Pastoring God's People
For all those who have been commissioned to
pastoral roles of all kinds.
Expect the unexpected
by Tim Schrag
Five ideas have guided me as a pastoral leader in the midst of change. The theoretical framework undergirding these ideas is Murray Bowen’s family systems theory.
1. Change is unavoidable and normal.
Biblically, God’s people have always been on a journey of change, which is true of congregational life as well. Congregants are born, and they mature, regress, age, and die. As the pieces of the congregation change, so does the whole. What a difference a strong church chair can make. Or a weak one! Simultaneously, external realities are powerful: economic recession, floods, urban sprawl, rural hardship. Each affects the congregation’s inner life and its mission.
The pastor can be a helpful historian of both the biblical and the congregational timeline.
Calm, curious leadership notices and names the changes, and frames change as an opportunity, not a threat.
The pastor can be a helpful historian of both the biblical and the congregational timeline. Achievements and challenges of past eras can be named and pondered: “What choices did we make that formed that period?” “Does this look like a timeline of faithfulness?” “Where are we heading?” “How does this compare to the biblical journey?” Change can be normal, manageable, and even a time for adventure.
2. Connectedness is crucial for a pastor.
In times of uncertainty and anxiety, the pastor can be tempted to form an emotionally safe huddle that serves to medicate the pastor’s own anxiety. Here are a few of my favorite least helpful anxious responses:
• Diagnosing others (as conservative, progressive, crazy) and “putting them in their place”
• Cozying up to allies and distancing oneself from opponents
• Excessively focusing on those who display the most anxious symptoms
• Focusing on problems while losing sight of the big picture
These behaviors are infectious. They cripple a congregation’s thoughtfulness and creativity. Opposing sides develop. Thus a congregation led by an anxious leader finds change difficult. It’s hard for people to think creatively when they’re serious, tense, and worried.
The pastoral alternative is both easy and difficult: Stay connected with as many sides as possible—even with, and maybe especially with, the troublemakers. “Love your enemy” comes to mind. Guide conversations toward many facets of personal and congregational life, not just the problems. Ask honest, curious questions. Use humor. Such pastoral behaviors invite congregational thoughtfulness and perspective in the midst of unsettling change.
3. Willfulness should be avoided and clarity embraced.
Uncertainty seems to motivate me to take control, to try to make people think and act the way I want them to. In hindsight, I rue every minute I have spent in this fruitless enterprise. You can’t put motivation or insight into unmotivated people. You will end up exhausted, and nothing will really change.
“But I want to fix it now so I will feel better!” my emotional center cries out. I convince myself that I’m not willful—I’m right. “I’m on theological solid ground,” I tell myself. “This is God’s will, after all!” The result? A red face, congregational resistance, and limited thinking by all. A pastorfocused congregation thinks mainly about the pastor’s ideas, whether the congregants are in agreement or disagreement, and creativity withers.
The alternative is to embrace clarity while remaining open. Present your ideas. Be clear. But also be curious and proactive in seeking other’s ideas: “I have become strongly convinced of my position for these reasons. What has gone into your thinking on this?”
4. Serendipity should be expected and embraced.
Two theological convictions undergird an embrace of serendipity. “God’s spirit blows where it will,” and “God works in all things for the good of those who love him.”
Many rich biblical images of sojourn and salvation illustrate the journey of faith. The pastor’s charge is to inject these perspectives into the congregation’s interactions. God is still good, active, and creating, and so change is welcome. Our journey is to “a place God will show us.” Say it again and again! Helpful words are adventure, discovery, guidance, protection, shepherd, and presence. The pastor should employ these words willingly and often, and corresponding hymns and Scriptures can also be used.
Several times a significant leader or donor in our congregation has moved away or died. “Now what?” we worried. But without exception others, even those we considered unlikely to, stepped up to the plate. This should not have surprised us, since Israel’s story didn’t end with the death of Moses.
Myron Augsburger wrote in Soli Deo Gloria: “Prayer is not using God, but opening one’s life to the work of God.” Expect, embrace, and proclaim serendipity.
5. Finally, the pastor must do personal emotional work.
Change always produces uncertainty and anxiety. Emotional buttons are hardwired into the human brain early in life. Pastors are not immune to this. As a middle child, I learned that the middle is the safe place to be. Anxiety activates this default setting. Sometimes a retreat to the middle is beneficial, but it can also cripple my leadership repertoire when I should be assuming the stance of lonely prophet, which my gut tells me to avoid. It takes hard work for me to function in a principled way and not just revert to my emotional autopilot.
Thankfully, God’s plan is that we be transformed by the renewing of our minds and that we put on the mind of Christ. I have found the seminars on Bowen family systems theory described at www.leadershipinministry.com extremely helpful. A consciously disciplined spiritual life is of enormous import, and a pastor’s emotional and spiritual maturity is infectious.Tim Schrag is lead pastor of the Mennonite Church of Normal in Illinois.