Organic, team- and lay-driven
Akron Mennonite Church was born 45 years ago with 46 charter members. But as it grew to today's membership of almost 500, its people no longer felt as connected as they once did. That was especially evident at congregational meetings, with attendance dwindling to only 50 people. "The struggle was how to keep that [old] feeling of ownership even as we were getting larger," says co-pastor Dawn Yoder Harms.

In an effort to encourage participation, the congregation abolished annual meetings in 1997 in favor of quarterly gatherings during the Sunday school hour, around tables. "That gave the congregation a model of how to enter into the decision-making process together," Harms says.

In an effort to encourage participation, the congregation abolished annual meetings in favor of quarterly gatherings during the Sunday school hour.

The move set the stage for greater changes. In January 2002, the pastors and about 50 congregational leaders were invited to a weekend visioning retreat.

Out of that emerged four areas needing attention: congregational structure, community, facilities and Christian education. Four focus groups were formed to work at each of these issues.

By December of that year, the groups were ready to present their findings to the congregation. Building on the new system of quarterly Sunday morning meetings, members gathered during the Sunday school hour for 13 consecutive weeks to hear from the focus groups, discuss their findings and plan for the future.

Spending three months talking and listening may sound like a long time, but the process couldn't be rushed. "If we were going to make serious, systemic changes, we needed to slow down and let the Spirit move in our midst," says Jim S. Amstutz, Akron's other co-pastor.

The process included the use of "discernmentarians," based on the worshipful work model, which aims to keep God prominent in church business sessions. In Akron's deliberations, two congregational members provided observations and suggestions for prayer and singing to keep focus on God and away from an overemphasis on business. "I think that was formative for us," Amstutz says.

In the end, the congregation approved new directions and structures to implement them. Among them were self-organized ministry teams for outreach initiatives such as peace, overseas mission, and transitional housing. The Sunday school system was revamped, and plans were made for a long-range facilities study.

The success of the process, however, was not so much in the results as in how the congregation achieved them. "I do think people feel heard in a way they hadn't been heard before," Harms says. "We not only make decisions together, we built community together."

By emphasizing the thoughts and feelings of all, Amstutz says, the discernment time tapped into members' own passions for ministry. For example, organizers recently planned three adult Sunday school classes, but congregational members developed four more on their own initiative. In the meantime, participation in Sunday school—now called discipleship hour—has doubled.

Members feel a new sense of ownership in Akron Mennonite Church. "It's more organic, more team- and lay-driven," Amstutz says. "If we really want to be missional ... it calls for a decentralized style of leadership. This isn't about hired clergy doing it all or committees doing it all."

Larger and larger circles
Like ripples from a rock thrown into the water, a vision of invitation and outreach has been expanding through First Mennonite Church, a congregation of about 375 worshippers. The center of that vision has been the congregation's pastoral staff, particularly lead pastor Clarence Rempel, who took a year-long sabbatical in 2000-2001.

" I needed to rethink, be re-energized, and be redirected in terms of my leadership," Rempel says. He wanted to discern "what God's call is for today and tomorrow."

When he returned, Rempel started encouraging the congregation to think about its mission and vision. A 12-member "Vision Community" was formed in fall 2001 to contemplate the future. "We were looking for people who were influential in church life, who had rapport, who were respected," Rempel says. "We added to that persons who were newer to the congregation."

Vision Community member Wendy Funk Schrag describes the group as an advisory board. "We help the pastors flesh out the vision they see for the congregation," she says.

" We began," Rempel recalls, "with a smaller leadership group that would share the vision back into the congregation. It was a process that moved deliberately to larger and larger circles, trying to make connections with everyone in the congregation."

It was important to have a small group that had been educated on the issues in order to guide the process. Sometimes when we plan, we just pool our ignorance.

The Vision Community started its work with four half-day retreats, studying four books (cited on pages 50-51), praying, and journaling. "It was really important for us to spend a lot of time ... in study and prayer," Schrag says.

Rempel says it was important to have a small group that had been educated on the issues at hand in order to guide the process. "Sometimes when we do planning and thinking as a congregation, we pool our ignorance," he says.

The Vision Community's retreats produced a mission statement, a vision motto, and a series of "vision paths," such as spiritual vitality, reaching seekers, facilities, and equipping people for ministry.

In early 2002, the Vision Community shared its ideas with a meeting of about 55 commission and committee members, received feedback. and followed up with revisions. The group then presented its work to the congregation through Sunday school classes, and congregational meetings, and two series of sermons.

The plan was approved by the congregation in April 2002. Since then there have been more sermons, an annual fun fest, new Sunday school classes, seminars, organized intentional acts of kindness, and other initiatives designed to reach out to the community. "It's been really neat how people have really owned this," says Schrag, who is also the congregation's moderator.

Admittedly, there have been rough spots. "In congregational change and development," Rempel says, "there are always people who feel they aren't heard." In February 2003, for example, a second, contemporary, worship service was started as a one-year experiment. This met with some caution, particularly from older members, which required special attention by leadership.

" There was a need to communicate to [the older members] that we really cared about them and wanted First Mennonite Church to be a church for them all the days of their lives," Rempel says. At time of writing, the congregation was evaluating the two-service format in light of its stated vision "to grow as a God-changed community, inviting seekers to become devoted followers of Jesus."

Rich Preheim is a freelance writer in Elkhart, Indiana. He previously served on the editorial staffs of Mennonite Weekly Review and The Mennonite.