Maintenance or Mission - This Is Just a Test

About a month ago UMC Bishop Will Willimon posted an excerpt on his blog from the Crossmarks website, which in itself was taken from a book by Harold Percy called Good News People, which you can purchase here (How’s that for giving credit where credit is due?  Oh, by the way, the excerpt in question was forwarded to the good bishop by the Rev. Reagin Brown).

All that to say this:  As I read the checklist below, I began to wonder how my own church (see picture to the right) would measure up.  So I did just that.  Here are the results.

MAINTENANCE OR MISSION?

1. In measuring the effectiveness, the maintenance congregation asks, “How many pastoral visits are being made? The mission congregation asks, “How many disciples are being made?”  First Church=Maintenance.

2. When contemplating some form of change, the maintenance congregation says, “If this proves upsetting to any of our members, we won’t do it.” The mission congregation says, “If this will help us reach someone on the outside, we will take the risk and do it.”  First Church=Maintenance.

3. When thinking about change, the majority of members in a maintenance congregation ask, “How will this affect me?” The majority of members in the mission congregation ask, “Will this increase our ability to reach those outside?”  First Church=Maintenance.

4. When thinking of its vision for ministry, the maintenance congregation says, “We have to be faithful to our past.” The mission congregation says, “We have to be faithful to our future.”  First Church=Mission (At least it was when it adopted our Vision, MIssion and Action Report in 2003)

5. The pastor in the maintenance congregation says to the newcomer, “I’d like to introduce you to some of our members.” In the mission congregation the members say, “We’d like to introduce you to our pastor.”
Huh?  I don’t think I agree with this one.

6. When confronted with a legitimate pastoral concern, the pastor in the maintenance congregation asks, “How can I meet this need?” The pastor in the mission congregation asks, “How can this need be met?”  First Church=50/50 (and this one is my fault : )

7. The maintenance congregation seeks to avoid conflict at any cost (but rarely succeeds). The mission congregation understands that conflict is the price of progress, and is willing to pay the price. It understands that it cannot take everyone with it. This causes some grief, but it does not keep it from doing what needs to be done.  First Church=Maintenance.

8. The leadership style in the maintenance congregation is primarily managerial, where leaders try to keep everything in order and running smoothly. The leadership style in a mission congregation is primarily transformational, casting a vision of what can be, and marching off the map in order to bring the vision into reality.  First Church=Maintenance.

9. The maintenance congregation is concerned with their congregation, its organizations and structure, its constitutions and committees. The mission congregation is concerned with the culture, with understanding how secular people think and what makes them tick. It tries to determine their needs and their points of accessibility to the Gospel.  First Church=Maintenance.

 

Final Scorecard:  Maintenance = 6.5,  Mission = 1.5, Huh? = 1

Given this, it is probably no surprise that we are a church in decline.  I wonder how other churches out there stack up (let me know by linking here if you would and can).  Also, what do you think mailman Jim?