Adaptive Church: Collaboration and Community in a Changing World

by Dustin D. Benac

Overview

Christian organization, education, and leadership are changing. Headlines note rising religious disaffiliation ("the Nones"), moral failures by religious leaders, and the mounting crisis for religious education. Research on congregations, Christian higher education, and theological education also paints a dismal picture: declining engagement and growing fragility. These trends have changed the landscape that surrounds Christian thought and practice, but the story of local communities presents a more complex portrait: communities are also coalescing around vitality, wisdom, and hope.

Adaptive Church explores what it takes for communities of faith to respond to uncertainty and shifting organizational environments. Based on fifty-two interviews and four years of empirical work, Dustin Benac charts a theological paradigm for collaboration and community in a changing world. He pioneers an interdisciplinary method that identifies the ecclesial ecology as the primary site to discern how Christian communities and leaders adapt to mounting challenges. Moreover, he provides the first in-depth analysis of a novel form of organizing religious life—a "hub"—by telling the story of how collaborative partnerships are creating new structures of belonging in the Pacific Northwest. Neither megachurches nor denominations, these hubs are networks that anchor religious life within a particular community and facilitate webs of connection across Christian institutions. Illumined by wisdom drawn from the Christian tradition, they pursue a particular way of life, one sustained by six complementary forms of leadership that express the possibility of collaboration and community in a changing world.

Benac contributes to a new and emerging field at the intersection of practical theology, organizational theory, sociology of religion, and leadership studies. For leaders and communities facing uncertainty, Adaptive Church provides a template for change within and beyond the forms that have historically guided Christian organization, education, and leadership.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481317092
Publisher:	Baylor University Press
Publication date:	08/01/2024
Pages:	348
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Dustin D. Benac is Visiting Assistant Professor of Practical Theology at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Collaboration, Community, and Change in the Pacific Northwest
Part One: Organizational Environments
1. "The Church Has Always Been Nimble": Church Engagement on the Edge of Christendom
2. "Hope and Care in the Neighborhood": Refounding the Church in Local Community
Part Two: The Nexus of Collaborative Work
3. The Structure of Adaptive Change: Organizing Challenges and Values for Communities of Faith
4. Anchors and Webs: Hubs as Fields, Networks, and Ecologies
Part Three: A Practical Theology for an Adaptive Church
5. Reimagining Church: Pastoral and Ecclesial Imagination for Adaptive Change
6. Adaptive Church: Patterned Practice for a Way of Life
Part Four: A Theological Paradigm for a Changing World
7. "We’re Better Together": Wisdom, Presence, and Leadership for Adaptive Change
8. A Moment of Renovating Virtue: Adaptive Possibility beyond Certainty
Appendices

What People are Saying About This

Mark DeVries

We may have just found the newest cartographer for the future church. Bucking the trend of gloom and doom predictions, Adaptive Church points to possibilities where most see only problems. With nuanced scholarship, top-tier research, and a radically collaborative style, Benac invites us on the journey of imagining new paradigms for faithful Christian community. Every now and then a book comes along with the potential to change the conversation for the church. This is just such a book.

Mark Chaves

Adaptive Church takes a deep dive into the activities, networks, and cultures of two innovative efforts to rethink and reshape Christian communities and organizations in the Pacific Northwest. By closely examining these efforts and thoughtfully reflecting on what they mean, Dustin Benac has written an informative book that helps us ponder anew how religious life in the twenty-first century might be organized.

Sharon Daloz Parks

In this study of two different experimental church 'hubs,' Benac illumines three key clues: the grounding-orienting power of place; the luminous revelatory shift from individualism to the profound connectivity of all life; and the call to pay attention to the ongoing creative-confounding activity of Spirit. Timely and evocative, this study points toward practical wisdom for a new reformation of Church now well underway.

John Swinton

Adaptive Church is a fascinating exploration of how churches can and should respond to uncertainty and institutional change. The book is a good example of the way that empirical research can be used to help develop deep and important theological insights. As such, it is a significant contribution to practical theology and the emerging field of Theological Ethnography.

Editorial Reviews

Adaptive Church is a book that will challenge and inspire those seeking a rigorous engagement of the pressing questions around church identity, mission, and purpose. Benac writes with precision and deploys a wide range of theoretical tools in service to his vision of the renewed church.

Anglican Theological Review - Lyndon Shakespeare

"…a stimulating and enriching book, one which challenged my thinking and provided helpful concepts to explore the ecclesiology of such communities. For those looking for an ecclesiology of church drawing on these new communities, this book provides rich starting points for developing such an ecclesiology weaving together helpful ideas of adaptive change, imagination and theological redescription. For those working in the kinds of hubs, networks and organizations that are the focus of the book, the practical wisdom and conceptual frameworks developed here will provide important and enlightening ways to reflect on and develop their work."

Ecclesial Futures - James Butler

Benac has shown that the catalyst for further adaptation lies in the connections between groups and has outlined the structures and leadership needed in organisational hubs that form the glue between different communities in a mixed ecclesial ecology. This book, and the last two chapters in particular, are full of practical wisdom for such situations.

Ecclesial Practices - Andrew Dunlop

…Benac offers a realistic and actionable framework for how church leaders can find resources and create networks to strengthen congregations in a post-Christian America.

Presbyterian Outlook - Brian Louis