Wednesday, March 31, 2010

I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church

This past Tuesday morning I had breakfast with Paul Nixon. Paul is an effective and highly creative new church start pastor, consultant and coach. He is gifted in helping existing congregations embrace robust vitality for the mission of Christ. He is also the author of a number of books and works part-time as a consultant to the United Methodist Church’s Path One – new churches for new people in new places. In an engaging, easy read and immensely practical little book entitled: I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church! Paul writes: “Though the number of young adults who distrust organized Christianity is skyrocketing to the highest levels in American history, this is one of the most spiritually-minded generations we have seen come down the pike. As Jesus would say, ‘the fields are ripe for harvesting’ (John 4:35). There are millions of nonchurch people talking about the most important things in life, if only we would choose to be a part of the conversations.” (p. 104) Those are strong words, but accurate. We have to choose to engage our culture with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Recounting his own experiences as pastor, consultant and church growth & development executive, he outlines 6 crucial choices: 1) Choose life over death – Pray, build a working coalition of the committed, “tend primarily to what is living, not what is passing away,” and offer enough quality pastoral care to keep the complainers from successfully sabotaging transformation efforts. 2) Choose Community over isolation – “People are as starved for meaningful community today as at any other time in human history.” Get out of the office and spend time engaging the community. Internally, make a decision to intentionally move closer to Acts 2:42-46. Rediscover the power and purpose of small groups. 3) Choose fun over drudgery 4) Choose Bold over Mild – “Mr. Rogers–style worship is killing us.” “Give them Jesus and the Spirit.” Nothing is bolder than unleashing Christ! Don’t soft pedal the gospel. Boldness is expressed in a passion driven, Spirit led commitment to change the world and share the Savior. (Please note: Bold is not a synonym for stupid!) 5) Choose Frontier over Fortress – Too many church buildings look like Fort Knox rather than a mission post of the advancing kingdom of God. The “Fortress test” on pages 82-83 is itself worth the price of the book. Sell, rebuild, downsize, rent, borrow, or buy; “whatever you do beats just sitting around waiting to die in the old location.” (p. 88) 6) Choose Now rather than Later – In his famous Letter from the Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote: “the time is always ripe to do right.” Fight procrastination. “Rather than take your church through a self-study or visioning process, just start reading the Book of Acts together and prayerfully walking your neighborhood (both your local neighborhood and, through solid educational experiences, our virtual, global neighborhood). God will help you figure out what you need to do.” (p. 103) Simple and straightforward, I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church! Does not so much break new grounds as help us focus on practice steps to plow the ground of faithfulness and fruitfulness. It is especially adept as a study book for a church leadership team to work through together. May your Easter be a joyous experience of the resurrected Christ!

7 comments:

  1. It seems to me the problem with what you are saying is that most of us who read this agree with it. How can those of us who agree on these directions move in such a direction when there are a few people in key positions which stop any movement? How can an associate help a community move from a fortress to a missional outpost when some of our senior ministers do not support such a vision for change?

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  2. For anonymous - See #1 above. Focus on self, not others. Live out of who you are and out of God's call on your life, not in reaction to others. Reaction keeps you in a position of powerlessness. Choosing is an act of power.

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  3. Steve,

    So we build a working coalition of the committed and we offer enough quality pastoral care to keep the complainers from successfully sabotaging transformation efforts. So as a member of the laity, what should I do? I don't offer "pastoral" care. What if the head pastor is the one doing the sabotage?

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  4. The place to start is with a conversation with the pastoral. You might begin by looking for common vision and common ground to build upon. If possible, share in a a non threatening and gracefilled (non blaming!) why you perceive the pastor to be the one engaging in sabotage. Bishop Lowry

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  5. I only used the word "sabotage" because that was the word used in the original post. Most often I think the person(s) working against progress isn't doing so with a malicious intent. (Progress being defined as "proclaiming the Gospel") The word sabotage obvious connotes a deliberate effort to thwart something. That said, it's not a matter of "perceiving" something (as the word perception indicates potential subjective error on my part) but rather it's a matter at being at cross-purposes. Namely, when the pastor had a radically different notion of the Gospel message which inhibits his/her ability to evangelize. The UMC doesn't do a very good job of enforcing Orthodoxy and that (in my opinion) leads to much of the ambiguity. Please keep in mind that this view doesn't reflect how I see my current pastor, but rather pastors I've known before who are still in ministry.

    Regards,
    +TexMethod

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  6. You raise a good point, TexMethod about being at cross-purposes, be it clergy or laity, however, I think it is more accurate to describe the situation as a need for real doctrinal and missional commitments based on Divine revelation of scripture, which has always been the tradition of the Methodist church, instead of reason and experience. Our culture values reason and experience and if we allow culture to determine our missional commitments,instead of scripture, then our mission would constantly change and church would become a body of the culture instead of being the body of Christ.

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  7. Sandralyn,

    Thank you. You put it very well. I completely agree with you. If Divine revelation of Scripture is our focus then the Body of Christ will certainly flourish!

    Regards,
    +TexMethod

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