I had been invited by a friend of mine to lead a congregation through the process of intentional revitalization, and was just beginning the opening presentation that I had, clandestinely, entitled, "Toward Christian Vocation." The opening sentences went like this:
In the age of the historical Jesus, and perhaps through the Apostolic age, with Paul, faithful followers of the way of Christ saw it as their vocation-in-life to complete the full realization of God's will on earth. 'Kingdom' was coming imminently, and it was their responsibility to complete its arrival. They did the work to which they had been called, and for which they had been empowered, by intentionally embodying the archetype that had been established in the ministry of Jesus Christ, in his Crucifixion and Resurrection. The Church that resulted, well after a theological shift to a delayed understanding of the coming of God's 'kingdom' on earth, went in a completely alternative ecclesial direction. Christian Vocation was narrowed and lost, except for a few who understood it as their professional calling. It is time that we return to a wider understanding of Christian vocation, embracing once again what it means to be faithful practitioners of the Way of Christ. Only by so doing does the Church of Jesus Christ have a hope of being relevant in the new cultural evolution in which we find ourselves.
I was less than ten minutes into my opening presentation and saw that, already, I had lost the gathered group of some fifteen congregational leaders. Each leader wore on her or his face that tale tell, polite, vacant disinterest that my colleagues and I see so frequently on Sundays. The deal had been struck. They, in patient and tolerant etiquette, would allow me to drone on about issues that they found absolutely no passion for seeing to fruition. Later, they would get to the work of growing their membership roles and balancing their budgets by doing things just differently enough that it would attract those non-churched millennials out there. I saw immediately that my presentation was too distant from their experience, too technical for their interest, and too 'churchy' for their practical needs. So, I began again:
I know that your interest here might well be limited to membership numbers and dollars pledged against a budget. I fully accept that you, as a congregation, are trying to figure out how you can do things that attract the huge population of church alumnae. You anticipate hospitality approaches, programmatic changes, leadership initiatives. You want to know how you might avoid doing the wrong things, those that we have been told pushed people away, and how to do them rightly, in order that we may lure them back. None of it works. Marketing does not work. Advertising does not work. Vacation Bible School or Sunday School curriculum is irrelevant. Worship approaches or hymnody selections do not matter. Style of dress that is tolerated is meaningless. People will tell you that they have left the church because of these. It is not true. People have left the church because there is no passion, no energy, no meaning and purpose. There is no sense of Christian vocation, ladies and gentlemen. If we are going to be relevant in the evolving culture, if we are going to survive at all, then we have got to recover a sense of our calling and empowerment!
There was a little more interest in those who formed the congregation's working group on revitalization. I paused here and welcomed questions. Most were along the lines of one asked by a woman, maybe 40-something, who had been a part of the church since birth. She asked something like this, "You mean that doing things better won't result in more members and more money? Just getting our name out in the community won't help?
Exactly. The entire formulae for being and doing church have to change if we are going to survive. The content of that change lies in the ancient/new recovery of Christianity as vocation instead of religious practice. It is similar, I think, to what some mean by being "spiritual but not religious."
The conversations were off and running. We formed small groups and asked them to discuss what they had tried, what courses they had followed, where they might think 'the problem' lies and how they saw solutions. They realized, of course, that the problem lies in a lack of vocational training and the energy that comes with calling and empowerment.
We were off on the process of recovering Christian Vocation in the congregation! So much fun!
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Monday, May 23, 2016
Christian Vocation
I have recently been engaged in several high-level discussions about the future direction and purpose of the Church of Jesus Christ and have discovered a few things in the process. Some of these discoveries have been surprising to me. Others, well, not so much. A few have been downright shocking, however. This post to the Shiloh Insider highlights what I find to be the single most surprising finding from discussions about the evolving Church.
In each of the discussion settings in which I have found myself, I spoke about the single most dominant dimension that sets Progressive Church Theology apart from its traditional counterpart. In what I take to be traditional church theology, the purpose of the church is to serve its constituency, its membership. The aim of the church is to guarantee the salvation of those who rely on it for mediation or provision of a spiritual program that leads to personal, eternal reward instead of punishment. The Church exists and works for its members. After all, members pay the bills. They expect a product in exchange. That product is their own salvation. Members also expect the service of the Church, especially in times of the BIG THREE...hatch, match and dispatch. Members expect to receive from the Church whatever services they deem necessary to their spiritual well being.
The Church that follows this traditional (practical) principle had been formed through centuries of theological and social development. For a very long time, this is how Church worked. It centered around the needs of its membership and worked to meet those social, spiritual, practical, economic and political requirements. Fellowship groups formed around membership identity groups. Working groups served within congregations to meet the needs of the community of faith. This Church created an entitled and self-serving membership. It gave rise to generations that expected the Church to do something for them, entertain them, socialize them, train them up to be good people.
Through the centuries, the notion of a Church that calls and equips persons in Christian vocation all but disappeared. That theology has been rediscovered in the Progressive Church model. Persons who belong to Progressive churches have a sense of Christian Vocation. They are empowered to perform the work of Christ Jesus in the contemporary setting and called to embody Jesus' work through its own sacrifice and service. I have referred to this recently as our "representational incarnation." We are Christ's ongoing presence and continuing work in the world.
This is Christian Vocation. It is that to which we are called and that for which we are empowered. Persons do not join these congregations to enter into some spiritual quid pro quo, from which they benefit, but to engage, mind, body and soul in the work to which each is called and for which everyone is empowered. Persons live out the "representational incarnation" in the sacrificial ministry that each offers in the world to those whom they might benefit through their effort.It is not for the members, but for those in the community whom the members serve.
But people do not like the term "Christian Vocation." They want something softer and kinder, something that does not seem so very work-related. Yet, that is precisely the point. The ministry to which we are called in our "representational incarnation" is work. It is our life-work. It is that for which we are empowered and that to which we are called.
Progressive Church theology is vocationally oriented. It does not work if the Church fails in its vocational training. Shiloh has a strong grasp on this simple fact of Progressive theology. We know that we are called to serve, to work, to fulfill our representational incarnation by replicating Christ's sacrifice in, to, with, and for the communities that we are called to serve.
In each of the discussion settings in which I have found myself, I spoke about the single most dominant dimension that sets Progressive Church Theology apart from its traditional counterpart. In what I take to be traditional church theology, the purpose of the church is to serve its constituency, its membership. The aim of the church is to guarantee the salvation of those who rely on it for mediation or provision of a spiritual program that leads to personal, eternal reward instead of punishment. The Church exists and works for its members. After all, members pay the bills. They expect a product in exchange. That product is their own salvation. Members also expect the service of the Church, especially in times of the BIG THREE...hatch, match and dispatch. Members expect to receive from the Church whatever services they deem necessary to their spiritual well being.
The Church that follows this traditional (practical) principle had been formed through centuries of theological and social development. For a very long time, this is how Church worked. It centered around the needs of its membership and worked to meet those social, spiritual, practical, economic and political requirements. Fellowship groups formed around membership identity groups. Working groups served within congregations to meet the needs of the community of faith. This Church created an entitled and self-serving membership. It gave rise to generations that expected the Church to do something for them, entertain them, socialize them, train them up to be good people.
Through the centuries, the notion of a Church that calls and equips persons in Christian vocation all but disappeared. That theology has been rediscovered in the Progressive Church model. Persons who belong to Progressive churches have a sense of Christian Vocation. They are empowered to perform the work of Christ Jesus in the contemporary setting and called to embody Jesus' work through its own sacrifice and service. I have referred to this recently as our "representational incarnation." We are Christ's ongoing presence and continuing work in the world.
This is Christian Vocation. It is that to which we are called and that for which we are empowered. Persons do not join these congregations to enter into some spiritual quid pro quo, from which they benefit, but to engage, mind, body and soul in the work to which each is called and for which everyone is empowered. Persons live out the "representational incarnation" in the sacrificial ministry that each offers in the world to those whom they might benefit through their effort.It is not for the members, but for those in the community whom the members serve.
But people do not like the term "Christian Vocation." They want something softer and kinder, something that does not seem so very work-related. Yet, that is precisely the point. The ministry to which we are called in our "representational incarnation" is work. It is our life-work. It is that for which we are empowered and that to which we are called.
Progressive Church theology is vocationally oriented. It does not work if the Church fails in its vocational training. Shiloh has a strong grasp on this simple fact of Progressive theology. We know that we are called to serve, to work, to fulfill our representational incarnation by replicating Christ's sacrifice in, to, with, and for the communities that we are called to serve.
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Evolutionary Process
These were pretty high level discussions, one with an Association group that is working to redefine a portion of that Association's ministry and another with a national group that is attempting to locate a purpose for its organization. I had been hired to facilitate by the one, while I had volunteered for the other. In both cases, the groups were seeking a revitalization of purpose and meaning.
It is astounding to me that both conversations trailed down similar paths. If I were to try to condense the conversations, in search of their common elements, I would easily reach an outline for both:
1. Where the organizations have been may have served well in the past,
but we no longer relevant, practical or functional.
2. There is a need to redefine, retool, reshape the efforts, in light of two factors:
First being the cultural evolution in which we find ourselves. The second is
the need of ministry to adopt the new cultural patterns and evolve alongside
the culture that surrounds them.
3. While it is easier to simply keep doing the same old thing in different ways,
to do so is no longer honest in light of what we now know about our calling
and vocation-in-life.
So we dreamed. We imagined together. In an ideal world, what would this organization do? How would it work? What would its aims, values and guiding principles look like? Think big. Do not be afraid to shake the foundations upon which the organizational stability had always been based. Go ahead. Rock the boat! There are no wrong answers and no stupid suggestions.
We began to define together what the organizations might do and look like if their existence was based solely in the ministry of Jesus Christ, within the given context of each body. This turned out to be a greater challenge than anyone around the repspective tables assumed it might be. The suggestions challenged old values and traditional orinetations, even at one point suggesting that seeing the church as a family mighy serve as a roadblock to servanthood and evangelism. The groups were given permission to throw out traditional values and beliefs, to question, to dare to dream in alternative, creative and imaginative ways what it might mean to represent Christ Jesus in new and powerful ways.
In each case, what I relate here simply tells of initial sessions with the respective groups, one regional and one national. Both groups were energized. Both were enthused. Both want desperately to continue the process.
The process has local church applications, of course. When we get free enough to imagine alternative and innovative ways of expressing our vocation-in-Christ, the result is empowering, enthusing, exciting and energizing. The steps in the process are simple. Permission must be granted and received to think beyond traditional boundaries and values. Participants must be willing to dare to dream, to risk, beyond traditionally safe borders, what it means to represent Christ in, to and for the culture that is developing around us. Group process then takes over and remarkable, surprising, magical suggestions and ideas ensue. In my experience, this is the rule rather than the exception.
Where we have been and what we have done in the past is no longer effective. It is time to blaze new avenues of ministry and service, to re-imagine Christ and our representational incarnation. It is time to reshape our vocation...or to even speak in terms of a "Christian vocation." It is time for us to embody a different Christ differently in the church that represents him. It is time for us to evolve, like the culture around us is evolving.
It is astounding to me that both conversations trailed down similar paths. If I were to try to condense the conversations, in search of their common elements, I would easily reach an outline for both:
1. Where the organizations have been may have served well in the past,
but we no longer relevant, practical or functional.
2. There is a need to redefine, retool, reshape the efforts, in light of two factors:
First being the cultural evolution in which we find ourselves. The second is
the need of ministry to adopt the new cultural patterns and evolve alongside
the culture that surrounds them.
3. While it is easier to simply keep doing the same old thing in different ways,
to do so is no longer honest in light of what we now know about our calling
and vocation-in-life.
So we dreamed. We imagined together. In an ideal world, what would this organization do? How would it work? What would its aims, values and guiding principles look like? Think big. Do not be afraid to shake the foundations upon which the organizational stability had always been based. Go ahead. Rock the boat! There are no wrong answers and no stupid suggestions.
We began to define together what the organizations might do and look like if their existence was based solely in the ministry of Jesus Christ, within the given context of each body. This turned out to be a greater challenge than anyone around the repspective tables assumed it might be. The suggestions challenged old values and traditional orinetations, even at one point suggesting that seeing the church as a family mighy serve as a roadblock to servanthood and evangelism. The groups were given permission to throw out traditional values and beliefs, to question, to dare to dream in alternative, creative and imaginative ways what it might mean to represent Christ Jesus in new and powerful ways.
In each case, what I relate here simply tells of initial sessions with the respective groups, one regional and one national. Both groups were energized. Both were enthused. Both want desperately to continue the process.
The process has local church applications, of course. When we get free enough to imagine alternative and innovative ways of expressing our vocation-in-Christ, the result is empowering, enthusing, exciting and energizing. The steps in the process are simple. Permission must be granted and received to think beyond traditional boundaries and values. Participants must be willing to dare to dream, to risk, beyond traditionally safe borders, what it means to represent Christ in, to and for the culture that is developing around us. Group process then takes over and remarkable, surprising, magical suggestions and ideas ensue. In my experience, this is the rule rather than the exception.
Where we have been and what we have done in the past is no longer effective. It is time to blaze new avenues of ministry and service, to re-imagine Christ and our representational incarnation. It is time to reshape our vocation...or to even speak in terms of a "Christian vocation." It is time for us to embody a different Christ differently in the church that represents him. It is time for us to evolve, like the culture around us is evolving.
Monday, May 02, 2016
Open and Affirming Congregation
As the result of unanimous congregational vote on May 1, 2016, Shiloh Church United Church of Christ is an Open and Affirming congregation of the United Church of Christ. The office is taking the necessary steps for the congregation to enact the UCC designation.
This should likely come as no surprise to any who know Shiloh Church. This is a welcoming, hospitable church. The ONA Statement simply reflects the work that Shiloh Church is already doing in our community and throughout the world. The statement that Shiloh adopted at its congregational meeting is clear:
Shiloh Church United Church of Christ celebrates and welcomes diversity.
We recognize that we do not have to be or believe alike in order to
accomplish God's will on earth.
Shiloh Church celebrates your journey, your gifts, your talents, and your
calling, and invites you to bring to the Lord's Table your energy and
your uniqueness, to join with ours in
"Living the Word by Serving the World"
YOU ARE WELCOME HERE!
Shiloh Church works unceasingly at welcoming every person. It is work at which Shiloh is not perfect. The congregation sometimes falls short of emulating the love of Christ, as each person falls short, but the lofty aim of reflecting Christ is ever before us. If we remain conscious of our actions and aware of areas of improvement, maybe Shiloh can be a congregation that sometimes approaches the grace and love of Jesus Christ.
There are opportunities to reflect Christ's love all around us. Some come immediately to mind. Shiloh's Front Porch Ministry is held in conjunction with our Farmers' Market, which is open each Saturday, from 8:00a.m. to 1:00 p.m., May through the middle of October. Your presence is all that is required. Come and join in open interaction with members of the Shiloh/North Dayton community. Eat, have a cup of coffee, share, learn and care for those who form our neighborhood. Weekly worship provides yet another opportunity for openness to others. Wear those name tags. Introduce yourself to persons whom you do not yet know, welcome strangers, engage in conversations that draw newcomers in, intentionally work at going out of the way to make someone feel comfortable and welcome. It can be exciting work. Join in the fun!
I pray that Shiloh lives up to the title of Open and Affirming, even surpasses its expectations, as we continue to minister in Jesus' name.
This should likely come as no surprise to any who know Shiloh Church. This is a welcoming, hospitable church. The ONA Statement simply reflects the work that Shiloh Church is already doing in our community and throughout the world. The statement that Shiloh adopted at its congregational meeting is clear:
Shiloh Church United Church of Christ celebrates and welcomes diversity.
We recognize that we do not have to be or believe alike in order to
accomplish God's will on earth.
Shiloh Church celebrates your journey, your gifts, your talents, and your
calling, and invites you to bring to the Lord's Table your energy and
your uniqueness, to join with ours in
"Living the Word by Serving the World"
YOU ARE WELCOME HERE!
Shiloh Church works unceasingly at welcoming every person. It is work at which Shiloh is not perfect. The congregation sometimes falls short of emulating the love of Christ, as each person falls short, but the lofty aim of reflecting Christ is ever before us. If we remain conscious of our actions and aware of areas of improvement, maybe Shiloh can be a congregation that sometimes approaches the grace and love of Jesus Christ.
There are opportunities to reflect Christ's love all around us. Some come immediately to mind. Shiloh's Front Porch Ministry is held in conjunction with our Farmers' Market, which is open each Saturday, from 8:00a.m. to 1:00 p.m., May through the middle of October. Your presence is all that is required. Come and join in open interaction with members of the Shiloh/North Dayton community. Eat, have a cup of coffee, share, learn and care for those who form our neighborhood. Weekly worship provides yet another opportunity for openness to others. Wear those name tags. Introduce yourself to persons whom you do not yet know, welcome strangers, engage in conversations that draw newcomers in, intentionally work at going out of the way to make someone feel comfortable and welcome. It can be exciting work. Join in the fun!
I pray that Shiloh lives up to the title of Open and Affirming, even surpasses its expectations, as we continue to minister in Jesus' name.
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