(Note: the blue horizontal menu bar directly above lists the subsections of "Your Congregation's Inner Life." Be sure to read each of these subsections before moving on to the next primary section, "Your Congregation's Public Profile.")

Your Congregation's Inner Life: Discipline and Leadership Styles

It is also important for you to recognize that the Christian faith is not the only thing taught in a congregation's life. Contending with the gospel for people's attention will be all sorts of worldly wisdom and ways, ranging from the business practices of the modem corporation to the latest psychological fad. Here it is important to attend to the ways that a congregation exercises discipline of its members.

In earlier times congregations had a distinct repertoire of disciplinary practices. Many Lutheran churches set aside regular times for members to confess their sins in private to the pastor before receiving Communion. Certain sins were serious enough to require public confession before the congregation. At times, offenses were so serious that congregations would excommunicate members permanently.

In our times, these practices have largely vanished. But discipline still goes on. A pastor may still encourage members to avail themselves of private confession and absolution. The congregation adopts policies on abortion or investments in companies doing business with dictatorships. The congregation may have certain rules about alcohol consumption on its premises or at congregational events where the public is invited.

But discipline also goes on in much more subtle ways. Conversations change when the pastor walks into the room. Members express their disapproval of life-styles and behaviors in classrooms and in conversation. The congregation's specific character will become clearer to you as you learn how it puts together its own distinctive teaching and disciplinary practices.

Another important clue to a congregation's character is its style of leadership. Some congregations are pastor-centered with a powerful Herr Pastor heritage in place. Others have strong lay leaders who have left indelible marks on the congregation's life. It is important to identify the full web of leaders in your congregation—pastors, elected leaders, teachers, and professional staff are the most obvious. How have they interacted across the years? For what have they struggled? Have there been significant moments when balances of power have changed? Times when lay leaders exerted themselves or pastors attempted to expand their power?

But it is also important not to overlook the other leaders, the unofficial ones who lead the way into new social ministries or new spiritual odysseys more by virtue of their own integrity and commitment than because they hold a special title or position.

By beginning as a participant-observer and exploring the many leads you find in a congregation's present-day behavior, you have the opportunity to capture the tone and style of your congregation at the same time as you open paths into the sources that previous generations have left behind. Old worship bulletins and church minutes can come alive once you begin to look for characteristic habits and customs.

A congregation's moral character—the particular selection of certain moral concerns over others—can become apparent, as can its economic, social, and spiritual sides. A pronounced focus on personal morality in sermons and educational programs, for example, and silence about racial injustices in the community, indicates that the congregation understands its moral responsibilities to be of a certain nature. The things that a congregation chooses to do and the things that it avoids help disclose its particular identity. Even its budgets bear witness to its character. The story it tells about itself and to itself can become more apparent as you, the historian, move back and forth between past and present behavior.