I think Len Hjalmarson has attended my church!<\/p>\n
Hjalmarson\u2019s articles perfectly captures the nature of my church and puts into words many of my concerns about the way my church functions. And his forecast for my church doesn\u2019t look all that bright as our leaders would have us believe.<\/p>\n
A little background. I had spent twenty years in a small church of about 120 people. It was small enough that I knew everyone and we were close enough that we were forced to deal with everyone (equal opportunity misery). It was an old fashion church, stuck in the past, with the older generation keeping tight reigns on the church\u2019s practices in the midst of a quickly changing world. After 20 years, the church had experienced zero growth and lots of frustrations.<\/p>\n
You can imagine the joy my wife and I had when we moved to Omaha and had an opportunity to choose a new church. We landed in a growing church housed in a spanking new building. Everything in this church was well organized, professional, sharp: One hour worship services, a slick children\u2019s center and programs, and the ever-new capital campaign. At the beginning, there was a sense of delight in not knowing everything that went on. I could enjoy worship without all the frustrations of knowing too much or having to deal with so many headaches. But, it sure seemed awkward to have a stranger appear on stage on Sunday morning to introduce herself as a new staff member. When did that happen? It is a well oiled, humming machine that was as organized and effective as any business or factory, where everything is controlled and timed and guided by unseen, all controlling invisible hands. But, over time, I have often asked: Is this really \u201cchurch\u201d?<\/p>\n
What is wrong with this idea of the church? Hjalmarson gives several important insights of what is missing and what this means for the future of my church. He suggests that though this well scripted, well-choreographed hour of worship may seem comfortable and refreshing in the midst of our chaotic and uncontrolled lives, it is ultimately artificial and unrealistic. It is not real life. He calls this \u201climinal space\u201d \u2013 a \u201cnowhere land that has come into being in the turbulent waters of societal shift.\u201d (Broken Futures, <\/em>2) The church has figured out a formula that has fed into the felt needs of our modern society, providing a few minutes of rest outside of one\u2019s chaotic life, to experience something that works well and runs on time, that gives a sense of organization and direction. This might be refreshing for a while, but it does not meet the deeper needs of individuals: the need for connection and community necessary to deal with life\u2019s numerous uncertainties. This explains why churches like mine are revolving doors, which is acceptable as long as the machine is bringing more in the front door than is sending out the back door.<\/p>\n This modern, efficiently organized way of doing church presents several troubling issues. First, is it requires no reliance on the Holy Spirit and no tolerance for chaos. It is a leader driven\/order-focused program, where the people either join the program or leave for greener pastures. \u201cLeaders use control and imposition rather than self-organizing processes. They react to uncertainty and chaos by tightening already feeble controls, rather than engaging our best capacities in the dance.\u201d (Leadership<\/em> in a Chaordic Age,<\/em> 2) Certainty is seen as the key to success. But, \u201ccertainty is not a value advocated in Scripture, but rather faith, and dependence on movement of the Spirit, a dynamic which is never in control of the church.\u201d (Leadership,<\/em> 5) What is needed for our chaotic world are chaordic leaders, those who \u201cdon\u2019t mind fluid structures and are comfortable with chaos because they are more interested in finding meaning than in building structures or establishing order.\u201d (Leadership<\/em>, 5)<\/p>\n Second, it lacks personal investment. Instead of church as family or congregation, you have an audience. This leaves little room for personal involvement. I see this as a major issue in my church, as the regular plea for funding for new buildings and programs will have less response as the older and more generous generation is no longer here. As Reggie McNeal rightly states: \u201cThe current church culture in NA is on life support. It is living off the work, money and energy of previous generations from a previous world order. The plug will be pulled either when the money runs out (80 percent of the money given to congregations comes from people aged fifty five and older) or when the remaining three fourths of a generation who are institutional loyalist die or both\u2026\u201d (Leadership <\/em>1) To gain greater support requires allowing wider participation, which will lessen control and opens the door for confusion, which is anathema to today\u2019s leaders. But, it also allows space for the Holy Spirit work and for God to reveal His power to reconcile, heal and give meaning.<\/p>\n Finally, the church is no longer a place of rich connections. \u201cLife emerges where there are rich connections.\u201d (Leadership,<\/em> 2) The deeper needs of our world will not be met by organizing well, but by providing a place where, through involvement and participation, meaning will be found for life in the midst of life\u2019s struggles and heartache. This means we \u201chave to invite participation and encourage open conversation and begin to listen deeply.\u201d (Leadership<\/em>, 2) The reason for this is that the \u201c\u2018best capacities\u2019 of people are engaged when they participate: When they have a voice, when they are valued partners, and when they see that their work has meaning.\u201d (Leadership<\/em>, 3) Here is where I see my church falling short. There is little opportunity for real participation, for belonging, for ownership. Therefore, people fail to find meaning and purpose. In the long run, this does not encourage connections to the church or within the church that results in the revolving door of church attendance.<\/p>\n What Hjalmarson is encouraging is a radical and biblical reevaluation of how we do church, by returning to a church where leadership is seen \u201cas a process in which an entire community is engaged\u201d (Leadership<\/em>, 7) and God has space to work.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I think Len Hjalmarson has attended my church! Hjalmarson\u2019s articles perfectly captures the nature of my church and puts into words many of my concerns about the way my church functions. And his forecast for my church doesn\u2019t look all that bright as our leaders would have us believe. A little background. I had spent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,647,648],"class_list":["post-5183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-hjalmarson","tag-whittle","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5184,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5183\/revisions\/5184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}