"Leaders and organizations often fail because they lose connection with the actual changes at work within their organization's culture. They lose their internal power of mission that shaped their initial formation and, therefore, they lose connection with the very groups in the external environment for which they came into being." (p. 151)
This, to me, is exactly what's going on in the church ... and what we're trying to address in our Vision 2010. We need to, first of all, better understand our own changing culture. That means we need to address the "elephants in the livingroom." Take a look at the trends we're seeing within ourselves. For instance, more than half of our current members were not birthed in the Presbyterian Church; we were not birthed here, nor were we primarily nurtured in our faith here. That means we are no longer a denomination of "brand loyalists." We are more apt to "shop around" both for congregations and for programs, consultants, mission involvements, etc. Yet, we still operate as if we expect brand loyalty from our members. That's only one example of ways in which we have lost touch with the internal changes of our organization. What are some others?
Secondly, we've lost a sense of the mission that really empowered us at the start. Here are some questions: Are we more interested in preserving our local church than in making disciples (the great commission)? What do you think about the assertion that many of our pastors have lost touch with their initial zeal for Christ's Grace at work in their lives and have displaced it with a professional commitment to keep the business of the church running? Have our churches fallen into a rut, as Stan Ott says, merely running last year's program again? How can we regain a sense of the real mission that inspires us and encourages us?
And thirdly, we've lost our connection with our larger culture -- the people outside the walls of our church, but whom we were called to serve. So much of our "transformational church" material focuses on this point ... that the culture has changed and we haven't. We can argue over how much we need to change like the culture ... but the significant point is ... we've lost connection. We're not engaged with the communities in which we are a part. We separate ourselves instead of intentionally making friends with non-Christians. We compartmentalize our faith instead of allowing our Christ-following identity to make itself visible in passionate ways as we work, as we lead in the community, as we drive or shop.
What do you think of the Roxburgh quote and how it relates to the work of our congregations?
1 comments:
Thank you Wendy for starting this blog. I think the Vision 2010 is great. It still seems very vague to me in concrete terms so I look forward to checking into the blog regularly and gaining more clarity.
When we talk of making disciples, what kind of assumptions of epistemology are we operating from? If we are serious about looking at ways to engage 'postmodern culture' and convey the gospel we must come to terms with the fact that postmodern culture does not form knowledge in the same way. This does not mean that we conform ourselves to postmodern worldview but that, as the apostle Paul, we look for ways to engage the culture where they are. (i.e. Paul at the Areopagus, "To an Unknown God".)
While studying under my mentor, Darrell Guder, and helping him put together his book The Continuing Conversion of the Church, I finally realized that Christendom set up churches, opened the doors and could rightly expect people to walk in and be eager to know through the eyes of the church, its pastor and leaders. Those inside that steepled building were trusted to know. That day is long over.
The good news is that postmoderns still want to know through the eyes of Jesus but when they think of Jesus they do not think of "church". This is tragic but it is fact.
How then would a church help a postmodern find Jesus? Well, we have to leave our walls and anything that looks like a church and take it to them. Once they encounter us a people who incarnate the living Christ and teach them his way, they want more and the "more" is found in that church that seemed so foreign to their pursuit of Jesus. This connection is the foggiest in our own church.
One of the main keys to growing congregations that passionately engage their community to make disciples is through understanding that North America is a mission field and that we need misionaries to travel outside the walls of the church and, as a good missionary does, come to the people on the people's turf.
We have a long history of missionaries in the Presbyterian Church. I'm proud to be one of them. However, as long as the institutional church cannot see the connection between evangelism, missionaries and missionary work to North America such as military chaplaincy, campus ministry, and hospital chaplaincy then we will continue to stand in our churches mystified at why the masses do not show up.
I would suggest that churches can learn more about North American postmodern culture from hospital chaplains, campus ministers, and military chaplains than about anyone else in ministry. Why? Because those folks are in the trenches of those communities not harnessed by building campaigns or programmatic tradition.
Where else are people out in their community explicitly witnessing to the love of Jesus Christ? I know I left people out so let's start making a list...
Post a Comment