Discontinuous Change and Congregational Growth
I’ve come back to this recent post by Chris Erdman and Alan Roxburgh a few times since it was posted. I love the metaphors, the allusions, and the significance of “discontinuous change,” soil, and “gardening” in the life of a congregation. I’ve heard Alan lecture on the subject. Very good stuff. Alan’s work in this area is very necessary stuff for both new congregations (church plants) but especially for the revitalization and growth of existing congregations. Speaking from some experience, working with “discontinuous change” within and without a congregation is a significant and lonely leadership challenge. The pull of “Egypt” is very strong!
Not quite the same usage and application, but Eugene Peterson reflecting on the metaphors of “soil,” “cultivation” etc writes: “Wendell Berry is more or less a specialist in considerations of place…commenting [as he does] on the glory of the very dirt under our feet, local dirt…He draws me into noticing how precious place is, how sacred the ground that has been given to us by the Creator to tend and nurture…He honors the delicate spiritual interactions that take place between human and humus. Place is not simply empty space in which we can work out our will. It has its own created nature, which must be treated with respect lest we violate what God designated as good and our ancestors experienced as holy. As Wendell Berry writes out his awareness of a few dozen acres of Kentucky hill country, my appreciation of the local weather and ground in my parish sharpens and deepens. These are the conditions in which in which I and my parishioners commit our sins and receive forgiveness. This is where some days praise springs up, and on others despair thickens. I immerse myself, again, in the smells and sounds of this place, and I am prevented, for a while at least, from grand abstractions and standoffish condescension’s…” (Subversive Spirituality, pp. 191-92.)
I suspect the differences are not so clearly demarcated, but it really struck me, when in Melbourne, the different but complimentary work and focus of people like Alan (most often, it seems to me, working with existing congregations) and then organisations like FORGE (see my post here) which give a priority to helping imagine and establish new and pioneering models of church, ones that grow out of contemporary “missions-to-the-West” soil, activities, and conversation between Gospel & culture. Both approaches are necessary Kingdom work. Both need to be valued and appreciated in both their uniqueness and in the ways in which they overlap.
If you’re in Melbourne on the 12-15th May 2005 Alan is presenting UnFreeze: 2 @ Grace Church of Christ, 21 Koomba Road, Wantirna (Melway Ref: 63, E6)
Chris Erdman writes: …Growth for missional congregations is less about producing fruit trees that stand in straight, straight lines, and more about disturbing whole systems so that they can reorganize. It means working with the conditions around us--soil, seed, climate, nutrients. And it means giving up our illusions of control and giving room for the system to respond in freedom. Finally, it means trusting the Spirit of God who wills to produce fruit but who will not be controlled by our petty delusions and agendas…
Alan Roxburgh writes: …In discontinuous change, people are stretched. They want to stop the change and return to the former period of stability. Growth is about living in this tension; it is about new practices for living as Christians that will initially seem awkward and disconnected from their normal ways of being Christians…
Further reading: Try Surfing the Edge of Chaos: The Laws of Nature and the New Laws of Business by Richard T. Pascale, Mark Millemann and Linda Gioja
And especially
Crossing the Bridge: Church Leadership in a Time of Change by Alan Roxburgh & Mike Regele. I understand Alan is currently reworking and revising this out of print title for re-publication – Alan feel free to correct me if I’ve got that wrong.
The Missonary Congregation, Leadership, and Liminality By Alan Roxburgh.
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