Your Church’s Invigorating Challenge

Mark Tidsworth, Pinnacle Team Leader

Identifying your church’s driving question (see last week’s article) is the next step in your journey, not the destination itself. For some churches, it’s a small step into the invigorating challenge, while others are staring into a huge chasm, requiring much on-boarding in order to embrace their invigorating challenge.

First though, what do we mean by “invigorating challenge?” Over the last 17 years, adaptive leadership has been an area of inquiry and then training for us at Pinnacle. Reading Leadership On The Line by Heifitz and Linsky in 2002 gave concepts and language to the needs we were observing in congregations. A central practice of Adaptive Leadership is identifying an organizations adaptive challenge; the crux of the challenge at hand. While appreciating this concept, we’ve adapted the adaptive leadership language itself, preferring invigorating challenge. Here’s what we mean.

The are many challenges at hand for any church. Yet, when we get down to it, there is a central challenge for any season of life and ministry. Identifying a church’s driving question positions it to identify the primary challenge. But then comes the very interesting part. How invigorating is this particular challenge? In other words, how much does this challenge grab you, draw you in, and stoke the fire in your bones?

Allow me to offer two examples from the field.

First, we are engaged with a pastor and church who is experiencing significant numerical growth. They are a pastoral size church who is in the transition zone to program size with about 160 ASA (learn about size transition theory from Alice Mann’s material published by the Alban Institute). A primary driver of the numerical growth is their strong sense of relational connection as well as their sanctuary which is small and intimate. While worshipping there, the immediacy of being close up with worship leaders combined with the warmth of this congregation is spiritually moving. But now, being victims of their own success, they are challenged to make more room around that table without losing their relational connection. At first this challenge was overwhelming to the lay leadership (overwhelming challenge), but now they are energized, ready to bring it on. Now this adaptive challenge is an invigorating challenge.

The second example is a compilation of many churches we have encountered the last ten years. The story is the same, but whether the adaptive challenge becomes invigorating depends on each church. It’s about the context. These are churches who were very strong 10, 20, or 30 years ago when the textile mill or manufacturing company or chemical plant or furniture company was in town. Then the town/small city was growing, with people moving in from all over. In recent years, the economy has plummeted due to the departure of the major employers who moved their operations out of country. The churches I’m describing here are in locations who have not transitioned yet; enduring down economies. Most of these churches have experienced numerical decline as their town or city has declined. Remember the driving question: What’s our best expression of church in our community for this particular time? Some of these churches find new life through embracing the invigorating challenge presented to them, recognizing their calling to be church in an economically declining community. What’s it look like to be God’s church in this particular context at this time? Few of these churches went looking for this particular challenge, but when they can get over themselves and embrace it, they are often invigorated. Our calling is to be God’s church in the midst of a people who know economic despair, needing the hope embedded in the good news of Jesus Christ. This becomes the invigorating challenge that grabs their souls.

We could give more examples, but perhaps these communicate what we mean by invigorating challenge. The multiple dynamics in a church’s community combine with their gifts and graces to produce a calling which God impresses upon their hearts, so to speak. This challenge gets into their hearts and minds and won’t let them go. Though challenging, it’s invigorating. They are drawn forward toward being the church needed in their community.

So may God bless us with the challenge needed to invigorate us, calling us to get up and out the door, joining God’s transformation of planet earth. May God’s kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven.