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| The windmills of Lewis County, NY |
A recent op-ed piece posted on the Christian Science Monitor's website entitled, "GOP candidates and Obama: Standards for presidential leadership," listed 5 qualities that voters should look for in a presidential candidate,. Those qualities are presidential candidates who: (1) understand the issues of government; (2) love the daily toil and mechanics of governing; (3) have mastered the organization; (4) turn liabilities into assets; and (5) are persistent. On reflection, it could be argued that these qualities are also important for selecting a new pastor. And taking that thought one step further, it could also be argued that they are also important for a mainline congregation that seeks to address its decline.
That is to say that in order for a church to address its own decline a significant number of its members should, first, understand the spiritual, theological, biblical, and social issues facing the congregation in its local setting. Those members should cultivate a love for "the daily toil and mechanics" of church renewal so that they will not be easily distracted or become impatient with the hard spiritual work of renewal. Those members should also have a good grasp of the basic operating principles of a church seeking new life, principles that are likely to be very different from its current operating principles. It is most essential for a significant number of members of a church in decline to see its decline as an opportunity offered to it by the Holy Spirit, an institutional liability that can work to its spiritual benefit. And a church membership seeking renewal will have to do so persistently. Starting new churches is a breeze compared to discovering new life for an old one.
All of this presupposes that a congregation seeking renewal will cultivate in itself the qualities of leadership it once expected of its pastor. Leadership thus will be seen as a shared function where at one point or another virtually every member will "step up to the plate" of leadership. Every member will develop a good sense of where the church is headed, how it will stay headed that way, and their personal role in moving forward. Each member will learn to be excited by the possibilities for new life only a declining church can offer, and they will not become discouraged or faint-hearted when the path of renewal proves to be littered with obstacles, as surely it will.
The great bulk of the literature on church renewal is still focused on pastoral leadership. It is past time that we turn our attention to the followership-leadership mix of the congregations themselves. Amen.
