"What Might a Congregation With an 'Organizing Culture' Look Like?"
Pastor John Heinemeier, Faith Lutheran Church, Baltimore and engaged since 1978 in faith-based organizing in
Brooklyn and The Bronx, New York, in Boston and now in Baltimore, made this presentation to a Lutheran-
Presbyterian Consultation in Santa Fe, New Mexico on October 14, 2004. In the presentation he gives some of the
characteristics of an organizing culture in the life and ministry of a local congregation.
1. The clergy would have a genuine commitment to using organizing principles and practices in the
life and ministry of the congregation.
Congregation-based organizing as a discipline is relatively recent (the past thirty years, for the most
part). Using organizing principles for congregational development is even more recent. It is not taught in
the seminaries, with rare exceptions. Pastors tend to fall back on more traditional, comfort zone modes
of operation. It must be intentional, and it must be comprehensive; there is no "automatic" transfer of
organizing skills to parish life.
2. People will know each other.
Relationality is the foundation on the congregation's life. John writes, "God is love." It would not be too
much of a reach to say "God is relationality.” It could be the very essence of the Trinity. For a
congregation to be doing one-to-ones with each other on a massive scale could well present a new
model of church. All evangelism flows from relational meetings. There will be several one-to-one
campaigns each year. Members would schedule one-to-ones with each other and with visitors before
they leave church each Sunday. There would, be training in the art of doing a relational meeting.
Organizing "house meetings" would take place in regular small groups in the congregation: people would
listen to each other, connect their faith with their lives. They would be lay-led and sometimes focus on
the group's going into action, carefully planned and executed around chosen issues.
3. Means will be as important as ends.
Developing leaders will be as important as any institutional goal. The process of preparing for, executing
and evaluating a church council meeting, for example, will be as important as anything the council
decides. You look around and you see leaders clearly gaining confidence about their leadership
capabilities, both in the congregation and in the public arena.
4. Clergy will see themselves as coaches.
The leaders will be on the field; clergy will be on the sidelines, as with professional organizers. There will
be an active, capable core team as a liaison with the faith-based organization. All parish programming
will wait until trained leaders own it.
5. There will be an "advisory cabinet."
This will be an informal group for reflection and visioning and for connecting the work of the
congregation both, with its theology and with its mission statement. In organizing this work is often done
by a clergy caucus. It would not be the same as the church council.
6. The congregation will see itself as constantly being transformed.
"All organizing is disorganizing and reorganizing." "Transformational Ministry" would not be a specialty
for faltering congregations only; each congregation would be in a constant process of being
transformed, resisting the inevitable evolution from mission to maintenance, from people• development
to projects and programs.
7. Public worship is an action.
In preaching faith is connected with life, including public life. The congregation will see themselves as
rehearsing in liturgy for their community-building during the week. Public figures are invited in for brief
presentations at worship. There will be triads formed during the sermon occasionally for instant
feedback. They would pray for public concerns and celebrate public victories. Lay leaders will help plan
and lead the liturgy, with discussed outcomes envisioned.
8. There will be accountability.
The congregation sees holding each other and others accountable as a basic form of respect. They
hold each other accountable for worship attendance and for the keeping of stewardship pledges, as well
as the faithful accomplishment of ministry tasks. There will be high expectations, often in the form of a
"covenant of membership": a) Every member is in worship every Sunday. b) Every member aims at
tithing his/her income. c) Every member studies the Scriptures regularly, preferably with other members.
d) Every member tries to bring at least one person from his/her network into the life of the congregation
every year. e) Every member prays daily for the congregation and the community. f) Every member
engages in some ministry in either the congregation or the community for which he/she agrees to be
held accountable. g) Every member commits to doing regular one-to-one relational meetings, both with
members and non¬members. The spirit of this covenant will always be one of invitation rather than
requirement, and it will be subscribed to annually.
9. There will be a seriousness about money.
Subsidies will be short-term, with congregations desiring to "pay their own way". The congregation will
organize its money, pooling information about personal and church bank accounts and investments (on
a confidential basis) and using those totals as clout when dealing with banking, insurance and
investment institutions.
10. The congregation will have an instinctive ecumenical readiness, leading also to interfaith
engagement.
The congregation understands the necessity for collective power in doing justice and seeks to
collaborate with other Christian and interfaith bodies in doing so. There still may be Weeks of Prayer for
Christian Unity, but the basic meeting of the faith community would be around action in the public arena.
Organizing speaks of the ability to act and the willingness to be acted upon (reciprocal power). Members
would be willing to be acted upon by persons of other denominations and other faiths in this pluralistic
world.
11. Diversity is seen as good.
Diversity of race and class and faith is seen not only as a foretaste of the Kingdom of God, but as a
source of strength and influence and. growth (and it is so much more interesting!).
12. The congregation will be deeply counter-cultural and, in the most constructive sense,
subversive.
The congregation profoundly questions both the values and the methodology of the prevailing culture. It
asks not only how its members can succeed in getting a bigger slice of the "American Pie" but how the
very ingredients of that pie might be transformed and made whole. The Theology of the Cross, the
inherent power of weakness and sacrifice, the power which changed the world, will be part of that
counterculture.
13. The congregation will be credentialed.
The stance so many are waiting to see: Is this congregation basically head¬hunting or is it truly
interested in and committed to the full wholeness of the community? Will it be clearly answered in the
affirmative? What Jesus had to do to demonstrate his authority to forgive sins: Enable the paralytic to
get up and walk and carry his own bed ... the congregation will engage in a holistic mission, with a strong
justice orientation.
14. Leaders are not abused.
Honoring the public and private dimensions of any leader's life, the congregation will not abuse any
leader's (including clergy) private commitments. Again, what happens to people is more important than
getting this or that done.
15. The congregation will consider bringing on a staff organizer.
If finances permit, engaging a full or part-time organizer will be as legitimate a consideration as an
assistant pastor or youth minister. This organizer will work in almost all areas of parish life, and
particularly in the fields of evangelism and social justice.
16. The members see agitation as a form of love.
Both within the congregation and in public life, members will be expectantly agitational, prompting one
another to expanded horizons, accountability and growth.
17. The congregation will practice public story telling.
Both telling and hearing one another's stories, within the congregation and in the public arena, will be
the basic culture of the congregation; connecting wherever possible our stories with the Biblical story. In
our increasingly privatized and individualistic world, this congregation and its life will be buoyantly
communal.
Interfaith Funders
Congregation With Organizing Culture
By Pastor John Heinemeier
By Pastor John Heinemeier