Chad and Marie sat in Pastor Lance’s office and their hearts fell through the floor. Chad had served the church for five years in a wide range of capacities. He was a skilled and enthusiastic pastor whose job description had chopped and changed with every development in Lance’s vision for the church. But today Chad was sharing his own heart and vision… 

It was for a form of chaplaincy that would put him among members of the community completely beyond the reach and current interest of the church. As Chad and Marie had talked to each other about these ideas they had felt energised and motivated in a way they hadn’t for years. They were tapping into something vital which lad been lying dormant within them. And it was reawakening their spiritual passion. But today as they spoke to Lance about it all their hearts sank. It was Marie who saw it first. As soon as she and Chad began outlining their hope to serve a new part of the community she saw Pastor Lance’s eyes glaze over. He sat back in his chair, folded his arms and just waited for them to finish. Chad and Marie’s idea of reaching new demographics with a new kind of chaplaincy had nothing to do with Lance’s vision and projects for the church and his need to staff them. The moment he made that calculation was the moment his interest in Chad and Marie ceased. It was just a matter of weeks before Chad and Marie quietly left the church they had faithfully served for five years, uncelebrated and unthanked.

This may be an extreme scenario but many will relate to the experience of joining a church and finding that their membership meant they had been co-opted into a corporate agenda around which their lives now had to revolve. As a pastor I can relate to Chad and Marie but also to Pastor Lance. A senior pastor is asked de facto to take responsibility for the continuance and growth of a voluntary association. This requires that the community be envisioned, motivated and equipped. This is not an easy task. Of course in reality these things are built on multiple factors. In truth it takes a community to build a community. However the Senior Pastor often finds that their community will regard them either as an albatross or a silver bullet. Under such pressure the danger is that a pastor’s interest in people will reduce around a single utilitarian question; “Is this person relevant or irrelevant to my task.”

“Is this person relevant or irrelevant to my task.”

People inside a church community will sense this utilitarian vibe and may either be turned off by it or buy in to the jockeying for position that such a vibe often throws up. People outside the church also pick up on this vibe so that no matter how friendly the people and relevant the programs there is always a hint of predation in the church’s invitations- a hint of “‘Come into my parlor’ said the spider to the fly.” Even healthy and happy churches can find people to be wary of their invitations because they have seen or experienced that predatory or proselytising energy elsewhere. It is one of the forces pushing new generations away from the structures of our churches. Postmoderns don’t want to come into our (the church’s) world.

But don’t assume that “organized religion” is what is being rejected. Because while the corporate structures of our congregations in the West are suffering a dramatic decline (most dramatic in the area of 20-somethings) there are other organisations of Christian life that are positively flowering. Development organisations that take Christian workers out of the Christian ghetto and into the world - agencies like World Vision and Compassion are booming. The vision of Jesus at the heart of these ministries is not a recumbent figure, passively receiving our devotions and adoration, but an active Messiah who is recruiting partners to serve and help humanity in immediate, physical and vital ways. That is a corporate agenda that many today are happy to pour their energies into.

Another pattern of ministry that is currently booming in my country - Australia - is that of Chaplaincy. Chaplaincy puts an overtly religious worker into the worlds of people totally outside the church scene with an agenda to serve and support the wellbeing and spirituality of those who live and work in that world. Chaplains are being hired by schools, colleges, businesses, armed forces, police stations, sports clubs and (in the UK) even shopping malls. My experience is that people are unthreatened by chaplains because the chaplain has no parlor! (S)he is simply there for others. Being a chaplain is a way of being present in the worlds of others in a way that is highly relevant to the needs and paranoias of postmodern people. By being a chaplain a person says “I value this world. I want to be a part of it and I want to support you in what you are doing.”It is a way of forming of an open-handed relationship in which ministry is relationally led. Through developing a presence and friendship in that niche-world interactions can follow that are pastoral, supportive of spirituality, or personal and faith-development - just as the need happens to be. I have found people to be very open to talking with a “religious” person about personal and “spiritual” things when that fear of proselytizing has been taken out of the picture.

In Australia, the rate of church attendance is a fraction of what it is in the States. Sport, on the other hand, is at the heart of Australia’s cultural identity. If the Australian churches could put a chaplain into every sports club in the country they would immediately be in contact with 80% of Australian families. And into every school…? To the fearful, scattering our best workers into the fragmentary worlds of these various sub-communities may look like a recipe to dissipate the church’s strength. But in my own ministry I have seen four new churches spring up from work that began by putting the worker into the world of others with a chaplain’s hat on. (St George’s Student Congregation in London, UK, The Pan African Fellowship and the International Society of Christian Students in Portsmouth UK, and Jesus Generation in Australia would all be examples.)

In the past the church has said to the world “come into my parlor.” But today we need to reach an arachnophobic generation. I believe if we will send workers into the harvest and serve as chaplains in the worlds of others, the potential is huge. I believe this is one way in which we can fulfil our Godly calling as a prophethood of believers and a kingdom of priests to far greater effect than ever before.