Behavioral Covenants in Congregations: A Handbook for Honoring Differences
by Gilbert R. Rendle
Alban Institute, 1999

If your community were a car, would your congregation be its headlights or taillights? Does your congregation show the way to go, or reflect what has happened? Gil Rendle, a veteran United Methodist clergyperson who understands systems theory, would probably say that most congregations are taillights rather than headlights. Most congregations reflect the cultures in which they reside instead of leading the way.

Think about your congregation. Does everyone speak the same language? Is everyone the same age and gender? How long have participants lived in the community? Is everyone a church member? Do people make the same salaries? Do they share the same traditions? Does everyone practice the same values and points of view? Probably not! That's both the good news and the bad news! If everyone were a clone, then the church might as well be a factory that produces only one product. The truth is that sameness is boring and uninspiring, that"innovation and learning are the products of differences" (p. xi).

Diversity creates disagreement as well as growth, learning, and change. Change challenges the status quo and creates anxiety, but the only constant in life is change. In a news conference after he was beaten by Los Angeles police officers, Rodney King asked, "Can't we all just get along?"; Behavioral Covenants in Congregations shows church leaders how to craft a safe environment so that diverse people can honor their differences and be catalysts for change while getting along with one another.

Gil Rendle wants congregations to behave in civil and healthy ways while they make the most of individual differences. He calls congregations to reclaim and renew covenants that require people to live out their faith in loving ways. He calls on congregational leaders to write a behavioral covenant that they own and practice as a spiritual discipline. A behavioral covenant practiced daily can create a culture in which change and growth can occur without undue duress. He calls a behavioral covenant, "holy manners for a faith community." One should not just read Rendle' book and put it on a shelf; it calls for action.

Behavioral Covenants in Congregations is laid out clearly and logically. The first two chapters give solid background for the basic strategy found in chapter three. Rendle shows readers how to create a behavioral covenant relevant to their own backyards. Chapter Four contains four modules that may be used in different settings. Rendle gives samples of each module. He generously gives permission to congregations to adapt, reproduce, and use any of his ideas and resources. His book has an underlying urgency about it that implies that unless you live in Utopia, "Don't wait, do something now!"

Rendle convinced me that it would be a sin not to share his ideas with my own congregation. His theory and strategy remind me of the class meetings John Wesley started that held members accountable for their actions and supported people as they strove to live faithfully as individuals and as a community. Despite differences in gender, race, age, politics, socio-economic background, opinions, and more, Rendle shows how committed Christians can work together for good. I plan to introduce the book to my congregation's leadership team, which strives to be a faithful witness to the gospel in a fast-changing community.

After the dismaying show of divisive behavior at the 2000 General Conference of The United Methodist Church, I hope that Rendle's grassroots approach to honoring differences will start making changes in local congregations that will influence behavior in the church universal.

Christians have long used the metaphor of "The Way." Rendle's behavioral covenant may help sincere practitioners to be truly on "the way" rather than in the way of Christ's ministry to all peoples. Is your congregation a taillight or a headlight showing the way to life?