When I was involved in collegiate ministry, one of the growing challenges was ministry with commuter students, especially those attending community colleges. They were clearly different from the residential students with whom we usually engaged. Commuter students lived at home, came to campus to take classes, then jumped back into the car to go home or to a part-time job. Their lives were more connected to the cities and towns where they grew up than to the college campus. One person wrote about this as “Ministry on an Escalator” with the students being the ones moving rapidly from one place to another.
Often I think of that terminology when I see an escalator, but I now see churches on that apparatus rather than individual college students. An escalator moves the passenger from one place to another without any effort on the part of the individual. Things are changing around the person but he or she is often oblivious to the surroundings. A lot of churches are in that situation. Our environment is in a continuous state of transition, but we too often ignore what is going on.
Business writers today talk about living in a VUCA world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. This is an acronym introduced by the U. S. Army War College in the early 1990s to describe the world we entered when the Cold War ended--volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. The term has come to be used to describe the contemporary context in which we live and work.
Businesses are not the only enterprises affected by this way of perceiving our world. Churches, if they are to be effective in the 21st century, must take volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity into account. This is the world we are called to engage.
In an uncertain world, the most important contribution a church provides is purpose. Although the way that Christian faith is expressed has changed down through the centuries, churches are the custodians of scripture, theology, and Christian history as well the processes by which one may be formed as a believer. In an uncertain world, the church provides a foundation upon which to form and sustain a worldview.
Churches must be more intentional about addressing the complexity of the world in which they attempt to minister. For example, North America is no longer defined by a Judeo-Christian perspective. The world has come to our doorstep, so we are a mosaic of faith and non-faith. We must learn how to serve humbly but clearly in a post-Christian context. We must have clarity about our own faith and our calling so that we can engage in this dialogue intelligently.
The ambiguity of our culture is impacted by, but not limited by, the complexity of the world. We live in a world of shifting values, but God is clearly at work not only within the churches but in the larger world as well. For believers with a clear sense of who they are, doors for ministry open in unexpected places, both within and outside the walls of the church. We must be prepared to perceive and pursue these opportunities provided by the Holy Spirit.
Finally, we live in a volatile world shaped by conflict, immigration, changing world markets, and innovation. Ministry contexts are no longer as stable as they once were and can be influenced by the factors already mentioned and many more. For example, the current immigration crisis is providing the opportunity for faith communities to engage in prophetic and helping ministries. Another example is Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). How do our churches respond to such unexpected situations?
Congregational leaders must be ready for the new and unexpected. We must learn how to unlearn, how to remain true to our calling, how to perceive the leading of the Spirit, how to read the signs of the times, and how to be both innovative and faithful. If we do so, we will be prepared to engage a volatile, ambiguous, complex, and uncertain world.
(This article originally appeared in the Pinnacle Leadership Associates e-news on March 18, 2020.)
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