The Declining Church

An Educational Nugget on Pastoral Leadership

based on the writings of Thomas G. Bandy

The Rev. Dr. Pablo A. Jiménez www.drpablojimenez.net

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Introduction

• The Church at the dawn of the Twenty-First Century is seeing a new face of "Church Growth".

• In particular, we see the deliberate use of marketing techniques in the development of plans and strategies for Church growth, revitalization, and the establishment of new congregations.

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Topics

• In this occasion, we shall refer to the contributions made by Thomas G. Bandy, an expert on Church growth and revitalization.

• In particular, we will refer to the ideas that Bandy presents in Kicking Habits: Welcome Relief for Addicted Churches (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1997)

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About Tom Bandy

• Thomas G. Bandy defines himself as a «coach» for Christian congregations.

• Bandy states that congregations need to have clear objectives for renewal and growth.

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Aims of Bandy’s Book

• The whole purpose of this book is to avoid false starts.

• First, the people of God that need to capture (or be captured by!) the Vision.

• Second, people need to understand Systemic Change.

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• Third, people need to identify the Key Corners their congregation must turn in order to thrive in the XXI century.

• Fourth, people need to Plan for Stress. Transition will be stressful, but Thriving Churches have learned that you can plan for it, address it in stages, and not be overwhelmed by it.

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The Declining ChurchDefinition: The Declining

Church is an addict. Churches are addicted to habitual, self-destructive behavior

patterns which they do not even recognize!

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Addiction

• The most difficult thing an addict must do is admit it.

• Denial is a chronic condition of the local Church, though that denial is often projected with anger onto the denominational or judicatory leaders.

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It is Difficult

• The difficulty with perceiving a vision, is that too often the congregation is unable to discern between an authentic call of Jesus Christ, and its abiding addictions to past ideals, forms, and procedures.

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You May Miss It

• Congregations can go on retreats, establish visioning committees, restructure the Board, and direct truly sincere people to investigate the authenticity of their calling, and still miss the truth.

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Five Stages

• Declining Churches want the congregation to develop a sense of "family” where everyone feels part of the group.

• These congregations understand that the faith development process goes through five stages, detailed in the following slides.

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1. Member

• These congregations emphasize the importance of becoming a member of the parish.

• However, they rarely offer classes for new believers or for people who move from other denominations.

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• Usually, they have minimum requirements for maintaining membership, such as attending Church once every six months (or less in some cases).

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Recruitment

• The Church becomes preoccupied with recruitment. They “fast-forward” newcomers toward membership and office holding.

• They form “evangelism committees” whose chief task is to invite people to come to Church and encourage their institutional support.

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• These recruits usually bear a remarkable resemblance to the cultural, racial, linguistic, educational, and economic identities of the people already inside the institution, and are welcomed into the Church specifically for the skills they bring that might support the institution.

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2. Friend

• In declining congregations befriending people, particularly established leadership, is more important than attendance to Church activities.

• Established leaders inform new members of the traditions of the congregation, so that "new" people know how to act properly.

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• Tradition has a very heavy weight in declining congregations.

• In some sense, they understand that their main mission is to maintain the traditions received from their elders, even if they are not longer effective.

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3. Partners

•Those who see themselves as the established leadership of the Church are always looking for candidates for positions in the governing bodies of the congregation.

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• These traditional leaders nominate those they see as their "partners", sharing their values, social, or ethnic background.

• For this reason, the governing bodies tend to be homogeneous, even is the congregation is more diverse.

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4. Director

• The prize for spiritual maturity is to be part of the governing body of the congregation.

• The members of these governing bodies understand that their main task is to monitor both the overall functioning of the Church as the specific work of the minister.

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• Of course, if you see yourself as a director, whose job description includes supervising the Pastor, you place yourself above the congregation.

• This hinders the pastoral relationship, given that you see the minister as an employee, not as your spiritual leader.

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Supervision

• It seeks to supervise those who do ministry and to manage that ministry, so that it never inadvertently contradicts the ethos, heritage, or identity of the group.

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5. Guardian

•The highest level of lay leadership in the declining type of Church is achieved when an individual is seen as one of the bulwarks or pillars of the congregation.

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• Sometimes the guardians occupy the highest leadership positions for several consecutive years. Others yield leadership from time to time.

• However, they have great influence, even if they are not “officially” in a position of leadership.

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• Anyway, the guardians understand that their mission is to "maintain" the tradition of the Church. This explains their rejection of any new ideas.

• For this reason, they see anyone who opposes their leadership as enemies of the Church.

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Adapt to Tradition

• It educates people with all the appropriate information they need to understand the system to adapt themselves to life within the system.

• It seeks to preserve the heritage and concentrates on passing the heritage onto children and youth.

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What About the Pastor?

• In the declining congregation the pastor is seen as an employee of the congregation whose primary responsibility is to carry out the mission of the Church.

• It is the pastor who gets search "souls" (new members) and relate to the community at large.

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Scrutiny

• Part of the scrutiny of pastoral leadership is the belief that the minister needs to visit more people, more often.

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The Division of Labor

• The old division of labor in which the clergy do ministry and the laity do management, is transformed by dysfunctional leadership into a system in which the clergy do ministry and the board members tell them what to do and whom to see. The finance committee then becomes the key force in the Church.

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Conclusion

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Belonging

• The declining Church system is all about “belonging.”

• It assumes that belonging to one institution will provide people with meaning in life. It seeks to recruit and initiate people into a group membership parallel to a “family” identity.

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• The Declining Church draws people towards the unity of a central control for congregational life, so that the intensity of one’s “belonging” matches the degree to which one holds power.

• It seeks to raise money to pay for others to do ministry.

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Keeping vs. Welcoming

• This is a system in which keeping people is more important than welcoming people; and in which preserving the system is more important than addressing public needs.

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In Summary

• What is mission in the Declining Church?

• Mission results from whatever surplus energy and resources remain after maintaining the organization.

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The Endwww.drpablojimenez.net

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