Emerging Spirit @ The United Church of Canada Emerging Spirit @ The United Church of Canada

The Emerging Spirit project will officially end on December 31, 2010.

As part of the closing of the project we gathered those who had presented workshops, under the banner of the project, from all across the country. Not all could attend but 35 gathered at Church House November 23-24, 2010. This reflection formed part of the closing worship.

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During the past few years we have been proclaiming that the prime story of our time is not that the church is dysfunctional or in decline but that God is at work and inviting us to write a new chapter in the story of God’s people.

We have used, until it wilts from exhaustion, the quote from Loren Mead:

We are at the front edges of the greatest transformation of the church that has occurred for 1,600 years. It is by far the greatest change that the church has ever experienced in America; it may eventually make the transformation of the Reformation look like a ripple in a pond.

If it is true that we are being called forward, it will not be the first time that we, as the people of God, are called to be on the move. Our earliest stories are of a people on the move.

In a couple of weeks I am to begin a series of presentations named "Stepping Further Out" (Ottawa - Oct 27; Calgary - Oct 30; Vancouver - Nov 6). As a way of summarizing the past I am flirting with these paragraphs. I wonder though whether it is too harsh, not tough enough or just true. I'd appreciate any comments. Thanks.

Three years ago, the situations of The United Church of Canada and General Motors had a lot in common.

Although we made gestures, in the form of motions and policy formation, and talked a lot about innovation we did not really appreciate the depth and speed of a rapidly changing context. We operated with varying degrees of a sense of entitlement, our dealers/paid accountable leaders had grown accustomed to a certain degree of “loyalty” from their customers/parishioners and were fundamentally confused by this new reality. Our engagement with the public realm had become sloganistic and we were locked into one “product line”/definition of what it means to be a “justice church.” The organizational structure born in the age of industrialism and refined in the time of institutionalization and incorporation not only proved in adequate to the challenge but, in many cases, inhibited innovation and creative response at the local level, despite being populated by good people with good intentions who worked hard at what they perceived to be the task. Research and development of alternate ways had some support and some exciting prototypes of innovation were pumped up at the yearly trade shows or conference meetings but generally business continued as usual. Some voices tried to point to a context/market that was changing in fundamental ways but there was little sense of urgency within the organization. The result was that people, many people, were hurt and, in the case of the United Church, God’s intentions neutered.

The good old days of The United Church of Canada (and General Motors) predated the arrival of The Beatles and the mythology surrounding “those days” was often as representative of the real church as The Cleavers were of a real family. Certainly the numbers, the prime criteria of ministerial success and proof of God’s celebrity endorsement, were highest a half century ago but the church then was far from ideal.

Originally published at KeithHoward.ca.

Part of the trouble with Emerging Spirit was not in its mandate or vision but in failing to appreciate just how difficult it is for local leadership to make significant shifts in a congregational culture. We probably should have known better - and maybe even did - but the timeframe was compact and necessitated certain choices.

By and large leaders were sympathetic to the project's analysis, message and call to radical hospitality. The challenge, in reality, lay in trying to balance the cost in time and energy it would take to engage that question with all the other voices demanding attention. No one says that improving a ministry of hospitality is a bad thing but where does it fit in the lineup of things we should do, like looking at the governance system, renovating the worship service, training leaders, meeting the budget, visiting the sick and doing all the things necessary to keep an old way of being church on its feet while being open to something new. For many there just wasn't time or energy even though we heard 'Amens' from their lips and spirits. (Part of me is still not convinced that making hospitality a priority really takes as much time as it does a commitment but more of that in another blog. For now, I concede the point that it takes time which leaders feel they do not have.)