Editorials
Renewal in the Church - Worldwide
Marketing, mission and keeping members - similar challenges everywhere in the world
November 1, 2008
Nestor Friedrich is the general secretary of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB). "From a marketing point of view, this name is a catastrophe as I am well aware," said the Brazilian theologian. "For the sake of simplicity, we usually speak of ourselves simply as the 'Lutheran church.'" Friedrich was not the only person to refer to marketing strategies on the second day of the conference of the EKD and its partners at Wennigsen near Hanover. At this meeting of high-ranking representatives of Protestant churches from 18 countries all around the world, it quickly became clear that it is not only in Germany that Protestant churches were defining and implementing reform processes. And the language, which had drawn vigorous criticism at certain moments in Germany, came quite naturally to the ecumenical partners. "We have undergone losses on the religious market," was how the Brazilian church president Walter Altmann described the situation of the denominations in his country. And, when Arjan Plaisier was explaining that the number of persons leaving his church was declining, he said with a twinkle in his eye, "We are earning high dividends when it comes to reducing the number of church-leavers."
It was fascinating to see how similar the challenges to the churches were all around the world, according to the EKD Bishop for Foreign Affairs Martin Schindehütte. Although regional or national developments naturally differed in detail, the larger factors such as declining membership and traditions breaking away were often quite comparable. To be the church of Christ in an age of globalization, therefore, also meant that people could definitely learn from one another, as well as benefit from the experiences of others. More than once the phrase was heard in Wennigsen, "We know that phenomenon in our context as well. How do you deal with that issue?"
The participants had listened with interest to the address by Thies Gundlach on the first afternoon when he explained the EKD reform process "Kirche im Aufbruch" [renewal in the church]. "That was really excellent," commented the English bishop, Nick Baines. Since he had also been present in Wittenberg in January 2007 at the EKD congress on the future of the church, he had been particularly interested to hear how in the meantime the decisions taken there on new approaches had actually been put into practice.
In Baines' own presentation on renewal in the Church of England, a term was used which all the participants seem to have recognized as central, namely mission. "Today the church in England has to make an effort to be heard over the noisy cacophony of the market place of politics, economics and the media," according to Baines. In the year 2004, a report had been published in England under the title "Mission-shaped Church" "which radically changed the church's approach in such areas as evangelization, mission, worship and liturgy." It had led to developing new forms of worship and congregations as well as a new understanding of congregational leadership. For Nick Baines, this is an ecumenical matter. "Ecumenical cooperation now means that the churches work together in certain places in order to be able to establish new congregations."
The question of mission was also of great importance for Arjan Plaisier from the Netherlands. "The essence of the church is to be missionary," according to the general secretary of the Synod of the Protestantse Kerk in Nederland. But so far the urgency of a new missionary approach had not yet been recognized sufficiently clearly. "We must examine all our activities to see how they serve our mission." In the Netherlands there was a "culture of embarrassment." Christians tended to secularize themselves, as it were, because, for a long time, it was taboo to confess one's Christian faith openly and joyfully, for example, in youth work. "For too long, we went on doing a large number of lovely things but kept silent about the gospel."
Walter Altmann confirmed that for his church as well. There had been a change of mentality related to the understanding of mission. Whereas, a few years ago, surveys were still indicating a tendency in the congregations to be mainly concerned about their own members, now one could observe greater openness to people outside. In the year 2000, a strategy plan had been drawn up on the issue of missionary activity which was to run until 2007. Nestor Friedrich admitted honestly that, in the meantime, it had been necessary to adjust it at one point or another. "Today I should do a number of things differently." Some of the goals envisaged had proved unrealistic. But the important thing was how the aims and content of the reforms were communicated to the congregations and the pastors. Friedrich called that "pedagogy". "We are doing better on that today. And today we can really say that the field is ready."
It had been a constructive interchange according to Martin Schindehütte's evaluation of the meeting. All the participants had come to Wennigsen well prepared so it had been possible to engage in substantial discussion straight away. On Reformation Day, the EKD launched a new Internet platform "kirche-im-aufbruch" which is to make it easier for congregations to pool good ideas and learn from one another. "Here, in Wennigsen, we have seen that we can also learn from the experiences of our partners around the world."