Transforming the Church –
“It’s Not Rocket Science”
A Wake Up Call
The insight came as I was leading a seminar in New Mexico on ministry planning. I was talking about the importance of having a shared vision and aligning it with strategic initiatives. Because I thought I was explaining it rather well, I was surprised and probably a bit defensive when I noticed some confused looks.
“Folks,” I said. “This is not rocket science.”
With this comment, a lay person from Los Alamos joined in. “Excuse me,” he said, “I am a rocket scientist, and the stuff you are talking about is far more complicated than rocket science.”
Wow! This was a wake up call. The alarm went off and I suddenly realized that I still had some old software running in my head—software that said ministry should be easy and congregations should be able to march together to success by simply following a series of linear steps. The old tapes said that it was all just a matter of good technique and getting the right formula in place. I had forgotten that the church is built on relationships and relationships are never efficient. They are always messy.
This comment from the rocket scientist helped me understand just how much I was still being influenced by a “modern-mechanical” model of ministry where the rules involve fixing parts, developing “one-size-fits-all” programs, and following step-by-step procedures. The temptation of this model is to see ministry as just an easier version of rocket science.
In the new and emerging “post-modern” world, this model is an old lens that provides little focus. If we view ministry through it and its related values of progress, efficiency, uniformity, predictability, and control, we will be overwhelmed by frustration. If we focus on tinkering with parts, we will not find health. If we desire neatness, we will always be discouraged. The church cannot thrive by living in this paradigm—at least not anymore.
Thanks to the rocket scientist in New Mexico , I was able to leave the mechanical-model world and come back to the organic world of people, passions, perspectives, fears, and agendas. In this world, adding two plus two doesn't always equal four; bringing people together for a purpose can equal nothing, or it can increase a hundred fold. The outcome depends on a mysterious convergence of factors—spiritual, relational, emotional, technical, organizational, timing, and leadership.
I once again woke up to the reality that faithful and fruitful ministry comes not through technique and getting the equation right, but through inspiration (received and shared), communication (listening and connecting), and other relational skills. Messy and complicated, such work is never an exact science. Results are rarely immediate. Impact must be measured in subjective ways. We are indeed involved in something far more complicated than rocket science.
Making Connections
For several years, I have served as executive director of a very messy enterprise called Connected In Christ (CIC), a Sustaining Pastoral Excellence project sponsored by the Arkansas Conference of the United Methodist Church . Prompted by various longstanding issues such as low clergy morale, distrust of the system, mediocrity, and stagnant membership, attendance, and professions of faith, CIC seeks to move our pastors and congregations forward into a new vision God is giving. Since the program’s launch in 2002, it has grown into a far-reaching ministry with more than 140 pastors and congregations in Arkansas and, with our expansion, another 24 in the New Mexico Annual Conference.
Again and again, Connected In Christ has taught us that, yes, transforming the church is indeed more complicated than rocket science. These lessons can be summarized with three “C” words: Comprehensive, Contextual, and Connected.
First, CIC is a comprehensive approach to transformation. When we first set out to address the issues that confounded our conference, we were tempted to organize a “big event.” If we could just get everybody together and bring in the right person to spread some “theological pixie dust,” everything would be fixed. But this approach had been tried before. This time, there would be no quick fixes. The transformation we envisioned would take time and energy, like trying to transform an out-of-shape human body into health and fitness.
As a result, CIC was created as a two-year process for clergy and their congregations that includes a series of clergy retreats, training events for clergy/lay leadership teams, and coaching. Using a systems-approach, the clergy/lay teams lead their congregations through a process of discerning how to faithfully and fruitfully fulfill the mission God is giving them.
It sounds easy, but in reality it is messy. Some congregations are ready to move forward immediately, and CIC is the catalyst that unleashes dramatic new change. Others are not. In many congregations, the CIC process can't start by asking “What is our vision?” They must first understand why they even need a vision of church and ministry. Much preliminary work must be done before the process can begin. Every situation, every congregation, is different.
Fortunately, CIC uses a contextual approach. We have discovered that the “cut and paste” model does not work. One congregation cannot simply emulate another and expect the same result. Each congregation must discern what God is calling them to be and to do in their context. As leaders of the process, we don't tell them what to do. Our job is not to give answers but to help congregations ask the right questions, which will help them discover what they need to do.
Third, CIC is about connection . It is about connecting pastors to pastors, clergy to laity, and most importantly, all of us in a fresh way to the One who said, “I am the vine and you are the branches.” These connections give us the energy to grow, change, and take needed risks. In other words, we are learning that transformation does not come through following formulas and techniques. Primarily, it comes through the development of life-giving relationships.
Thinking Prescriptively
Through this comprehensive, contextual process of making connections, we try to remember that our events are not ends in themselves, but are means to a larger end—the transformation of church and the accomplishment of our God-given mission. To keep this focus, we emphasize that reporting involves more than “facts and figures”—what was done, when it was done, and who was there, as if just having an event justifies the effort.
In CIC, we are teaching that faithful and fruitful ministry calls for a more demanding way of reporting. One of the most effective ways we have found to help our participants focus on ends rather than means is by having them use prescriptive rather than descriptive language. Rather than describing their work by reporting the “facts and figures” we ask that they think prescriptively:
“Where did healing take place?” “How have we been transformed?” “How has our work transformed others?” “How have we advanced the vision that God has given us?” “Why are we doing what we are doing?”
These questions, of course, are more difficult to answer than simple reports of facts and figures. Yet, they are questions that lead to life. It is within these deeper levels of connection that we find meaning and purpose. To place it in a biblical context, it is at this deeper level of understanding where we participate in God’s Logos—God’s ordering, healing, creating, life-giving, prescriptive Word.
Vision First
The vision of the Arkansas Conference of the United Methodist Church is to be “a church alive in the grace of God, offering Christ, transforming lives, and changing the world through the power of the Holy Spirit.” We believe this is God’s Word for us. With CIC as leaven, the conference is working to align its ministries with this vision.
One of the biggest challenges in this work is finding a balance between vision and strategy. Too often, we have been tempted to jump quickly to strategy without first spending enough time communicating the vision. We have learned that before we focus on what we want others to do, we must first be clear about what God is calling us to be. Furthermore, any vision, if it is to become reality, must be a shared vision that people know, own, and are inspired by. Otherwise, we achieve the very things we sought to avoid—alienation, resentment, and misunderstanding. Unless a vision for change is widely shared, it can be seen as little more than another order from the top, devoid of any opportunity for genuine participation.
Developing a shared vision is perhaps the greatest challenge we face, and it is indeed more complicated than rocket science. It is at this level where we struggle with passions and perceptions. At this level, we have to push our relational skills to the limit. Thus, it is no wonder that we want to jump quickly to action items. It is so much easier just to tell people what we want them to do. But if a vision is to be shared, people must participate in its creation and help determine how it will be fulfilled.
We are reminded once again that transformation will not happen by simply tinkering with the parts, or changing the structure, or learning some new skills. A more fundamental and wholistic transformation must take place. We must learn to “see” ourselves differently.
Seeing Ourselves Differently
In many ways, how we see ourselves—our paradigms and perspectives—determines what we do, which determines what we get. If a vision is truly of God, then it is not just what God wants from us and for us. Instead, it is the way God sees us. In the Arkansas Conference, we believe God sees us as “a church alive in the grace of God...” But before we can take the steps necessary to make this vision real, we must learn to see ourselves through this vision. We must learn to see ourselves as God sees us. This is what will motivate us to faithful and fruitful action.
Biblical illustrations abound. When the Apostle Paul called us saints, he was saying, “This is who you are, now live into it.” When he said “You are the body of Christ,” he was saying this is the way God sees us. When Jesus said, “You are the light of the world,” he didn't say we “can be” or “should be.” He said we already are. “Now go act like it.”
All of us who work in Sustaining Pastoral Excellence must find ways to invite pastors and congregations to see themselves differently—see themselves in the light of God’s vision. Until we see ourselves in this way, true transformation is unlikely. For this kind of transformation there are no set formulas that can be universally applied. When it happens we can never pinpoint exactly what caused it. We can, however, discover clues. We can develop learnings to share. We can keep dreaming, growing, and risking in relationships of love. Perhaps, from God’s vantage point, this is more important than the results.
As Craig Dykstra, vice-president for religion at Lilly Endowment, Inc., has noted, “ministry today requires a complexity and integrity of intelligence as sophisticated as that needed for any kind of work.” The very nature of our work as the church challenges us beyond the surface. We are called to see God’s vision in the midst of a chaotic, relational world filled with passions, perceptions, agendas, dreams, fears, joys and struggles. Transformation begins by enlarging our field of vision. Without this, all the practical skills and leadership abilities that we are attempting to teach will bear little fruit. This is indeed more complicated than rocket science.
Why?
Because it is of God.
Michael Roberts, D.Min., is director of Connected In Christ, a Sustaining Pastoral Excellence project for leadership development and congregational advancement in the Arkansas Conference of the United Methodist Church.
