A Path for Renewal
I am grateful for the many expressions of interest and affirmation from last month’s post on Older Congregations. But here is where the hard work really begins. How might leaders in established congregations find a path forward toward renewal?
I am deeply invested in the answer to the question of congregational renewal; it matters to me. Yet what I am about to say will be hard to hear. Most established churches will not find a path for renewal. Here is why.
The path for renewal means:
Prayer matters more than strategy. Like it or not, most churches don’t really practice prayer to move forward with the gospel. Certainly, prayer is present in congregations. Churches pray all the time—for the sick, for hurting, and maybe even for the spread of gospel influence. However, churches seldom pray as the way to discern what God’s preferred future is for the ministry and mission of the congregation. That kind of prayer does not occur because churches think that they have gospel and Christian life figured out. But maybe we don’t!
Recognizing that God is the active leader—not a passive observer. Many established churches are led by well-meaning people who are trying to figure out what will “keep our church afloat.” But God is not interested in merely keeping congregations afloat; God is interested in seeing the Kingdom come with power. If church leaders actively practiced leadership as a way of listening to God’s direction and vision, then church leadership would be understood as paying attention to God, not in deciding what a church ought to try next to “stay afloat.”
Churches will need to die, in order to live. Established churches will need to let go of old dreams, past agendas, poor practices, and the accompanied nostalgia that comes with it all. All too often, the desire for control of a congregation’s legacy will keep leaders holding on to old patterns and ways of doing things—even though those old patterns and practices have not contributed to congregational health for a generation or more. Jesus said it well: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12: 24). To begin something new means letting go of the old.
Clarifying wine from the wineskin. This seems simple. Nonetheless in many communities of faith the content of the gospel gets confused with the practices and ideas around the gospel. In its simplest form, the gospel is the good news that God, through the life, death, resurrection, ascension, and return of Jesus, is showing up in the world. Yet this simple message often gets confused with ways in which we choose to embody and share the gospel. Although the liveliness of the gospel is always new, the ways in which the people of God “carry” this message is always in the process of being revisited (Luke 5:36ff offers a parable here). The wine is not the wineskin—and the work of teasing out what that might mean in an established congregation is fraught.
Begin today—not tomorrow. Decline never seems urgent. Churches that are in decline generally have been in decline for years—for decades. Slowly, ever so slowly, a congregation loses vision; energy silently seeps away. And then one day, someone declares that the congregation is in crisis. The regrettable—and yet inevitable—reality is that the longer a church waits to engage, the fewer resources (people, intellectual and spiritual capital, and financial assets) will be present to fuel a new day. So, with an eschatologically informed passion, churches will need to capture the essence of Paul’s admonition in 2 Corinthians 6:2: “see, now is the acceptable time; see now is the day of salvation!” Waiting until some folk die or until a new generation emerges does not honor the urgency of what it means to let God lead a congregation. Rather, it honors the hubris of human will over God’s call!
Obviously, there is more to renewal than the ideas I have named. That said, the challenge for many churches rests in the significance of these simple and profound truths. At the end of the day, renewal begins when I let go for God to engage. When I find congregations who are more interested in a new minister or a new worship style or a new ministry, I realize that I’m engaging with a group of leaders who are avoiding the hard, relinquishing work of surrender. Of course, a congregation may need a new minister or a new set of songs, or it may need to launch a new ministry. However, such things come out of a response to God’s prompting—not as a way of managing our ministries. For the sneaky thing about renewal is not it is not up to us—it is up to God. God cannot do the work God desires to do when communities of faith assume that they are the center of things.
Surrender is really the key. But haven’t we known that all along? “Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6).
Blessings on your ministry,
Carson
carson.reed@acu.edu