Follow Jesus and…Kill the Zombies and Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing
Introduction
I love Jesus and I love The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Jesus is not going away, but the ELCA is. Slowly but surely. I have some thoughts, and a plan, on how the ELCA might actually reboot and renew. Maybe you belong to a church body that is not the ELCA and it’s not going so well and you might find here some ideas and help. Maybe you love the ELCA like I do and want good things to happen. Or maybe you keep as far away from church as you can but have some interest in how organizations flourish or not. Over the years our ELCA has engaged various renewal efforts. Right now there is a newly established Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church. Again, I have some thoughts, and a plan.
An ELCA Reboot and Renewal Plan
Follow Jesus and…..
Kill the Zombies and Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing
God is Christ Jesus will continue to heal and bless the world whether the church gets it or not. And, amazingly so, God will do this through the church as the church as we know it diminishes and goes away. That being said, wouldn’t it be nice, wouldn’t it be fun, wouldn’t it be invigorating and wouldn’t more good folks across the globe experience that blessing and healing if the church actually stopped being insane (you know the definition: doing the same thing and expectlng different results)?
Toward that end and in support of the expression of the church to which I belong and love, I offer up a plan for the rebooting and renewing of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Before the describing the Plan, let me lay out some guiding principles in my thinking.
1. Historically, it’s been said, the church has never had renewal without a Bible and Word of God renewal (or, put another way: every major renewal of church throughout the centuries has occurred/is launched by a renewal in Bible use/attention/scholarship. Something Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote has resonated with me for some time: “Everything we may with some good reason expect or beg of God is to be found in Jesus Christ. What we imagine a God could or should do – the God of Jesus Christ has nothing to do with all that. We must immerse ourselves again and again, for a long time and quite calmly, in Jesus’s life, his sayings, actions, suffering, and dying in order to recognize what God promises and fulfills” (letter to friend Eberhard Bethge, August 21, 1944, see Letters and Papers from Prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 8, 2010)
2. As leaders go, so goes the organization and the organization’s mission
3. We can’t do the same thing all the time and expect different results (that insanity thing). This is the “Kill the Zombies” part of the plan. A “Zombie” is anything a person or organization does where the effort and work put in does not get the value out that is desired and needed. Church life if full of Zombies, for a lot of reasons, including not wanting to hurt people’s feelings when their program is sapping the life out of others, volunteers and budgets, but that program is not getting results. Or how about this: no effective evaluation tool implemented so effectiveness can actually be reviewed.
4. Church exists for others and for the sake of the world, not for itself. This is the “Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing” part of the plan. Related to this in a key way is a keen sense and focus on just what “The Gospel” is anyway.* The Church has some, The, good news, to share and be with the world. The Church dies when it is more interested in maintaining its own culture and life rather than the world’s blessing and healing.
For this renewal and vitality to occur the whole Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in its three Expressions of Churchwide, Synod and Congregation must be involved and in the game. One Churchwide, 65 Synods, 8,900 congregations. I realize many will say this is an unlikely thing to happen, this part about all Expressions adopting and acting with the same plan. But it’s game time, and this time is not a time to be timid. The renewal/vitality plan needs to be adopted and carried out without change or fail for three years and then in the fourth year a process used for one year to chart out the future action. After three years of the activity of the plan and the fourth year of processing, decisions could be made about closing, revamping, changing ministry properties and organizations.
The Reboot/Renewal Plan
What the Pastor(s) Will Do
In all 8,900 congregations the pastors will do four things only:
1) Bible Study five days a week (teach)
2) Worship Service with focus on preaching and eucharist two times a week (preach/preside)
3) Visit every household within the three years with the following focus/purpose: A) ask how they are doing and pray over what they want to pray over B) have each person write down the answer to the following question (and get their permission to publish/share): “What is it about your experience with Jesus that the world cannot live without?,” and publish a volume of the answers each year and distribute to all church households (hard copy, electronic, online, however best and effective) C) conduct a household blessing service in the home or living space of the household.
4) Stop doing every other function as pastor that the pastor has been doing (e.g. Activities Director, Property Manager, Financial Manager, Strategic Processes Director, Pastoral Counselor, Communications Director, Chief Executive Officer and whatever other roles/responsibilities the pastor has had). You might rightly ask, “but who then will do these roles/responsibilities?,” Good question. Figure it out, but don’t let the Pastor do them.
Summary of what the Pastors will do: 1) Teach Bible 2) Preach/Preside at Worship 3) Visit 4) Stop doing anything else as a working Pastor
What the People (congregational members/participants) Will Do
In all 8,900 congregations the people will do the following five (5) things for three (3) years:
1) Attend a Bible Study in their congregation once a week
2) Attend a Worship Service in their congregation once a week
3) Volunteer in a community service agency/organization/program of their choice (not their congregation’s programs/efforts), locally or globally, but preferably locally in their community, at minimum 2 times/month
4) Write down once a month their answer or thoughts to the following three (3) questions about their congregation and submit their answers to their congregational Council/Board either anonymously or not. Note: these 3 questions are not about the 3 year process of renewal/vitality but rather about their overall congregational life and mission now and what needs to change after the 3 year renewal/vitality focus. Here are the 3 questions:
A) What is working?
B) What is not working?
C) What needs to change?
5) Stop doing all the other usual congregational activities for which many volunteer (e.g. outreach programs, social/fellowship programs/events, education programs, special events). Exceptions: any roles/responsibilities for the organization’s financial, human resource, facilities responsibilities that are necessary to maintain.
What the Leaders (congregational elected or appointed) Will Do
In all 8,900 congregations the Council or Board of Directors will do the following:
Gather once a month for three (3) years for the purpose of five (5) things:
1. Pray together
2. Listen to the submitted answers/reflections to the 3 questions submitted by congregational members/participants
3. State and document monthly their own individual answers to those same three questions but only after they have listened to all of the monthly submitted answers/reflections of the congregation.
4. Ensure publishing and distribution of the monthly stated and collected congregational answers/reflections to the 3 questions and the new monthly answers/reflections of the Council/Board members.
5. Receive reports on the financial/human resource/facility activity as necessary and take the necessary fiduciary and governing actions as needed.
What Happens After Three Years?
After 3 years of this sustained focus and activity, the pastor, leaders and people will engage an outside organizational change professional/company to lead them in a one year process to engage the shared submissions or compilations of submissions of the 3 years and 3 questions time: What is working? What is Not Working? What Needs to Change?
After the 4th year, in the beginning of that 5th year, the congregation will start living out the newly charted course that the strategic process 4th year will produce. This “living out” may mean, of course, many things, including the new life for all that can come from closing a congregation or the new life for all that can come from living out the congregational life differently.
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* See my book and project “Just What is ‘The Gospel’ Anyway? Your Guide to Church Shopping,” wherein I invite all, after sharing mine, to give their 100 word or less definition/explanation of “The Gospel.” Go to www.justwhatisthegospelanyway.org to join in the fun.
