Transforming Church

At any given point in time the church's greatest potential of emerging leaders is with people who are 20, 30 or 40 something. However, if these people are not part of a life-long process that makes disciples, they never emerge. Desperation then takes the focus back to youth as the potential for the future of the church. For better or worse, however, over the next 20-30 years the 20-40 something age group will have the greatest impact on the future of the congregation.

The crux of the problem is that we have unwittingly groomed them to believe that all they need to do to be good members is attend worship on Sunday mornings. Not only do they never realize their own leadership potential in the church, they perpetuate the shortage of leadership. Another generation has failed to perceive its call to discipleship from Christ and the church is further deprived of leadership to accomplish its mission. Congregations turn their attention instead to the illusion that if they can mount a strong enough youth ministry their future will be secure.

Congregations buying into this paradigm need to realize that, at best effect, it is a maintenance incentive. It is kin to the thinking that hopes the effect of immigrant boats coming from Europe will still grow our churches with Lutherans moving into our communities. To break the "youth are the future of" syndrome, the best intention with youth needs to be matched or exceeded for those who have moved beyond their teens. Only in that way will a congregation have opportunity to fulfill its potential and assure its future with disciples growing in leadership potential.

To illustrate how chronic this problem is, even if a congregation is "successful" and regularly some few of those youth do move into leadership roles, the congregation’s greater emphasis on membership fails with any follow-through discipleship growth. Those few young leaders they were fortunate to garner simply become part of the larger group that continues to see the next generation of youth as the future of the church. When the goal is to simply retain sufficient youth to keep the doors of the church open, the congregation will always have little potential to fulfill its vision and mission.

Congregations entrenched in the importance and privilege of membership with little or no emphasis on making disciples need to move in that direction first. Membership is defined by having been baptized, confirmed, and by receiving Communion and making a contribution of record at least once a year. In its attempt to make it easy enough for everyone, the church has unwittingly bought into what has been termed "cheap grace."

In contrast, just prior to His ascension Christ called His Church to be motivated with grace-based gratitude toward mission instead of maintenance, and to make disciples who make disciples. One has not fully matured as a disciple at puberty, during middle age or with elderly status. Clearly understood discipleship is an open-ended, lifelong process. Membership, on the other hand, is realized with confirmation, and apart from an occasional bible study, most congregations fail to define a growth process or growth status beyond confirmation. This results in the hollow hope that youth will somehow become the future of the Church, even though that hope further fades with each generation.

Having said these things, this should in no way distract us from the high importance of ministry to our youth. But neither should that importance distract us from the equal or greater importance of ministry with those who are currently the future of the church. At the same time the greatest youth ministry program in the world is not able to train young people to be leaders for life. They will always need new training as well as mentoring. Attending to the needs of youth as the future of the Church without an equal or greater effort to make disciples and leaders of those who are older is definitely a copout.

Many congregations today have picked up on purpose driven principles in providing curriculum for both growth discipleship and advanced or missional discipleship. The latter is generally firmly grounded in discovery of spiritual gifts and leadership training. There are, no doubt, even more effective strategies that could be identified. By whatever path, may the day soon arrive when congregations say, "Our youth are extremely important to us, but since the future of our congregation rides for now with disciples beyond their teenage years, we are committed to an equal or greater emphasis to help them both grow and be trained as leaders."

D. Leadership In the Wrong Hands
The Church was begun in a.d. 29 by Jesus Christ to provide conduits of Word and Sacrament between Himself and His visible body on earth. As Christ (God) "visibly" returned to heaven, the Holy Spirit (God) came to provide Christ's body on earth with direction (mission and vision), gifted people and other resources to accomplish its ongoing ministry. To put decision and direction in anyone else's hands is to put leadership in the wrong hands. Trusting in the leadership of the Holy Spirit is paramount to trust between those who serve within Christ’s ministry.

Human leadership is therefore better defined in terms of responsibility rather than authority. Leadership of the ministry of the church is always better entrusted to Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit than it is to the members of a congregation, the council, or the pastor. Since God is alive and present, we don’t need anyone trying to do His job for Him or to take His job away. Every time authority is given to the congregation, the council or the pastor, trust leaves by the back door as personal preferences and interests come into play. Whenever members elected to the council are also elected or appointed to represent or run a standing ministry of the congregation, there is reason to shudder.

Individuals who would rather have the "say" themselves will be quick to challenge the thinking in this article. They will think or voice, "What are you saying? Do you expect God to always audibly speak from a cloud with His decisions and direction for ministry? Have you been smoking something?" In response (1) God has always intended to lead; (2) voices do not generally come from clouds; and (3) it has nothing to do with smoking. But through the discernment of prayer, meditation and guidance within His Word, God does make known His decision and direction for a congregation, to a key spiritual leader completely focused in this way. Completely focused includes the parameters of the mission and vision of the congregation and completely setting aside one’s personal opinions and interests.

This does not in any way distract from responsibilities of the congregation, council and pastor in "corporate leadership," leadership that administers the congregation's fiscal and property concerns. This leadership focus truly is better defined in terms of voting members, councils and pastors. Corporate law, required and regulated by the state, along with membership compliance required by the parent church body, requires the attention of "corporate leadership." From time to time with this focus of leadership trust may or may not still leave by the back door, but that will always need to be worked through.

Leadership in the wrong hands speaks to ministry getting shaped and directed by personal interests within the congregation, the council or from the pastor. There can be little doubt that present model Constitutions have done more to prevent the Holy Spirit from leading Christ's ministry than to insure it. It does God no favor at all to presume that majority rule is synonymous with the Holy Spirit's guidance.

Other ways that hasten a congregation’s decline addressed in this series include: “Focus On Membership Prevents Discipleship,” “Renaming Committees as Teams,” “Clinging To What We Have,” “Wasting Energy Overcoming Weaknesses,” “Insisting On Only Traditional Worship,” and “Mistaken Motivations For Growing the Church.”