Transitional Ministry Today by Norman B. Bendroth

Author:Norman B. Bendroth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2012-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Renewal Is Exponential

Renewal is about multiplication, not addition. We can’t simply add on to what a church is doing. That will not have sufficient impact to transform a stagnant church. Most mainline churches are so encrusted with the rust of their history, tradition, fears, and failures that getting them moving again requires extraordinary energy. Simple addition is not usually sufficient. If we can put our energy into a few areas where the impact can be multiplied, the outcome can be transformational.

Perhaps this mathematics illustration can make this idea clearer:

3 × 3 × 3 × 3 × 3 = 243

4 × 4 × 4 × 4 × 4 = 1,024

Notice that the difference between three and four is only one. That is not particularly significant if your approach is adding to what you are doing already. However, the cumulative difference between 243 and 1,024 is remarkable.

You cannot fix all that needs to be addressed during your interim time. Carefully select four or five areas where your gifts and the church’s needs intersect. Don’t try to add to what the church is doing in those areas; try to transform who they are in those areas. Select areas where the positive impact of change can be multiplied throughout the system.

A former church I served always had collected food for those in need at Thanksgiving. It was a pleasant thing to do, and several families were helped. The first year after I arrived, I saw several things about this process that needed to be fixed. With little effort, the congregation could serve many more people much more effectively. I was tempted to try to fix it. Instead, I invited the team members who led this ministry over to my house for dinner. I cooked the same food items they collected in the Thanksgiving baskets as a way of saying thank you. We spent the meal sharing the joy that they experienced in doing the ministry and talked of how rewarding it was. Later, over coffee and pumpkin pie, I facilitated a conversation about how I’d like to figure out a way to share their experience with the entire congregation. How could we get everyone involved in the work of feeding those less fortunate? It was nearly midnight when everyone left. They had dozens of ideas about how to do more at Thanksgiving, but also projects we could do at Christmas and Easter, during the summer, and with school supplies.

What was clear in these conversations was that most of the folks were there to serve, but a couple of people were leaders. Less than a week later, I took a staff member and those two leaders to lunch. I talked to them about my dream to make community service the defining ministry of our church. Again, I asked them for ideas about how this might be. They had many. I asked if it was acceptable for me to put their ideas together in a strategic plan and send it to them for input. They were honored.

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