Ministry Doings: Rethinking the Gospel

It's often difficult to put words around some of the things I work on with churches.  Even in its most tangible forms, it can be difficult to tell whether progress is really being made.  For example:

Last month I coordinated a training event with a leadership development team within the San Diego Presbytery.  Our theme for the day was "Rethinking the Gospel in a Changing World."  Our keynote speaker challenged those gathered:

The task of leadership is to facilitate spaces to dream, to cultivate a new imagination, and raise questions about what God is up to in our neighborhoods. It is not about attracting and entertaining, it is about serving, and equipping our people to serve and be the pastors to their networks of relationships. It is about learning to be the church outside of the church walls.     

(Read a longer summary of the speaker's remarks at our Presbytery Executive's blog.)

This was my third year to attend the event, and the second year in which I had a hand in planning the day's speakers and workshops.  Generally, I am very encouraged by the direction in which things are moving.  Just in these three years, the topics for teaching our presbytery's leaders have changed from "How to be an Elder or Deacon" to "Weaving the Fabric of Community in your Congregation."  That's huge!

(To translate why that is exciting for me: no longer are leadership roles simply viewed as positions to be filled, with requisite tasks and responsibilities, but there is a growing recognition that leaders in the church should be people who are active, adaptable followers of Jesus.  They need to know how to see God at work and how to encourage others more than they need to memorize Robert's Rules, for example.)

To boot, it's not just that we on the leadership team have decided this is important; we have actually seen a strong response in those who attend our annual training event.  They find freedom in attending workshops that challenge their ideas about the job of the church -- and their ideas about their role as a leader in it.  They are relieved to learn that other churches struggle with many of the same things they do, and they are eager to learn new ways of approaching what seemed like endless problems.  (Think budget, building, aging membership, etc.)  What we wanted our (mostly elderly) participants to realize was that God will make a way.  That way is not formulaic or one-size-fits-all; rather, it is adaptable, customized, and adventurous-- as it has always been in the history of God's people.

My biggest fear with this kind of event, where we have speakers and presenters offering insight into new ways of being the Body of Christ, is that attendees will listen and think, "Oh, that's nice, but I don't think it has anything to do with us.  So how do we use that Twitter thing to get more young people?"  I am relieved to hear that sort of reaction just a little less often these days.  As the world and the church changes, maybe that is how progress is made: just a little less of the questions that are beside the point and a little more of the questions that zero in on the miracles of God all around us.