Field Notes

This is the first installment of a new series entitled Field Notes. It gives you bite-sized, personal insights and stories into connections being made within our research in real time from members of our research team.

FIELD NOTES: An Introduction

I have worked on two projects over the last few months that both indirectly challenge traditional assumptions about who leads faith communities and how they are sustained: one on church planting structures and one on lay-led leadership.

As one interviewee in the church planting research told me, "Churches are always on incline, recline, and decline." Revitalizing a congregation, he argued, should not be treated as failure. That insight reminded me of my time interviewing lay leaders: people who were partially ordained, trained through alternative pathways, or simply stepped in when no pastor was available, sometimes for years at a time. Nearly all expressed gratitude that someone wanted to hear how they were doing and what wisdom they had collected along the way.

For me as a person with an interest in the health of our religious communities, both projects suggest a shift away from the idea that innovation comes from the outside expert with all the answers. While some lay leaders felt well supported and others did not, all denominations recognized the need to strengthen support for non-traditional governance, shared clergy, and lay-led communities. These projects also pointed to the fact that some of the most creative ideas about church planting, revitalization, and sustaining ministry are already being tested in small congregations on the margins. I hope denominational leaders continue listening to these communities as first and foremost, sources of wisdom for the future of the wider church.