TURNING THE SUSTAINABILITY QUESTION ON ITS HEAD

In October, I had the pleasure of gathering (quite safely) with local church leaders in in Michigan as we explored critical questions about their church's future.  One of the questions was about their sustainability in the twenty-first century, especially as the major share of donors and volunteers fade from the scene in the next 10 years.  It was a great conversation - I have so missed working with local churches onsite in 2020!

But this conversation brought back memories of a time, a few years back, when I started to write a book on church sustainability.  I gathered up a whole stack of books representing the current scholarship in sustainability studies and threw them in my bag for a long trip to Asia.  (It was a heavy bag.)  For a solid week, I read on sustainability at a precious little cafe in Taipei across the street from our Airbnb.  The owners' cat decided he liked me and would sit by me as I read.  I told the cafe owners that the soup they served was very close to Texas chili.  Since I ate it for lunch daily, they experimented on me as they tweaked their chili to make just a bit it more Texas and a bit less Taiwan.  A memorable week.

But I ultimately decided not to write the book on sustainability.  Once I dove into things, I realized that churches had the question backwards.  We wanted to know how we could get more of the public to come and sustain our worship service business and our ministry budget.  We wanted fresh volunteers to run our committees and programs.  My reading that week asked of me a much bigger question: how is the church contributing to the sustainability of the neighborhood and the world?  The latter question is so much more critical that I just could not bear to write a book on church survival tactics.

So back to my Michigan meeting.  The church has nine acres of beautiful property with amazing trees and expansive lawn.  They could monetize the property much more effectively if they wished, and greatly reduce the financial pressure on the emerging millennial members who will take the baton of leadership in coming years.  Retreat Center, Wedding Venue, Co-working Space - all possible!  Or they could ask a bigger question: how the core values of this church best be applied to sustain life around it?  Answering this question could lead to the programmatic moves I just listed OR it might move them to consider selling their property and allocating their resources quite differently.  We started by asking how we could make the church more self-sustaining.  But the question shifted over the course of the weekend to this: What kind of neighborhood are we seeking to cultivate and how can we use our resources to help make life more sustainable all around.

Their core work is not to rebuild their church membership - that is important work, but not the core work.  Their core work is cultivating a wider neighborhood that is rooted in gospel values - and weaving their lives with the lives of those in this larger neighborhood. The work of sustainability is rooted in and driven by RELATIONSHIPS.  Jesus said, Seek first the Reign of God, and all these other things will be added along the way.  Any church that understands that it exists to sustain community, neighborhood and justice will seldom be a church running out of people or resources.  Seek first to bless others.  Seek first holy relationships.  Seek first to break down the walls that segregate and marginalize.  Seek first to see that our neighbors have jobs and food and healthcare - and if we are seeking that, all the other things tend to work out.  And even if money still comes up tight, at least with a compelling ministry story of blessing the world, we have a better shot at raising some money.

How is your church making life more sustainable all around you?