Dan Smith & Mary K. Hucyke: CourageousSpace Newsletter: January 2008
Five Elements Common to Pastors Leading Successfully Leading Renewal
What's your understanding of the purpose of church?
We find pastors generally respond nowadays with something along the lines of,
"forming and developing disciples of Christ for the sake of the transformation
of the world." The laity we speak with, particularly those in declining
congregations, typically answer differently. They tend to say that the purpose
of church is worshipping God, being a supportive community to one another, and
helping the poor.
Do you catch the difference? Worshipping God, being a supportive community to
one another, and helping the poor are all important. They are, however, functions
of the church, not its purpose. A purpose is the fundamental goal of a process,
the reason for its existence, the primary result you're aiming for. Functions
are outcomes that are assumed to happen as a result of pursuing that goal. We
believe that worshipping God, being a supportive community to one another and
helping the poor, while three important activities disciples and groups of disciples
do, are not the primary purpose of church.
If you are a disciple of Christ, these are three things you do. On the other
hand worshipping God, being part of a supportive community, and helping the
poor does not make you a disciple of Christ. And therein lies the rub...and
one of the biggest challenges of congregational renewal. The pastor envisions
the church refocusing itself on the work of preparing people to go forth and
engage with the world as disciples of Christ. The people envision a place where
people come to find meaningful worship, real community, and a chance to make
a difference. While these two visions may dovetail at the end, that only happens
if the vision of disciple-making takes precedence.
It's not enough for the pastor to hold that as the vision. If renewal is to
take root and flourish the people themselves must move to the place where they
truly believe that disciple-making for the purpose of the healing and wholeness
of the world is the primary business of the church. Now, that's no small feat
when the majority of people in declining congregations have never been part
of a church that actively focused on Christian formation and missional outreach.
Until their underlying belief about the purpose of church shifts, the congregation
will want to focus on improving worship, community and service. For decades
churches and denominations have mounted campaigns promising improvement in these
areas. And, statistical improvement in those areas was even seen. These improvements
did nothing to stem the long-term trend of decline, because they did not do
anything to address how people are introduced to Christ, invited into discipleship,
and supported in their development. Initiatives that sought to address those
issues were rarely embraced in a whole-hearted way by declining congregations,
because the people did not see those issues as important.
If you're pastoring a declining congregation, one of your biggest challenges
will be helping the people learn to want what they currently don't want and
don't see as being of primary importance. This is the fundamental work that
lies at the heart of congregational renewal. We won't lie to you, renewal is
far easier said than done. Renewal demands that a group of adults who've thought
about and "done" church in a particular way for many years, who've
come to think of that way as normal and right....learn to see church in a new
light and learn to live their faith new way. No one can do it for them; the
work belongs to the people. At the same time, your leadership is of key importance.
Among the pastors who are leading renewal successfully, we see common elements.
Here are 5 that seem to be crucial both for the sake of moving the congregation
foreward and keeping their own sanity.
1. They have a strong personal understanding of the purpose of church and a
vision of their congregation being a communal people of God, Christ present
in and for the world. They focus on forming and developing disciples of Jesus
Christ who go forth into the world. At the same time, along with a belief in
the "goodness" of the people of their congregation, they also have
a realistic understanding of how far the congregation as a whole is from fully
sharing their understanding of purpose and vision.
2. They are committed to the renewal of their congregation and understand that
means not only the renewal of an organization but also the renewal of the minds,
hearts, thinking, and actions of people. They use every opportunity at hand
to form and develop people within the congregation more fully as Christian disciples.
This ranges from worship and preaching and designing educational opportunities
to meetings, newsletter pieces and pastoral care. And, they know this is not
enough.
3. They know they must find laity to join with them in providing leadership
in the renewal process within the congregation. Just as Jesus did, they identify
the group they will more directly and intensely work with, developing and forming
them so that together they can begin to develop and form the whole body. These
pastors know that leading renewal cannot be a solo job.
4. They know the importance of attending to their own spiritual groundedness
and Christian formation. Aware that progress will be slow and resistance inevitably
strong, they know they must continue to nurture their own inner spirituality
in order to remain steady for the work. They know that burnout comes not from
what is happening externally but rather from an internal poverty.
5. They have someone who acts as a coach, someone outside of the congregation
to whom they turn on a regular basis. In the coaching relationship they are
able to stay anchored in their calling, think through the next steps they must
take in their leadership, and find the courage and boldness within themselves
for their work.
If you are a pastor and are serious when you say you want renewal for your congregation,
then we encourage you to assess yourself in these 5 practices. If these are
not practices that currently get lived out in your daily and weekly life, now
is a good time to develop ways to strengthen your attention to and practice
of each. If you'd like to talk further about the ideas in this article, we'd
be happy to chat with you either on the phone or through email.
CourageousSpace 2008