The Doctrine of Humankind
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 63, No. 2 – Spring 2021
Editor: David S. Dockery
By Scott Cormode. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2020, 304pp., $26.99
Scott Cormode’s The Innovative Church proves to be a timely volume, in which he addresses planned ministry adaptation for the purpose of congregational change. Cormode is the Hugh De Pree Professor of Leadership Development at Fuller Theological Seminary, and he notes that while he was finalizing manuscript edits, the world was experiencing “the unfolding effects of this global pandemic” (p. xiii). It is with this unique COVID-19 background in mind, that he offers his central argument, “A changed world demands innovation, and a changed religious world requires innovative congregations” (p. 3).
The impetus for the specific research came as Cormode observed a convergence of two “unrelated conversations” in discrete fields. In the “Christian world” he heard consistent pleas for churches to change, while in the “tech world” he noticed continual calls for innovation (pp. xi–xii). He then began to “read the innovation literature with an eye toward how it might help us recalibrate the church for life in an ever-changing world” (p. xii). However, Cormode observed that the literature commonly positioned inventions that “tear down the structures of the past and replace them with something better” as the optimal innovations to be prized and emulated (p. 3).
As a proposed alternative, Cormode suggests that “congregational innovation” is a distinctive means to “account for both the ever-changing culture and the never-changing gospel” (p. 4). In Chapter one, he argues that this approach necessitates a “recalibration of leadership,” through a commitment to what he terms the “dual standard of people and practices” (p. 4). This method for innovation through “stewarding” leadership is then performed “according to the longings and losses of the ever-changing people entrusted to our care and according to the practices that constitute the never-changing gospel” (p. 4). He notes that the writing process took four years, between initial draft completion and final form. This multi-year window allowed time for the “road-testing and refining” work of applying these ideas in specific congregational contexts to unfold (p. xii). Chapters two to six provide the reader with a detailed treatment of the background ideas and standard process through which Cormode guided these “congregational teams” (p. xii).
The core of his consultative approach with congregational leaders is rooted in a modified set of “The Drucker Questions,” coined and developed for organizational leadership, primarily in business contexts, by celebrated management thinker Peter Drucker. These five questions have become common diagnostic helps in organizational assessment and development. Cormode observes that the full question set is often shortened to “Who is your customer, and what does this customer value?” (p. 7). Remarking that churches do not serve “customers,” as “profit is not our goal,” he devised analogous questions that “can guide Christians and Christian organizations in their pursuit of God’s purposes” (p. 7). The author’s five questions to initiate congregational innovation are: (1) “Who are the people entrusted to your care?”; (2) “How do those people experience the longings and losses that make up the human condition?”; (3) “What Big Lies do your people believe that prevent them from hearing the gospel?”; (4) “How do you make spiritual sense of those longings and losses?”; and (5) “How do you express that spiritual meaning as a shared story of hope?” (pp. 8–15). These questions are utilized to arrive at a “shared story of hope,” which the author argues will establish the “vision” for the church or ministry (p. 14).
Through the formal use of these queries, applied in consultation with congregational teams, “Christian innovation happens when we make spiritual sense of the longings and losses of the people entrusted to our care,” which occurs as leaders understand and engage “mental models” rooted in the “Christian tradition,” and focused on “innovation of meaning” (pp. 21–30). Meaning innovation is intended to provide “new categories” for how to make sense of life and experience, based on theological understanding (p. 32). The author argues that this entire process is supported and sustained by leaders who practice “transformative listening,” which allows the leader to be changed through the process of listening to the people they serve and steward (pp. 41–42). Chapters seven to ten then outline defined practices needed for leaders and congregations to establish organizational culture and continued enhancement of their “capacity for agility” (p. 203). It is in this section that Cormode more fully addresses ideas related to: conventions of organizational culture, form and dynamics (pp. 152–72); variables and contours of “adaptive change” management proper (pp. 178–200); and best practices of “agile” change planning and execution (pp. 211–28).
While the work offers a stimulating treatment of innovation and its application to local ecclesial settings, there are several areas of needed caution for the reader. First, according to Cormode, the “ultimate goal of Christian innovation is to invite our people into a new story” which is intended to be a “communal” and “hopeful” story (p. 13). He employs Jesus’s use of parables as the principal model for this approach (p. 13). A telltale sign that he rests his case on an unsettled foundation is that the single expert voice cited is postliberal theologian George Lindbeck, whose cultural-linguistic “rule theory” suggests that biblical and theological interpretations are to be determined by the individual culture or societal group (p. 222). Similarly, from this viewpoint, he sees that “Christian leadership is fundamentally an act of theological interpretation” (p. 68). He then extends this line of reasoning to assert that “Christian innovation is fundamentally an act of creating new theological interpretation” (p. 68). This contention is rooted in his more foundational conviction that Christian leaders are tasked primarily to “make spiritual meaning” (p. 68). This meaning-making occurs, primarily, by “planting language,” “changing mental models,” and “reinventing practices” (pp. 70–83). His examples of such Christian “practices” include hospitality, vocation, prayer and community (p. 98). However, instead of a plea to overhaul how churches think, speak and engage these domains, Cormode directs the reader to contextually apply categories and employ disciplines. Rather than true “innovation” or “reinvention,” he appears to simply advocate for church culture analysis and feature identification, which are standard fare on the menu of organizational and leadership assessments. This approach, paired with the aforementioned postliberal hermeneutic, appears to provide change leaders with inadequate biblically and theologically–moored guidance.
Additionally, Cormode mentions that what began as a “much more scholarly book” was amended to instead be more accessible to church leaders. As such, he either moved the academic background to endnotes, or the material was “jettisoned altogether” (p. xii). While this revision likely achieves increased reader accessibility, it may prove to be less satisfying for those who desire to see how the research process and product were framed and structured (p. xii). Because this is the case, there are times when the absence of fuller rationale, and germane details, hinder his suggested applications to change leadership. With these identified cautions and limitations in mind, The Innovative Church, nevertheless, provides a thought-provoking and necessarily challenging prod to the consideration, planning and actions of church leaders, particularly as we move forward through and toward post-pandemic ministry.
