Two recent books on "doing church" provide fodder for reflection on church life and leadership.

In The Ministry of the Missional Church: A Community Led by the Spirit, Craig Van Gelder argues for listening to, learning from, and leaning on the Spirit of God who empowers the church for mission to the world.

The church is both a creation of God's Spirit and an agent of God's Spirit. "The Spirit of God not only creates the church by calling it into existence, the Spirit of God also leads the church by sending it into the world to participate fully in God's mission in all of creation" (63).

Using the categories of missiologist Leslie Newbigin, the author calls the church to participate in God's mission in the world by being a "sign, foretaste, and instrument" of God's reign. The church is "a sign that God's redemption is now present in the world, a foretaste of what that redemption is like, and an instrument to carry that message into every local context and to the ends of the earth" (19).

The church, because it is the product of God's redemptive work and because it also participates in God's continuing mission to the world, is "missional." This relatively recent term communicates a helpful distinction between traditional ways of thinking about mission in contrast to a more holistic sense of mission. In a missional church, "mission is no longer understood primarily in functional terms as something the church does ... [r]ather it is understood in terms of something the church is, as something that is related to its nature" (85-86). Mission is not one program of the church related to local or foreign evangelism or aid, but rather, mission is what defines and guides all the programs of the church.

There is a pattern to God's redemptive work through the Spirit that is consistent in both the Old and New Testament. God works through an organized community led by gifted (and sometimes, significantly flawed) leaders who equip and empower the community to use their gifts and abilities for the common good of the community and as redemptive agents for the sake of the world. This pattern is universal, but its expression is always local, particular, unique.

Provisional Organization in a Changing Context

The church is universal and local, catholic and historic, transcendent and contextualized. Being local, it is particular to a certain time and place. "While it is also catholic, bearing the full marks of the church universal and the historic Christian faith, it is profoundly local in contextualizing these realities to the community it seeks to serve" (65).

It is the church's particular expression in a changing context that calls for flexibility in its form.

This local-catholic dynamic means that there is always a certain provisional character about the church as it lives within a context. As contexts change, the church should expect to change, even as it attempts to live out the tension inherent in being faithful to the gospel while also being responsive to the context. (65)

Because of the particular and contextual elements in a local congregation, "there can be no model congregation" (65, emphasis his). We may learn from "models of ministry," but there is no one model congregation. Each local congregation is unique, particular, and - if it is sensitive to its context - constantly forming and reforming to remain faithful to its historic core in the midst of a changing contemporary environment.

Therefore, "organization is always contextual and, therefore, is also provisional" (66, emphasis his). He expands: "Leadership and organization need to be understood as always being contextual and therefore always being provisional in character. This means that leadership and organization will need to change over time to respond to changing contexts" (122). Standardized, unchanging polity does not suit a changing context. Unfortunately, "[t]he formal polities of churches that define leadership and organization often end up hindering such development rather than helping to facilitate ongoing recontextualization" (122). Van Gelder argues that "Polity needs to focus more on guiding principles rather than prescribed practices" (67).

The church must be prepared to engage issues of change and continuity. Congregations "are always reforming even as they continuously forming" (55). These two actions are interrelated. The church is

always forming in relation to new contexts where it seeks to be relevant. It pursues this by reading this context through the lens of the gospel. This opens up new insights of how God is at work and seeking to be at work in that context. On the other hand, the missional church is always reforming in relation to the historical Christian faith. It pursues this by rereading the tradition through the lens of the gospel. Especially in relation to new insights coming from the interaction of the gospel with a new context. (56)

Spirit-Led Change

Van Gelder's model of a Spirit-led congregation from an open systems perspective is particularly helpful. It provides a bird's eye view of the church's mission in its cultural environment. It is a dense chart. Hopefully, the concise explanation below will help in reading the chart. I recommend reading the entire chapter (121-152) for more depth.

God's reign is operative everywhere within the context of God's creation, including the human community. Christ is acknowledged as head of the church in every local congregational culture which is defined by four permeable boundaries: location, building, religious heritage and organizational history.

Since the church is always interacting with its community/environment, "there is always a flow of activity on both sides of the life of the congregation--people and resources are flowing in, and ministry is flowing out" (145). This feedback loop is a way of ascertaining a church's effectiveness. When either end fails to receive or produce, the church is on a downward slide.

The purpose/mission has to do with why the congregation exists. This is not defined by the church, but by the sacred scriptures: the church is "a community of God's people called, gathered, and sent to bear witness to the redemptive reign of God as they seek to participate in God's mission in the world" (146).

The core missional practices represent the primary ways the congregation carries out its purpose: (1) Worship (which includes ministry of word and sacrament), (2) Education/Discipleship, (3) Care/Fellowship, (4) Service, and (5) Witness.

Through the efforts of visionary leadership, these practices are strategically structured into the life of the community through program, people, communication, care and use of facilities, and faithful stewardship of finances.

Making Room for Sin and Brokenness

As the Spirit leads in a particular context and the gospel is translated in this particular context, change "often comes through conflict, disruption, interruption, and surprise as it does through planning and strategy" (62-63).

We should account for sin and human brokenness: "the church is both holy and human; in like manner people are both simultaneously saints and sinners" (160). Therefore, "[c]ongregations should anticipate that they will experience internal disruption stemming from sin and brokenness" (161).

Van Gelder places a high value on communication: "Communication, properly utilized, can help to instill trust and to cultivate a healthy congregational culture. One of the symptoms of a sick system is when the rumor mill becomes a primary way in which people are receiving much of their information" (150).

Intergenerational Church

In Reaching People Under 40 While Keeping People People Over 60: Being Church for All Generations, Edward Hammett speaks of the "challenge to church growth and church health when it seems that satisfying the needs of one group creates barriers to reaching another group" (xii). Specifically, Hammett calls church leadership to devise "a well-thought-out and prayed-over plan to reach people under forty without losing or abusing those over sixty" (82).

A good leader repeatedly finds herself caught between two worlds. Not only does a pastor have to navigate "between the times" of the ancient past (in the biblical narrative) and the present culture; and not only does she have to navigate between the status quo and biblical challenges to the status quo; but she also often finds herself "caught between at least two value systems, two worlds, two cultures, and two philosophies of church" - and that, simply from interacting with her own local congregation (9).

This collision of past and future creates tension:

Part of the challenge of reaching people under forty while keeping those over sixty is a generational issue because generations have different preferences for how they worship, learn, lead, relate, do ministry, and interact with one another. They have different personal preferences and lifestyles, styles of music, and attire. (31)

The pastor's primary job is not to keep everyone inside the church happy, but to "equip and challenge [parishioners] to be missionaries of the good news" (15). The call is to "coach the church rather than carry the church" (101). Hammett challenges pastoral descriptions that have more to do with "caring" and "performing" rather than "equipping" and "coaching":

How did we ever get into such a narcissistic place with our staffing? What would have happened if Jesus had come to earth just to take care of the twelve or the inner circle of three? He did spend much time with this remnant but for the purpose of equipping them to carry his message into all the world. (110)

The mission of the community must be kept in mind so that the church does not descend to a social club or pander to the needs of the most vocal.

Whoever is in leadership needs to be clear about the mission of the church. Each leader needs to be clear about the DNA of the church--the core values, core beliefs, and practices of the congregation. Unless the leaders are clear about these essential characteristics of the church, over time the church will drift and weaken in its mission. (47)

We all have comfort zones, but Hammett admonishes us:

Where does a person's need for personal comfort end and a person's commitment to the costliness of the gospel begin? Where does one leave personal comfort and personal preferences about worship styles, hymns, pastoral visitation expectations, and the way we prefer to do church to embrace the biblical mandates given to all believers "to go into all the world," "to take up our cross (no comfort there) daily" and follow Jesus? Now, for me, that is the real question. (89)

The challenge of a changing cultural context calls for a "creative church values" rather than "compliant church values" (104).

Compliant Church Values	Creative Church Values
Complies with historic constitution and bylaws	Recognizes constitutions can be changed in order to allow more relevant ministry
Complies with the way we have always done things	Understands that cultures change, people change, needs change, and structures and programs must change
Works to keep everyone happy in the church family	Understands that conflict is not bad and that a few dissatisfied persons might be necessary in order to become more relevant and reach the community for Christ
Preserving and maintaining actions takes precedence in leadership meetings	Mission and ministry are always first on leadership groups' meeting agendas
Focuses on membership preferences as church focus	Focuses on needs and preferences of those outside the church as church focus

Even though we often debate over the form the church should take, the "New Testament talks much more about the functions of the church than the forms of the church" (92).

In adding new leadership, Hammett offers 4 "Cs": character, competency, chemistry, and commitment. He adds: "Chemistry means that team members enjoy being together, but it goes beyond that. They look for complementary gifts; the team needs a gift mix, not everyone with the same gifts" (106).

Finally, Hammett invites us to rethink our views of membership: "Some churches are more intent on whom they will keep out of their churches rather than whom they will welcome in" (127). He suggests that "participation [should be] viewed as valid membership" (128) and that a graduated scale of membership may be more valuable to assess overall ministry effectiveness.

Quotes excerpted from The Ministry of the Missional Church: A Community Led by the Spirit by Craig Van Gelder and Reaching People Under 40 While Keeping People Over 60: Being Church for All Generations by Edward H. Hammett with James R. Pierce
© Richard J. Vincent, 2008