Reinventing American Protestantism

I just finished reading Donald Miller's Reinventing American Protestantism. Miller, a sociology professor from the Unversity of Southern California, applies his discipline to understanding three growing movements: Calvary Chapel, Vineyard Association, and Hope Chapel. All three of these movements are of the charismatic persuasion and have experienced tremendous growth in the past couple of decades while many mainline Protestant churches have been in decline.

Miller espouses the religious markets theory that compares churches to businesses. Some rise, others fall - much depends on a church's "polity, clergy, religious doctrines, and evangelization techniques.'

A quick summary: "New paradigm churches eliminated many of the inefficiencies of bureaucratized religion by an appeal to the first century model of Christianity; this 'purged' form of religion corresponded to the countercultural worldview of baby boomers, who rejected institutionalized religion; with their bureaucratically lean, lay-oriented organizational structure, new paradigm churches developed programs sensitive to the needs of their constituency; new paradigm churches offered a style of worshp that was attractive to people alienated from establishedment religion because it was in their own idiom; this worship and the corresponding message provided direct acces to an experience of the sacred, which had the potential of transforming people's lives by addressing their deepenst personal needs."

Miller's book is a scholarly look at the growth of these movements in a positive light. He also has some reccomendations for the revitalization of the mainline denominations -- some of these keys are worth looking at for our own church, too.

What Should Denominations Do?

Bill Isaacs, Administrative Bishop for the Churches of God in Northern Ohio, has a blog in which he asks the honest question, "What can/should denominations do?" Considering the mandated reallocation of funds (decision of our general assembly), this is the first question that must be addressed before deciding where to set the knife.

Bill has opened his blog to user comments, and there has been quite a number of responses to his question -- with many various opinions. Below is my response to question as I posted on his blog.

Bill, thanks for opening the dialog on this topic. Let me address the matter from a more historical perspective by asking the question, what were the core values of our denomination in its earliest years. Finding out what contributed to any organization’s early successes will normally be tied to its DNA. So. here’s my take on our core values.

1. Church planting From the onset, A.J. Tomlinson had the desire to evangelize by planting new churches. In 1902, there was the single church in Camp Creek, NC. By 1905, there were churches in NC, TN, and GA. At the first Assembly in 1905, there were five congregations. By 1910, we had 31 churches; by 1911 there were 51. By …, well you get the picture.

2. The Power of Holy Spirit I place this second on purpose due to its historical timing. Although there were charismatic demonstrations with the Christian Union in 1886, there was no teaching about it. And it appears that the charismata didn’t stick with the group. It was in 1908, after the third General Assembly that A.J. Tomlinson was filled with the spirit at a revival in Alabama. Subsequently, he invited G.B. Cashwell to Cleveland and the Pentecostal revival came to stay in the denomination.

3. World Missions By 1909, Edmund Barr and R.M Evans experienced Pentecost. The next year, they went to the Bahamas to plant the COG. Other missionaries and countries would quickly be a part of the denomination’s outreach. Today, the COG is in 170 countries.

4. Social Ministry From 1900-1910, the leaders frequently collected clothes for needy children. There were several attempts to establish an orphanage. 1910, Lillian Thrasher started an orphanage in Egypt. Finally, the first COG home for children was established in 1920 in Cleveland.

5. Youth Ministry 1906, already the need for family ministry, family devotions was expressed. Later initiatives, youth camps and the YPE movement.

6. Ministerial Training/Education Most of us know about Lee University having its roots at the Bible Training Institute. It began in 1919. Since then we can look at all the different educational initiatives and programs, including the MIP and CIMS.

After writing this, I am still of the conviction that the local church is the hope of the world. The denomination exists because of the local church. However, the denomination has the power to be greater than the sums of its local congregations. The purpose of the denomination is simply to help us all achieve things that local churches by themselves cannot accomplish alone.

I think these core values listed above can really be our north star / our true north as we navigate the waters of decentralization (how else are we to interpret the decision of the last General Assembly) and budget reductions.

Three Questions for a Frantic Family

I've written many times before, the best time for me to read is while in transit. During my flight to/from Bulgaria, I was able to read the latest from one of my favorite authors - Patrick Lencioni, a consultant par excellence. This time, he has applied his analytic questions for businesses for everyday family life. Below is a summary of his book, taken from his own website.

The Three Big Questions: Family Scoreboard Explanations

1. What makes your family unique?
The answer to this question should be two or three sentences that describe how your family is different from any other family in the world. If you don’t know what differentiates your family from others, you won’t have a basis for making decisions, and you’ll try to be all things to all people.

2. What is your top priority—rallying cry—right now?
Rallying Cry: The rallying cry is a single, agreed-upon top priority for your family over the next two to six months. Without a top priority, everything becomes important and you end up reacting to whatever issues seem urgent that day.

Defining Objectives: Defining objectives are the basic categories of things you’ll have to do to achieve your rallying cry. Without identifying those categories, you’ll be left with nothing but a general statement—and no context for getting it done.

Standard Objectives: Standard objectives are simply those regular, perennial responsibilities that a family must pay attention to in order to keep its head above water. By acknowledging these ongoing responsibilities, families will avoid being distracted from what really matters.

3. How do you talk about and use the answers to these questions?
The most important thing a family has to do to keep its context alive is discuss it in regular meetings. If you answer the first two questions but don’t use those answers in daily, weekly and monthly decision-making, it will yield limited benefits. It can also be helpful to “score” your progress as demonstrated with the green, yellow, and red color key.

The Plight of Denominations

George Bullard has posted an entry on his blog about the demise of many denominations. Have a read and think about what it might mean for our church, or even your local congregation.

Here is an illustration of why I believe we are in a denominational transformation era rather than a post-denominational era. What makes it seem like a post-denominational era is that denominational organizations, much like Old Age stage congregations, are in deep denial that they must transform or die, may refuse to believe how deep the changes and transitions must be, and keep making accommodations in policies and structure to give buy a little more life.

The March of Dimes organization was started to combat polio. Once polio was substantially eliminated from North America, it might seem the purpose and focus of the March of Dimes had been eliminated. Perhaps the Mother’s March was no longer needed. Not so. What happened to the March of Dimes is that they realized they had misunderstood their mission. Their mission was not to fight polio. Their mission was to fight birth defects. Polio was simply their first major cause or project.

Denominations must realize their real mission is to expand and extend the kingdom of God through the basic building block of various congregational forms and movements. It is no longer to do for congregations what congregations cannot do for themselves. It is to increase the capacity of congregations to reach their full kingdom potential. It is no longer to represent the cosmic Church to congregations because networked movements allow this to be a direct connection. World denominational forms are connecting directly with congregations now. As such this calls for a major rethinking of institutional expression of denominations, and what is in the box versus what is outside the box in the overall congregational movement that needs networking.

In a certain sense it fits the motif of a continual spiritual strategic journey. Denominational organizations are on a journey. They can now see beyond their original horizon. In fact, they have been discovering new horizons every generation or two. However, their response has not been nimble or agile. So, they have fallen several horizons behind. Now the gap between the expectations and capacities of leading edge congregations and their denomination is painfully big. Therefore, incremental transition and change in no longer enough. Transformation is essential. What are your thoughts?

Here's to Harold Bare in Charlottesville

Yesterday morning, I had a lengthy conversation with the pastor of a local Protestant (evangelisch) church. He had invited me to his office to share with him the insights from my dissertation which centers on the growth of evangelicalism in 49 countries. He had read a small sample of my literature review; recognizing a few names (e.g., Fink, Stark, Weber).

In many places in Germany, local Protestant congregations are getting smaller and older. Subsequently many of their pastors (and those in our circles, too) are looking for ways to reinvent their parishes. I mentioned the leadership conferences from Willow Creek in which they have brought top business executives and consultants to Germany. (This year's line up includes Bill Hybels, Jimmy Carter , Carly Fiorina [former CEO of Hewlitt-Packard], and Patrick Lencioni (author and consultant.) The pastor stated that he objected to marketing approaches to church ministry; rather one should begin with Jesus. And I have no objections to a Christo-centric approach to ministry.

Then my mind went back to our pastor in Charlottesville, Virginia - Harold Bare. "Pastor Bare" had finished his dissertation at UVA on "The Evolution of a Sacred Bureaucracy". We have spoken several times at length with each other about his study. He begins by using the premise from Max Weber that sacred and secular organizations operate on consistent sociological principles, i.e., sacred organizations are bureaucratically no different than secular organizations. Using my conversations with Bare, I was able to encourage the local pastor (here in Germany) to think differently about the situations he is facing in his own parish.

Lencioni's Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive

I've been working my way through yet another Lencioni classic: The Four Obsession of an Extraordinary Executive. In his usual fashion, Lencioni begins with a fable describing a realistic scenario.

In this book, Lencioni focuses on what leaders do to make their organizations healthy -- to have a healthy climate/culture. Essentially, there are four disciplines exercised by leaders of a healthy organization:

1. Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team.
2. Create organizational clarity
3. Over communicate organizational clarity
4. Reinforce organizational clarity through human systems
   

Although each of these points are critical, and are usually followed in the order presented, I was struck by the importance of the second step. A healthy church minimizes the potential for confusion by clarifying ...

• why this particular congregation exists
• which behavioral values are fundamental
• what its specific calling and ministry is
  
• who the competition is (and this may or may not be another local church)
• what it plans to achieve
• who is responsible for what

Sounds simple, doesn't it? But the consistent application of each of Lencioni's steps is hard work.

Reading Lencioni

When we travel as a family and Claudia does her share of the driving on the Interstate, I usually pass the time reading. This week I have one of Patrick Lencioni's books, Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars. Lencioni is a consultant for corporations and non-profit organizations. He has also been a key speaker at some of Willow Creek Leadership Summits.

In Silos, Lencioni has written a very good fable that depicts the typical "silos" or turf wars that take place in any organization. Using several different case scenarios, Lencioni does a great job in describing the subtleties of turf wars and places the blame square at the top of the organization. (The ground troops are simply doing their jobs as described for them by their bosses.)

The answer to the turf war, according to Lencioni, is a thematic goal. This is not to be confuse with a vision statement or a BHAG (big fat hairy goal), as Porras and Collins describe. But it is more than strategic goals and objectives. I must admit, this was a new concept for me and I'm not quite sure of the concept even after reading Lencioni's concept.

Lencioni clearly states that a thematic goal does not exclude the need to develop a good, functioning executive team (cf. Dysfunctions of Teams). Indeed, good executive teams are a priority for Lencioni. But contends that even well functioning teams with good personal relationships will sometimes have organizational/structural weaknesses that allow "silos" or turf wars to develop.

Overall, Lencioni has written a very readable book that clearly describes the problem of politics among divisions in an organization. But the concept of a "thematic goal" (as opposed to organizational vision) is still a bit vague to me -- but he's probably on to something. I don't think this book is as good as his Dysfunctions of Teams, but it is still a good read, has great application for various organizations including many churches and ministries.

Lifecycle of a Church

I was asked to speak to our German pastors about the lifecycle of a local congregation. Since the original lifecycle theory by Larry Greiner in 1974, there have been number additions and adaptations for both secular business and non-profit organizations (e.g., churches). But the basic premise is the same. All organizations, just like humans, will go through different phases of development. In order to grow, a person will go through a crisis as he/she enters into the next phase of life (cf. Erik Erikson).This is also true of any organization. How one resolves the crises will determine further growth. Often, the solutions to past crises become the seeds for the next crisis in an organization.

One of the best adaptations for the church comes from George Bullard. He contends that there are 10 phases of life. (see graphic, click for larger view)

Every church can find itself in a stage in its lifecycle. Every stage has its unique characteristics. Bullard groups the various characteristics into four groups. Each of the four groups of characteristics should be present in a healthy, mature church. The four categories are:

• Vision – The current understanding of God’s strategic direction cast by leadership and owned by members. Includes vision, leadership, mission, purpose, core values.
• Relationships – Processes by which people are converted, assimilated, grow spiritually, utilise gifts, and develop leadership. Includes relationships, experiences, discipleship
• Programs – Provision of ministries, services, activities, and training. Includes events, ministries, services, activities.
• Management – Administration of resources, decision making, formal and informal culture, openness to change. Includes management, accountability, systems, resources.

The chart below identifies where the major emphases are or are not.