The Newberger Project: Building the Perfect Church
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Thu, January 20, 2005
- Viewed 104
- (40) comments so far
Vision vs. Conflict
Here is my underlying premise: Just as repentance is the flip side of faith (Acts 20:21, Hebrews 6:1), my underlying premise is that conflict resolution and problem solving is the flip side of vision. Vision tells you where you want to go. Being skillful at resolving conflict and problems along the way is the mechanism that will get you there. This is my area of specialization, particularly within churches. By its very nature, the resolving of conflict is predicated upon the assumption that “there is a better way.‿ If there is no vision of what should be, there can be no resolution of what is. Properly understood, the term “conflict resolution,‿ a seemingly negative concept, is anything but because it can only exist in the larger context of, “a better way,‿ “higher ground,‿ “a more perfect union,‿ etc.
Going to the Next Level
Accordingly, I want to take this column to “the next level‿ by starting with a positive concept and then dealing with the problems inherent in making that concept a reality. This is actually a huge undertaking. However, we don't have to wait until the end to benefit from this exercise. The real “take-away‿ will not be the product, that is, the conceptualized “perfect church.‿ (What sets one person free may be another's prison). Rather it is the process of thinking through how to best resolve the kinds of problems that a ministry leader will have in attempting to make his or her vision of “good‿ a reality.
Iron Sharpens Iron
At this early stage, the way I envision this project to unfold is as follows:
(1) Next week, I will write an introductory column that will set forth the 4 overall areas by which any society, organization, or congregation can be categorized. I will then introduce the first category we will be discussing. Within this category, I will introduce the first “element‿ we will focus on.
(2) Then comes the real “meat and potatoes:‿ you're input. As the weeks progress, this will become more complicated than any chess game because each new element will then have to be put in proper “relationship‿ to the others.
(3) Then I will attempt to make sense out of your varied input over an increasing number of inter-related components, as well as incorporate my own ideas, to set forth my vision of those elements within that category of “the perfect church.‿ If we are of the same mind that we are not going to agree on what I come up with, we will be fine. It is hoped that as iron sharpens iron, we will sharpen one another in becoming more effective in ministry. My synthesis is secondary.
Let's start out the discussion though this week with your thoughts on what you think the "perfect church" would look like...
Until next week, your “positive‿ church conflict resolution consultant,
Ken Newberger
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© 2005 Kenneth C. Newberger
Ken Newberger, an experienced church conflict resolution specialist, earned his Th.M. from Dallas Theological Seminary, has ten years senior pastoral experience, and is in the dissertation phase for his Ph.D. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution at Nova Southeastern University, one of only two accredited doctoral programs of its kind in the United States. If your church needs help resolving conflict, if you need individual coaching, or if you would like to introduce a proactive conflict management system into your church, please visit Ken's website or call 301-253-8877.
Today, we start a new series with Church Conflict Resolution specialist Ken Newberger. We’re entitling this new series: The Newberger Project: Building the Perfect Church. It’s going to be an exciting adventure! Ken writes: We have a wonderful opportunity through Monday Morning Insight to take our thoughts and channel them in a way that would be most edifying to one another as well as our churches. The idea came to me that I use my column to collectively think through the elements of the perfect church. Does such an animal exist?
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Comments
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Michael Deutsch on Thu, January 20, 2005
Todd - I look forward to these articles. They are so timely. We area church that is making a public (at least to ourselves) resolution that we are a church in transformation. This should always be the case, but has not been for many years at this church. We have changed the structure (government) accepted a mission and vision, and now, as in the past, the conflicts arise, mainly because of a perceived and real loss of power and control. The difficulty is meshing, if possible, the two together.
Michael Deutsch
Dearborn, Michigan
Kermit P. Soileau on Thu, January 20, 2005
It seems that the greatest impediment to achieving the New Testament concept of the church is the prevailing idea that we must somehow construct a “contemporary” church. Church members have clamored for a “20th Century” church and now a “21st Century” church almost as a rule in my 25 years in the ministry. I have adopted the manner of Jesus in saying, “In the beginning, it was not so…” and I have struggled against so many misinterpretations of what the church actually is and should be doing. For instance, the initial method of God for fellowship with man was the “walk in the Garden.” For Christ, the original method of evangelism was His everyday walk along the path of life. Corporate-copied visitation blitzs using telemarketer memorization from colorful and glossy packets are millenia away from introducing the people in our life-path to our partner in life, Jesus. Construction of the “perfect” church was not possible in the 1st century because human beings were fallible. That task remains impossible today because, in addition to being fallible, we insist on improving on the original ideas given to us by the Originator. If we “upgrade” the Great Commission and misinterpret and then misapply the original method, message, and mandate, how do we even get close on other spiritual concerns of the church? One may produce something that the 21st century would tout as the “perfect” church, but would it resemble the original plan God had in mind? That, in my estimation, is the underlying question in the discussion of the “perfect” church.
Phil Laeger on Thu, January 20, 2005
Thanks for doing this series. I think it’s so vital that we have a clear picture of what we’re aiming for, which should always be what God has in mind. I have a fundamental concern at the outset of the discussion - a subtle (but significant) change in our view of personal and corporate spirituality over the years. It is the mindset that says,
“Let’s dream up and aim for the best, even though we know none of us will ever reach it.”
I believe this is self-defeating and contradictory to what Scripture says. I think the perfect church is one that believes that God can enable what He commands - love from a sincere heart.
I’ve just spent the past weekend at a conference about the Trinity. One of the speakers, Bart Campolo, spoke on how God is perfect love because He is community, and how He created us, not because He needed someone to love, but because the nature of His love was to include and to share.
I think the perfect church is one that models that kind of love, one that grasps God’s love firts, loves its own community second, and then reaches out to include more and more people in its vortex of love. It can be done! Let’s not buy into the defeatist mentality. God enables what He commands, “And my commandment is this - love one another as I have loved you.”
Seth Barnes on Thu, January 20, 2005
Conflict resolution is not the flip side of vision, change management is. Conflict resolution, which is reactive, is a subset of change management, which is proactive.
Leslie Messer on Thu, January 20, 2005
The church is not made up of perfect people, but we can certainly strive to have a perfect union with one another. It is people serving in their callings and staying focused on being unified with others around them, although we have to keep our eyes on the Lord and not the short comings of others. People excited about giving and going forward. Everyone in full participation of worship and praising God with thankfulness, and the most important aspect of a perfect church is people having a great burden for a lost and hurting world. The pastor has to have a vision to serve, grow, and evangelize to his congregation and the world and meet the constant needs for resolution between those in conflict. His leaders should carefully watch for problems that arrise and make them known to the Pastor. There is a great need for people to love the Lord and to love each other and to keep that love in every part of their ministries. We all need to be excited about the potential that God creates in every ministry and study His word with and present it with power.
Rob Sexton on Thu, January 20, 2005
The perfect church would look like this:
- At the top would be the Lord Jesus Christ, not a man.
- Led by a group of elders who ministered according to their spiritual gifts and who were equal as undershepherds.
- They would be motivated by the Holy Spirit, not by ego.
- Their desire would be to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. That would include helping all in the church to discover and develop their spiritual gifts.
- Worship would include contemporary music, with a standing open mic so anyone in the congregation could testify of what the Lord is doing in their life.
- All communication from the front would always include visual aids such as video or slides. (To make it relevant to our video age.)
- Worship would be the first half hour or more of every service.
- There would be no “turn around and greet someone” until the end of the service.
- Announcements would come last.
- Only a brief welcome statement and a prayer would preceed worship.
- Lengthy prayers would follow worship and preceed the sermon.
- There would be no offering plates/buckets, but a box outside the sanctuary to drop money in. Money wouldn’t be mentioned.
- People would be encouraged to request special worship music by dropping a note in the box on their way out.
- The lesson/sermon of no more than 30 min would be an exposition of Scripture with emphasis on application.
- Every week’s message would be the next few verses of Scripture, so the pastor/teacher would simply teach through the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book, year after year.
- The elders would lead by example, not by edict.
- Everyone would be trained to do their volunteer duties in the church.
- Small group participation would be modeled by the elders, and taught from the front.
- Small groups would be by affinity: i.e. fishermen together, soccer fans together, etc.
- There would be classes every day and every evening at the church and from house to house.
- There would be fellowship dinners weekly at the church.
- The church building would be built for economy.
- When the flock outgrows it, the church would “half off” and start another assembly in another geographical area of town.
- Giving to missions would be by fully supporting and sending the church’s own missionaries.
- Missions would get the largest share of the budget.
AND THIS CHURCH WOULD CHANGE THE WORLD!
Larry on Thu, January 20, 2005
Who defines “perfect”?
Is there such an animal?
To me, it has the connotation of an absence of problems.
I still prefer the word “healthy” to “perfect”.
Living with paradox and complexity seems more achievable, than resolution.
Or am I settling my sights too low?
Aaron Dougherty on Thu, January 20, 2005
The perfect church would be one in which the unchurched come into and automatically feel welcomed, loved, and accepted. The perfect church would be one that stategically and prayerfully plans programs targeting the Non-Christians in their community. The perfect church cares for their own members and functions as a family. The perfect church balances the five purposes as described in Ric Warren’s book and thrives in them. And most of all, I believe, the perfect church is full of Spirit-filled leaders and members who love Jesus with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength.
chris on Thu, January 20, 2005
I have seen the front lines of the enemy for years only to see him win battle after battle. I know he has not won the war and he will not. Here is what I think. The people of God can be just as carnel as a lost person and sometimes not even knowing it because the heart has hardened. The church suffers because we try to put unity above love. Big mistake. Unity should never supersead love…... When it does we begin to see those compromise the very Word we claim to protect. I look forward to this topic very much.
barbara custard on Thu, January 20, 2005
I am interested in the weekly articles and it will help my insight even more. I don’t believe that there is a perfect church, in the sense of flawless, but rather perfect in the sense of fulfilling the call of the church. I think we have been programmed to believe that there is a perfect church based upon what we see; a huge congregation, a great band, great media presentations, great sermons, and great programs, thus, we have called this the perfect church. I am not opposed to these different elements of ministry, i think they are wonderful but must be used in conjuction with opposed to supplementing the purpose of the church.
If you have all of these wonderful ministries, and don’t have a heart of love and compassion for one another, if you don’t evagelize, if people aren’t being convicted of sin, and having their lifes changed, then what we think is the perfect church is not perfect at all, it’s not even close.
What was it about the Acts church that caused it to grow, not only numerically but spiritually? it was the love of Christ and the committment to Chirst. Christ was more concerned about others than himself, the disciples were the same way, they were more concerned about spreading the gospel than they were about their own lifes.
You must display these characteristics of Christ to be a church that He builds upon, a rock that the gates of Hell will not prevail against.
Donald on Thu, January 20, 2005
Well this is certainly a timely subject for my self and wife. We are looking for a new church and this will assist us in understanding what we are looking for in a church; both as a member and a leader in that church.
That said, the biggest item that we are looking for is a church that fosters sacredness without formality. One that seeks holiness, but is not controlling and dictatorial. The church is to be a body of believers who are gathering together to seek God in everything that they do, not just on Sunday morning or some other meeting time. The church should be free enough to allow the expression of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the blooming of the fruits that would come from those expressions.
The individual church body is to be composed of men and women that have a relationship to God through the Jesus.
I look foreard to see where this discussion goes in the following weeks.
Rich Viel on Thu, January 20, 2005
Rob’s list of the attributes of the perfect church are the perfect illustration of the problem. His perfect church is the perfect church according to his preferences. What about someone who prefers announcements at the beginning, for whom passing the offering plate has meaning, who enjoys a topical sermon?
I’m with Larry. I don’t think there is such a thing as a perfect church because the church consists of imperfect people. However, imperfect churches can achieve a level of health which allows it to become effective in sharing the Gospel. Developing the habits of a healthy church is far more realistic than developing a perfect church.
Mike Ramey on Thu, January 20, 2005
The conceptualization of a “perfect church” is a good, outward exercise for churchmen (and church-ladies). As Lutherans, we center our thinking on “church” on things like the “marks of the church” - that is, the Word and Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. A perfect church is a place where God and His people come together around these “means of grace” for the purpose of relationship and faith building. Then comes the hard part: taking what we have received by the grace of God and then extending such gracious to seemingly ingracious people. The “us vs. them” thinking that is often (if not subtly) expressed by church-going folk is not a reflection of the gracious God who calls us out of the darkness of sin, death, and hell through the sacrificial death and resurrected life of His Son.
I look forward to seeing where this discussion goes!
Bennett Miller on Thu, January 20, 2005
We first need to seek after God in all His glory, through His son and our savior, Jesus Christ.
The church was a movement. It has become an institution.
Preach the Gospel, teach the flock, care for people. When God’s people put Him first, they will move into the ministries that He has gifted them for.
Evangelism, personal witness, helping the poor and those in need, discipleship, and fellowship are not programs. These activities flow from an abundance of the Love God pours into us.
It’s not about us.
Read 1 John; that is what the perfect ‘church’ looks like.
bernie dehler on Thu, January 20, 2005
Larry says:
“I still prefer the word “healthy” to “perfect”.
I very much agree. Aiming for “perfect” may incline to propose programs, whereas “healthy” may help encourage the goal of relationships (relationships are sorely needed and should be one of the prime goals for a church).
...Bernie
http://freegoodnews.blogspot.com/
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