Phil Miglioratti Interviewed Josh Hayden,
author of "Remissioning Church: a Field Guide to Bringing a Congregation Back to Life"
"They don't need revitalization. They need remissioning."
PHIL >>> Josh, what type of congregations/churches are you referring to?
Does every congregation need remissioning? Would you recommend revitalization for some churches?
JOSH >>> Great question, Phil. Every congregation will need remissioning at some point in their journey if they make it past the first five years. To begin the remissioning process a church needs to recognize where it is on the life cycle. Remissioning churches run the gamut from healthy churches that are nearing a place of stability to struggling churches that will die and potentially be reborn. Remissioning churches are asking cultural questions that regularly examine “why” they are doing what they do and if they are consistent with the way God is inviting them to live on mission with their neighbors. Revitalizing churches are often asking how they can improve existing programs, events, and work without needing to examine whether the “why”. There are some churches where revitalization is very appropriate. They just need to refresh the apps in their already existing operating system. Remissioning churches are asking operating system level questions to refresh whole parts of the system. Any church that is around long enough will have to do the operating system work because people don’t stay the same.
"Remissioning is the process of inside-out transformation of the church through discipleship for the sake of our neighbors and world.
If they are thriving while their neighbors are barely surviving then they aren't really thriving after all."
{ quotes from the book; by the author}
PHIL >>> Everyone who reads what you wrote will give you their "Amen" ... but if they understood your radical perspective on what it means, they might back off, some might even be offended. Unpack, please explain the radical nature of these remissioning descriptors:
JOSH:
- Inside-out transformation >>> Some churches like to export mission to disciples and organizations outside of themselves and hope that through some kind of osmosis the disciples inside of the church will understand how to connect the dots to their everyday life. Remissioning churches will ask how we can make the kinds of disciples in the church who will live on mission rather than primarily giving the mission away to others.
- Through discipleship >>> People didn’t wake up one day and magically think what they do about music, their neighbors, their friendships, and how to navigate change in our churches. They were discipled into the way they love God and love their neighbors by what our churches do, talk about and also by what they don’t do and don’t talk about. People can change. They may not change easily, but they can change. Which means that churches can change too. And that transformation happens through purposeful discipleship over time.
- For the sake of our neighbors >>> I like to ask church leaders: “If your people and building fell into a sink hole, would your community notice if you were gone?” Remissioning churches learn how to answer this with a resounding—YES! Churches that are only engaging other Christians or swapping people from one church to another without meaningful relationships with their neighbors and non-profits, businesses, government leaders will inevitably build programs, events, and resources that their neighbors don’t necessarily want, need or understand. A meaningful maturity marker for a healthy remissioning church is when the community leaders and partners see the church as an asset instead of a burden in the flourishing of the community.
- And world >>> {does this include our culture as well as other countries?} In many ways the world doesn’t feel nearly as big in light of the technological advances that allow us to message, talk, do business, worship and have real-time video conversations across the world. My hope is that churches will learn how to live on mission in the various places across the world while recognizing the image of God is born into people already there and come alongside of where the Spirit is already at work.
"Remissioning...is a steady, purposeful, and dedicated process
that involves the transformation of the leaders and the church together."
PHIL >>> Remissioning may sound like, but is not a synonym for, reviving or restructuring or reprogramming. Explain how these standard descriptors are different in a remissioning process:
JOSH:
- Steady >>> In a world where people chase soundbites and quick fixes it is important for churches to seek to be a reliable and faithful presence. Change in the ecosystem of an organization doesn’t happen overnight so a steady presence helps give permission to grow.
- Purposeful >>> If we as church leaders can’t explain the “why” of what we do, we can’t expect our churches or neighbors to understand either. Be intentional and communicate clearly so that you can build trust.
- Dedicated >>> How might your church plant trees whose shade the current leaders may not enjoy? When is the last time your church considered tackling problems with your neighbors that couldn’t be solved in a few weeks or a couple of months? Remissioning is a steady, purposeful, dedicated presence with and for our neighbors.
- Transformation of leaders >>> Whatever transformation leaders hope to see in others, if they are unwilling to participate in their own change process then we shouldn’t be surprised if others won’t follow. So much of remissioning is learning how to embrace the cross as a pathway to resurrection. What preferences may need to die so that a clearer sense of mission can be resurrected?
- Transformation of the Church >>> The aim of remissioning isn’t to simply pursue and enact change. The aim of remissioning is to make disciples who can make disciples. We seek the transformation of the church so that we will stop passing on the worn out phrase to each generation “that’s not how we do it here.” When churches are willing to experience transformation, they become cities on a hill that demonstrates a kind of unity in the Spirit that will shine beams of hope amidst deeply divided times.
- ...together >>> Ron Heifetz says that adaptive leadership is “disappointing people at a rate they can absorb.” Remissioning leaders are learning to pace the transformation process so that people have time to do the necessary reflection and repentance work to go somewhere together.
"People resist change."
"People can change."
PHIL >>> Why is it important for leaders to believe in and constantly remember both statements?
JOSH >>> When leaders forget that people resist change they take the resistance personally. Change for most people represents loss. When we remember that resistance is connected to perceived and real loss, then we can turn our attention to how people can change. The good news of the gospel is that through God’s love, mercy and grace we can change. When we pass along this idea that people can’t change, we are actually undercutting the good news of the gospel in our churches and relationships. People rightly resist change because it usually costs them something. But people have survived tremendous amounts of change in their life but often forget the ways God has seen them through to a new day. Don’t be surprised when people resist change. But also, don’t lose heart.
"I am passionate about remisioning.
Empowering stuck, struggling, and dying churches
to discover new life on the other side of pain,
can create a transition from selfishness to generosity
so that congregations become assets to their communities,
instead of liabilities."
PHIL >>> Expound on these dyads -
JOSH:
- >>> Liabilities / Assets: Many local governments look churches as liabilities. They are tax-free pieces of land or exchanges of money that don’t create enough social capital to be seen as good. When churches learn to live meaningfully on mission and seek the good of their neighbors and not only themselves, the community learns to see the people, place, and programs as assets instead of a drain on resources.
- >>> Selfishness / Generosity: Many churches get into selfish power loops that reinforce existing preferences. Selfish churches have moved beyond honoring their traditions to worshiping them. Selfish churches usually have endless debates about their own preferences and rarely ask what is good and helpful for the very people who live in their community that have not yet decided to follow Jesus. Generous churches recognize that God’s love, purpose, and goodness is not like pie. That is, there is not a limited amount to go around. Generous churches learn to give their life away in order to find it. Rather than putting their own preferences above and over one another, generous churches put the mission of God at the center and ask how they might translate their practices as a way to love their neighbors well.
- >>> Pain / New life: Most of us avoid pain until we can avoid it no longer. We hope for resurrection without the cross. But on the other side of meaningful conflict and struggle can be new life. We often see resistance or disorientation as a sign to turn back and avoid struggle. But Remissioning churches learn to see that the struggle itself is the process where transformation happens.
PHIL >>> What keeps "stuck, struggling, dying" congregations stuck and struggling and dying?
JOSH: There are a few usual suspects that keep churches stuck, struggling and dying. Some leaders turn around and go back at the first sign of resistance rather than seeing the clash of values as a sign that they are on the right track. Some churches are so unhealthy that they destroy one another before they can make it to a repent or resist moment where they can decide together to go in a new direction or head back to the dysfunction they are used to. Other churches prefer hospice care to surgery and treatment. This means they prefer to live with the toxicity or cancer they know rather than to get help and seek healing. I often see church leaders with big ideas but no plan on how to get from their current location and make progress toward the big idea. When the vision can’t be acted on church remain stuck and eventually move into a spiral of shame and struggle.
"We (must) explore the markers of maturity in the remissioning process."
PHIL >>> In 25 words or less, explain the role of these "core competencies" in the remissioning process:
JOSH:
- Being a disciple >>> Remissioning leaders actively pursue discipleship and invite their church to journey with them.
- Creative destruction >>> The process of actively dying so that new life can emerge.
- Traditioned Innovation >>> Learning from our past so that our future is shaped by the story we have inherited.
- Discipleship pathways >>> Clear paths for people to move from immaturity to maturity as disciples of Jesus in your church.
- Remissioning leadership >>> Fosters the process of inside-out transformation of the church through discipleship for the sake of our neighbors and world.
"Remissioning established churches from the inside-out is not the easy road.
It relies on leaders who cultivate a spirituality of weakness,
while stewarding their churches instead of trying to own them.
Adaptive leadership."
PHIL >>> Describe how you teach leaders to develop skills they need and to utilize the tools and training resources your ministry has developed.
JOSH >>> The primary tool we use are Remissioning Collectives through `Iwa Collaborative. In Remissioning Collective 101 and Remissioning Collective 201, we invite leaders on a 30 week journey to explore the core competencies of remissioning, deploy tools, grow peer networks to decrease isolation, and learn with two practitioner-coaches who have incredible experiences and wisdom in remissioning. These Remissioning Collectives are weekly 1 hour calls in peer groups of leaders across various denominations, backgrounds, styles, and stages of the life cycle. The coaches help leaders to focus on what work is most important and at the end of the 30-week journey leaders will create a short-term and long-term project that they can use in real meetings with their real churches to chart a remissioning path forward. The Remissioning Collectives also have one in-person immersion experience where one of our leaders/coaches helps us to see how they have remissioned their churches in connection to their neighborhoods. We also have 4-week focused learning gatherings on some of the basics of remissioning that are great for staff and leaders to do together.
"Our eyes were opened, but too late."
{Elie Wiesel, Night}
PHIL >>> One more thing we need to know . . .
JOSH >>> When the temptation to avoid conflict is the highest don’t turn back. And comparison is a thief to mission. There is an incredible invitation for churches to experience the transforming work of the Spirit for the sake of the neighborhoods and communities we call home. Press in and live out Jesus’ prayer that God’s Kingdom would be on earth as in heaven.
"The road to remissioning is not easy but it is good.
"I leave you with this prayer ..."
PHIL >>> Josh, please write a prayer that a pastor/church leader would pray to invite the Holy Spirit to lead them into an authentic remissioning adventure.
JOSH >>> Holy Spirit, we ask that you meet us and our churches right where we are and help us to see ourselves and our neighbors with your love and your heart for what is possible when we take up our cross and follow Jesus. Give us courage when we are tempted to turn back. Humility when we need to repent. Kindness when we disagree. And wisdom to navigate change in a way that is good for our church and our community together. We trust you with all that we have and all that we are and we ask Holy Spirit that you would help our hearts to be open to following you wherever you ask us to go. In the hopeful and good name of Jesus, amen.
BONUS CONTENT:
√Your Field Guide to Josh's "Field Guide"
A Worksheet to Unpack the Truths and Tools that Can Bring Life Back to Your Ministry
From Pastor/Leadership Expert Josh Hayden's Field Guide for Church Leadership
Also - . . . "If Church is the answer...What's the question?"
>>>KEEP SCROLLING for RELATED CONTENT & COMMENTARY, RESOURCES & REPLIES