What Are You Willing To Lose?

What are you willing to lose?

I have consulted, over the past few years, with congregations that are struggling. I first ask them to send me anything they’ve published over the past five years, like annual reports or planning documents, and their budgets. Sometimes, not always, reading these helps me understand how they are framing their struggles. I then meet with the governing council and we talk. The question I ask is: “What do you want as an outcome from our time together?”

The overwhelming answer is, “We are declining and we want to turn that around.”

They look around their spiritual community and see a decline of younger members, shrinking Sunday school attendance, declining worship attendance, and an aging population. They want more people in the pews, and more importantly, more money in the offering plate.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a better question to ask initially would be, “What are you willing to lose?” It confronts the basic myth in congregations that are struggling that the answer to whatever they see as their problem is always addition – We need to add more to our worshiping community, to our Sunday school, and to our offering plate. In their minds this logically means adding more “programs,” contemporary music, a dynamic youth pastor, a better facility, a youth room, a fancy stewardship drive, and the list goes on. Unfortunately, growth, both spiritually and numerically, is initially about subtraction not addition. In fact, I’d say that it is never about addition!

A rich young ruler comes to Jesus and asks, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus’ first response is to rebuke him, “Why do you call me good?” He then goes on to recite some of the commandments to which the young man responds gleefully, “I have kept all these since my youth!”

“One thing is lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute it to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven, then come, follow me!” He had to be willing to lose something in order to gain something. Like most congregations, he wasn’t willing to lose anything. Therein lies the problem.

Ask the question, “What are you willing to lose?” at your next congregational gathering and I can guarantee that a really long, awkward silence will follow. The only evidence of whether or not a congregation is going to “turn it around” is if they’re willing to lose initially. When a congregations says it wants to “grow” (whatever that means) it means they want more people and more money but aren’t willing to sacrifice anything to make that happen.

What needs to be lost? Let’s start with structure. We have all bought the lie that what it means to be a church is somehow connected to committees, meetings, and volunteering to do the business of the church within the walls. There are no more dreaded words than, “So, what committee would you like to serve on?” to send people scampering for the doors. What does “serving” have to do with a committee? I love sharing with people that for the past two years I’ve been leading a spiritual community that doesn’t have a single committee. We meet once a year, at a dinner, in order to fulfill our legal requirements. At that dinner we light a candle for every person and organization we’ve supported over the past year, and we light a lot of candles! Without radically transforming the structure, we’re just wasting time.

Secondly, we need to lose our financial understanding of the church. While the vast majority of economist subscribe to Keyneian economics, in the church we practice austerity. As resources get scarce the immediate response is to “cut back.” Austerity doesn’t work, just look at Greece (or the US). Pulling our heads into our shells and using what little we have on ourselves only makes matters worse. Church on the cheep is at its core a faith issue. It is the result of our failure to trust God and make disciples. With no vision beyond “paying the bills” revenue will continue to decline which causes us to cut back more which creates more decline. It’s time to trust God.

Our budget is a moral document; it tells us what we value. A close look at most congregational budgets tells me what is valued is us! There is no missional element happening, and thus nothing for anyone in the congregation to get excited about except paying the bills. Congregations have to adopt a simply guideline for budgeting with the goal of one dollar externally for every dollar spent internally. If we adopt this we’ll see a Pentecost event right out of the pages of Acts!

Thirdly, we need lose membership (or whatever fancy name you put on it). Jesus was very clear: “Go, make disciples.” He never said, “Go make members.” Membership has become so distorted that today it implies privilege. “I’m a member so your task (meaning the professional clergy and staff) is to take care of and serve me.” Membership no longer means obligation to the mission of Christ. Membership is completely inwardly focused. Spiritual transformation happens when we lose our distorted understanding of church membership and start focusing on following Christ out into the world. (It’s never been about us.)

Fourthly, we need to join the 21^st Century technologically. Everything must change. We are a visual people. Help me and the rest of the world see the Spirit moving among us and out into the world.

Lastly, and most importantly, lose our individual history. “Forget the former things, do not remember the past. Behold, I am doing a new thing.” (Isaiah 43:18) I’m not talking about our collective history (I’m a big fan of understanding our collective history), but the misleading, revisionist individual histories that start with, “Thirty years ago we…” The people we’re trying to reach don’t care what we did thirty years ago, they care what we’re doing today and plan to do tomorrow. Most churches are not the living embodiment of Christ in the world today, they are a museum or better yet, a mausoleum. Get rid of the old pictures of long gone pastors, confirmation classes, and all the junk people stuck us with fifty years ago in honor of something no one remembers. Open up the doors and windows because our place has the smell of “Something old.” It’s excess baggage that is holding us back.

“What are you willing to lose?”

Scott

Dreams

Dreams

I had another horrible dream last night. It’s a repeat dream. I am back in the first parish I served. The parish was a nightmare beginning to my parish ministry career. The senior pastor was a drunk. The associates who served prior to my arrival were equally disturbed. The one I replaced was raping high school girls. Another was attempting to date several women in the congregation while his wife was back home trying to make arrangements to travel to this large city located in the South.

The saga ended badly for all. After sending the senior pastor to treatment, which only made him angrier than before he left, and dealing with the breaking news of the rape allegations, the congregation imploded, as any congregation would. The larger church structures were of no help at all. It was back in the day when sweeping stuff under the rug was the prefer action of the church. However, this mess was simply refusing to be swept away. After several special meetings of the congregation the senior pastor finally left, and the associate accused of raping high school girls was finally removed only after repeating this behavior in another congregation. The devastation these events wrought are still around. The congregation has never really recovered.

In my dream I take another call to the same congregation with the same senior pastor. It doesn’t work any better the second time. In fact, it’s worse.

I am a fan of Jung’s understanding of dreams. This dream seems to come from my personal unconscious, shaped by my personal experience. The question is what is this dream trying to tell me? I believe it is, in Einstein’s famous words, the definition of insanity. I go back hoping the outcome will be different only to find it’s not only the same, it’s actually worse.

Could it be that the dream is trying to tell me that the vast majority of the church is caught in a cycle of insanity; doing the same things over and over again, hoping against all hope that it will turn out differently, only to find that it’s not just the same old same old, but worse?

I don’t mean to condemn the whole of the institutional church. There are many gifted people serving in leadership positions all across the church. People who are desperately wanting to fulfill the words of Christ to care for the least of these in our midst, to be a light in the darkness, and to be the voice of grace in a sometimes cruel world. Yet, I know that these good people are up against incredible odds these days. Many watch helplessly as their congregations grow older and fewer, their buildings, many built fifty years ago or more, demand more and more of the scarce resources, and the larger church expressions demand more and more of the annual budget under some rather dubious definitions of missions which look a lot like paying salaries for bureaucrats. Unfortunately, far too many of these gifted leaders simply give in to the despair hoping to make it to retirement before the ship goes under.

We continue to do only what we know. We continue to do the same things over and over with the same diminishing outcomes. Each time we truly believe that if we could just get the right stewardship program, the right educational program, the right contemporary worship team, the right pastor, then the outcome would be different. It won’t be.

What’s the answer? “Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies it bears much fruit.” It’s time to let the church as institution die so that the “new thing” God is creating can come forth. “See, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”

People are leaving the institutional churches and joining true missional communities. These communities are small groups of people centered on a simply mission: to make an impact locally and beyond without the baggage of institution. They meet in the strangest of places: bowling alleys, homes, warehouses, movie theaters, and even in bars! They belong to no one. They are dis-organized in the truest sense of the word. They have little, or no, structure. They care about each other and the communities where they live. They see a need and they respond. Unencumbered by denominational and structural baggage, they simply nourish one another and bring the light of Christ into the world.

It’s at this point that someone will argue the issue of accountability. “Without denominational oversight bad things can happen! After all, who is holding these folks accountable?”

My cynical response is, “You’re right, the denominational structures and oversight have done a bang-up job of holding folks accountable – not!” My actual response is: scripture!  What a radical thought.

“Do you not perceive it?”

The Billy Goat and Buffet Christianity!

The Billy Goat and Buffet Christianity!

(“I know your deeds, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were either one or the other. So because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Revelation 3:15-16)

I am not a Chicago Cubs fan;  never have been, probably never will be. The Chicago Cubs have a lot to be proud of over the many years of their existence. They are the only team in baseball to occupy the same city since the inception of the National League in 1876.  In the early 1900s, the Cubs won four pennants and two World Series titles. Their record of 116 victories in 1906 have never been broken. 

It all came to an end, so the legend goes, in 1945, when Wrigley (the owner of the Cubs) had Billy Sianis, who owned the Billy Goat tavern, removed from the stadium because he brought his goat to a World Series game.  It must be noted that the goat had a ticket!  Even though the Cubs led that series 2 games to 1, and the next four games were at Wrigley field, they lost the series and have never been back since.  Apparently Billy Sianis, on his way out the door after being ejected from the stands, said, “The Cubs, they ain’t going to win no more!”

It has become known as the “Curse of the Billy Goat.”

What does the “Billy Goat Curse” have to do with the church? Everything.  Like the Cubs, the church in this country has a long and storied history of building hospitals, communities and reaching out all over the world. Like the Cubs, most churches have been in the same location serving their communities for a very long time.  And like the Cubs, the church has been in a long drought brought about by a curse. 

Each year, like the Cubs, the church hopes that this year will change the long drought and bring about a winning season. It starts in January, usually at an annual meeting, when congregations all across the land engage in writing the pages of a new chapter that will, hopefully, bring a victory.  Victory meaning an increase in members, giving, commitment, and growth.  And every December brings the same old, same old, as they watch membership decline, giving dwindle, and commitment fall.  While it is not true of some (a very few) congregations it is the pattern of the vast majority of congregations all across the land.  The curse that has befallen the church isn’t the “Curse of the Billy Goat,” but the “Curse of the Buffet.”

The buffet came into being in the mid 1950s, in Las Vegas. At a buffet we’ll find long tables filled with a variety of different appetizers, vegetables, entrees, and deserts. It is now a staple at most resorts serving the Las Vegas visitors, and has grown out across the country under a variety of different names.  The basic premise is that a person pays one price for whatever food they want, and can go back as much as they can stomach.  It is predicated on the fact that tastes differ, so they offer entrees that run the gambit of seafood, poultry, and beef.  The same is true for appetizers, vegetables, and deserts.   

The freedom to take only what I like is the premise behind a buffet.  I don’t have to eat green beans, or spinach, or beets if I don’t like them.  I can load up on red meat and seafood and leave the chicken behind.  I can have lemon meringue pie and not have to eat cake! Best of all, it’s all done for me!

This mentality, of taking only what I like, has become the norm in the church (along with the idea that the real purpose of those working in the church is to serve the members/customers).  This mentality is reinforced each year when churches send out the dreaded Time and Talent sheet (usually along with a pledge card) asking members to sign up for what “They’d like to engage in for the next year.” Before them, on the Time and Talent sheet, is a list of what’s available on the church buffet: ushering, singing in the choir, teaching Sunday school, working on the property, etc.  The task, for returning the sheet along with a pledge, is to pick through the offerings selecting only the ones they like. 

Over the years I’ve tried ever variation on the theme of Time and Talents. I’ve mailed them out to all households receiving back only a fraction.  I’ve tried doing them during a worship service having members fill them out and parade forward placing their talent offerings in a “blessing bowl,” reviewing them later to discover that only a few actually put anything on the sheet.  Most were returned completely empty, without so much as a name attached. Occasionally I’d receive a note attached to an empty sheet saying that “my family has decided to attend another buffet in town because we like what they’re offering better!”   That’s a natural outcome of Buffet Christianity. There are always other buffets in town offering different choices. 

So, out of desperation, I took the advice of Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin) from the movie, The Princess Bride, and decided to go “back to the beginning.”  Together with my co-partner in ministry, Kristin, we did a series on “Recommitment.”   At the end of the series we handed out a Recommitment Card asking the congregational members to recommit themselves to the ministry and mission of Jesus Christ.  The recommitment card simply asked folks to recommit to the vows taken in baptism (the beginning) –  that they’d come to the services of God’s house, engage in ongoing Christian education, and serve the world through engagement in the community for the sake of the Gospel. 

I was absolutely floored by the number of people who returned cards (many did not) crossing out  some or all of the commitments they’d made in the waters of baptism and renewed in the Affirmation of Baptism (Confirmation).  Two council members crossed out almost everything, signed the card, and returned it. One of the most difficult members followed that pattern by crossing everything out. It was at this point that I came to understand the “Curse of the Buffet.”  The message was clear:  “Because I’m a member, and membership means privilege, it’s entirely up to me to pick and choose what “I” like when it comes to the church and pass by the rest.” It also became clear to me that the failure was mine alone.  As a leader in the church, along with all the other leaders, I’d failed miserably in building disciples and instead had created an environment of buffet Christian consumers.  I really believed that adding more and more to the buffet table (programs) was a way to satiate the pallets of my “customers” and create greater commitment and involvement.  Instead, all that was accomplished was falling into the “Curse of the Buffet,”  reducing the expectations of membership to the point that no commitment was necessary, expected, or wanted because that’s what staff is for.”

When Jesus called his followers he said, “Drop everything and follow me!”  The message of the vast majority of churches today is, “Don’t drop anything (including a dime) and only engage when something catches your fancy as you make your way down the table.”   The task of church leadership shifted from building disciples to expanding the buffet table.  Churches add more and more offerings to the table hoping to attract a few extra customers who will hopefully return.

May I offer a suggestion?  Instead of sending out a Time and Talent sheet, send out a postcard.  On the card have folks answer a simple question with yes or no.

Having been claimed in the waters of baptism, nourished with Word and Sacrament, are you ready to live as a disciple of Christ?

 Yes_____   No_____

 If you answered “No,” there is a list of neighboring churches posted in the office that would love to have another Buffet Christian.  Go with God’s blessing!

 If you answered “Yes,” then hold on because it “gets a little bumpy from here!” (Scotty from “Star Trek, The Voyage Home.”)

 Give me a small group of committed people and we’ll change the world. Give me five thousand people only wanted to fill up at the buffet table, and I can guarantee that nothing will ever change because you’ve fallen under the Curse of the Buffet.  You’ll fight the same battles year in and year out.  You’ll watch your congregation slowly die and spend all your time in fruitless meetings trying to figure out what new entree will save you.  The way to winning is by losing! Lose Buffet Christianity and start living for Christ. 

 (“Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Mark  10:21)

Whose side is God on?

“God is on Our Side”

I was one of those strange kids who loved PE (physical education).  I know this is not the norm as my kids seem to dislike PE.  In fact, my son took an early PE class (at 6:30 in the morning) so as to avoid the inevitable issues that surround that experience, like being picked on during what he called “fifty minutes of torture.”

 But I was a jock.  I loved sports.  When the weather was nice, which in North Dakota consisted of about two months out of the school year, we’d play softball.  The ritual was the same each time.  The instructor would pick two people, usually another “jock” and me, and we’d be the captains.  He’d throw a bat at one of us and the contest would begin, hand over hand, until one was at the top, declaring the winner who would then pick his first team member. The loser would pick the next two, and on it would go until everyone was on a side.   The last two picked were always the same: John and Donald.  It never occurred to me (or anyone) what it must have been like to always be the last ones picked.  It was a blind spot.

 We are now living in a time when many in our country believe that God threw a bat at the nations, and the US ended up with its hand on the top.  We have somehow become God’s new winner.  Listen closely to the dialogue in our nation concerning how America is “exceptional.” President Obama referred to American Exceptionalism when talking about a possible attack on Syria. President Ronald Reagan made the same reference in his speech about America being a “shinning city.”  Additions to that list include most of the public figures like Senator Marco Rubio, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and a whole host of others.  The sin in this is obvious.  Rather than “To whom much is given, much is required,” we believe we deserve to be number one as a sign of God’s favor.

 In response to Obama’s referencing America as “exceptional” a most unlikely source exposed the danger in such thinking.  Russian President Valdimir Putin responded in an article published in the New York Times saying, “It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation.”  It is the heresy of American exceptionalism. Are we blessed so that through us the world will experience God’s blessing (“Blessed to be a blessing”), or are we blessed as a result of us being more deserving?

While America certainly has a long history of being a powerful force for good in the world, we must also admit that we’ve had our share of dark moments also.  Slavery, racism, incarceration of Americans during World War II, invasions of countries under dubious circumstances, etc.  However the tag of “Exceptional” seems to absolve us of the sins associated with the darker side of our actions.  In fact, if anyone points out our obvious flaws, or apologizes for any actions we’ve taken, they are quickly labeled as traitors and un-American. We don’t need to apologize because we’re exceptional.

 This “Exceptionalism” is not only in our public discourse but also has made its way into our religious life in a big way. While we are horrified by the atrocities of radical religious extremists abroad, who vaporize innocent human beings in suicide attacks, because of their hatred of the non-believer that permits no exceptions, the truth is that we are different only in degrees.  We may not pack a suicide bomb, but we use all sorts of coercion, legal and religious, to demand the same adherence to our religious creeds as the most zealous of religious fanatics. Believing that we are absolutely “right” leaves no room for disagreement, broadmindedness or tolerance of anyone who is “other.”

 Abraham Lincoln responded to a statement that “God is on our side” with “The question isn’t if God in on our side, but are we on God’s side?”  That statement is also problematic as it depends on what our creed says about God.  Is God the one who rewards the faithful with prosperity and wealth (Prosperity Gospel)?  Is God the one who punishes unfaithfulness with violence? That is certainly a narrative that is alive and well in America.  The hurricane that devastated New Orleans was, according to many well-known religious leaders, God’s punishment for the sins of New Orleans.  The same is true for the storm named Sandy that struck the east coast.  The events of September 11, 2001, was called “retribution for homosexuality, pagans, the ACLU, (among others)” by Jerry Falwell. Inherent in these beliefs is that only one kind of people (religious fundamentalists) in this country possess the truth, and the rest of us do not.  This belief is what drives the dangerous and unbiblical Rapture Theology where the “right” will be raptured to the celestial grandstands watching with glee while the rest of us get what we deserve.

Or, is God, by default, always on the side of those who are marginalized in our world: the outcast, the poor, the persecuted, the homeless, the widow, the orphans, the hungry, the cold, the “other?”

 The religious virtue that is missing in most discussions, both political and religious, is humility.  Humility is the awareness that there is a reality greater than myself, and I don’t have all the answers (or even a few).  One of my favorite verses in all of scripture is found in the 13^th chapter of 1 Corinthians:  “We see in the mirror dimly, we know only in part…”  Arrogance, the opposite of humility, convinces me that I know it all and understand everything perfectly. 

 As I study scripture I find a God who is always on the side of the last, the least, the forgotten, the hurting, the downtrodden.  If God was picking sides in softball, John and Donald would be first, not last. I’d be last.  Luke 14 teaches us this in a straight-forward way. Jesus is invited to a banquet on the Sabbath by some Pharisees.  He notices that everyone is trying to take the seats of honor, so he tells a story (so Jesus!).  When invited to a banquet take the lowest seat and if the host decides that you are important he’ll invite you to sit up toward the front.  But if you take the place of honor, and someone more important comes, then you’ll be asked to move down.  He then concludes his little teaching moment by saying, “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” 

 Jesus then goes on to say to the host that he should have invited the poor, crippled, the lame and the blind, rather than his family, friends and rich neighbors.  The reason for this is because the poor can’t repay him.  Imagine giving a gift without any expectation of anything in return. That’s a gift.   That is Christ. 

 It’s a great way of saying, “It isn’t about you!”  I’ve been preaching this sermon for 25 years, the one of “It’s not about you…” Inevitably someone will come up and say, “Well, it’s got to be about me, too!”  No it isn’t.  It’s about John and Donald, it’s about the lost, the least, the hurting, the widow, the outcast, the orphan, and all those others we are so convinced are unworthy of sharing sides with “My God Team.”

Scott

“That is why you fail.”

(Yoda to Luke Skywalker)

We know for a fact that America is less and less involved in organized religion.  Mark Chaves, a Duke University sociologists, gives us a unique view of the religious climate in America in his upcoming book American Religion: Contemporary Trends.  While we remain remarkably religious when compared to other countries, the trends are going the way of Europe.  Roughly one-fourth of our country now says they never attend religious services.  Less than one-half of those interviewed, born after 1970, say they grew up in a household with a religious father. Even more telling is that the confidence of the people in the pews to those in leadership has dropped to an all-time low of just 25%! What we have in the institutional church, in spite of all our focus on “leadership development” in seminaries, is a leadership problem. 

Simon Sinek, a gifted author and brilliant mind, takes the complex concept of leadership and makes it discernible to all in what he calls Start with Why.  When we start with “Why” we move to “How” and then to “What.”  Most of us do it the other way around.  Case in point:

A congregation struggles with the fact that there are no young people attending worship.  The leadership goes about a strategic planning session (I have a lot to say about the wasted time and effort of this process but that will have to wait until later) and comes up with the need for a contemporary service to attract more young people.  “We need to update our music so more young people will come!” a leader of the church states emphatically!  This conclusion of needing to “update our music” is arrived at without any conversation with young people, without any data to back up the claim, it is just stated as fact. This is the What: a contemporary worship service. 

“So how (we move to the How) do we do this?” another leader asks. 

“Put an ad in the newsletter inviting all people interested in forming a contemporary worship band to meet on the first Sunday next month and we’ll go from there!”  (This is such a bad idea for a whole host of reasons.)

This is probably not the time to interject that young people, like middle-aged people, and older people have a wide variety of musical tastes, or comment that there is no such thing as “contemporary worship,” as all worship is contemporary, but I digress.  The group forms, learns some catchy little “contemporary songs,” like, “Shine, Jesus, Shine…” and off we go.  

What no one is asking is: Why?  Why do we want more young people in church?  Is it because we believe we have a message that can change their lives?  Is it because we need a different perspective of the world that we believe younger people will bring to us?  Is there a group of people in our community not currently being reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we feel it’s our mission to reach out to this group?

Not really.  We want more people in the pews so we’ll have more offerings to help us pay our bills, and without a steady influx of new blood we know our days are numbered.  That may sound crass, but while the “Truth will set you free,” it will, in all probability, make you angry initially.  The problem isn’t with the need to attract more people, the problem is that there is no compelling “Why.” That is always the problem, and the reason, most congregations (and denominations) fail.  What is the compelling “Why” that would motivate someone to join your church?  To help pay the bills? To serve on one of the myriad of committees?  I have news for you: no one is walking by your church wondering if it could use their time and money.  

We never start with the “Why.” What is the one compelling reason God has put you in this place at this time?  When I ask churches “Tell me why you exist?” I get blank stares or the obligatory, “We’ve been here for 125 years, and that’s why.”  No, it isn’t.

Rather than spend all our time in “planning sessions” and go through the motions of putting up big sheets of paper and filling them with our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, put away the paper, pencils, and magic markers, and simply ask: “Why do we exists?”

I had the privilege of working with one of the most dynamic pastors, with exceptional leadership gifts (she graduated from the US Air Force Academy), and she drove the leadership nuts by continually asking the “Why?” question.  It’s a question we don’t want to answer because we don’t have an answer.  Perhaps, like the story told of a man swimming the English Channel with a bowling ball on his hand, when asked why he was making the journey so difficult, responded, “Because I’m not going to be the one to drop the ball!”

It’s time to drop the ball.  It’s time to let some things die (very biblical by the way).  Here is a suggestion that will transform your congregational life:  look at everything that clogs your congregation’s arteries (yes, folks, we have clogged arteries in the church), every program, meeting, ancillary project, and ask the question: “Why are we doing this?”

Simplify. If congregations would take just one compelling “Why” and focus solely on that, understanding that the “Why” must be something that impacts the community and world, we’d find  new energy and life.  Instead, we continue doing a hundred things with little energy (because, after all, the church down the street is doing it!), and little enthusiasm. We drag the bowling balls of by-gone eras, finding it more and more difficult to survive.  That is why we fail.

A compelling “Why” is like nectar to bees.  They’ll find you!   

  

 Scott

By Way of Introduction

By Way of Introduction

I am new to the whole “blogging” business, and since I have no idea who reads this blog, I should take some time to introduce myself and perhaps give you some insight into where I believe the conversation about parish ministry needs to go. My whole ministry, 30 years and counting, has been dedicated to trying, with varying degrees of success, to get congregations out of themselves and reengaged in the world.

Background

I grew up on a small farm in the middle of nowhere in North Dakota as the youngest of seven children.  I attended school (we only had one building that contained all twelve grades) starting first grade at the tender age of four.  The goal of school, from what I could ascertain, was to work my way through all the rooms, ending up on the second floor where the high school was located.  A rule, either actually or imaginary, of our school was that no one, unless they were in high school, could  journey up to the second floor.  One day I talked my best friend into accompanying me on a walk through the hallowed halls of high school. Like two special agents we covertly, and carefully, journeyed where no fourth-grader had gone before. What I discovered was that no one even noticed us.  So much for rules.  It was an important lesson that would shape my life from that point forward: Rules (written or unwritten) are meant to be broken! (There is a great book titled: First, Break all the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.)

After spending seven years as a pilot in the US Marine Corps, I attended seminary which may seem like a strange transition unless you know the “Rest of the Story.”  As a high school kid I made a meager living during the summers by preaching at most of the rural congregations in eastern North Dakota. Seems I have a gift.  My preaching career started one Christmas Eve when I was offered the opportunity to preach at my home church. People commented that I was in the same league as Billy Graham!  I didn’t believe it for a minute, but starting the next summer I was asked by several pastors serving rural congregations if I would fill in for them while they went on vacation.  It was usually  during late July or August, because that’s when harvesting was in full swing and nobody came to church anyway.  One summer I preached the same sermon twelve times.  I would draw large crowds of ten or so faithful people unaware that they were in the presence of a “Billy” knockoff.

As much as I tried to run away from that calling (the story of Jonah resonates with me) it was inevitable that I’d end up at seminary.  Ignorance was bliss because I thought being a pastor was all about preaching.

My Ministry

Over my 30 years I’ve served in clinical settings, as a therapists and chaplain, and as a parish pastor.  Initially I started as a chaplain at a treatment center in St. Paul, Minnesota.  My next setting was a large church in Houston, Texas.  Following that experience, and it was an experience, I returned to clinical settings in Phoenix, Arizona.  When people would ask me which setting I preferred, my response was somewhat cynical: “At least in clinical settings I know there are people wanting to grow and change.”  Following my clinical work in Phoenix, I served three additional congregations in Arizona, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

I’ve had the best of all worlds and the worst of all worlds.  I’ve had to deal with congregational corruption that covered the gambit of sexual abuse to alcoholism to fraud and embezzlement.  I’ve also experienced the incredible joy as a part of congregations that truly caught the vision of the People of God gathered for the sake of others.

Perspective

What gives me a unique perspective on congregational life is something that happened, quite by accident, while at my first parish in Houston, Texas.  I served a congregation that was in a wonderful part of Houston, filled with well-to-do people, most working in the oil industry as executives, and yet it was completely devoid of life.  The facility covered a large parcel of land that contained a campus setting of five separate buildings that sat empty six-and-a-half days a week.   I would keep asking the “why” question to the dismay of the leadership and council.  “Why don’t we do this….”  “Why don’t we try that….”

The answer was always the same.  “You just don’t know anything about the real parish!”

I did know a thing or two, but after hearing that time and time again, I decided to get some additional experience. I used my study leave and instead of returning to seminary for some continuing theological education, or attending a workshop on “How To Become a Mega Church,” (It was all the rage in the 1980s), I decided to spend time at churches that really seemed to be doing something right.  I selected congregations to visit based on how many cars were parked in the lot on any given day including Sunday morning. Seemed like a sound research tool to me. What I envisioned was simply  following the lead pastor around for a week and asking, “What are you doing and why is it working?” My first candidate was a Methodist Church just down the street from where I was serving (same neighborhood and therefore the same people we were attempting to reach) whose parking lot was full most days of the week.  When I called the lead pastor I was certain he’d just send me off to someone else, or just say “No.” His response was the first of many surprises.

“Absolutely,” he said.  “When can you come?”

I’ve spent time with several congregations over the years of many different flavors: Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Non-denominational, etc.  I discovered that all effective congregation share common traits. They are generous with everything, future-oriented, outwardly focused, minimally structured, able to immediately respond to any situation (never having to wait until the next meeting to act), with a can-do spirit that allows them to take incredible risks.

Armed with new information I returned to my congregation and said, “You’ve told me I don’t know anything, so I spent the last two weeks with two neighboring congregations, one a few blocks that way, and the other a few blocks the other way, and here’s what I discovered…”  I was certain my insights would be wholeheartedly embraced by all.  I was in for another surprise.

“That won’t work here!” was the immediate response from the council without any deliberation.

Well, it would work and it did.  With much struggle I was able to launch a ministry to divorced folks called GLAD (Good Life After Divorce).  We started with four people and within a month we had over 50 people gathering every week for support and encouragement.  As it evolved, we added presentations from area therapists once a month and a component for the kids.  We also enlisted the help of a lawyer who, pro bono, helped folks file court papers seeking back child support so they didn’t have to pay a $2,500 retainer.  It was incredible.  As people joined the group they started finding their way into worship.

The other project was an idea brought to me by a woman who’d known me through my time at a treatment center in St. Paul. She wanted to bring a Minnesota-model intermediate care facility to Houston. The project was called Passages, and it is still in operation today. The leadership, both council and senior pastor, fought me all the way to the end (until they realized it was actually going to happen and then they made it sound like it was their idea!). The congregational members, however, were a different story altogether. They were excited to be a part of something that was truly groundbreaking. They were hungry for real ministry. Many helped me launch the project by raising over $500,000, building the board of directors, and renovating the newly purchased facility. My greatest day came when I conducted a wedding for a former resident of the program at Passages.  Her mother came up to me following the ceremony and said, “If it wasn’t for you and Passages, my daughter would be dead.  I don’t know how to thank you enough.”

“You just did.”

I’ve repeated this over and over again in congregation after congregation, but knowledge of effective ministry comes at a price.  I know what congregations are capable of, and I know what most are doing.  Here’s a little test.  Walk (or drive) down any street in your town and as you pass by a church ask yourself this simple question:  “What do I know about them?”

In most cases the answer is absolutely nothing.  Most congregations are isolated pods completely unengaged with the community that surrounds them.  It pains me. The Church of Jesus Christ is suppose to be light, salt, leaven, in other words, great stuff is suppose to happen because we exist. Lives are changed, hope is given, food fills the hungry, clothing brings dignity, sight is given to the blind, freedom to the oppressed.  We don’t exist for ourselves.

If the church (small “c” as in institutional) is going to survive we must bring it back from its self-adsorbed, inwardly focused, overly structured, preoccupation with the club mentality of members only!  Like Elvis, God has left most church buildings, abandoning the Tower of Babel denominations we’ve constructed (aren’t we so proud of our abilities!), and is out in the world working Her magic, while the church that bears Her name is deciding when the next meeting should take place.  (“Death By Meetings,” is another great must-read book).

Purpose

The purpose of this blog isn’t so much theological as practical. There is enough debate about theology and I don’t need to add my voice to that discussion.  My focus is to facilitate a conversation with those who’ve figure out ways of making parish ministry work and share that with others.  It’s the old question of, “What are you doing and why is it working?”  I don’t care to get into theological debates as it oftentimes gets to be a sideshow of who can best split the theological hairs.  As my mother-in-law, who is one of the best biblical theologians I know, is fond of saying, “When Jesus comes again, He is going to say, You got it all wrong.”  “We see in the mirror dimly…we know only in part…” (1 Cor. 13) yet we act like we see clearly and know it all?

I will blog about practical matters. In the coming weeks I’ll share some thoughts about stewardship (time to retire that word), advertising (really, we advertise?), structure (Oh, my god!), and the primary reason most congregations fail (The “Why” question).  I invite your thoughts, feedback, corrections, additions, subtractions, etc. While I love the Church, I’m tired of pretending everything is okay, and I am not alone.  Happy reading.

Scott

So, this is the church?

Jay Beech, a gifted musician, wrote a song titled: “We are the Church.”  A line in the song goes, “A church is not a building, a committee or a board; the church is not a corporation for the business of the Lord.”

Yet, sadly, most churches have a hard time living the depth of that simple statement.  Churches have become consumed with buildings, committees, boards, constitutions, and cumbersome structures that look more like corporate America of decades long past than the church found on the pages of the Book of Acts.  I have studied congregations over the years, using my study leave and spending time with congregations that are truly thriving. I’d follow the leaders around asking: “what are you doing and why is it working?”  I am sure at times they tired of the constant bombardment of “why” questions, but they were all very gracious.  What I discovered was truly eye-opening!  Thriving churches are very generous, outwardly focused, filled with can-do leaders, and future orientated with a strong sense of “Why” they exist.  As I shifted my attention to congregations that seem to be struggling what I discovered was equally eye-opening. In struggling congregations there is an internal conversation that has little resemblance to the world in which they are called to be Christ. They are inwardly focused, always asking disempowering questions like, “Why can’t we… (fill in the blank – attract more people, pay our bills, etc.), and incredibly cheap (sorry, but it’s true).   Struggling congregations spend the vast majority of every dollar they collect on themselves, upwards of 97 cents.  What is called Mission, their witness to the world in word and deed, gets drown out by the internal conversation surrounding survival.

So, what happened?  I truly believe that every congregation, regardless of flavor, starts out wanting to make a difference in the community and world.  But somewhere along the line, self-preservation takes over, and the focus slowly shifts from external to internal; from being about our neighbor (and neighborhood) to being about those huddled within the walls.

The vast majority of churches in this country are in decline because they’ve become preoccupied with themselves.  That fact is not debatable. The more they lose, the more they turn inward, the more they turn inward, the more they lose.  It becomes a vicious, self-defeating cycle. So how do you get out of the “Business of the Lord,” and start being Christ’s witness in the world?

While serving a congregation in Texas, a fellow who regularly attended my Bible studies, asked to speak with me following one of the sessions.  He was a physician and a dedicated Christian.  During the session, we’d become engaged in a conversation about the nature of the church found on the pages of scripture and how that stacks up against the reality of the church in our country, the vast majority of whom are in decline.  His comment to me following our study was:  “if a church isn’t giving away 50% of its budget it has no business being called a church. That’s why people are leaving because we aren’t a church we’re a club!” Initially, I thought the statement was naïve.  He obviously didn’t understand the pressures and requirements of parish ministry.  But the more I’ve struggled with that observation the more I’ve come to realize he’s right.

Our budgets, whether locally as a congregation, or globally as a denomination, are moral documents.  It puts numbers to what we consider to be most important.  While we can talk all we want about being Missional (I have a lot to say about that word but it will have to wait for later) if it isn’t reflected in our budget it’s only talk.  Most congregations, and denominations, are engaged in a lot of great “talk” without much substance reflected in the simple fact that the vast majority of money is spent maintaining internal structures and programs.  There are a few who walk the talk, but they are the exception rather than the norm.   So here is a suggestion that, if you really want to be a Pentecost Church, will literally rock the world and set your church on fire:  meet with the leadership of your congregation, and demand that they set a goal of achieving 50% of all donations going outside the walls within five years!  After you’ve listened to all the reasons why “this can’t be done,” and you’ve picked yourself up off the sidewalk, having been thrown out and labeled a “trouble-maker,” dust yourself off, walk back in and tell them you won’t stop until that goal is met.   It won’t be easy, quick or comfortable, but if you persist what you will find is that suddenly people outside the walls will start noticing the God you profess.   Be light and salt (and a little crazy – it helps!).

The church is not in the business of self-perpetuation. God got along just fine without us for a very long time. It’s only purpose is making a difference to those “outside the gates,” (Hebrews) in the here-and-now desperately waiting to see (that’s why we call it a vision statement!) some Good News from us on the inside.