Faith Works 10-12-19
Jeff Gill
Making adjustments on the field
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For those who've found my last few columns depressing, I do apologize!
My intention has not been to sound negative, but to be candid about some changes that are not so much happening as have already happened around us, and to be honest about how these social changes are impacting church life.
While my niche here is to speak to people of faith in all sorts of settings, I know the biggest chunk of readers are involved and active with local churches. My own calling as a congregational minister, a parish pastor, means I'm particularly attuned to what's going on in those circles. And I think a little candor about some changes and their implications, while possibly painful at first, can get us to a healthier spot.
Any time of year, but especially during an Ohio autumn, it can be both tempting and risky to engage in football metaphors. Especially because while that's popular with some, it can really turn off quite a few others . . . but I hope you'll bear with me.
As any casual observer knows, there are upsets in football, pro or college. "On any given Sunday" is a catchphrase of the NFL that you never know when a struggling team can catch a winning team by surprise, and end up with a win. (This should give hope to Browns fans, anyhow.)
And in the college game in particular, you might see a highly rated team bobble a bit in the first quarter, but then come storming back to win by a landslide. It's said that the coach has "made adjustments." Making adjustments is, I'd argue, the big difference between a good team and a great team, and it might even be the main distinction between a winning and losing record. You prepare all week in one way, and then the opponent comes out with a new formation or a surprising spread, and if they're running right through you, or stopping your entire offense, you can't just keep doing what you practiced. If it's not working, you make adjustments, right?
Or you can yell and scream and shout and tell them to do better while doing the same thing, and maybe it will change. Probably not, though. You drop back another linebacker, you shift the blockers on the sweep or pitchout, you make adjustments and find out what DOES work against the team you're actually facing, not just the one you had up on the blackboard in the locker room.
My point these last few weeks has been to suggest that churches, like many other institutional expressions of ideas or ideals or hopes, can be slow to make adjustments. If it worked last week or last year or last decade (or half century ago) then it should work now. Three yards and a cloud of dust worked for Woody, right?
Until it doesn't. If you keep running the same play, and you don't make three yards, but get stuffed at the line of scrimmage, or even start getting thrown for a loss, you need to mix it up. Change the patterns. Make adjustments.
Many churches are still running "three yards and a cloud of dust." If it worked back in the 60s and 70s, if it stopped working then it's because the players weren't executing, because the line isn't blocking right, or the ball carriers need to step it up, right? Maybe, but maybe not. Maybe our blockers are simply going where the defenders ain't; perhaps the tackle is being made even as the handoff is happening, and we're losing ground. Time for a shift.
It's great advice, except there's no single answer that explains "make an adjustment." You have to size up the opposition, your own strengths, and adjust accordingly. There's also resistance to adjustments in church life because of an assumption that our ways are timeless, and our truths are enduring. That's true of the Gospel, friends, but is it equally so about our worship and welcome and invitations?
A good old phrase is the theological equivalent of "make adjustments": in essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity. Congregations can struggle with what's essential to their witness, but is architecture or order of worship an essential? Can there be liberty in how we present and communicate and even market ourselves to a wider community, whose means of communication have changed drastically over the last few decades?
And as we experiment with our adjustments, let us show charity, caritas, love to each other as we make mistakes, and get up, and try again.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; he's made many mistakes. A partial list can be obtained at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.
