Church Paradigm

I'm so discouraged with the state of the church in the US.  I think Landon feels the same way as he's almost given up finding a church in Orlando.  Orlando!  We haven't given up yet, but we're so discouraged.

We have never felt like our current church is our family.  We've been attending there for two years now.  Never once has anyone invited us over for dinner or even coffee.  Never once has anyone even asked us to go out to eat with them after church.  There are no other homeschooling families in our church.  I am so lonely.

I am making my way through this blog post written by futuristguy who is a frequent commenter on another blog I like to read, The Wartburg Watch.  Some parts have really hit home with me, and I wonder where to find a church like that.

In the section "Trends in Managing Membership", he wrote: 

"Seeker-sensitive" programs and using key church services as a platform for evangelism are based on a consumerist paradigm; discipleship - TRUE discipleship - is based on a participatory/producer paradigm. The emerging paradigm that will be in ascendancy soon...  is based on a producer mentality.  Churches that reinforce spiritual consumerism will be functioning on a paradigm in decline that will be in full decay within 25 to 50 years. The time is now to transition toward an integrative, holistic, producer-use-your-giftings paradigm. If we can connect God’s people into meaningful ministry at levels appropriate to their gifts and spiritual maturity, I suspect many aspects of being/doing church will take care of themselves, as long as there is intentional discipleship and training (emphasis mine).

Though our current church is not based on a consumerist paradigm, there is still no attempt to connect people "into meaningful ministry at levels appropriate to their gifts".  Instead there's a lot of micromanaging of ministry by the paid staff.

Under "Trends in Church Communications" he writes:

In [Traditional or Pragmatic paradigms], the leader has automatic authority to decide and lead because of their official positions/roles. In the emerging Holistic paradigm, leaders earn authorization to advise and influence based on a relationship of trust. I suspect many churches, denominations, and ministries experience significant breakdowns in their communication systems. Do we follow through on what we say? Do we promise things too far beyond what we know we can fulfill? Does anyone take notes at meetings so we don’t waste time later trying to reconstruct what the decisions and details were? Whatever the specifics, leaders (and therefore their Kingdom enterprises) often are not proving trustworthy, and that is a warning signal to those who crave the security of trustworthy leaders. (In an America where many children come from homes of divorce, and where typical senior pastor turnover is around three years if I remember correctly, consistency and continuity are essential for maintaining leadership roles in the lives of generations X, Y, and Z. In an unstable world, at least we can offer godly security of doing things decently and in order, and keeping our word!)

 Doing things "decently and in order"?  "Keeping our word"?  Where are those churches?  I haven't been involved in a church like that in a long time, maybe not ever!  Well, we haven't given up yet.  We're still looking for a church where " the locus of leadership is shifting from professionals to participants, and the focus is shifting from authority to authorization."  As futurist guy writes:

 Power has traditionally been in the hands of the paid church leaders, and their decisions needed to be implemented loyally in deference to their positions of authority. Power is now in the hands of participants, who authorize influence to institutional leaders based on maintaining a relationship of trust. This means participants may well not continue their involvement if trust is not established after a reasonable period of relating, or if it is broken and  not mended. Thus, I would urge leaders to review all “systems issues” and “church service styles” in light of TRUST. If mutual trust is not the core of bridging generations and paradigms, then the legacy of the Traditionals and Pragmatics will not be sustained, even with well-intentioned “tweaks” of programs and structures in order to seem more Holistic-friendly.

Yes!