People Get in the Way of Progress

8/23/05
 

I wish I knew an easy way to turn churches around. Even if I did, I suspect people would still get in the way. That's what always happens, doesn't it? People get in the way of progress, of change, of transformation? But, of course, I am one of them. All of us are, especially those of us who are ministers. In fact, I am more convinced than ever that the first person who gets in the way of congregational transformation is the minister.

I'm talking about myself as well as you, of course. I can remember when I thought it was up to me to control things in the churches I served, go to every meeting in order to set the agenda, hear what was said and try to head off any ideas I didn't like. I can remember believing the biggest reward in ministry was preaching to a packed sanctuary and seeing people come forward to join the church. If that happened inTazewell, Virginia in my first full time church, then I was sure I would be on the way to success in other places. I would climb the stairway to big steeple pulpits, and people would know who I was.

For reasons I have shared at other times, I got saved from that kind of solipsistic thinking by the Church of the Savior in D.C. As I walked in their midst, I met lay people who knew more about ministry than I did. I experienced a level of sharing in small groups no one in Tazewell dared to match, including me. I experienced the power of silence I knew nothing about up to that time. I even found out that I thought the pulpit in the Tazewell sanctuary, though dedicated to God, actually belonged to me. I stopped leaving retreats early enough to drive back home to preach after Elizabeth O'Connor asked me why I thought I was the only person God could speak through in Tazewell.

            But the most eye opening thing they taught me was that I was actually afraid of the transformation I thought I was working to effect. I wanted it to happen fast because I knew it would not force me to go very deep in my own spiritual inventory. Quick change is always superficial. I didn't know this about myself until they required me to go on silent retreats and begin using a spiritual journal. I also had to be in groups where people confronted me with what they saw in me that didn't seem real or that I was hiding. I hated it, but I kept going back because truth has a way of catching us. Maybe that is the way truth works at its deepest level? It catches us rather than our "learning" it.

            A guy named Duane Cottrell - somebody I don't know from anybody - recently wrote an article in which he said he believed transformation was 20% words and 80% living. The rest of the article made me think what he meant was that he was looking for a church that stopped talking about transformation and started practicing it, kind of like the stuff the Church of The Savior had me do. I remember now that they didn't do any teaching, no exploration of stages in a congregation's life, no spiritual gift inventories, no long surveys about what I thought Tazewell needed to do to change, no long range planning procedure I could use when I got home. They never once mentioned how to make our church grow numerically bigger. No, they spent all the time worshipping, sharing spiritual journeys in small groups, and spending large blocks of time in silence. For that I got a change of direction in ministry from which I have never wavered.

            It's easy to forget that the biggest challenge most ministers face is getting out of the way of transformation. I'm not talking about not leading. I'm talking about giving up the illusion that bringing in a consultant or following the latest program is going to bring about lasting change. The best way for ministers to get out of the way is to realize that we make ministry too complicated. We turn spiritual direction the lay folks at Church of the Savior have been for 45 years into something we have to get training for. We use endless surveys to help people discover their spiritual gifts when they are the gift God has given to the church. We tell people to find their call in ministry, as if it is something outside themselves, when it is as simple as doing what they want to do for God. My experience is that there is too much convoluting and not enough ruminating in most of the churches I visit.

            Most of all, ministers can get out of the way by remembering what we learned at our own baptism. Transformation is something that happens when we choose to be open to it, and that it seldom happens in one felled swoop. Our role as clergy is to help our people begin the process of choosing transformation over stagnation. In this regard, we have started focusing on three basic questions here at Spirit of Joy are: (1) What kind of Christians do we want to be? (2) What kind of church do we need to be to help us become that kind of Christian? (3) What am I willing to do to help SOJ be the kind of church that can help me become the kind of Christian I want to be?

            There is nothing complicated or difficult about asking church members to answer these questions. I can tell you that it has already produced some very significant conversations about our personal journeys of faith and the kind of church Spirit of Joy is. I will be glad to email anyone copies of the two "teachings" I recently did on these questions. They may stimulate your own ruminations on transformation. We would welcome your sharing them with the rest of us in a Reflection.

            - Jan Linn, Spirit of Joy Christian Church, Lakeville, MN