June 1, 2012

Babies, Bathwater, and Structure

There's a reason you don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

I've been thinking about this adage through the extensive discussions about structure -- both on the church-wide level and within dioceses and congregations.

It's clear that the some of the current structures aren't nimble enough to provide support for the challenges and opportunities facing our communities of faith. But that doesn't mean structure itself is a bad thing, but rather we must ask: do we allow form to dictate function or is the form an organic outgrowth of function?

Let me give an example.

In the diocese where I work, the deanery structure is flailing. A few regions utilize the structure in helpful ways. One deanery developed a cooperative buying program to save money on supplies, freeing up other resources for ministry. Another deanery has an active clericus where clergy meet weekly for bible study and comraderie. But by and large, the deaneries have devolved into a meaningless layer of bureaucracy with no real function other than to easily categorize parishes by geography.

In the new diocese where I now live, there is no deanery structure. The unit of structure jumps from congregation to diocese.

In our area, there are four Episcopal congregations within about 15 miles. Two are pretty large (by Episcopal measures), one is a growing mission with a commitment to urban ministry, and the other is a re-start, struggling to find its place.

Half of the clergy leadership is new, called within the past six months. The churches have joined together to support the feeding ministry. And this spring, they held an area-wide Easter vigil.

These initial relationships have spurred a desire among parishioners for more connection, to live out the sense that they are something bigger than each part.

Work is beginning to develop a deanery relationship, with shared mission, worship, and fellowship.

Structure isn't always the bath water, what we discard when our ministries aren't on track. It can be a framework within which relationships and connections strengthen and thrive.

As we continue our important conversations about structure, we must keep asking ourselves difficult questions: is this structure flexible and organic enough to move with us? Is the structure a top-down only creation or is there legitimate buy-in and ownership from the people? Does the structure make our ministry stronger by uniting our voices and giving us a bigger platform from which to carry out the work God lays before us? Or does the structure stifle and stymie creativity, placing unnecessary obstacles to risk-taking and bold witness?

These are the type of questions we must ask in our congregations and dioceses, and we must wrestle with them at General Convention this summer. But there's no easy answer, no one-size-fits-all. Otherwise in our rush to throw out the proverbial bath water, we might lose something precious.