Transforming Church

From the outset, much time and speculation can be saved if we can accept that what we seek here is deeply embedded in what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. On the other hand most of what we see and do as the church is looking through the filter of membership. New spiritual metrics will not be discovered with that lens. Even though it would take volumes to document exactly how membership has dealt us the hand that we hold, our purpose here is served to simply identify some of the cards in that hand.

The Barna study affirmed that most members presently equate spiritual maturity with following the rules, trying their hardest to live up to such as the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule. Even though most of them have been taught that salvation is not earned through doing good works, over eighty percent of them still concur that “spiritual maturity is ‘trying hard to follow the rules.’” I guess we need one more rule telling us that spirituality is not something we can personally achieve, win or earn.

Typically members look to the church for definition of their membership, and yet less than half of them have any clarity about their church’s view on personal spiritual maturity. Left to determine their own personal view, they can be found equally across the spectrum with one dimension images: relationship with Jesus, following faith practices, studying and applying the Bible, just “being” spiritual or having spiritual beliefs, sharing faith with others and being “involved” in church activities. Though most of these views may shed “some” light on our search, they collectively lack any comprehensive guidance.

With many having become content with their life as members, enthusiasm for spirituality becomes passive. Most members clearly have a motivational problem when it comes to discipleship and spirituality. They have already measured their spirituality against the rules, and they are content to “take their chances.” While younger members are content to be less “rule oriented,” they are also the ones more likely to rethink the biblical standards across the board. Growth, spiritual growth, is practically non-existent in most of our congregations and apathy and decline have become the norm.

Church leadership and pastors in particular also struggle with this identity for spirituality and are surprisingly vague about it. Clearly, favoring activities over attitudes to define spirituality shows how membership has pulled their focus away from discipleship. Their inclination is to list faith practices, getting more involved in church activities, witnessing to others, a relationship to Jesus, serving the needs of others, applying the Bible to life, being willing to grow, and having knowledge of scripture. They also lacked agreement on where to seek discernment in scripture regarding this. Many of them are searching in all the wrong places for spiritual identity.

Churches of size, program churches like Willow Creek, were the last to realize the vacuum with spirituality. That doesn’t mean others before them knew how to diagnose their problem. Pretty much everyone does not. Until recently, though, program churches had no reason to doubt their bigger better programs were not supporting spiritual growth and maturity. They were content to assume they were, until some negative trends started to show up. Similar to what most everyone else found, signs of decline were beginning to appear. Almost overnight some of our mega-churches found themselves in serious trouble and their greater assets were proving to be even greater liabilities.

The Reveal Spiritual Life Survey, well-known for its use by Willow Creek, unveils the deficiency. Willow Creek is not a ministry to idly let negative things happen to them and they have since begun to move in new directions. Their use of the study has provided a lot of attention for the rest of us, as well as some insights into the spiritual metrics all of us need to seek.

Contributing most to our search for new metrics is Reveal’s definition of a growth continuum for spirituality. The continuum, ranging from exploring Christ to Christ-centered, leads disciples to discover where they see themselves within the continuum. The study also identifies catalysts that generate spiritual growth. However, these are not equal motivators and more work and definition is necessary with them before they will contribute significantly to our metrics.

For all that is positive with the Reveal study, the main misgiving is the extent to which it takes at face value how members identify and relate to challenges. Essentially it asks them, “What do you think is wrong?” without appreciating that is also asking, “How do you think we can fix it?” When this survey method is pursued membership mode thinking kicks in big time with a lot of wheel spinning. It can be likened to asking a patient, “How would you treat your infirmity?”

To rely on members to identify unrealized or missing spirituality brings with it all the baggage of membership. And, at the same time to ask pastors and other church leaders is no different. The metrics for spirituality need to be laid out by the Holy Spirit via the various ways He speaks to us. While scripture is central in this, it is not the only to seek discernment by the Spirit.

The Reveal study should be approached as a pair of glasses to aid in our discernment. It would be a mistake to see it as offering or providing a prognosis. The temptation is strong to try to put a face on spirituality, thereby setting a standard for universal measurement. However, just as transformational leadership is more an attitude than a style of leadership, so also is spirituality more an attitude than an identity to be applied and standardized.

A vision for spiritual maturity can be discerned if we focus exclusively on discipleship, apart from membership. As long as congregations are based on membership the greatest challenge will be to completely set aside the filter of membership. Spirituality will not be discovered in following Jesus but in belonging to Jesus. It will not be discovered in living like Jesus, but in letting Jesus live through you. This posture is critical. Spirituality is identified in the language of discipleship, not membership.

If we are going to assist the transformation of the church we need to unshackle it from membership. Without altering our path realistically that will likely never happen for a huge part of the present church. If we persist as we are in trying to simply modify the church, albeit spiritually, we will continue a much steeper climb that is fraught with pitfalls. This can never be applied as a band-aid. We will fail as much as we have in the last two decades trying to help “members” see what “discipleship” is.

Related articles:
“Don’t Be a Member of the Church; be a disciple of Jesus Christ”
“A Program Church Problem”
“People are Being Programmed to Death”
“Reveal Study”
“Trust Part 3: Restoring Trust In the Holy Spirit Leading”
“Wandering in the Spiritual Desert; the dark night of the soul”