Transforming Church

The secretary’s minutes were read, corrected, and a motion was made and seconded to approve them. The financial report was reviewed and the current shortfall was discussed in detail. The pastor was urged to address the congregation about this issue but not in any sermon or by mentioning pledges. Motion to approve was made, seconded, and approved.

In old business, the blacktop crew was present and gave a detailed report of their work sealing the parking lot, which ended up being on Ole Bjornson’s funeral. After holding a meeting in the church office, the decision was made to stop and finish the job at a later date.
The Trustees read their report, listing several concerns regarding new lighting and the Education Committee’s proposal to start an afterschool program, citing potential problems of unchurched kids in the neighborhood not respecting the church building and running in the sanctuary. The Education Committee reported after 10 months of study, the afterschool program was cancelled, citing too many concerns raised by council and the need for a congregational vote, which cannot be held until fall.

In new business, the Trustees had several motions to trim the shrubbery, buy a new mower, and continue the discussion with the women of the church about repainting the fellowship hall. After suspending the meeting to view the fellowship hall, to check for paint in the custodian’s closet, and whether to change color from the 1975 olive green, the discussion was tabled until the next council meeting.

The pastor presented a list of new ministry ideas for council to consider but due to time considerations, these were tabled indefinitely.

Motion was made to adjourn the meeting at 9:45PM. Motion seconded, approved, and the meeting closed with The Lord’s Prayer.”

These minutes are not made up but taken from real congregations and merged into one picture that every pastor and church leader is familiar with. If you are in a congregation that is more than 20 years old, odds are you find yourself torn between the changing ministry needs of the 21st Century and stuck with a structure born out of the 19th Century. You try and develop spiritually deeper leaders but “business” and read reports at three hour meetings crowd out Bible study. You work with people excited to start new ministries only to watch them burn out from jumping through too many hoops, too many concerns from well-meaning people who withhold permission and trust in the name of faithfulness.

The situation today is that the leadership structure in most of our churches no longer works. Nominations committees can’t get people to run and resort to a warm body approach. Natural leaders who do serve become quickly frustrated with antiquated systems of accounting and organization that were long abandoned by leaders outside the church. The result is a focus more on doing “the business of the church” and not making people mad rather than seeking to equip disciples of Jesus to fulfill the Great Commission.

The word that is often used today to talk about this needed process of congregational change is transformation. Transformational ministry encompasses all the new and emerging ways for the people of God to live out their calling as disciples in world that looks much more like the First Century than the 20th Century. We as Lutherans have a long heritage in North American that still shapes us today, for better or for worse. If you go back one hundred years ago, when the majority of our congregations have their roots, you find a different view of mission and ministry. The mission of the church was to welcome immigrants from Europe, help them get established in this country, and provide a pillar of stability for people who had given up their entire world. The community church became a new family, a place to gather with the faithful like you in a foreign land. With a constant flow of new people, the immigrant Lutheran churches never really focused much on evangelism of their neighbors – they had their hands full with a fruitful ministry to outsiders to all things American and helping them adapt.

“Ministry” was done by the pastor and was defined by relationships and its church rituals – Baptism, confirmation, marriage, funerals, Communion, and visitation. As the most educated person typically in a community, his (only male pastors then) opinion carried tremendous weight and was a leader in both the congregation and community. The care and direct involvement in the lives of congregational members was important as a link not only for their spiritual lives but also in understanding this new culture they were living in. Elders, deacons, trustees, Women’s Aid Societies were all born out of this era as a response to very real ministry needs and represented a significant transformation from the state churches of Europe.

As the years passed farther into the 20th Century, a corporate business model was laid across congregational structures, with “committee” and “Robert’s Rules of Order” entering our vocabulary but the underlying assumptions never really changed. Mission to newcomers like us moved out into the suburbs as the boats from Europe stopped and the color of our neighborhood immigrants changed. Ministry was still the domain of the pastor but now with a new dimension of accountability that made him - and eventually her – more a professional and an employee than an influential leader.

Today we are trying to meet the challenges of a 21st Century mission field and we find ourselves working with tools and structures designed for different times and different cultures, tools that no longer work effectively but seemingly without any real alternative. Yet, you do not have to look far from any congregation, rural or urban, suburban or small town, and you will find non-Lutheran congregations that are effective in their community outreach and in producing spiritually growing disciples. Our response has been to discount such congregations as theologically shallow, entertainment focused, or any of a number of other accusations, and yet we bemoan others’ missionary successes without examining our own ineffectiveness and unwillingness to change for the sake of mission.

To engage in transformational ministry is to gaze in the mirror to see who you are now and who Jesus desires you to be. For pastors, it means a willingness to be open to change from what you learned in seminary or expectations you have believed necessary as a called leader. For congregations, it means being open to changing from a perception that the church exists to care for members and preserve its traditions to a mission orientation that focuses on discipleship and outreach in ways never considered before.

Authors Bill Easum and Tom Bandy make the point that 4 out of 5 established congregations that attempt a change to Transformational Ministry fail, making the ministry that most ELCA pastors find themselves called to serve – midsize, congregations more than 50 years old – the hardest ministry to engage in. Add to that 4 out of 5 North American congregations are plateaued or declining, and the picture looks bleak for the ELCA.

Yet, none of us who have or are serving in the many rural and small town congregations would willingly trade many of the blessings we have received from living here or abandon the people we serve to a slow spiritual death. All the unique gifts found in our rural/small town congregations – the closeness of community and congregation, the rhythms of agriculture, even the traditions that still recalls times of adapting to dramatic change – all can become seeds for transformation in the hands of the Holy Spirit and with leaders who can read the signs.

The rural/small town congregation has seen and survived changes in language and worship style, people and pastors, and has proven itself capable not only of stability but of significant transformation. Next month we will look at some of the hallmarks of transformational ministry and resources for rural/small town congregations to engage in Great Commission ministry in the 21st Century.

Find Part 2 of this article here.