Transforming Church

As previously established in this series, TRUST is not something that comes naturally. It builds through time within relationships with one another. It cannot happen immediately, and even once it has been established, it will always need to be worked on. Trust erodes where there is personal interest, where power, real or perceived, is threatened, where the people who make decisions are judged less empowered or capable of making them, or where there is perceived to be a compromise of a major rule of the congregation.

A final point to be made before identifying the likely blockages is that the path of least resistance never best serves the mission Christ has given the congregation. To build a climate of TRUST and to be open to the change that comes with transformation, both take an enormous amount of effort and patience, not to mention courage. The path of restoring the leadership of Christ’s Church to the Holy Spirit, instead of the majority preference and opinion of members is not a popular track at the beginning. But the excitement and exhilaration, the refueling of passion for outreach, witnessing the Holy Spirit so active in the lives of disciples, cannot otherwise be duplicated in ministry.

Now to pay attention to the likely blockages to a necessary strong climate of TRUST:

1. Member-focused congregations…Many congregations cast a vision of how they’d like to see things exist, but personal preference, even as part of a vision, is often for the wrong or less than best reasons. What the Church desperately needs today is less concern about “the member-ship” of the congregation and much greater concern about “the disciple-ship” of the congregation. Our mission is to make disciples who make disciples. That means our greatest concern should not be the prerogatives of members, but growing disciples who will in turn reach out to make other disciples. Being a member requires minimally a cheap grace commitment; being a disciple requires TRUST.

2. Model Constitutions for congregations, or Constitution/bylaw-directed ministry…It seems clear that much of what is written into our Constitutions is not aimed at most effectively “running” the congregation for Christ, but rather to protect the members of the congregation against the misuse of power and ineffective leaders. I fully appreciate that if congregations are going to be incorporated, and they do need to be, a Constitution or set of Bylaws is required to address the legal administration of that corporation. In no state of the union, however, do those legal requirements insist that ministry be governed or managed. Commitment to common principles of faith with the wider church is a different matter. The wider church body has the prerogative of requiring that in an approved Constitution to grant affiliation. Therefore, whether spelled out in the Constitution or not, what a congregation needs in addition to the state and churchwide requirements, is a system of ministry that fits within the mission and vision the Holy Spirit provides the congregation. Present Constitutions, then, are not to be TRUSTED to shape ministry.

3. Pastors who see their primary mission as caring for members of the congregation…The reality is our seminaries have trained our pastors to be primarily caregivers. Considering the increasing rate of change in the 21st Century and society’s question of the significance and importance of the Church, the pastor’s role has changed. Today, pastors must be willing to be spiritual growth coaches for disciples taking ownership of the ministry to which they have been called. What Christ is counting on more than ever is pastors and congregations who are willing to be kingdom multipliers. For this to happen, both pastors and congregations must be willing to TRUST the Holy Spirit to lead and direct their ministry.

4. Entitled congregation and committee officers…Entitled officers refer mainly to presidents, vice-presidents, members of councils and chairpersons. Within the congregation I would like to encourage that we do away with chairpersons along with committees, and go to teams of shared leadership. State corporate law requires and makes necessary corporate officers to address the administrative (business) concerns of the congregation. However, they are not, nor should they be, responsible for the congregation’s ministry. Each congregation’s ministry is to be ENTRUSTED to the Holy Spirit, not micro-managed by either the pastor or officers.

5. Councils who feel a responsibility to manage or direct the congregation’s ministry…Basically what was just said for entitled officers goes for congregation councils as well. The state identifies councilmembers as officers, board members, for the sake of administrative (business) concerns. Unless your twelve (ten, eight, or whatever number) councilmembers are the twelve most passionate leaders in the congregation for worship, and at the same time the twelve most passionate leaders for education, for outreach, and for ALL the other ministries at the same time, the congregation council should not be attempting to lead or manage ministry. As has already been identified, the congregation’s ministry should be led and directed by the Holy Spirit and He alone. The mission and vision being cast needs to be His mission and vision, and as such, they should be clearly TRUSTED.

6. Committees and committees called teams…
Within a climate of TRUST teams are definitely the way to do ministry. However, to simply rename “Such and Such Committee” as “Such and Such Team” is NOT what we are talking about and accomplishes nothing. Teams have, as much as possible, a single task. Committees have a number of responsibilities and therefore an agenda to deal with these, plus an entitled officer called a chairperson to be responsible for the agenda and to call meetings to deal with it. Often this erodes into monthly meetings that rehash the same agenda, with minimal or no accomplishment. In the last forty years this miscarriage of ministry has gotten bad, and is getting worse. Do not TRUST committees. For tips on building teams, see our articles on Building Effective Teams and The Anatomy of a Committee and a Team.

7. Strategic planning…If you embark on a new ministry or new time-period of ministry and approach the gate with strategic planning, the ministry will be shaped by the personal preferences and personal opinions of those who participate. IF, however, perfect clarity of the mission and vision of the congregation are already established, strategic planning may or may not in some instances be helpful in accomplishing a segment of that ministry. Strategic Planning, however, should not be TRUSTED to shape the ministry.

8. Surveys and opinion polls…Only if everyone to be surveyed is equally trained and experienced as spiritual coaches, equal in their ability to prayerfully discern the vision of the congregation, only then might a survey be useful or helpful. Otherwise, even with the best of intentions, surveys serve only the interest of personal preference and personal opinion, and erode the TRUST required for servants to exercise their discipleship. From personal experience I can tell you when that happens even pastors have to get out of the way.