By George Bullard
Since they only plan to wade into the shallow end of the pool or a few feet into the river, lake or ocean, the typical congregational participant only needs to remove shoes and socks. And we are not talking about feet washing here.
They have no plans to change into a swimsuit and get fully immersed in water, to swim in the deep end above their heads or to allow the currents or the ocean’s undertow to challenge them. And we are not talking about baptism here.
Shallow congregations, like people who only wade into shallow water, only plan to lead people connected with them into a Christian lifestyle that gives them just enough Jesus to get their feet wet. That is not enough to call for a full commitment to a Christ-like lifestyle, and an ever deeper journey into a Christian community characterized by significant discipleship and mutual accountability.
One of my previous commentaries spoke to the shallow and private nature of many Christians. That commentary suggested congregations often lack a commitment to open sharing, personal accountability and meaningful community. Such a posture leads to an overall shallow congregation.
Who are these shallow congregations?
No congregation plans to be shallow. Or do they? Unfortunately some do plan to be shallow. It was established as a church in its community to which people in the Protestant tradition could go, worship God and provide some reasonably good role models for their children. For them the phrase “good enough is good enough” applied not only to the quality of their programs, ministries and activities, but also to the depth of their personal and congregational discipleship.
Other congregations started out with an intentional desire to be a deeply spiritual fellowship. Over the years several things happened. First, they lost that vision. Second, a crisis or unwise decisions refocused their energies around organizational and institutional issues rather than disciple-making and missional issues. Third, they compromised their cutting-edge nature supposedly to help the church sustain its numerical size and not exclude anyone.
People who did not have a deep disciple-making commitment became friends of congregants or were their family members, and the church relaxed some of its high commitment principles. Eventually it moved to a place where it did not want to offend anyone, so it allowed silt to fill in its once deeper waters. Ultimately it developed a theological rationale that this is where it should have been anyway.
Many congregations are unaware they are shallow. They were founded as cultural congregations in the Christian tradition with an overly churched mindset. They learned culture first, and Christ later. Cultural and family were at their core. Christ was at the outer edge.
Pastors, staff ministers and a core of committed laypersons often toil for years seeking to help congregational participants with spiritual formation. But people still have the same attitudes and perspectives as though they had never been through thousands of hours of sermons, teaching, and small group and personal sharing. The idea of changing their attitude and life actions to be more like Jesus is an unknown concept to many congregational participants.
Creating the anti-shallow congregation
Ouch! I do not like this negative subhead. Yet I must admit that the long-term tendency of many congregations is to become shallow. Therefore, in addition to going deeper spiritually, it may also be necessary to work against becoming shallow and thus intentionally function as an anti-shallow congregation. How do you do this?
The best way is to start a new congregation with a set of non-negotiable core values that focus on being invitational, discipleship and spiritual formation, focused and unashamedly missional in ministry engagement. Creating a new culture that is deeply Christ-centered stands the best chance of creating and sustaining an anti-shallow congregation. My informed guess is that this will be successful one out of two times.
A second way is to radically reset your existing congregation — reset to become a new inviting culture of spiritual formation and missional engagement with a new eternal mission, everlasting purpose, enduring core values and empowering vision. Congregational participants then covenant with one another around living into these. Do this within four to six months from the time you start. You will probably lose the people who do not want to make this commitment. My informed guess is that this will be successful one out of five times.
The way many congregations who decide to become anti-shallow are likely to move forward is through incremental transition and change. This takes three to five years to achieve, and five to seven years before we will know if it is sustainable. It involves the same actions as reset, but also incrementally engaging rather than radically and quickly moving in that direction. My informed guess is that this will only be successful one out of 10 times.
How deep is the water into which you are willing to wade? Will you make the full plunge? How about your congregation?