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Moving On from Church Folly Lane: The Pastoral to Program Shift
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About the Author
Robert T. Latham has been a Unitarian Universalist minister since 1969. He is currently a professional interim minister, following a number of successful settled ministries and special project ministries during his career. The creator of the Committee On Ministry program and an originator of the concept of Shared Ministry (originally called Co-Ministry), Reverend Latham has been an advocate of religious mission reclamation since the mid-1970s.
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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
On the Island of Bermuda, at the crest of a hill overlooking the small town of St. George, stand the ruins of an imposing stone structure. Its architectural style is Gothic Revival with arched windows and columns of buttressed pillars. Typical of Anglicanism of the period, its shape is cruciform. The original purpose of this structure was to replace the older church building down on St. GeorgeÂ’s main street that had been severely damaged by fire. The congregation began its construction in 1874. However, in 1884, its primary source of financing was diverted to another project, and it had to slow down this construction. As time passed, the congregation became divided about its vision, and in 1894, on the verge of completing construction, it decided, instead, to refurbish and use its old building. Because of the long history of setbacks and postponements and the final abandonment of the nearly finished structure, one of the streets abutting the property began to be called Church Folly Lane by the local townspeople. Eventually, this name became its officially posted designation. A metaphor about religious groups that dwell on Church Folly Lane lurks in this story. It is that of congregations that begin projects symbolizing visionary growth but fail in completion and fall victim to maintenance-oriented lifestyles. This is a metaphor that aptly fits the circumstance of many Unitarian Universalist congregations that have struggled for years to complete the transition from a Pastoral Congregation to a Program Congregation without ever finalizing the shift. However, unlike the St. George church, the reason that keeps most of these congregations in a stalled posture is neither financial nor that of a divided sense of purpose; rather, it is a lack of knowledge about why they are stalled. Even so, deficits that stem from what isnÂ’t known can create the same state of folly as deficits that stem from abandoned dreams. The challenge of this deficit may involve any or all of the following: perceiving that the shift needs to be made understanding the essential differences between the Pastoral and Program Congregations accepting what is required to make the shift determining a game plan for initiating or completing the shift Critical to confronting the issues of the shift is becoming aware of the distinctions between these two types of institutions. Many of our congregations have been Program Congregations in terms of attendance for years without ever having perceived the need to consider the manner by which their members relate, the style of basic leadership they need, the nature of their manifested community, the structure of their reflecting organization, or the focus of their decision-making process in contrast with those characteristic of the Pastoral Congregation. One consequence is that such congregations may continue to organize for failure and tend to call professional leadership that is inappropriate to their needs. The vital resources they expend in ministry simply disappear down a black hole of ineffectiveness. Another consequence is arriving at an attendance or membership plateau that seems impossible to surmount. The cause, in both cases, is likely a lack of awareness of the dynamics that are driving congregational life. Only when this awareness is awakened will the resources expended doing ministry find a maximum and satisfying effectiveness. Thus, one of the more pressing needs in Unitarian Universalism is to grasp and institute this pastoral-to-program shift in congregational life. On a continental basis, it is possible that up to 35% of our congregations are either trying to initiate or complete this shift. And another very large percentage are already solidly participating in the numerical probabilities of one or the other of these attendance-size cultures without doing so in an effective fashion. These two groups of congregations represent the greatest social and financial influence in our religious movement. Until this shift need is engaged and understanding of cultural differences is grasped, a large number of our congregations will continue to languish in ineffectiveness, and their power to transform will remain at low ebb.
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Product details
Paperback: 284 pages
Publisher: Wheatmark (April 18, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1587365987
ISBN-13: 978-1587365980
Product Dimensions:
6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.0 out of 5 stars
12 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#494,526 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
This is an excellent book. The author is not the best writer but the information is outstanding. It is an excellent guide for creating a positive functioning Committee on Ministry (COM). It provides the background needed for high functioning COM and even provide sample policies for a COM. even though the writing is wordy and sometimes difficult to wade through, it is worth the effort.
I agree with the reviewers who wish this book had been professionally edited, but I got past that pretty quickly because Latham does such an amazing job describing my congregation without ever having visited it.Point after point after point he nails it. In a denomination that seems always to try to make everybody happy, Latham stands out for calling it as he sees it, particularly with regard to our utter lack of religion mission. If your congregation is in the "program to pastoral transition" (150-200 people attending Sunday programs), then you owe it to yourself and your congregation to read this book (as well as "Raising the Roof" and several other books about church growth dynamics).
This is essential reading for anyone involved in church governance or growth strategies. It carefully delineates the importance of church size and the programing and governance that are needed to match that size and build for growth.Latham gives Board Members and church leaders the theory and the concrete tools they need to choose ministers that suit their needs and put the right framework in place to serve their congregation.
I found Latham a bit of an ass, pedantic, poorly edited and prone to ex cathedra pronunciations, something that doesn't sit well with many UUs- we're not generally fans of clerical infallibility. That said, I found his book provocative and am recommending it to my fellow lay leaders. Latham asks some of the right questions about the organizational effects of growth in numbers and when you disagree with his answers, you have to challenge yourself to come up with better ones. I was annoyed by his snide dismissal of Joys & Sorrows, but immediately began comparing his points to the reality of my Fellowship, found some areas of agreement and a new vision of the nature of community. To question is the answer.
Very good information, but unfortunately Latham provides a graphic example of why one should never self-publish without running the manuscript by a proof reader.
Lots of useful information in this book, but I wish the writing quality and organization were better.
Interesting book, but wasn't exactly what our church is looking for or suited for.
Had a hard time getting into this book as I found it overly pedantic and had too much church -ese and gobledygook. As I fought on, however, I found it more and more interesting and potentially useful. I recommend it to the boards of the "pastoral" size congregations to read it for ideas on solving their problems of growth.
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