Toolbox For Faith

Many years ago at a workshop, Lyle Schaller suggested a question that I have found invaluable over the years. He said always ask, “What year is it?’ when analyzing why certain actions occur in a parish. That question has helped me enormously in understanding the congregations I have served and it have been central in planning a strategy for that congregation to grow forward in faith and service.

When I have thought of this question at the congregations where my wife, Cheryl, and I have been worshipping over the past weeks, the results are puzzling. The congregations appear to have asked the question “What year is it?” in mission outreach but have stopped there. All of the congregations have looked at their communities today and appear to have a wonderful understanding of needed 2010 outreach into their communities. But in most other areas, they have taught me that they are using ideas that haven’t been useful since our society was a church culture in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

I am still attempting to figure out why this has happened—that only the mission outreach is 2010 and so much of the remainder of the congregational life is lost in the past. Perhaps it is due to the current recession that has caused so much change in the lives of many, many people but I am not sure. Please let me know if you have any brilliant or even semi-brilliant explanations.