I've just re-read Brian McLaren's book, The Church on the Other Side, which in the 2000 edition is subtitled, Doing Ministry in the Postmodern Matrix and which is subtitled "exploring the radical future of the local congregation" in the latest edition.After almost four years of ministry at St Paul's, it's been really helpful to read McLaren's assessment of the problems and limitations of conventional church and his recommendations for 'new church'. In many ways, St Paul's scores well against the criteria which he identifies as important. To a greater extent than many churches, we are flexible, community-minded, un-dogmatic, mission-focussed, and welcoming. But there are still issues to address and it's helpful to seek a broader perspective on the assumptions and habits that might limit our future.
Among the sound analysis, the chapter on structures was stimulating. For example,
A structure that works tends to promote growth, which will eventually make the structure obsolete. In other words, yesterday's successes and progress guarantee today's organisational failures and problems. Success today guarantees trouble tomorrow. Churches, like snakes and lobsters, need to shed their organisational skins as they grow.It's gratifying to see the mission of St Paul's grow - not spectacularly, but steadily - yet it's vital to understand that we always need to be prayerfully preparing the next stage of organisational growth. One of McLaren's basic points is that there's no secret or blueprint that can be transposed from other situations, or implemented once and for all. Instead, constant change is necessary to stay healthy. I sense that as a church community, we're nearing the point where some significant organisational change will be necessary, in order to continue as a healthy and growing church.
I expect that in the coming year, we will find new priorities for change and development that will allow us to deepen the discipleship of our members and to attract new believers. Even as we do so, we will understand that it's the mission of God that counts, not the programs and structures that we develop to support it.
At one point in the book, McLaren compares church structures with the clothes that we carefully choose to buy for our young children. We don't insist on dressing children in clothes that they have outgrown, nor do we regret that old clothes have to be discarded.
