Notes for a lecture on Church Revitalization, based on Tom Bandy's Kicking Habits: Welcome Relief for Addicted Churches. Visit www.drpablojimenez.net

1. The Declining
Church
An Educational Nugget on Pastoral
Leadership
based on the writings of Thomas G.
Bandy
The Rev. Dr. Pablo A. Jiménez
www.drpablojimenez.net
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2. Introduction
• The Church at the dawn of the Twenty-First
Century is seeing a new face of "Church
Growth".
• In particular, we see the deliberate use of
marketing techniques in the development
of plans and strategies for Church growth,
revitalization, and the establishment of
new congregations.
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3. Topics
• In this occasion, we shall refer to the
contributions made by Thomas G. Bandy,
an expert on Church growth and
revitalization.
• In particular, we will refer to the ideas
that Bandy presents in Kicking Habits:
Welcome Relief for Addicted Churches
(Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1997)
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4. About Tom Bandy
• Thomas G. Bandy defines himself as
a «coach» for Christian
congregations.
• Bandy states that congregations
need to have clear objectives for
renewal and growth.
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6. Aims of Bandy’s Book
• The whole purpose of this book is to
avoid false starts.
• First, the people of God that need to
capture (or be captured by!) the Vision.
• Second, people need to understand
Systemic Change.
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7. Suite
• Third, people need to identify the Key
Corners their congregation must turn in
order to thrive in the XXI century.
• Fourth, people need to Plan for Stress.
Transition will be stressful, but Thriving
Churches have learned that you can plan
for it, address it in stages, and not be
overwhelmed by it.
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8. The Declining Church
Definition: The Declining
Church is an addict. Churches
are addicted to habitual,
self-destructive behavior
patterns which they do not
even recognize!
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9. Addiction
• The most difficult thing an addict
must do is admit it.
• Denial is a chronic condition of the
local Church, though that denial is
often projected with anger onto the
denominational or judicatory
leaders.
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10. It is Difficult
• The difficulty with perceiving a
vision, is that too often the
congregation is unable to discern
between an authentic call of Jesus
Christ, and its abiding addictions to
past ideals, forms, and procedures.
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11. You May Miss It
• Congregations can go on retreats,
establish visioning committees,
restructure the Board, and direct
truly sincere people to investigate
the authenticity of their calling, and
still miss the truth.
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12. Five Stages
• Declining Churches want the
congregation to develop a sense of
"family” where everyone feels part of
the group.
• These congregations understand that
the faith development process goes
through five stages, detailed in the
following slides.
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13. 1. Member
• These congregations emphasize
the importance of becoming a
member of the parish.
• However, they rarely offer classes
for new believers or for people
who move from other
denominations.
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14. Suite
• Usually, they have minimum
requirements for maintaining
membership, such as attending
Church once every six months (or
less in some cases).
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15. Recruitment
• The Church becomes preoccupied with
recruitment. They “fast-forward” newcomers
toward membership and office holding.
• They form “evangelism committees” whose
chief task is to invite people to come to
Church and encourage their institutional
support.
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16. Suite
• These recruits usually bear a remarkable
resemblance to the cultural, racial,
linguistic, educational, and economic
identities of the people already inside
the institution, and are welcomed into
the Church specifically for the skills they
bring that might support the institution.
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17. 2. Friend
• In declining congregations befriending
people, particularly established
leadership, is more important than
attendance to Church activities.
• Established leaders inform new members
of the traditions of the congregation, so
that "new" people know how to act
properly.
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18. Suite
• Tradition has a very heavy weight
in declining congregations.
• In some sense, they understand that
their main mission is to maintain
the traditions received from their
elders, even if they are not longer
effective.
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19. 3. Partners
•Those who see themselves as the
established leadership of the Church
are always looking for candidates for
positions in the governing bodies of
the congregation.
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20. Suite
• These traditional leaders nominate
those they see as their "partners",
sharing their values, social, or ethnic
background.
• For this reason, the governing bodies
tend to be homogeneous, even is the
congregation is more diverse.
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21. 4. Director
• The prize for spiritual maturity is to be
part of the governing body of the
congregation.
• The members of these governing bodies
understand that their main task is to
monitor both the overall functioning of
the Church as the specific work of the
minister.
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22. Suite
• Of course, if you see yourself as a
director, whose job description includes
supervising the Pastor, you place
yourself above the congregation.
• This hinders the pastoral relationship,
given that you see the minister as an
employee, not as your spiritual leader.
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23. Supervision
• It seeks to supervise those who do
ministry and to manage that
ministry, so that it never
inadvertently contradicts the ethos,
heritage, or identity of the group.
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24. 5. Guardian
•The highest level of lay leadership in
the declining type of Church is
achieved when an individual is seen
as one of the bulwarks or pillars of
the congregation.
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25. Suite 1
• Sometimes the guardians occupy the
highest leadership positions for several
consecutive years. Others yield
leadership from time to time.
• However, they have great influence,
even if they are not “officially” in a
position of leadership.
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26. Suite 2
• Anyway, the guardians understand that
their mission is to "maintain" the
tradition of the Church. This explains
their rejection of any new ideas.
• For this reason, they see anyone who
opposes their leadership as enemies of
the Church.
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27. Adapt to Tradition
• It educates people with all the
appropriate information they need to
understand the system to adapt
themselves to life within the system.
• It seeks to preserve the heritage and
concentrates on passing the heritage onto
children and youth.
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29. What About the Pastor?
• In the declining congregation the pastor is
seen as an employee of the congregation
whose primary responsibility is to carry out
the mission of the Church.
• It is the pastor who gets search "souls" (new
members) and relate to the community at
large.
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30. Scrutiny
• Part of the scrutiny of pastoral
leadership is the belief that the
minister needs to visit more people,
more often.
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31. The Division of Labor
• The old division of labor in which the
clergy do ministry and the laity do
management, is transformed by
dysfunctional leadership into a system in
which the clergy do ministry and the board
members tell them what to do and whom to
see. The finance committee then becomes
the key force in the Church.
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32. Conclusion
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33. Belonging
• The declining Church system is all about
“belonging.”
• It assumes that belonging to one institution
will provide people with meaning in life. It
seeks to recruit and initiate people into a
group membership parallel to a “family”
identity.
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34. Suite
• The Declining Church draws people
towards the unity of a central control for
congregational life, so that the intensity of
one’s “belonging” matches the degree to
which one holds power.
• It seeks to raise money to pay for others to
do ministry.
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35. Keeping vs. Welcoming
• This is a system in which keeping
people is more important than
welcoming people; and in which
preserving the system is more
important than addressing public
needs.
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36. In Summary
• What is mission in the Declining
Church?
• Mission results from whatever
surplus energy and resources
remain after maintaining the
organization.
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37. The End
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