I choose the Lancaster Community Church scenario. There is a lot going on here. In sum, I would say that this hearkens back to Roxburgh pg 42 “refusal to acknowledge the sea change all around us is precisely what is still happening in our churches and among our leaders.” The specific key dynamics I see are:
· Financial constraints.
· Tensions over the style of worship.
· Ambiguity about how to relate to a changing community
· Conflicts about priorities
· Difficulty recognizing the current state of the congregation in the shadow of better days gone by (this is how I read the discrepancy between the church profile and my attendance count in the first item. It would be plausible that summers have lower attendance if people are traveling)
The other information I would want would be on the seasonal changes in worship attendance, more details on the financial situation (particularly the endowment) and some insights about the current programs and activities of the church. (What might be doing well and what might be doing poorly?) Lastly, how does the community perceive of the church?
My next steps would be to gather as much information as I could and also begin to explore the spiritual identity of the church. I would want to hear people’s stories and begin to understand how they perceive the situation. This would help me understand their epistemologies which “has powerful implications for the way we live.” When we have a different definitions of the situation driven by different ways of knowing we face tension and ambiguity. By learning to understand and harmonize our epistemologies we could begin healing the discord and all start talking about the same thing. With this we could work toward discerning how God might have us to respond to the current state as it actually is as a healthy and whole body.