Rehumanization

Something all institutions need to consider is that in the contemporary context, trust in standing institutions is fading. The more institutional an agency or organization appears, the greater the assumption that there is nothing authentic about it. For the church, this predicament is especially challenging, particularly for Mainline denominations like the PC(USA). We led the charge in becoming more corporate and more institutional in the last century, adopting the mindset that corporatization equalled professional excellence, pristine professionalism, and superb efficiency for the organization. What has happened, though, is a rising hunger for direct connection between people, relationalism over professionalism, and authenticity over perfection. To do that, we need to consider several alterations in our communal mindset.

NON-MECHANISTIC

With the human in the foreground, we need to reassess and analyze our current structures—do they see the people involved as people, or as cogs in a machine? are statistics more important than stories? are expectations tempered with the understanding that human beings are best when they can balance all aspects of their lives? are people expendable or do we work to keep them present, even if it means reordering the organization to make it so? 

The point is that organizations seeking to progress in our current context need to dispense with flow charts and start letting networks and webs naturally arise within our groups. Left to their own devices, human beings are amazingly adaptable. They will link up with others as their mutuality becomes apparent. They will create necessary groups and subgroups on their own to tackle complex problems, pooling resources as they become visible. Leadership, then, is charged not with creating the necessary structures through which problems are solved, but rather making sure people are aware of one another, open to one another, and make the connections necessary to getting jobs done, encouraging the sharing of resources, experiences, and abilities. As I have said, my main job as a presbyter is getting the right people to the right table to have the right conversation.

Moreover, by-laws and standing rules will only work if they come from the group’s own experience of their work rather than being a system of rules handed down from a higher authority. They become guidelines based on actual work done, rather than assumptions about how that work will be done. The idea is to free human beings up to use their own creative imaginations as they see what needs to be done and then discover the best way to do it. Instead of creating, for example, a preset list of guidelines for how to structure a presbytery, those guidelines evolve as the presbytery meets the needs, challenges, and crises that come. Then—and this is vitally important to note—realize those guidelines are not written in stone, but are written knowing they will be continually revised, rethought, and rewritten as things change. Fluidity is absolutely key to effectiveness, efficiency, and economy. 

CHAOTIC

One of the issues with allowing an organization to become more human is that it will also become more chaotic. Human beings are unpredictable. With more than one person involved, there will be conflict (and sometimes the second person is irrelevant—there will be conflict, regardless!). Someone may well draw outside the lines, but only for the rest of us to discover that the original lines were in the wrong place. Things will get messy!

The idea—biblical, at that—is to order chaos. Funnel energy toward an end. Allow  for the periodic reshuffling of whatever deck with which we work. Just because something worked once does not guarantee it will work again. Be ready for change. If we observe the natural order, we discover that to change is to be alive. Nothing breathing is static. All living systems are in a constant state of flux. Therefore, we cannot be surprised when our communities and gatherings follow suit. 

The challenge becomes adapting to the inevitable changes rather than seeking to stifle the changes that come. In other words, the current generation of leaders cannot impose their will on the rising generation of leaders, but instead expect that they will find a different way of doing things, then to facilitate those changes as one group steps aside for the ascent of the new one. 

As we allow for upheaval, we should also enter the arena knowing full well there will be moments of disagreement, and some of those disagreements are going to more resemble open warfare than peaceful give-and-take. Dr. Paul Achtemeier, my New Testament professor at Union Seminary—Richmond, showed us this point biblically. Luke tells of the great council in Jerusalem that set Paul on his mission to the wider world, while Peter would spearhead the Israeli mission. In this account, there is reasoned dialog, prayerful compromise, and full examination of all the facts, ending in a  peaceful accord. However, if we read Paul’s own reckoning of the event in Galatians, we discover no such peace and order. Instead, we see the two super apostles going toe-to-toe, shouting, denouncing, and probably coming to blows before the assembly, with Paul wishing an incredibly nasty slip of the knife during the proposed required circumcisions! Adaptation is not always pretty, no matter how necessary it is. We need to be ready for the discord, not with an eye toward division, but in such a way we can get to a place of reconciliation, retreat, and recess so we can all move ahead. 

We see this dynamic in a church’s place within a neighborhood. No neighborhood is static. Any church 25 years old or older is not in the same neighborhood in which it was planted. A generation has come and gone. Demographics will morph over the decades. Churches cannot assume stability or eternal environments. They need to be ready to adjust who and what they are as their environment shifts and alters. That is simply the nature of reality. But that change in vision will come with loss, grief, and resistance. There will be those who find the changes unacceptable. There will be those who cannot overcome their presuppositions to welcome people radically different from themselves into the communion. We need to be ready with people to offer objective analysis, reconciling listening, and pastoral care and comfort for all. 

BIG PICTURE

We exist on a tiny speck in the midst of a tiny galaxy boring through the infinite waste of intergalactic space. We should never lose that perspective.

Any organization needs to keep a deep sense of perspective—i.e., it is part of a bigger picture. Our modern tendency is to silo. Our focus turns inward, and all that we see is what is immediately before us. We lose sight of our organization being interconnected to other organizations. We lose sight of organizational interdependence. We forget that there are more viewpoints than our own. We fail to see that there are consequences to our decisions, actions, words, and moves that go well beyond our immediate context, impacting and effecting—if not affecting—a host of other people and communities. To combat all of these potentialities for trouble, we need to continually seek a wider view—one that reveals the webs and networks in which we work. We need to be open to possibility that someone else may have something to offer. We need to keep all lines of communication open so that information can flow freely within the webs in which we live. We need to keep in mind, especially if we are part of a committee or subcommittee, that we work within a system of small groups. We need to be aware of what those other groups are doing, and we need to coordinate as much as possible to avoid redundancy, wasted time, and unnecessary overlap. We need to continually bear in mind that we are not the center of the universe.

The good news is that a presbytery fosters the needed perspective by its very nature. A presbytery is connectional. We are a collection of churches working together. Our system of government is a system of interconnected and interdependent committees and task forces designed to achieve our main end—embodying the compassion of Christ in a world hungry for it to transform the world into the kingdom of God. As such, sharing, communicating, and communing should be natural actions flowing from our existential being. Sadly, due to siloing, we can easily become a collection of isolated entities, reinventing the wheel again and again, starving for resources, and missing golden opportunities for mutuality through which we can all flourish. The cure, though, is fairly simple—presence. Staff and committee representatives need actual face to face contact with member churches, constituent members, other small groups within the system, and vice versa. Through those contacts, churches need to be connected with one another to share ideas, resources, and even ministries. Pastors need to know that they are not isolated, but that there are colleagues present, even if separated by great distances. Committees must share information about their work and always become more aware of where cooperation with other committees needs to happen. We need to adopt the attitude that we are only as healthy as our weakest member; therefore, we strengthen the whole body by tending to one another compassionately.

We exist in a compartmentalized and atomistic environment. Specialization seems more valued than collegiality. Individualism blinds us to our inherent need for one another. Isolation and alienation are the two greatest maladies we face. Recapturing the essence of our communal nature is a simple cure.

RELATIONAL

The concept of communion leads directly to another observation from the natural order—everything is related to everything else. Nothing is truly isolated. Even our tiniest bits work in direct congruence with their corresponding bits. Everything within the created order is in community with everything else. Keep in mind the butterfly principle—a moth flaps its wings in New Zealand, causing a drought in Kenya. Likewise, a small act of generosity between individuals could well result in peace between nations.

Institutions would do well to bear this in mind as they develop their necessary structures and organizations. Human beings work well together. Biblically, note that only time God declared anything not good in creation was when the man stood alone in the garden. Organizations need shared information, shared insight, shared creativity, and shared work to thrive. For that to happen, workplaces need to foster community. 

For that to happen, people need to know they are valued, worthy, and important. Leaders need to be aware of and awaken to how folks complement each other, then bring people together to create more holistic approaches. Leaders need to realize that before beginning any actual work, all the workers need to feel connected to one another. They need to know who is in the room. They need to know what package of skills, ideas, and abilities. They also need to know where the weak and strong points are in the gathering doing the work so they can maximize the latter and minimize the former. 

Which brings to mind an important lesson about development of the participants, be they individuals or congregations—develop strengths, do not seek to overcome weaknesses. Hear this parable—

Imagine a school for animals seeking to teach them to best fly, swim, and run. The first three students were a bird, a fish, and a rabbit. The bird got straight A’s in flying, F’s in the other two topics; the fish excelled in swimming, but failed miserably in running and flying; and the rabbit got high marks in running, but not so much in swimming and flying. The teachers decided to focus on each animal’s weak areas, seeking to help them overcome their deficiencies. The next term ended, but, sadly, the grades remained the same. Then the teachers decided to simply let each animal work to perfect their strongest ability—voila! the whole school got honors!

Too often, we treat people and churches like those benighted teachers—we work and work and work to help them become something they aren’t, and then wonder why no progress comes. Instead, we need to tune into who is present. What are they good at? What brings them joy? What are their gifts? Then, we build on that information. I believe we will see an immediate increase in success. 

To ignore the relational nature of being human risks disaster. Isolation kills progress, as does favoritism, elitism, or any other way in which one person is separated out from others. Hierarchies need to give way to communions.

Again, this should be obvious to the church, yet, sadly, it isn’t. We forget that Jesus created a community among the Twelve and all other apostles sent to work (the Seventy, e.g.). Even from the cross, Jesus pulled together his mother and the Beloved Disciple—together they would endure the empty tragedy of Good Friday, overcoming  its innate nihilism to transcend it into an experience of the kingdom. 

Our ministry is relational. Pastors are in relationship with members; members are in relationship with one another; and the whole congregation is in relationship to the world. We do best when we treat each other with love, dignity, respect, and mutual care. Blessed be the tie that binds becomes our working philosophy. 

In this way, we are able to embody the core of our Gospel—we were created for love with love. Anything and everything we can do to reveal that core in our organization, the better. Welcome, affirmation, and acceptance will go a long way to overcoming the inherent prejudice against the church in our context, transforming our work into an embodiment of the compassion of Jesus.

MEANINGFUL

Which brings us to the final point—human beings will join, support, and sustain that which gives them meaning; or as one of my dear mentors intoned, The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing.

Corporations are discovering that if they can make their work meaningful and the means of production purposeful, then they have far more success in getting done what they aim to do. We need to know that what we are doing is valuable. We need to know there is a purpose in what is done. We need to feel good about who we are as we do what we do. Cynicism can destroy any and all communities. Hence, we see the massive loss of trust in what have been our most trusted institutions. They seem only to be self-serving, offering nothing of any import to anyone beyond themselves.  

One of the biggest challenges for the church at this moment is getting someone outside to even glance its way. By and large, the church is irrelevant to the modern world. For the growing majority of human beings, the church holds no meaning for them. Instead, the church is branded by its loudest element—those who uphold and promote a religious moralism that draws distinct and divisive lines between people as in/out, good/bad, and right/wrong. In this reductionist view, the church is equated with bigotry. As such, it is also denounced for existential hypocrisy—you preach a Savior who loved all others by immediately declaring some unlovable with hateful language. So, churches are left defensively declaring that this is not who they are without being able to openly invite outsiders in. 

Yet, that in no way diminishes the fact that the church still holds existential meaning within its Gospel. Every human being is a unique act of God’s creative will. Yet, not every human being knows that truth. Therefore, the church has a mission. It is not complete until every human being knows who they are. 

I keep finding myself returning to the great irony of our age—we can instantaneously speak with someone 3000 miles away, but we are the most disconnected population in the history of the world. Someone may have a thousand friends on Facebook, yet have only two or three they would actually have dinner with. Breadth supplants depth. Hence, people find less meaning in their relationships and connections. Intimacy scares us. We find ourselves adverse to opening up about what matters most to us. We do not trust someone enough to risk real friendship for fear that what we reveal may wind up the text of a Tweet. Young adults are slower to marry, for they see no real benefit or purpose in it, especially when the chances of a lifetime relationship wallow well under 50%. We are a collection of disconnected persons. Hence, the institutions fail. There is no bond providing meaning in any of them.

Jesus is the embodiment of God’s compassion. Hence, the church is the embodiment of Jesus' compassion, revealing God’s compassion for all. We need to take that truth seriously. We need to reclaim the basic counterculturalism of Jesus. He had no interest in creating a megachurch of ten thousand souls, but instead centered his entire ministry on twelve people and assorted others. He created a communion for those twelve. They, in turn, found their meaning, purpose, and vocation—so much so that they literally gave their lives to their work. Jesus’ compassion became their lifeblood. 

And the world changed.

We need to recapture that history. We have a story to tell that informs every human being of who they actually are—a beloved child of God. We have the means by which to create communities in which every person can deeply trust everyone else to be what they say and to be worth the risk of loving. We have the message of meaning for the world—we need to do a better job of communicating it so it can be heard, understood, and followed.

The message is our meaning.