Reggie McNeal

This past weekend we had Reggie McNeal at Ward Church.  It was Reggie’s book, The Present Future, which began the process of me moving down the path that Lara and I have embraced for church planting.  He put words to my thoughts about the church, about people and why we are unfortunately so ineffective at reaching people who have no church background.

On Saturday, Reggie addressed several shifts that the church needs to make.  On Sunday, he talked about how we as people can make these shifts in our own lives.  Before I review his weekend I would like to say something that Reggie presupposes when he speaks; he is addressing people that he believes are passionate about Jesus and being in relationship with Him.  He believes that this passion for Christ is the foundation from which all of our love for others must flow.

So, back to Saturday when Reggie shared three of the six shifts he thinks the church must make for the future.  The first shift would take the church from an internal focus to an external focus.  In Reggie’s opinion, the church in North America spends a disproportionate amount of its time on itself.  God called the church to be a people that share Jesus with the world around them in word and deed.  If we hold to the attitude that people must come to church to encounter Jesus and His grace we are flying in the face of overwhelming biblical commands.  Reggie pushed us to think about how we could take the love of Jesus out with us intentionally into the places where God has already placed us.

The second major shift Reggie presented would move the church from a program-driven model to a people-development model.  When the church runs programs they tend to become an end in themselves.  The goal is the continuation and success of the program.  The question becomes: How many people attended the program and did they enjoy it?  Leaders focus on what is being done in the programs.  Reggie encouraged us to think about how to change trajectories and focus more on people.  We were challenged to focus on what kind of people we want to produce, not on what type of program we want to have them participate in.  This thinking does not presume that what we are currently doing is correct or erroneous.  Instead, it sets that whole question aside and asks how we can achieve what God would have us to achieve.  Do keep in mind though that this new paradigm does take into account the uniqueness of everyone, the fact that people grow in different ways and at different paces, and that people have their own callings.

The last shift Reggie put forward was the idea of moving from leading an organization to leading a movement.  An organization is somewhat predictable and controllable.  Movements, however, have dispersed leadership and multiple directions and goals.  With one, we want people who can lead within our passion, and with the other, we free them up to lead in the passion that God has given them.  Within an organization we typically hope for growth by addition.  Movements are usually characterized by explosive growth through multiplication, which doesn’t necessarily lead people back to our organization.

For an institutional church like Ward, these are major shifts.  In a sense, all organizations are concerned with self-preservation and continuity.  These shifts may mean that people connected with the church start movements that are not connected to that church any longer.  These shifts will probably also mean that we coach people to hear what God is calling them to do instead of pushing them into the things that we want them to do.  It can be scary to embrace this new paradigm.  But I deeply believe that these shifts will allow our people to impact their communities and natural relationships in ways that they wouldn’t be able to otherwise.