GA06112

Association of Presbyterian Interim Ministry Specialists lunch

Rendle says everything is changing, and 'isn't it wonderful?'

by Erin S. Cox-Holmes

BIRMINGHAM, June 20 — "The old centers are dying. New centers are being born. We get to live in the middle. Isn't it wonderful? This is where all the fun is!"

That is the spine-stiffening message of Dr. Gilbert Rendle, featured speaker at the annual Association of Presbyterian Interim Ministry Specialists (APIMS). A senior consultant with Alban Institute, Rendle addressed the group on "Finding the Center for Ministry in Changing Times."

Rendle is a passionate advocate not only of change, but of enjoying the journey. "If we're not careful, we are going to die of terminal seriousness," he said. "God is moving in the chaos. We should enjoy the process."

Rendle pointed out the massive cultural changes from the World War II service culture that honors the group to a consumer culture that honors the individual.

"When you go down the cereal aisle, you don't need any more information about cereal. You need information about yourself," Rendle said. "What kind of cereal do you want? We've moved from a culture in which everyone is supposed to be the same, to a culture in which we have to know how to read ourselves."

Rendle calls this the shift from convergent to divergent culture. "In a convergent culture, there is one answer to a question. In a divergent culture, there are a multiplicity of answers. Friends, you and I were called into a convergent church, and we are now serving a divergent church.

"All of you are receiving members with no congregational experience. They haven't a clue about our polity. They are such a gift to us: the creative deviants. Wonderful because they know to go places we never thought to go. Also wonderful because creative deviants are known to offend."

Rendle cautioned that when the centers that used to hold us together have moved – theology, ethnicity, heritage – that's when we're in danger of relying on the centers that remain – certification, pension and health benefits, property issues. "Those are all about management," he said. "Management won't move us to the new places we need to go."

Instead, the challenge is to help people find new centers, focused on identity, purpose and mission. The way to make the shift is to focus on strengths, rather than focusing on weaknesses or trying to fix what is wrong. "Every living vibrant system has to learn to be steady in purpose, but very flexible in strategy."

Rendle pointed out the work of presbyteries and middle judicatories is getting immeasurably more complex at a time when there are fewer resources to do anything about it. But creative solutions and networks are emerging in congregational transformation and leadership development.

"We can't get stopped by the discomfort of changing the system," Rendle said. "We have to appreciate it, all this struggle. It is wonderful."

APIMS also presented the Rev. Tim Jones with the Governing Body Practitioner of the Year Award, thanking him for being a "friend, mentor and colleague to countless others."