Toolbox For Faith

When I mentioned the possibility of a third service to folks at St. Michael, most were cautiously supportive and genuinely curious about why I thought a third service might be helpful. When I explained that I thought there was an opportunity to reach a group of people in our community who aren’t able to attend worship on Sunday morning, most people agreed that, in theory, the idea made sense. At this point, I don’t know if the service will be on Sunday night, Tuesday night, Thursday night or some other evening. I don’t know if the service will be in the Sanctuary or at a second site. I don’t even know what the style or format of the service will be. I simply believe there is an opportunity that is worth pursuing. Now the question becomes, how do we move from a possibility to a new worshiping community.

Initially at least, I am planning to use an approach presented by Dr. Callahan at the Developing Key Leaders event held in Roanoke in September 2010. Dr. Callahan suggested that one approach is to find five people who would have fun beginning a new service. Gather those people in January and think about who, in the groups they are already a part of, might have fun begin a part of a new service. Between January and March, he suggests inviting the initial five to each find three more people who would be interested in being a part of a new service. In March, he suggests gathering those people for a one-time fun event. During the March event, work with the group to develop excellent ideas for the new service. He suggests repeating the process in May and July by encouraging each of the people from the March event to invite three more people to join the conversation. In August, reach out to the community through personal contacts, phone calls, notes, emails, text messages, etc and then launch the new service in September. I like the approach because it draws on the wisdom of the community and invites broad-based support. I’m sure we’ll modify it as we go, but initially this seems like a helpful way to get started.

I am working my way through a wonderful new book entitled, The Open Source Church by Landon Whitsitt. When I ordered the book, I assumed it would be a call for congregations to share their resources and ideas with the world - a call to post everything online and freely give it away for the building up of the body of Christ. What I discovered as I read was much more valuable. Whitsitt applies the principles of Open Source Software to the Gospel and the church. He uses these principles to highlight the freedom of the God’s love in Christ Jesus and to lift up an organizational paradigm for churches that encourages drawing on the wisdom of the community in place of experts. Here are a couple of experts that touch on his ideas and writing style.

“I believe that as the people of God, we have an opportunity to proclaim a timeless truth: To proclaim Jesus Christ is to proclaim freedom, and to proclaim freedom is to proclaim Jesus Christ. . . . The church in many places has changed from an institution that teaches postures, approaches, and behaviors that lead to freedom to an institution that teaches postures, approaches, and behaviors that will maintain itself. . . . But the gospel is not concerned with maintaining structures or preserving doctrine. The gospel is concerned with freedom.” (pg. 10-11)

“Congregations should quit trusting and expecting that pastors know everything about how to conduct the business of the church. A pastor’s area of expertise is actually quite narrow. If we continue insisting that pastors be our resident church experts, we will find that our expectation causes more problems than it solves. If we continue trusting one person to expertly address all areas of church life, things will begin to fall apart. A better (and I would argue, more faithful) plan of action is to begin tapping into the wisdom of the priesthood of all believers.” (pg. 81)

I am still processing all of what Whitsitt has to say and trying to figure out what it can mean for me and my congregation, but I’d highly recommend the book to anyone looking to explore alternative leadership models.

At Synod Assembly over the weekend, our keynote speaker, Dr. Jessicah Krey Duckworth, shared some wonderful ideas for nurturing faith in children and families. One of the resources she shared was the website: enterthebible.org from Luther Seminary. According to the introduction on the front page of the website, it contains a “wealth of resources to help you grow in your faith, add depth to your Bible studies and truly discover the people, places and events of the Bible. Think of Enter the Bible as your guide, a helpful reference tool to accompany you in your reading of the Bible.” For each book of the Bible, there is a tab with a summary of the book, an outline, background information, an introduction and theological themes. I have just started looking at the site, but so far it looks like a very useful tool.