Keys to Success and Barriers to Growth (3 of 3)

After a short break for the summer holiday, we return with the third in our series exploring learnings for churches from the Imagine Pilot Project. Here we summarize a number of issues that churches we have worked with have faced that are around the question of process.

We have always sought to be clear with churches that Imagine outlines a process for churches to follow rather than a programme. In other words, this is not a tightly defined, one size fits all approach, but churches can follow a series of steps at their own pace and employing their own creativity.

Briefly outlined there are three phases to the process that we have walked through with churches:

1. Discover a new way of looking at the church – spend time considering the connection between the gathered and the scattered modes of the church. To support this and stimulate imagination we have provided the two Imagine magazines and the Imagine DVD.
2. Engage in active listening – for this we have given churches a survey which allows them to hear the issues their members on the Frontline and begins a dialogue in the congregation around this question.
3. Make a number of simple actions (one degree shifts) that signal a new way of being as a congregation and that seek to honour the Frontline and enhance the connections.

Simple as this process is, in practice the churches we have worked with have encountered a number of natural challenges which means that this process isn’t necessarily as smooth or as easy as it may appear. The most common of these have been:

Losing momentum
Changing too much too quickly is not often a problem for churches! No, the challenge has often been to implement changes clearly, regularly and tangibly enough for people to see the difference that is being made and to ensure that momentum is not lost.

It is a real danger for churches if the process appears to have stalled. Expectations of change can be very real in the congregation once they have completed the survey and can lead to discontent if issues have been shared but not responded to – churches therefore can’t stall too long.
Now, we are far from advocating a leap into mindless activism, but we are suggesting that changes need to be clearly made and communicated. To this end we have suggested to leadership teams that changes be focussed on one particular area of church life at a time (beginning perhaps with the Sunday morning) over a clearly defined period rather than being so diverse that it is difficult for people to see how changes cohere and make a difference.

The advantages of cementing changes in one area at a time have been clearly felt all round. It helps those in the congregation see what is happening and engage with the process. Also, it helps those leading the process as they will be able to clearly see what difference their decisions are having, celebrate what works and be encouraged to go further.

Losing Attention
The second challenge is that of distraction. Churches, like any organisational structure will always have issues that seek to draw attention and energy away from the core focus. The main issues the churches we have been working with have faced centred on the building, finance and relationships. All these things have the potential for derailing the process.

It was in this issue that the role of the church consultant was crucial, as an external voice, Neil was an ongoing reminder to churches that helped them keep on track. One of the questions that we continue to grapple with is how can other churches find similar external voices that will help them keep focussed on what they have started?

However, the reality is that we will always face such distractions and there will never be a ‘good’ time when we can escape such issues and turn our attention to the question of whole-life discipleship. The question is, can we define such issues as potential distractions and, if we must engage with them, seek to handle them in a way that strengthens the whole-life message rather than distracts from it?

Building, finance and relationships are life issues as well as church issues. Can we engage with what we do as a church gathered in a way that helps people discover new imagination for the building, finance and relational issues they will encounter in life?

Losing Centrality
This is rather inelegantly phrased, but what I’m trying to get at here is the temptation for churches to turn whole-life discipleship into an add-on. We can think that, for example, if we set up a work group and a family group etc. we have dealt with whole-life discipleship. However, as we conceive it, whole-life discipleship cannot be confined to a special interest activity for enthusiasts.

Whilst whole-life discipleship will mean engaging in new activities, of equal, if not greater importance is seeing this emphasis fed into every sphere of church life as it already exists: preaching, coffee time, small groups, worship, local mission activities, administration etc. etc. Only in this way will the culture of the church begin to change. So we need to be constantly vigilant to how we can feed this emphasis into these streams of church life and breathe new life into what already exists, for it is these elements that often contain the strong default which will prevent a whole-life culture truly emerging.

Losing proportion
Finally, we must remember that becoming a whole-life disciplemaking church is first and foremost God’s work. If we truly believe that this is something on His heart for the Church, we accompany him in this work and it is not just down to our own energy and ingenuity.

May this motivate us when we are tempted to turn the call to become a whole-life disciplemaking community into a manageable task – something that we define and around which we set tight boundaries. May it also reenergise us when it feels like an uphill struggle, that change will come and God’s people, through His church, will be released into fruitful life on the Frontline.