United Methodist pastor Darren McClellan gives us a deep look inside one dysfunctional United Methodist congregation in his book Out of This World.
The book was a doctoral research project by McClellan aimed at learning how one congregation understood its own community life. The congregation he chose was his own, which had a long history of decline and a bad reputation in the conference. (McClellan moved to a new church after two years.) Former pastors McClellan interviewed said they would retire if appointed to serve the congregation again.
The research is primarily based on interviews and other qualitative techniques. From his research, McClellan distills five perspectives among the congregation that contributed to its difficulties in establishing Christian community. Readers of the recent Call to Action report will take note that lack of trust of the conference and its systems figures large in the list of problems.
McClellan’s findings are supported by extensive quotations from his research. At times the quotes seem more plentiful than necessary, but this is a standard practice in writing up such research.
The book often reads like the academic research project it is. The structure and prose often reflects the world of the research paper. But there is much of interest here. His suggestions – especially his call for real and honest communication about congregations and pastors within the conference appointive system – will ring true to many United Methodists.
I imagine this book would be a useful and interesting centerpiece of a practical theology class for seminarians, provisional clergy, or licensed pastors. It provides enough detail about one “clergy killing” congregation to provide much opportunity for fruitful classroom or small group discussion. Conversely, I could see conference cabinets benefiting from engagement with McClellan’s research findings and his suggestions.
It is an interesting book, but not one for a general readership audience. Those with a particular interest in a close look at a case of congregational failure to establish or maintain community will find it a book with much to offer.
Henry Neufeld tells me that the federal government requires that I inform you that I was provided a free copy of the book by Energion.
I am a part-time local pastor serving 
This love we believe to be the medicine of life, the never-failing remedy for all the evils of a disordered world, for all the miseries and vices of men. Wherever this is, there are virtue and happiness going hand in hand. There is humbleness of mind, gentleness, long-suffering, the whole image of God; and at the same time a peace that passeth all understanding, and joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Interesting! “Ex-pastor writes book about how dysfunctional his former congregation was”: bad! “Ex-pastor publishes PhD dissertation about how dysfunctional his former congregation was”: OK?
Reminds me of the line about when you copy someone’s work, its called plagiarism, but when you copy lots of other people’s work, its called a PhD . . .
More to the point of the post (with Peter’s comment in mind – I think it raises a real question / concern), this does sound interesting, but I do find it odd that apparently no attempt was made to conceal the identity of the congregation since I clicked the link from the post which took me to a specific congregational profile. A friend of mine did a DMin in which he studied several churches, and each one was labeled “church A” church B” ect., although each one was described in some detail.
I suppose if the congregational leadership was totally willing to be outed in this way as a dysfunctional church, then fine, but something about it makes me a little uneasy, like this book and congregation will always be linked together. openly Is that helpful for the church trying to move forward or not? I guess I can see it both ways – maybe its the kind of accountability necessary to make change, but at the same time it seems a little like shaming a congregation publicly, which may not be the best way to help them turn around. I suppose the object of the book is not to help the congregation, but to describe an all too familiar ethos of congregational life that many pastors will immediately recognize.
The author writes that his hope is that the analysis in the book would be helpful to the congregation in looking at itself. Given my experience with qualitative research, I did find the naming of the congregation interesting. However, given that the author’s history of appointments is public, it would not have been hard to figure out who he was writing about even if he had used a false name.
He does protect the identity of individuals, to a degree. The wife of the founding pastor is a figure in the research. She is never named, but I assume it would not be hard to figure out who she is.
Given McClellan’s suggestion that honest conversation about the strengths, weaknesses, and problems of congregations is necessary, it might have felt hypocritical to hide the identity of this congregation behind a false name.