The Reformations we need, 502 years after Luther

This past week marked Reformation Sunday, the Lutheran church's annual liturgical commemoration of Martin Luther and his legacy. As we wear red, sing "A Mighty Fortress," and drink strong coffee, we in the Lutheran tradition are not actually celebrating the contributions of a historical figure. Rather, we are reminded of God's dynamic and ceaseless work in the world. It's a Sunday in which we remember that God always calls us to love and to serve - but the specifics of that call are ever-changing.

502 years ago, Martin Luther began a movement to reform the way we thought about church. The Protestant Reformation is not significant because it started a splinter group of denominations. Rather, it is significant because it catalyzed a reconsideration of what it means to be the church in a time of rapid change.

Descended from Luther's tradition, the church of today needs another Reformation. It's been said we need to reform our understanding of social issues, our use of digital technology, and our political stances. All of these may be true, but the Reformation we need today is more expansive. As was the case with Luther's Reformation, the changes the church requires 502 years after Luther won't just change the church's actions, they will change the church's understanding of what it means to live a life of faith in an age of tremendous change and uncertainty.

502 years after Luther, we need a reformation of belonging. Many organizations are intentionally committing to inclusivity while realizing the value that comes from diversity. Meanwhile, the Christian church continues to draw firm boundaries between insiders and outsiders with its antiquated concept of membership. In much of the mainline Protestant tradition, long beholden to a colonialist mindset, membership and attendance metrics remain the focal point of church leaders.

With a reformation of belonging, a church defines itself not by the concept of membership, but by the needs of the community in which the ministry is situated. With this reformed mindset, the ministry is defined not membership nor attendance nor the number of people who look and think like one another. Rather, ministry is defined by the extent to which the church connects and collaborates with its community for the sake of service to the neighbor.

502 years after Luther, we need a reformation of place. Organizations are beginning to understand the depth of relationships that form from hybrid connections, the encounters that happen in both physical and virtual space. Meanwhile, the Christian church continues to insist that the core expression of the tradition takes place in person during a one-hour timeslot on a weekend morning.

With a reformation of place, ministry is defined not by a building or a timeslot, but by a commitment to live in relationship with digital culture, a culture where the online and face to face experiences have equal standing. Digital connection is no longer seen as shallow or disingenuous. When we reform our understanding of place, we in the church can start to use digital technologies not for marketing and advertising, but for ministry and relationship-building.

Finally, 502 years after Luther, we need a reformation of leadership. It's time to stop depending exclusively on the clergy to steward the Christian tradition. It's time to hear more perspectives on Sunday mornings. Ordained leaders have an important role in today's church, but that role is closer to a coach than a chief executive. The leaders of today's most successful organizations are typically not charismatic, authoritative decision-makers. They are visionary, collaborative facilitators who trust their people and know how to delegate. Still, Sunday mornings seem increasingly like pastoral performances where the community is seen primarily as an audience.

With a reformation in leadership, all who gather for word, sacrament, and service are seen as co-equal contributors. The community collaborates to determine a vision for ministry. Liturgy truly becomes participatory. Attendance and "excellence" are jettisoned, replaced by wide collaboration and deep engagement. The leadership priority is no longer institutional survival. The leadership priority is responding to God's call to be a fountain of grace in a time of division and skepticism. The leadership priority is to return the work of the people, back to the people.

The mighty fortress that is our God is indeed calling the church to change. In Fall 2020, I'll be releasing a book with Fortress Press on these Reformations, and more. Follow this website for more on this important topic!

Book Announcement: The Problem with Church in Digital Culture

As a Lutheran and a former Google employee, I find it interesting that as fewer people show up at church on Sunday morning, increasingly more are searching for God on Google's search engine.

Most Christian denominations lost 3-4% of their membership between 2007 and 2014, a slide that has accelerated every year since. Based on these trends, some forecast that entire mainline denominations, the ELCA included, may fold entirely by 2041.

The haunted, holy, and hallowed grounds of Luther Seminary

Yet the Google search engine saw three times as much search volume for the query “who is Jesus” in 2017 than it did in 2007. It’s a question that grows in interest every single year in every state in the Union. It is among the most frequently “Googled” religious queries, second only to “what is the Bible?”  The “Googlification” of Christ’s identity and the significance of the Bible points to an accelerating trend: people are developing their faith through questions, asked outside of the church.

They are developing their spiritual selves not through listening to a preacher, but through self-guided exploration. They are, in every sense, searching for God with Google.

Starting with Millennials, the generations that grew up in digital culture are just as spiritually engaged as previous cohorts.

Younger generations believe in God at a rate that is nearly identical to Generation X, the Baby Boomers, and both the Silent and Greatest generations.

Millennials’ willingness to believe in God carries over to a commitment to individual spiritual practices. Millennial Nones (those who check the "None" box on surveys about religion) exhibit the same rates of engagement with daily prayer as church-going Christians.  In 2010, 45 percent of Millennial adults prayed daily. Every week, twenty-seven percent read scripture and 26 percent meditated weekly—all rates of participation equal to more church-affiliated generations.

I am reminded of my generation’s spiritual inclinations each time I walk past office meditation rooms, a fixture at tech offices across the country.  The chief difference between those who came of age in the digital era age and those who came of age before is truly a difference in institutional affiliation—not a difference in faith. The United States is verifiably becoming a “spiritual but not religious” country.

Especially among younger generations, the country is not turning its back on God. The country is turning its back on the church, an institution that has failed to innovate and reinvent itself amid great cultural change. The church of today, with its emphasis on individualized and intellectualized faith, is not viable nor is it sustainable in a digital age.

Yet still, I show up, each and every week. As a true church nerd, I continue to teach Confirmation, to assist with worship, to preach the occasional sermon. I even completed a four-year master's degree in theology to try to understand why the institutional church seems so out of touch with digital culture.

And as I have studied, read, reflected, and written about this topic, I have come up with a hypothesis. The church of today doesn't engage younger generations because it shuts out that which digital culture has come to value. 

With its insistence on doctrine, the church suppresses questions.

With its obsession over institutional survival, it resists forming new connections.

Due to the professionalization of the ministry, the church turns down opportunities to collaborate.

And as church membership declines, it loses the ability to bring creativity to the life of faith. The church of today exists without questions, connections, collaboration, and creativity, four core values of our shared digital culture.

I want to understand how that could change. I want to determine how church leaders could take the best of the Christian tradition and align it with the values of digital culture. The Christian tradition offers a message the world so desperately needs to hear—a message of hope for an age of cynicism, a story of restoration for an age of climate change, a word of unity for a time of political and social division. But that story is going unheard and is often misunderstood.

Today, I am pleased to announce that I have started writing a (still untitled) book with Fortress Press. The book will analyze what ministry means in a spiritual but not religious society. Ultimately, the book will present the thoughtful church leader with a blueprint for effective ministry in digital culture.

So stay tuned! I've launched a new website (www.ryanpanzer.com), and started a newsletter. Follow both for updates on the project. Whether you identify as spiritual or not so much, Christian or None, Millennial or Baby Boomer, I hope you'll consider joining me for the conversations ahead!