment. We have a way to go before we achieve this.

It doesn’t take much for wrong teaching to take hold and change the character of the whole church.

Our Ambassadors occasionally come across such wrong teaching. One pastor preached to the people that they shouldn’t turn to God in prayer for little things that they can do themselves. Save God for the big things, she preached.

That began to resonate but it isn’t scriptural. It sure sounds good. But it is wrong. God is God. He wants us to come to Him in prayer. Our biggest problems are a hangnail to Him. It is somewhat presumptuous to believe that we have ANY power that is not gifted to us through Him. We need to stay in touch with God so that we remember that!

Wrong thinking can spread to wrong acting. We are seeing this today in the mis-interpretation of powers.

Bishops, aided by their synod councils, who together face economically trying times, look for answers. The answers they are finding are often outside their governance. If there is no one to point this out, they can help themselves at severe harm to others and their own mission. Get away with it once, the second, third and fourth times are so much easier—even acceptable for the lack of challenge.

What do we, as part of an interdependent church, do when one interdependent expression becomes predatory against another interdependent expression?

The only thing that can stop this is knowledgeable and independent thinking among both clergy and lay people.

That’s the challenge of today’s church.

We’ve been to Synod Assembly. We’ve seen pastors walk in, register as required, and walk out, leaving the decisions to others to make — right or wrong.

We’ve been to Synod Assembly where no one asks questions. No reason to. The answers have been laid out for the Assembly to rubber stamp.

We’ve been to Synod Assembly where serious and costly mistakes have been made because delegates follow when they should be leading.

The work of the middleman (lay leadership) is to inspect and recover. It’s a big job but somebody’s got to do it.

It’s actually the laity’s constitutional role. It’s supposed to be shared with clergy, but that hasn’t been effective. They need their jobs!

Let’s start doing a better job. It may be tough at first. It certainly hasn’t been easy here in East Falls, where the dangers and pitfalls are on display for all churches to see. (You’re welcome!)

If we don’t do our job under the grand scheme of Lutheran interdependence, it will all fall apart. Laity are Lutheran inspectors—the best safeguard to—

“Garbage in. Garbage out.”

22 Sep 2013

Guest Post: What Constitutes Power in the Church?

Joanna Smithlr

 

Today’s post is written by Joanna Smith, a subscriber to 2×2.

Joanna Smith is a Christian and an observer of the good, the bad, and the ugly within the Church. She may be reached at jcsmith19027@yahoo.com.

Dedicated Christians or Power-Crazed Christians?

If the Church is the body of Christ, why do so many of her leaders act like the road to successful church growth is paved with her amputated head and limbs? Click to tweet.

Recently, I was staffing a booth at a regional denominational convention where I had the chance to speak to a pastor who had been put in charge of revitalizing what was considered a declining church in a medium-sized town in Pennsylvania.

This town, like many others across the country, was facing the challenges associated with contemporary American life: changing ethnicity, the rise of secularism, and–let’s be frank—the effects of sin and evil.

This pastor, who also worked in construction and sported a military-style buzz cut, was charged by the denominational leadership to “turn around” this small city church.

“Go in there and act like the Marine. You already look the part,” he was told.

Like a good soldier he followed orders. During the beginning days of his tenure at the church, senior lay leadership made it clear that they were not happy with the changes he was proposing. He pushed back. Hard. And made it clear that changes would be made and that if they didn’t like it, they would be free to leave.

“They are the old line power-hungry elite who are standing in the way of church growth,” he said forcefully. “They’ll find another declining church to join where they can play their power games.”

Expendable Members. What A Way to Grow A Church!

The strategy, which has been proposed by others, was to hound the offending laity until they ended up saying their prayers alone in their living room on Sunday morning.

Talk about wolves in shepherds’ clothing!

What that pastor was saying has an element of truth.  There are people for whom church leadership is a means to power. Quite a few, it seems, end up becoming ordained. Click to tweet.

Most lay people who stay in “declining” congregations are those who teach Sunday School, who sing in the choir, and who serve at the church suppers when there are fewer and fewer people to take on those tasks. They may have held their congregations together through decades of neighborhood unrest and possibly through several poor ineffective pastoral solutions presented by their regional body.

Most likely they were married there and their children were baptized there. Probably their parents were, too.  They were the ones who stayed and put up with the theological experimentation—which at times bordered on heresy—the same denominational leadership who was now trying to force them out.

They are the faithful backbone of the church—the ones you can count on to show up with their sleeves rolled.

I’m no doctor, but I think that it’s considered malpractice to treat a limping patient with a sprained ankle by fracturing his back.

Servanthood in the Church

Christ doesn’t treat His Church that way. In Ephesians, Paul compares the Church to a bride and says that Jesus “gave himself up for her” and “nourishes and cherishes” her.

Jesus called himself the Good Shepherd and said that he would leave the 99 and go after the one lost sheep. He also said that He would never leave or forsake those 99. Any earthly hireling shepherd that would purposely scatter the herd in his charge would be a dangerous fool and should be fired by his employer.

Perhaps today’s church leadership should emulate the Marines, whose motto is semper fidelis for whom honor is sacred. Perhaps we should live by the marine’s primary rule of engagement: never leave one your own behind. 

It would be biblical. Jesus told his flock that he would never leave them or forsake them.

Jesus had some very harsh words for his hired hands: “Anyone who causes even the least of my own to go astray, it is better that he wears a millstone around his neck and is thrown into the sea.” 

I was paging through the New Testament the other day looking for the chapter and verse where Jesus said that it was okay for people to throw others out of his church, abandon and demonize the most faithful, lock doors, claim property and declare their actions to be righteous and praiseworthy—while anyone who might think differently can go eat cake.

Can you find it?

Related post of a successful, more loving (Christian) alternative approach

shepherdlr

Cartoon by 2×2

NOTE from 2×2: Thanks for your heartfelt contribution, Joanna.

A career pastor who made a mission of reviving congregations, spending five to seven years in each, once told me the first thing a transformational pastor must do is “nothing for one year.” Getting to know the parish and forming relationships with lay leaders takes that long, he advised. After that, when you’ve proved that you love the congregation and have their interests at heart (as opposed to your own or that of the regional body) begin to introduce ideas, gently — not like a Marine. Until solid relationships are formed, lay leaders are well within their rights to be resistant and suspicious. All clergy would have to do is practice the Golden Rule. How would you like it if someone treated you like your home would be better without you in it? Lay caution is natural and usually based in love for the church—not a lust for power.  Their caution is prudent.

Lay people with an insatiable lust for power don’t hang around in small churches.

Clergy get away with their self-serving attitudes because they count on lay leaders to have no voice. 2×2 is trying to change that.

We’d love to check back on that Marine Pastor in a year or so to see if his approach worked or if he found himself the shepherd of a closed church.

Thanks, again, for your view coming from a different denomination. Judy

03 Jul 2013

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