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THE CHURCH’S TEN-YEAR WINDOW(p. 22)
To find out where culture is headed, Leadership consulting editor Leith Anderson and senior associate editor Dave Goetz visited futurist Faith Popcorn.
Why is the media paying more attention to religion?
The interest relates to the Anchoring Trend, which is the trend of spirituality. It’s everything from wearing a little angel to burning incense to doing yoga. That’s the reason Zen Buddhism and alternative religions are growing-and even more versions of the Christian religion.
To understand the culture, what sort of questions do you ask?
In my seminars, I ask people, “Are you happy?” People, in general, are not too happy. That’s an especially great question for pastors, perhaps more appropriate for them than me.
Do you think the culture is giving the church or institutional religion another chance?
Yes, I do, because we’re desperate. I don’t talk about this much. I think there’s a universal consciousness that the planet is in trouble ecologically-which I think is spiritual. The big organizations are not going to take care of it, because they’re not structured for that. And they don’t know where else to turn. I do think people are really looking again for a more gentle spirituality and more understanding.
So there’s an opportunity here?
You have ten years to prove yourselves. This is a great time for you, great time. Do you feel it?
THE POWER OF MERE WORDS (p. 32)
Contributing editor Craig Brian Larson asks, “In a high-tech society, how effective is a lone person standing behind a pulpit?”
Preaching is as low-tech and scant-budget as it gets. When I take my stand behind the podium, can mere words engage listeners and change lives?
Mere words-empowered by the Spirit. In my kitchen sits a tiny, $20 clock radio. It has one speaker that produces only monophonic music. In my living room, I have a huge component stereo system. When I turn on classical music, I use my living room system. I get thick stereo, quadraphonic music with full bass and clear, sparkling treble.
As superior as this system is to the clock radio, so Spirit-empowered preaching outdoes other communication. Paul said he spoke “not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words” (1 Cor. 2:13).
Mere words-empowered by the drama of life. In the 1980s I caught a baseball during a game at the old Comiskey Park. The game, the league, the teams, the players-all made that bit of cork and string and leather a thing of magnitude.
So it is with the preacher’s words. In one sense, mere syllables, sounds, symbols-yet infused by the drama of life with big-league meaning. When preachers utter true words about the ultimate issues in life, there are no minor-league words.
Mere words-empowered by eternal truth. A month ago my father suffered a heart attack, and tests showed he needed bypass surgery. The night before the surgery, I couldn’t help but think this might be the last time I would see my father alive. I said, “I love you, Dad.”
He looked calmly at me and replied, “I love you, Brian.”
Mere words, yet so moving because of the person and the circumstance.
We all long to hear authentic words from the hearts of those significant to us about things that matter. Those words don’t need high tech to hold our interest, for they come with what brings the greatest power to communication: credibility, truth, love.
WHY THEY STRUGGLE TO BELIEVE (p. 40)
Paul Braoudakis, managing editor of Willow Creek Association’s monthly newsletter, interviewed four spiritual seekers to find out how people today approach Christianity.
Who is Jesus Christ to you?
Leigh Delisi: I don’t really buy what I consider to be the mutually exclusive dichotomy that Christ had to come here, die on the cross, and that it’s his blood that cleanses us. Some people would say that means I’m not a Christian, but I tend to think I’m just a complex believer.
What proactive steps are you taking in your spiritual journey?
Mayumi Aaberg: In our seeker group, we decided to start reading a book by Paul Little, Know Why You Believe. I also plan to read more of the Bible. We also purchased the Josh McDowell book, Evidence That Demands a Verdict. I see it as a long process.
How do you respond to John 14:6: “Jesus said, ‘I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me’ “?
Nathan Aaberg: Throughout history billions of people have been born without ever hearing those words or reading the Bible.
What’s holding you back from making a full commitment to Christ?
Steve Delisi: My previous questions have all been at the intellectual level. That side of things has filled in quite nicely. It’s a personal understanding, or belief, of what Christ did for us that I’m struggling with.
YOU CAN’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR ABOUT CHURCH GROWTH (p. 46)
Consultant Lyle Schaller busts 9 common myths about expansion and change.
Myth 1: If we build it, they will come. Reality: Adding program staff usually precedes constructing additional facilities.
Myth 2: Don’t make changes in the first year. Reality: The wise pastor takes advantage of the honeymoon period to (a) earn trust, (b) build alliances with future-oriented leaders, and initiate overdue changes.
Myth 3: Friendliness makes visitors return. Reality: Most are asking: Does this congregation appear to be one that will be relevant and responsive to my religious needs?
Myth 4: Money precedes ministry. Reality: The three most common causes of low financial support are (a) a low level of commitment resulting from low expectations, (b) the absence of a compelling and unifying vision of what God is calling this congregation to be and to be about, and inadequate internal communication of the financial needs.
Myth 5: Effective leaders are facilitators. Reality: The enabler style of pastoral leadership is appropriate in congregations that average forty or fewer at worship. The larger the size of the congregation, the more important it is for the pastor to accept and fill the role of initiating leader.
Myth 6: Community growth means church growth. Reality: A more common result is a sharp rise in the level of “competition” among the churches. New congregations are founded. Existing churches upgrade their physical plants or relocate while expanding staff and programming to reach the newcomers.
Myth 7: Economy of scale applies to church. Reality: Economy of scale rarely applies to churches. The very large congregations usually offer higher quality and more choices. That requires more money per person.
Myth 8: Accommodate everyone in one service. Reality: Instead ask, How can we sharpen the differences among existing services so each reaches and serves a clearly defined constituency?
Myth 9: Sermons should be shorter. Reality: The number-one context for the length of sermons is the size of the crowd. The larger the crowd and the greater the emphasis on teaching, the longer the sermon.
THE RIDDLE OF OUR POSTMODERN CULTURE (p. 52)
Leadership’s David Goetz answers: What is postmodernism? Why should pastors care about it?
Postmodernism doesn’t put much stock in the progress of humankind. Another distinctive is the notion that all truth, even science, is biased and socially constructed.
One expression of postmodern culture is the way in which most Americans equivocate on the issue of truth: “Live and let live.” Relativism is usually implicit; it’s explicitly revealed by their broken lives.
Another concrete expression is syncretism. It’s fashionable to add, for example, a dash of Zen Buddhism and a dash of Native American religion to one’s nominal Christian or Jewish beliefs.
Another expression is pessimism, a darkness felt in alternative rock music and popular art, and in a crippling cynicism toward the political process.
Pastors rightly bristle at postmodernism’s dismissal of absolute truth; Christianity rises or falls on the historicity of Jesus Christ. Yet postmodernism has shown us that all ideas, beliefs, and convictions about life do arise in a context.
Theologian Roger Olson distinguishes between objective knowledge and objective truth. No one can speak or write without a perspective. However, there is objective truth, which exists in the person of Jesus Christ and in the Word of God.
Postmodernism, for all its confusion, seems just one more opportunity for the church to do what it does best-be the church.
FACES OF CHANGE (p. 57)
Three stories of pastors who grew through transition.
Community change
is described by Steve Mathewson, pastor of Dry Creek Bible Church in Belgrade, Montana:
This area of Montana is rapidly becoming a home for folks who can afford to live anywhere. With the rapid influx of new residents comes a clash of values.
We’ve had an influx of spiritual “rookies” who are young in their faith or don’t yet have personal faith in Christ. We’ve lost some of the family feeling we once had, which used to attract people to us.
We’re constantly reminding people that the mission field is coming to us.
Church change
was experienced by Carey Casey, pastor of Lawndale Community Church in Chicago, Illinois:
I came to a church that Wayne Gordon, a white man, had founded. He stepped aside as senior pastor, but he’s still here. He’s my best friend in the world, but the relationship’s not been without a struggle. Leadership dynamics are tough enough between people of the same race.
Wayne has a tendency to say, “If Carey doesn’t step up, I’m going to jump in.” I have the tendency to not want to hurt him because he’s the founding pastor.
But because we are close to God and we meet every morning, we are able to get behind closed doors and do head-knocking. We pray, cry, scream, and critique, then get down the road.
Personal change
led to other changes for Dee Duke, pastor of Jefferson Baptist Church in Jefferson, Oregon:
Between 1980 and 1988, attendance would go up to about 240 and then down to 150. There was a lot of disunity.
Most of it was my problem. My leadership style consisted of harassing people to do things so that we could grow.
In February 1989, a prayer summit convicted me about my lack of dependence on God, my pride, my fear of failure.
I came back with a major shift in the amount of prayer in the church and my life. That prayer gave me a growing sense of dependency on and trust in Christ and people.
As a result, there’s a lot of ministry taking place in the church, developed by different people, that I don’t have anything to do with. Before, I felt I had to control everything, oversee it, monitor it. Now, the people are doing ministry.
HELPING A SETTLED CONGREGATION MOVE AHEAD (p. 61)
John Beukema, pastor of The Village Church in Western Springs, Illinois, identifies seven steps to the future.
Step 1: Commit to the knowledge process
In coming to my current pastorate, I publicly promised to spend time with as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. I also read every document I could find on our eighty-five-year history.
Time spent in the knowledge process calms people’s fear I will negate their past, and the fear I will push the church into something that doesn’t fit who they are.
Step 2: Cultivate a perception of crisis
Crisis may be the only way the congregation will hear “the troubling noise in the engine.” I’m not advocating that pastors invent crises; just make use of the ones that arise.
Step 3: Craft a consensus
Ignoring key people, not involving others in the process, being top-down in my approach-all invite failure.
Step 4: Conceptualize the promised land
Unless the pastor can picture the promised land, he may lose the participation of two different groups of people. The “Marthas,” the dependable hard workers, will grow weary. The “Marys” will not involve themselves without a vision of the promised land.
Step 5: Communicate redundantly
Lyle Schaller says, “All important messages should be sent out on at least five different channels of communication.”
Step 6: Clarify criticism
I ask the person to help me understand what they object to and why.
Step 7: Complete all you can while you can
A time will come when the congregation cannot take even one more change. The important point is: Do all you can while the window is open.
HOPE FOR THE HIGH-TURNOVER CHURCH (p. 86)
William Richard Ezell, pastor of Naperville Baptist Church in Naperville, Illinois, tells how to build for the future when members keep moving away.
Naperville, like many other towns in our mobile society, is a revolving door. How can you pastor a church when it’s constantly changing?
Seize newcomers’ transitions as teachable moments.
During times of transition, dormant needs become active, such as marital problems, financial concerns, parenting issues. Life’s transitions are, perhaps, the best teachable moments.
Enlist people in tandem.
We strive to have co-teachers in each Sunday school and Bible study class and committee. When one is relocated, the class or committee is not left with a void.
Abide by a “two-hat” policy.
We want people utilizing their gifts in no more than two responsibilities. This prevents the church from being burned when an individual engaged in many responsibilities leaves.
Involve people quickly.
We plug newcomers into service as quickly as possible. In fact, if we don’t involve people in ministry within thirteen weeks of their coming, we may lose them.
Open many doors into the church.
We offer many entry points into the life of the church-softball and basketball leagues, men’s and women’s fellowships, picnics, concerts.
Pastoring a church with a revolving door has also required that I think about my role:
- I’ll outlast my critics.
- I’m the history-bearer.
- I must resist the temptation to recycle sermons.
- I need to be replenished regularly.
WHERE PREACHING IS HEADED (p. 95)
Leadership assistant editor Ed Rowell identifies 4 forces shaping tomorrow’s sermons.
Force 1: Narrative and story. While other sermonic forms blow on by, narrative has settled in to stay.
Force 2: Multimedia. A lot of pastors are convinced that people are so dependent on visual input that we can no longer communicate effectively without it. Others agree with Lee Eclov who says, “If I’m not passionate about God’s Word, no amount of technology can correct that deficiency.”
Force 3: Secondary research. Many preachers don’t feel the burden to be original. Easy access to the sermons of others is both bane and blessing.
Force 4: Theology and doctrine. By focusing exclusively on the practical side of the continuum, some preachers now feel their congregations have lost touch with the eternal issues of Scripture. Theology is in danger of being rediscovered by the masses as more preaching moves Godward.
DEEPENING OUR CONVERSATION WITH GOD (p. 112)
A classic Leadership interview with two well-known writers on the spiritual life: Richard Foster and the late Henri Nouwen.
What made you believe so intensely that you needed to find God?
Foster: Desperation. Not so much for me at first, but for people I saw who needed help. Later, I began to feel how very much I also needed God.
Although the hunger is deep to spend time in solitude, many of us feel trapped by the demands of ministry.
Nouwen: I’m like many pastors; I commit myself to projects and plans and then wonder how I can get them all done. I’ve discovered I cannot fight the demons of busyness directly. The only hope is to find something so obviously real and attractive that I can devote all my energies to saying “Yes.” One such thing I can say “Yes” to is when I come in touch with the fact that I am loved. Once I have found that in my total brokenness I am still loved, I become free from the compulsion of doing successful things.
What about the content of prayer?
Nouwen: Too many Christians think prayer means to have spiritual thoughts. Prayer means to bring into the presence of God all that you are. Foster: Not long ago, a lady said to me, “I can’t pray for more than two minutes at a time. What can I do?” When people say that, I reply, “What have you been thinking or worrying about this last week? Pray about that.” Nouwen: Convert your thoughts into prayer. The difference is not that prayer is thinking about other things, but that prayer is thinking in dialogue. It is a move from self-centered monologue to a conversation with God.
1997 by Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.
