Methods for Transitioning

Gary McIntosh presents five methods for American churches that want to shift into the populist style.¹

The “rebirthed model” discontinues the old style and begins a new one.
The “blended model” combines old and new styles into one format.
The “multiple-track model” offers old and new style church side by side, separately for different segments of the congregation.
The “seeker model” keeps the old style, with some enhancement, but develops outreach based upon the needs of a target audience.
The “satellite model” is when a church plants a new congregation.

I can comment on specific Unificationist efforts of which I am aware that represent these methods, beginning back in the 1970s and culminating today. I am sure that the reader can bring to mind similar examples from their own church life.

The Rebirthed Model

Oakland was a rebirthed model. Mrs. Durst discontinued the style of San Francisco and Berkeley, although located within the same metropolitan area, and began a new one. The separation was radical and complete; there was no intermingling of members or programs between Oakland and the other Unification groups in the Bay area. Oakland did not have Sunday service or international cultural nights and did minimal outreach to city officials as were practiced in San Francisco. The group focused on witnessing, running an introductory dinner program designed for young travelers every night, and bringing guests to workshops. It inculcated an intense discipline to talk to every person one met, no matter where.

This is illustrated by an incident that took place in May, 1973. I was one of a group of missionaries from Oakland being driven across the country to bolster new centers in various states. We had arrived in Wilmington, Delaware, one afternoon and no one was home at the center. Our captain, Sheri Sager (nee Rueter), phoned in to report this to the leadership back in Oakland. The direction that came back was: send the members out witnessing. In pairs, we wandered this suburb of Wilmington for thirty minutes, seeking the lost. That is what you call relentless, unflinching focus.

The direction that came back was: send the members out witnessing. In pairs, we wandered this suburb of Wilmington for thirty minutes, seeking the lost. That is what you call relentless, unflinching focus.

The Blended Model

I tried to develop a blended model in New Jersey, 2001. Focusing on the worship service I invested in the worship band that already was in place, added drama and dance on occasion, moved to a bigger location (a rented school across the street from the church that could house our Sunday school classes as well as worship), added visual illustrations for the sermon, an after-program for new guests and tried to create guest-oriented sermons. This was launched with an 8-week series of discussion meetings with interested members, every Thursday evening, which about 30 attended each week. We experimented with a Catholic liturgical style one Saturday morning; it showed promise but was ill-timed with regard to other demands upon the congregation. We talked about services for whole families to attend together and generated some small group activity.

There resulted a growth in attendance and tithing, but the church did not add new members. As is the case in all churches, the old style and the new style differ significantly, and so much energy is consumed in making the blend that it is a challenge to find time to do ministry. (Also I was only serving part-time, commuting from two hours away; it was not my hometown church.) The after-service welcome program for new people progressed well, but we launched it a few weeks before summer vacation, and its director was also the director of summer camps, so the effort broke down. I learned that a blended approach requires depth of staffing and a highly nuanced vision for how to be all things to all people already in the congregation, plus attract and take care of new people. It is not an easy undertaking.

The Multiple-Track Model

A multiple-track model can develop through a resourceful and empowered youth group. We read of this in the Hybels’ account of the founding of Willow Creek. Unificationist young adult Harumi Kawamura developed the first steps in 2003-4 in the New York area. In the context of her seminary studies, Kawamura designed and ran three pilot retreats for college-aged American Unificationists, many of who were disaffected from the church. She applied insights that she gleaned from an independent study of several mega-churches in the New York area. “Generation X religion,” she wrote, “emphasizes the sensual and experiential, and enjoys incorporating text, image, music, dance, and the body as venues for the expression of religious beliefs.” She went on to state, “It is my belief that this brief statement encapsulates important elements of the needs of young adults of the beginning twenty-first century in their religious experience. More specifically I refer to the experiential component in faith development and the incorporation of contemporary music and image in worship sessions. To this list I add the importance of testimonies.” She formed a core group that designed and led retreats incorporating these diverse elements. They were energized because it was their natural faith expression. Kawamura’s retreats led several participants to claim their parents’ faith even as they reshaped that faith.

“Generation X religion emphasizes the sensual and experiential, and enjoys incorporating text, image, music, dance, and the body as venues for the expression of religious beliefs.” [Kawamura]

A multiple track model is also proposed by Hwa Young Kim, another seminarian who studied church growth. It is also a populist style. Kim proposes that young adults who are favorable toward the church begin small group meetings, solidify their identity, and gradually invite friends to their meetings. The meetings would be low-intensity, only gradually and sensitively introducing spiritual matters. She noted that gatherings of second-generation alone “have a tendency of being horizontal rather than centered on a vertical standard.” Hence interaction with elders is necessary. She issues a call for “a place where anyone can share his or her own story with others [and] find a solution together.” She reflects the spirituality of the “emergent church,” which affirms casual community, horizontal engagement, deep spirituality and the value of elders’ life testimonies for young people.

It is my view that one reason — perhaps the main reason — these retreats struck the chord among the young adult participants was because they were “for us, by us.” The very fact that the events were germinated, planned, organized and executed by peers was the foundation for the Holy Spirit to work. Kawamura’s ministry to re-integrate marginalized Unificationist young adults is worth the careful attention on the part of church leadership. In Kim’s words, “The answer is based on how [the second-generation] can own their faith. This cannot be substituted by the first generation or by anyone else. It has to be solved by the second-generation themselves.”

So one way to develop a multi-track model is to divest ownership to diverse leaders with their own unique styles, train them, pray for them, and allow them to minister to their own sub-community.

The Seeker Model

The seeker model involves intensive steps demanding that an entire congregation shift its paradigm. An effective leader with a highly motivated core congregation can achieve this. Rev. Yoshitada Sugita describes one instance in the Unification Church. His work is significant, so I am going to spend some time with his case study presented in my UTS church growth class.²

He began with the concession that no one is comfortable talking with non-believers about God, Jesus and True Parents. The sad reality is that for this reason, Unification Church congregations often do not proclaim or even explain their affiliation with the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Rev. Sugita, as a pastor, bucked this trend with his Tokyo congregation. “One day,” he writes, “I determined to witness to people without hiding our church’s name.” Rev. Sugita inculcated a spirit of confidence in “the second Messiah, special fortune [and] all of the spirits assisting us” by calling his members to openly declare Reverend Moon. “Everyone was thinking that victory depends on witnessing to True Parents directly.” He continually reminded members of the vision at every opportunity.

The church received opposition as public awareness of their identity spread. “Though our church had to fight with local residents and opponents, it became a very big issue. This problem got on TV everyday and I had to go to the police, the TV station, and court. We brought those who opposed us into court and finally we won a case. Why did I receive such persecution? It was because I witnessed without hiding our church’s name and I did it well.” Informed by study of Paul Cho’s Yoido Full Gospel Church, Sugita utilized proven methods for church growth and discovered that they meet with success even in an environment in which the Unification Church suffers heavy media and official attack. His “basic point” is to start with true love, “not use the congregation with the motivation to raise donations. We leaders should have the fervent passion that we want to love them as much as we love God and True Parents.” Staff and members should “cherish each person completely.” He encouraged members to witness to their neighbors by first “giving things which they want and need. Give and give, and gain their trust.” In order to increase evangelism, he reduced the number of church meetings. “We should stop meetings and make opportunities for members to meet many people.”

His members witnessed at a large train station, using questionnaires and a booklet on the Unification Church. Guests coming to the church would meet him, hear a small choir sing, see a video about the movement, and hear the pastor’s introduction “explaining what you can get in our church, like [Rick] Warren.” Warren stresses that the church should be completely transparent to new people as to what it offers and requires of them.

Rev. Sugita… identified our church’s “unique selling point,” and that is True Parents and their global ministry.

The initial meeting would end with refreshments and an invitation to return to hear a lecture. This lecture was adapted to the specific issues confronting the person’s life. It was “still not Divine Principle. We changed the content according to the people.” Thus, proclamation of Reverend Moon and the church identity was up front, but theological and doctrinal education was delayed in favor of presenting the value of the doctrine to one’s personal life. In other words, instead of explaining how the car works, they showed the new person how advantageous it is to have the ability to travel. As a result, new people were attracted to the church. “Education was free, young people were happy to come. They ate dinner in the church; members made the meals with love. Donation started when they understood our church well enough and became a member. As we showered them with love, they donated voluntarily. Soon the church was filled with new young people. We began to have a problem because the place become too crowded and members were too few.” In order to serve all the guests, “new members helped voluntarily.”

To assimilate and disciple these new people, Rev. Sugita utilized Dr. Paul Yonggi Cho’s model for small group worship and his members used that system to attract their neighbors and friends. Dr. Cho’s material applies biblical principles in daily life. As Sugita put it, “His success is not only the system but also the material…” Sugita simplified the “difficult” Unification Church doctrine, creating a “practical textbook using Divine Principle.” He utilized the text in two “outstanding district groups” and gained three new members. This success with two experimental groups set the stage for broader application of the strategy. “[Two or three] is not such a large number, but it was an innovative event.”

Growing churches, like Sugita’s, experiment with different methods, drop those that do not work, and adopt those that do.

Rev. Sugita enhanced his worship service, utilizing three pillars: music, video and sermon. For music, he created a youth choir. They sang gospel and folk music before starting service, using guitar, contemporary instruments and hand clapping. They also sang the national anthem and “revival type holy songs. They played a short beautiful melody after prayer.” As a result, “We could experience the effect of music. The atmosphere changed completely.”

Sugita’s greatest innovation, I believe, was his use of church-made documentaries in worship services. He correctly identified our church’s “unique selling point,” and that is True Parents and their global ministry. “Our work is more wonderful than any other denomination. We can be proud of it. Actually, our activity is of a higher level than the Full Gospel Church. Our activity is beyond denomination or nation completely. Therefore, I make use of our activities videos in every service.” He would show selections from the church-made videos before the sermon. The entire congregation was inspired, including guests, and some people even shed tears. Through the carefully edited video, “they were filled with the Holy Spirit… The Japanese church makes a good providential video every month; however, most of our members never see them. I decided each week which video we should use at the next service. Honestly, this had the most effect of the three techniques.”

Rev. Sugita’s sermon would apply Divine Principle to daily life. He spoke “in order to teach how to use our doctrine in our life. Therefore, I made a Principle sermon. I distributed a handout, which I made every week, which was a series, from the Principle of Creation to the Second Advent.” He also included two real-life testimonies to “give joy and hope to the people.” To increase the impact, he utilized “a big screen with PowerPoint.” These elements are conventional in growing churches. A simple message aims at finding God and blessings in daily life. A printed handout, a consistent sermon series planned in advance and, most importantly, moving personal testimonies.

After the service, fellowship with food is very important. During that time, he, as senior pastor, “called the new people and their spiritual parents, and gave a special card on which was written a welcome, an introductory book, and our activity pamphlet. Furthermore, I prayed for them. Lastly, the staff gave a present to the new people. Spiritual parents and our members felt delight when we did this. As the church leader and staff loved the guest, the congregation began to trust our church.” Thus, Rev. Sugita’s members could rely that week in and week out, their pastor would provide a solid worship experience designed to win new members.

Prayer was another key element of the worship experience and overall church success. Sugita notes that, while Reverend Moon strongly believes in the spirit world and its relevance to his ministry, members do not learn, in general, how to mobilize spirit world. In short, they do not really believe that “prayer changes things.” He observes, “I’m afraid that our church members do not so much believe that our prayers have the power to make wishes come true, even our leaders, too. As leaders do not have confidence in prayer, they cannot lead the congregation. This is a big problem. Therefore, our churches have detailed information about the spirit world, but actually we do not use this good point.”

I’m afraid that our church members do not so much believe that our prayers have the power to make wishes come true, even our leaders, too. As leaders do not have confidence in prayer, they cannot lead the congregation. [Sugita]

To remedy this, based upon his many experiences of victorious prayer, Rev. Sugita taught his members how to pray, based upon his studies of Christian Science and the American New Thought movement of the late nineteenth century. He found that group prayer during worship created miracles. Sugita emphasized, “seeing in our imagination with three dimensional images. The secret of working with spirits is to imagine. This method is extremely powerful; I experienced it many times. Dr. Cho is using this, and many successful Americans are using it. We use this prayer power for witnessing and economic success.”

Rev. Sugita developed an effective church newsletter. He surveyed news from throughout the Japanese church, choosing the three most inspiring reports. He found a member with good computer and artistic skill, and created a full color newsletter “which was an innovation in those days.” He added a weekly message on “how to live this week.” He searched for testimonies that would “warm their hearts” and inserted two in each bulletin.

The final strategy of note is the team witnessing system. When he noticed that, even though he had an impressive worship service, the head count did not grow much, he reflected that members in his culture “were accustomed to being given a target.” So he gathered his area leaders, all of them women. He showed them the attendance book from the previous week’s service and reported who came and who did not come in each area. He asked them to take the report to those members who did not come. They were to “write some warm words on it, and visit and hand it to them. Amazingly, the next Sunday most of the people who did not come the last week came. Again we had the same meeting. I praised the leader who did well. Gradually attendance increased. I realized that we need to assess accurately and create a good service; these two strategies are a key to success.”

As a result of these practices, he reports, his first church tripled in size, and his next church had one hundred people join within ten months. This supports the contention that even in a difficult environment, when the Unification Church effectively utilizes conventional growth principles, it grows.³

The Satellite Model

Ahlen and Thomas observed that the vast majority of new worshiping communities launched in the 1990s are not being started by “denominational systems,” which was thought the best way in the 1950s. That is, they are not getting started by a headquarters staff assigned to build new churches. New churches are being started by “entrepreneurial individuals” working on their own or out of existing congregations.⁴

Unificationists planted numerous churches in the 70s and can do so again. We are good at creating organizations to accomplish specific missions and there is no reason not to identify growing the church as a specific mission. Following the satellite model, the Unification Church can encourage couples or small groups to plant churches with their own resources. They would be released to focus on this with all their energy and heart. They would work wherever and however they so choose. Miller observes that “the real innovative ideas for reshaping the church will come from people working in the trenches, addressing the needs of people in their churches and communities, not from denominational officials.”⁵ The Unification Church can grow the same way all churches grow in America. It has laity gifted with a spirit of love and the ability to teach. Young people joined the Unification Church to create the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, not for secular careers. Blessed families on their own or in small groups can be trained, ordained and released.

Following the satellite model, the Unification Church can encourage couples or small groups to plant churches with their own resources. They would be released to focus on this with all their energy and heart.

Here I want to mention the American church experience with door-to-door outreach during the run up to the RFK Stadium Blessing in 1997. One recalls the surge of energy that year, when blessed families were called to do home blessings locally. People were given a mission: share holy wine with new people. They had a goal: 160 families. The church provided the materials: holy wine, cups and simple guidelines: a liturgy and prayer for a home holy wine ceremony. Thus we gave ownership to the Blessed couples. A congregation in Kentucky broke through. The conventional thinking had been that new people had to come to our setting to receive the Blessing. The Kentucky group decided to take the Blessing to the people, door-to-door and even in parking lots. Suddenly the number of Blessings began multiplying exponentially and the national headquarters took notice, received reports and shared nationwide the Kentucky method. Within a few days, Blessed couples across the country had adopted it. Simultaneously, the members in Nigeria pioneered another segment of the Blessing process, calling it the “holy honeymoon.” Innovation was taking place everywhere, including the production of holy candy and helicopter blessings. This brings to mind the value of standards, clear training and careful theological thinking, of which we could have used more at the time.

We can use the same ingenuity and creativity to build satellite churches. Our 1997 ministry moved toward a national stadium event, but instead of that, the satellite model would focus on building local family groups and eventually congregations. Ministry to build the newly blessed families into interfaith (yes, interfaith) communities could have followed the sacramental activity. The satellite congregation initiative would serve to liberate the members who are called to do so to act on the anointing our True Parents have given. The leadership would validate, respect and spiritually protect the home church, hometown mission of the blessed central family, make it a providential priority, allow people to do it when, where and how they are guided by God to do, and educate, train, ordain and equip those who are called so that they can find success. Local church leaders need to examine these transitional models, develop indigenous worship and community life, and relentlessly seek God’s guidance in order to grow the Unification Church in America.

Footnotes

McIntosh, op. cit. Three Generations is a good introduction to the field. See also Dan Southerland, Transitioning. Timothy Wright presents a valuable discussion on transitioning worship in A Community of Joy: How to Create Contemporary Worship (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1994). ↩
The Kawamura, Kim and Sugita materials are presented in “UTS Students Explore Principled Directions for Church Development,” Today’s World (July, 2004). ↩
Hwa Un Kim holds bachelors degrees in fine art from Sungshin Women’s University and philosophy in Seogang University, Seoul, Korea. Harumi Kawamura is a graduate of the University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, CT, and is pursuing master degrees at Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, MA, and Unification Theological Seminary. At the time the original of this chapter was written, Yoshitada Sugita, an MRE student at UTS, had served 20 years as a church leader in Tokyo. At present he is overseeing the Unification Churches in the southern quadrant of Tokyo. ↩
Ahlen and Thomas, p. 12. ↩
Miller, p. 188. Miller continues, “I believe that denominations would be well served by radically decentralizing their organizational structures — abandoning central offices and locating themselves in local churches.” This resonates with Father Moon’s mid-1990s call to close down his American church headquarters and disperse his leaders throughout the local churches. ↩

Zettle

Explorer