The congregation was doing several excellent missions but the person asking the question identified the difficulty. Even the people in the room who were members of the congregation had not connected all the dots on several of their missions. Looking at the outreach of the church revealed two main reasons why people did not connect the dots.

Two of their best missions were joint efforts with other congregations. People connected the dots to the overall program but not to the churches who contributed to the mission. Even though the food distribution program was birthed at their congregation, the program was now shared.

Everyone has an easier time connecting the dots when a congregation has a unique, difference-making mission they can call their own. The joint ministries are important but it is essential that a congregation also has a exceptional mission that tells the community we want to make a difference. I am convinced that God calls us to at least one meaningful task in our local mission fields. Then, connecting the dots is easier.

Another reason the dots were not connected was found in examining their newsletters over the past year. Their communications revealed the same tendency that I have seen with other churches. Once a program gets started and is established, most congregations do not feature it in their newsletters, on their web sites, and talks on Sunday morning. The people who started it and continue to work in it know the history, but not once was the program featured in their newsletter or web site over the past year. We need to remember to keep telling the story of all of our missions.

From now on when I talk about missions, I am going to talk about connecting the dots. It was a fantastic observation.

According to the article, “Sociologist Max Weber created a typology of organizations in his 1947 book The Theory of Social and Economic Organization. He described three categories: 1) legal/bureaucratic (think IBM or the U.S. government), 2) Traditional (e.g., the Catholic church) and 3) Charismatic (run by special, magical individuals).

Charismatic organizations are headed by people with the ‘gift of grace’ (charisma from the Greek). ‘He is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities.’ Followers and disciples have absolute trust in the leader, fed by that leader’s access to nearly magical powers. ‘Charismatic authority repudiates the past, and is in this sense a specifically revolutionary force.’”

In today’s world, many growing, vibrant congregations are led by charismatic leaders like Steve Jobs - individuals who have a strong sense of their connection to God and a clear vision for ministry, individuals who have gift for leading and connecting to others, and individuals who have the skills necessary to effectively manage a growing organization. While these leaders, like Jobs, can help congregations and individuals experience tremendous grown, when they leave or retire, it can be extremely difficult to fill that’s leader’s role in the leadership system.

Colony continues later in the article. “When Steve Jobs departed, he took three things with him: 1) singular charismatic leadership that bound the company together and elicited extraordinary performance from its people; 2) the ability to take big risks, and 3) an unparalleled ability to envision and design products. Apple’s momentum will carry it for 24-48 months. But without the arrival of a new charismatic leader it will move from being a great company to being a good company, with a commensurate step down in revenue growth and product innovation.”

Replace the name “Steve Job” with the name of an outstanding, charismatic pastor and you have an accurate description of what has taken place in hundreds, perhaps thousands of congregations. As Colony notes, “One of the primary challenges with charismatic organizations is succession.” Congregations face the same problem and unfortunately since our system of call typically relies on a bureaucratic or traditional approach. It often doesn’t do an outstanding job of identifying the next charismatic leader for a congregation and without that next charismatic leader or a complete change in the organizational structure of the congregation, the congregation loses momentum and slowly goes from great to good.

As I thought about the executive’s comment, I realized that my approach to hiring is completely the opposite.  Rather than hire an extremely talented individual who doesn’t fit comfortably with the rest of the team, I’d rather hire an individual with potential who fits helpfully with the family and trust that they will learn the skills needed for the job.   For me, building a healthy and competent staff is the best way to build health in the congregation.   If the most skilled person is also the best fit for the team, then great, but if I have to chose between the most skilled person and someone who is slightly less skilled, but a better fit for the team, then I’ll always lean toward hiring the best fit.

I believe that both approaches to hiring can work, but for me, hiring the right person is about more than simply finding the most talented person.

At the Mission Leaders Network Seminar in February, Dr. Kennon Callahan suggested that despite our best intentions, expanding to a 30 step service for Easter or Christmas may not be the most helpful idea, if we are trying to reach people who are not a part of our regular worshiping community. Many unchurched people, according to Dr. Callahan, are “drawn to simple, helpful, stirring and inspiring [services] which gives some hint of help for the week to come.” (Feb. 28, 2012) When someone walks into worship on Easter Sunday for the first time and experiences a complex 30 step service, it’s the rough equivalent of attending a graduate level class on your first day as a freshman at college. The lecture may sound impressive, but chances are that you will have trouble following what is going on and you may not be eager to come back.

As I looked at our three Easter Services, I realized that our 25 step Sunrise Service is declining in attendance and our 10-12 step 9 AM Service and 11 AM Service are increasing in attendance. Certainly part of the shift in attendance patterns has to do with the times of the services, but I am starting to wonder if the simple, inspiring 10-12 step services is also a better match for the people that God has given us.

Everyone seemed to be concentrating on the last part of his suggestion, but the phrase “vastly different viewpoints” caught my attention. Over the years in the congregations I have served, most members have thought alike, been from similar backgrounds, shopped at the same places, and were even the same color. I never remember vastly different viewpoints in the congregations that I served. Perhaps certain conflicts in some parishes were because the pastor and congregation had vastly different viewpoints but within the parish, people were homogeneous.

If someone felt that they did not fit in, they left despite my best efforts to make them a part of the congregation. That always bothered me. The solution for most people is to leave if they do not feel that they fit in. I am old enough to remember Vietnam and people saying, “America—love it or leave it!” I did not believe that was the correct solution then and it still isn’t now.

We need to realize that we in the church are linked by the love and grace of God and not by thinking alike, dressing alike or having the same color skin. I am convinced that we become much stronger Christians when we share viewpoints and talk instead of leave. The emphasis is not on our homogeneity but on God calling us to mission and ministry together. We can grow stronger as we talk and realize that even though God made people vastly different, we are all united in love.

By leaving, we miss a great opportunity for God to work in our midst in loving and grace-filled ways. We might even learn something from staying, talking and being together in love and grace.

Having said that, I want to be clear that I only engage in “text shepherding” with those people for whom texting is a primary form of communication. I still engage in shepherding through face-to-face visits, phone calls, emails and handwritten notes, but for many of the people in my congregation, text messaging is their primary form of communication - their primary language of choice. Since I believe that it is important to communicate with people using their primary language, I have learned to text. While in general, I still prefer to talk to someone in person or on the phone, I know from experience that a quick text can have a major impact and communicate the good news of God’s love and presence in powerful ways.

For years, members have shared their ideas of the best oldies programs that worked in churches so well in the past. They were convinced that these programs were the “silver bullet” to resurrect their church and any church. Over the years, I even tried some with no success. After struggling with these suggestions for over 25 years, I finally came to the conclusion that we should leave the past in the past.

The author of the Fast Company article wonderfully described the phenomenon that I had seen as nostalgia

“Nostalgia is a natural human emotion, a survival mechanism that pushes people to avoid risk by applying what we’ve learned and relying on what’s worked before. It’s about as useful as an appendix right now. When times seem uncertain, we instinctively become more conservative; we look to the past, to times that seem simpler, and we have the urge to re-create them” (Fast Company, February 2012, page 67)

Don’t fall into the trap of attempting to recreate the past. It doesn’t work. Be at peace when someone suggests this fantastic old program. The suggestion deserves a “Thank you” and then lay the suggestion to rest in the closest cemetery. That’s where it belongs.

In response to a question about this topic at a recent conference, Dr. Kennon Callahan suggested that following reason why people inside and outside of the Lutheran movement should care about this anniversary.

“Why do people care about Luther, because without Luther you cannot write the words, ‘We hold these truths to be self evident . . . .’ Without Luther we still have pharaoh, kings and popes. It is only with Luther that we discover that grace is grassroots. . . .

With Greece, we discover the notion that people can untrap themselves from the level they were born and move to another level. With Luther there are no levels. There is no hierarchy. . . . God’s grace comes equally to all persons. It is your position before God that shapes your position in the world and your position before God is that there is no one between you and God. . . . You have power equally because you equally experience the grace of God. We are God’s people of grace.” (Feb. 29, 2012 - Mission Leaders Network Seminar for Key Leaders Presentation)

For Callahan, a celebration of the 500th Anniversary of the 95 Theses is a celebration of God’s grace. It is a celebration of the good news that God’s grace comes fully and equally to all people and to me that is something worth celebrating.