Why would you come to my family reunion?
In November of 2010 I attended a conference in which Brian McLaren noted the differences in movements and institutions
Movements are organizations which call institutions to new social gains.
Institutions are organizations which conserve the gains made by past movements.
Both are important and both are needed.
Lately there seems to be a trend in the UMC circles I move that the UMC needs to reclaim being a movement and move away from being an institution. And that language is very populist and raises a lot of "amens" from a usually silent UMC congregation.
With all the rhetoric of getting back to a movement as a denomination, there seems to be a bit of a disconnect going on with the implementation of that "movement talk."
What I mean is that is all the talk of reclaiming "movement status" we still put a lot of emphasis on the importance of the institution. That is to say we still place a ton of emphasis on the importance of worship.
While I think worship is important I am not sure it is helpful that only one aspect of the church is elevated to most important. This elevation of worship sets up a potential to actually worship worship. So you end up getting things like the worship wars.
Let me share an example I have been pondering.
You do not want to come to my family reunion. It is nothing personal about you or me, it is just when you come to my family reunion you will be subject to hear from people you do not know, about things that happened in the past to people you never knew.
Family reunions are the institutional aspect of the family movement.
Family reunions capture the stories of the past. People break break together. People recall celebrations and advances the family made over the years. (Sounds a lot like worship...)
Why would you come to my family reunion? You were not a part of the movement of my family. You were not a part of the movement when my dad followed his dream and hit many obstacles. You were not there when my grandmother and grandfather moved in with us. You were not there at graduations or birthdays.
You are not interested in the institution of my family unless you have been a part of the movement of my family. Which is why my wife, who has been apart of our family for 10 years is more comfortable at our family gathering than you might be. She has been a part of the movement of our family. She appreciates the institution and works to keep it moving.
Because we have elevated worship as the "most important thing we do" as a church, we have made the most important thing an institutional aspect of our Church. And why would anyone who has not been apart of the movement sides of the Church want to be apart of the institutional sides of Church?
So my beloved Church, let us consider that while the institution is important, people will only be interested in preserving it if they were apart of the movements of the Church.
Movements are organizations which call institutions to new social gains.
Institutions are organizations which conserve the gains made by past movements.
Both are important and both are needed.
Lately there seems to be a trend in the UMC circles I move that the UMC needs to reclaim being a movement and move away from being an institution. And that language is very populist and raises a lot of "amens" from a usually silent UMC congregation. With all the rhetoric of getting back to a movement as a denomination, there seems to be a bit of a disconnect going on with the implementation of that "movement talk."
What I mean is that is all the talk of reclaiming "movement status" we still put a lot of emphasis on the importance of the institution. That is to say we still place a ton of emphasis on the importance of worship.
While I think worship is important I am not sure it is helpful that only one aspect of the church is elevated to most important. This elevation of worship sets up a potential to actually worship worship. So you end up getting things like the worship wars.
Let me share an example I have been pondering.
You do not want to come to my family reunion. It is nothing personal about you or me, it is just when you come to my family reunion you will be subject to hear from people you do not know, about things that happened in the past to people you never knew.
Family reunions are the institutional aspect of the family movement.
Family reunions capture the stories of the past. People break break together. People recall celebrations and advances the family made over the years. (Sounds a lot like worship...)
Why would you come to my family reunion? You were not a part of the movement of my family. You were not a part of the movement when my dad followed his dream and hit many obstacles. You were not there when my grandmother and grandfather moved in with us. You were not there at graduations or birthdays.
You are not interested in the institution of my family unless you have been a part of the movement of my family. Which is why my wife, who has been apart of our family for 10 years is more comfortable at our family gathering than you might be. She has been a part of the movement of our family. She appreciates the institution and works to keep it moving.
Because we have elevated worship as the "most important thing we do" as a church, we have made the most important thing an institutional aspect of our Church. And why would anyone who has not been apart of the movement sides of the Church want to be apart of the institutional sides of Church?
So my beloved Church, let us consider that while the institution is important, people will only be interested in preserving it if they were apart of the movements of the Church.
14 Things Older Leaders Should Know About Younger Leaders part 2
I did not write this, but I want to share it with not only the older leaders of the Church but also for the younger leaders of the church. Also for anyone who has ever entered into Church.
I am going to pull a few of the points from the original post and add some comments.
6. Not willing to wait. Young leaders are ambitious and passionate about making a difference now. Not willing to wait their turn. They want to influence now. Evidence of this is the explosion of church planters in the last 4-5 years. Reality is you are never really “ready” for anything. Some say that you should wait until you are “mature” enough to pursue certain things in life. But we’re never really ready, are we? At 22, I didn’t think I was ready. At 25, I didn’t think I “knew” enough. As my friends from the UK would say…“Rubbish!”
7. See social justice as the norm. Leaders who care about the poor and lean into causes and see the social gospel as a key ingredient to following Christ are no longer seen as the exception. Young leaders see taking care of the poor and sharing the Gospel as BOTH crucial to the advancement of the Church and of God’s Kingdom. Twenty-somethings, I believe, are and will continue to become more balanced in their pursuit of both. They don’t have to be one or the other.
Micah 6:8 theology is not only deeply rooted in young church leaders, but it also connects to the idea that life is short. As such, we ought to be working, in the words of John Wesley, to "do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can to all the people you can, as long as ever you can." Mission is the new norm, even in worship.
14 Things Older Leaders Should Know About Younger Leaders
I did not write this, but I want to share it with not only the older leaders of the Church but also for the younger leaders of the church. Also for anyone who has ever entered into Church.
I am going to pull a few of the points from the original post and add some comments.
2. Willing to work together. Twenty- and thirty-somethings are more willing to collaborate than any other generation before. They trust each other. Really. And see collaboration as the starting point, not some grandiose vision of teamwork that is far off in the distance. Collaboration is now the norm. It’s hard to believe, but it’s true- young leaders don’t care who gets the credit. For the next generation- it’s way less about WHO and way more about WHAT.
While this is a bit rosy of a picture, I am going to have to agree with this comment/observation. Most of the young adult church leaders I encounter are in a constant state of healing from allowing the church to break our hearts. Most of the time these heartbreaks come from un-wanted egos of others dominating the Church in a way that leads to divisive leadership and a cementing of the Church in a dead custom that is masked as "tradition". I cannot tell you how many times we share ideas with one another and how few of us get really get credit.
One of the things that I hope to help change in the Church is a movement away from being nice and move toward generosity. Friendly means we are nice in as long as we are not troubled too much. Generosity comes at great cost and expense of the generous one and it is these sacrifices which carry more weight in a world which we "millennials" feel there is an abundance for all.
I am going to pull a few of the points from the original post and add some comments.
2. Willing to work together. Twenty- and thirty-somethings are more willing to collaborate than any other generation before. They trust each other. Really. And see collaboration as the starting point, not some grandiose vision of teamwork that is far off in the distance. Collaboration is now the norm. It’s hard to believe, but it’s true- young leaders don’t care who gets the credit. For the next generation- it’s way less about WHO and way more about WHAT.
While this is a bit rosy of a picture, I am going to have to agree with this comment/observation. Most of the young adult church leaders I encounter are in a constant state of healing from allowing the church to break our hearts. Most of the time these heartbreaks come from un-wanted egos of others dominating the Church in a way that leads to divisive leadership and a cementing of the Church in a dead custom that is masked as "tradition". I cannot tell you how many times we share ideas with one another and how few of us get really get credit.
3. Generosity and sharing are the new currencies of our culture. In business, relationships, networks, platforms, technology, distribution, content delivery, etc., open source is the new standard. This new wave of leaders has tools/resources such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, Instagram, and tons more social media tools that make influencing much more readily available and easier than ever before. The currency with all of these social mediums is being generous. Sharing your ideas, sharing links, sharing friends, sharing networks. This is a complete paradigm shift from 30-40 years ago.
Be the change by Jason Valendy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.