Four Approaches to Innovation – Angry Young Church Dudes – Part 3 of 5

This series began in Part 1 with a summary of four approaches to innovation in the church. In it I paraphrased an approach by tech guru Jeff Bonforte who characterized four types of people in their relationship with technology. I suggested these four types have parallels in the church, namely lovers, the irrational/angry, consumers/efficient, and the comfortable/complacent.

In Part 2, I described as “lovers” church enthusiasts, theology geeks, those who enjoy theology for its own sake. There is a bit of the theology lover in anyone who reads a blog like this one, and many church leaders fall into this category. Often however, lovers find it difficult to make their way from the abstract to the practical. Their orthodoxy may be unquestionable but praxis may be unaddressed or lacking. Enamored with theology, lovers can often fall into dysfunctionality, becoming what an earlier post described as “theology geeks”. That post suggested that geekiness is not an expression of ability in a field (theology or technology) but the lack of it in most other fields. Not all lovers of the church and theology fall into theology geekdom, however. Many times they develop theologically and, just as importantly, in other dimensions as well, growing in wisdom and ability to become leaders in the church. Unfortunately the church doesn’t always know what to do with up and coming visionaries. Growing leaders will sometimes become what I’m calling in this post, “Angry Young Church Dudes. This is the category this series is really most concerned with, because Angry Young Church Dudes are full of promise and opportunity, but also full of impetuousness and trouble. They represent both opportunity and risk, for the church and for themselves.

“Wait a minute,” you may be saying. “Aren’t you an angry young church dude? You’re talking about church planting, right? What wisdom do you possess that gives you the juice to pontificate at angry young church dudes?” You have a point, but I’m glad you asked. I won’t claim to be an expert, but I’ve been in one church plant when I was green and naive and made plenty of mistakes. That was in Russia, and I wound up getting fired as a missionary, partly because I was an angry young church dude. It was also a couple of decades ago. Since then I’ve aged a bit, raised some kids, and experienced a secular career. I’ve had the opportunity to listen to lots of people who have been involved in planting churches, some as angry young church dudes, some not, and I’ve read a lot of books, as well as finishing my seminary classes, and have had the opportunity to have some people who are wiser than me to take my inventory and tell me some of my weaknesses, which are plenty. So I won’t claim any superior wisdom, only to have made lots of mistakes.

First of all I don’t think all angry young church dudes are alike, but there are enough similarities that I think it just might be safe to generalize a bit, and although I’m an old guy I’m still subject to some of the same critiques. If you’ve been patient enough to read this far, I hope you’ll read on.

Angry young church dudes are frustrated. As noted earlier, the church often doesn’t know what to do with them, and the more capable they are, the more genuine their calling and gifting from God is, the more this is apt to be true. What distinguishes among them is how they respond to that frustration. An older churchman told pastor Ed Marcelle of Terra Nova Church in Troy, NY, that all he needed to do with some of the emergent types he ran into was ask about their relationship with their fathers, that this would tell him all he needed to know. There is some wisdom in this – some angry young church dudes are really acting out in reaction against dads who were too busy pursuing the American Dream or a pastorate or some other goal to spend time with their sons. These sorts of issues are real, and part of what’s behind the angry young church dude syndrome.

But it’s not the only thing. Angry young church dudes who are genuinely called and gifted by God, given a vision for what church ought to be, and see what looks like an enormous gap between the current ecclesial reality and the kingdom potential of the church – whether as The Church generally or a local congregation – may develop honest frustration. This can be compounded by entrenched ecclesiological structures and attitudes that may prevent leaders from being able to even apprehend in a meaningful way the challenges posed by contemporary culture. Not only is the church without answers, but in many cases isn’t even able to formulate questions that can lead in a direction to meaningful answers. When a rising leader is able to see the challenges and failings of the church clearly but the church is unwilling to listen or unable to understand, this will result in frustration.

Dutch missiologist Hendrick Kraemer observed in the early part of the last century, “Strictly speaking, one ought to say that the church is always in a state of crisis, and that its greatest shortcoming is, that it is only occasionally aware of it.”

Young church leaders often see the crisis and appear to be fanatical as their warnings and admonitions to the church fall on deaf ears, or more seriously, are quashed by church culture that has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. But since I’m citing quotes, let me throw up another one, this from outside the church in the economic and political realm:

Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman said, “Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.” What Friedman expresses here has direct application in the church. First of all is the nature of the crisis. Everyone in the church understands that the pace and nature of cultural change represents a challenge for the church, a crisis which represents both threat and opportunity. Those who have been immersed in church culture for a long time and look at the world through ecclesial lenses may percieve a crisis other than the one that actually exists. Most often the church is just getting ready to respond to challenges that existed half a century or more ago, while the contemporary world remains an undiscovered country which has left the church behind, unaware that the church has answers to the great questions that still beset people’s hearts and minds – only the church is more often than not responding to the questions culture was asking decades ago.

Jesus has called some younger leaders as missionaries, sending them into this field that he has uniquely equipped them to communicate with. But in many cases the church has organizationally stifled or hindered the fulfillment of that calling. The result is a frustrated, angry young church dude. The church may tell them they are the problem, and the result can be a vicious cycle of increasing anger, frustration and dysfunctionality.

Dude: It’s your problem! Don’t let the frustration and anger get you down. Remember something, friend. Jesus, the one who has called you, has also put you right where you are. In Acts 17 Paul says God has determined the time and place everyone should live so that we might reach out for him and perhaps find him. So remember you’re right where God has put you. Any obstacle in front of you has been put there by God (even if the Devil himself is opposing you, remember Luther’s observation that even Satan is God’s devil! He can only act in the constraints God has given him!)

If Jesus has called you, then he’s in the process of shaping you and equipping you to communicate the vision he’s given you in a way that is winsome and effective. You are the one Jesus has given the vision, and you are the one who must articulate it effectively. It won’t be effective the first time. You may have to beat your head against the wall, try different ways of articulating the message, learn from others, find the voice that God has given you or will give you. But Jesus isn’t going to call you without putting challenges in front of you. Don’t you remember when he sent out the twelve? They had some modest successes, then he arranged for them to come up against a demon that wouldn’t leave. They were relying too much on their own talents and abilities, and too little on him. “This kind comes out only by prayer and fasting,” he told them. You have to be in constant relationship with me, and reliance upon me, says Jesus.

It is way too easy to be distracted by methodologies and models and forget the spiritual reality of Jesus. You need to remember him! I need to remember him! Your passion is part of what he uses as an engine of creativity that manifests in innovation in the church. But if it’s not empowered by Jesus, it’s just empty pragmatism that will compound your frustration and lead to more anger.

Friedman is right – people usually respond to crises by picking up the ideas that are laying around. Some of the ideas in the church are too old-fashioned to be effective, it’s true. But get this – the ideas that are old fashioned are not the ones that are eternal. They are ideas that were born in the last century or two. Some of the best new ideas will be old ideas that have been lying around for centuries. It’s the innovations of yesterday that are stale today; the eternal truths that have always been held by the church are always fresh. That sounds so much like a platitude I’m reluctant to write it, but I think it’s true.

When you plant a church and you are the leader in charge, remember that God will be sending some Angry Young Church Dudes to challenge and probe you. I hope you’ll listen to them. Don’t force them to conform to your vision – bring them along and ask for their support for a time while they develop their gifts and calling, then send them out. They will challenge you, question you, second-guess everything you do. Thank God for them, because they will be his instrument to make sure you understand why you do everything you do. They will force you toward intentionality, man! Answer the “why” questions, and thank God for sending the AYCDs your way when they catch you acting on inertia.

They’re not going to be just like you, thank God. They will be different, creative, and full of trouble. Just remember it’s much easier to steer something (or someone) in motion than it is to try to move something (or someone) stationary. See if they will meet you half way and give you some of their time and energy while you invest your wisdom and experience in them, and then send them off. Sure, they’ll be green, inexperienced, prone to mistakes, just as you are now. Don’t worry, the Holy Spirit can handle their mistakes – some will be positively providential. And if you are the angry young church dude, maybe you can print out a copy of this post for your pastor, and maybe he’ll understand you a bit better.

What Friedman describes in the political realm can happen in the ecclesial realm as well: the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable. We see it through human eyes, but don’t forget that God’s in charge. The Redemptive Plan rolls on. Jesus will accomplish all he intended to accomplish, and everything that happens is part of the plan. So when things get most frustrating, relax and remember Jesus is in charge. Then roll up your sleeves and get to work, because you are the hammer in his hands that he’s using to build his church.