I was asked to put together some thoughts on a recent gathering of folks from my own denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ): congregational pastors, western regional ministers, and general church staff. So here’s my first attempt. It’s not so much an overview of the entire event, but more of what happened in our particular group.
WRIM Missional Meeting
Las Vegas, NV, October 25-29, 2010
Nancy Gowler Johnson
We reflected the diversity of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). There were pastors in urban settings, suburban and rural churches; part-time pastors and senior ministers in multiple pastoral staff settings; pastors serving predominately Caucasian congregations and those ministering with ethnically-identified or multi-cultural churches; new pastors and those nearing retirement.
As part of our preparation for the event we had all read Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the CHURCH by Reggie McNeal. A champion of the missional church movement, McNeal argues that churches must make three seismic shifts: move from internal to external focus, claim developing people as its core activity, and embrace community-engaged leadership. The book provided a common framework for our five days of conversation. While much of his discussion has been considered in other places, McNeil provides food for thought. Some of us wondered whether in the process of advocating missional churches he dismisses attractional churches too quickly.
I have revisited McNeil’s book primarily to think about ways in which the communication in our congregation might better connect and reflect the transformational work in which we are already involved. If we are making new connections in our neighborhood, for example, he suggests making the church calendar a community calendar. Include community events on the church calendar; have links on the church page to major municipal websites, include opportunities for volunteering outside of church activities. When planning the church calendar, begin with the community calendar, for example, “When do teachers go back to school?” or “When does the Farmers’ Market begin?”
On the second day of our gathering, we heard stories of each congregation from its pastor. It was here that I began to hear the power of the Spirit working in varied ways. There was the pastor who never thought he had the gifts for inner city ministries, who found that the act of caring for the people where they were developed trust and opened up opportunities for life-giving ministries to take root. There were churches who were being transformed as they ventured out into unknown territory; churches for whom ministries to the homeless had challenged them and blessed their communities in unexpected ways. An urban church had finally taken a new look at its changing neighborhood and is now making connections to the growing arts community surrounding it.
There were stories of discouragement, too. Congregations struggling with large buildings that put a huge strain on financial resources. Congregations experiencing conflict because of the changes brought about by the shift to a missional understanding of the church. Ministers grieving because of good-hearted congregations who may have waited too long to do the hard work of transformation.
Half of our time together was devoted to small group work, focusing on common themes that developed from our initial conversations. I joined the group focusing on spirituality. Overwhelmed by the issues, emotions, and possibilities that had already been presented to us, we were moved to carve out intentional moments of silence. We took seriously our felt call to pray for the work of the other focus groups. We wondered what it would mean for the church to develop a culture of deepening spirituality. How would we be different than we are today? We laughed as we wondered aloud if the idea of contemplative Disciples was an oxymoron.
Our group was challenged by the realization that many in our culture claim to be spiritual but not religious, however much of what the church does is religious, but not spiritual. We shared the stories of our own spiritual journeys and the journeying of our congregations. From those stories we began to knit together an approach to deepening spirituality for our congregation, our regions, and for the general church.
We were moved by the story of one congregation that experienced spiritual renewal during the rebuilding of its buildings. When all that was left standing was the sanctuary, the congregation was called back to its center, to a life of prayer and discernment. As part of that process the minister and the congregational leadership engaged the work of a spiritual director. The experience of that congregation, along with our own personal experiences with spiritual direction, led us to the realization that our leaders and congregations need to be intentional in our practices of listening to the Spirit. We envision our regional and general church leaders modeling the discipline of intentional spiritual direction. We were excited about the possibilities of developing an internship for spiritual direction, much like the current peace internships. This program would train pastors and congregational leaders in spiritual direction. Complementing this, would be a designation of spiritual directors in our Disciples Yearbook.
We covenanted among ourselves to hold one another and our places of ministry in daily prayer. Another member of our group shared about a prayer bead ministry in his congregation. Anglican prayer beads were made by members of the congregation, given as gifts of encouragement, and sold as a way of raising money for ministries. As we held the prayer beads in our hands, we imagined sharing similar beads with our regional ministers and general ministry staff. We are working to make prayer beads in our congregations and gift these to over 30 individuals, along with an invitation to join us in daily prayer for the transformation of our church and with the encouragement for those ministers to engage in personal spiritual direction.
Thinking of good stewardship of our resources, we were convinced that there were already places in our region that could be made available for intentional, directed spiritual retreats for ministers and/or congregational leaders. Members of churches with cabins or vacation homes might be willing to make those properties available for such retreats.
During our time together we had found encouragement from the stories shared by others. We hope that regions find ways to share those stories with one another, perhaps through existing social networks or websites, or even by producing our own regional or WRIM transformation story books. In the end it was the stories that held the most power for me–stories of congregations stepping out into the unknown, in some cases stumbling upon the work that God was already doing around them. Those stories are stories of hope and a new future; and hearing them opens up possibilities for congregations seeking to be faithful in a new time and place.
