The Danger of "Best Practices"
Gleaning, learning, and implementing “Best Practices” is not a bad thing in and of itself. It is a common approach to getting things done and leadership in the world of business, of project management, and in organizational structures. What makes a practice “best” is that it leads to some kind of measurable better outcome. Fr. Petersen has written several outstanding articles - especially in the print journal - on helpful practices for the pastor to manage his time and to be a good steward of resources in his day-to-day busy life. But just as there is a difference between science and Scientism, there is a difference between practice that is best vs. Best Practices.
The problem with putting too much stock in such things for churches is that the church is a supernatural phenomenon: brought into being and sustained by the Holy Spirit by means of Word and Sacrament. Our Lord told parables that were often shocking because they revealed just how countercultural and beyond reason the Gospel and the kingdom really are.
I was listening to a Best Practices interview with an LCMS pastor, and he said the following:
“There’s a book called Becoming Trader Joe by a guy named Joe Coulombe.... [Trader Joe’s grocery stores] started in California, and it’s a fascinating book and maybe one of the best leadership books I’ve ever read, because there’s some decisions they made early on in building their Trader Joe’s franchise that I think a lot of church workers could really benefit from hearing. Like for example, they were rigorous about their target audience. They decided early on that they were going to market people who were over-educated and underpaid. So they were looking for smart consumers who didn’t have a lot of money. And they would not, no matter how great an opportunity it seemed, they would not put a store somewhere where they didn’t think there was a large group of over-educated, underpaid people. ”
I have not read the book. It may well be an excellent treatise on marketing and entrepreneurship. But this is not what the church does, nor is it how the kingdom is propagated. I remember a few years ago when the trendy term du jour was “Sacramental Entrepreneurship.” Now there’s a Bubulum Stercus turn of phrase if I’ve ever heard one. There is nothing entrepreneurial about Baptism, Absolution, and the Eucharist. Unlike scarce products, there is no market for these. They are free because God’s grace is super-abundant, as the supply far outweighs the demand.
I recall receiving a letter from a church that was looking for donors to give for a new church plant. The beg letter made it clear that they had done their marketing research and had a specific target audience in mind: young, wealthy couples. Of course, young, wealthy couples need Jesus as much as anyone else. But the gist of this letter was that this would be a good investment. I guess those outside of the target parameters are just not that important. In the world of markets and measurable outcomes, in the world of Best Practices and mission statements and target demographics, what good are those other people?
Modern agriculture operates on the same scientific husbandry to increase production: manufactured seeds being scientifically planned and sown, and carefully placed in just the perfect chemical properties of soil so as to maximize yield. Best Practices can certainly be a valuable tool for optimizing the manufacture of widgets, or the harvesting of fruits and vegetables. But is this how evangelism is supposed to work?
But what does our Lord teach us?
In the Parable of the Sower, our Lord defies Best Practices and the standard entrepreneurial and scientific wisdom of this age. Instead of picking a target audience and using the principles of marketing to achieve a measurable goal, the sower in our Lord’s story throws seed everywhere: the pathway, where the birds snatch it away; the shallow, rocky ground, where the plant grows quickly, but the shallowness of the soil does not sustain the plant; the briar patch, where the thorns choke out the plants, and only then, the good soil, where the seeds grow and mature and produce fruit.
The sower seems foolish and wasteful by the standards of Best Practices. But in reality, he is the perfect church planter and preacher. For he knows that he cannot predict who will receive the kingdom and who will not - unlike the world of surveys and marketing, in which one can forecast with reasonable certainty (at least to an extent) which communities will make a store that sells Three Buck Chuck and slabs of chocolate a financial success. The church simply operates differently.
The sower of the Word of God sows to everyone, in love, not just to a chosen few based on Best Practices, focus groups, and a tangible successful outcome. And sometimes, seeds grow in the most unlikely of places and circumstances. And likewise, some Best Practices techniques never result in the miracle of faith.
Certainly, we in church leadership - whether clergy or laity - can benefit from all kinds of study. But heaven forbid that we reduce God’s people to the lowly estate of customers or consumers, or the Gospel to that of a mere product to be hawked. May we never adopt the Theology of Glory that gages success by the size of the church rather than by the faithfulness of what is taught and practiced.
Gottesdienst does indeed have a series of liturgical “practices that are best” videos. For in the church, the practice that is best is based on godly doctrine. Our ceremonies are based on our confession: the Word of God. Some approaches to worship are better than others. The lives we lead here in time are grounded in the truths of the eternal Word Made Flesh. The world’s Best Practices are subject to change, and are captive to innovation. But our Lord doesn’t change, and what “works” in the Lord’s kingdom would not be considered Best Practices by the world.
Though some be snatched and some be scorched
And some be choked and matted flat,
The sower sows; his heart cries out,
”Oh, what of that, and what of that?”
~ Martin H. Franzmann, “Preach You the Word,” LSB 586