Magnet Church event looks at church and culture

The tremendous transfer of values in our culture brings about intense discomfort in modern congregations, frequently leading to conflict just as intense, an Alban Institute chief consultant told professional leaders attending this year’s Magnet Church Conference sponsored by the Seminary at Gloria Dei Church in Huntingdon Valley, PA.

"It’s not that people are mean and miserable," said Gil Rendle, a United Methodist pastor and researcher who consults with scores of challenged congregations annually. "People in different generations in our congregations are often using the same language but meaning different things. Congregations are centers of competing needs. They used to be able to help people find consensus as a group. Now the cultural focus is all on the individual and what makes individuals happy. The challenge today is for churches to help people find themselves in community and meet their needs too. Leaders will not be able to make everyone happy by consensus…."

Rendle said that in his lifetime the value shift from group to individual has been dramatic. "In our two identities – public and private – we used to lead from the public. We once saw ourselves as Americans first or members of the Lutheran Church first. We always sought to arrive at consensus, to decide together to do what is right."

Today’s church is becoming part of a societal movement to value differences, he said. "Our first identity is as an individual before seeing ourselves as part of a larger group." The most successful organizations are meeting a multiple needs.

"People today are not mean and miserable when they disagree in churches, they are doing what they learned and bringing it to their community of faith," Rendle said, citing as an example the differences between the "G.I." generation (older persons) and the "Gen X’ers" (younger persons). "As leaders I would urge you to hear the descriptive side of what people say when they complain and not the evaluative side." He illustrated the difference with a driving anecdote. "The descriptive side says you are driving too fast. Could you consider slowing down? The evaluative side says you are a terrible driver…." People in the current cultural setting may be able to learn to live with a measure of unhappiness in a congregation so long as they feel they are being reached out to in their differences and pain and made to feel welcome.

"People need help to make this transition from the group to individual understanding in our culture," he said. "It is a good time in many ways because we used to hide our differences. In this current climate, we may be more sensitive to justice."

He urged congregational leaders to learn how to "talk to people in their particularity, give people choices, and emphasize the significance of those times (worship) when we find it important to gather as a group."

A critical challenge for modern congregations, Rendle said, is to recognize that no one congregation can "do it all" to meet the particular needs of a broad group of people. Rather, they need to concentrate on discerning, "Which needs are ours? What gifts are ours? How do we get clarity about what we have the ability to address?"

This challenge involves how to make use of the best skills, talents and gifts in a particular place. "Larger churches may be able to do more, but even the smaller church with few apparent resources will have a gift. They can discover that gift by thinking about their story as a congregation. They can relate their story to the parable of the workers in the vineyard and by knowing their story they can discern how they are equipped to make a difference."

More than 100 leaders attended the Magnet Church event. A highlight was workshops focusing on such topics as health advocacy, working in the multi-generational church, ministry to marriage and family, and leading modern youth ministry.

Church leaders in the Northeastern Pennsylvania and Southeastern Pennsylvania Synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America played a key role in planning the event.