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Wings Like Eagles How to be a Thriving Congregation

in the 21

st

Century

Clair Woodbury and Joyce Madsen

Congregational Life Centre Edmonton, Alberta

www.congregationallife.com



Wings Like Eagles

Wings Like Eagles is published by:

The Congregational Life Centre

#1405, 5328 Calgary Trail

Edmonton, AB T6H 4J8

780-619-0386 or 780-438-6016

www.congregationallife.com

Third printing 2010

Copyright © 2000, 2004, 2010 Joyce Madsen and Clair Woodbury.

All rights reserved. Purchase of this book entitles the purchaser to

make photocopies of the various survey instruments and

questionnaires for use in his or her congregation. Except for this

purpose, or for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no

part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without priorpermission from the publisher.

Cover design by Robert Woodbury.

Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the Good

News Bible , second edition © 1994, American Bible Society. Used

with permission.

Our thanks to the Alban Institute for permission to quote from The

Once and Future Church by Loren Mead and from the article “How to

Embrace Change in the Introverted Church” by James A.Christopher in CONGREGATIONS: The Alban Journal.

ISBN: 978-0-9688358-6-9



Wings Like Eagles

Table of Contents

Preface i

Before You Begin iii

The Five Dimensions The Five Dimensions 3

Spirituality Spirituality Means Staying in Contact 17

Identity Identity: Discovering Who You Are 33

Tools for Discerning Identity 39Context

The World Around Us 51Surveying the Congregation and the Community 57

Leadership Identifying and Supporting Leadership 67Building an Effective Leadership Team 74Managing the Polarities 84Core Values 92

Vision Discerning Common Vision 105Imaginative Goals and Action Plans 122

The Challenge of Change 131Putting It All Together

Welcoming and Integrating Newcomers 143 Alternate Worship Experiences 153Small Group Ministry 165Designing Your Structure 172

Celebration 178Putting It All Together 182

Appendix A Definitions 189 Appendix B Bibliography 191 Appendix C What is God Trying to Tell Us? 196 Appendix D The Congregational Life Centre 211

Index 213Notes 215



Wings Like Eagles

This book is dedicated

to the many church leaders

we have journeyed with who have taught us what it means

to be God’s community

and soar on wings like eagles.

Our thanks to those who volunteered to read the manuscript and

have offered so many helpful suggestions: John Ambrose, Ann

Fleming, Barry Foster, Margaret Hetherington, Debbie Hubbard,

Dan Meakes, Linda Paddon, and James Taylor. A special thank you

to Heather Marshall and Rowan Books for assistance in finalediting and production.



Wings Like Eagles i

Preface

Those who trust in the LORD for help

will find their strength renewed.

They will rise on wings like eagles;

they will run and not get weary,

they will walk and not grow weak.

Isaiah 40:31

We have chosen the name Wings Like Eagles for this book because

we want congregations to soar, with all the energy and passion, all

the tranquility and spirituality that eagles bring to their magnificent

flight. We have seen too many churches that are happy just totrudge along, slowly declining in numbers as members lapse into

deepening states of lethargy. God expects a lot more from the

church than mere survival. This book is for congregations who are

willing to risk being different, who want to serve the people in their

community, not only their current membership — those who want

to fly with the eagles. This book is for congregations who take

Jesus’ offer of new lives for old seriously. If that is who you are,

read on, for God will be with you.

What is the role of the church in a time of rapid change? Those

who take their faith seriously want a church that keeps them in

contact with God and provides a vehicle for ministering to people’sneeds. They want to create congregations that are simultaneously

rooted in the traditional story and have a ministry that is relevant

today.

Our mission at the Congregational Life Centre has been to assist

congregations to be more effective in their ministry. Over the past

ten years we have worked with hundreds of congregations. That



Wings Like Eaglesii

has provided us with an incredible learning opportunity as we

developed practical ways for congregations to meet the challenges

that are impacting them. As a result, we have seen congregations

come to an understanding of what is needed, create a realistic plan,

and find the will to make it happen.

We light a candle each day when we come into the office. It is a

spiritual exercise that gives visible expression to invisible realities.

From time to time in this book we suggest ways you can deepen

your own spirituality. We have written this book as a prayer, and

encourage you to experience it as a spiritual as well as a practical

journey.

Joyce Madsen Clair Woodbury



Wings Like Eagles iii

Before You Begin

Before you launch into this book, we would like to ask you to take

a moment to light a candle and let these two quotations speak to

you — one by Loren Mead, former Executive Director of the

Alban Institute, the other by Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South

Africa.

A new church is being born. It may not be the church weexpect or want. The church of the future may not include

our favourite liturgy or hymn, our central theological

principle, or even our denomination! God's promises

always arrive with surprises in them. The form of the new

world and new church is not in our hands.

What is in our hands is the chance to respond to God's

call. To put our skills and our wills to the task of

discerning the opportunity points, the places and times for

change effort, and to add our gifts to God's church in this

time of change. ...

Loren Mead, The Once and Future Church 1

I find God through the clues given in Jesus Christ — that

God is caring and compassionate, that God has deep

feelings about us. And God is always available. ...

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Life magazine 2



Wings Like Eaglesiv



The Five

Dimensions

ContextIdentity

Leadership

Spirituality Vision



Wings Like Eagles2



The Five Dimensions 3

The Five Dimensions

The world has changed dramatically in our lifetime. We know this,

no matter when we were born. For those of us who have a few

grey hairs and were born before 1945, here are a few of the facts:.

We were born before polio shots, contact lenses and “the pill,”

credit cards, split atoms, laser beams, and ball point pens. We pre-

date pantyhose, clothes dryers, electric blankets, and the walk onthe moon.

We were before house-husbands, computer dating, and group

therapy. We never heard of FM stereo, tape decks, electric

typewriters, artificial hearts, or word processors, yoghurt, and guys

wearing earrings. For us, time-sharing meant togetherness, chip

meant wood, hardware was hardware, and software wasn’t even a

word. A web was something a spider created.

The world has changed. The question we want to ask: “Has the

church changed to meet the needs of the present world?”

Traditionally, the church was perceived to be a place where we

could develop our spirituality and learn to understand our soul. For

Christians it was a place to establish a personal relationship with

God and with Jesus.

Surveys tell us that today approximately 50% of those who live in

our communities do not have a faith connection. We are also told



Wings Like Eagles4

that more than 85% of these same people have a relationship and a

belief in God, whatever that might mean for them. They spend

time in prayer, though it may be a personal or meditational form of

prayer. If that is true, why is it that mainline congregations are in a

state of decline? Is that not what the church is about — helping

people to connect with each other and with God?

Obviously, we in the church are missing the mark in some way or

another. It is not just one denomination — Anglicans, the United

Church, the Presbyterian Church, the Lutheran Church. Every

congregation we know is struggling with the same challenge — to

discover what God wants them to do and to be as they move into

the 21st century.

Understanding the Paradigm

We hear a great deal about paradigms these days. A paradigm, says Thomas Kuhn who practically minted the word, “is an entire

constellation of beliefs, values, techniques and so on shared by the

members of a given community.”3 According to church consultant

William Easum values have a number of functions. They filter

information, help solve problems, and determine boundaries.4

Sounds good, doesn’t it. No church should be without one, and no

church is. The great gift of a paradigm — a particular way of

looking at things — is that it filters out a lot of extraneous

information and lets us deal only with that which is really

important. That’s the good news.

Unfortunately, when the situation changes and we need to see

things that we have not seen before, our old paradigm can block

that information out. “I don’t see any problem,” is the message.

We won’t tell you how many times we have heard “Everything

seems all right to me!” from leaders of a congregation we knew

would not be there in ten years. They are doing all the right things

they did twenty years ago. The problem is, the world has changed



The Five Dimensions 5

and they have not.

The challenge is to “change with the times.” It is a phrase that rolls

easily off the tongue, but changing the way we look at things is

perhaps the most profound change of all, and hurts the most. It is

no wonder that most congregations wait until it is too late toanswer God’s call to change. The call is there, though. Anwar

Sadat, the former philosopher president of Egypt, knew that very

well.

My contemplation of life and human nature . . . taught me

that he who cannot change the very fabric of his thought

will never be able to change reality, and will never,

therefore make any progress.5

One thing that signals the need for change is that people are not

coming to church the way they used to. Why not? Here are some

of the reasons people have given us as we travel around thecountry. We will have advice in this book how to deal with each of

these. Do any resonate with your understanding of your

community?

1. There is no value in attending.

2. Churches have too many problems.

3. I don't have the time.

4. I'm simply not interested.

5. Churches ask for money too often.

6. Church services are usually boring and irrelevant to the

way I live.7. I don't believe in God, but if there is a God, I don't believe

that God makes any difference.

What we are currently doing is not working. We have to find new

ways of looking at ourselves and new ways to share the Good

News. It may hurt a bit, but Jesus never did promise it would be

easy. He did promise it would be exciting, fulfilling, and life-giving.



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