Transforming Church

Multiplying their DNA
Studying the multiplication strategy of the Aspen grove has inspired me. Aspens replicate themselves both through dispersing seeds, and sending clones up from the roots. Aspens take hold where the land has been disturbed. Blown by the wind, seeds find an opening in the forest, and take root. As it grows, the roots will spread out and send up more shoots. We have Aspens we planted seven years ago that have half a dozen shoots coming up around the original tree. Like all healthy organisms, they multiply. Each shoot is an exact clone. The root system has stored all it needs to replicate itself wherever it finds an opening.

Discipleship DNA
Like the Aspens, healthy missional leaders create a discipleship DNA at the core of the church. Our energy for discipleship is dependent upon how well our roots are connected to God through our practice of spiritual disciplines. In a healthy church community, discipleship radiates outward from the core leaders, replicating the DNA as it spreads through networks of friends and family. Each family that moves takes the DNA into its next community. The DNA is no longer dependent on one leader, but is the culture of the Body of Christ. Now, it has the strength to cope with the worst firestorms that might pass by, because at its very core is the DNA of discipleship. Thus, the Aspen became a symbol of the organic movement to discipleship and multiplication that is the core aspiration of our TransformingChurch.com community.

The Transforming Leaders Initiative is calling leaders to multiply disciples, multiply leaders and then multiply churches. We have moved beyond the random connections created by this web community, and beyond the annual gathering of the Transformational Leaders Gathering (TLG) to create a learning community as an incubator for discipleship and multiplication within the ELCA. The TLG created a space where leaders hearing this call to move beyond membership to discipleship could gather. TransformingChurch.com became a platform to publish the thinking emerging from this grassroots community. The Transforming Leaders Initiative builds upon this work to create a continuous learning community of practitioners committed to sharing the best practices of discipleship and missional outreach.

After three and a half years of dialog, relationship-building, networking and developing curriculum, we will launch our TLi pilot class in Ohio this October. This month, we submitted a major grant application to Thrivent to help fund our startup. The environment is right for the first seeds to begin to sprout. Out of this pilot, we hope to ramp up to 72 participants entering one of four classes we will launch each year. Each of these participants will bring a spouse and at least four lay leaders on the three-year learning journey with them. These classes will start wherever the conditions are right. The ground is being prepared in Omaha/Lincoln, Minneapolis, Atlanta, and Chicago. As these classes are launched, we will look to the next regions where the environment is ripe for these seeds of discipleship to take hold and multiply. We still seek partners to help bring this movement to fruition.

Churches planting Churches
Dave Daubert was heavily involved in planting and renewing churches for years on the staff of the ELCA division for Evangelical Outreach and Congregational Mission. He tells me that before World War II, most Lutheran churches in the US were planted by other churches. Since the 1950’s, we centralized that function and the national church guided efforts to plant churches, in partnership with local Synods. We have never planted more than 50 new missions in one year in the history of the ELCA. That represents less than 0.5% of our 10,000+ existing churches.

Dave Olson pointed out in last month’s newsletter that "Every group with less than a 1% planting rate—less than one new church for every 100 established churches—is declining numerically in attendance. For a denomination to keep up with population growth, it needs a planting rate of more than 2% each year—or 1 new church started for every 50 established churches. Many evangelical groups plant three or four new churches a year for every 100 established churches, which is why their attendance growth exceeds population growth.”

This movement back to churches planting churches is one of the healthiest trends to emerge in the ELCA in recent trends. Instead of a lone mission developer, these mother churches are sending teams of lay leaders who carry the healthy DNA to the daughter church. Our Transforming Leaders Initiative will work to support this church-planting movement, in partnership with churches across the ELCA. Luther Seminary has created a mission developer track to provide qualified pastoral leaders to support this movement.

Is God calling you to join with us on this journey?
No one alone has the resources to make this happen. Neither Seminaries nor Synods nor Churchwide can do this by themselves. Only if we join together as partners can this movement to discipleship and multiplication succeed. The Transforming Leaders Initiative is building linkages and partnerships with our Large Churches, our Synods, Bishops, Seminaries and Churchwide organization to make this vision possible. In addition to our dedicated websites, we have created groups on Facebook and LinkedIn to spark dialog and grow awareness of this Initiative. These groups are named for our 501C-3, TransformingChurch.org, which we created to fund the mission.

Come join our community. Be a part of a Spirit inspired and led movement to discipleship that will bless our church, our communities and our world. Connect with us through social networking sites, donate at our website, and consider taking a role as a candidate, mentor or donor as we walk down the path to healthy discipleship and multiplication, bringing renewal to our beloved church. 90% of our ELCA churches are on plateau or decline. Only 10% have even added one person to worship in five years. God wants to change that, and we want to help. For further information, contact Gregg Burch (greggburch@gmail.com) or Dave Daubert (DDaubert@ARenewalEnterprise.com).