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BY DAVID ARGO

Among the things that the Council of Bishop's Call to Action is calling our attention to is our Average Worship Attendance. In eight years as a district superintendent I never worked with a Staff Parish Relations Committee who in their profile for a new pastor said, "We want a pastor who will help us grow smaller." In every case the request was for a pastor who would lead them to grow.

The drivers identified in the Call to Action report indicate activities that are present in vital congregations including multiple worship services and variety in the types of services. It would be easy to conclude that simply adding a worship service or adding variety to services would automatically contribute to an increased average worship attendance. This, in fact, might occur. However, doing so is an example of a technical solution to the question of "How might we increase our average worship attendance?"

An equally important and usually more difficult question is, "What is at stake for us to grow as a congregation?" This question begins to focus on the adaptive challenges that require leadership if we are to make technical changes lasting ones.

Increasing average worship attendance is in some ways like matching the height/weight charts. Most people want to achieve this. There are books, articles, and three step methods to achieve this goal. And yet, the goal remains elusive to most Americans over 30. The technical solutions are available. The difficulty lies in the changes that are necessary to achieve the goal. These are changes that involve our priorities, beliefs and habits. Equally significant is making new discoveries about ourselves, changing entrenched behaviors and tolerating losses. One of the helpful ways to approach this process is to look at the stories we tell ourselves and others about what we believe in, stand for and represent. "I can lose five pounds easily; it's just keeping it off that is the problem." "There was a time in my life when I was hungry and I don't ever want to have that happen again." "I don't know what I would do with myself if I changed my eating habits, or if I really  could change them." Often we uncover conflicting values and inevitable losses.  To effectively engage adaptive change involves connecting what is above the neck with what is below the neck-- what we think  with how we feel.

Before making technical changes to grow our congregation, it is likewise beneficial to look at the values incorporated in the stories we tell ourselves and each other.  "We are a friendly church" often goes with  "I feel uncomfortable with people who look different or who have different life experiences." "We have a beautiful church" can sometimes go with "I would never let my bathrooms at home look like the ones at church." "We need new people to help do the work and pay the bills" frequently goes with "I really want to continue doing my jobs at the church because they are fulfilling to me and I like having people know I am a major contributor and will bail the church out if it is really needed."

These conflicting values and stories make change difficult and loss real.  Clarifying the values that guide our ministry and identifying a larger purpose of our work can help us understand what we are willing to die for and what we are willing to live and work for.

Matthew clearly remembers the commandment of Jesus to his disciples that they go into all the world and make disciples.  Taken seriously, this admonition can make us uncomfortable, if not afraid.  "My church cares for me and nurtures me." "This commandment sends me into a world  my church renews me for and protects me from."

So what larger purpose would help overcome your discomfort and fear?  How has your relationship with Jesus Christ made a difference in your life? Do you really want others to experience this transformation for themselves? We certainly don't mind sharing the source of the best piece of apple pie we have ever eaten. How has your dependency on God moved you to new behavior and sustained you in times of difficulty? Identifying a shared purpose for your church is likely to be challenging and perhaps painful because some of your habits, values and stories will need to give way (be lost) as we claim what needs to be retained to make the changes necessary to embrace a larger purpose. 

Gowing your  congregation will undoubtedly involve some "technical" changes, but the leadership necessary to make adaptive changes that will sustain them  involves being willing to look honestly at who you are as a congregation with  mixed values and stories, to clarify  a larger purpose that embodies the Gospel and retains your deepest held values and to live with the losses that come with the emerging changes.

The good news is that growing a congregation is possible, even yours. The even better news is that we worship a God who both creates and delivers, challenges and sustains.

Adaptive leadership draws on the core of who God calls us to be. The difficult tasks involve the wilderness of clarification and recommitment before moving toward the promised land.  The journey can be exhilarating.  It will certainly involve making different choices than you have made before and likely mean saying "no" more often, and "yes" less frequently.  Leading adaptive change means being claimed for a larger purpose while grieving what must be given up--the joy of new discovery and the recognition of what was not really needed.

The Call to Action provides an focused opportunity to be God's people for Christ's sake.  Let's not miss it!

The Rev. David Argo is the BWC's director of Connectional Ministries.

Defining challenges

Leaders seeking to create vital churches may find insights in statements issued by the United Methodist Council of Bishops, who sought to define the challenges facing the church.

According to the bishops, United Methodists are facing an unprecedented moment in our history. Church membership, worship attendance and baptisms continue to decline, funding for connectional ministries grow weaker; the ‘warm heart’ of John Wesley’s initial movement has become a ‘contented heart’ of institutional inertia and the organization and structure we live in is not sufficient, nimble or responsive to the fast-changing world we inhabit. “This crisis has gifted us with a sense of urgency and an opportunity to lead courageously,” the bishops said.

There is a gap between our current situation and our aspirations that leads us to dream of church with more grace and freedom and fewer rules; more accountability to Gospel and less conformity to an outdated bureaucratic system; more actual participation with young people and more ministry with the poor and less rhetoric about our good intentions; more expectation for growth and less acceptance of the status quo of decline; and more trust and less cynicism and more dreaming about what will be and less struggling to preserve what was.

Your turn:

What thoughts or vision do the challenges facing the church inspire in you?

Beyond good ideas

At the 2012 General Conference, Bishop John Schol will present the five-year goals of each of the 665 churches of the Baltimore-Washington Conference. These goals, offered as gift to God, are expected to serve as the foundation for ministry plans.

These SMART goals, which are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-framed, are designed to create vital churches.

Vital churches, research shows, have inviting and inspiring worship; disciples engaged in mission and outreach; gifted, equipped and empowered lay leadership; effective, equipped and inspired clergy leadership; and many small groups and strong children’s and youth programs.

In providing leadership for the setting of these goals, you are encouraged to invoke a gospel imagination – dreaming God-sized dreams that lead to the making of disciples and the transformation of the world. As you cast your visions, consider these bits of wisdom from poets and theologians and other thinkers:

+ Concentrate on what you’re good at.
+ In the long run, we hit only what we aim at.
+ A possibility is a hint from God.
+ The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.

Your turn:

If you could craft one SMART goal for yourself what would it be?

Strategy is key

Over the next decade, United Methodists will join together to face the adaptive challenge of “redirecting the flow of attention, energy and resources to an intense concentration on fostering and sustaining an increase in the number of vital congregations.”

This is not a technical challenge. The state of the church is not a problem to be solved nor fixed. It is an adaptive challenge because it calls upon all United Methodists to learn new ways of thinking and doing and it asks leaders to influence their communities to face the problems.

The Revs. Gil Rendle and Walter Brueggemann both suggest that “the central task of leadership is to manage the hopes and fears of the people.” To do so, they must give up asking the question “are we doing things right?” in favor of asking “are we doing the right things?” The first question addresses the present, the second redefines the future.

Your turn:

If you could choose one interesting problem to solve today, what would it be?

How might the thoughts presented in this section on adaptive challenges help you think about this problem in new ways?

What’s your opening move?

Leaders act

• Leadership is a spiritual issue.
• Leaders recognize the way things are and the way things could be. Helping a congregation move through the wilderness that lays betweens these two points is the role of the leader.
• A towel and wash basin may be the most important tools of a leader. The church needs servant leaders.
• The most important trait in a servant leader is passion for God’s mission.
• Good leaders also create teams to help them accomplish this mission. It is the mission that forms and drives the team.
• Leaders hold their team members to a high level of authority, but they also know that responsibility without authority disables, rather than empowers, those serving on the team.
• Leaders hold themselves and others accountable. They also recognize that disruption and conflict are essential parts of change. Storms are often best weathered with respect, honesty, and staying connected to Christ.
• Leaders pray.

Your turn:

In your experience, what are three of the most important characteristics of a good leader?

How will you embody these traits today?

Move by move

Leading change is never easy. But experts in leadership suggest eight steps that can be applied to almost any setting.

1. Establish a sense of urgency.
2. Form a powerful, guiding coalition.
3. Create a vision.
4. Communicate the vision.
5. Empower others to act on the vision.
6. Plan for and create short-term wins.
7. Consolidate improvements and sustain the momentum for change.
8. Institutionalize the new approaches.

Your turn:

What role does change play in your spiritual life?

In what areas of your life do you feel change might be necessary? What is a first step you might take toward that change?

As a leader, how will you help your church change and become more vital?

Be the best

Leaders of successful corporations and nonprofits know that motivational stunts to induce change and fanfare to herald the new are doomed to fail. Rather, discipline, having the right people doing the right tasks, authenticity, a willingness to take risks for the sake of excellence and hard and good work that gathers momentum is what creates meaningful change.

Author Jim Collins, who has unraveled several keys to outstanding leadership and success, calls this the “fly-wheel principle.”

Collins also advocates “the hedgehog concept” – identifying what you’re the best in the world at, what your core people are deeply passionate about and what drives your economic engine. Answer those three questions, facing brutal facts honestly, and where the circles intersect is your hedgehog concept.

It takes some organizations four years or more to crystallize their hedgehog – but once identified, it becomes essential to understanding what was important and what they need to stop doing. Clarity, simplicity and diligence become ways of being.

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Your turn:

Reflect upon and name the thing in the world that you could be the best at.

What one thing in your life do you need to stop doing?