Congregational Ministry: A Book Reflection by Tamice Namae
I am starting this reflection in the order of enjoyment, starting from the -least to the greatest. The first book was called The Worship Architect: A Blueprint for Designing Culturally Relevant and Biblically Faithful Services by Constance M. Cherry. In the book, Cherry sets out to help worship leaders and those who are a part of planning services think through the moment of worship. Using the process of architecture, she turns the chapters in her book into phases of architecture, to show the various areas of importance and conservation when planning worship.
The book is set up by having each chapter represented by a phase in the process. For instance, phase one of architecture is laying the foundation, and Cherry makes sure that the most critical section in her book corresponds to the most vital ant aspect of planning. Cherry delves into the apparent importance of the Bible as the foundation for service preparation. Cherry was careful here to sidestep any allusions to prescriptions and remain as general as possible by highlighting principles rather than precepts that go beyond the word into preference. After the foundation is laid, Cherry argues then we can think about the structural aspects of the worship service. She admonishes leaders to follow a four-step pattern as they plan: Gathering, Gathering to the Word, Gathering to the Table, and Gathering to be sent out together on mission. She emphasizes that it is God who initiates the initial invitation to which we respond by gathering in his name and presence. The next step in the architectural process is adding the doors and the windows to the structure. There are entryways to come in and out and to look in and out. This phase is where the leader is to think about encounter. They are to see their jobs as those who facilitate encounter with God and that to do that well, one must think through what is prayed, read and sung to make sure that it is contextually appropriate. I found this chapter to be a bit arduous as I come from a perspective and a tradition that didn't delve so deeply into this aspect, even though they were a 24/7 worship ministry.
My favorite chapter and phase of the book, though, was the call to hospitality. I was genuinely struck by Cherry's insistence that we think deeply about what it means to be hospitable to others as we plan and prepare for gathering and as we think about visitors and new members. I believe this is extremely important because the visitors and new members will increasingly be younger and prone to attend where they feel loved and hosted well — the next book I will cover deals with what happens when they come.
Wherever there are people, there is politics. I believe that’s the best way, to sum up, the book The Politics of Ministry: Navigating Power Dynamics and Negotiating Interests. The book is authored by Bob Burns, Tasha D. Chapman, and Donald C. Guthrie. It is a very delightful mix of true stories of interviews, sociological research, and the combined pastoral ministry experience of the three authors.
They keep the book tightly knit to refrain from ministry work is people work, and people work is messy, and that’s what creates politics. It was obvious that the authors were intent on removing the stigma of the phrase politics when it comes to conversations with these messy people and navigating relationships they have with God, themselves, and one another.
I think they did the best they could in terms of sympathetically acknowledging the pain and experiences of others while also trying to bring correction to the words used to describe those situations.
The book does a great job of communicating that you cannot avoid politics in ministry, but you can navigate them well if you know what to expect and accept that they are inevitable. It was extremely eyeopening to see that even something as simple as deciding where to go to eat after church involves politics because it consists ofinvolves the interest and preferences of others. Suddenly a lot of awkward and annoyingly long church step conversations about where to make more sense. The goal of the book, it seems was to use politics as a tool to become more humble and compassionate in our ministry dealings rather than something to avoid.
In Dr. Cherry’s book, she gives a strong appeal for those who are planning the worship service to think about being hospitable, and as I mentioned, I think this is hugely relevant to the arguments being made in this one.
I work with young people, and when I read for my Graduate classes, this is the context I am thinking the most about. There are a few things I have noticed about them and feel like the book sought to address. First, relationships; as we think about the younger generation and the fact that they prioritize relationships over tasks. What Burns, Chapman, and Guthrie attempt to do are to help ministry leaders walk the delicate balance of developing relational equity while not wholly disregarding formal hierarchy. The formal hierarchy is apparently necessary to just get things get done. In this way, they try to redeem the notion of formal power and hierarchical leadership by settling the term into a definition that has more to do with the capacity to accomplish tasks as opposed to a more flattened understanding of the word. Superior or Executive Leader, previously understood as that which insinuates a somewhat rote and stringent taskmaster with no vested interest in relationship, needs to be understood in light of this new way of thinking.
I found myself taking moments to pause and reflect on these ideas, and I regularly felt dissonance. I couldn’t avoid the reality that there seemed to be some presuppositions in the premise of the book. For instance, Guthrie, Burns, and Chapman assert that a leader is a person with formal authority because of their capacity to get things done. This seems to make a general assessment of leadership that a formal hierarchical structure is necessary for leadership; it just cannot be the only type of leadership.
As I thought about different groups of people I met over the years from communicated of color, capacity wouldn’t be the thing that gave an elder in the room authority. If you are an Abuela, an Auntie or Big Mama, if you are the Chieftain or the Patriarch of certain communities, your authority and leadership comes from age and wisdom, not capacity to get things done. Let’s face it; most of these individuals do things quite slowly. I had a hard time thinking about leadership in this way, especially now, in light of our current administration and this white male way of thinking and leading. Literally every example in the book as I tried to picture the scenarios, were filled with white faces. Of course, I do not know if this is true, but I can’t help but wonder about whether my imaginary characters were correctly pictured. I found myself asking questions like: how does this work in other cultures where power comes from wisdom, not agility? In addition to that, in terms of capacity, in a native community, the onus is placed on wisdom and perspective as opposed to getting things done. I would have liked to see a little bit more conversation in that direction. The differences in culture, gender, and generation were touched on, but it was clear that the posture of the book was to bring redemption and reassessment to the typical ways we think about power and success.
Who are the leaders God chooses, and do they demonstrate the ability or the capacity to get things done? I struggle with this. It seems like the leaders God chose in Scripture where very different from those we would choose today. Then they talk about character; I think of David raping Bathsheba and Solomon’s concubines. Does God really use character as a measurement for leadership?
This critique is not to suggest that there were not some great points being made or that I did not learn anything from reading. The major takeaways for me were always to be pausing to think and reflect on my own power. What capacity do I have to influence, and how do I use it? The book, if we will let it, calls all of us to a slowing down and accountability structure in ministry that may not be the same as it is in the business world. Are we listening to people who have different interests and needs than our own? Guthrie, Burns, and Chapman unapologetically call us to try and make people we work with feel like they have more power when making decisions about what is the best way forward. I hope that those in power will not use this challenge to make people “feel” more potent as mere instruments to maintain their own.
Throughout the reading of this book, I kept thinking of the leadership of Jesus. I thought particularly of when Jesus sends out the seventy-two. He gives them power and authority and trusts them with it, even while they are young and inexperienced and rough around the edges. It gave me a more in-depth picture of the leadership power that is housed in relational equity and coaching, rather than just formal hierarchical authority and power.
Reading the second book most certainly left me with more questions than answers, and I suspect that is why it comes in second place of the books I enjoyed reading so far.
In all my just about every one of my classes , I have felt a familiar pain of limited perspective. Though the classes have been extremely challenging and rigorous, sometimes the content of the course left more to be desired in terms of diverse voices and perspectives. That is why I chose The Next Worship: Glorifying God in a Diverse World by Sandra MariaVan Opstal as my final book.
In this book, Van Opstal makes the argument that all worship is cultural because our cultural values are expressed in the way we worship. This is the architectural foundation of the book, and the rest flows from there. I sincerely appreciated the boldness and prophetic that was strewn all through the chapters of the work. Van Opstal seeks to take a look at the clashes in culture and gives very clear, straightforward, and efficient tips to help those who are beginning the journey of thinking of ministry leadership in a worship setting. Having worked for Intervaristy, I had not had the opportunity to read the book I had heard so much about, so I was thankful for the chance to sit down and read it finally. This book was my favorite of the three, and maybe I am biased by it seemed to me to be the most enjoyable and evoke the most visceral response from me. I struggled through the others. Reading her book felt like talking to a friend who carried the same weariness and burden like me. You could almost feel her pleading in the book for the church to recognize the importance of diversity and inclusion in worship style, setting, and tone. She uses the parables of Jesus as a jumping-off point for her arguments, and it is genuinely convicting and enlightening what she does with the text. One of the things that are profound is her fearless debunking of the shallow attempts at diversity by arguing that it is not accomplished by having a gospel song or tone? or a black worship leader. She makes a compelling case that it is much much deeper than that.
For instance, her treatment of the parable of the feast was profound, and I hadn’t ever in my years of Christian ministry seen it communicated like that. In Luke 14, Jesus says:
“A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’“But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yokes of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’“Still, another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”
In a brilliant treatment of the text, Sandra Maria reveals three very profound insights first, that those who were invited had already said yes and RSVP’d; two these invited guests were lying and insulting the host and three that there was no plan B at all in the story. In fact, the marginalized had always been invited to dine next to those with means, but those with means did not welcome them. This adds so much more texture to the parable because it becomes less difficult both to imagine in general and to avoid the indictment of those I’d rather avoid. She speaks to that thing in us before she ever gives practicals. In that way, her book differs from Dr. Cherry’s on the level of feeling personal and full of depth. Van Opstal avoids the analogous and goes straight for the situations of real ministry life, scenarios as common as peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
It became clear to me after reading the last two books that a book is more impactful in my ministry formation and leadership when it uses a tone that is down to earth and includes humor, wit, and practicality. I can see after all this time how this is very much in one with the ISTJ profile I received on my personality test. Although I am not a pastor, I’ve found this course to be beneficial. All in all, the books seemed to serve three very different audiences, and reading them in tandem certainly added more depth to my thinking and my expectations as a ministry leader. The major themes I carry with me from the three works are hospitality, relational equity, and submission. I know that these are invaluable tools that will always be pertinent to the work of ministry, even if that work is not necessarily pastoral.