THE MANY FACES OF ASSIMILATION: A Leadership Forum
A Leadership Forum
October 1, 1990
Nobody wants a tumbleweed ministry, where people settle in church for a while only to blow away. To do God's work, churches need planted people, and Christlikeness will grow in individuals only when they are rooted in local congregations. So how can pastors help this generation-mobile, fast-paced, restless-connect to the church? And then, how can they help people put down deeper and deeper roots? To answer those questions, LEADERSHIP gathered four pastors who face different challenges in assimilation. Rick Lobs is rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in suburban Geneva, Illinois. Ray Maldonado pastors Hope Christian Fellowship, an urban and multi-ethnic congregation in Chicago. Doug Self pastors The Church at Redstone and The Church at Carbondale, located in a mountain valley in Colorado. Ken Travilla is associate pastor at Wooddale Church in the Minneapolis suburb of Eden Prairie. Leadership: Describe how assimilation feels. Tell us about a group, apart from a congregation, that you've become a part of. Doug Self: When I first came to Redstone, the community was forming a Search and Rescue Squad. I, along with fifteen others from our community, attended one of the first training classes for Emergency Medical Technicians. When we came together, none of us knew each other well. Yet as we learned and practiced together, we began to think as a team, discovering slowly our individual abilities and roles. Our common interest and task pulled us together. Rick Lobs: My athletic experiences and service in the Marine Corps are two areas where I was most readily assimilated. In fact, last week I was sporting a Marine Corps T-shirt as I walked down the street, and a man stopped me and began talking about his days in the Marines. It's been ...
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