I like to browse the “spirituality” section of the major bookstore chains to get an update on the current dialogue (or rock-throwing contest) between established religion and pagan culture. The very choice of books selected for promotion is often revealing. This time my eye went to Churched: One Kid’s Journey toward God despite a Holy Mess by Matthew Paul Turner (Waterbrook Press). Since I also grew up “churched”, and often feel like an outsider among the converts and critics that populate the book stalls, I was eager to gain some additional insight. Besides, on the front cover A.J. Jacobs said this was a book “at once funny and full of humanity”.

                Unfortunately, my copy must be missing a chapter. Most of the book is dedicated to funny anecdotes revealing the foibles and hypocrisies of the institutional church (particularly the “fundamentalist” kind). This is coupled with touching stories of coaching by clearly loving parents, who resist critical thinking in favor of compassionate but obedient faith. Somewhere or other in the story, the author is supposed to reveal how and why he found God, started to love Jesus, and returned to church. But I missed it. Exactly when, how, and why did that happen? On page 154 (3/4 of the way through the book), the young teenager realizes that “it wasn’t so much that I was weird, but that fundamentalism was weird.” OK. I got that about 125 pages ago, and although I have been chuckling through the book, I’ve not learned anything new.

                By the time I got to page 211 (there are only 13 pages left), it is clear that growing teenager increasingly ambiguous about faith and doubts the pastor’s credibility. The final pages skim a life that has since endured countless church services (not quite sure why), dabbled in Calvinism, played with independent mega-churches, and found some solace in the loving and non-judgmental relationships of a nameless “small country church in Maryland”. (It’s the one name I want to know, and don’t get). The tale ends with a skeptical young adult attending another independent church in downtown Nashville. The worship feels like “the aurora borealis on steroids and a timer”, but at least it’s “not hurting anybody”. High praise?

                So exactly where is the turning point? Where does the churched kid find God? In the very last three pages it is revealed that he establishes a personal friendship with a pastor who seems (maybe) authentic, and finally accepts communion without being afraid. It seems to me that the reason why he was afraid, and the story of his journey to fearless faith, is the real story we long to hear. But it hasn’t happened.

                I now understand that the book was chosen by the marketers of the book chains because of what it said against religion, rather than for what it said in its favor. Secular therapists are cheering. God, contemporary readers now understand, is the absence of fear, a vague feeling of acceptance, a form of self-actualization, or a kind of heightened appreciation of friendship.

                Most of all, I am disappointed in A.J. Jacobs. I respect his writing very much, and he said the book was “funny and full of humanity”. It is funny, but it isn’t really full of humanity. It is full of ecclesiology, and the rejection of ecclesiology; and full of psychological abuse, and an unguided therapeutic journey to wholeness. One suspects that there are profound existential questions buried between the paragraphs about incarnation, divine purpose, the human condition, and ultimate hope, which is what “being human” is actually about. But these never surface. They are buried under the jibes and jokes, sarcasm and satire that make this book an enjoyable one-time read that will be soon forgotten.

                That’s OK, of course. It’s good to laugh. Yet there is a larger, deeper, more urgent conversation between Christian faith and pagan culture that is in serious jeopardy today. Culture really wants to write off faith as a psychological boondoggle or a quirky sociological phenomenon. Faith wants to write off culture as a complicated obstacle course on the way to salvation or one vast demonic deception. Autobiography has historically been one of the most effective strategies to do this. But will these deeper biographical sketches find there way into popular bookstores?

Tom Bandy

www.ThrivingChurch.com

“I know once again, firsthand, the joy of learning. And I know that I’ve got my life back and that in just a few moments, I’m going to have a lovely dinner with my wife.”

Salvation is at hand! After all, what is more important than knowledge, health, family, and a good investment plan? Or maybe not?

                It is that “maybe not” that drove me to read Metavista: Bible, Church and Mission in an Age of Imagination (Paternoster) by Colin Greene and Martin Robinson. This is one of the best books on postmodernity yet available. However, be warned! It is steeped in very profound, but highly nuanced language. It wrestles with the history of ideas, not a catalogue of facts. My doctoral degree is in philosophical theology, and I found a refreshing challenge. If you are a pastor, this is a book best read in a classroom or discussion group.

                The title reveals the intent. This is not about describing a new meta-narrative of religious perspective, nor about defining a new metaphysic of reasonable orthodoxy. It is about discerning a new “vista” that is partially hidden and partially revealed. It is a “meta-vista” … a vista that is “on the way” … as if people emerged from the cultural forest into a sudden clearing and saw things differently for the first time, and were not sure what to make of it.

                The authors call this experience “radical cultural engagement”. It is the intersection of societal imagination, cultural icons, and the encounter with the Bible as scripture. It is what lies beyond the subjectivity, selfishness, and opportunism of modernity; but also beyond the preservation of heritage, intellectual curiosity, social action, and ideological cant that represents 99% of Christian thinking in postmodernity. What happens when we emerge from the cultural wilderness to discover that both conservative and liberal fundamentalists are wrong, and both modern rationalism and postmodern willfulness are wrong, and God is weirder than expected?

                The Bible becomes a means to grapple with the weirdness of God. Unfortunately, Greene and Robinson seem most interested in just one aspect of that wrestling match, namely the “political” implications of the storylines of scripture. Scripture interprets the “metavista” by pointing toward the righteous Kingdom of God, curbing our proclivity to violence, modeling a moral alternative to rampant capitalism, and establishing the church as proclaimer of the good news of [social?] reconciliation. I’m not convinced that is sufficient, but it is a darned good start.

                The authors began the book by sounding the alarm that the irrelevance of the church is accelerating (despite evangelical claims), and that this irrelevance is rooted in the church’s inability to discuss anything meaningfully with anybody. I think this is accurate and powerful. The book finishes positively by focusing on the “cosmic significance of incarnation” as the thread that connects past, present and future in an unfolding narrative. This is not about a relationship with a cool dude named Jesus, but about experiencing the intersection of the infinite and finite.

                In the end, there is a fourth circle intersecting with societal imagination, cultural icons, and encounter with scripture. That fourth circle is decisive. It is the peculiar kind of revelation through which the fullness of God is present, yet unexplainable, uncontrollable, and unexpected. It’s what makes a “vista” possible in the first place, and what renders every “vista” only a “metavista”.

That experience alone renders the church a counter-cultural minority. It is a paradox of escape from the world and encounter with the worlds. The one thing that surprises me most of all about this book is that the authors seem to assume this paradox has not happened before. I think it has … in the monastic movement of the 4^th – 6^th centuries that rejected Christendom from the very beginning.

Tom Bandy

www.ThrivingChurch.com

www.tgbandy.com

                Jim Walker from Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community wrote Dirty Word: The Vulgar, Offensive Language of the Kingdom of God (UMC Discipleship Resources). The essence of the book is in a chart on page 78. Our “deep needs” for assurance, belonging, meaning, and identity … are caused by the “four curses” of fear, rejection, luxury, and superficiality … and cured by the “Koinonia” of communion, community, compassion, and word … so that we find “salvation” through abiding (John 15), belonging (Luke 19), loving (Mathew 25), and truth (John 3:16). There. That’s the book. The other 256 pages are an extended footnote.

                But what a footnote! This book helps you understand why church planting is not a curriculum, why so many mission-driven pastors are getting fed up with the established church, why so many Christians are getting fed up with pastors who only gripe about the established church and do nothing, and why so many seekers age 18-35 really are interested in Jesus. Jim Walker explores the meaning of “koinonia” in fresh and faithful ways.

                The great irony in this book is that once past some of the surprising, gritty, and deliberately edgy terminology, Jim reverts to some remarkably abstract theological terminology. I suspect it might be lost on many veteran church members … who might in turn scoff that the realtime young seekers Jim’s church reaches will be turned away by theological language. That’s why the end of the book is equally surprising. Jim outlines the “Hot Metal Apprenticeship Program” as an afterthought (I think), but it was a good idea. Veteran churchy people who balk at basic Bible study will be shocked that these earnest seekers would do a 9-month experience of such theological intensity.

                Meanwhile, Tex Sample released EarthyMysticism (Abingdon Press). These are personal reflections to describe mystical experiences in real life. These incarnational experiences are definitively not intellectual rationalizations. Sometimes they are occasions of great joy and fulfillment, and sometimes of great pain and emptiness, and sometimes of profound ambiguity that anticipates a clarity that is not yet. But they are all experiences when the infinite and finite connect and Tex is left in radical humility before God. This is mysticism, not “misty living”. It is not about walking in a comfortable fog, but about touching the Holy.

                My favorite quote is in the preface as Tex recalls his surprising call into ministry: “I absolutely hated the idea of doing such a thing … I later learned, however, that the call to go into ministry is a lot like throwing up. You can put it off for awhile, but there comes a time when you have to do it.” The quote put me in mind of Jim’s “dirty word … the vulgar, offensive language of the Kingdom of God”. Only Tex wasn’t talking about language, but about God’s offensive, impolite, and inconvenient ways of working in the world.

                The great irony about this book is that once past some of the poetic, mystical references to “the hush in the presence of the unspeakable, the awe-struck before the ineffable”, Tex reverts to simple, compelling story telling. I suspect this, too, might be lost on many veteran church members … who might scoff that the young academics Tex has mentored will be turned away by stories of the miraculous. His postscript is profound. What is theology, after all, but a humble attempt to explain what happens when God “shows up” in the midst of life?

                Both books make a similar point.  Perhaps this December we can replace the “theology of skepticism” which epitomizes the real doctrine of most established churches of modernity, with the real presence of Christ.

Tom Bandy

www.easumbandy.com

www.netresults.org

I spent the last few days in Detroit leading seminars for UMC’s … a day with teams from large churches, and a day with pastors and staff from both conferences. It was refreshing to experience such earnest engagement with the principles of servant empowering leadership and transformation. Perhaps these hard economic times are again opening the door for innovation.

One issue proved to be a real sticking point: the ability of church leaders to fire leaders. This is true wherever I go, in whatever denominational or independent church I work. Churches are reluctant to follow even the best HR practices of other non-profits, and refuse to fire staff or dismiss volunteers. They think it is somehow unkind and worldly … forgetting that Peter and Paul did the same thing many times for the sake of love for the stranger and mission effectiveness. The real accommodation to culture is not that the church won’t fire leaders, but that the church believes its priority is to protect privileges.

Anyway, there are several principles to be followed if a church is to be able to fairly, reasonably, and effectively fire paid and unpaid workers.

1)       You can’t fire anybody if there is no culture of trust.  

2)       You can’t fire anybody if you have not previously identified anticipated measurable results. 

3)       You can’t fire those whom you have not trained and consistently evaluated. 

4)       You can’t fire individuals unless there is a universal expectation of accountability. 

5)       You can’t fire anybody without giving them a reasonable chance to change. 

6)       You can’t fire anybody without defining reasonable deadlines. 

7)       You can’t fire someone without concrete, visible awareness that you, too, can be fired.

Personally, I think these principles are so obvious that they hardly require explanation. Yet I discover again and again, even in large and otherwise effective churches, that these principles are ignored or forgotten regularly. If any of these are unclear, just ask. I would be glad to expand the explanation.

As I travel, I continue to do skype coaching with individual pastors. (If anyone is interested in my “coaching covenant” let me know). In these darker economic times, pressure mounts on reprioritizing program and budget. But I see also that pressure mounts for clergy to refocus their own energy. More clergy are saying to themselves (and God): “I have to think differently … behave differently … learn new things … and reinvent myself.”

Here is a partial chart for the “reinvention of onself” (3 out of the five changes). You can see the key strategic moves … what you start and, even more significantly, what you stop doing.

Reinventing Yourself

Most clergy were raised in churches, and trained in seminary, to lead churches that will inevitably die.

Reinvention #1:                   From Chaplain to the Members … to Enabler of the Family

                                                Answer the Key Question                  Stop “Theologizing”

                                                Prioritize the Stranger                          Stop Visiting Everybody

                                                Enliven Worship                                  Stop Worrying about “Good Worship”

Reinvention #2:                   From Enabler of the Family … to CEO of the Church

                                                Immerse in the Mission Field             Stop Administrative Meetings

                                                Multiple Small Groups                         Stop Doing It Yourself

                                                Build and Model Trust                        Stop Worrying About Losing People

Reinvention #3:                   From CEO of the Church … to Empowerer of Disciples

                                                Get a Spiritual Life                                Stop Micro-Managing

                                                Redeploy Staff                                      Stop Questing for Quality

                                                Decentralize                                          Stop Worrying about Gaps

It is the third reinvention that seems counter-intuitive to many pastors. What worked for them in growing churches to get out of the box, actually begins to work against them as they step beyond the box.

Tom Bandy

I have completed another week here in New Orleans working with a dozen urban and exurban churches for redevelopment and outreach. We’ve come a long way in 18 months … and have a long way to go. The most exciting thing for me is the reports from clergy and lay leaders about how their lives have been changed … new attitudes, fresh hope, more life. Where once there were dead eyes, now there are beating hearts.

Some churches have made excellent programmatic progress in hospitality toward new lifestyle segments, alternative worship options, small group multiplication, and some property development. Others are still facing serious crises of survival … but I think with more self-esteem and faithfulness, and with a greater sense of ultimate purpose and direction.

The following excerpt is from an article that arose from my prayerful reflection on this recent mission trip in the “Big Easy” … It will also be on my blog.

Tom Bandy

The Mentoring Ladder

                Mentoring is the cornerstone of leadership development. It’s historic roots lie in the strategy of apostolic succession, when apostles passed on credibility and authority to a next generation of disciples. There is no curriculum for this. It is a living translation of the experience of Christ engraved on the unique life context of another. What is it like to actually experience mentoring?

                Mentoring is different from coaching, although both are important. Coaching focuses on planning, problem solving, team, and programming. Mentoring focuses on the inner work of leaders: attitude, integrity, stress management, and perseverance through temptation, and the myriad ways leaders wrestle with the devil in their own cultural wilderness.

                Once churches accommodated to the public education strategy of North America, mentoring dropped out of importance. We have religious institutions with a lot of great programs … implemented by professionally certified clergy who strive mainly to live a “balanced life” while remaining faithful to an uncompromising God. Meanwhile seekers are looking for mentors who lead an “unbalanced life” surrendered entirely to the mysterious mercies of God. In brief, coaching produces great managers, and mentoring produces potential martyrs.

                Since we are inexperienced in this, it is helpful for pastors, staff, and lay leaders to understand the experience of being mentored. Think of it like the rungs of Jacob’s ladder, extending from earth into heaven. There you are, Jacob, lying on your back amid the stones of the desert and the complaints of your parishioners, wondering how you can ever ascend the heights of spiritual leadership.  Father Abraham is your mentor. There are five rungs to the ladder.

                Sharing: The first rung on the ladder is the ability to share your life struggles, confess your insidious temptations, and face your hidden addictions. In return, the mentor shares his or her experience of Jesus Christ. This is the incarnational moment, what current jargon calls “thin space”, when the disciple first feels the breath of God on their neck and their pulse accelerates with non-rational joy.

                Habits: The second rung on the ladder is the ability to customize spiritual habits for daily living. This is akin to wearing corrective shoes that improve incredibly bad posture. At first … indeed, for some time … they pinch and hurt as the body is hammered into shape. Eventually, the habits that were our first inclination are replaced by habits that become “second nature”. Habits include prayer, Bible reading, guided meditation, physical labor, social service, and spiritual conversation. The mentor models his or her own habits, and helps shape your personal discipline.

                Accountability: The third rung on the ladder is the willingness to be held accountable to a spiritual life. The disciple sheds layers of personal ego and defensiveness to accept criticism. Criticism comes primarily through the mentor … or the complete stranger … for God uses both to discipline a Christian lifestyle. Repentance and realignment leads to closer self-awareness and heightened compassion.

                Action: The fourth rung on the ladder of mentoring is the courage to act with precision and compassion. One’s life becomes an arrow fired directly to the bullseye of human need. The instinct for injustice becomes sharpened, and the disciple sees victimization unambiguously and reacts instantaneously. The mentor not only guides the disciple to see evil, but models for the disciple reckless, self-effacing, sacrifice.

                Acceptance: The fifth rung on the ladder of mentoring is acceptance in spite of the failures and frailties of spiritual living. It is the wholly undeserved embrace of love, and an entrance into a serenity hitherto unknown. The forgiveness of the mentor is only part of acceptance. The profound part is the willingness of the mentor to take upon himself or herself the hurt or sin of the one being mentored … literally taking on the regret or guilt of the disciple … and relieving the disciple of their suffering.

                What is it like to be mentored? It is a progression from the inkling of Christ to the fullness of Christ. The mentor begins as a spiritual guide, and ends as being the face of Jesus himself. Where in heaven’s name do these mentors come from? They emerge from exactly this progression of experience. Once disciples, now apostles; now apostles, they take one new disciples. It is an apostolic succession that originated with Jesus and the Twelve.

                In my constant journey as a church consultant, the one thing consistently missing in institutional church life is mentoring. It is also the pearl of great worth for which a spiritually bankrupt culture longs.

Tom Bandy

Recently I attended the American Academy of Religion Convention in Chicago. This is an annual routine of mine for over 25 years … and one way I try to keep current with international movements and theological trends.

For the first time the AAR (over 5000 international participants) separated its annual meeting from the SBL (Society for Biblical Learning with another 5000 members). The former now mainly focuses on the study of religion, and the latter focuses mainly on the study of the Bible … but clearly what has gone missing is the “practice of Christian discipleship”.

The book displays notably lacked publications in practical ministry, Christian living, and Christian mission. Senior editors from Abingdon, Zondervan, and Catholic presses are all left wondering where they should display their resources.

I saw few major themes in global Christian resources … more of a collage of many diverse interests. The ferment of publishing about the person and work of Jesus Christ (Christology) continues, although the protagonists are no long the Jesus Seminar vs. traditionalists, but rather (I think) the “western perspective” vs. the rest of the emerging Christian world.

Here are the books I picked up for future reading … and you may hear me comment on them in weeks to come:

Earthy Mysticism: Spirituality for Unspiritual People by Tex Sample (Abingdon)

The Crisis of Younger Clergy by Lovett Weems (Abingdon)

Dirty Word: The Vulgar, Offensive Language of the Kingdom of God by Jim Walker (Upper Room!!!)

Who Will Be Saved by Will Willimon (Abingdon)

Missional House Churches by J.D. Payne (Paternoster!!!)

I also gathered several more volumes of The Ancient Christian Commentary on Scriptures (Matthew and Romans) from Intervarsity Press.

Many will want to know that the Wesley Study Bible will be released in February 2009. This is an impressive edition that includes text notes from a large variety of practitioners and consultants (including me), connections to Wesley’s writings, and lots of good stuff. See Wesleystudybible@cokesbury.com.

Tom Bandy

Currently New Orleans

My seminar on Long Island is on the theme “Rediscovering Credibility”, based in part on my books Why Should I Believe You and Mission Mover. It’s pretty clear that many established churches want three “impossible things”:

• Growth without change;
• Depth without discipline;
• Direction without leadership.

The frustration of clergy is pretty clear. They struggle to counteract these impossible expectations because so many churches separate responsibility and authority. Clergy are given the responsibility to grow, go deep, and focus the future … but none of the authority. The authority is reserved for councils and committees who tell leaders what to do, and absolve themselves of responsibility to do it.

Now here is the next challenge. I suspect that many establishment clergy also want three “impossible things”:

• Change without growth;
• Discipline without depth;
• Leadership without direction.

Now it is the laity who are frustrated. They struggle to counteract these impossible expectations because clergy are unwilling to stake their careers on mission. Laity are encouraged to have the passion to grow, go deep, and focus the future … but none of the calling. Without recognition that laity are called … not just gifted … there can be no real mutual accountability with clergy.

Church transformation and personal transformation go together.

I led a seminar on “Spirited Leadership” at Green Lake Conference Center in Wisconsin … guiding leaders to implement the servant empowering organization model. The mixed group of independent, evangelical, and mainstream leaders generated great discussion … but it was interesting to see how regardless of institutional orientation they still shared many of the same problems.

Even churches that began as “polity driven”, and churches that began as “pastor driven”, still ended up several years down the road burdened with bureaucracy. Why? I think it is because North American culture is addicted to power and suspicious of trust.

The exercise of power is normal, but obsession with power is not. Reasonable skepticism about leadership is normal, but chronic distrust is not. I suspect that the extreme selfishness of the “me” generation has undermined the integrity of pastoral succession and institutional procedure, so that the only “fall back” position has been “bureaucracy”. Obsessive power leads to chronic distrust, which leads to bureaucracy as the compromise.

It became apparent to all of us in the seminar that team-based, bottom-up, high-impact organizations are only possible if rigorous expectations of spiritual growth allow power to be shared … “given away” in an atmosphere of reasonable trust. Accountability for mission attitude and high integrity must have a higher priority than accountability for skills and competencies. Unfortunately, in the “boomer” world, it is often just the opposite. Selective mediocrity requires more courage than quest for quality.

I received a great affirmation at the close of my consultation with a church in Nashville. The recommendations were pretty challenging, but at the end of the night one of the patriarchs and his wife told me “they had been skeptical about hiring an outside consultant, but now they were sold!” She was nearly in tears with enthusiasm, and he was asking for more resources.

My reflection is that this happy conversion of controllers did not happen by accident … or overnight. It wasn’t even my doing (at least, not directly). This church had a visioning team, and some pretty aggressive lay leaders who were determined to change the church. For 6 months we traded email and gave coaching … the widely read Kicking Habits and Moving Off the Map. Along the way, they let go a staff person who was clearly not on board … and supported the senior pastor whose give for mercy was hindering change.

Meanwhile, the team did tremendous research gathering data and perspective for the “Congregational Mission Assessment”. We relied on the great demographics and lifestyle segment research from www.missioninsite.com. Staff, council, and core leaders were well prepared and ready with questions. A spirit of openness pervaded the church before I even got there. Finally, the District Superintendent was totally aware, on board, and conveying urgency.

Now this was (and is) a pretty “stuck” church. And it still took a lot of listening, diplomacy, and planning to develop the package of recommendations. Some of the recommendations are pretty challenging … a few are rather expensive. Nevertheless, the outcome was especially positive. The lesson to learn is that a consultation can leverage big change (without splitting a church), but it requires the pre-work of some persistent volunteers.