What Discipling Communities Can Do...

Simple network drawing. Public domain.

This post is a companion to the previous one-- The 4 Core Competencies of Christian Congregations (Plus 1 More for Methodist/Missional Congregations. It is meant to be read and used as a tool for assessment and planning  alongside it. The connecting links between the two are Competency 5 for Methodist/Missional Congregations and Competency 4 here-- as one of the "nodes" discipling communities seek to connect persons with is a local congregation.

Why separate "competency charts" for congregations and Discipling Communities? Because these two different kinds of Christian community are exactly that-- two different kinds of Christian community designed to accomplish different things. And we need them both-- and more besides-- to experience and express the fulness of what it means to "be  for the world the body of Christ redeemed by his blood." Congregations provide a platform for discipleship. Discipling communities, such as the Methodist Societies with their class meetings, bands, society meetings and other forms of community action and connection, give people the hands-on experience with discipleship to Jesus that truly helps them grow in holiness of heart and life.

This chart is not a "neat" as the previous one, I admit. I was able to develop color coding and even acronyms for the 4+1 competencies of congregations. So far, at least, I've not been able to come up with pnemonics that work quite that way for Discipling Communities.

But that may not be such a bad thing. What I do have is at least some attempt to clarify what each of the competencies is, and what it means (as well as has meant historically, with early Methodists as a primary guide). My sense is we may have become so unfamiliar with or in some cases suspicious of Discipling Communities as separate from congregations that perhaps the best first work we can do is be clear about what these are, and aren't.

I present neither of these outlines as a final product, but rather as a work in progress to help Methodist and other self-identifying Missional congregations and existing or newly created Discipling communities find each other, claim their own strengths and capacities, and help each other perform them accountably with each other.

Church in the Methodist/Missional way is ultimately network, not hub and spokes. Congregations and Discipling Communities make up the two perhaps most significant hubs of this network, with a whole variety of other kinds of Christian ministry and missional communities also in the wider network.

So... try this set of descriptions on. See how they fit. And where they don't.

And by all means share your suggestions for ways to make these tools more accurate and useful as you seek to embody the fullness of "church as network" where you are.

Peace in Christ,

Taylor Burton-Edwards

The 4 Core Competencies of Discipling Communities

1. Discipling All Serious Inquirers in the Way of Jesus

Discipling: The relationships in Discipling Communities involve intimate and "in your business" mutual challenge and support as persons with differing levels of experience listen to one another about what they are doing and learning as they seek to follow Jesus in every area of their lives. 

All Serious Inquirers: All are welcome to begin and continue the journey, provided that it is clear they are part of the Discipling Community in order to grow in faithful discipleship to Jesus, or as Wesley put it, to "attain unto that holiness without which no one shall see the Lord"

In the Way of Jesus: The baptismal covenant provides the principles for Christian discipleship and commonlife. Other documents, such as the General Rules, provide practices that help  members of Discipling Communities incarnate it.

2. Teaching the Way of Salvation in Word and Deed

Teaching: Discipling Communities have an active teaching ministry.

The Way of Salvation: While congregations teach basic Christian doctrine (the Trinity, the role of Scripture, basic teachings of Jesus, and the like), Discipling Communities place the doctrine of salvation in all its fullness as the focus of everything they teach. For Methodists, this includes specific teaching on prevenient, justifying and sanctifying grace.

In Word:  Discipling Communities regularly confess the doctrine of salvation in worship together, help their participants articulate this for themselves, friends and strangers in their own words, and actively evangelize both as groups and as individuals.

And Deed: What Discipling Communities confess with their lips they teach and actively help their members to credible with their lives.

3. Engaging the Mission of God Accountably

Engaging: The purpose and work of Discipling Communities is "to spur one another on to love and good works.

The Mission of God: The mission is God's. Discipling Communities constantly send inquirers and members into God's mission already in progress, sometimes to plant, sometimes, to harvest, sometimes to distribute, and sometimes to wait. 

Accountably: Discipling Communities provide regular-- at least weekly-- means for persons to report what they learned as they engaged or failed to engage God's mission and to support, challenge, and encourage each other to become more faithful in their work in God's fields.

4. Connecting People and Social Networks for Mission and Ministry

Connecting People: Discipling Communities, like leaders in Methodist/Missional congregations (see Congregational Competency 5)  are constantly "on the lookout" to identify people who are ready for next steps in discipleship and to connect them with appropriate face to face communities of people seeking the same ends-- discipleship to Jesus, holiness of heart and life, and perfection in love in this life.

And Social Networks: Discipling Communities make, sustain and extend the social networks of each participant in each  place, helping them cross social boundaires and find ways to connect with people in all social boundaries present.

For Mission and Ministry: Discipling Communities seek to ensure that witness to the good news of God's kingdom is happening and the gospel is being incarnated in action in every social location in their local geographical area and beyond.

So What CAN Congregations Do?

The 4 Core Competencies of Christian Congregations (+1 More for Methodists/Missionals!)

Without going into all of the historical background I might present to justify this here, I suggest there are four key things Christian congregations have organized themselves to do, and do well, since the late fourth century. 

I also include  a fifth competency for Methodist and other intentionally Missional Congregations-- or at least one we Methodists SHOULD include to embody our heritage fully: Inviting and Connecting People to Discipling Communities. I have another chart to post at another time detailing the Core Competencies of Discipling Communities.

What I am presenting here is the "outline version" of the 4 Core Competencies,  which I've actually reduced to a single page .pdf (downloadable here) to give a fairly broad yet comprehensive picture of the competencies themselves, the elements that make them up, and perhaps some indications of ways you might be able to measure your progress on each.

Core Competency 1: Offering Public Worship

Public— open and inviting to everyone in a particular place

Excellent— meets or exceeds local public standards for speaking, musical performance, and engaging the bodies and minds of participants

Accessible— to persons of varying levels of knowledge and ability

Recognizable— as being worship in the Christian tradition

Locally adapted— uses the wide variety of gifts and reflects the cultures of participants

Core Competency 2: Teaching Basic Doctrine

Confessing the faith— worship regularly confesses core elements of the faith that are remembered by participants

Living the faith— worshipers’ lives resemble what is taught and confessed in worship and other teaching venues

Articulating the faith— participants can accurately describe the core elements of the faith in their own words

Sharing the faith— participants share what they have learned with people outside the congregation

Passing on the faith— multiple systems ensure that the congregation forms newcomers and new generations in the basic teaching of the faith

Core Competency 3: Caring for Members and Participants

 

Physical Care— support for the physical needs of participants (financial, food, health, accessibility, transportation)

Ongoing Communities of Care— every participant is quickly and effectively connected with others who provide a community of basic caring and prayer

Emergency Care—  systems of communication ensure that persons in emergency situations receive appropriate and timely care

Transitional Care— intensive communities of caring for persons walking through significant transitions

Core Competency 4: Being a Reliable Institutional Player in the Local Community

Fiscal accountability — the congregation manages financial resources transparently and responsibly

Active — the congregation has or creates a history of forming effective partnerships that release the missional  capacity of the local community

Capacity — the congregation acts based on its programmatic, leadership and relational strengths

Trusted — the congregation has a good reputation among persons and other institutions in the local community

Core Competency 5 (Methodists/Missional Congregations): Inviting and Connecting People to Discipling Communities

Looks for signs ("bright eyes") that people are ready for deeper discipleship to Jesus

Invites people to consider and take next steps in discipleship to Jesus

Networks with accountable discipling communities, inside and outside the congregation, and regularly refers people to them.
 

Key leaders, including the pastor(s), are actively involved in accountable discipling communities themselves

The 4 Core Competencies of Christian Congregations Plus One More-- Copyright (c) 2012 Taylor W. Burton-Edwards for the General Board of Discipleship of The United Methodist Church

Differences Congregations Don't Make... and What to Do about It

Congregations Make Little if Any Difference in People's Lives

Image: Public Domain.

The Barna Group recently released the findings of their study called "What People Experience in Churches." A primary criterion they used to decide who could give them valid information in their otherwise random sample was whether people were "practicing Christians." They defined practicing Christians as "adults who describe themselves as Christians, attend a worship service at least once a month, and say their religious faith is very important in their life." Since attending worship was one of these criteria, I've also written a post about this study on the United Methodist Worship blog.

There, I was looking more specifically at worship practices that do or don't make differences and the kinds of differences people say worship (which is the primary common activity of congregations) actually makes.

Here, I want to look at the same data with a slightly different lens-- one that explores a significant limitation of congregations this study reveals across the board, no matter their size, tradition, or the generation (age) of the persons interviewed. 

In every case, the Barna data shows, the percentage of people saying "Attending church affected my life greatly" turns out to be fairly small, and always less than 50%. The highest reported positive response rate to this was 43% from non-Mainline Protestants. The positive response rates based on age and size, however, show results in the 20%- mid 30% range. Indeed, as Barna reports, 46% of persons attending regularly reported participating in a congregation did not affect their lives at all!

Let me try to summarize this bluntly. The vast majority of church attenders, 2/3 or more, report that congregations either do not or only marginally affect their lives. 


Even more to the point, perhaps: Congregations make little or no difference in the lives of most people who attend them.

Shock and Horror? Or Wake-Up Call?

Barna's reporting of this finding doesn't make much of this, apart from reporting it. There is no mention of ways to address this reality in their concluding summary, apart from noting that "Millions of active participants find their church experiences to be lacking." They go on to recommend that congregations work at finding ways to enhance people's participation in congregations, apparently on the theory that enhanced participation would equate with higher levels of transformation.

But they provide no evidence at all for that theory. Indeed, as we know from Willow Creek's Reveal study (http://www.revealnow.org) from a few years ago, the reality is that higher levels of participation in congregations do not correlate at all with higher levels of personal transformation or discipleship to Jesus. Not at all. 

That doesn't mean congregations are useless in transformation or discipleship. It does mean they're simply not very good at it-- or at least not good at helping people actually go very far with it.

What Reveal shows is that the congregations can be pretty good at helping people have an initial encounter with Christ, and even at fostering a "falling in love experience." But they generally don't do a good job at all-- no matter how amazing their worship is and no matter how many small groups they have inside them-- at moving many people very far in terms of maturing, much less maturity.

As the Wesleys might have put it, congregations can help people encounter Christ and maybe even begin to believe they want to follow him (prevenient and justifying grace). Congregations may provide that kind of foundation for people-- and people do value that.  We can see this in Barna's data, too-- as fairly sizable percentages in every size, generation, and tradition reported  that congregations help them have a feeling of connection with God, even if they also report those feelings are infrequent.

But congregations across the board do little to help people learn actually how to follow Christ or come to "have the mind of Christ" (sanctification, moving on to perfection/maturity). That's because congregations are not, at their core, discipling communities. That's what discipling communities are for!

And that's why Methodism came to exist in the 18th century-- to provide a venue and formats of Christian community, in addition to (and not in competition with!) congregations, where people could far more regularly experience and grow in sanctifying grace, by attending to all the ordinances of God, making use of all the ordinary means of grace, living out the vows of the baptismal covenant by following the General Rules, and watching over one another in supportive and challenging love as they did so.

This is also at the heartbeat of the emerging missional movements and many organic church movements today. It's also at the heart of what a lot of campus ministries and some Emmaus 4th Day groups (to name just two among many others!) have done brilliantly for decades.

Congregations alone aren't doing this work effectively, haven't done this work effectively, -- and generally speaking, for most people, it appears, just plain can't.

Perhaps the wake up call here is to tell us it's time to quit expecting congregations (and their pastors!) to do things they so clearly don't do and maybe can't do well!

Perhaps it's time instead to remember our own roots as missional Methodists.

As United Methodists, we are calling each other to invest in increasing the number of vital congregations. This is a fine thing to do. GBOD is here to help with that-- and we do it every day.  But also, perhaps it's time to start investing just as heavily in leaders who will generate forms of Christian community like Methodist Societies across the US, at least-- even as they already are and have been for decades in places like Zimbabwe! And yes, GBOD is here to help you with that, too-- whenever you are ready.

Shock and Horror? No. Panic moves to "kick-start" congregations into discipling? Not likely to do much but damage a lot of congregations. 

Sobriety is what these data point us to. Congregations are invited to look in the mirror, and realize what they are and are not, what they can do well, and what others can do better. Congregations are invited not to think of themselves more highly than they ought, but rather to regard other forms of Christian community that can do some tasks better than they can as their equal partners in fulfilling Christ's commission.

And maybe, just maybe, some congregational leaders, lay or clergy, are being invited to form or partner with missional discipling groups that do what early Methodist Societies (with their class meetings, bands, trial class meetings, select societies, field preaching and society meetings) did so well-- to reform the nation, particularly the church, and to spread scriptural holiness across the land. 

Peace in Christ,

Taylor Burton-Edwards