Ministry in a changing world

This past Saturday I had the privilege of attending the “Ministry in a Changing World" workshop at Valley Community Presbyterian Church. The workshop was organized by the ChurchDevelopment Team of our Presbytery—Twin Cities Area.

I was very pleased to see the good-sized group whogathered—95 people. Chain of Lakes hadseven attend, including myself.

The workshop was divided into two segments. In the morning M. Rex Miller presented. He immediately recognized that we only hadone person in the group who was a Millennial. The rest of us were Immigrants. His words were true not only for the people at the workshop, but many Presbyterian churches. We Presbyterians are gettingolder and not adapting to the needs of this and younger generations.

Miller’s full presentation can be bound in his book, “The Millenium Matrix.” Miller shared a timeline of four digital cultures. Theoral culture existed until the development of the Printing press in 1454; theprint culture existed until the development of the television in 1950; the broadcastculture existed until the use of the computer and ultimately the Internet in 1992. We are currently living in thedigital culture. He went on to share howspace, truth, and the gospel were understood in each culture.

The key for all churches is to understand our culture and then deliver our message in an effective way.

His presentation was not at all prescriptive—he described the cultures and helped us see the differences between them.

In the afternoon Kevin Ford shared a presentation called “TheLeadership Triangle.” The presentationwas a condensed version from his book by the same name.

Ford talked about three primary types of leadership challenges—tactical, strategic, and transformational. He described each of the three leadershipchallenges and shared that every problem—especially the problems we have in thechurch—involve all three leadership challenges.

The idea that resonated with me is often we in the churchare trying to solve tactical strategic and even transformation problems withtactical solutions. We’re looking forthe one answer to the problems we are facing. Unfortunately the “silver bullet” doesn’t exist.

After Kevin Ford spoke congregations had the opportunityto explore a continuing partnership with TAG consulting.

Each of the presentations were so rich and extensive thata morning and afternoon session wasn’t adequate. I plan on reading each of their books andsharing more.

At a minimum this was a marvelous opportunity forPresbyterians to gather and receive high quality presentations on leadership inthe church in 2012. Because we had such a solid number of people from our new church attend we will have a reference point to discuss doing ministry in a digital age, and what the leaderhsip triangle can teach us as we do ministry together.