The Learning Church

by Mark Tidsworth, Team Leader

Anyone remember business guru Peter Senge who wrote The Fifth Discipline way back in 1990? He contributed so much to our understanding of leadership, while also serving as a prophet, as time would show. Senge predicted the coming century (2000s) would bring a more volatile environment in which organizations would exist. Thus, Senge predicted the organizations that would survive and thrive are those who could learn the fastest. “The Learning Organization,” became his phrase for describing those who would flourish in the future.

Fast forward to now. Here we are in that volatile world. Time has revealed Senge’s wisdom. Those churches who can learn, leading to adaptation, are those who are surviving and even thriving. The first and foremost predictor of church health is a vitalized and living faith…connection to Jesus through the Holy Spirit. That’s the bottom line, always. The second predictor of church vitality is its ability to learn, to adapt to our current situation.

This line of thinking makes sense. Simultaneously, far too many churches remain hesitant to learn, constraining their adaptation. What’s this about? A primary factor in the formation of learning churches is church-perception, the way we see ourselves as churches. Just reflect for a moment on the constraining statements people make regarding their churches.

We could never do that.

Our church is unlikely to keep up with the changes going on in our world.

We are too stuck in our ways to adapt or change.

We don’t have the funding to make significant changes.

We are afraid we are being disloyal to our heritage if we change how we are church.

Our way of worshiping is THE way Christian churches should worship.

Please, let me stop. Writing out more frequently heard constraining church statements is too depressing. Clearly, churches who look in mirrors shaped by these statements will be slow learners, constrained by their church-perceptions.

Here’s a simple yet powerful way to cut through these church-perceptions:

1. Look back over the pandemic, noting the adaptations your church has made (Example – we learned how to start online worship, followed by improving the quality of our online services as we go.)

2. Interpret what this means about your church (Example – This means we are a church who can learn and adapt when we set our minds to it.)

3. Identify what faulty assumptions this real evidence contradicts (Example – Our belief that we are too stuck in our routines to change is clearly false.)

4. Celebrate your progress and then lean into your new church-perception that you are a learning church who can adapt and thrive in this current situation.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine,” --Ephesians 3:20

Surely we don’t want to persevere in constraining the One who can accomplish far more than we can imagine. So, let’s jettison the constraining church-perceptions, becoming learning churches who lean into our updated selves through the power of God’s Holy Spirit.