It's 2016!  For some that may not be very exciting.  For me, the new year is a blessing.  A new year is a new opportunity for well, something new.  That excites me!   Yet even as I write this, I wonder if anything new is really possible.  It seems like every new year, I make resolutions and yet nothing really changes.  Maybe it's because I'm not really committed to the change or maybe it's because I didn't change the things I'm my life that produces the issues I wanted to change.  So it occurred to me....

It's really that simple.  Many of the issues in my life are issues because the system in which I live (my beliefs, traditions, memories, rules, behaviors, etc.) work to produce them.  

Think about it this way, an assembly line created and designed to produce a truck should produce a truck 100% of the time.  It would be unheard of for the workers of that assembly line to be waiting for a truck only to watch a motorcycle roll out.  Can you imagine the confusion?  How did this happen?  What went wrong?  Then they watch in amazement as an airplane rolls off.  Yet again they expect a truck and are met with something completely different.  They look at each other and ponder what went wrong.  As they observe over the next few hours, days and months, only about 20% of the time, a truck rolls off.  The rest of the time they see something completely unwanted.  What should they do?  They keep watching and waiting for more trucks to roll off but the opposite happens.  Over time, fewer and fewer trucks roll off.  After a few years, they become resigned to the reality that they cannot get what they want and decided to hope and pray the results would change.  It won't.  Eventually, since they are in the truck business and their system can't produce trucks at a reliable rate, they experience such severe decline they are eventually forced to close.  Guilt and shame are experienced most profoundly by those factory line workers who feel like they failed.  Blame is laid at the feet of the executives who are perceived as having failed to take substantial action even though the workers seemed to reject any of the changes they proposed making.  No one is happy.  

What happens when the systems you have in place fail to produce the result you desire?

It might be simplistic to think this way but the "systems" of the church are designed to produce disciples of Jesus.  Well, are we?  Are there an increasing number of Adult baptisms in your congregation?  If not, why?  Are congregants more focused on those in the community or their own needs as a congregation?  Are we meeting our own needs first and then others...if we have anything left over?  Do the people of your church spend time together in study and prayer or in meetings? Take a look at your church system. Is your system working in the way you hope?  Maybe you are working hard expecting "trucks" to roll off the line but getting something else or nothing at all.

As I have traveled the church over the past 7 years, I find that most local churches and Presbyteries have systems that don't produce what they want.  We are getting results that create anxiety for us.  We see results that perplex us.  We proclaim we're about one thing yet seem to produce something completely different.

So let's make some changes.  Let's tweak the system.  Change it up. Won't that fix things?

Ford trucks recently made a historic change in it's very popular F150 Trucks.  With gas prices rising and fuel-efficient mandates on the horizon, Ford decided to switch from steel bodied trucks to aluminum bodied trucks.  A truly bold move.  One problem...they couldn't simply tweak their assembly lines.  They had to be shut down and completely re-tooled.  Shut down and retooled!

What could the church learn from Ford?

It's entirely possible that we are past the time when we can simply tweak our system and change the results.  We very well may be in a re-tooling mode.  

Most churches think it's realistic to reverse a 10, 20, 30 or even 40 year decline with a simple "tweaking" of their life together.  Over and over again I hear, "maybe if we call the right Pastor (or get a full time Pastor), find the right program, get a youth group going again, repaint the sanctuary or sing more familiar hymns, we can recapture our former glory!" But simply doing that, fails to address the systemic issues that created the culture that caused the decline.  So as much as we try, no amount of tweaking will change the course of our church. Until we take seriously the probability that we must not only change but change radically, nothing will change the course of your church.  What you have had, you will have.  What you desperately don't want to happen will be inevitable if we don't "re-tool" the way we operate and how we "do church".  If you don't believe me, simply look at your results over your recent history.  Or look at the results of the PCSA, UMC, UCC, Disciples of Christ, Lutheran, Baptist, etc. and see what the trends and results are.  It's not pretty.  Yet in the midst of it all, there are some very faithful disciples making bold changes and finding new life.  It's not all gloom and doom.

The Rich Young Ruler, who came to Jesus inquiring about the requirements to attain eternal life, eventually went away sad when Jesus told him to "sell all he had, give it to the poor and come follow him."  Many church leaders "go away sad" when they come to realize that the future of their church may very well, actually will absolutely, require them to "sell all they have and follow Jesus."  What would it look like for your church to "sell all you have."   What would have to "be sold" for the church to move forward?  What traditions, people, memories, expectations, rules, behaviors, past pain,(systems) need to be shed?  Then, what would it mean for the church to "follow Jesus?"  How would that change how you treat one another, worship, learn together, serve the community, dream......

Our systems (decision making, traditions, expectations, rules, behaviors) aren't doing the job anymore.  But are we willing to shut it down and re-tool so we can live into a future that God has prepared for us?  Or are you wanting to hold onto what you've known even if it means that the church will wither and die a slow, painful death?