This week I finished final edits of a second edition of my best-selling 2006 book, I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church. My publisher is enthusiastic about this project and seems to be fast-tracking the new edition into print by year-end. What a journey of discovery! To re-inhabit a manuscript that reflects a world 17 years departed, when mainline churches still had a bit of self-confidence that with reasonable intentionality and fresh strategies, they could adjust to the new century. As I wrote the first edition of the book, I was four years removed from having planted and pastored a large suburban congregation, where we made some excellent ministry decisions, and really designed things for the neighborhood, rather than the membership. And it had worked! In my church consulting 2002-2006, I typically recommended adding a new worship gathering with a more informal and contemporary vibe to complement the traditional gathering. In most cases, this change helped to grow the congregations, especially with younger families. The profound exodus of Americans from organized religion was just ramping up in those days. The old denominations had seen an exodus, but innovative churches were still growing, as they picked up many who were looking for something fresher and more culturally relevant to them.
My work, of course, has morphed across the succeeding 17 years, as the culture has changed in revolutionary ways. As have my most common recommendations to churches! The incremental declines we were seeing back then have turned into free-fall. The churches that were still finding 300 worshipers on a Sunday (albeit aging worshipers), now gather 75 in the sanctuary, post-pandemic. The ones with 90 then may have 20. And many of the ones with 60 back then are gone with the wind. The denominational offices are now so downsized as to be almost useless in many ways. The story is basically identical North, South, East and West.
Seriously, welcome to Canada! 100 years ago, Canada, now famously secular, was more churched than the USA, upwards of 90 percent.
I Refuse was based upon six choices. After long consideration, I did not change or modify any of the choices. They seemed solid. But it is not 2006 anymore. We live into the choices differently now. And it is clear that refusing to lead a dying church now requires enlarging one’s thinking about church far beyond our current institutional expressions of church. So, there were plenty of edits and changes.
At the end of last week, as I finished my edits, I had the good fun to interview Dr. Michael Beck, the Director of FXUM (Fresh Expressions United Methodist) for the Church is Changing podcast. Together we pondered a metaphor of the church as a ship in a fog, when suddenly Land appears right in front of our noses. This is a foggy moment for many church leaders, and a terribly discouraging moment. But in the re-write of I Refuse, alongside my work in my local church in Southern California, alongside my work with brilliant ministry pioneers in North America and the United Kingdom, I am discerning the rock of LAND, appearing quite abruptly through the fog, right in my face. Michael is experiencing the same thing. The current fog is not forever – we are just transitioning as a culture and in our way of thinking about church. It isn’t that the changes will slow down. It isn’t that the cultural adaptations will be less urgent in the years ahead. It is just that we will be used to a world where ministry always begins in conversation with community, and then proceeds as the Spirit reveals what church can look like in each new context. Once, we let go of thinking of church as a long-standing institution and shift to thinking of it as an iterative Spirit-led process, this work becomes fun again – and very fruitful!
I will let everyone know when the new edition of I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church goes on sale! If you would like to subscribe to the Church is Changing podcast in the meantime, go to - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/church-is-changing/id1488784396. Beth Estock and I have amazing conversations there.
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