Daniel P. Smith and Mary K. Sellon, Pathway to Renewal: Practical Steps for Congregations. Alban Institute, 2008.
Referenced in: Strategies for Congregational Renewal – Strategic Planning, Congregational Discernment
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
This is a good attempt at applying the best practices of spiritual formation and congregational development to the hard work of church renewal. The book is divided into six chapters. Chapter one describes renewal and what it requires. Chapter two warns of the challenges involved. Chapters 3-5 address each of three phases of their proposed renewal process: developing leadership readiness, surfacing a guiding vision, and aligning the work of the congregation with the vision. The last chapter presents an excellent primer on planning.
In the section on the first phase of developing leadership awareness, the authors guide leaders into assessing their congregation’s effectiveness against accepted benchmarks, declaring the congregation’s current trajectory unacceptable, and committing to lead in a new direction. Churches do not change unless they perceive something to be wrong with the way things are and want a better future badly enough that they will commit to follow through. The second phase helps leaders guide the congregation through a discernment process to arrive at a common vision, which the leaders formally bless and adopt. This step must be rooted in a biblical and historical understanding of the purpose of the church. The third phase addresses the hardest work of renewal, and that is embedding the new understanding of church effectiveness derived in the second phase into the actual practice of the congregation. This involves letting go of ineffectiveness in all its various forms, and then instead of adopting the most currently prescribed forms of ministry, expectantly waiting on God to reveal the path for one’s congregation.
This guide to church renewal best fits into the category of strategic planning through congregational discernment. It is distinguished from more directive models where the leaders have a fairly good idea of what they want to accomplish but then use various means of gaining congregational feedback and buy-in. The assumption of this volume is that the work should start with the people, with leaders as facilitators who guide the congregation into realizing and implementing a congregationally discerned future. See similar resources in the Ministry Resource Guide on the subject.
From the Publisher
No pastor can lead a congregation to renewal alone. it requires a complete change of heart for the whole congregation. Congregational renewal occurs when people engage communally in a transition in their very understanding of the nature and purpose of their church. This goes far beyond a simple retooling of the mission statement or addition of a few programs. Authors Mary Sellon and Daniel Smith lead congregations through this process of renewal, breaking down into understandable components what is happening in the people themselves that makes renewal efforts successful.
Pathway to Renewal offers pastors and congregational leaders a framework for understanding and addressing the deep cultural shift facing the people of a congregation during congregational renewal. This book will help leaders make sense of where their congregation could get stuck and guide them in thinking through what needs to be addressed next as a congregation seeks renewal. The realigning of a congregation’s heart and sense of purpose can be a long process, but one that ultimately all congregations must experience in order to fully live out the world-transforming mission that God has given them to do.
About the Authors
Daniel P. Smith, a United Methodist minister, has served as a pastor, a district superintendent, a judicatory executive, and currently as a coach and consultant.
Mary K. Sellon (Huycke) is a United Methodist minister who has pastored in new church start and redevelopment settings as well as worked with leader development regionally and nationally. She is a workshop leader and coach who helps clergy and congregational teams find effectiveness and fulfullment in their work. Together they coauthored Practicing Right Relationship: Skills for Deepening Purpose, Finding Fulfillment, and Increasing Effectiveness in Your Congregation (Alban Institute, 2005).
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