How do we go about creating environments and cultures within our churches that foster spiritual formation and enhance authentic outreach and discipleship? What have you learned through your experience at Willow Creek Church and with the Willow Creek Association of churches?
There is a three-part framework that we put a lot of thought into that’s relevant to that very thing: the health of the leaders’ souls, the culture of the ministry and the systems for growth.
First, we have to look at leadership health. When leaders are dying inside, they simply cannot give out of a vacuum. Now it doesn’t mean they have to take six months off. There are ways to breathe life into your soul right where you are, no matter how hard life seems to be. I know firsthand how easy it is to get there.
Next is the culture of the ministry. There are two parts to culture. There is the culture of the leadership team itself, and then there’s the culture of the church. Are we OK with authenticity? Are we OK with brokenness? Or, for instance, does how your marriage look matter more than how you actually are?
For churches that have a culture of pretense or a culture of independence and self-reliance, it’s very difficult to expect that formation and transformation will flow naturally from that place. People do grow when authenticity is at the forefront. People do grow when God’s grace is brought to bear on their actual lives. There’s all kinds of hope around that, but that’s a big curve for many churches—and leadership teams—to get to.
Part three is all about the systems and structures. You may have a vision for transformation, but people show up every week. What are you asking them to do? Where is their next step? How are you teaching them to create the right vision? What is your plan? Now we all know the plan isn’t everything, but here’s the argument for culture. You could have a well-worked plan, but if you have that great structure in place and that culture of pretense and performance is still there, it won’t work. The perfect system for growth will not carry more weight than what people experience in the culture of the church. So it matters; all three parts matter.
Can you break that down into a practical application? What should it look like for an average church? What steps should they take to make this kind of culture a reality?
Not every system and structure should look the same. That comes out of the DNA of that church; it comes out of the culture in which they are ministering and what the needs are in the community. I think there are a couple hundred ways you could structure a church so that people have clarity about their next step, that over time they’re learning about this vision of the kingdom and how to receive their lives from God. There are a thousand ways to do that, but settle on one. Learn something. Then just keep trying.
I’ve seen a lot of people who try to perfect it on a whiteboard first, and I think a lot of times it gets lost. The flipside of that is I’ve seen a lot of what we jokingly refer to as “vision whiplash,” where every month there’s a new thing that you want your congregation to adopt. Even if it’s a bad tree, let it get some roots before you decide it’s bad.
Somewhere between the two is good wisdom about piloting. I think the church can learn a lot from the wisdom of people like Gary Hamel and others who are experts on innovation, piloting and trying things out and maybe just not taking themselves quite so seriously. Do something for six months and see what you learn.
