PEOPLE IN PRINT
October 1, 1991
Coloring Outside the Church's Lines Creating Your Own Future by Lyle Schaller, Abingdon, $11.95 Reviewed by Greg Asimakoupoulos, pastor, Crossroads Covenant Church, Concord, California Coloring inside the lines was never my strength as a preschooler. So imagine my delight thirty years later when I was asked to review a book that invites church leaders to color outside the traditional lines of ministry. In Lyle Schaller's latest book, a coloring book for church visionaries, the prolific parish consultant for the Yokefellow Institute articulates a repeated principle: A congregation's future is either the friend of thoughtful planning or a victim of a paralyzing dictator known as the status quo. The choice, as the title suggests, is up to each local church. Adjusting to the future, though, isn't automatic, even for churches who want to remain (or become) relevant. According to Creating Your Own Future, one of the most common mistakes made by church leaders is underestimating the attractiveness of the status quo. "Churches, like other organizations," contends Schaller, "tend to naturally drift in the direction of what is perceived as a reaffirmation of yesterday." This "debt to the past" is perpetuated in the typical church by too many standing committees. When I asked Schaller to explain, he described the kinds of individuals that sit on church boards: by nature they are more comfortable with continuity and stability. They enjoy overseeing and maintaining responsibilities but tend to resist change. The result is that these official leaders attract members who are comfortable with the way things are, have been, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. In short, they like to color within the lines. I unknowingly proved Schaller's ...
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