The Alban Institute’s Alice Mann has seen many congregtions try and fail, and she has noticed that many get stuck in depression. “When you’re depressed, creativity is low, your attitude towards relationships is low, and you’re not getting anywhere new. So the delicate balance is to face the facts, but to frame those facts in a different story. It could be a story of waiting on God, a story of Advent, a story of exploring rather than being lost. Reframing the story using the same facts helps to liberate prayer and creativity.”
Regional staff person, John-Peter Smit has a list of things to watch out for when tackling change:
1. Making the amalgamation about survival or money. It almost guarantees failure. There has to be a larger vision.
2. Making it about winners and losers (“We got to keep OUR building, OUR minister.”)
3. Proceeding to amalgamation without the people knowing each other. Social time together is huge!
4. Getting too many people involved in the process.
5. Letting the project get hijacked by outside agendas.
6. Getting people off message. Everyone needs to be clear about the outcome.
7. Stopping part way.
8. Forcing the process too quickly.
9. Dragging the problem too slowly.
10. Leaving with the perception that closing is failure. “I can’t imagine doing anything for over a century and then concluding, ‘we failed,'” said Smit.
11. Failing to appreciate or provide for the symbols of the congregation — pulpit, communion table, etc.
12. Failing to understand the stages of grief.
13. Ministers failing to understand that they will often be the focus of anger and frustration and are therefore unable to endure the discomfort it requires.
14. Treating it as a pragmatic decision rather than a holy, ministry decision.
“The bottom line is not the existence of the congregation. The bottom line is whether the mission and ministry of Christ is being carried out in the context of the local congregation,” adds the PCC’s mission and educational consultant in Atlantic Canada, Kenn Stright.
“There is no one method or process or ‘quick-fix’ for congregations. Each has its own context and each must find the way forward for itself.” — A.M.
