LEARNING TO PLAY
What if you could engage the members of your congregation in thinking creatively about the complaints that often float around any community of people? In my previous blog, I demonstrated a method of engaging a trusted companion in “playing with” the complaints we often confront in ministry. This time, I want to expand that idea to engage your congregation in the conversation. My assumption is that if you can get them to “play with” complaints, everyone steps back and the atmosphere becomes more comfortable.
INVITING PARTICIPATION
A problem with discussing any issue in a congregation is that only a minority of the congregation will come to any meeting or gathering of the congregation. If they know there is a specific issue to be discussed, some will avoid it because they are uncomfortable with possible tension.
Our modern technology has provided us with a way to enlarge the conversation and ease the discomfort. Most congregations have or can secure the email addresses of most of their members. One alternative is that you send an email to yourself and Blind Copy to the other people in the congregation, thus preserving their privacy. Someone with a modest familiarity with social media can show you how to use a service like Mail Chimp to develop a mailing list with your congregation. If you send out an electronic newsletter, you probably already have that service in one form or another. A fourth possibility would be to set up a private Facebook community. The size of your congregation may help you decide on your method of engaging them in this conversation.
Once you have chosen your method, you send a message inviting them to participate in an internet conversation about complaints, community, and faith. Explain to them that you have shared in some conversation about how the natural tendency to share a complaint or doubt with someone holds the potential of showing a path to growing in the faith.
RULES OF THE GAME
Explain that you are going to invite all the members of the congregation to help you build two lists. The first list will be the naming of common complaints that exist in the congregation. Small complaints and large ones are all part of the community. The second list will be the type of religious doubts that participants think exist within the membership of the church. Invite them to reply with a couple of sentences or even a few words.
Tell them that you will compile the two lists, without names attached, and return it to the congregation for comment. Explain that what you are doing is building a picture of their congregation and the context in which our faith needs to develop.
When the two common lists are returned to the congregation, ask them to review the list and choose a few of the items that suggest certain theological doctrines or faith ideas that might address these issues. For example, if a complaint was that the church is cold and unfriendly, that might suggest exploring the idea of Christian hospitality. If people thought a lot of people held doubts about the viability of the command to turn the other cheek, one might want to explore the idea of Christian forgiveness.
THE CHURCH AS TRAINING GROUND
We will continue this conversation in the next blog but I leave you with this thought. What if God understands that the church is made up of ordinary people with the same strengths and weaknesses as the rest of the world? What if God has gathered the church together and provided the resources–Scripture, prayer, hymns, study, etc.–as a contained community in which people can learn to face the common issues of life with an alternative approach? Can the church be a laboratory in which we experiment with alternative ways of living in ways that are pleasing to God. Not all experiments are successful but that just means we need to keep experimenting.
