What Every Denominational Leader Needs to Know

about the Politics of Church Growth

Thomas G. Bandy

                For about 8 years I was the national officer for Congregational Mission and Evangelism in the United Church of Canada, and I have spent a lot of prayerful time reflecting on my experience. I was invited to take the position as a survivor of the new church development struggles of the 1980’s. Many of my church development pastoral colleagues had burned out, dropped out, or otherwise distanced themselves from denominational involvement. The United Church of Canada was (and still is) the largest Protestant denomination in the country, but was (and still is) experiencing steady decline in membership. I was frankly surprised, and frankly dismayed, at the powerful feeling of God’s call that overcame all my reservations and led me to say “yes” to the office. Despite all the subsequent bruises, I am glad I did. I’ll explain why at the end of my column.

                 My years in the office were truly a roller coaster ride of adversity and popularity. I sometimes joke that at times I was the second most controversial Protestant leader in Canada, but that really isn’t saying much because most of the Canadian public (like the American public) really couldn’t care less about denominational politics anyway. I came to celebrate wide support among the grassroots and sidewalk congregational leaders, and a day never seemed to go by without someone trying to get me fired. Just when I was in tears after another interminable meeting, some visiting congregational leader would burst in with a story of breakthrough and joy. It seemed like every time somebody questioned my vocation, a staff colleague or congregational leader would risk their career just being kind to me.

                The day I left was surprisingly emotional for everyone … including me. I felt God calling me to burst the constraints of office holding to become truly cross-national and cross denominational in mission. My colleagues told me I had helped influence the course of the denomination, and uplifted the credibility and urgency of evangelism and congregational growth. Regardless of the many mistakes I made, I believe Jesus used me to benefit local churches from Newfoundland to British Columbia, and to encourage and equip congregational and denominational leaders for the new apostolic age.

                 I have taken the time to speak biographically, because I do not want the following words of advice to be taken as any form of “denomination bashing”. I emerged from denominational leadership bruised, but also appreciative of the many truly sincere and passionately faithful colleagues I had come to know. There is room in the 21^st century for confederations of churches willing to pool capital resources and leadership, and who can multiply leadership-training opportunities for laity and clergy, but the denominations of today will have to undergo painful transformations to get there. At least for the time being, there are those who are still willing to try.

                 This advice is aimed to correct the self-understanding of denominational leaders, and build at least a little sympathy from leaders of growing congregations. These are the lessons every denominational leader must learn.

 Lesson #1: People don’t like you.

 Generally speaking, people don’t like you. The public doesn’t like you. The clergy don’t like you. The laity don’t like you. Why? Because for at least four decades your predecessors took the local church for granted as some vast financial reservoir that would empower the denominational leaders to grind ideological axes and count the number of dogmas that could dance on the head of a pin. At first, denominational leaders were a nuisance. Then, they were positively in the way. Then, they were enemies. And now, they are expensive irrelevancies. Speaking personally, this was a very hard lesson. I like to be liked. My wife likes me. My children like me. It came as a shock to discover that most of those smiling faces in church gatherings weren’t really sincere, the newspaper reporters who sought our quotes didn’t really respect us, and behind the adulation of all the judicatory cheerleaders lay the hidden conviction that we were only in office because we had risen to our level of incompetence. Ouch!

 I learned that you have to gain respect the hard way. You earn it. Slowly and painstakingly, intentionally and daringly, you build credibility for yourself. Your denominational office is the biggest obstacle you will have to overcome. You build your own reputation for spiritual authenticity and integrity. The only time you can influence growing congregations, or kick-start declining congregations, is when they know you are willing to risk your office, your salary, and your career for them. Try to be patient, congregational leaders. Allow denominational staff an opportunity to prove themselves.

 Lesson #2: You are trapped in a centripetal force.

 “Centripetal” means, “proceeding or acting in a direction toward a center or axis”. It is the opposite of a centrifugal force that pushes things outward. Even the best-intentioned denominational staff are caught in a force that always sucks them away from the mission field and towards the home office. Budget meetings, accountability meeting, planning meetings, coordination meeting, morality-in-the-workplace meetings … you name it, the denomination has a meeting for it. And staff attendance is required. As financial reserves shrink and budgets are cut, staff leave the mission field to defend their program budgets. As membership shrinks and offices downsize, fewer staff do more administrative work. The result is that denominational staff that were recruited for their passion for mission, find themselves drawn away from the mission field they love. As hierarchies panic, the power that sucks them in grows. Ouch!

 Here you have the biggest reason why some of the best staff for congregational development are leaving judicatory offices. It’s the only way they can escape the centripetal force to be with Jesus in the mission field. They want to be mentoring congregations, leading regional training events, and coaching leaders in the field … and they are forever sitting in another interminable meeting doing long range planning that the denomination won’t be able to afford in three years anyway. Denominations need to resist the centripetal force. Stop the financial decline by spending money to get your staff out among the people. So what if you implement fewer programs! Deploy more people! You congregational leaders need to insist on coaching, and develop your own programs and resources!

 Lesson #3: As charitable organizations go, you have lousy credibility.

 The truth is that the public (in and beyond the church) no longer trusts their charitable dollars to denominations. The generic mission funds of all denominations are stagnating, or experiencing laughable growth compared to other charities. This is at a time of unprecedented public charitable spending. Denominations are relying on bequests from aging builders or guilty boomers just to shore up their administrative overhead … much less increase mission. This means that there is less and less capital available for local church growth or new church starts. The only reason unpopular denominational leaders were welcomed to local churches in past years was that they controlled access to large capital pools. Now they can’t even do that. Ouch!

 The first thing denominations cut is capital support for church development … and it is the last thing they should cut. It may be hard to reduce spending on social justice advocacy, curriculum development, communications, ecumenical agencies, “big-bang” mass judicatory meetings, in-house publishing houses and television studios, and lots of other agencies and projects that all have the endorsements of Very Important People. They will all cry, “Them, not us!” The fact is, however, that neglecting the local church will in the end send the entire denomination into bankruptcy. (That’s not far away for some denominations). Pool your money for local church development. Start new churches. Revitalize what you can. Don’t be afraid to close even the most historic church if it is just sitting there remembering the past. You congregations need to stop diverting funds away from the mission of Jesus to pay for pipe organs and property maintenance, and get on with mission. Stop expecting some denominational hireling, agency, or program to do the mission for you. You do it. Your income will go up.

 Lesson #4: God has not chosen you for the biggest visions.

 There was a time, as little as 75 years ago, when God gave the biggest visions to the heads of the hierarchy. No more. God has made an adjustment for the emerging fast-paced, tuned-in, networked, and bottom-up world. I am not disparaging the skills of denominational leaders, nor am I judging the integrity of Bishops, Moderators, Presidents, and other denominational top dogs. I am merely articulating what everybody knows. God isn’t choosing you anymore. The really big visions are now being entrusted to little people. They are being revealed to local congregations. They are being given to the clergy mavericks, and to the lay leaders, and to the marginal members. Denominational leaders aren’t focusing the vision or setting the pace anymore. Ouch!

 If God has made the adjustment, its about time denominations did. The confederations of future church partners will spend time listening to the people rather than telling them how to think and behave. They will empower diverse visions emerging from the local and regional church, rather than imposing a unified vision from above. The time has come to ratchet down the egos of judicatory leaders, reduce the need to control by judicatories in general, and build the adult faith formation processes of the local church. They will tell the hierarchy where God is leading the church, not vice versa. Yet here is the tough part for congregations: God will not replace one big hierarchy with a whole bunch of little ones! Regional controllers hoping to create their own feudal righteous remnant, and egocentric local clergy, and controlling church boards are on their way out, too.

 Lesson #5: God will judge you most severely for the time you waste!

 This is the hardest lesson of all. At least, it was certainly the hardest for me! The most valuable commodity in the 21^st century is time, and time is definitely not on your side! The public won’t wait for another ad hoc committee or the decisions of your general conference. Lay volunteers won’t waste any more time in long, drawn out consensus management, or unproductive meetings. In this new world of entrepreneurship and instant communications, they consider even brief ad hoc committees and productive meetings a waste of time! If it’s a meeting, it’s a waste of time. It is as simple as that. I used to rage over time wasted while in denominational office … and I know that many of the best denominational staff rage at it now. The best ideas and the most urgent needs commonly go on hold, with staff impotently twiddling their thumbs, while a series of ad hoc, politically chosen committees review it, refer it, do surveys about it, test it, edit it, argue over it, negotiate with political adversaries to get permission to do it, fight to schedule it in the three year budgeting process, revisit it again after a year, change it beyond recognition, defer it, or return it to staff to re-write the proposal.

 Local congregations, of course, commonly commit the same sin, as well. The world is spinning faster, and the church is working slower, all because church leaders cannot get beyond their compulsion for uniformity. Every congregational franchise has to be the same: worship the same way, learn the same things, do the same stuff, walk the same path, and salute the same flag. Denomination spend enormous time micro-managing all the ducks to line up in a row, at a time when all God’s creatures are enthusiastically rushing off to follow Christ to all points on the compass. Hello! Diversity is the nature of the 21^st century. It’s also the way God created the universe to begin with.

                 Despite all the bruises I received as a denominational leader, I’m glad I did it. I learned a great deal about why congregations and denominations decline or thrive. I learned to tell the difference between modern and postmodern leadership. I learned just how diverse the regions of North America really are, and just how contextual ministry is becoming. In the midst of that came new skills, new attitudes, and new ideas for networking multiple cultures, bridging old polarities, and connecting the “micro” and “macro” worlds of the 21^st century. But the most important reason I’m glad I was a denominational leader is that I learned the difference between true trust and mere accountability.

                 This is my positive advice to the many well-intentioned, eager-to-be-in-mission, denominational leaders ou there:

Trust yourself.

Trust your intuition, not your training. Trust your calling, not your office. Trust your own integrity, not your department supervisor. Stop trying to measure yourself against your predecessor, your seminary professor, or Harry Emerson Fosdick. Stop trying to fulfill your job description. Just try to fulfill your mission. Take a risk, accept the flack for your mistakes, and learn, learn, learn.

Trust your partners.

Trust your staff colleagues, and stop trying to compete. Trust your local church leaders, and stop trying to supervise. Trust that your colleagues from a different ethnic niche have more to teach you than the personnel department of your denomination have ever imagined. Trust that the business, non-profit, health care, public education, and inter-faith sectors can all do more to help you in mission than the judicatory “thought-police” have ever dreamed.

Trust the Incarnate Jesus.

Trust God with your career, your pension plan, your popularity, and even your self-esteem. Stake everything on Jesus. Trust God to catch you when you leap into the post-Christendom world. Don’t try to fully understand it. Don’t expect to know in advance what lies on the other side. Don’t be dismayed if your budget plan is inevitably incomplete, or your annual work review is inevitably ambiguous. Walk with Jesus one day at a time.

 Denominational leaders must remember that at the end of time God is not going to ask Did you preserve the unique ethos of your denomination? God is going to ask Did you expand my realm?