Leading Ideas from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership for Wednesday, 2 July 2014

Leading Ideas from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership for Wednesday, 2 July 2014

What’s Wrong with This Picture? by Michael White

Last summer I joined a large group of extended family and friends at the beach. There were, on and off, about twenty-five to thirty of us. Come Sunday morning, some slept in, some worked out, two went running, one read the newspaper and watched the Sunday morning talk shows. Most of the group undertook an obligatory annual ritual of pancakes at Uncle Andy's Pancake House. Want to know what this crowd of mostly Irish- and Italian-American, largely parochial school educated, cradle Catholics did not do? Go to church.

You might wonder what I did about this dechurched epiphany in the heart of my own family. I breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness they didn’t go to church, at least to the parish church in this town. I know what I’m talking about. I went. Read more… Last summer I joined a large group of extended family and friends at the beach. There were, on and off, about twenty-five to thirty of us. Come Sunday morning, some slept in, some worked out, two went running, one read the newspaper and watched the Sunday morning talk shows. Most of the group undertook an obligatory annual ritual of pancakes at Uncle Andy's Pancake House. Want to know what this crowd of mostly Irish- and Italian-American, largely parochial school educated, cradle Catholics did not do? Go to church.

You might wonder what I did about this dechurched epiphany in the heart of my own family. I breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness they didn’t go to church, at least to the parish church in this town. I know what I’m talking about. I went.

Back in the day, this church would have been mobbed on summer Sunday mornings. Not anymore. There were plenty of empty seats. And the congregation was old, old, old. At the door a grumpy usher grunted at me. Everyone else avoided eye contact and ignored me. More than most churches in my experience, this congregation exuded a huge “us versus them” culture (which seems ironic given that they’re in a resort community). A hundred little details underscored for me as a visitor that I did not belong.

There was no opening hymn, because the organist hadn’t shown up on time. The organ was in the sanctuary, so you could see she wasn’t there, and you could also see when our luck ran out and she did show up (during the homily). When the music came, it was old school stuff, which everyone knows (and no one likes). Nobody sang or even pretended to try, except the organist herself who also served as a kind of Wagnerian cantor.

The lector read the readings in a way that convinced me he’d never laid eyes on them before. The celebrant was not the pastor, but some other priest who did not bother to introduce himself. He sort of assumed we knew who he was, but it didn’t matter. Who he was or what he had to say seemed deeply irrelevant to the assembly. As became clear, he was a visiting missionary, there to raise funds for his mission, though he never told us a single thing about it.

He began, “Your pastor loves you, so he told me not to talk for more than five minutes.” The preacher then proceeded to quote a different gospel than the one we’d just heard, which is usually a clear indication of a canned talk. It quickly became obvious that was exactly what we were hearing. Next he told a string of groan-inducing jokes and then turned on the guilt about hungry children.

At the same time, ushers were handing out pledge cards to relieve the guilt and support the mission. Instructions for filling out the cards took up the rest of the homily. Here’s the thing: Virtually no one paid any attention. They stared at the ceiling, they stared at the floor, they talked to one another, they gave a glance to the card then dropped it on the floor, but they paid no attention to the presentation, and, as far as I could see, no one actually made a pledge.

Then we powered through the rest of the Mass as if the building was on fire. When I returned to my seat from Communion, almost the entire section I was seated in was gone. Finally the remaining faithful were inundated with a string of announcements, which were actually, unbelievably, more fundraising appeals, this time for the parish itself. At the dismissal, instead of some charge to go in peace and serve the Lord or announce the Gospel, the celebrant says, “Don’t forget, at the beach, it’s always Happy Hour.” Really? Did you just give them permission to start drinking?

Why would I want any of my dechurched family members to have set aside their various weekend activities to witness this gathering of the Body of Christ? The last place I would want to reintroduce them to worship was this half empty church for a half-hearted exercise in fund raising and a full miss when it comes to what the Christian community is supposed to be about when it assembles.

Meanwhile, just down the street at Uncle Andy’s Pancake House, enthusiastic crowds formed a waiting line that snaked all the way around the block. Hmmm … Uncle Andy’s got pancakes. We’ve got the living Word of God. What’s wrong with this picture?

Father Michael White is pastor of Church of the Nativity in Timonium, Maryland, near Baltimore. This article is excerpted from Rebuilt: Awakening the Faithful, Reaching the Lost, Making Church Matter by Michael White and Tom Corcoran. Copyright 2013 by Ave Maria Press, P.O. Box 428, Notre Dame, IN 46556. Used with permission of the publisher. Rebuilt is available at Amazon and Cokesbury.

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Intergenerational Ministry and the Small Church by Brandon J. O’Brien

Church leaders typically consider it a liability when they are unable to provide focused age-specific ministry to every demographic in the congregation. But in large and thoroughly age-segregated churches where the generations seldom interact, children and youth can move through the church without ever being integrated into congregational life in any meaningful way. They go from the nursery to children’s church and from children’s church to youth group. Then, after they graduate from high school, many of them head off to college where they don’t know how to look for a worshiping community. 

In a church of 2,000 members, it is easy enough for teenagers to spend their time exclusively with teenagers, young parents to congregate only with other young parents, and older couples to gravitate toward other older couples. In a smaller church, however, this is nearly impossible. Read more… Church leaders typically consider it a liability when they are unable to provide focused age-specific ministry to every demographic in the congregation. But in large and thoroughly age-segregated churches where the generations seldom interact, children and youth can move through the church without ever being integrated into congregational life in any meaningful way. They go from the nursery to children’s church and from children’s church to youth group. Then, after they graduate from high school, many of them head off to college where they don’t know how to look for a worshiping community.

In a church of 2,000 members, it is easy enough for teenagers to spend their time exclusively with teenagers, young parents to congregate only with other young parents, and older couples to gravitate toward other older couples. In a smaller church, however, this is nearly impossible. In a smaller church, everyone is more naturally aware of everyone else. If a teenage boy enjoys working with younger children, some will undoubtedly find out and encourage the teen to volunteer in the nursery or a children’s outreach. If a young woman plays guitar, she is likely to be called upon to help with worship now and again. And when circumstances dictate that younger people rub shoulders with people in different life stages, wonderful things can happen.

As many churches are discovering, people of all ages benefit from the congregation’s functioning as a family, particularly as people become more transient and move geographically farther from their biological families. And ongoing research suggests that intergenerational ministry may be the key to ensuring that our teens remain committed to the community of saints. Researcher and youth pastor Kara Powell maintains “There is a strong link between kids’ involvement in intergenerational relationships and worship and their staying in church after they graduate.” She insists that the smallest of steps toward intergenerational relationships within the church can make a significant difference.

The small-membership church is the ideal place for these important relationships to occur. Larger churches must hire new staff persons to accomplish what the small church can do with ease: take the radical step of recognizing that the church exists not only to serve the family, but ultimately to serve as family.

Of course, a church can’t claim to have embraced intergenerational ministry simply because it has members of several generations sitting in the same room on a Sunday morning. A church can be without age-specific programs and still fail to engage its youth and children. Ultimately, the onus for the success of intergenerational ministry rests on the older members of the congregation. They must embrace their potential as mentors, as functional parents and grandparents. But I am convinced that if the small church had no other inherent value, no other particular strength, this one thing would make it a strategic tool for the future of the Christian faith.

Brandon J. O’Brien is Assistant Professor of Christian Theology at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas and director of OBU at New Life Church. This article is adapted from his book The Strategically Small Church, Bethany House Publishers, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2010, and used by permission. The Strategically Small Church is available at Amazon and Cokesbury.

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Quotable Leadership

As a leader, while your character may be forged through a few crucible events, your reputation is shaped by the way you handle thousands of everyday, ordinary moments.(Doug Conant and Mette Norgaard)

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Now Available: Changes Congregations Are Facing Today

Changes Congregations Are Facing Today, a year-long series by Lewis Center Director Lovett H. Weems, Jr., has been compiled into an informative e-book. This new collection helps congregations better recognize and prepare for the recent and ongoing changes in our churches and communities. The topics covered are: worship attendance patterns; finances; newcomers; mission engagement; diversity; challenges facing different size churches; lay staffing; and pastoral leadership. Changes Congregations are Facing Today is available in Kindle and PDF formats. Learn more now. In order to move forward with vision, we are wise to pay attention to what the past has taught us.” — Lovett H. Weems, Jr. 

As the Lewis Center approached its tenth anniversary, we surveyed the changes churches have faced over the past decade. From worship attendance patterns to diversity, finances to mission engagement and more, the church of 2014 is not the church of 2004. From this research emerged “Changes Congregations Are Facing Today,” a series in Leading Ideas: Update by Lovett H. Weems, Jr.

Today we’re pleased to offer to you Changes Congregations Are Facing Today, a new ebook that brings together the articles from that series, along with discussion questions and sources for further information for each topic covered. Changes Congregations Are Facing Today is an ideal conversation starter, especially for congregations evaluating their own ministries or engaging in planning for the future. The ebook is available for Kindle and also as a PDF that may be shared with up to five people.

Topics

Worship Attendance Patterns

Diversity

Newcomers

Finances

Mission Engagement

Pastoral Leadership

Lay Staffing

Challenges Facing Different Size Churches

http://www.churchleadership.com/resources/ChangesCongregationsAreFacingToday.asp?id=LI20140702

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The Right Question

Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the right questions.

Ethicist Robert Franklin, while president of Morehouse College, speculated about what it would mean for colleges to receive “community accreditation” to go along with all the other types of accreditations required of them. It’s an interesting idea not just for colleges but also for churches and each of us. 

What would it be like for us and our congregations to answer regularly questions such as: 

What does the community think of the performance and value of your work?

What have you done in the past year to enhance the community?

How could you become a better citizen of your community? 

Want more Right Questions? Check out “Right Questions for Church Leaders: 2013 and 2012 Collections.”

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Editors: Lovett H. Weems, Jr., and Ann A. Michel. Production: Carol Follett

Copyright © 2004-2014 Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary. 

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Washington, DC 20016 United States

(202) 885-8757

lewiscenter@wesleyseminary.edu

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