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A New Paradigm Of Christian Ministry For The 21st Century: Issues Of Spiritual Growth ©

© Dick Rauscher

INTRODUCTION

The issues of spiritual formation and the negative impact of burned out pastors need to be addressed in virtually all main line Christian Churches. In this paper I will illustrate how the current definition of Christian ministry is inherently competitive and therefore harmful to the spiritual formation of both pastors and their congregations. The new paradigm of Christian ministry presented illustrates the interconnection between issues of spiritual growth and the declining health of the mainline Christian Churches.

There is a significant difference between institutional growth, religious growth (religious doctrine and theological beliefs) and spiritual growth. Since the majority of the institutional Christian church's focus, time, energy, resources, programs, policies, and priorities are currently being directed towards membership growth and survival, it is clear that spiritual growth is obviously not a priority under the current paradigm of Christian ministry.

A definition of mental illness is when we do the same things today that we did yesterday and somehow expect different results today. Yet, at the present time, that is exactly what we expect will somehow miraculously happen in the institutional Christian church. A radically new definition or paradigm of Christian ministry is needed; one that will give us the vision and wisdom needed to heal the wounds created by the present paradigm.

The new paradigm of Christian ministry discussed in this paper includes six essential basic concepts:

1. the need for a middle path approach in all things.......the end of other-ness created by dualistic thinking -- the source of judgment, suffering and violence;

2. the need for a dedication to reality regardless of the cost.........living an awakened self aware life (removing the beam in our own eye);

3. the need for trust, sharing and vulnerability.....the heart of community;

4. the need for silence, calm, quiet, and simplicity.......experiencing the sacred in our day to day lives;

5. the need for spiritual teachers.......our guides into the Creator's universe;

6. listening to the fringe stories from the edge of our culture..........honoring the sacred in ourselves and others.

The new paradigm of Christian ministry offered in this paper embraces the ancient wisdom that "we cannot lead others where we have not gone ourselves". Only when clergy and laity grow spiritually, will they be able to lead others into Christian community and a deeper spirituality that so many people are seeking in our culture. Until spiritual formation is fully encouraged and supported, the Christian church will continue to lose it's spirit and vitality and it's ability to survive in the 21st century will remain in question.

Note: The writer of this paper is an AAPC certified pastoral counselor, is endorsed by the United Methodist Church's Division of Chaplains and the Board of Higher Education, is ordained as an Elder in the United Methodist Church, and has spent over 23 years in spiritual formation with the mystical teachers of our culture exploring the intentional integration of psychotherapy and spirituality.

THE BASIC PROBLEM

The Christian Church in general is using a paradigm of ministry that is not meeting the spiritual formation needs of our laity or our clergy. The current high priority commitment of institutional resources, programs, and policies directed towards institutional growth and survival leave spiritual growth, and the spiritual disciplines required for effective spiritual formation in a substantially lower priority. Despite the fact that the Christian Churches have been allocating a major portion of their resources into church growth and survival we continue to see

• an increasing incidence of clergy stress, burnout, and depression;

• a dwindling in the number of clergy available to serve our churches;

• a continuing decline in overall church membership;

• and an increasing number of clergy who report a growing sense of failure and dissatisfaction in their ministry.

It no longer makes sense to continue pouring vital church resources into membership growth and survival. It's not working. Most clergy and laity are in agreement that something needs to change. The approach being used under the present outmoded paradigm reminds me of one of my favorite Nasrudin the Sufi Mystic stories.

One morning Nasrudin was seen riding his mule frantically up and down the street of the village one morning. After watching this frantic activity for several hours, one of the villagers shouted to Nasrudin as he hurried by, "Nasrudin, what are you doing riding your mule so frantically up and down our village streets all morning?" Nasrudin turned and shouted back over his shoulder as he raced down the street, " What am I doing? What am I doing? I'm looking for my mule you fool!!"

The words "I am the way, follow me" are meaningless when our laity and clergy are not encouraged and supported by the institutional church to work on their own spiritual growth. Until that happens, our churches will be unable to effectively lead others to God, and the vitality of the Christian Church will continue to decline.

The western culture's hunger for spiritual growth has never been greater than it is today. The fastest growing church communities in our western culture are the Pagan/Wiccan communities and those embracing mysticism and Eastern spiritual practices. It is important to note that most of these rapidly growing churches are not well organized, they are openly feminist and embrace women clergy, they own little or no property or buildings, and they are virtually all based on a spirituality that is "unity" focused, experiential in nature, and intimately grounded in a oneness with nature and all of god's creation. We will talk more about these concepts below. I believe that these spiritual communities embody a wisdom that the main line Christian churches need to explore. The mainline Christian churches have not effectively embraced the rapid change and spiritual hunger that is sweeping through our culture. As a result, we are obviously out of step with the people we are called to serve.

The frantic "nuts and bolts" programs we are presently creating under the existing paradigm to deal with the symptoms of institutional decline will continue to siphon off valuable and badly needed Church resources. Some one once referred to this symbolically as "frantically moving the deck chairs on the Titanic as it heads inexorably toward the looming iceberg."

Unfortunately, the need to "belong" is a powerful and primitive psychological need of every human. In our existing paradigm of Christian ministry, clergy who put more than token energy into self care and their spiritual formation, or in any way threaten the growth and survival priorities of the institutional church, will find their "belonging" in the institutional church and the financial well being of their families threatened. Conversely, when the majority of the pastor's energy is directed towards the priorities and expectations of the institution, their institutional "belonging" and the financial well-being of their families are secure.

DISCUSSION OF A PARADIGM'S LIFE CYCLE

Many groan when the words "new paradigm" are used. They are "tired of hearing about new paradigms". The reality we are confronting as we enter the 21st century, is "change". This "change" is happening at a rate unparalleled in human history and is continuing to accelerate geometrically.

There is an old saying that says simply, "what cannot be avoided must be embraced". If the Christian Church is to remain effective or even survive, we must learn to embrace and work with the incredible changes that are currently sweeping through virtually every facet of our Western culture. We must find ways to respond quickly and effectively to the needs of those we are called to serve. The days where change in the Church could afford to happen over centuries or decades are behind us.

To be effective in the culture of the 21st century, the very process of change itself must be included as an integral part of our new paradigm of Christian ministry. This includes the new theological and biblical insights that are emerging from the scholarship and research of both Christian and secular theologian's. The Jesus Seminar is one such example of radical change that is currently being ignored by the institutional church.

It is important to understand the life cycle of a paradigm. New paradigms are simply attempts to interpret and make sense of new data being collected that cannot be explained by the existing paradigm. The individuals who first propose new paradigms are often initially considered to be radical, crazy, extreme, demon possessed, sacrilegious, or just simply weirdo fanatics who have lost touch with reality.

The early proponents of any new paradigm often have a rough time being taken seriously, but eventually, the mass of "data" challenging the old paradigm can no longer be ignored. As the numbers of supporters of the "new" paradigm begin to grow, their numbers eventually reach a critical mass and they begin to wrestle the reigns of power away from the leaders and institutions of the "old" paradigm. They become the "new" school of thought. Eventually, the "new" school (paradigm) becomes the cultural "norm", and then becomes the "right way" to understand reality. Inevitably, the time comes when every existing paradigm can no longer simply be reworked, it must be replaced.

To summarize, if we are to effectively address the discouraging statistics that are emerging in the Christian church, it is clear that we need a radically new paradigm of Christian ministry. A paradigm that embraces the increasingly rapid changes taking place in the scientific knowledge of our universe, and our growing global culture. The new paradigm should not require intellectual suicide to have a faith in God or a higher power.

BASIC CONCEPTS REQUIRED IN THE NEW PARADIGM TO NURTURE SPIRITUAL GROWTH

To facilitate discussion of the new paradigm being proposed in this paper, the contrasts between the spiritual growth needs of clergy and laity, and the growth needs of the institutional church have been highlighted in the comparison table on page 9. The table illustrates clearly that spiritual growth and formation needs are almost always antithetical to the growth and survival needs of the institutional church. The table highlights the basic conflict that exists between being and doing.

The comparison table should not be interpreted to imply that the insights on one side are wrong and therefore right on the other side, but only to clarify the idea that the disciplines needed for spiritual growth and spiritual formation are simply not compatible with the disciplines required to facilitate the growth and survival needs of the institutional church.

COMPARISON TABLE: SPIRITUALITY VS THE INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH

<------------CURRENT PARADIGM CONTINUUM------------>

BASIC IMBALANCE: Institutional needs are where the majority of institutional resources are directed. This is what I refer to as the BASIC IMBALANCE of the current paradigm i.e.. The majority of Institutional focus and energy under the current paradigm supports Institutional needs rather then Clergy needs

Fundamental Rule of Membership and Belonging

THE NEW PARADIGM: BASIC CONCEPT #1: THE NEED FOR A MIDDLE PATH APPROACH IN ALL THINGS............THE END OF OTHER-NESS: THE SOURCE OF PAIN, SUFFERING, AND VIOLENCE.

The mystics, and now the quantum physicists, are stating that there is no other-ness in the universe, only unity, and unity is simply any pair of opposites. To walk the middlepath of unity and avoid other-ness we need to define the dualistic black and white ideas and beliefs on both sides of any issue without embracing the ideas or beliefs on only one side of the issue, and ignoring the ideas and beliefs on other side.

The mystics remind us that since all things are created by God, there is truth in all things. In dualistic thinking we embrace the truth on only one side of an issue and insist that it is THE truth. Black and white dualistic thinking creates conflict, pain and suffering. In a dualistic world, one side is right and the other side is wrong.

Embracing the truth on only one side of an issue is called relative truth. Absolute truth can be found only when we are able to embrace the ideas and beliefs found on both sides of any issue. This is called, learning to walk in the gray of the middlepath. It is important to note that compassion, peace, happiness, and love are found only on the middle path.

Jesus walked the middle path and systematically broke down the dualistic cultural and religious categories and caste barriers that created so much other-ness and judgment in his world. Thus other-ness in any form, for any reason is by definition, not Christian. It certainly was not taught by Jesus.

There is a powerful need in our egos to embrace the dualistic black or white "certainties" on only one side of an issue, and thus avoid the anxiety of uncertainty, paradox, and ambiguity of not knowing. Our ego needs to be right. When we walk the middlepath and embrace the truth on both sides of any issue, this is called sitting with ego emptiness. It can be a painful place of paradox and not knowing for our egos. The mystic's say that maturity is the ability to sit with this middlepath anxiety, embracing all of God's creation, non-reactively.

The modern mystic Wendell Berry reminds us that those who define the extremes on any issue are vital for us to get a feel or perspective of the territory, but we cannot live on the extremes at the edge of the wilderness without creating pain, suffering, and violence. This is not a philosophic idea, it is embedded in the mystical reality that if we embrace an extreme idea or belief on either side of the middle path too firmly, we will automatically create the opposite idea or belief. We cannot have hot without cold, pleasure without pain, light without darkness, or good without evil. It is sobering to think that dualistic thinking creates evil.

In other words, spiritual growth requires that we learn to embrace the unity concepts of middle path thinking and the paradox that both sides of any issue are needed if we are to have Truth. Dualistic thinking harms our spirituality. Put simply, if our theologies, ideas, or beliefs are dualistic and create other-ness for any reason, then the ideas, beliefs, and theologies of our ego's are not in touch with reality and will bring pain and suffering into the world.

The Buddhist writer Mark Finn in his book Object Relations Theory and Religion describes the paradox of absolute truth on the middlepath this way:

Relative truth is the truth of conventional reality; it is the truth of categorized distinctions, cause and effect, and linear logic. Absolute truth is the truth of radical unity; it is the truth of no distinctions, no conditionalities. From the perspective of relative truth, there is a person standing in relationship to his environment; from the perspective of absolute truth, person and environment are one. This unity or absence of distinction is often rendered in translations of Buddhist texts as "emptiness."............One cannot take absolute truth without relative truth, yet absolute truth is in fact absolute. Thus the relative psychological world and the absolute spiritual world are inseparable. Buddhist (meditation) practice sets as its goal the collapse of such duality's as sacred versus profane, psychological versus spiritual, while recognizing the relative truth of the distinctions themselves.

Zen master, Suzuki Roshi, describes the paradox of truth on the middlepath this way,

When we cross our legs like this, even though we have a right leg and a left leg, they have become one. The position expresses the oneness of duality; not two and not one. Our body and mind are not two and not one. If you think your body and mind are two, that is wrong. If you think that they are one, that is also wrong. Our body and mind are both two and one. We usually think that if something is not one it is more than one; if it is not singular, it is plural. But in actual experience, our life is not only plural, but also singular. Each one of us is both dependent and independent.

Thus the first basic and most fundamental concept that has to be included in the new paradigm for "Christian ministry" has to include the spiritual discipline of staying in the unity of the middle path in all things and avoiding the creation of dualistic other-ness.......especially a middle path balance between spiritual growth and institutional growth.

BASIC CONCEPT #2: THE NEED FOR A DEDICATION TO REALITY REGARDLESS OF THE COST...........LIVING AN AWAKENED SELF-AWARE LIFE.

We grow spiritually only when we are willing to do the difficult and painful work of understanding ourselves first; doing the work of removing the beam from our own eye.

Since we cannot change what we do not understand, and we cannot change what we do not accept about ourselves, spiritual growth is simply growth in self awareness and self understanding.

Until we are awakened and self aware, we will be caught up in the dualistic illusions created by our ego minds. We will assume that all of our dualistic desires, goals, beliefs, wants, fantasies, certainties, plans, opinions, likes and dislikes are right, and should be reality. The disciplines of psychotherapy and the teachings of the mystics both stress the necessity of our being dedicated and committed to embracing the reality of absolute truth regardless of the cost.

The mystics or spiritual directors call this work "moving into emptiness". The suspension of all dualistic ego certainties and the willingness to simply be with what is; to live on the middlepath in balance with all things. Living the awakened self aware life therefore requires us to live on the middlepath, fully present to the moment we are living in and the reality of God's creation just as it is. This is called learning to be with what is.

This includes of course learning to sit with the shadow side of our own ego. The mystics and psychotherapists both remind us that living the unexamined, unawakened life, caught up in our desires and the dualistic illusions of what our ego's think is real will bring pain, suffering, and violence into our own lives and into the lives of those around us.

Until we "know" ourselves and the dualistic shadows cast by our own egos, we will do harm to others. This pain will not caused by the devil, or the speck in our neighbors eye, it will be caused by the log in our own eye. Until our self awareness grows through the practices of meditation, or spiritual direction, or psychotherapy; it is virtually impossible to create a compassionate community.

In other words, to be both mentally and spiritually healthy requires a lifelong commitment to a) live fully immersed in unity and the reality of the moment, and b) a never ending growth in self awareness.

John Wellwood reminds us that every relationship we have with others is a direct reflection of the relationship we have with ourselves and therefore, the renewal of the world begins with the relationship we have with ourselves.

A new paradigm of Christian ministry must include the fundamental understanding that we grow spiritually only when we are willing to do the difficult and painful work of understanding ourselves first. Thus the second basic and fundamental concept in our new paradigm of "spiritual growth in Christian ministry" must include a major increase of energy and institutional resources flowing into the areas of therapy and / or professional spiritual direction; especially for our clergy.

BASIC CONCEPT #3: THE NEED FOR TRUST, SHARING, AND VULNERABILITY...............THE HEART OF COMMUNITY

A new paradigm of Christian ministry must embrace the reality that faith is not certainty. Faith requires doubt. The new paradigm must include permission and support for pastors and laity to openly explore and embrace the reality of doubt and uncertainty as an integral and fundamental part of their spiritual growth.

Virtually all spiritually growing persons will developmentally go through stage three doubt and discouragement before entering a stage four spirituality that reflects the mature spirituality of the mystics. In fact, all of the developmental models of spiritual formation teach us that stage three doubt and uncertainty are essential for virtually anyone growing spiritually who hopes to reach some level of spiritual maturity.

Virtually all pastors get tired and discouraged at times. Under our present paradigm of Christian ministry, clergy feelings of doubt and discouragement, and struggles with the validity of one's call to ministry are experienced as dangerous to both the institutional church and the pastor's congregation. Doubt, discouragement, stress, and depression, cannot be openly explored or shared by clergy without the fear of losing one's standing in the ranks of institutional membership.

The pastor is frequently forced to go through this painful spiritual struggle alone and is often forced to live out an isolating "pseudo" faith that denies the struggle and pain that is such a necessary and normal developmental part of all spiritual growth. It is no wonder that stress is high in ministry. When we live out of a pseudo / false self, it takes great energy to pretend to be someone we are not. Lay members have an easier time of it. They simply have other priorities on Sunday morning and eventually drop their membership rather than face the silent criticism and judgment of the faithful congregation.

Compassionate community happens only when one vulnerable heart connects with another vulnerable heart. When people are able to feel safe, trusting, and vulnerable with one another. Closed hearts form pseudo community. Stated simply, without vulnerability and trust, it is impossible to develop compassionate community.

A new paradigm of Christian ministry must support and encourage high levels of sharing, trust, and vulnerability. Vulnerability in the new paradigm must always be held with love and compassion, and never allowed to lead to betrayal and pain for any reason. Our pastors and laity must learn to be nonjudgmental listeners who are able to embrace the absolute truth of the middle path. They must be growing in self awareness and wrestling with the log in their own eye. Finally, they must be open and fully vulnerable with others.

BASIC CONCEPT #4: THE NEED FOR SILENCE, CALM, QUIET, AND SIMPLICITY.........EXPERIENCING THE SACRED IN DAY TO DAY LIFE.

To grow spiritually we must increase the silence in our lives. Silence flows into our lives when we simplify our lives and slow down. Rushing from task to task, responsibility to responsibility, is inherently destructive to spiritual growth.

Catherine Doherty in her book Poustinia and James Carse in his book The Silence of God both remind us that spiritual growth happens only when silence and simplicity are tightly woven into our lives.

Simplicity does not mean selling our possessions and living the life of the aesthetic. It simply means learning to focus on one thing at a time, developing the skill of listening carefully without interruption to others, and taking large blocks of time to simply sit and be in the moment; fully in the presence of the absolute truth of God's creation.

Simplicity means finding balance and living life on the middle path between "being" and "doing". The comparison table on page 9 shows clearly that under the present paradigm of Christian ministry, silence and simplicity are simply not compatible with the growth needs of the institutional church. The current paradigm rewards busy (often frantic and driven) "doing", accomplishing, goals, plans, programs, and responsibility.

Almost without exception, the institutional church's focus is on intellectual formation for ministry and it virtually ignores the spiritual formation of it's members. We have too many pastors preaching about spirituality who have not had the support or institutional encouragement to develop their own spirituality. They have not done their spiritual growth work. They are reading about spirituality from a map and have not been supported and encouraged to make the journey themselves. They are often struggling with the relative truths of their own egos.

Spirituality cannot be taught, but spiritual practices that lead to spiritual growth can be modeled. Jesus did not say, work hard, build me a church, and then take your map and go out and "teach" others about how to live a spiritual life whose focus is on God. He said become a disciple and then go into the world and show them the way. His words were "I am the way. Follow me". We can only lead others as far into the desert as we have been willing to travel ourselves.

A new paradigm for Christian ministry must include support and encouragement for clergy to slow down, build in large blocks of quiet, reflection, listening, solitude, and simplicity. The new paradigm must encourage pastors to move intentionally from the rapidly moving rim of the institutional wheel to the stationary hub of the wheel. Unless we build this into our new paradigm of ministry, we will continue to teach "religion" and religious "values" and have very little to offer those who are spiritually hungry. They will continue to search elsewhere.

BASIC CONCEPT #5: THE NEED FOR SPIRITUAL TEACHERS..........OUR GUIDES INTO THE CREATORS UNIVERSE.

Spiritual maturity is reflected in personal transformation and praxis.

Mystics, psychotherapists, and spiritual directors all teach that a mature spirituality is achieved only after many years of formal study under an experienced spiritual teacher. Someone who has journeyed into the dualistic desert of his/her own ego. Someone who can model a deep self knowledge and self awareness. Someone who has developed the ability to live an awakened life in the present moment. Someone who has learned to empty his/her ego and embrace the absolute truth of the middlepath.

The rugged individualism of the Western culture makes it hard for us to honor our teachers. We are taught from childhood to "do our own thing" and be independent. In many Eastern traditions one does not go to a spiritual master to hear them teach. The student begins by learning how the master ties his or her shoe laces! It is not uncommon for this initial task to take years before the student is ready to progress. Until the student's ego has been emptied, the student is too full to learn from the master.

Under the present paradigm, it is not uncommon for pastors to be asked about their "spiritual health" and how their "spiritual life" is progressing. The assumption is transparent. Pastors can do the work of spiritual growth on their our own, and they are then even capable of assessing how they are doing!

Because there are so few spiritually mature teachers in the mainline Christian churches and seminaries, the spiritual formation of the pastor is virtually ignored. They are trained in seminary to preach about spirituality and are encouraged to preach as best they can by working on their preaching style and technique.

Under the present paradigm of Christian ministry we assess "how a pastor is doing" by checking to see if all his or her reports have been submitted, that all apportionment's have been paid, and that the pastor has attended all the mandatory meetings of the institutional church. We examine our new ordinands to make sure that their intellectual preparation for Christian ministry is complete. Will they "fit" into the institutional culture. Will they make good colleagues? Will they effectively represent the institution church in the larger community? They are unable to say, "I am the way. Follow me. I've been there, I'll show you the way." It is no wonder that laity are finding other things to do on Sunday morning, and it is no wonder clergy are discouraged and burning out.

It is the belief of this writer that many Christian pastors are ready and hungry to grow spiritually. Our new paradigm of Christian ministry must include institutional encouragement and support for those clergy who are willing and ready to journey out into their own deserts. And when, after years or decades of training, they reemerge as mature spiritual teachers, we must find ways to lift them up and honor them.

A pianist once said, anyone can play the notes, it's the space between the notes that makes the music. The present paradigm of Christian ministry being used by the Christian church does not reward pastors who put too much emphasis on the space between the notes despite the fact that too many notes, too close together becomes a painful cacophony of noise. A new paradigm of Christian ministry must encourage clergy to discover and nurture the space between the notes so that their ministry is a gentle healing melody.

BASIC CONCEPT #6: THE NEED FOR FRINGE STORIES AND LISTENING...........HONORING OUR CONNECTIONS WITH THE SACRED

Jesus called us to minister to the lepers, the prostitutes, and the tax collectors; people discarded and abandoned by those in power in his culture. People who lived at the edge of his culture. To minister to them meant that he had to get to know them. To know them as well as he did meant that he spent a lot of time outside the synagogue listening to the quiet stories they told about the pain and suffering in their lives.

These are the stories that people on the fringe of our culture usually share very tentatively with the listener. At the first sign of disinterest or judgment on the part of the listener, the story being told will simply fade away into silence. Unless the listener is able to sit patiently, in silence, and fully present in the moment, the tellers story will not emerge. An opportunity for understanding and healing will be lost.

Finding a Christian pastor who has developed the spiritual discipline and skill to sit quietly without interrupting, without finishing the others sentence or thought, without pulling the focus of the story back onto themselves, and without commenting out of his or her own dualistic ego on what is being told, is very rare indeed.

Catherine Doherty reminds us in her book Poustinia, we have forgotten that simply sitting in the silent presence of one who loves God is often enough to bring healing to the deepest of wounds. Under the current paradigm of Christian ministry, the spiritual discipline required for patient listening is discouraged. Pastors are encouraged to heal the wounded by means of a busy, "doing" ministry, that "fixes" the wounds of the wounded. Busy pastors make poor listeners. Poor listeners make poor healers.

The mystics are clear. Anyone genuinely searching for God, regardless of the path they travel, has part of the Truth. The truths they discover about God on their particular path will be embedded in their sacred stories. A new paradigm of Christian ministry must encourage pastors to seek out the sacred stories and Truths of those in our culture who are traveling a different path to the sacred. No one religion or belief can contain God and we can no longer arrogantly assume that Christianity is the only valid path to the Creator. That is dualistic thinking and will bring judgment, pain and suffering into the world.

There are pagan sacred stories, Hindu sacred stories, Buddhist sacred stories, Taoist sacred stories, American Indian sacred stories, African sacred stories, gay sacred stories, feminist sacred stories, and inner city sacred stories to name only some of the possibilities.

These sacred stories from other spiritual paths and the new understandings of Christian scripture emerging through modern scholarship can only enrich our faith and lead to new theological insights about the teachings of Jesus. The Christian church and our theology is not so fragile that it cannot stand along side other faiths and beliefs. What will destroy our faith is a dualistic, rigid, unbending, conservative insistence to interpret 3500 year old myths, created for an ancient culture, as literal and absolute truths for the 21st century.

The majority of the unchurched and those who have left the Christian church are college graduates who refuse to commit intellectual suicide in order to have a Christian faith.

There is Truth in all things. Absolute truth requires all things. The new paradigm of Christian ministry must support and encourage Christian pastors and laity to be open to, and explore, the many sacred stories of our human culture. The sacred stories that reflect our struggle to understand both ourselves and the Creator of our universe. And when they find the wisdom and truths of those sacred stories, to then bring the wisdom they find back to their congregations. Absolute truth requires all things.

SUMMARY

The basic imbalance built into our current paradigm of Christian ministry virtually ignores the spiritual growth and spiritual formation needs of clergy and laity in favor of a fixing, busy, doing, talking, teaching ministry that is focused primarily on institutional growth and survival. Pastors and laity are drowning in "plans", programs, goals, ministries to "do", and meetings to make more plans. A new paradigm of Christian ministry is needed: one that establishes a balance between clergy spiritual formation and institutional growth.

Authentic spiritual growth leads to praxis. If the Christian church is to survive in the 21st century we must be willing to grow and change the way we do business. We must be willing to accept the reality that teaching religious theology and the praxis of spiritual formation are not the same subject.

A new paradigm of Christian ministry must embrace the reality that spirituality and doing no harm to others or the earth we live on can only be lived on the middle path. The relative truth of dualistic black and white thinking always creates judgment and a sense of other-ness that leads to violence and suffering. Like Jesus, Christian pastors and laity must learn to walk the middle path and be ready to break down the black and white barriers that create the other-ness of us vs. them whenever they are identified.

We must institutionally encourage and support pastors and laity who are truly struggling to find the "middle path" in their ministry; to lift up the hidden dualistic beliefs embedded in all of us that cause judgment and other-ness. Paradoxically, we must learn to lift up the other-ness of diversity and the singularity of everything in God's creation, and embrace that sense of otherness with our compassion and love. When we do, we will be immersed in the absolute truth of unity found only on the middlepath.

The new paradigm proposed in this paper will support and encourage our clergy and laity to learn to live fully in the moment, fully conscious and self aware. We cannot change what we do not understand. We cannot change what we do not accept about ourselves. Under the new paradigm clergy will be encouraged and supported to work in therapy and under professional spiritual direction.

Community cannot be built without vulnerability. A new paradigm of Christian ministry must encourage and support high levels of trust and vulnerability on the part of the clergy and laity.

Spiritual formation requires time and silence. These are antithetical to the growth needs of the institutional church. Just as our eye cannot see itself without a mirror, our ego cannot see itself without a teacher. Spiritual growth and spiritual formation cannot happen without a mature spiritual teacher. A new paradigm of Christian ministry must encourage the formation of spiritual teachers.

Under the present paradigm, we are too busy "helping" parishioners inside our local churches to find the time to "listen" to those who live on the fringes; to those who are not in the pews on Sunday morning. The new paradigm for Christian ministry proposed by this paper will support and encourage pastors and laity to go to the fringes of our spiritual culture so as to help us develop perspective on what God's people are asking for and needing.

In closing, the paradigm or world view of ministry that this paper is proposing would begin nurturing pastors and laity to be gentle, quiet, fully present, listening guides, open and vulnerable; authentically sharing their lives with others in their congregation.

They would be self aware enough to know that taking care of people (and the institutional church), and caring for people the way Jesus called us to care, are two different realities. The former leads to exhaustion and clergy burnout and the latter leads to spiritual teachers who can show others how to care for themselves and others; not as loving and compassionate "doers", but as love and compassion itself. Spiritual guides whose lives will say "follow me".

Spirituality and spiritual formation have different needs from those of the growth oriented institutional church and they are not compatible with one another. We must stop thinking that they are. Until we do, the institutional church will be blind to the difference.

The paradox of the middle path requires that we keep both needs fully in view; the need for spiritual formation of both clergy and laity, and the growth needs of the institutional church.

We need them both to do the work God calls us to.

But we need them balanced.

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