In the early 21st century, interest in mainline denominations has sharply declined, due in part to the rise of “nones”— those who identify as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.” Roughly 23 percent of the U.S. population fit this category, a stark increase from 16 percent in 2007.1 However, this does not necessarily correspond with a decrease in spirituality. Our post-modern era is also witnessing a resurgence of interest in spiritual issues2 giving rise to the descriptor, “spiritual, but not religious.” Such people claim to believe in God, (some Christian), but do not express their faith through religious institution.

The intersection of these trends raises an important question for congregations wishing to connect with an increasingly non-religious, yet spiritual society. How does one transform themselves to do so? Traditional churches can expand in mission and outreach in today’s world when they are first transformed by spiritual practices that deepen their own encounter with God in Jesus Christ.

Unlike traditional revitalization re-examining congregational identity and retooling programs, transformation begins when a congregation incorporates a new way of being a church not previously imagined. Richard Rohr compellingly describes transformation as implying “actual development, evolution, change of consciousness, image, and form . . . [making] a measurable move toward compassion . . . beyond protecting one’s personal autonomy and small egoic reference point.”3

According to Rouse and Van Gelder, 4 certain shifts in identity must be undertaken by a congregation that desires to transform its traditional ministry to one that engages millennials, the “spiritual but not religious,” and “nones” from maintenance to mission; membership to discipleship; pastor centered to lay empowered; chaplaincy to hospitality; self-focus to global-focus; and settled to abroad.

To achieve this transformation, conventional church members must grow beyond merely receiving ministry to answering the call to be missionaries to the world. Congregations like this reach out to their neighborhoods, rather than focus on maintaining agendas. Congregants seek to be daily faithful disciples in life, rather than assuming status through church membership. Pastors equip the laity rather than “do ministry” on behalf of the congregation; pastoral care means extending hospitality to others and not limiting it to members, using the chaplaincy model. The focus of ministry is on the surrounding community, not merely on those inside the church walls. Members are empowered to extend love and grace to others, rather than confining their outreach to those in adjoining pews. Thus, as Rouse and Van Gelder note,5 “the missional church is not about maintenance or survival as an institution, but rather about participating more fully in God’s mission in the world. The front door of every church and indeed of every Christian opens up onto a mission field.”

To share faith in Jesus Christ with those outside church, members must profoundly experience that faith themselves. Congregants’ spiritual renewal is a precursor to collective transformation. Three spiritual practices—prayer, living in the Word, and experiencing faith with others in small groups and house churches—are most effective in deepening faith. By their very nature, these practices meet the spiritual needs of existing members, even while the ministry’s focus shifts to those outside.

Prayer is the primary way we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit. As individuals develop their prayer lives, their faith becomes more experiential, with deeper awareness of God’s presence. Martha Grace Reese6 agrees, “I am clear that the only way to do ministry successfully, to lead a church or to live a life . . . today is to pray deeply. We must submit to God in clear-headed, accountable, non-naïve prayer. Without God vividly in the mix, we drift; life declines.”

In “Unbinding Your Heart,” Reese encourages evangelism and mission teams to pray together weekly for three months before making decisions on everything—the church members, discernment, for people God will send to them, and for each other. At a Disciples of Christ congregation described in her book, the evangelism team prayed as Reese recommended. Four months later, almost fifty people helped with evangelism! One year after beginning this practice, the congregation not only had experienced tremendous growth, but “many of those lifelong Christians had experienced intercessory prayer and nudges from the Spirit for the first time in their lives. They felt it individually, they saw it together.”7

Pastor and consultant Eddy Hall8 also stresses the relationship between personal prayer and the life of the congregation. At the end of each gathering, Hall asks, “What do you need Jesus to do for you right now, and this week?” The answers form the basis of the closing prayer, helping congregants to engage in active daily prayer that connects their individual lives and the church’s life. Regardless of form, both personal and communal prayers are key components of any congregational transformation.

Some lay people are intimidated by the Bible due to lack of formal training and defer this task to the pastor or another expert. However, living in the Word is an essential spiritual practice for congregational transformation. This is how believers grow in faith and learn to follow Jesus. Like prayer, it is more important to do it rather than be concerned with how it is done.

Congregations need to learn to relate personal stories to Biblical stories. At Hilltop Urban Church in Wichita, Kansas, the pastor preaches and teaches at the Sunday morning worship service. At weekly house church meetings, members re-read Sunday’s passage, asking, “How did God speak to me from this week’s scripture and how can I live it out?”9 Spending time in the Word with a small community connects God’s work in the Bible with God’s work in one’s daily life.

In “Transforming Discipleship,” Greg Ogden10 writes, “In [scripture] we fully hear God’s Word to us. In no other place can we find the complete story of God’s self-revelation. Literally this God-breathed document is the plumb line of truth about God, ourselves and all matters of faith and practice.” Spending time in God’s Word is central to congregational transformation, not only in congregants’ individual worship and prayer, but exercised communally as witnesses to the effect of scripture on each other’s lives.

The church is a communal gathering of the Body of Christ. No ministry, much less congregational transformation, can take place apart from the experience of a loving community. Pastors and consultants John Holm11 and Eddy Hall12 both believe in the importance of small group communities within the congregation to help open churches to transformation. Small groups serve as an effective place for the other two important spiritual practices to take place such as prayer and Bible study. Hilltop Urban Church’s pastor tells congregants that if they can only make one weekly event, go to the house church rather than the Sunday morning worship service!13 This exemplifies Rohr’s definition of transformation; this pastor has moved beyond ego and operates from a new center—God. He understands that the small group is where transformation happens: Individuals experience care, love, and support in their daily struggles; they pray for others and are prayed for; they share and grow in their faith. In short, this is where they experience the presence of the risen Christ, in and through others. When church members experience these gifts of community, they readily trust the Holy Spirit working through the larger congregation, becoming agents of transformation.

Whenever a congregation seeks this kind of transformation and growth, John Holms14 observes, some form of prayer, Bible study, and small groups must be present. Other spiritual practices may arise from these building blocks. From the personal practice of prayer, individuals and groups can move into meditation, contemplation, intercession, and other prayer practices that make prayer a way of life. Living in the Word, individuals and communities can move into mission discernment, community assessment, and individual and communal spiritual gifts. Meeting as small groups, individuals and groups can expand into exercising radical hospitality, advocacy for justice, and care of the sick. With the three fundamental spiritual practices nourished by an experiential, relevant worship service that promotes them, the Holy Spirit can change congregations. They can embody Rohr’s definition of transformation and experience a shift in consciousness that dies to ego and control, enabling them to carry out their God-given mission more holistically.

The pastor’s spirituality and leadership is the final element that makes congregational transformation possible. The pastor must engage in his or her own spiritual practices of prayer and Bible study. Further, to enable congregants to allow the vulnerability and transparency required for cohesive and successful small groups, pastors must lead with honest and appropriate vulnerability regarding their own struggles and challenges. As a pastor leads through example, trust is built up for individuals to take the risk of being honest about their own lives. Because of its pastor’s willingness to model this kind of vulnerability, house churches at Hilltop Urban Church flourish. In a recent interview, Hall noted that “the senior pastor has been there for twenty-one years, and he has seen more life transformation after eighteen months of doing house churches than he has in the previous nineteen and half years!” The pastor became a “participatory self, an inclusive, generous self,” as Rohr’s definition describes; he had become a transformational leader.

These three foundational spiritual practices and the genuine community that grows from them help to spread the word that the church’s purpose is to share the life-changing love of Jesus Christ in and with its community and the world; it is not merely a place for consuming services.

In consulting with congregations, Holm15 finds that pastors spend considerable time on tasks that keep the institution functioning at the cost of focusing on their own spiritual lives and equipping their laities to deepen their relationships with Jesus. When a mainline congregation makes the decision to seek transformation, it needs to start with a pastor who is in love with God and who is eager to engage in his or her own spiritual practices.

It turns out that the path that leads to congregational transformation is the same path that leads to personal transformation in the faith: spending time with Jesus in prayer, living in the Word, and worshipping in honest community, so that we are continually drawn out of our self-focus and into the love of God and the mission of the Gospel to transform the world. Deeply engaging in one’s own spiritual life is its own reward, but equally exciting, it is both the method and the hope for engaging postmodern women and men who would describe themselves as spiritual, but not religious.

Notes

1. Michael Lipka, “A Closer Look at America’s Rapidly Growing Religious ‘Nones’” (Washington DC: Pew Research Center, 13 May 2015): accessed 9 May 2017, http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/13/a-closer-look-at-americas-rapidly-growing-religious-nones/.

2. Rick Rouse and Craig Van Gelder, A Field Guide for the Missional Congregation (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2008), 17.

3. Richard Rohr, “Introduction,” Oneing: Transformation 5, no. 1 (May 2017): 6.

4. Rouse and Van Gelder, 23.

5. Ibid.

6. Martha Grace Reese, Unbinding Your Heart: 40 Days of Prayer and Faith Sharing (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2008), 28.

7. Reese, 30-31.

8. Eddy Hall, interview by author. St. Louis, 4 April 2017.

9. Ibid.

10. Greg Ogden, Transforming Discipleship (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 163.

11. John Holm, Interview by author. St. Louis, 4 May 2017.

12. Hall, interview by author.

13. Ibid.

14. Holm, interview by author.

15. Holm, interview by author.

About the author

Linda Anderson-Little wrote one article for this publication.

Linda Anderson-Little is a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and has served congregations in Detroit, Michigan, Kansas City, St. Louis, and Florissant, Missouri. She is the author of Motherhood Calling: Experiencing God in Everyday Family Life, and is working toward a Certificate of Spiritual Direction through Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis. Linda and her husband, the Rev. Dr. Dan Anderson-Little, recently relocated to Frisco, Texas, where Dan serves Legacy Presbyterian Church. Linda is currently pursuing a new calling in the area and can be reached at soulstorywriter.net where she publishes a blog.

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