At The Table of Thanks

Worshiping Communities - the essential question

One of my New Testament professors in seminary would regularly caution us about the hardening of the categories in our interpreting the Scriptures. As the new Form of Government is implemented through the presbyteries, and as the Fellowship of Presbyterians promotes their vision of a New Reformed Body, I feel that we still must guard against the hardening of the categories as we look to what the PCUSA will be for the 21st century.

My question isn't primarily theological or biblical, but rather social. It is a question of how the church as an organization in society adapts to changes that are influencing us.

So, let's play a little thought game to get at the heart of this issue.

*One million Lebanese gather in Beirut, March 14, 2005, to protest Syrian occupation and the assasination of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

The Post-Pentecost Structure

Let's say that right now at the end of the year 2011, Pentecost is happening, not two thousand years ago.  Right now. It may look like the picture above of a crowd of a million people in central Beirut, Lebanon in the spring of 2005.

You and I are present as the Spirit descends upon this random multi-cultural crowd of people gathered in a city square or park in places like Los Angeles, Hanoi or Beirut. On this day, we are present at the spiritual birth of the church.  Not the creation of a new denomination, but the church of Jesus Christ.

How would the media cover the event? What would the Twitter feed of the event be recording? How soon would there be a Facebook page up asking people to like the new social network of Pentecost? How would the dominant religious institutions of our time react? What would be the mainstream religious traditions, if there had been no Christian body for the past two thousand years, until this afternoon?

What do you think the people caught up in the Spirit's appearance would do next?  What do you think would happen tomorrow or the next week? After a year, what do you think would have happened to this group of people? Would they still be together?

More importantly, what organizational form would the people caught up in the Spirit's movement adopt? If the church were born today, what would it look like?  Would it look like a mass uprising or a few people sitting around a table in a coffee shop chatting? Would it look like a downtown, tall steeple church, a mega-church or a house church meeting in a suburban living room?

We have the Acts record to know what happened two thousands years ago. But what about now. The new Form of Government or NRB or any other traditional formalized structure of a denominational church are patterns of church organization that are also logical adaptations to current forms of secular organizations.  As a result, all church structures are products of their historical context. To understand this insight is to recognize that change is not necessarily destructive, but rather how the church adapts to the culture around it.

A Discussion of Structure

One day this past week, I celebrated the 30th anniversary of my ordination as a minister of the word and sacrament / teaching elder. I spent the day with a group of leaders from a presbytery discussing their presbytery's organizational model, and why it wasn't working. Like many presbyteries, they are divided up into regional clusters. The intent was to help this large diverse, geographically scattered presbytery create the conditions for community and shared mission. It hasn't happened like it was designed.

The essential problem, in my opinion, is a widely shared perspective about organizations that has found its way into the church. This adaptation to contemporary organizational norms sees the church as an administrative / programmatic entity created for order, efficiency and top-down accountability. This is the secular corporate model that has been the standard approach to organizations since the end of the Second World War. The PCUSA institutionalized this approach in the reunion of 1983. 

This approach elevates administrative process over human interaction. The result is the creation of an organizational environment of divisive special interests, each seeking to claim preeminence as the core mission of the church.

I am saying that the divisions in the church over the past hundred years are products of organizational design, not simply differences in theology and social / political ideology. The product is disunity in the Body of Christ.

The Structural Shift

Over at my Leading Questions blog, I've been writing for a long time about how change is affecting organizations and leaders. The key posts over the past 18 months are gathered in the compilation, Leadership for the 21st Century, that explores the social and organizational changes that are influencing what we understand the nature of leadership and organizational structure are becoming in the 21st century. Working both sides of the line that separates the church from for-profit businesses, non-profit community organizations, local governments, regulated utilities, healthcare organizations and institutions of higher education, I have come to see that there is an epic shift taking place in society from organizational structures of hierarchy to ones based upon a network of relationships. What I see is are Parallel Structures of Networks of Relationships.

Here's the juxtaposition that I see constituting a shift that is historic and transforming society as a whole on a global scale.

Organizations since the rise of the global empires of three millennia ago have functioned through a structure of hierarchy. As this image describes, hierarchical organizations are built around a leadership structure of institutional authority of delegated responsibility whose purpose is institutional integrity. This is the corporate model that we see designed into virtually every business and government institution in our society.

Functioning in parallel are relationship networks. These networks form around a shared mission or interest. I'm distinguishing these relationship networks from the more common social networks that one can find on Facebook, Google + and the myriad other online gathering points. These relationship networks are missional in nature, and are governed by the values that inform that mission. Participation in these networks is based on personal initiative to contribute. As a result, these networks are based upon a leadership structure of shared mission, shared responsibility, personal integrity and initiative to make a difference that matters.

These parallel structures of networks of relationships have always been present in the church.  They are what I see in this guide to 21st Century Congregational Distinctives and the shifts that I see taking place in congregations.

Understanding Parallel Structures

The key to understanding our future as a church and a denomination is understanding how these parallel structures function as worshipping communities.

A parallel structure is not a replacement structure, at least not by intention.

We can see parallel structures throughout the church. The Fellowship of Presbyterians is a parallel structure. The overseas mission work of a presbytery is a parallel structure. The ministry to the homeless in the congregation where my family worships is a parallel structure. The choir in almost every church is a parallel structure.

These structures provide a way for people to gather around a common interest of shared mission. It is how our diversity as a church functions. These are relationship networks that provide what I observe people saying about what they want from their life.

People want their lives to be Personally Meaningful, Socially Fulfilling and Make a Difference that Matters.

People want their values to matter and a purpose to their lives. They want their relationships to be healthy, respectful and caring. And they want to make a difference that matters.

I'm convinced that we need to structure our congregations, as well as our businesses, schools, community organizations and government organization to help people achieve these goals for themselves.

The idea of the PCUSA creating 1001 worshiping communities during the decade is an attractive one to me. It is because I see in this simple goal a way to elevate parallel structures of networks of relationships as places of worship, mission and community that create opportunities for people to find the church a place of Personal Meaning, Social Fulfillment and where their contributions make a difference that matters in the context of shared mission in Jesus Christ.

However, if this vision that I have is to be achieved, it means that we have to change some of our understandings of what church structure means.

A Reforming Structure

The organizational world outside of the church is changing. It is adopting a network perspective where relationships of shared mission and responsibility are their core organizing principle. The old corporate model is failing. The emerging paradigm is the network of relationships. This model puts a premium on personal initiative, creativity and commitment to contributing. The old hierarchical system discouraged initiative in favor of compliance. 

Networks of relationships provide a way for people to become engaged in the full mission activity of the organization. The stronger the relational interaction, the stronger the organization, and greater the opportunities for impact.  This is true in the church as it is in the business world.

For example, in my presbytery, two of our mission endeavors are partnerships with a Guatemalan presbytery and with a hospital in Malawi.The significance of these partnerships is that the Guatemalan churches are financially supporting the mission in Malawi. Shared mission, shared responsibility and the result shared impact as the church.

People involved in these mission partnerships find their faith strengthened, their skills of ministry expanded, and their perception of God's work in the world broadened through their involvement. As a network of relationships, they are functioning as a worshiping community.

The same can be said for the campus ministries that I serve with through the North Carolina Presbyterian Higher Education Ministries.  They are very much are like mini-congregations with programs of worship, fellowship, faith development and mission outreach.

Each of these mission endeavors are parallel structures aligned with a board, a church and in many cases through a presbytery. Each one has aspects of faith development, worship and service as a part of their program. Each is a network of relationships functioning as a worshiping community.

The Structure of Future

Here are my convictions about the future structure of the church. These are not predictions. Rather what I see is how we can adapt to a 21st century social context that is unlike the last century.

1. Relationships precede structure.

2. Connectionalism first must be relational if a connection system of governance is to work.

3. Presbyteries are the key to strengthening the connectional relationship between people and churches.

4. Worshipping communities are networks of relationships of people who are personally engaged in faith development, take personal initiative to contribute, and build relationships of shared mission and responsibility to live out the Great Ends of the Church.

5. As a denomination, we'll be smaller with greater impact, as we become more missional as a church.

The essential question of what will the structure of the PCUSA look like in the future I believe is answered in the development of parallel structures of networks of relationship of shared mission and responsibility as worshipping communities in Jesus Christ.

If Pentecost was to take place today, I believe this is what we would see. Networks of Relationships as Worshipping Communities of Shared Mission.

This is our future.

 *http://www.calpeacepower.org/0201/images/Lebanon_overview_bg.jpg

Why I have hope

Optimism for me is not a luxury I can afford. I'm a realist.

I also feel that cynicism is also a luxury I can't afford. Both optimism and cynicism lead toward a detatchment from reality. If ever in the history of the church, we need to be realists, now is the time.

I preface this post with those words because I want you to know why I have hope in the future of the Presbyterian Church USA. My hopefulness is not an optimistic hope against hope. And it is also not a form of self-deception. Rather my hope is based on what I see taking place in the church. Here are three examples. 

1. Church for a New Generation  - Presbyterians Today, December 2011 cover story,  "Spirit-filled Worship," "Authentic Community," and, "Meaningful Service.

This isn't just some fringe movement. This is the future that is happening right now.

As I read this, it reminded me of what I've been observing in organizations, including churches, for about a decade. People, regardless of their spiritual orientation, have been telling me in widely diverse ways that they want three things for their life. They want it to be Personally Meaningful, Socially Fulfilling and To Make a Difference That Matters.

In practice, this means that people want a purpose, to have a mission and let a set of values define what is meaningful in their lives. The difference between this in the past is that these ideas are not just symbolic totems for appearances sake. Instead, these are the guiding principles for how their lives are to be lived.  These ideas help to create social environments where healthy relationships can result. And with these people who share a common mission and values that can do things that create an impact that fulfills their calling.

This perspective gives me hope because each of these goals create positive, constructive change wherever they are practiced. This is what I see in this article from Presbyterians Today.

2. 1001 Worshipping Communities in Ten Years.

This initiative is a grand vision for the future. Here's a pamphlet that describes ten of these churches.

What gives me hope is the boundaryless nature of speaking of faith communities. A community is a network of people in relationship to one another. Where I live near Asheville, their are prominent mainstream churches downtown. And more hidden because of their lack of church facilities are new worship communities of various traditions. One meets in a converted retail space. Another in the theater in the basement of an office building, another at the YMCA, having moved from a local music hall.

The moment I heard about this initiative, it gave me hope for the church. To create this number of worshipping communities requires us to recognize that many of them will be parallel structures that will not be like congregations that have been the dominant form of church over the past several hundred years. The world is changing, and as many institutional forms decline, new alternative structures emerge to carry on the mission and values of those legacy organizations.

3. North Carolina Presbyterian Higher Education Ministries.

NCPHEM is an organization formed by the five presbyteries in North Carolina in 2004 to distribute funds returned to the presbyteries by the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic. In January, 2011, the board embarked on an awareness / fund raising campaign to support and serve the campus ministries and chaplaincies in North Carolina. I was hired to staff the effort.

A year into our campaign, my hope for the future of our church has grown beyond my expectations. I'm overwhelminginly impressed with the quality of ministers serving the young people on our campuses. I'm even more impressed by what I see happen with students. Here are the worshipping communities of the future. You see and learn about some of them in the Presbyterians Today article linked above. And while, I don't think we needed any validation as to validity of our campaign, it was a tremendous boost in confidence when The Morgan Foundation of Laurel Hill, N.C. made a challenge endowment gift of $500,000 to the support of Presbyterian Higher Education Ministry in North Carolina. We are grateful for the leadership of Jim Morgan, his family and the board of the foundation for their vision of the church in the future.

For a long time, campus ministry has been the forgotten mission of the church. It isn't romantic like going overseas. It isn't visible like the youth ministries in our churches. Yet, it is the link, the linchpin to the future of the church. It is how these 1001 worship communities will be realized. It is how young adults will remain in the life of the church in the future.  I believe this is so because the students in our campus ministries are learning how to create authentic community in a worshipping, missional context.

These ministries deserve our support, just as do the work of 1001 worshipping communities does, and the new church developments in presbyteries throughout the church. Do these ministries need us? Yes. They need our financial support. In addition, they need our mutual partnership as followers of Christ. We, the people in local churches across the nation, need them because the forms of worship and community of the future are being created today through them.

I have hope because as a connectional body, we are at the very beginning of discovering a boundaryless church that is open to many new forms of being a worshipping community. I encourage you to support the 1001 effort. It is an important step for our church.

As we tell people here in North Carolina, there are three things you can do for us. May I suggest that these apply wherever you are.

  

* Graduating HS Students with Campus Ministries and College & University Chaplaincies in NC and across the US
* With Youth Pastors, Young Adult Ministers, Campus Ministers, Mission & Outreach and Campus Ministry Committees
* With Potential Contributors

 

 

 

* Conduct Special Presbyterian Higher Education Ministry Sunday
* Include campus ministry updates in your church newsletters
* Link to Campus Ministry links on your congregation’s website 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* By Including campus ministries in your church’s budget
* By having a special offering to support Presbyterian campus ministries one Sunday each year.
* Helping us identify potential contributors to help us support, sustain and initiate ministries across the state.

 

 

May you find hope in Christ's life expressed in new ways. May you find a place to connect, your story to tell, and a way to contribute that makes a difference that matters. The next generation of the church is here already. It is a good day for hope.