I am a longtime fan of the Washington Redskins. Now I live in Southeast Baltimore—i.e., the heart of Ravens country—so being a Redskins fan is tough, even when the team is doing well. Many Sunday afternoons I can’t watch my team on TV—i.e., when the Ravens are playing at home, no other game is on the air.  But, honestly, in recent years being a Redskins fan has been particularly difficult, and the reasons have nothing to do with where I live or other teams.  The Redskins have not won with any consistency for the past decade, and this year they seem to have hit rock bottom—I hope so anyway!  It’s just as well I can’t see the games on TV, because it has become almost unbearable to watch recently.  And that’s sad for a lifelong fan to have to admit… 

During the ‘80s and early ‘90s the Redskins built a huge and loyal fan base because they consistently put a winning team on the field. The team went to four Super Bowls in that period—winning three of them—but oh how times have changed…  The long-time owner died and a new owner took over, and the new owner’s management system has not worked nearly as well as the previous one. The teams the Redskins have put on the field in recent years have been mediocre at best—and often worse than that. The Redskin’s fan base—many of whom have supported the team for years—is now starting to erode. Not surprisingly, many younger fans are being attracted to teams other than the Redskins—like the guys in purple up I-95 for example. You can’t really blame the people for wanting to root for a winning team. 

Most people on the outside agree that Redskin’s management bears much of the responsibility for this fiasco (i.e., squandering draft picks on players who can't play in the NFL, paying too much for the latest "hot" free agent, etc.) It’s plain to see that the system the owner has put in place to build the football team is not working, and has not worked for a while—the results on the field on Sunday are a testament to this.  And yet, the people who run the organization still seem unwilling to accept their responsibility for the problems.  They continue to seek scapegoats to blame for the team’s problems—i.e., fire the coaches, change the quarterback, blame the media, etc.   They are convinced that a few small incremental changes and band-aid fixes can restore the Redskins to their winning ways.  But most people outside the organization aren’t nearly as optimistic.  Most agree that it will take fundamental (systemic) changes in the way the Redskins do business to rebuild this once-proud organization. Incremental change and band-aid fixes aren’t going to bring about the change Redskin fans want to see.  

There’s another once proud institution that I love that has fallen on hard times lately. I have been in the Church my whole life and it breaks my heart to see the difficulties that so many churches face as we struggle to effectively minister to our rapidly changing post-Christian world. We exert so much effort to keep our dwindling and aging congregations in tact and get the most out of our inadequate and outdated infrastructure, that we have precious little time and energy left to reach out to the world around us with the Message of Jesus.  

It strikes me that the Church has a lot in common with the Washington Redskins. Perhaps more than we would like to admit?  I realize the comparing a football organization to a church is not a perfect analogy, but my point is:

• Isn’t the Church, in a sense, losing its "fan-base" as our worshippers choose to prioritize other things on Sunday morning?
• Don’t we also struggle to attract the younger generation?  
• Isn’t it possible, if not probable, that our “fan-base” is deserting us because the "product" we have “put on the field on Sunday” has been “mediocre at best” for so long that it is now viewed irrelevant by many of today’s youth and young adults?

Like my beloved Redskins, I believe many of our churches operate by a system perfectly designed to produce the lackluster results we are seeing.  Like Redskins management, those of us on the inside our churches don’t particularly understand what is wrong with our system.  We’re still operating under the idea that a few incremental changes and strategically placed band-aid fixes here and there can restore us to our “glory days.” Also like Redskins management, church insiders often passionately defend the status quo in our churches and blame outside influences for any perceived problems—to say it another way, in our mind, it’s the people on the outside that need to change, not the Church system.  

And once upon a time, that myth actually could hold water—sort of anyway. The fact is, we had a system that seemed to work well during the middle of the 20th century, when society on the whole was less mobile, and the church was often the center of social life. There was no real need to reach out to our community because most people tended to seek out the Church. Having many churches throughout a small community worked well in that kind of world. The view from inside the system during those “glory days” was that all was going well1 —the best testament to that was that our churches were full on Sundays.  But times have changed, and it is painfully apparent that the Church has not kept pace with the world around us.  

I am convinced that until we admit once-and-for-all that what we have been doing for years is no

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longer working and are at least open to the possibility of more radical overhaul our outdated system, the results are not going to change significantly.  We simply cannot continue to do the exact same thing we’ve always done and expect significantly different results—that is the definition of insanity. 

In the community where I live, a small group of people have been meeting one Saturday morning a month for the past eight months to grapple with this sobering reality.  Representatives from each of the five United Methodist churches in our area have been working together to try and come up with a way forward that could give all of our churches a chance for the more hopeful future we desire2.  

As a result of those discussions, our group recently put forth a proposal to try something new and different in our churches—i.e., we proposed that long-overdue radical overhaul of the system. As you might expect the plan is generating controversy—I am certain not everyone approves. After all, we’re asking our congregations to take a big risk together and embrace something new that we feel God is doing in our midst. That’s not usually received with open arms. If the proposal were put to a vote among our congregations, I honestly don’t know if it would be approved at this moment. There are certainly still a lot of specific questions that need to be answered about how this will work.  It’s one thing to put a proposal on paper, quite another to live it out in reality—the devil, as they say, is in the details.  And those details are important to consider; I’m sure our group will continue to discuss those details in the days ahead. 

But specific implementation notwithstanding, I like this proposal because it challenges to admit that what we are doing right now is not working, and to be open to trying something new.

I think this is precisely the challenge our churches need right now.  While we don’t wish to diminish the value of the efforts we have made in our individual churches to more effectively minister to our community, more and more of us recognize that these incremental changes have not been sufficient to bring about the renewal we desire.  Arising from the discussion of our combined ministry team is the shared sense that we have got to do something radically different… and soon… or many of our churches as we know them will cease to be viable. Some churches may be able to survive longer than others… but if we simply continue the status quo I believe it’s fair to say that none of them will thrive as God intends.    

It remains to be seen exactly what God has in store for the future of the churches in my community. I suppose that will play out in the months and years ahead.  In the meantime, I am reminded of the promise God gave to the people in exile in Babylon through the prophet Jeremiah. 

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  —Jeremiah 29:11-13

It can sometimes seem overwhelming to contemplate change of this nature; we usually don’t choose such radical change willingly. It's one thing to make a small or incremental adjustment in how we operate, quite another to contemplate radical  (i.e., systemic) change. Control must be relinquished; pride must be swallowed; humility is required; sacrifice might be necessary—ultimately, God must be trusted.   

It’s hard to step out in faith not knowing if the ground beneath our feet is solid—but Jesus Christ is the solid rock on which we can stand firm.   As we trust the Holy Spirit to guide our steps on our journey, God promises to lead us toward a future filled with hope—Jesus describes this future as life to the full (John 10:10). Inspired by that promise, I pray that all of us would be willing to make the individual and corporate sacrifices necessary so that our local churches can more effectively align themselves to bring God’s hopeful vision of the future a step closer to reality—in our churches, our communities, and our world. 

Alan wrote an article on this topic back in February 07 that you might also be interested in.