Hinges

I am in the process of reading this book. Very good and interesting so far. The seller packaged and shipped very quickly. Thank you.

This book is a collaboration between three individuals, one of which sadly passed away in an accident in the final stages of the book. It is evident that these three men all have a passion for reaching the lost. Together they formed a consulting service called the Transforming Congregations Network (TCN) with the desire to "transform" and "revitalize" congregations in such a way that everything congregations and pastors do, from weekly worship, to congregational events, to daily life, to preaching and teaching, is centered on reaching out to the lost (unbelievers). The foundation of their efforts is clearly laid out from the beginning. Namely, after their research with some 1,000 congregations, "we can now provide particular resources based on extensive research and proven results with real people and real situations," in which they offer "a principle-centered approach that focuses on proven best practices" where "these practices must be contextualized" to each congregation's unique setting, all in an effort to enable congregations "to open doors to their community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ" (p.11). As such, various "metrics" are set forth in combination with these best practices that together are upheld as the standard and evaluation of a congregations' "successfulness." The authors should be commended for not simply lamenting the decline of the church in our time, but actually proposing a remedy. However, this begs the question, are churches truly not bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ to the lost? Though this can certainly be debated, their contention is that this is indeed the problem. The authors speak from a particular denominational affiliation, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), a conservative and confessional Lutheran church body known for its rich Reformation theology and robust Gospel proclamation. Unfortunately, recognition and integration of this rich theological tradition within the book appears anemic at best, if not altogether malnourished. More on that later. In short, the authors note a decline of the church with many congregations closing at an "alarming rate." This, of course, is a current reality not unique to their LCMS church body; it is generally acknowledged across all denominational lines of North America. At the same time, they also say churches are figuratively closing their doors by being too inward focused and failing to bring people from the outside (unbelievers) in to their churches. What they propose as a solution is an alternative paradigm for being the church and organizing the church. Based on their research and analysis they have created some metrics and tools for congregations to implement specific "hinges" that will make them more able and more willing to reach out to the surrounding community of unbelievers and thus be properly focused on "Christ's Great Commission to reach those outside the church" (p.22). (It should be noted that the emphasis upon the "Great Commission" as a mantra for the mission of the church is part of a more recent obsession over the last 50 years to demonstrate the church has a clear mandate to be "missional" in nature and function. This has spawned a number of related but consecutive outreach movements-Church Growth-Emergent/Emerging Church-Missional-Contextualization-but where each movement is really just a variation or perceived correction on the same theme of the original Church Growth Movement. Even so, the authors look to capitalize on this obsession and add their paradigm of "hinges" and "metrics" to the mix: "[W]e have sought to know the key characteristics of churches that effectively empower church members to engage their communities with the Gospel. In other words, our research has focused on identifying the key factors, what we call Hinges, that shifted inwardly-focused congregations into churches that opened their doors to the community" (p.25). These "hinges" are identified and put into two "factors" categories-those of the pastor and those of the congregation. Four hinges are identified pertaining to the pastor: 1) Empowering God's People, 2) Personal Leadership, 3) Visionary Leadership, and 4) Bridge-Building Leadership. Another four are identified for the congregation: 5) Community Outreach, 6) Focused Prayer, 7) Functional Board, and 8) Inspiring Worship. Assurances are given about how their research and metrics prove the effectiveness of these hinges for great missional "impact" on the community: "The sophisticated processes that we have used have been guided by experts in this kind of statistical analysis. The results of the research conclusively indicate that there are eight behavioral drivers that will transform a plateaued or dying inwardly-focused church" (p.26). In short, it appears the reader is called to trust them because the sophistication, the metrics, and the experts they employ is reason enough to do so. Nonetheless, their approach mirrors the claims that first began the movement among evangelicals to commandeer the "Great Commission" as the official motto of the church some 50 years ago. However, as was then, so now reservations and concerns over such confident assertions and approaches have been becoming louder and louder. Among the many voices, consider evangelical Sky Jethani's recent book Immeasurable: Reflections on the Soul of Ministry in the Age of Church Inc. (Nov. 2017) which expresses his concern with what he calls "the idol of effectiveness." He observes that the "Idol of Effectiveness has power because it causes us to look at the wrong fruit. We become enamored by relevance, power, impact, and how much we have changed the world. While all of those things are measures of effectiveness, none of them are a measure of faithfulness" (p.25). One wonders if faithfulness would be permitted to be a "hinge" for the church in this paradigm? What is more, even the secular world is now observing the danger of becoming too fascinated with metrics. In his just released book, The Tyranny of Metrics (Feb. 2018), professor Jerry Z. Muller brings to light what he calls a "metric fixation" (p.17) and the many ways in which numerical and statistical evaluations result in deleterious performance in our schools, our universities, our hospitals, our military, and our businesses. Other voices are Denny Spitters and Matthew Ellison in their recent book When Everything is Missions (Oct. 2017), which calls the evangelical church to serious self-examination. They pose many thoughtful questions about the claims that "everyone is a missionary" and everything the church does is missions. They remind the evangelical church there is more to the life of a Christian than just evangelism. "A life of repentance is central and vital to living the gospel each day of our lives. Our hearts and minds need cleansing and renewal for our understanding of the Great Commission to be brought to its rightful place. To think about missions well, we must embrace the illuminating wisdom of God's word as our guide, submitting other books and teachings to be held accountable to the missiological guidance of the Bible" (p.114). Suffice it to say, these books reflect the significant concerns that this reviewer has about Hinges. In the zeal to reorient the church to what is deemed as the sole mission of the church, (reaching out to unbelievers), damaging consequences result from this paradigm and others like it. This includes marginalizing the needs of faithful members (chief of which is the forgiveness of sins), reducing the church to a humanly created enterprise subject to the whims of metrics experts, and in the case of this book, negating the rich theological foundation that lies at the core of the authors' own tradition. This criticism is by no means meant to negate the absolute importance and intentional effort that should be given to being a witness of Jesus Christ to all unbelievers, as well as regularly praying for them. Rather this is simply urging extreme caution when considering this paradigm because of the damaging consequences that are inflicted upon the church through it. Again, more about that in a moment. Before those specific concerns are unpacked, a couple of potential strengths are worth noting. The discussion about empowering God's people is helpful, though ultimately misguided when it comes to the implicit theology undergirding for it. The authors clearly indicate what they mean about empowering people: "When we say empower God's people we are referring to equipping people for works of service" (p.41). This has the potential to be a wonderful emphasis. However, the manner this equipping is routinely unpacked and framed is within the organizational life of the church, and for the specific and seemingly sole purpose of reaching out to the unchurched or lost. A tremendous opportunity is missed here. The rich Reformation theology of vocation (a vibrant part of the authors noted theological tradition) is never once mentioned. It would have been a great way to affirm the everyday life of God's people in the midst of their daily God created vocations, and therein equip them to naturally and readily give witness within those daily vocations. Instead, the opportunity to affirm the First Article gift of daily vocations was replaced by the laborious organizational work of the numerous possible outreach events that they suggest a congregation should put on. The message is that the only service of value by God's people are those that have a "missional impact" on the community. This both overlooks and marginalizes the many important vocations every member of the church already possesses (family member, worker, congregation member, and citizen, as well as community member). What is more, one could venture to guess that each author would never tell their adolescent children or grandchildren that they were going to leave or abandon them for the children of the community. Yet, in effect, that's what they are suggesting the church and her pastors should do for the sake of unbelievers. For a tradition that cherishes the importance and central role of the forgiveness of sins in the daily life of every believer, there is little evidence of its role in this paradigm. Other potential highlights are their discussions about congregational governance board and leadership woes, along with the organizational dysfunction that often immobilizes congregational boards, as well as the importance of pastoral leadership. Chapters five, six, and nine discuss these issues respectively, though significant theological shortcomings are present in those discussions. Yet, in terms of positive contributions, the authors address the importance for pastors to continue learning, maintain healthy spiritual disciplines, and keep good personal health. They also bring out the legitimate point that pastors need to be familiar with leading the church forward as the local organization it is, preferably with a good sense and vision for what the congregation needs to be doing at the organizational level. Likewise, they also address the unhealthy and often unspoken assumptions that congregations have about their pastors and note how numerous congregational boards are unnecessarily charged with micro-managing the details of the staff and ministry in a way that limits the board being able to see the broader picture and free pastors to do the work they are called to do. One example notes that while "the board was comprised of faithful people who worked hard to fulfill their duties, the way that it was organized worked against it being functional" (p.130). As such, discussion about congregational governance possibilities and solutions that can free the pastors for their work are helpful considerations, though what the authors of this book limit that work to include (primarily only those things related to evangelism and outreach, with things like hospital visitation and pastoral care of souls being delegated to members) creates extreme disagreement for this reviewer. Finally, one last positive consideration is their treatment on the life cycles of congregations. Though one may disagree with some of the details of the life cycle, the general principle of the life cycle and the diagrams showing them (p.86-87) are helpful for thinking strategically about ministry at a congregation. Now on to a collegial discussion about the remaining specific concerns about the book and the overall shortcomings of the "Hinges" paradigm. To begin, perhaps it would help to apply the metrics of a confessional Lutheran theological analysis to a paradigm that claims to originate within the tradition of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. For example, how many times does this paradigm explicitly or implicitly draw upon the practical truths and theological principles as understood through the Lutheran Confessions? What research was conducted to contextualize the Hinges paradigm to orthodox Lutheran theology? What theological best practice was employed to create this approach to ministry? Would it be fair to say that such a paradigm doesn't fit within a theological tradition if those questions were all negatively answered? Or would it be said that for the sake of the lost (unbelievers) churches must be willing to sacrifice their theological heritage? If so, why? Confessional Lutherans have a specific measure to define the church and note the marks of the church. Lutherans hold that the forgiveness of sins earned by Christ for the justification of the sinner (Augsburg Confession of 1530, Article IV), stand at the center of the mission of the church. And the marks of the church are when the Word of God (both Law and Gospel) is preached in its truth and purity and the sacraments are administered faithfully for the forgiveness of sins and the strengthening of faith (Augsburg Confession, Article V). This confession takes seriously the relentless effects of sin upon every soul and recognizes the constant need for all people to regularly receive the cleansing grace and forgiveness of God in Christ Jesus. The Hinges paradigm reorients not only the definition of the church, but also the marks of the church. Rather than the church being "the assembly of saints in which the gospel is taught purely and the sacraments are administered rightly" (Augsburg Confession, Article VII), where both members and outsiders alike could come to receive the means of grace, the Hinges paradigm organizes the local congregation entirely around the law. In the well-meaning but terribly misguided effort to get inward churches to begin looking outward, the material principle of the Gospel (the shed blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins) is replaced by the Great Commission (Go! Evangelize, serve, and do whatever it takes to win the lost.) In essence, the law now becomes the organizing principle of the church. Here the marks of the church (the means of grace) are likewise traded for the pragmatism of best practices and metrics of missional impact. This paradigm is one of many in the recent past that all seek to reorient the Church, but which are all ultimately rooted in the law. Most certainly, the church should go about compassionately showing mercy, happily serving others, and vigorously giving witness to unbelievers. But from a confessional Lutheran perspective this is not the organizing material principle of the church. The corrective to inward focused churches that the authors desire to provide is certainly understandable and commendable, but the remedy they propose breathes in a foreign theology that muddles the Gospel, marginalizes members, insults faithful pastors and members, and reduces the power of God to organizational metrics. The influence of this foreign theology appears, for example, in the advocacy of "prayer walking" (chapter 10) and "inspiring worship" (chapter 11). To be sure, Christians are free to pray anywhere, and walk anywhere, and even to pray while they walk. But the advent of focused "prayer walking" as a means to increasing the efficacy of prayer and claim a neighborhood for Christ has no biblical precedent or injunction, is of recent origin, demeans other prayers and those who pray elsewhere, and has plenty of unhelpful baggage (i.e. see Prayer Walking by Steve Hawthorne and Graham Kendrick, Creation House, 1993). Consider this quote from chapter 10: "All churches pray, but it's prayer that is focused on the lost and unreached and equipping God's people to connect with them that really makes a difference (p.144)." That is not what James 5:16 says actually makes a difference. Ironically, chapter 10 is the one chapter that does invoke the Lutheran Confessions, specifically Luther's Small Catechism on the Lord's Prayer, and does have some edifying things to say about prayer, but ultimately it turns prayer into another spoke in the wheel of the law-oriented paradigm of outreach. This leads the reader into chapter 11 that explores the Hinge of "inspiring worship," which for better or worse, makes many a confessional Lutheran gnash their teeth. True, there is certainly something to be said about ensuring worship (the Divine Service) in all aspects is done well, with integrity, clarity, and quality, regardless of what instrumentation a congregation uses. But adding the emotional adjective "inspiring" to worship is a terribly dubious business. It once again puts the emphasis upon the law (and the sinful self) and manipulates the worship service to serve the ulterior motive of the organizational vision (the service is to inspire outreach) rather than upon the forgiveness of sins earned by Christ. Ironically, in their attempt to capture what they mean, the authors quote a respected Swedish confessional Lutheran, Bo Giertz, from his 1949 pastoral letter written after being elected Bishop of Gothenberg, which they say embraces the tension between "liturgy" and "awakening," but where they assert Giertz's use of "awakening" carries the same meaning as their "inspiring" (p.165). However, rather than an inspiring and emotional high, Giertz's use of awakening more likely refers to repentance than anything else. In fact, one could simply read Giert's renowned 1941 work The Hammer of God to clear up any misunderstanding about how he understood awaking, or even this proposed paradigm for the church. Just consider how he sets up the conversation between the young curate, Pastor Fridfelt, who considered himself a "true believer," talking to the more mature rector (or Sr. Pastor) about the "revival" or "awakening" movements of their time: The rector maintained the point of view that the revival movement could well, and with more permanent gain, have stayed in the Church, and defended the place of baptism and confirmation in their relation to such awakenings among people. "Awakened people also have children, and when they are once brought into the world there remains the duty of nurturing them. We have had revivals before in these parts, and always it has gone badly for the children. Either the revival burns out with the older generation, or it becomes necessary to begin to reckon the children as Christians and nurture them with catechism and confirmation and all the churchly ministrations, as the Church has always done" (p.119, 2005 edition). In the end, though this book has some helpful things to consider regarding the organizational elements of a congregation and the leadership of pastors, there are too many unhelpful things to be able to commend it for a confessional Lutheran tradition. For an alternative that looks to prize the rich Reformation theology of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, keep the Gospel at the center, and provide a beginning framework to mobilize the church for intentional witness right where they are at in their daily vocations, you might consider, Great Commission, Great Confusion, or Great Confession? The Mission of the Holy Christian Church, (2012, Wipf & Stock). My aim in that book is the same as writing this review: to bring more light and less heat on matters central to the life of the church. In our confusing times we need more honest and open dialog through collegial conversation. Rev. Dr. Lucas V. Woodford lucas.woodford@gmail.com

A bok that all those interested and committed to outreach and evangelism should read.

We were at the Indiana Dunes campground a few weeks ago. When I have blocks of time like this, I try to read books relevant to ministry (and also fiction and mystery). Today I started a James Grippando book and was thoroughly engrossed. But I also brought your Hinges book and started reading it this afternoon. It is now 5:30 and I have finished the book. I never got back to Grippando. I have read many books about mission and outreach over the years and found your book to be right on target. It has fired up the juices of my missional passion and has led to some thinking about where we can and should go at our congregation. I highly recommend this book for those who want to refocus on mission in their congregations. Pastor David Easterday Lake George Lutheran Chapel

This is a very readable book that presents a practical, yet comprehensive approach for churches to have impact in their communities. It applies research, and the practical experience of successful churches that have been able to energize their ministries, to give concrete steps church leaders can take to improve the effectiveness of their ministry. What i like about this book is that it not only shows how pastors and lay leaders can adopt high-impact behaviors, but how those behaviors can reinforce each other to energize the congregation.

Hinges: Opening Your Church's Doors to the Community is one of the most innovative Christian outreach guides that I have ever read. It offers ways to not only help your church grow and develop, but also ways to improve your life as a follower of Jesus. I highly recommend this book to anyone, regardless of their beliefs. It is also an awesome book for sharing with others in fellowship. Once you start reading, you will find yourself wanting to tell everyone about it. I can't wait for Terry Tieman's next book!