The Power of Planting a Stake in the Ground
How can you help your church become a missional church rather than a church driven by activities?
One way is to start with the teams and committees of that church. The majority of a congregation's work is done through teams and committees. As those groups begin to function missionally, so will the larger church.
By missional we mean “concerned with serving the welfare of others beyond themselves.” A team that functions missionally understands that it exists to make a particular difference in a group of people beyond themselves. A missionally functioning children's education committee would see its task as serving the education and formation needs of children. A welcoming team would see its aim as serving the needs of newcomers.
Now while that seems like a no-brainer, it's more common for teams and committees to fall into one of two traps – either serving ongoing programming or serving the church. An Education Committee that sees its main goal as making sure Sunday School is stocked and staffed has fallen into the trap of serving on-going programming. A Welcoming Team with the primary goal of increasing membership has fallen into the trap of serving the church… rather than those whom the church is meant to serve.
There is a deceptively simple way to avoid both of those traps. It's as simple as a single sentence. This sentence focuses all the work a team will do by naming the group the team is called to serve, declaring the difference they're called to make in their lives, and naming the greater good served by the work. This sentence becomes the stake in the ground that determines and focuses everything that team or committee does .
For instance, the children's education committee might claim as their stake:
Children must grow in their spiritual development for the sake of their growing into their fully potential as people of God.
The welcoming team might claim as their stake:
Newcomers must find a home in the church community for the sake of their finding and living their calling in the world.
Notice the 4 part formula the sentence that follows.
(Who's being served) + must + (the difference the committee is committed to bring about for them) + for the sake of (the greater good being served.)
Let's look at the four parts separately. The first part (who's being served) names the “who.” It clearly declares who the group is going to focus on. It reminds the team or committee who they are there to serve.
The third part (the difference that the team or committee is committed to help bring about for them) names the “what” and declares the results the group intends. This helps a group determine how and where to focus their energy.
The fourth part (the greater good served) reminds the group of the work that is important beyond the immediate results.
The second part is small, but key. The word “must” is what brings the parts together and names the commitment the team feels towards its task. If the group cannot truly say “must” and mean it, they've found something nice to do, perhaps something even important to do – but they have not found their call as regards that group of people. When a group find its common “must”, very little can stop them. Until they do, it generally takes a great deal to keep them motivated.
This sentence, this stake, is found by looking at the people your team or committee is called to serve. What do you long for, for them? What do they need in order to more fully be agents of God in the world? Look at them….what must happen in and through them for God's will for this world to be made manifest?
Does this sound audacious? Yes it does! How audacious for a group of people to have an opinion about what is good for other people – to name specific results they are committed to seeing in the lives of others. Fashionable liberalism leads us to recoil from such audacity. Our own experience of the gospel, however, leads us to want others to fully experience what is possible in their lives. Out of a sense of urgency, holy urgency, we do dare to be audacious.
Along with audacity a heightened level of tenacity surfaces when a stake is planted in the ground. People commit to results rather than merely efforts – yes, results that they have no direct control over. The commitment to results means that the way will be found to accomplish those results even when initially the path is very unclear. With commitment to results a “good try” or simply “working a good plan” is not enough.
Yes, placing a stake in the ground means a level of audacity and tenacity many of us are not used to. Certainly along with the MUST of the stake, we also MUST honor and respect those served and the decisions they make about their lives. However, for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of our calling, it may be time for us to step into a new level of audacity and tenacity.
How can you use the concept of a stake in the ground? A good way to start might be simply taking it to a team or committee you work with. Explain the concept or share this article with the group. Invite them to experiment with the formula as they are planning a specific event or ministry.
After a group has named a stake in the ground the group has one more important task before they begin the planning process and developing the activities in that process. They must stop and ask the question: Do we really want this? Are we committed to these results? Even though we have “talked about” wanting this, do we really want it? For the stake to have power, it must reflect what the group truly believes is of deepest importance.
The group that begins with a stake in the ground, with activities then emerging in service of that stake, has taken a significant step in being missional. And so has that church.
Next months article will focus on how a group then uses their stake as they plan their work.
Want to reflect further? Here are two excellent resources that may be of interest:
The Path of Least Resistance and also Your Life as Art , both by Robert Fritz
Composer Robert Fritz describes the creative process of artists in these two books that are currently being read by many leaders. Fritz says that an artist's creativity comes out of a clear sense of current reality and a powerful vision of the results that the artist wants. It is the tension created by the disparity between the two that feeds creative movement.