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Bandy: churches must change to survive, thrive
June, 2001
Author and Speaker Tom Bandy told 600 church leaders in May that they need to break away from their traditional methods of running church in order to survive and thrive in the 21st Century.
Bandy spoke to lay leaders and clergy who gathered in Newton, Springfield and Shrewsbury for a three-day event co-sponsored by the Conference and Andover Newton Theological School.
Bandy said the traditional, declining church tends to focus all its efforts on the spiritual development of youth, spending almost no time helping adults formulate their faith. The declining church does limited outreach, he said, and is instead all about belonging to an institution with clergy spending most of their time servicing church members. He likened the traditional church to a “well-oiled machine” which requires a large amount of energy by lay people to keep running.
Bandy contrasted that to a new model of ministry used in thriving churches, in which the emphasis is on adult spiritual development, lay-led mission and outreach to the community. The thriving church system, Bandy said, is all about changing individuals and society, with clergy intent on reaching the lost. He likened the thriving church to an “organic organism with shoots of ministry quickly expanding in surprising directions.”
Bandy, co-founder of Easum, Bandy & Associates, is considered one of today’s leading authors and speakers on congregational transformation. He was scheduled to continue his discussion at the Conference’s 202nd Annual Meeting June 8 and 9th.
Question and answer periods at the three sessions showed that while not everyone agreed with Bandy’s message – and some found it overwhelming – most were interested in learning more. More than 100 people signed up to follow-up on the lectures either by bringing an evangelism coach to their church, taking part in email forums or attending future training sessions.
“There was a tremendous enthusiasm at these events,” said Paul Nickerson, Acting Associate Conference Minister for Evangelism, Mission and Justice. “People are hungry, they are wanting to do church in a different way.”
To those who were overwhelmed, Bandy suggested starting slowly.
“Start where the opportunity is the greatest and the stress is least,” he said.
A key component of his thriving church model is to do away with many of the traditional boards and committees in the church, and to instead empower small teams to carry out mission, ministry and outreach. These teams, led by a trained lay leader, have the power to discern, design and implement their mission without any board approval, as long as that mission falls within the core values and mission articulated by the church as a whole. People are chosen for teams based on their gifts. Church administration is carried out by a small group of lay leaders, rather than by multiple committees.
Bandy acknowledged that such change is not easy, and warned that those who are not willing to learn a new way of doing church may leave if change is attempted. But he warned that if change is not attempted, the church will continue to decline as those who are highly motivated and restless move on.
“You are going to lose somebody – you have to choose who you’re willing to lose,” he said.