c. 2008 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) In the Church Wellness Project (http://www.churchwellness.com), we talk about three aspects of membership development:

_ Recruitment

_ Retention

_ Transformation

The first two can be clearly, if inelegantly, stated as bringing new members in the front door and keeping them from going out the back door.

Both need to be in balance. It does no good to focus so much on new members that existing members feel abandoned and unloved. Nor can we be so solicitous of existing members that newcomers feel unwelcome and invisible.

It is the third activity _ transformation _ that is difficult to pursue and measure.

The point of Christian community could be stated, variously, as new life, repentance, winning the victory over self, seeking forgiveness, learning to love, becoming God’s agent in justice, making a positive difference with one’s life, accepting God’s better ways of living, or allowing God’s reign to commence in one’s life.

The point is always change or transformation. We become a new creation, and the world around us is the better for it.

Congregations don’t serve their members adequately unless they lead them into such transformation. Just belonging isn’t enough. Just having a role in keeping the church’s doors open isn’t enough.

Nor do congregations serve their communities adequately if they remain inoffensive occupants of prominent street corners. To some degree, our communities need to be changed because we in the faith community are being changed.

Transformation is largely a personal journey and, therefore, can be difficult to discern. Personal transformation might lead to measureable action, such as becoming mission-minded, tithing or worshiping more regularly. But transformation might not lead to such action. We might never see how a transformed Christian becomes a better parent, a more ethical employee or a more loving friend.

Church involvement can’t be the only measure; faith is about the whole of life. Indeed, some people pursue church involvement for precisely the wrong reasons, as a way to avoid their personal transformation in the forms of better use of time and wealth, or ethics at work, for example.

In evaluating our efforts, we need to ask the difficult question: Are we simply bolstering the institution, or are we leading people deeper in their faith and helping them to seek new life? Are we so focused on the mechanics of membership growth that we fail to see whether members are actually growing as persons?

Churches have worked hard to engage members in society’s political and moral issues. On both conservative and liberal sides, church members offer their time, activism, money and votes to political office-seekers.

But we must ask _ in a humility that doesn’t come easily _ does our activism spring from transformation of life, or from having certain historic or tribal buttons pushed? Are we enlisting in a cause because God has driven us to our knees in prayer, or are we praying publicly and fervently to bolster a cause we already cared about, perhaps an attitude or prejudice we already possessed?

Church leaders need to ask: Do they see constituents as foot soldiers in a cause that somehow will benefit the church, or are they leading their members into a transformation that might well spin out of the institution’s control?

I think people are hungry for meaning and will risk transformation. What they won’t tolerate is dullness, posturing and trappings that invite a salute of compliance but stifle an intimate, transformational encounter with God.

(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus,” and the founder of the Church Wellness Project, http://www.churchwellness.com. His Web site is http://www.morningwalkmedia.com.)

KRE/LF END EHRICH650 words

A photo of Tom Ehrich is available via https://religionnews.com.