Some of the commenters from my post yesterday got me thinking about some things that I just briefly want to comment on.
I ended my post with two thoughts:
Two things I think pastors, church leaders need to start wrestling with if they haven’t already:
1) Shift from geographical based ministry to online community/networking based. This does not mean people still won’t gather, but how, where and when they gather will change.
2) Technology is allowing the people/congregants to self-organize, collaborate and participate without having to go through traditional means and hierarchies of the church. I think this will change the role of the pastor drastically from the top-down leader, to more of a facilitator. I think that means we will see less and less traditional roles of pastors, and maybe even less full-time positions, etc.
Here is what I’m thinking. And I’m thinking these things not on any official research I have done, but more on conversations I am having, trends I am seeing, what I am reading, etc.
One of the issues about #2 is that people are concerned about a “consumer” mentality in the Church…more than we already have now. Also, what will be the role of the pastor.
Couple of thoughts. And they are simply thoughts, not completely worked out, but stuff I am hypothesizing and thinking on.
I think the “modularity” of Church that Andrew Jones talked about won’t drive more church consumerism, but will actually reduce it.
Why? Because churches used to be the resource for all information (phone numbers, emails, addresses, theology, Christian education, prayer chains, etc.) and churches controlled the market on the ability to gather and organize. Think Sunday worship, Wed. night Bible studies, etc, etc. People traditionally have relied on the Church as the resource to gather people and dispense information.
Because of this, people would drive miles and miles to attend the church that could attract, gather and dispense the information for them. Often this process has pulled people out of community…driving miles and miles to attend a church that is not rooted in their community where they live, etc.
I think that now people can easily organize, collaborate and dispense information themselves, they will no longer need to rely on the Church as needing to fulfill that role. I think there will be a desire for people to organize and gather in their own communities of locality, rather than feeling the need to drive to churches who used to have to do that for them. I am not saying there will not be church or people won’t go to them. They will, but I think church will look different than it traditionally does now.
In Short: Technology=Ability to Organize and Collaborate=Congregants Taking the Responsibility Into Their Own Hands.
What about the pastor? I think there will always be the need for a pastor, but what is a pastor is my question? Have we possibly gotten away from the Biblical role of the pastor?
In the NT we see the correlation between the shepherd and pastor. I have been told before by some pastors that we are to be ranchers…not shepherds. That has a whole other connotation in my mind.
One commenter said that it’s actually not the pastors who do the shepherding anymore, but the small group leaders, etc. I agree with him. It’s hard to find a pastor who shepherds.
I believe that with the ability to gather, organize and collaborate that technology affords us, it frees up the pastor to do the work of actually shepherding, rather than being the CEO, rancher, etc. I used the word facilitator in yesterday’s post, and what I mean by that is that the Church is beginning to have the ability to organize on their own, which frees the pastor up to facilitate the movement and truly shepherd the people.
In Short: Technology=Ability to Organize and Collaborate=Congregants Taking the Responsibility Into Their Own Hands=Pastor Can Truly Be a Shepherd.
Of course my own theology and praxis is shining through there, some of which you may agree with, and some which you may not agree with.
But for any of this to take place (which I think is a great thing for the Church), churches, pastors and ministry leaders are going to have to let go of the “power” they have traditionally held, and instead be a church and people that walk humbly amongst the people they are there to serve. Even questioning their roles as pastors in the Church.
In closing, I’m aware that some traditions/denominations already seem to embody this theology and praxis. I wonder if Wess Daniels can shed some light on these thoughts in light of the Quaker tradition that he is a part of.
If you are wondering what to read on some of these issues, here are a few suggestions. There are a lot more, but here are some that I have found helpful and challenging. Please add to this list and let me know what you are reading that has been helpful in thinking about the issues of technology in redefining the role of pastors and the Church, especially as it relates to gathering, organizing, collaborating, etc.
Check Them Out
Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky.
Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Dan Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams.
The New Media Frontier: Blogging, Vlogging and Podcasting for Christ, edited by John Mark Reynolds and Roger Overton
Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Rhett I reluctantly agree. My first admission as a pastor is that I fear I am behind the curve here and am deseprately searching for the surface to breakthrough and breathe deep! I have plugged in to new sources of thought (thanks to you and several others) and am starting to “play” around with some of these ideas. My thought here is that economics will drive a majority of these ideas. My original thoughts a few years back were: As we spin out of control economically people will be forced to live with less of a freedom in travel and revert back to more and more neighborhood style ministry. They will seek the solace of spiritual pursuit in smaller communities that they can reach by a nice walk or a SHORT drive. I realize that economy is only one of contributing factors to this shift…but it is of particulair interest as of late.
I never considered that social media would have such a huge part in this thought. I am going to read some of the books you suggest. Keep feeding…I am hungry and willing to grow. I hope other pastors will do the same. The church isn’t OURS. We must let go of ego/pride/control and allow God to navigate the church through the changes we are encountering. My first step in humility was sneeking into churchtechcamp last week. I loved it and hated it. I felt strangely out place but also charged up to do something about my own role. This one was all your fault (got the idea to go from your tweets). Thanks man. Sorry for the length of this comment…I am really struggling with this stuff and feel a little alone in the desert.
I think the quality of pastors will go up. As the need goes down, you are going to have to be really good at something (there are a lot of things that are needed still though). I’ve seen too many smaller church pastors that aren’t great leaders, speakers, but they just fill a need for a person to do a certain job. Those days are going away I hope.
Phil,
Awesome thoughts. Also, I don’t me to assume, though I do….that technology is the answer to everything. I just think technology is a great tool, and that social media is a great “space” to help empower ministry, etc.
I think lots of ministries are doing great things, really empowering people, using more collaborative means to help the church. The early Church in my opinion (like we see in Acts 2) real embodied this collaborative, participatory environment…and they did it without “technology.”
But as long as we have such great tools at our disposal that our relatively cheap or free, I think we should be using them . Also, since we often live so far away from each other and attend churches where people don’t live in those communities, technology is a great way to bring us all together.
Also Phil….I don’t think you are behind the curve at all. Just by the fact you are engaging in this conversation with others shows to me that you are ahead of the curve. And I think many are ahead of the curve without using technology…but what they are doing is re-imagining and re-thinking the way ministry should be done. And they are getting away from top-down systems of leadership, and instead moving towards bottoms-up styles of leadership, empowering the people, etc.
Let’s keep chatting.
Tyler. Always appreciate your thoughts…a lot. Thanks for being such a faithful commenter and dialoguing partner. Appreciate it.
rhett
I almost fell out of my chair when I read this post because I was in complete disbelief of what I was reading.
Now, this speaks to the larger issue that we are in two completely different camps in the overall Body of Christ but that doesn’t mean we read different Bibles.
The more that liberal theology ascertains itself in the modern church, the more we move away from what the church was in Acts and the Epistles, to a form of humanism that looks no different than the forms of worship that Paul was pleading for people to walk away from.
I would certainly hate to be a rancher considering they lead the cattle to their demise, haha. I think that it is even more disheartening to see how rebellious groups have gotten that operate with house churches and gatherings that don’t have strong pastoral oversight. This isn’t about hierarchy, it is more about not going beyond the borders of heretical doctrine. By minimizing that role, we open up the church to a deeper possibility of heresy.
Now, I do agree that technology has created a new sense of communication, larger than anything we could have imagined. However, that expansion of technology has come at a cost. Even as the apostles evangelized throughout the world, others would run with their message and fill it with half-truths. So how much more will we these things progress with the tool of technology?
THEN, what the heck is the church on earth to even do? What does it mean when we are considered the Bride of Christ? That is a whole other topic that doesn’t fit into this post.
Ben,
Yeah, I agree, we are in completely different camps for sure.
I guess I would ask what is the role of the Church in the Scriptures, and looking at that, does it align with the role of the Church today? Is the role of the pastor today congruent with the role in the Scriptures?
In some cases sure. But I think we have moved quite aways away from it.
The position of the pastor today as well…the full-time vocation, etc, etc. doesn’t seem to fit in what we see in Scripture anyways.
I think that communities will always have pastors, but will they look like they do today…I sort of doubt it. Also, I question your idea that I am minimizing the role of the pastor….I in fact think we have maximized and elevated it to an unhealthy place in many communities. The idea that truth can only be contained by the pastor underestimates in my opinion the role of the community in teaching, preaching and preserving truth.
We can talk about this forever….but I will stop for now.
Thanks for commenting.
rhett
My main struggle with your thoughts are the perception that culture should dictate how we shift as a church, instead of the church dictating culture.
Would we then allow culture to dictate that homosexuality is ok under the Christian doctrine because it seems to be culturally ok now? That is an extreme example but the most present-day example affecting the church.
I agree that we need to look at what the roles of pastors are meant to do but part of the areas that I feel the mainline/evangelical groups fail to recognize are the other five fold ministries in the church. Pastors shouldn’t necessarily teach, hence why Paul gave the need for teachers. Apostles expanded the kingdom but also got the vision accomplished that the prophets felt God stirring in their own spirits and then the evangelists obviously brought people the Lord.
Have we simply slimmed church ministry leadership into one role, the pastor?
Here is something I caught as I read from your post that I wanted to comment on:
“I used the word facilitator in yesterday’s post, and what I mean by that is that the Church is beginning to have the ability to organize on their own, which frees the pastor up to facilitate the movement and truly shepherd the people.”
Most of the “great” pastors I can think of do this well. They let people be what they were called to be and purposed to do according to their gifts and calling; not necesarily their vocation. There is a need for release from the sense of “control” we feel as pastors. Again I reference pride as the reason that most pastors won’t get this concept. It represents a shift that removes them from a “position of power.” What we forget is that the pastorate isn’t about power but influence. Influence that was never to our own credit in any way. (1 Chronicles 29)
This shift is not dictated by anything other than a recognition that people have firgured out how to harness this technology in such a way that it opens a flood gate of “gospel centric” possibilities that have never been realized before. To resist this “shift” is to miss opportunities that should be relating the most powerful message ever lived to an audience of people not bound by geography or time. The message should remain consistent with the Bible but the methods in and of themselves hold no intrinsic value. The message and the repsonse of people is what truly has value.
I long to shepherd in such a way that all people get the chance to hear of Christ’s power to redeem. My prayer is that I can effectivley use the tools at my disposal as an extension to that ministry. My fear is that I will cave to pride and not be willing to see what truly needs to be happening and miss global opportunities for Christ’s sake.
Rhett, I think I hear your heart in this post. Technology is just another tool…more effective than I have cared to embrace…but I am coming around. I appreciate your encouragement and the conversations are refreshing. Your voice is valued.
Ben,
Good comments. I don’t disagree with you. The Church has too long elevated the singular role of the pastor, while at the neglect of the other roles, as well as the role of the body of Christ.
We have slimmed church leadership at times into one role…the pastorate.
I don’t think culture should dictate the gospel or church, ministry, etc. In fact, I think we have a responsibility as Christians to be creative people, people who lead, who engage the culture…who are involved, but who are in the process of transforming those communities through their vision and love of Christ.
But here is my thing with technology. I see it as a door opener in many ways…or a door kicker downer….haaaa. When a church fails to embrace the multi-faceted dimensions of leadership (multiple gifts in the body), and when the church fails to empower the laity, or fails in disbursing the power/decision making/influence…keeping it only in a top-down hierarchical model…..well, then I see technology as a great antidote to that. So whether these churches or pastors like the new way of doing things or not, they now have to reckon with a body that can organize, communicate and lead without going through all the red tape that it used to have to go through.
I have a fundamental problem with a room full of people limited to pastors and exec. staff…the majority men…making decisions for the rest of the body. It’s a consolidation of power that I don’t think is Biblical.
But I think you and I agree on some points…lot of it is how we use the language and phrase it…cause sometimes there are some subtle differences.
Phil:
Sort of the same for you…in the sense that I think technology is helping bridge the gap in churches that need it bridged….bridged between leadership and laity.
Many churches do this well already, with or without technology. They empower the laity, they lead from a position of humility, not power. Those are not the people or churches I’m concerned about. I’m more concerned about places where that doesn’t exist….and technology is really a way to force the hand if you will.
Technology is both a tool, and it’s also becoming a space that we occupy as well. So it will be interesting to see where all this leads.
rhett