Thinking Out Loud About Elder Training

[I’m sticking this post to the top of the stack for a few days to encourage further comment — pro and con.]

(1 Cor 9:25) Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

Jim K has put a challenge to me to figure a way to actually do something about our need for an elder-training problem.

The first task would be to design a program that actually meets the need.

The models that come to mind are —

* One day annual seminar

* Half-week annual seminar

* Week-long annual seminar

Fixing Our Universities: The Birmingham-Southern Experience

One of the nation’s foremost liberal arts colleges is Birmingham-Southern College, affiliated with the Methodist Church. It’s a small school located in west Birmingham, with very high academic standards.

A few years ago, it decided to give up NCAA Division I athletics.

Here are excerpts from a story in the May 27, 2006 Birmingham News —

Fixing Our Universities: The Story of Smurf

I guess I need to explain myself. Here I am railing against our universities’ peculiar priorities, and I’ve not yet told you the story of Smurf.

You see, a young man who grew up in my home (a friend of my children who moved in when his parents divorced as a way to heal from the trauma) attended one of our universities to study to become a youth minister. Finances were tight. His family had been hit pretty hard by the divorce. His biological dad had abandoned the family. And so he had to take out school loans to pay for his studies.

The college gave him a $1,000 per year scholarship to help with the $15,000 or so annual price tag of his education.

The Future of the Progressive Churches of Christ: Part 9, A New Restorationism

It’s just so easy, and facile, to say the Restoration Movement has run its course and we need to do something else now. If that were entirely true, why aren’t we all Baptists or Methodists or something else? Why are we still Churches of Christ?

Isn’t there anything about the Restoration Movement that’s worth preserving? And if we can capture the good, maybe we can give some purpose to the last two centuries. Surely it happened for a reason. Surely there’s something that’s worth keeping!

I think there’s quite a lot, actually. And so, I’d like to propose a new Restorationism built on the good we’ve inherited from our spiritual ancestors.

Without trying to be comprehensive, I’d say at least —

The Future of the Progressive Churches of Christ: Part 8, Predictions

Only God knows the future, and he’s not shared it with me. But here’s my best guess. And it’s part of why I’m so unhappy with how we progressives are acting.

This is, of course, the unless-something-happens-to-fix-it version.

* Many conservative churches will decline and die. It’s happening now. The trend will accelerate as the WWII generation dies out. The Baby Boomers are, by and large, leaving.

* Countless children who grow up in these churches, repulsed by the legalism, will leave Christ altogether. That’s been happening for years. It’ll get worse.

* Some conservative churches will hold it together by virtue of excellent preaching and programs, and a moderated works theology. They’ll support the conservative Church institutions.

The Future of the Progressive Churches of Christ: Part 7, On Being Held Back by Forgotten Fights

Now, one of the biggest reasons we don’t know how to cooperate to accomplish truly large tasks, such as missions, church planting, and publishing Sunday school literature, is the old “missionary society” controversy. A missionary society is just a nonprofit organization through which several congregations cooperate to send missionaries.

When we split over instrumental music in 1906, we also split over societies. It was a mistake. We need to get over it.

Most of us never even heard of the controversy, but it has affected how we think of “church.” We think nearly exclusively at the congregational level. It doesn’t even occur to us to think at a denominational level.

The Future of the Progressive Churches of Christ: Part 6, Forgetting Who We Are

* The progressives are moving so rapidly into a generic evangelicalism that we may lose the Godly parts of our Restoration Movement heritage. We have much to contribute to the evangelical mainstream — but not if we forget who we are.

We’ll consider what we have to contribute in a later post. The goal here is just to argue that we are losing our group identity (for good or bad). Now remember: we’re looking 20 or 30 years ahead. This isn’t going to happen this year. Here’s the evidence —

* First, many progressive Churches have already changed names, often becoming a “community church” or “Family of God.” Some have adopted entirely individualistic names.

The Future of the Progressive Churches of Christ: Part 5, Leaving the Conservatives Behind

* The progressives have largely turned our backs on the conservatives, not creating the literature or institutions necessary to bring more conservatives into the progressive fold.

Let’s suppose that a group of progressive thought leaders got together to develop a strategy for helping as many conservatives escape legalism as possible. What would they do?

Well, wouldn’t they invite thought leaders among the conservatives to debate us? I don’t mean old style, Foy Wallace Jr.-type hateful debates. I mean a civil discussion. Maybe like the opposing editorials you often see in USA Today. Wouldn’t it be helpful if the Christian Chronicle gave half a page to each side each month to work through the issues?

The Future of the Progressive Churches of Christ: Part 4, Defining Our Challenges

My concerns with us are —

* The progressives have failed to articulate a thoughtful, comprehensive theology for why we believe what we believe.

* The progressives have largely turned our backs on the conservatives, not creating the literature or institutions necessary to bring more conservatives into the progressive fold.

* In fact, many churches that are very sympathetic to the progressive point of view are legalistic churches — just not as legalistic as where they came from.

* The progressives are moving so rapidly into a generic evangelicalism that we may lose some of the Godly parts of our Restoration Movement heritage. We have much to contribute to the evangelical mainstream — but not if we forget the best of who we are.

* The progressives have few means of meaningful fellowship or cooperation among themselves — and little thought is being given to the costs of that omission.

The Future of the Progressive Churches of Christ: Part 3, Compassion for the Conservatives

To understand my complaints with the progressives (including me), I have to explain some of my concerns for the spiritual state of the conservatives.

Do you remember my earlier summary of Joe Beam’s article on what’s going on in the Churches of Christ? Well, his description, accurate at the time, was couched in Church of Christ terms — “change agents,” “innovation,” “Christian Churches,” and such. But the real issue is grace. And that means we need to see ourselves through a different lens — a grace lens.

You see, the Churches of Christ don’t divide neatly into a progressive and a conservative camp or, for that matter, a grace camp and a works camp. In fact, the situation looks something like this—

The Future of the Progressive Churches of Christ: Part 2, Why We Don’t Know Who We Are

If you were to ask most Church members whether we’re headed for a split as a “fellowship,” meaning denomination, most would say the split is already well underway. Many would say it’s already complete.

In my church, when a couple is planning to move out of town, they ask the leadership whether we know of another “progressive” Church in the town they’re moving to. We know that some Churches are very different from the “conservative” Churches, but we are all hard pressed to place a definition on “progressive” and “conservative.”

For some, being progressive is about contemporary worship. For others, it’s having a spirit of grace and freedom. For others, it’s having excellent ministries. For some, it’s just not having to hear condemnation of sister congregations from the pulpit.

The Future of the Progressive Churches of Christ: Part 1, Background

Lately, I’ve been pondering the direction of the progressive Churches of Christ. Where are we going to be in 20 or 30 years? More importantly, where do we want to be in 20 or 30 years?

Now, many congregational leaders have learned of the importance of vision in leading a church. Are we just keeping house or should we have common goals we’re going to work toward as a community? The same principle holds true at the denominational level.

Vision, I believe, is just as important for a community of congregations as for the community that is a congregation. I mean, I just don’t think it’s enough to lead a local church well. We must also cooperate congregation to congregation. If we don’t work together, then the unity Jesus prayed for would be far too abstract. It wouldn’t matter in any real sense. But to do what?

You see, the problem none of us is addressing — the elephant in the room — is who are the progressive Churches of Christ going to be?

[PS — I’m not through with the Third Way series. I just figured we all needed a break.]

The Future of the Progressive Churches of Christ: Introduction

Oops. This got posted prematurely. I’m not sure how, but gremlins have been known to haunt the Internet.

What a few of you saw was a draft. The real thing is coming in a few weeks. But it’s still in the oven. It’s just not quite ready.

It’s a series I feel is very important, but I’ve had a lot of trouble articulating my thoughts. But I’ll get it done and posted.