Jim Moss is the pastor of Clarksville Presbyterian Church in Clarksville, VA. He and I have interacted from time to time via Twitter, and I appreciate his willingness to discuss big issues. Recently, he reflected on a conversation he had with several others via Twitter about the future of the church. More specifically, he was surprised to find less openness from progressive clergy to the possibility of pursuing alternative styles of worship as one of many avenues toward the church of tomorrow. Moss writes:
Where I thought I would find abundant resonance to the idea of boldly blazing a new trail of creative faith expression, I instead received a litany of reasons why change efforts are risky/impractical/unnecessary/irresponsible/arrogant. On the whole, my desire for a new vision was not affirmed, and even the concept of moving forward was brought into question.
. . . Instead of the forest of idealism, it was all about the trees of reality, about “what we are doing right now.” And right now, as much as it might be needed, it is quite difficult to be an agent of change in an institution that is so steeped in tradition.
So What?
The church in all its many forms needs leaders like Moss who are willing to struggle with important long term questions. None of us knows what changes will be strategically sound for the church if the time horizon for consideration extends decades into the future. On the other hand, in many contexts it is clear that the existing model will not prove viable for that length of time. For pastors and other leaders who are in such ministry contexts, I believe it is essential that they strive to focus both on the “what now” of ministry for the coming year and the “what next” of ministry changes for the next several years. The latter can take many forms and has, in mainline circles in recent years, been achieved primarily through strategic planning.
I continue to give considerable attention to the question about the future of the American church for what remains of this decade. My most recently updated list of “The Top Ten Changes for the American Church” includes greater variety in worship experience. Also, my previous ministry experience suggests that this is essential – especially in larger parishes. I had the primary pastoral responsibility for designing and leading these types of experiences in two congregations and was a part of a third that effectively leveraged such an offering to welcome people who would otherwise not have been an active part of the faith community.
The experiences I know most about are happening or have happened in traditional mainline congregations. What has worked well for most, though certainly not all, has been to supplement existing offerings rather than to replace them altogether.
- How many services of worship does your congregation offer today? If you offer more than one, do you also offer more than one style?
- What do you see as the long term benefits to supplementing worship offerings by providing additional styles?
- Realizing that worship is often the slowest changing ministry in a local congregation, how can this type of openness to supplementing longstanding ministries be modeled elsewhere before being piloted with an alternative worship service?