While not focused on The Episcopal Church or the Task Force for Re-imagining the Church, this article brings up some factors to weigh in times of transition. From Faith and Leadership:
For the past year, [the Reformed Church in America, an] evangelical mainline church of 233,000 members and 1,061 congregations (including new church plants) has been reinventing what a denominational staff exists to do. Gone is the assumption that staffers must focus on generating “outputs” such as materials, largely in print format, for local churches to use in Sunday school, adult Bible study and elsewhere. Indeed, the RCA dissolved its publishing arm last year.
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“Our churches don’t want denominational programs anymore,” said General Secretary DeVries. Religious goods and services aren’t necessarily what people want, he notes, from either local churches or denominational staff. “We’re really now beginning to move toward producing processes that help congregations identify their needs, their local vision and call, and how they see that being lived out,” DeVries said.
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The RCA’s doubling down on training at this pivotal juncture stems in part from awareness that shedding hierarchy and replacing it with a system of accountability to multiple teams and leaders is not for the faint of heart. The logic holds that people must be equipped to handle change and uncertainty if they are to thrive amid ambiguities and keep their morale high.
Read the rest here.
More on the RCA restructuring process is here