Loren B. Mead - Transforming Congregations for the Future (Once and Future Church Series)
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Transforming Congregations for the Future (Once and Future Church Series)
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In this third volume of the Once and future Church Series and sequel to his book The Once and future Church, Loren Mead picks up where he left off. If God is calling the church to reshape itself, where do we begin? On what basis should we build? The declining numbers of denominational membership and recent national surveys on church attendance suggest that the church is no longer a source of hope or compelling resource to help people deal with the turmoil of today's changing world. And yet, the good news of the church is such that it should be what people are clamoring for. What is it about our institutions and ourselves that may be causing us to be ineffective in the way we live out our calling as the church and as self-professed believers? Loren focuses on what he sees as the essential task and age-old call of the churchliving and breathing the good news promise of spiritual transformation for all to see. He explores how we as the church may need to change as institutions and as individuals within the institutions. Everyone who has read the Once and future Church will want to explore this next step as Loren challenges you to examine the transformations inherent in god's call to us to renew His church.
Page i
Transforming Congregations for the Future
Loren B. Mead
Page ii
The Publications Program of The Alban Institute is assisted by a grant from Trinity Church, New York City.
Copyright 1994 by The Alban Institute. All rights reserved. Reprinted 1995 and 1997.
This material may not be photocopied or reproduced in any way without written permission.
Library of Congress Catalog Card #93-74587
ISBN 1-56699-126-9
Page iii
In gratitude to four of my teachers
Miss Carrie Cain, Pinopolis Terry Holmes, Nashota and Sewanee Andy Penick, Chapel Hill Verna Dozier, Washington
Each pushed me further than I wanted to go.
Page v
Contents
Introduction
vii
Chapter 1. The Storm We Are In: It's Worse Than We Thought
1
Chapter 2. The Heart of the Matter: The Apostolic Task of the Church
24
Chapter 3. The Task of the Congregation: TransformationPreparing Disciples and Apostles
43
Chapter 4. The Role of the Judicatory
72
Chapter 5. Roadblocks and Directions for the Journey
86
Chapter 6. Transformation and Congregations
113
Appendix A. The Good-News/Bad-News Quadrilateral: A Design
121
Appendix B. The Statistics Behind the Graphs
127
Notes
129
Page vii
Introduction
Everyone I know who works in churches knows there is trouble. Churches do not "work" the way they used to. Roles of leadership have become more confusing and frustrating to those who hold them. What we remember as being crystal clear in church life a generation or two ago now seems muddy, uncertain.
What has gone wrong? many wonder. Who is to blame? The strong, confident, even triumphant institution that they remember from their youthor that others tell them about from just a few decades agois not what they or their children experience in church today. They now see an institution exuding self-doubt, with leaders who seem less able to lead than to mimic the least common denominator of public opinion. Their vision of prophetic justice sounds suspiciously like the latest liberal definition of political correctness.
Church people talk about membership losses and cast covetous eyes at the burgeoning membership rolls of other churches that have a different theological stance or seem better at reading the market. Without a clear sense of what they ought to do, they have grown unsure that what they are doing is the right thing. If you are not sure of what you should be up to, then why not do whatever is selling best?
The people I talk to are not terribly confident as they voice these concerns. They know that these questions are not in a league with those about peace and war and justice. Yet what's happening to the church is something that touches them very deeply. It's easier to get more exercised about and involved in local church issues than about Bosnia or Somalia. Their concern about their congregationsin today's languageis not politically correct, but it matters a lot.
Page viii
It matters a lot. A simple statement with deep roots. Religious congregations do matter. They matter personally to millions of people who find a source of meaning in a congregation. They matter to those who week by week make their way to their religious observances and contribute more money to churches than to any other set of institutions in the country. They matter to those who take the values learned in those congregations into their business relationships and continue to make possible an economic system that is dependent upon promises and the keeping of one's word. They matter to those who work hard to build caring relationshipsin traditional families and in new forms of community. They matter to those who build towns or counties or nations that do what is right for most peoplewithout being coercive to those without power. They matter to those who care about the development of the next generation of the youngthose in families and those who have no families.
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