Missional Slog
by Rev. Mark E. Tidsworth, Founder & Team Leader
The whole thing, this entire article title… it just feels icky, if that’s even a real word. Slog is on a list of unattractive words kept by someone somewhere. It doesn’t inspire in any way, instead triggering an impulse to quickly shake it off, whatever it is.
With reflection, I’m glad. This kind of reaction is the exact reaction when disciples of Jesus find themselves caught in missional slog. They want to escape as quickly as possible. When active, missional slog feels like swimming through molasses… slow, constrained, irritating. Getting anything done, and moving forward in missional ways, takes extreme heroic effort that’s not likely to sustain for long. Missional slog clearly constrains God’s church. If unresolved, disciples in churches will act out in some way, give up while in place, or leave. Even slightly motivated people won’t tolerate unending missional slog.
So, without further delay, what is missional slog? Three key concepts explain Missional Slog; two formational church dynamics and then one which resolves the tension, opening the door to missional movement.
Pinch Points
When engaging this area of church life, we feel pinched, constrained by barriers that may be difficult to identify, yet are real. Movement slows or comes to a halt. There may not be capacity to do more than what we are doing. We may have run out of options or possibilities for movement in this area. There may be blockages in the way, preventing forward movement. However they are formed, pinch points are areas of our church life where forward movement is blocked, slowed, stopped, or constrained.
Common Pinch Point examples:
Size, functions, and roles of clergy and staff team
Size, functions, and roles of lay leadership team
Approach to congregational care
Congregational size transitions
Invisible Barriers
When a single pinch point arises in a church, moving through it can be rather straightforward. Yet, as churches move forward missionally, functioning as the systems they are, multiple pinch points are often activated simultaneously. The power of multiple pinch points combines, forming barriers that slow movement and drain energy. A single pinch point may create a single barrier to movement, yet when multiple pinch points are exerting their influence, they take on a life of their own, resulting in a barrier which everyone senses and feels, yet may be difficult to identify. This is how invisible barriers are formed. Just waiting passively for Invisible Barriers to resolve themselves doesn’t work; they have an active life of their own, requiring direct intervention.
Thresholds
We are not destined to be victims of invisible barriers, giving over power and volition to them. Instead, we can do what Christian disciples and churches have done for centuries, cross over into a new land. We have choices to make when we grow aware of invisible barriers, deciding how to relate with them. Invisible barriers to missional movement can become opportunities for progress when recognized and labeled. This proactive mindset and approach may change their name from “invisible barriers” to “thresholds for crossing.” Once a threshold is crossed, churches and their leaders experience relief and release, moving into new seasons of freedom with ease of movement.
In the past, Invisible Barriers were often formed in the context of church size transitions. That still happens, yet the increasing complexity of church life in our increasingly complex contexts has expanded the circumstantial contexts wherein Invisible Barriers form. Churches of any size can drift into Missional Slog, often due to unintentional or simply unnoticed combinations of pinch points.
Crossing Thresholds: Breaking Through Barriers To Missional Movement
In coming weeks and months, we will be sharing more widely about the Crossing Thresholds Family of Services. They are designed specifically for breaking through Invisible Barriers. Simply put, this can be done. New seasons of missional movement are very much possible when we have the eyes to see and ears to hear. So, let’s move beyond the Missional Slog, shaking it off, living into our invigorated identities as the bodies of Christ we are.