Back to the middle, in church (I don’t mean where you sit in the pew on Sundays!).  The murky middle. 

I recently attended our church denomination’s annual conference (Sorry, this is not the most exciting lead-in to an article!  It’ll get more interesting later, honest.)  As with many denominations, ours is experiencing a slight membership decline among our U.S. congregations.¹  Of course, when faced with this discouraging news, our leaders are rightly responding with various motivations for change.  Change or die (Rarely spoken, often thought).  Some church growth experts suggest if we are not growing in numbers we are dying.

Change Is Necessary

I agree change is necessary.  I also agree that for many congregations decades of numeric stagnation or decline might indicate an unspoken desire (or willingness) to die.  The death of a congregation is not necessarily a bad thing.  This week we celebrated a few examples of declining congregations who took the bold step to close their doors, re-group and re-tool, and then re-open as mission churches with a renewed vision and leadership.  This took lots of guts.       

I also heard some troubling talk this week — which I think can be settled with a bit of clarification.  A few of our motivational speakers disparaged the “middle way”.  I understand their intent, but I need to defend the “middle way”² , including our need to re-discover how to be passionate in the middle.  Their purpose in discrediting the middle way was that if we settle for the familiar, comfortable middle ground about our declining membership, we will surely and slowly die.  Real change, they suggest, requires radical change.  I don’t quibble with these points, generally.  Good stuff, generally.

Extreme Or Effective Solutions?

My beef is that we sometimes assume too quickly that the middle way is not an appropriate context for deep change.  Consider this alternative view: The murky middle for most complicated issues is exactly where the deepest and most lasting change will occur.  Is it possible there is passion in the middle?  Is it possible there is deep change in the middle?  We need to find this passion, even though passion in the murky middle may be the hardest passion to find. 

The middle way is not a place of compromise but a place where the tension between two or more competing values has common ground and voice, and thrives.³ 

If we reject the richness of the murky middle, we risk two things:  First, we risk losing out on the most effective solutions for our problems.  Often the best solutions require integrating the diverse voices of competing values.  This happens in the murky middle.  Second, we risk repeating the traditional (knee-jerk) response pattern which says, “I must do something really radical in order to call it real change.”  This second concern suggests our vulnerability to the seductive lure of extremism.  We might fool ourselves into embracing extreme solutions rather than effective solutions.  Big difference.  Rather than take the prayerful, careful time to explore the array of complicated solutions in the middle, where competing values reside in tension, we sometimes react quickly by assuming that the most radical, extreme solution is the best.  I don’t need to review church history here to recall the many examples for which the extreme solution was not the best (or biblical) solution⁴ .  Review Karen Armstrong’s Battle For God (see Cool Books above) if you need a re-fresher.  Review our recent foray into contemporary worship styles which were intended, we thought, to “save” us from irrelevance and attract more young people…until we stopped long enough to discover from those young people that they are seeking meaningful worship, not necessarily top twenty radio tunes worship. 

Transformational Leadership — Change That Will Last

The American mainline church needs to change, sure.  No argument there.  But let us not react too blindly or too ideologically in pursuit of something only radical.  Let us seek a deep and lasting change, which may or may not be radical.  Effective change might be subtle.  This will require transformational leadership of the deepest kind.  Let us courageously seek the murky, gray middle where the diversity of our competing values is held in tension and respected.  This is a difficult, more complicated approach to change that respects competing opinions from diverse sources, and seeks solutions that are effective, not necessarily extreme.  Effective solutions will last.

Yes, it is possible the most effective solutions to our problems will require radical, extreme change.  But radical, extreme change is not an effective end itself.  Let us be courageous by seeking effective change.  Let us be effective, even in the middle.

© Copyright by Jeffrey Y. Harlow, Ph.D (2009).

1. Although, in other parts of the world we seem to be gaining members.
2. I’ve written a few articles about the middle way, or the murky middle.  This might be a good to time for you to take a look at those articles.  Look in “The Murky Middle” category in the sidebar to the right.
3. I know what you’re thinking.  This guy is a grumpy ol’ fart.  I realize this article doesn’t have the Carpe Diem zing I expressed in my June 5 article, Carpe Diem Guy Or Grumpy Ol’ Fart.  Be patient.  I’m looking for a healthy balance, in the middle.
4. I guess this is one reason I was immediately drawn to Scott Jones’ excellent book on United Methodist Doctrine.  The “extreme center” is a good place to be.  See Jones, Scott (2002).  United Methodist Doctrine: The Extreme Center, Nashville: Abingdon Press.