(Portland, OR - Nov. 1, 2001) As a gentle rain fell and the afternoon light died, the fifth continental Large Congregation Conference of the UUA began in Portland, OR. 450 lay and professional congregation leaders, representing nearly forty of the UUA's largest congregations, gathered in the Hilton Hotel Ballroom for four days of education, challenge, inspiration, and sharing.

After an invocation by UUA President Bill Sinkford, the leaders enjoyed dinner and were greeted by the Rev. Marilyn Sewell, Senior Minister of the First Unitarian Church of Portland. Evening activities on Friday night of the conference will be held at First Unitarian, located five blocks from the Hilton in the heart of the bustling downtown area.

The Rev. Stefan Jonasson, Large Church Consultant, welcomed attendees to the conference.

The Rev. Stefan Jonasson, Large Church Coordinator for the UUA and Conference Chair, also brought greetings and a brief orientation. Jonasson introduced the conference keynote speaker, the Rev. Gilbert Rendle, Vice President for Programs at the Alban Institute. Rendle's Theme, "Leading Change in Congregations," was introduced in this, the first session of four Rendle will present.

Rendle talked about the need for congregational leaders to develop "cultural sensitivity to a world we can not control." He said that "rather than try to control behaviors, we have to learn them," and offered a contrast between management and leadership as seen in congregations. "Management is what we do to make the organization run smoothly…the primary question we are trying to answer (in managing and organization) is: 'are we doing things right?' Leadership is different. It is disorienting to a congregation, it answers a different question, which is: 'are we doing right things?' We often get rewarded for doing management things, for keeping people happy. But we are in a changing environment, where leadership is what is required…we need leaders to dis-quiet their congregations, to appropriately dis-satisfy their congregations. We have been trained for a time of harmony and assumed consensus, and we are no longer living in that mode.

The Rev. Dr. Gil Rendle, Vice President for Program of the Alban Institute, was the keynote presenter at the Large Church Conference on the theme, "Changing Leadership, Changing Congregations."

"Charles Handy," Rendle reflected, "says that one model [of analyzing congregational behavior] looks at change as if it is convergent. We tend to look at change as if it is the same for everyone in the room. But Handy says we are increasingly faced with divergent situations, in which the question may be the same for everyone, but the answers are different. We have to learn how to lead by consensus. We are in a position where we have to build consensus in congregations full of divergent people. Yet we are (also) trying to build common identity. And did I mention that we are trying to build leadership skills, but we get rewarded for practicing management skills? We are," he said, "in a very different time.

"So we have to challenge our assumptions," Rendle continued. "At the Alban Institute, we know behavior follows assumptions - we behave as we believe. I would like us to look at our assumptions, and perhaps challenge them. So I would like to talk about a bi-modal congregation, one that is appropriately uncomfortable with itself. It is that uncomfortableness that lets us learn and lead.

"The Bi-modal congregation is a congregation mapped by length of tenure. The length of tenure is one of the dominant variables that will predict that person's behavior in the congregation. More and more of our congregations have a large clump of people who have been there 20 years or more. They know the congregation, know how it works, but increasingly, we are looking at congregations that have a large or growing clump of people who have been there ten years or less. So there are these two centers in the congregation, and a dearth of people in between.

"The length of tenure (in the congregation) shows how people will behave. There is good news in this, in that people continue to seek out their faith through congregations. And more new people are coming in. The folk who show up, come. We hear people talk about differences in "we/they" language, and the "old guard/new guard." We (at the Alban Institute) had heard that for a while, but didn't know the depth of that feeling. We listened to groups who were consistent with each other - they think alike, talk alike - so that means that you don't know the whole congregation until you have listened across the small groups -- and they carry different themes. You are listening to the old guard and the new guard. They talk differently about their congregation, and their language is confused about each other -- and so you get the stories that go with the statistics. If you look at the long tenure and the short tenure, these are people who like each other, want to be with each other. There are a long term members who love to see the new people come because they see new ideas and energy walk in the door, children and grandchildren, and they like that. The short tenure people choose to be with the long tenured people, because they know there is financial stability and grounding; they have often moved away from their families, and they want [security and stability]. I would like to suggest that this is why the congregation in North America is an exceptional institution that calls people together. In a world that pays attention to pure markets, we gather people across their differences, and try to engage them in life together. The church is a counter-cultural institution.

"What we have," Rendle continued, "are two clumps of people who want to and choose to be together, and who fundamentally confuse each other when they get together. They talk frequently, and they don't understand each other, because they represent two different cultural value systems. Part of what we understand is that because this value system are different, [these groups] live different lives."

Having presented his theory to an engaged audience, Rendle proceeded to offer a description of the two predominant generational cohorts in the congregation, beginning with a view of longtime members. "Generational cohort theory says that we share assumptions because we were born at the same time. Even though you may be much like your parents, your lessons are geared to those born at the same time as you. Our life blessings come at a particular location in history. So the value system for the long-term members in the 'GI value system.' This cultural value system, which is held by long term members, supports a group identity, and an expectation that people need to change to meet the values of the group. If you have a group identity, you expect that there is a right way to do things, and you want to get on board and move ahead. If there is an assumption that there is a right way to worship, for who else do you think they believe it is right?" Rendle, answering the question, replied, "Everyone. And group identity means that membership in the group is valuable. This pairs with the idea of sameness - it is all right for everyone and everything to be the same. The assumption in the culture of sameness is that everyone wants the same thing. (The longtime members) didn't ask for, or have, differentiation. They expected that everyone needed the same thing. If you needed a church, you went to the church nearest you - because they were all the same. What existed in the late 1940's was a culture that valued sameness. Leaders were asked to manage institutions, and people were taught management skills to fit such a culture. If you wondered if you were doing it right, you looked at institutions like yours to see if you were doing things like they did.

"The GI generation learned that if there is something wrong, you find the people who agree it's wrong, and form a team, and set your goals about what should be right, and you never give up. And you could win a world war with that model. So this is the part of the congregation who, when they are displeased, find out who else is displeased, and form a group. They are using the practices that they have used, and used well, and they are trying to be faithful.

"These are also people who have practiced the spirituality of place. They walk out of a secular world and into a sacred space. Members have a different conversation in the parking lot than in the sanctuary. They also enlist in deferred pleasure…deferred gratification."

Turning his attention to the other dominant cohort, Rendle said, "short term members have an individual identity, they have been taught that they can have it their way. They grew up in the post World War 2 experience, where media got together with marketing and began to pay attention to us in some major ways. Market analysis and segmentation is viewed by some as intrusive, but we also like it. The world pays attention to us. We get the catalogs we like to flip through, not the ones we don't. We have learned to live in a world that treats us as individuals, that trained us to think and behave as individuals, and to be discriminating. Individual identity is not narcissism, it is a cultural value we have learned that is the aftermath of the world war experience where people deferred gratification. Now the world not only allows individuality, and but encourages it.

"We live in a world of difference. How many different phones are there now to pick from…two hundred different models. And the sales person would talk about you and your life, because the phone would be matched to you. Now, if I want a congregation, I go to the one I want - no matter the denomination. I want the congregation that meets my need and my children's needs. So as we do this, we are looking at a different location in history, a different life lesson, one which focuses on difference, one that looks for gratification. This is a culture that practices a spirituality of journey - it appreciates spirituality wherever it finds it. It is not uncommon to find people who will come to you for a worship service, but [who also] take their kids to another church for choir practice, and then they take yoga for another [religious] practice. Compare that to a culture that has a group identity.

"What we are looking at is a congregation that houses not different people, but different value systems. This is a dominant value as we go though different faith systems. So the two generational cohorts in our congregations like each other, but have difficulty speaking the same language."

As examples of different behavior in the two groups, Rendle suggested that they have different views of what vital worship and mission and outreach mean. Citing further evidence, he discussed these areas:

- stewardship of resources: "GI's want to save money for a rainy day, but in their opinion, it never rains! The life lesson of the GI value system is not that people are tight with money. They came out of a world war and a depression. [That mentality] says if you have assets today, you do not know if you will have them tomorrow. So stewardship demands that you protect your resources. Short tenure people want to spend money. They want to spend money on children and youth, music, computers and technology, and the long timers say [the newcomers] want to spend it on themselves. But they are spending it on the world they know, wanting to make the world relate to the ways in which they live. Their lesson is 'spend it, because there will be more; spend it because it's worth more today than it will be tomorrow.' This is not a conversation that the GI's like to have. And we are leading congregations that ask these people to talk across the table and come up with a compromise. But you can't spend and save the same dollar, and therein lies a problem."

- women's groups: Rendle observed, "Many churches have diminishing womens' groups, and in fact, angry diminishing womens' groups. If you were part of the GI generation, the women's group offered you opportunities for leadership, which women could not find in the rest of the culture - places to exercise leadership with other women. Women worked very hard at projects, but they did not understand that women were organizing, implementing, teaching others, and they were very effective. What was going on was that the women wanted to share that with new members of the congregations." By contrast, Rendle said, "If you are a short tenure person, the last thing you want is another place to exercise your leadership. You are doing it in the community, at work, in your home, and you don't' want to do it in the women's group. You don't want that encounter. You want things that relate to your own skills, to your life. And so the GI women are offended when the younger women don't respond to the invitation to join the women's group."

- Children's Sunday School: Rendle commented, "The teachers who were at the Sunday school week after week [in years gone by] doesn't exist any longer. We are struggling to get over the pew rental process, where you supported the congregation by renting a pew. And you were there every single Sunday. Part of our congregation has a pew rental mentality. Now we are doing ministry with time share people. And as we are doing education with our children, and we have curricula that depends on them being there every week, we find that they are showing up two out of four Sundays a week. So how do you put pew renters with time share people?"

- Finally, examining leadership and congregational structure, Rendle said, "committees often stay on topics over and over again because they don't want to move until everyone agrees. But many people don't want to sit on committees planning for things they either don't understand, or planning things that they themselves don't want to go to." This, he said, poses a conflict between joining a committee and 'keeping the work going,' and where the interests and passions of the newcomers lie.

All of this discussion, Rendle pointed out, is descriptive, not evaluative. But the fact is that these two groups are at cross purposes. Rendle asked the gathering, "To what extent does this description feel accurate for you?" One individual asked a question of whether the UU denomination fits this, or whether individual congregations do. Rendle responded, "I am not here to convince you of this, but I will tell you that working across denominations, this [behavior just described] is what we are seeing. I encourage you to do a study of your congregation, of participation, not membership. Short term members don't value membership the way the long term members do. Participation is just as meaningful to short term people as membership is to long termers." Another participant observed, "Baby boomers run our church, but we have inherited a structure that the GI's set up. And it doesn't work." Rendle responded, "The GI structure often means that they are waiting for the boomers to 'grow up.' What we need to do, instead, is learn new ways for new times."

He continued with an example of market analysis and segmentation that has bearing on the discussion, saying, "Let me talk about pure markets. How many of you know about MTV? [many hands went up.] How many of you know about Beevis and Butthead? [a number of hands went up.] Now, how many of you like Beevis and Butthead?" With much laughter in the room, only a few put their hands up. Rendle said, "MTV is a very young organization. A few years ago, the average age of those working for MTV was 26 years of age. MTV offers music video formats for 18-24 age range. The executives at MTV are aware that "Beevis and Butthead" is offensive. What MTV knew was that "Beevis and Butthead" would attract 18 to 24 year olds but would offend other groups. They wanted people not in the 18 to 24 age segment to leave MTV. If people left MTV, they would go to VH1, a video format for 24 to 36 yo's, leaving a pure market. A pure market or 'image tribe,' is amazingly easy to talk to and work with. They talk the same language, you don't need to complete the sentence. If you saw a commercial on MTV and didn't know what it meant, it wasn't yours…it was meant for someone else. In a pure market, you only need the symbols and metaphors of that group. So we are increasingly encouraged to move into pure markets, and seek out those who are like us. We are a culture that pays attention to differences.

"But we are in congregations that merge groups. And sometimes when both groups try to control what goes on, it is like riding in a car with two different steering wheels. And the dilemma is that sometimes we read a lot of church literature that is about pure groups…excellent research, as if we were doing ministry in a pure market. But more often that not, we are doing Gen X or baby boomer ministry along with the GI's. And when people in the older group is deeply committed to doing it 'right,' the newcomers want to try new things, or variations, and they are told that they did it 'wrong,' and they don't understand.

"Tenure is what dominates how people behave in congregations," said Rendle. "And that has to do with learned behavior. If people are 30 years old but they have been in the congregation for 30 years, they will behave as a the long timer, according to a set of learned behaviors. There may also be 65 year olds who have shopped twelve churches and have come to you because there is something they want and if you don't provide it, they will leave. So we need to learn how to read our congregations."

The Rev. Bill Sinkford, President of the UUA; Rev. Stefan Jonasson, Large Church Consultant; and the Rev. Dr. Gil Rendle, keynote speakerenjoyed dinner before the Thursday evening's keynote address.

Concluding his discussion for the evening, Rendle said, "The in-between tenured group (11 to 20 years of membership, and including both clergy and key lay leaders) are the holders of the tension. If you are in one of those categories, you are in the middle no matter how long you have been a member. That is in many ways the role of the leader…we are interpreters and bridge people, and are in the most difficult position in the congregational system. In a time when the driving question in a congregation is 'are we doing it right,' the question that may need most to be answered is, 'how can we all get along?'"

Gilbert Rendle's discussion of congregational behavior and how change can be created in bi-modal congregations will continue on Friday at the Large Congregation Continental Conference.

Reported for the web by Deborah Weiner; formatted for the web by Julie Albanese.

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