Process and Progress

In a world of texts and tweets, bottom lines and balance sheets, sound bites and summaries, the thirst for shortcuts, easy answers and "return on investment" is nearly unquenchable. We live our lives in a press of deadlines, a crush of e-mails and backlog of voicemails. Understandably, we want to find a solution to the problem in front of us, check it off the list and move on, because we can already see the next problem descending upon us. Sometimes we may begin to feel as if problems are stacked up like planes attempting to land at Chicago's O'Hare or Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airports!

We bring this pressure-induced impatience with us to church and church meetings. We want to get in, get on with it, get it done, get out, and go on. After all, we're taking time out of "real life" to deal with church business, right? Isn't it to our advantage to be as efficient as possible with the precious little time we all have?

And then someone suggests we spend time "reflecting" or worse yet, "sharing"! Who has time for this warm and fuzzy stuff? Why are we wasting the little time we have on things that don't move us forward?

Lately, I've been wondering about the most important things we can do in church meetings...and the conclusion I've been reaching is convincing me that we have mistaken the "business of church management" for the "business of the church". Our work, as the Church, is about strengthening relationships -- relationships with God, relationships with one another, relationships with the community beyond the confines of our parishes. And there are no "relationship shortcuts". Relationships cannot be measured (no matter how much the business books might tell us otherwise!) as a matter of return on investment.

Those of us in mainline denominations can look at the data and the balance sheets. We know that we are an aging demographic in an overall population in which fewer and fewer people are interested in attending a weekly worship service and serving on several committees designed primarily to assist perpetuating a congregation's existence. In desperation, we grasp at finding answers to our decline:

We need better music.
We need different liturgy.
We need more families with young children.
We need clearer doctrinal statements.
We need more powerful preaching.
We need more youth.
We need better newcomer's programs.
We need more financial commitment from our existing membership.

With all this neediness, we forget to pay attention to the work of community -- of praying for one another, of learning about each other, of sharing each other's burdens, of deeply listening to one another, of thanking one another. This is the work of relationship!

Some may say that, given the stresses upon mainline churches, we would be wasting our time doing all the "process" work required to intentionally strengthen relationships within a local congregation. I'm wondering if we took our relationships within a congregation more seriously and invested our time in cultivating them, would our efforts at such "process" yield far more "progress" than we could ask or imagine? I don't know. Perhaps we might learn that while many people don't want to be a part of helping us "survive" through another year, they would want to be a part of a group of people who are open, honest, curious, compassionate, and determined to live into being a followers of Jesus. Who knows? A few people might be really intrigued about being our traveling companions on the spiritual journey.

That would be progress, wouldn't it?