Just think about the paradigms that are shifting even as we speak.
The familiar practice of receiving news on a printed page, for example, is giving way to Internet-delivered news, both professionally reported and “crowd-sourced.” Some traditional media like the New York Times and Newsweek magazine are shifting their business to the Web. Others are simply going out of business — amid much lamenting but not much creative effort to adapt.
Same with hard-wired telephone systems, big-box retail stores, bookstores, indeed perhaps all of retail sales conducted in brick-and-mortar stores. An experimental movement to put some college courses online three years ago has become a flood of online offerings, including 1,700 MIT courses and, another first, a University of Wisconsin degree earned entirely online. Who needs beer blasts to get a diploma?
The list of shifting paradigms goes on and on. I once asked a group of church leaders to identify the paradigms (archetypes, patterns, accepted practices) that had changed in their lifetimes, and the list passed 100 before they were through.
When a paradigm shifts, it basically dies. It no longer describes reality, no longer conveys meaning or purpose, and no longer energizes people. Such a death might leave some feeling sad or angry, as if something essential had been taken away from them, but they, too, are using cell phones and shopping at Wal-Mart. Things change.
Mainline Christianity has tried to swim upstream, preserving the paradigm of Sunday morning worship as if “church” couldn’t happen any other way. Reality has been unkind to that desire. Sunday attendance continues to sag, even as other churches with active weekday and off-site ministries thrive.
Older constituents feel especially resistant to moving beyond Sunday, because they remember when Sunday worked and because they have geared many of their friendship activities, and certainly their religious activities, around Sunday morning.
I have suggested that church leaders leave Sunday morning alone, as it still serves some people well, but that they launch creative weekday, off-site and online ministries, that they market those to new constituencies such as young adults, and that they shift more and more human and financial resources to these beyond-Sunday initiatives.
In my opinion, this will be the great test of church leadership going forward. Ruling elders and young ministers coming out of seminary will need to think seven-days-a-week, avoid the easy course of perfecting Sunday as if that would accomplish anything, and get humble enough to learn from others.
I am concerned that mainline seminaries don’t get this paradigm shift and, as one Presbyterian leader puts it, are continuing to “train clergy for a church that no longer exists.” The challenge in preparing for ordained ministry isn’t to learn Sunday worship skills, but to learn church development.
Moving beyond Sunday will mean conflict. Older music ministers, for example, often resist any change of emphasis away from big services on Sunday. Older constituents complain when the pastors aren’t focused entirely on their needs. Getting more young adults on sessions means taking power away from longtime leaders.
After decades of fighting over ordination, liturgy and sexuality, many church leaders are weary of conflict. All I can say is that conflicts over shifting the Sunday worship paradigm will be critical for their futures. If they fail to push through resistance to it, their congregations may die.
TOM EHRICH is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is a founder of the Church Wellness Project churchwellness.com. His Web site is morningwalkmedia.com
