by Ken Walker 08 Jan 2008

"Renew Your Congregation," William McConnell (Chalice Press, January 2008)

Veteran minister William McConnell experienced a personal epiphany in the midst of a contentious board meeting at his church. While members heatedly tossed accusations and invectives at each other over a vital issue—what color to paint the kitchen—God told him the battle was his fault.

Since he had been doing all the ministry, all he had left the congregation was a crummy bucket of paint. The Lord said: "And since that is all they have, they have invested all of the passion I have given them to do ministry in the paint instead."

The need to empower laypersons is only one of many lessons this Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) leader has gleaned from his experience leading a suburban Cincinnati congregation through transformation.

It was at the bottom of a 30-year-long decline when he went there in 1991. Today, the church has grown from a one-man ministry to 400 in weekly attendance and involvement in multiple mission endeavors and community improvement projects.

Measuring success

Yet, as McConnell points out in this forthright and sometimes amusing account, such numbers as increased attendance and offerings are not the measuring sign of success. A healthy church means one that produces fully functioning followers of Christ.

According to the author, this will only happen when a pastor gathers the courage to confront the vocal minority who often rule churches through intimidation, complaints or temper tantrums.

He says that transforming a church is a daunting task and not for the weak of heart. Nor is it for those who are content with operating in maintenance mode so they can continue collecting a salary while striving to keep everyone happy.

Admitting he never cared for confrontation or the gut-wrenching moments it produced while transforming his church, McConnell emphasizes the need to wade into the battle and not "cut and run" as he did earlier in his 35-year-long career.

While facing contentious challenges, McConnell says pastors must learn to see themselves as leaders, acting like the star athlete in pressure situations who says, "Give me the ball."

Searching for the "magic bullet"

At 144 pages, this book isn’t long enough to provide in-depth instruction on the ways pastors can revitalize congregations. Yet it packs a lot of wisdom into 14 chapters, starting with the insight that there is no magic bullet when it comes to turning around a dwindling church.

Instead, McConnell compares the process to the cooking talents of his grandmother, who never used measuring cups, taking a pinch of this and a dash of that to craft delicious dishes. Likewise, he says each church is different and can’t expect to quickly implement someone else’s recipe to reach its goal.

Not that McConnell leaves readers on their own to figure it out. He reviews some key ingredients to revitalization, particularly the importance of prayer, and includes a list of 21 best practices gleaned from an e-mail discussion group.

As part of learning the art of healthy confrontation, he says a minister must learn to tell the truth, such as the author did when a woman complained she didn’t like their new, contemporary worship. Replying that he didn’t care, McConnell pointed out it wasn’t meant for her and that she should attend the earlier, traditional service.

Answering key questions

In McConnell’s eyes, churches have to answer two key questions: 1) what do we need to do to become healthy? and 2) what does God want us to do?

Without that kind of focus, he says congregations can easily lose an emphasis on missions and outreach. Instead, they will invest their resources in building maintenance while making little impact on the community.

Another essential ingredient he recommends is finding a target and then aiming for it. After his church decided to tailor its efforts toward families with children, their numbers swelled.

Pastors looking for vision and hope will find encouragement from McConnell, whose experiences with crabby church members and ministry challenges will sound familiar to leaders of every denomination and background.

They may also be surprised by the author’s crossing over from his mainline roots to recommend a leadership training institute offered through Asbury Theological Seminary. Too often the insistence on doctrinal purity from both fundamentalists and liberals keep each side from learning from the other camp, McConnell says.

Likewise, evangelical pastors who think they can’t learn from a mainline minister should put aside those preconceptions to consider McConnell’s guidelines.