I’m
working on a book to help the United Methodist Church. I have no doubt an “open
source” collaboration will produce the best results. The more “people of
good will” offer helpful comments, the more help we can offer United
Methodists who love the church and want it to thrive.
“Crowdsourcing”
is a distributed problem-solving and production model. Problems are broadcast
to an unknown group of solvers in the form of an open call for solutions. Users
– also known as the crowd – submit solutions. The best solutions are then
owned by one who broadcast the problem in the first place.
In a
nutshell, that’s what we’re doing for 8 weeks together. My “Methodist
Monday” posts bring a question to everyone willing to help me as I write a
book to help the United Methodist Church.
I’m
learning a lot from the comments you gave to the question on my 1st “Methodist
Monday” post. You can read everyone’s comments, or leave one of your own,
here.
“Methodist
Monday #2” begins now.
Imagine
this scenario.
Four
United Methodists are sitting together at Starbucks: Joe, Maria, David and
Susan.
They’re
in a deep discussion and seem to be in total agreement on the merits of
“virtual church.” What’s really got them cranked up is Joe’s last
question, “Why would anyone waste the time and money needed for a church
building? It’s ridiculous. Wouldn’t the gospel spread faster if people could
meet anywhere, at any time for worship services? How are we supposed to reach
the world for Christ if the only way they can worship Jesus is by squeezing
into our little sanctuary?”
Immersed
in conversation, they hardly notice the man approaching their table.
“Hi,”
he says. “You may not know me, but I’m your bishop. I was meeting with your
pastor and when we finished she told me four members of the church were over
here drinking coffee. I was stopping to get a Skinny Caramel Macchiato for my drive home, so I decided to come in and meet you.”
Since
none of them can remember ever meeting a bishop, they all look down, pick up their mugs,
take a big swig and think, “This is just like that candy bar commercial on
TV, where the guy is in a socially awkward position and the voice-over-announcer
asks, ‘Need a minute?’”
Noticing
the uncomfortable pause, the bishop says, “I wanted to tell you I’m watching
your church. I work with hundreds of United Methodist congregations and yours
is getting quit a bit of attention lately. I’m fascinated by what you’re doing
so I’m glad I got a chance to meet you. I’m going to write the other
churches about what your church is doing. It’ll be interesting to see how the
next year goes.” With that, the bishop turns and walks away.
Joe is
the first to offer a theory of interpretation for the bishop’s words. “You
don’t suppose he’s going to tell the whole conference about our on-line worship
services do you? I figured he’d get some blow-back on that, since the internet ignores
district and conference boundaries. He’s going to have to explain to the other
bishops why a church in his conference is starting congregations in their
conferences.”
Maria
says, “I don’t think that’s it. Our largest on-line congregation is only about
thirty people, and they’re not even in the States. I wonder if he’s
trying to figure out what’s going to happen when there are more people meeting
in our services off campus than on. Think about it. We’re one United
Methodist church located in dozens of congregations, meeting all over America.
United Methodist Churches meeting as many congregations – in many sites - will
really challenge the old systems that were put in place before the internet
existed.”
Joe
agrees, “I know! That’s what I’m talkin’ about! Think how fast the gospel
can spread if we stop worrying about bricks and mortar and take advantage of
social media tools already in place. We’re only a few months away from
launching more congregations through Facebook. Think how many people we’ll reach!”
“That
could be an issue,” David says. “For a long time I’ve
wondered if our technology has outpaced our morality. Now I’m thinking our
bishop might be concerned that our growth might outpace our controls. What if
we don’t have systems in place to manage virtual congregations? What if we lose
control?”
“I’ll
bet that’s it,” Susan adds. “I mean, think about
it. I heard no one should serve communion or baptize people, unless
they’re ordained, or appointed by a bishop. So you’ve got to wonder what
all those congregations are supposed to do. There’s no way they can come to our
pastor every time they need the sacraments. We’ve got people
participating in our church from all over the world! I think the bishop might
be looking at all this potential for growth as a real problem.”
“No
chance,” Maria shoots back. “I’ve heard the
bishops are very committed to the growth of the church. That can’t be it.
There’s no way they’re more concerned about controlling the church than growing
it.”
David
jumps in. “But think of the problems virtual church creates. Leadership.
Oversight. Management. Allowing a local church to grow by multiplying
congregations all over the country is liable to make a big mess of our current
systems. Like I said, if our growth outpaces our controls we might lose our
identity - and our values. Bishops worth their salt will have to worry about
that.”
Maria
says, “All I know is, our church is a church without walls. We’re not
limited by geography any more than we’re bound by the walls of our local church
building. We’re including people in our services who would never consider
participating if they had to come to a church building. Didn’t Wesley say, ‘The
world is my parish?’ And aren’t we’re starting new congregations all over the
world?”
“But
they’re not very big; some don’t even have a dozen people. So, what’s the
bishop’s goal? Do you think he wants to get the best out of his pastors, or the
most out of his pastors? You usually can’t get both.”
Joe feels like that disclaimer might help. And since he has a vision for
exponential church growth through the viral contagion of a zillion small
congregations transforming their communities (without building any buildings at
all) he can’t stop suggesting “smaller is better.”
Susan
adds, “I know, but every new group – gathering around their love for Jesus –
is adding to the Church. And we’ve only been doing this for a while. Who knows
how big some of those congregations might become? And as they grow, I
think everyone will be happy we’re reaching lots of people for Jesus.”
Susan only recently gave her life to Christ and she still has the fire of a new
convert. She assumes every person in the world is going to become a Christian
within the next few months. (And the truth is, everyone else at the table envies
her remarkable confidence in God’s amazing grace.)
“Maybe
you’re right. But I’m not so sure. All growth isn’t necessarily good. Think of
cancer cells. They grow fast, but they’re devastating to the body. Growth can
be a problem.” David is having lots of trouble getting
past the challenges he knows the hierarchy of the church will face if local
churches change their ministries and adopt new technologies in the next 5 or 10
years.
“I don’t
see it that way; I think any growth is better than no growth at all. But I
guess we’ll see how the bishop responds. All I know for sure, is that it worked
for me, and I think it’ll work for a lot of my friends.”
You could tell this was Maria’s last word on the matter. She was one of
the first converts birthed in a virtual congregation. In fact, she’s never even
been to the original campus for a weekend service. Her world is wired and her
connections are global. She has so many Facebook friends she’s thinking of
getting a Fan page. The only thing that gives her pause is the intolerable
notion of asking people to be her fans. She’s much more comfortable
inviting them to be her friends, and she plans to invite every friend she makes
to become the friend of Jesus.
But
David has one last concern; he just can’t let it go.
“Whether
it works, or not, the bishop has got to know the congregations meeting in other
states are more like little churches than congregations. And even if those
congregations haven’t figured it out, our bishop will. Those congregations will
become local churches in the next five or ten years – and then what’ll happen?
People can’t just start churches can they? Aren’t there rules about that? I
don’t think a bunch of Christians can just go off ‘willy-nilly’ and start
acting like a local church, can they? I mean really. Without an appointed
pastor, without an ordained elder in charge, who knows what might happen!”
Our
world is changing. Facebook didn’t even exist in 2003. Today it has 400
million active users and half of them log on to Facebook on any given day.
Technologies that facilitate the sharing of information, the digital
mapping of people’s real-world social connections and the virtual enhancements
of relational capacity are combining to change everything. So what
changes will we see in the UMC?
Here’s
the “Methodist Monday #2” question.
Are
multi-site strategies, based in burgeoning social networking/social media
connections of virtual community, going to be good for the UMC? Or will
multiple decentralized congregations (considered to be iterations and outposts
of the same local church) undermine United Methodism’s health, connection and
community?
What are
the consequences of allowing local UM churches to be “one church in many
locations?”
Is
multi-site ministry going to enrich the UMC, or devastate it?
What’s your answer? The wisdom of
your comments helps a lot.
Ecclesiastes 7:10 - Don't always be asking, "Where are the good old days?" Wise folks don't ask questions like that.
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