Darryl's Blog
Church Transformation
My latest column at Christian Week:
Alan Roxburgh is a preacher, teacher, and consultant whose books help pastors and church leaders understand ministry in a time of change. He currently lives in British Columbia, and has pastored churches in Toronto and Vancouver.
I spent some time in April talking with Alan about our changing culture and what this means for churches in Canada.
According to Alan, most recognize that Christendom has ended and Canadian culture is rapidly changing. This discontinuous change is more than a blip. We are not going back to where we were before, and this makes some anxious.
The story that shaped the church for much of the twentieth century is no longer the story that will move it forward. The habits and practices and the way we did church were developed for a certain kind of culture that no longer exists. Therefore, many of our old habits and practices no longer make sense. This is generally accepted and no longer a matter of debate.
Surface Change
Issues arise as leaders ask what it means to be the church in this new context. Some are trying to revitalize churches by changing at the surface level without understanding the underlying issues. These approaches fail because they do not bring about culture change.
When churches change at the surface, they take what they're doing try to do it better. They hope that if they become welcoming enough, run the right programs, and hire the right pastor, they will attract people. The assumption is that the culture of the church doesn't need to change; they just need better implementation and marketing.
These churches often look for solutions to come from the outside. A church or denomination calls in a great leader, and this leader comes in with programs to turn things around. This way of thinking leads to short term spikes but fails to bring about lasting change.
Real Change
To really innovate, churches need to look at themselves in the mirror and ask what it means to be a church. This calls for reflection and a refusal to settle for superficial answers.
Alan says that transformation comes from realizing that the answers to all the questions the church needs are not found in programs or great leaders, but among the people who make up ordinary congregations.
The role of leadership is to create the environments in which the Spirit of God can work, believing that the Spirit of God is already among those people. Leaders understand that these people in this church, given the right environment, can begin to imagine how they might be God's people in these communities. This is not a top-down process, nor is it easy.
To be effective at this type of pastoral leadership, pastors must commit to stay long enough to journey with a group of people, and build trust through competence at pastoral tasks. However, they must also go deeper and invite communities of people on a long journey. Pastors must become local theologians and poets, listening deeply to the narratives of people and helping to interpret them.
They don't force change or despise people's nostalgia, but love their people and live among them while asking permission to experiment. At the same time, they move away from top-down approaches like strategic planning, mission, and vision statements, and programmatic approaches to church.
This is a very different set of skills than most pastors learned in seminary. Since they can't learn this type of leadership at conferences, pastors must humble themselves enough to admit that they don't have the answers, and that they need their people and their colleagues. This is tough, Alan says, but it's worth it. Even though many have written them off, God is up to something in ordinary local churches.
Writing about our interview later, Alan said, "Church transformation is a big deal! It's not really about fixing anxiety, putting the church back together, making it work. It really is about being a people who, through the practices of Christian life test and experiment ways of being faithful communities. When we do this in the midst of honest relationships and conversations with others it is amazing what the Spirit does in the culture."
Sounds intriguing Darryl (and Alan.)
Even for this somewhat staunchly Reformed believer (who can be quiet about that because you don't have to push truth; if it's real, it will promote itself) but who also knows that the establishment of genuine community amongst us is not only smart for the current and emerging church/culture era we find ourselves in; it's also absolutely critical if we're to grow up into actually Being Christ's body together (rather than just titling ourselves such.)
One thing this direction will require For Sure, will be much higher concentrated doses of Grace & Truth (understood, and lived).
That's exciting. It means we'll have to get down to brass tacks on what the Gospel really means. No--rather, on what it actually IS.
That's Very Exciting!!
I'm not only thankful for the few minds that are thinking/talking/writing about this stuff--I'm thankful for a special pastor who's willing to face the tide, and wade out into new waters, when no-one else around has yet managed to put the pieces together. Or haven't yet become aware of the need even to do this; combining classic truth with contemporary community.
I also love Roxburgh's introducing of 'experimenting ways'... It sounds intrinsic to a healthy 'growing family' environment, where members get to try out ideas, put up with one another, encourage and forbear one another, etc., without constantly running into the unsatisfying structures of having everything decided for them as to what precisely they need, and how they need it (not to mention the unfair 'success pressure' this top-down decision-making and planning places on ministry leaders.) No wonder leaders are burnt-out and disheartened, and congregations are passive. It's exactly what we've prepared each for!
As per pastors who 'stay long enough to journey with a group of people, and build trust through competence at pastoral tasks:'
We've got that.
Thankyou.
Genuinely.
Staying always costs.
So now, it's onward towards, 'they must also go deeper and invite communities of people on a long journey.'
Looking forward to the journey, and to the going deeper.
Thanks Darryl.
It's a privilege to get to do church -- no, to discover church, alongside you.
Having seen a number of churches attempt to change "on the surface" and fail, I am glad to read your incisive insights on "real change."
Thanks - and yes - I'm going to link this article over on b4G in the hope others whom have opted for style over substance read it and re-assess their efforts to remain dynamic while relevant.
You wrote:
"They don't force change or despise people's nostalgia, but love their people and live among them while asking permission to experiment."
This, to me, is the key to successful change and the positive creation of a missional culture. Occasionally those of us who have considered ourselves "emerging" have come across as repudiating everything that went before us - including the great deal of good that many "modern" churches have done.
When I was called to my first church I was probably a little guilty of despising people's nostalgia!