Transforming Church

How did Luther see this?
So how do we respond to this disjuncture between church and world as often presented? Luther, as always, is helpful. He spoke of two kingdoms, opposed to each other, and yet linked, as our right hand is from our left. In the kingdom on the left, even if people do not know God as creator, nevertheless He has left an order to creation that is exercised on their behalf through government, society, and the organizations and order of humanity. Luther believed that even corrupt and unbelieving governments and their leaders were preferable to no government, and the anarchy implied, when the social order completely breaks down, or disappears. On the other hand, no government can ever deliver on the promises of salvation and the coming reign of the kingdom of God. There is not now, nor can there ever be, such thing as a Christian nation.

The church, as organization, is kingdom on the left for Luther. It is also the place where the Gospel is preached and the sacraments administered, and so it is fully kingdom on the right when lives are freed and transformed in the presence and power of Jesus. In his 1534 commentary on Psalm 101, Luther asserts “The spiritual government, or office should direct the people vertically toward God that they may do right and be saved; just so the worldly government should direct the people horizontally toward one another, seeing to it that body, property, honor, wife, child, house, home, and all manner of goods remain in peace and security and are blessed on earth.”

What’s the Bottom Line?
Perhaps it is not too crass to say that the difference between the well-run and effective business, and the well-run and effective church, is in a clear statement of the difference between the two related to their bottom-line. Businesses exist to make a financial profit for the owners, workers, and the stockholders. At their best, they also provide a place for people to live their Christian vocation with honor and integrity. Churches have a different bottom-line: they exist to transform lives by bringing people into a relationship with Jesus, and to participation in his coming reign.

Perhaps the problem with most congregations is that the mission to transform lives is not clear and compelling. What would the congregation be like if we operated with the wisdom of a well-managed business, but with our own bottom-line of transformation clearly articulated?

A Possible Answer?
To begin with, we would be bold about continuing to train our leaders, especially clergy, in matters of effective corporate organizational design. Seminaries have much work to do to teach the theological basis of the faith. One needs to be functioning as a manager, and to have experienced the issues of leadership and management before additional training will be appropriate. We need to build a new model that is the equivalent of an executive MBA for clergy who have been in ministry three to five years.

Also, we would train our clergy and leaders how to build a vision that has metrics attached. Few clergy know, nor have been trained, to do this. But for every congregation this is the crucial question: What is our vision for new and challenging ministry in this place, a vision lively enough that we can see it, feel it, describe it in great detail to God’s gathered people? Perhaps the greatest amount of conflict in our congregations occurs because there is no clear vision. Well-intentioned leaders in our congregations, accustomed to clear vision in the work place, then each create their own and head off it in opposing directions, with conflict unavoidable. Without a vision, the people do perish!

Next, we would begin to ask for specific measures to see if our work of transformation is producing results. How many people are involved in prayer, bible study, serving in the organizations of our community as leaders and workers, reaching out to the poor and marginalized in specific mission and ministry, are attending worship, learning how to be more faithful and effective in their homes and marriages? These are numbers that we can count and metrics that we can measure, but there is almost a fear of doing so. How often do we instead say that faithfulness cannot be measured? Yet the New Testament is filled with images of growth and multiplication with the numbers attached. If the bottom-line is transformed lives, are we holding ourselves accountable for measuring the signs of transformation taking place, and asking ourselves the hard questions about our work if they are not?

So, how about you? What are you doing to become more effective in your business plan to transform lives? How are you enlisting others who are skillful managers themselves, in the management of your congregation’s native work? How do you understand the two kingdoms in your daily work and leadership?

See the emerging response from the TransformingChurch.com community to the call for leadership development in the article, The Case for a Leadership Learning Community.