facebook: Status Update

On facebook you can share and connect with the people in your life by posting a status from time to time. Some people update their status regularly (some a little too much for me). Others are not as regular, like me. But as people update their status they are letting people know what is going on in their life.
As I thought about updating the status of our congregation I thought about all the change this congregation has seen just in the time facebook has been around. facebook went public in February of 2004. In 2004 our congregation averaged 112 in worship attendance. Today we average around 240. In 2004 we had around 200 people connected to our congregation including children. Today we have around 500. (Not to mention the selling of our old building, worshiping in a funeral home for 18 months, and then getting into our new church home.) What this change has done is transformed us from a pastoral size church to a program size church. So, our updated status says that we are going to be a great program church.
In a pastoral size church the pastor can be in the middle of it all. The pastor can know all of the people of the congregation. The pastor can provide the care needed by the congregation. Also, the pastor can be involved in most of the decisions made in the congregation. A good pastor can lead a pastoral size church.
In a program church the pastor moves into a different role. The pastor can no longer know everyone, care for everyone, or be involved in every decision. This is honestly a good thing because this means the ministry of the church needs to be done by the congregation. The pastor and staff now have the task of training and leading groups of people who will take on the role of being ministers. It will take more people from the congregation for the ministry to be effective.
One of the difficult parts of this status update is that the people of this congregation who have been here for more than 5 years have only known ministry as a pastoral size church. It is tough to make this change. Not only for the congregation, but for me as a pastor as well. I was trained in seminary to be a pastoral size church pastor. Now I am trying to be trained in leading a program size church.
This transition is so difficult for many churches that there are many books written about this transition. The books try to let you know why things are changing and what to expect. These books describe almost exactly what this congregation is going through. So it is good to know we are pretty normal. Also, it is good to know God will lead us through the transition into the church God wants us to be.
So we will continue to update our status as God works on us to be the Body of Christ in our community. God has a plan for this congregation and as we live that plan and follow Jesus, the updates to our status will show God at work.