Reflection on a book by Lyle Schaller called Discontinuity and Hope.  It's all about radical change and the path to the future especially as it relates to the church.  It offers some food for thought...some that really challenge our previous ways of thinking...some that we might not agree with...some that will just blow the mind...anyway, I want to take this opportunity to share a few thoughts I've gleamed from the book to this point.

Schaller talks about moving from Survival to Choices.    If one thinks back to the choices of 40 years ago to the choices of today, just think about how things in this list have changed...many many more choices: occupations; place of residence; friendship circles; level of educational attainment; postage stamps; channels of communication with distant friends and relatives; type of motor vehicle; coffee; music; meals; parenthood; when and where to gather for the corporate worship of God; attire; hobbies; footwear; indoor temperature during the hot summer; health-care services; soft drinks; cheeses; motels; restaurants; television channels; garden tools; etc.

There has been a shift from a survival culture to a consumer-driven culture.  This not only effects the day-to-day life we live but the Christian church and Christian ministry.

This shift in the context for doing ministry from a culture focused on survival goals to a consumer-driven culture that overflows with choices also offers worshiping communities a range of choices.  Here are seven:

1)      Reject this consumer-driven culture as ideologically incompatible with the Christian faith and build the future of this congregation with people born before 1930 who grew up in a world that offered most people two choices - take it or leave it.

2)      Reject this demand for choices, draw the geographical area served by this congregation with a twenty- to forty-mile radius, and focus on the one-half to one percent of the population who affirm that the limited array of choices offered by this congregation represents a relevant, fulfilling, and adequate response to all the personal and religious needs of that small slice of the total population.  (These are the congregations that are still constructing the 1,000- to 3,000-seat worship centers.)

3)      Reject this demand for choices and be satisfied to be a small congregation that reaches and serves the people who place intimacy, community, connections, caring, predictability, simplicity, and continuity with the past far above choices in their list of values.  (This is the alternative chosen by well over one-half of all congregations in American Protestantism today and by approximately one-sixth of all churchgoers.)

4)      Expand that range of attractive choices offered by this congregation as a central component of a larger strategy to reach (a) younger generations and/or (b) a broader slice of the population.

5)      Define consumerism as a passing fad and plan to outlive it.  Assume that the next big economic depression will recreate the value system of the 1930s, which included sacrifice, the importance of survival goals, institutional loyalties, and respect for individuals in offices of authority.

6)      Redefine the role of pastor and/or program staff member from a person who does ministry to one who challenges, enlists, trains, places, nurtures, and supports teams of lay volunteers who create and staff new ministries in response to emerging new needs.

7)      Rejoice in the fact that your congregation is blessed with the discretionary resources and the leadership required to offer people a choice from among three or four or five or six different worship experiences every weekend plus an exciting array of choices in learning, in discipling, in fellowship, in doing ministry, and in enriching one's own personal spiritual pilgrimage.