That delicate, dangerous point where gravity overcomes momentum

  I woke up thinking about the first promise of the
Baptismal Covenant: “Will you continue in the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?” The vestry of All Saints’, Torrington had invited me to do a workshop with them on Saturday and it had been a good day. I felt they had received the two tools I had to share with them-Relational Meetings and Asset Mapping- enthusiastically. They also developed a definite plan of action which will help them go forward into the year and actively address the self-identified depression of their congregation by laying a deliberate foundation of fellowship. But by Sunday morning I was worrying about them losing momentum.
    My experience with congregational development, I realize, is a lot like cross-country skiing in hilly terrain. Sometimes (rarely, I’m afraid) you go down a steep hill and find a flat surface where your momentum will keep you going for a long, lovely stretch. More likely, at the top of the downhill slope you look forward and see that there is another hill, bigger and steeper, rising like a wave in front of you. While skiing on Sunday, I faced one such series of hills. I knew that I had to be ready with my ski poles, to dig in behind my heels and shift my weight, the second that the momentum from my descent was countered by gravity. That delicate, dangerous point came just short of the half-way mark on the second hill’s upward slope. I caught it- barely-anchoring myself with the poles and beginning the herring-bone step that would take me to the top. But for a painful second I saw clearly how easy it would be to let gravity win, and tumble to the valley below.
    The tools I gave the vestry on Saturday are like my ski poles-they will help this committed group of leaders to give a push to their congregation and get some momentum going. The rush of knowing and interacting with each other on a deeper level will energize their community. But, building an “apostle’s fellowship” will take more than this initial push. My experience with congregations has been that once initial depression is overcome, the tools used to overcome it (the ski poles as it were) are dropped. In fact, one of the vestry members this week-end shared with me that years ago they had done a similar intervention, had really good results, but in the long term it didn’t “take”. She could no longer even recall what they had learned.
     I think this is a portion of the issue of operational VS adaptive leadership which I wrote about last week. The problem is that in our post-modern world, there are so few stretches where we can coast. All the hills on our Christian journey are coming in waves and we dare not put down our poles! So I WONDER: How can we convince each other to hold on to new tools and keep practicing them, even when not in pain? And, what are the subtle and immediate cues which tell us that congregational momentum is being overcome by gravity and it’s time to dig in harder, shift our weight and really work…even though we are pointed up hill and higher than we have been before? I’m convinced we have tools adequate for the task but, until we use them competently and consistently, continuing in the Apostle’s fellowship will be a series of finding ourselves at the bottom of the same valley over and over.