{"id":17102,"date":"2021-07-02T19:07:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T19:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/?p=17102"},"modified":"2021-07-03T00:17:33","modified_gmt":"2021-07-03T00:17:33","slug":"recapture-your-churchs-dna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2021\/recapture-your-churchs-dna\/","title":{"rendered":"Recapture your church\u2019s DNA: Tod Bolsinger presents on \u2018Doing Church in Uncharted Territory\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Frank Ramirez<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Towards the end of his presentation on \u201cDoing Church in Uncharted Territory,\u201d during the Annual Conference business session, Tod Bolsinger challenged everyone attending to tell a story from their church\u2019s history. The story could be about a hero, about \u201ca cherished moment that is retold over and over again. One that says, \u2018This is what we are really all about.\u2019 One that says, \u2018This was the moment when I was most proud of us.\u2019 One that says, \u2018This was when I knew I found my church home.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The purpose, he said, is to separate a church\u2019s aspirational values from \u201cwho we truly are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That story, he said, is the \u201ccharism,\u201d using a Catholic term–the grace-filled characteristic that will serve the pain and needs of the community each church inhabits. That\u2019s where a church should pour its energy, he said, and that will provide the framework for what it means for each individual congregation when it comes to \u201cdoing church.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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A screenshot of Tod Bolsinger’s presentation to the Annual Conference.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Bolsinger, a vice president and professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, suggested that the pandemic is allowing congregations to transform themselves to serve a changed world. Most seminaries are training leaders to serve in Christendom, he said, a description of what American churches were a half-century ago when Christianity was the default setting. But in this post-Christendom world, a different sort of leadership is necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of what each church needs to do is determine who they really are. It\u2019s not a matter of trying harder, he told the Conference, but of transforming the people of the church, especially the leadership. Bolsinger used the example of someone in a canoe finding themselves in a dry riverbed. Paddling harder will not help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where we find ourselves today,\u201d Bolsinger said. \u201cIn uncharted territory, adaptation is everything. What are we going to carry with us and what are we going to leave behind?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offering Jeremiah 29 as an example, he asked, \u201cHow do we adapt to the exile so that the reign and rule of God becomes obvious? \u2026 When we offer ourselves not as colonizers or people of great power or imposing our will on others around us, by acts of generosity and love we come to an understanding of how our congregation can make an impact on our world for good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a process, he said, pointing out that scripture reminds us that \u201cJesus grew in wisdom and stature.\u201d Like the apostle Paul, \u201cWe press on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One crucial step is to recover who we really are, hence the need to tell stories about our congregation that identify our values. \u201cFor change to last it must be a healthy adaptation of the DNA of the group, our core values. It\u2019s what\u2019s essential.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the past year-plus, the world has endured a health pandemic, an economic epidemic, and a social uprising about injustices. \u201cAll of our churches have been touched and disrupted by this reality, this combined, complex reality that none of us have never experienced before.\u201d Bolsinger said,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adventure or die. You have a choice.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a separate event offered on Thursday of the Conference week, Bolsinger presented at a \u201cmoderator\u2019s forum\u201d sponsored by Annual Conference moderator Paul Mundey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The choice is stark but the figures are undeniable. Studies show that when people are confronted by their doctors with the words, \u201cIf you don\u2019t change your life today you\u2019re going to die,\u201d 90 percent will die. They all resolve to change, but only 10 percent succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolsinger insists that churches today are facing the same choice. Change the way we do church or die. The problem is most pastors, board chairs, and church members are operating under the assumptions of 50, 60, or 70 years ago, when Americans lived in Christendom. \u201cEveryone assumed the center of culture was law, education, and Christian religion, even if they weren\u2019t Christian\u2026. It is privilege, home court advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolsinger himself, and most pastors and church leaders, were trained to work in Christendom, while actually working in a post-Christendom world. Many \u201cgo into deep denial.\u201d Popular techniques to change don\u2019t work, he said, citing studies by Alan Deutschman, author of \u201cChange or Die,\u201d and others. These techniques are fear, facts, and force. \u201cFear will make people change temporarily. Fear doesn\u2019t produce lasting change. Facts don\u2019t produce change. We can find ways to argue around facts.\u201d And as for force, \u201cYou can\u2019t make people change. Maybe temporarily, but not over long periods of time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So what does work?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolsinger says churches need to relate, repeat, and re-frame: relate to new communities, recognizing that immigrant communities are vital and alive; repeat new practices, growing with each other and supporting each other; and re-frame the way we seek the world, adopting new ways of thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radical change is needed, not mere tweaking. \u201cYou can\u2019t bring radical change by tweaking around the edges,\u201d he said. \u201cBy radical I don’t mean reckless or ruthless. Get to the root cause, the key to the challenge in front of us.\u201d The fundamental task of leadership is to distinguish between what needs to be preserved and what needs to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Spirit of God is often way ahead of us,\u201d he reminded. Lean into the discernment of the Spirit instead of relying on our own institutional power, advised. This requires \u201ca kind of humility and openness\u2026. In your heart deeply believe God\u2019s Spirit has been at work all over the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Towards the end of his presentation on \u201cDoing Church in Uncharted Territory,\u201d during the Annual Conference business session, Tod Bolsinger challenged everyone attending to tell a story from their church\u2019s history. The story could be about a hero, about \u201ca cherished moment that is retold over and over again. One that says, \u2018This is what we are really all about.\u2019 One that says, \u2018This was the moment when I was most proud of us.\u2019 One that says, \u2018This was when I knew I found my church home.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17103,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1703],"tags":[1258,1771,3,2129],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-17102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-of-the-brethren-newsline","tag-annual-conference","tag-annual-conference-2021","tag-church-of-the-brethren","tag-tod-bolsinger"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17102"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17107,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17102\/revisions\/17107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17102"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=17102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}