1. How was the strategic plan revised to reflect a new context and circumstance?
2. Did a seven page report to the congregation really communicate? (Obviously there were more tools than this to include the congregation within the loop of how leadership was dealing with the crisis.)
3. Dividing into small groups takes some sort of guideline for intention discussion. I wonder what they used?
4. One wonders about the composition of the elders? Men only? Different generations, cultures, and educational backgrounds?
5. What was the essential ethos of the church? It sounds like a staff driven church. Staff driven churches have their own characteristics for resolving crisis that differ from other types of congregations. However, the tools and methodology this church used are certainly applicable in other settings.

Thank you for the story and the opportunity to learn from you and others.

-Darrell Poeppelmeyer

Unfortunately, recent studies in the two largest U.S. Lutheran church bodies reflect the findings that Wayne notes, namely higher rates of obesity, hyper-tension, etc. than the general population. Because of this, Wheat Ridge celebrates and collaborates with organizations such as Grace Place (see John Eckrich’s post) and in sponsoring “Living Well!” days for church leaders in various locations around the U.S. We have also engaged for the past several years in a pilot grant program that provides matching grants for clergy and congregations who have never participated in sabbatical experiences. The feedback we have received from this pilot indicates that a well-planned and executed sabbatical can be accomplished for a modest financial investment. The results overwhelmingly indicate that after engaging in this experience, clergy returned refreshed, renewed, and excited about returning to their leadership role. Likewise, the congregations served by these individuals report that the sabbatical provides them great opportunities to assess and reflect on the partnership they have with their clergy leader in pursuit of the congregation’s mission. Information about the work of Wheat Ridge Ministries and our Sabbatical Resource Center can be found at http://www.wheatridge.org.

Rick Herman
President
Wheat Ridge Ministries

Blessings,

Carol Martin

On the other hand, Steinke completely misses the point in the “missional church” conversation. By focusing his argument on the generic use of “mission” to mean purpose, he avoids the really critical discussion of how even congregations that are clear about purpose can fail to be “missional” in the sense of living not for themselves but for others. It’s misleading to talk about a missional movement; there is hardly anything that coherent and unified on the American church landscape. But there is an important critique of churches that are, at best, merely “attractional,” and, at worst, self-absorbed, clubby, and tribal.

To be sure, the missional crowd can be too one-sided in playing missional off against attractional. Surely the church is called to gather as well as scatter. “Come and see” along with “go and serve/tell.” But we can be grateful for the courageous experiments of even self-styled missional chuches in pacesetting, incarnational ministry in countless places where many other churches fear to tread.