Alan Robinson, a Uniting Church minister, has recently moved from Pittwater Uniting Church, Warriewood on the northern beaches of Sydney, NSW to Beenleigh Uniting Church in Queensland. In his paper presented at the Doctrine, Mission and Evangelism colloquium in Sydney recently, Alan outlined some of the challenges associated with a suburban regional church formed out of the merger of two congregations. His actual presentation on the day used a series of cartoons to help us engage with the dynamics of his case study.
Alan talks about the struggle to build attendance above 250 people. In his presentation he expanded further on this, looking at the impact of size and style on leadership and governance. While regular small groups are the key to effective pastoral care and spiritual growth yet demand constant encouragement, resourcing and promotion. A large regional church has a constant turnover of new people and people “slipping out the back door”. New mission initiatives keep bubbling up within the congregation. Where do leaders draw the line between encouraging these and working out what is sustainable and done in line with shared priorities? Alan talked about the constant process of inviting, nurturing, equipping and sending. Despite the strong community connections with the community through sport and recreation, respite care and preschool education, the number of people actually making faith commitments is small. It’s hard work and only occasionally rewarding.
Alan draws on Brueggemann’s commentary on Nehemiah 8 to reflect on scripture reading and interpretation as a community.
“This peculiar community is not self generated, but understands itself in terms of a special authorization in a script available for steady and regular, attentive reiteration. The Bible is meant to be read in community as the church’s book – the text that both creates and critiques the church.”
Alan writes about seeking to live in the tension of being both an alternative community and a parallel community. Finding ways of engaging with popular culture while still engaging with “kingdom of God values”, in worship, small groups and everyday life.
Alan reflects on the place of the local congregation in creating community in a knowledge society, drawing on Peter Drucker’s observations about social integration. He acknowledges the need for business principles, leadership practices to be balanced with “organic” community.
As a mission consultant I resonate with the way Alan wrote this part:
“Perhaps the thing that most determines the missional effectiveness (or otherwise) of a community is its culture. Like water to a fish, culture is normally invisible. It is more clearly perceived by the newcomer who is trying to understand the ethos and learn the unwritten “rules” than apparent to those who already belong. The past history of successes and failures, family networks, influential clergy and lay leaders makes its mark. Mission plans and consequent strategies will ultimately succeed or fail according to what the culture allows. Bringing change to a culture takes time, prayer and patience.”
Alan quotes NT Wright’s 2006 book Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense. Perhaps the greatest challenge for preachers and leaders of congregations is to continually remind the people of God that the church is not called into being in order to “provide a place where people can pursue their private spiritual agendas and develop their own spiritual potential. Nor does it exist in order to provide a safe haven in which people hide from the wicked world and ensure that they themselves arrive safely at an otherworldly destination. Private spiritual growth, and ultimate salvation, come rather as the by products of the main, central, over-arching purpose for which God has called and is calling us. That purpose is clear, and stated in various places in the New Testament: that through the church God will announce to the wider world that he is indeed its wise, loving and just creator, that through Jesus he has defeated the powers that corrupt and enslave it, and that by his Spirit he is at work to heal and renew it.”
Reflections
One of the constant themes for Alan’s presentation was the prevalence of burnout, discouragement and depression among ministers and other leaders in congregations. The higher the expectations of effectiveness, it seems, the higher the levels of frustration and exhaustion. Alan talked about the capacity of church organisations to swamp their members with long meetings and preparation for events, preventing them from spending time in their neighbourhoods living life. Maybe it comes down to an understanding of maturity and growth. Do we measure congregational effectiveness by looking at programs, or do we begin and end with the grassroots? The difficulty though is that left alone, community does tend to disintegrate or disappear. Our society in Australia is so focused on individual self fulfilment.
Alan again and again points to the need to work in paradox, holding together competing frameworks. Parallel and alternative. Gathered community and incarnational living. Effective leadership and stewardship of shared resources, and empowering each member to take initiative. It’s helpful to have that in your head. It’s even more helpful to remind people about the tension involved in living as an everyday disciple of Jesus. Otherwise the intentional community of Christ becomes the consumerist society of Christians or the institutional machine of the church.
Alan’s reflection on his congregational setting is a good example of working on as much as working in a culture.