A couple of weeks ago, City on a Hill celebrated its birthday. This Authorised Anglican Congregation is really noteworthy for lots of reasons: the growth in attendance from nothing to something heading towards 1,000 in just five years with many of those people being new believers in Jesus, the embracing of a new model of Anglican church without property, the fast-footed approach to new gospel opportunities, the young leadership team that's overseen the ministry... there are endless points of interest. From all accounts the birthday celebration was excellent too: the band launched a CD that went to number one on the 'Inspirational' list in the iTunes store, a bunch of people were baptised into the faith, a second CoaH church was announced and some pretty exciting and ambitious plans were laid out for the next three years. Lots of stuff! However, just now, it's particularly this idea of churches making big plans that I'm interested in.
In recent years, more and more churches and Christian organisations have adopted some key ideas from the business world and have put tons of energy into producing mission statements, visions, strategic plans and so on. I think all of this can be really important in focussing and kick-starting those churches that might otherwise have been relatively passive in their ministry. If God's plan is to use his church to take the message of Jesus to the world and to make disciples of every nation, then the church had better get well organised because there's a whole lot of work to be done!
However there are, of course, risks if churches just blindly embrace this business-think. The most obvious is that they could start acting like companies that ultimately only care about their bottom lines and not about less tangible things like faith and faithfulness, hope and humility, life and love which are all central for followers of Jesus. But the other risk I see is one that's common to the business world too and it's that thinking that just having a vision, plan or strategy is the main thing or is even a satisfactory end in itself.
Recently, I was talking to a good friend who's just started working for an international para-church organisation and he told me that the key lesson he's been learning there is execution. That is, he is not just expected to develop grand visions and plans, but to actually make them happen; to get results. This is in recognition that anyone can have an amazing vision or plan - to triple the membership, to start fifty new churches, to raise a billion dollars, to fly a shiny rocket to Jupiter - but unless the execution is good, they can just be showy aspirations that ultimately aren't worth the paper they're written on. (Or worse. They could actually be a grand waste of paper and also of time, money and energy.) "What we were going to do" never added up to Kingdom growth.
This sort of thinking freaks me out a bit. My first response is to jump in defensively and say things like "at least we shot for something", "sometimes success is out of our control", "God is not impressed with results" and so on, and there's something very right in all these statements. Certainly, I know lots of faithful labourers who have worked really hard in very tough situations for extended periods of time without seeing much fruit and so I simply cannot stomach an unqualified "just go and get the results". But with that said, I do also want to sit with the idea of 'execution' for a bit and think about what it is that makes the difference between just being a dreamer and being a doer, between being a planner and an achiever.
At this stage, I've got a bunch of thoughts that have to do with prayer, leadership, context, patience, focus and communication to name just a few things. But as yet, I don't have any neat, proverbial answers. However, as I'm chewing it over and I see churches like City on a Hill repeatedly converting their big ideas into reality, I want to pay some attention. Sure, they have shortcomings like any church does, but God is clearly doing something through them. I reckon for us Anglicans who aren't always making great headway these days, it's really worth us watching them and seeing what we can learn.
Thoughts on Theology-in-Practice for Anglicans and Episcopalians - plus some other stuff.
I like this article Tim. Rev James Forbes, from Scotland, came to Melbourne in the mid 1800's,and was granted/acquired some land to build a church community from scratch. He raised money, and helped parishioners build their businesses, homes, families, etc. He then had a vision for a school, and over 150 years later Scotch College is a thriving Presbyterian!! Rev Forbes arrived with his spiritual gifts and education only, but planned well, used professionals and the resources available, with foresight and vision, and it would seem God honored this, and still is! I also find the structures used, ie Trusts, Foundations, Companies, etc, have served Scotch well to keep on a steady course of growth in the community. Makes sense that Business acumen serving a Christian vision, will help servants of God to help others grow across a "whole of life" range of needs, all of which are 'spiritual'. There are also many foundations, scholarships, trusts, etc, that are setup by people associated with Scotch, that benefit students outside of family beneficiaries, for generations! However, these types of lasting structures are not commonly understood,, except from family, as schools and universities don't teach this type of generational covenant planning, which seems Biblical in nature to me, yet lost to common knowledge... The Queen is the current beneficiary of the Duchy of Lancaster (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchy_of_Lancaster) which is one of the oldest types of Trusts! Amazing what a bit of business knowledge, applied well, can achieve for Anglicanism!!!
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