Article Review: Jon

I reviewed Donald Troost’s article “Re-Imagining Congregational Ministry”. I thought it was a solid article and it was one of the only times I read a “church article” when I wished it was longer. Typically, especially I must confess in the text we have read for this class, I feel bogged down by the depth and complexity of an article. I still have waded through them, but this article is short and has a very strait forward approach to things that need to be altered in Congregational ministry. While I don’t think it is a complete list of all the transitions that a congregation might need to be led through, it is certainly a great start, and possibly enough to keep leadership in a church busy for decades. Here are his five points:
• The church now lives in a post-Christian era
• Congregations will recover a missional character
• Congregations will come to terms with a pluralist society
• While living in a consumer culture, a missional congregation will move beyond consumerism
• A missional congregational will cultivate the future

Because the author is so brief, I just want to cut and paste the article. I would recommend that you read it. It will only take a few minutes and t fits well with our readings. It seems as though the article is notes from a conference in which George Hunsberger (Professor of missiology at Western Theological Seminary) spoke. I like where he started because in order to lead co congregation through any sort of transition, they must first face reality. I believe he accurately identifies the first three points that we do exist in a post-Christian era, we are not a missional church traditionally or historically, and we do live in a pluralistic society. I look at that and even though I might hear hundreds of comments and complaints about how “things are different now-a-days” during any given month, it might still take months to convince the body in which I serve the truth of these three points. Only after convincing them of these three truths could we possible begin to dive into the fourth point and address some degree of transcending the current cultural trends. Many in our congregation might just keep denying reality because admitting it means admitting they should do something about it. For many, that is someone else’s job. Others in our congregation like things the way that they are, both in society and church. The current situation provided a comfortable double standard in which they can behave the way they want to. This may sound harsh, but I find people very willing to complain about a situation, and at the same time unwilling to admit their connection to it or their responsibility to address it. Finally, I like the way he finishes by saying that this is not going to be some grand restructuring project that we can get done and them move on from. Instead, this is the beginning of a continual process of the church allowing itself to be regenerated or reformed (semper reformanda) by the Word of God.