“What does it take for a congregation truly to know change in its life?” This is a question being asked in many Presbyterian congregations today. The title of Peter Bush's new book, In Dying We Are Born, points to his answers. As he writes, “The congregation cannot give itself life, cannot make growth happen, and cannot stem the slide to death. The ability to do all of those things belongs to God alone … The church must therefore humble itself to the point of death, and then and only then will it find itself raised to life by the power of God.” In other words, faithful, meaningful and significant new life can be granted by God only to congregations willing to die to the way they have been.
Bush acknowledges in his book that this is neither a common nor popular answer. Death, to us, is to be avoided at all costs. The large majority of books on congregational transformation, he says, assume that either the congregation is “mildly ill” (thus needing small change), or “seriously ill” (thus needing a new vision to fulfill). In contrast, Bush believes that a congregation must go even further. “At the heart of God's plan is that death, all death, even congregational death, will be swallowed up in the victory of resurrection.”
If you have read books on church leadership and congregational change, you will quickly note that this book is different. It is because Bush wants us to take our theology seriously, even as applied to congregational change. This is not a how-to-do-it manual. Indeed, it reads more like a series of extended sermons, with each chapter including expositions of Scriptural passages. The theology is classically Reformed. In reminding the reader of the centrality of the resurrection for all life, Bush is encouraging congregations to put their hope for their future in God's hands rather than in human ingenuity and effort. Bush believes that only a church willing to turn its back on its old life will be able to trust God to fulfill its hopes for a new life.
Consequently, the book is mostly an exploration of the process of such a congregational death and the subsequent experience of loss and grief. I found myself at times wanting the book to move on to talk of change and renewal, which are left to the very end. But the book models what it proposes: one must fully experience the slow movement towards loss and letting go before a congregation can arrive at the needed humility and openness to God. That, Bush asserts, is when resurrection can become something people anticipate and be open to.
Because Bush believes that true change can come only from God, he provides no processes for us to do this work. “Being raised from death to life is a complete surprise, unexpected grace.” Yet the stories he tells of resurrected churches all imply that at some level some kind of discernment took place in order to define God's new life-giving direction for these congregations. Readers who wish to utilize this book will be served by formulating such a discernment process. The book also downplays the role of leaders in creating a renewed vision for their congregation's future. “Leaders do not know when God might act … Neither can leaders know what the newly raised-to-life congregations will look like. The shape of the new church is something God will determine.” Yet again in his illustrations we find congregational leaders who pray and study, propose and plan, and help the resurrection to happen. The book reminds us to first trust God for the future, but quietly acknowledges with Paul that we are God's co-workers.
I read this book while travelling to a national meeting at which we spent significant time considering the struggles of many congregations and presbyteries. Death is something that is feared in church life. Bush asks us, “Why?” Given that we worship and serve a God who knows how to bring life out of death, churches should instead live their belief that “in dying we are born.” This book is a reminder that we should practice what we preach.
