Your Congregation's Future is Not About Closing the Gap
Part of the Spiritual Strategic Journey Series --Copyright 2024 by George W. Bullard Jr. November 14, 2024 Edition
Your Congregation's Future is Not About Closing the Gap
I have little interest in the popular approaches to congregational vitality and vibrancy. I am particularly not interested in closing the gap between where a congregation finds itself today, and where it wants to push forward to arrive at tomorrow.
Explore with me initial thoughts on the difference between closing gaps by pushing and taking a journey to reach your congregation’s full Kingdom potential by pulling.
Church Growth
I am not interested in the numerical growth of your congregation. It really does not matter to me if your congregation is growing numerically. That is, if it is the only goal you pursue.
At its best church growth is an outward expression of a desire for a local congregation to attract as many people as possible into the Kingdom of God and into their congregation.
Church growth at its worse is a self-serving, competitive desire to win. The other side of the will to win is a willingness for other nearby congregations to lose. Church growth zeroes in on individuals who you want to participate in your congregation. In so doing it risks treating these persons as objects rather than as persons of worth created in the image of God to live and to love.
Growth can shape a congregation into a business that is trying to make a profit. “Church growth sells”—meaning to achieve profit or to close the gap between the current and the potential size of the church.
Kingdom potential is not about closing the gap!
Church Health
I am not interested in the health of your congregation. Church health has at least two current meanings in the North American Church. Church health can mean emotional or family systems health. The emotional quotient of a congregation is important. Congregational members need to be healthy psychological and spiritual persons.
An overemphasis on this type of church health can result in a healthy congregation in neutral with no sense of destination or journey. Health becomes an end result.
Church health can also mean a congregation with a healthy balance of worship, evangelism, discipleship, fellowship, ministry, and contextual missional engagement. Such a congregation has the programs and systems of congregational life aligned with their theological understandings of what a congregation ought to be.
Some of these congregations soar with great excellence and effectiveness. Church health approaches may lead to emotionally healthy and balanced congregations who have closed the gap between unhealth and health.
Kingdom potential is not about closing the gap!
Church Faithfulness
I am not interested in the faithfulness of your congregation. Congregational faithfulness often focuses on the past. It centers attention on what the church has always done, always believed, or forever refused to do. It affirms present patterns of the congregation, its denomination, the historic Christian Church, or the core values of a movement within the denomination or historic Church.
Congregational faithfulness is seldom a proactive position. Rather, congregational faithfulness becomes a passive position seeking to protect the congregation from patterns of thought or action that do not fit the paradigm of the long-term members. Faithfulness is often the rallying cry of aging, plateaued, and declining congregations.
Church faithfulness forgets that faithfulness alone is insufficient. It must also have effectiveness and innovation to be complete. For faithfulness to be complete congregations must close the gap using effective strategies with innovative styles.
Kingdom potential is not about closing the gap!
Church Success
I am not interested in the success of your congregation. Church success usually focuses on organizational success and not the spiritual significance of the congregation. It often relates to management goals such as reaching the budget, achieving a certain membership or attendance size, reaching new people but not necessarily helping them grow deeper and broader as disciples.
The emphasis is transactional organizational goals. The hubris of leadership is part of the church culture. Competition rather than collaboration is a characteristics of strategic efforts. Leadership is focused on the pastor and a few other leaders. The congregation is asked to follow. To fall in line.
Church success forgets that success is nothing without moving from success to significance in ministry on one hand, and ultimate surrender in service to God’s Kingdom on the other.
Kingdom potential is not about closing the gap!
Church Transformation
While I am very interested in the transformation of your congregation, that is not the journey I see for you. Congregations need to transition, change, and transform. Transformation, however, implies a destination. It is an act or project that can be finished. Once done, it does not have to be done again in the eyes of many people. A transformed congregation may claim permanent transformation. Following the transformation, it does not feel it must continue to work on transition and change issues.
Many congregations use transformation processes borrowed from business models. Eventually many churches reach a point where the transformation process is complete. They stop following the actions of transformation. They do not realize transformation is an ongoing spiritual process that is leaving them behind.
The transformed congregation loses track of its ever-changing context and no longer follows a sense of spiritual vision. Soon they discover or ignore a gap between where they are and what it means to be transformed.
Transformation within a congregation is very similar to the individual Christ-centered, faith-based journey. Many people stop their transformational journey at the point they discover and embrace what it means to have a life-changing relationship with God through Jesus Christ. They remain spiritually immature and shallow. They never experience the joys of a life fully dedicated to a personal Spiritual Strategic Journey focused on our Triune God.
Kingdom potential is not about closing the gap!
Church Thriving
Thriving congregations is a current popular emphasis in American Christianity. Its popularity is fueled by hundreds of millions of dollars the Lilly Endowment has invested in this emphasis. Many positive results emerge from the grant programs they fund. This is a good thing.
Thriving congregations have characteristics of a healthy fellowship and one that is faithful to God’s mission for His Church. Successful thriving congregations are typically high-quality congregations which create nourishing community within the fellowship of their members. They positively impact their community context and people groups they serve.
Yet, thriving congregations may also be destination focused. They seek to close the gap between where they began and where the process takes them.
Kingdom potential is not about closing the gap!
It’s All About Your Full Kingdom Potential
Church growth, health, faithfulness, success, transformation, and even thriving all tend to focus on closing the gap between where congregations are and where they want to be. This is a philosophy known as Gapology. It involves pushing forward rather than being pulled forward by God’s empowering vision.
Gapology is the constant desire to close the gap between where you are and where you want to be. This is primarily transactional change. It may also be wrongly seen as transformational change if transformation is seen as a static destination. Gapology typically does not empower your congregation to live continually into your full Kingdom potential. You must realize your congregation and its context are continually transitioning and changing.
Theologically Christianity falls into a Gapology approach when it seeks to define God as being in the gap between the known and the unknown. Such a view of God only fills in the gaps scientific knowledge leaves. Such an approach reduces and marginalizes our understanding of God.
The tendency in many approaches is for the destination to be a static—even final—location. An arrival at a new location, declaring success, and lacking an ongoing journey commitment in God’s ever-changing world.
Strategic approaches may seek to push forward or close the gap in congregations. They are often problem-solving approaches which may reduce and marginalize a congregation’s core mission. These approaches seek to discern and discover what is wrong, weak, and missing and then make them right, strong, and present. Dialogue is around the number of “No” votes rather than the number of “Yes” votes.
These approaches look for the areas of deficiency which need to be corrected to bring the congregation to its desired location. The first question is likely “what are your problems”.
Often these actions focus on issues of programs and management rather than vision and disciplemaking. For example, the youth program needs fixing, the worship services are dead, the finances are static, the membership and attendance are plateaued, our community context has radically changed, or long tenured members are controlling the direction of the congregation.
Gapology focuses on what is thinkable, doable, and controllable. The opposite is a Spiritual Strategic Journey towards a congregation’s full Kingdom potential. It leads congregations to emphasis what was once thought to be unthinkable, undoable, and uncontrollable. Such focus comes not by following strategic approaches but by following the leadership of God. Kingdom potential pulls congregations forward rather than pushes them forward.
Empowering Congregational Futures
I am interested in empowering congregational futures. In helping your congregation pursue, perfect, and be pulled towards its full Kingdom potential. This launches a Spiritual Strategic Journey towards God’s ideal or perfect destination for your congregation.
I am interested in God’s empowerment of your unique Christ-centered, faith-based congregational community. I want your community to utilize fully its collective spiritual giftedness, its life skills and strengths, and its personality and cultural preferences so you can soar in response to God’s ideal or perfect leading. This means you must visualize God’s future for your congregation.
The full Kingdom potential for congregations must be discerned, discovered, and developed one congregation at a time. Each congregation must follow God’s leadership and find solutions in a unique manner to the opportunities and challenges they face. While God’s eternal mission for congregations remains the same, the everlasting historic purpose, the enduring core values, and the empowering vision of each congregation is unique.
I am interested in your congregation being reimaged in the image of God. Too often we find congregations being reimaged in the image of the latest church growth, health, faithfulness, success, transformation or thriving process of humankind.
I am interested in helping your congregation understand the context in which you find yourselves. Then to fully, sacrificially, lovingly, and unconditionally minister among the people in that context. At times this is a geographically defined context. At other times it has a cultural, affinity groups, or target group definition. Either are fine as long as they are the context to which God has given you gifts, skills, and preferences for exceptional ministry.
I am interested in helping your congregation walk in the spirit of 2 Corinthians 5:7 that calls for Christians to “walk by faith, not by sight.” This means being embraced and captivated by God’s ideal or perfect will for your congregation. It places more emphasis on visionary leadership and relationship (disciplemaking) experiences with God, with one another, and with the context in which you serve than it does on the programs and management of your congregation.
Your Full Kingdom Potential
Full refers to that which is comprehensive, far-reaching, and thorough.
Kingdom implies that which embraces the reign of God as a focus rather than the realm of humankind. It implies a broad Christian missional worldview rather than only being concerned about a single local congregation.
Potential refers to that which is improbable to impossible except for the promise of God.
Let’s keep talking! Our journey with God is worth it!
Endnote:
Throughout this document the term Spiritual Strategic Journey remains undefined. A Spiritual Strategic Journey is the process for discerning a congregation’s future used by George Bullard in the place of long-range or strategic planning. For more information contact George.
Copyright 2024 by George W. Bullard Jr. November 14, 2024 Edition
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