A PROJECT SUBMITTED BY
MARK RICHARD SUMMER
TO THE FACULTY OF
THE LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT PHILADELPHIA
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of
DOCTOR OF MINISTRY
MAY, 2005
Chapter 1
In the fall of 1989, I received an invitation that would change both my life and my ministry. I was invited to attend a lecture in New York City to be given by Dr. Edwin Friedmann, the author of Generation to Generation, which is a study of systems theory for congregations. The presentation was designed for all care providers. The audience was split equally between mental health professionals and clergy. As Dr. Friedmann began to speak, I found myself listening with increased interest. It was my first exposure to systems theory, and I was struck by how many of his ideas rang true to my experience. During the course of his lecture, Dr. Friedmann talked about congregational life as an emotional process, about how the dynamics of the whole group were greater than any one individual, about how clergy can be caught in the many overlapping triangles that are found in every parish, and about how the pastor needs to self-differentiate. The language was new and the ideas were provocative.
Of particular significance to me were Dr. Freidmann’s comments about the need and challenge of leadership in parish ministry. I couldn’t have agreed more. Much of what Dr. Friedmann was sharing about the congregation as a system, and the leadership role of the pastor within that system was clearly my experience in the parish. So many of the illustrations he used touched my own concerns and struggles. At the end of the lecture, I left the hall knowing that I would look at pastoral ministry and congregational life is a very different way. I had a taste and wanted more. I felt as though I had been handed a map to parish ministry. It didn’t give me step-by-step directions, but it did give me a lay of the land, a way of seeing the emotional landscape more clearly. Systems theory helped me to make better sense of my experience as a pastor and to understand the role I played as a leader in the congregation’s life.
Friedmann’s lecture came at a crucial time in my life and ministry. I had been in the ministry for twelve years, nine years serving a two-point parish in Maryland and three years at Zion Lutheran Church in Oldwick, New Jersey, where I am presently serving. I was a veteran parish pastor and, like other pastors, had my share of stories to tell. By grouping the stories together, I realized that many of them revealed patterns that repeated themselves again and again, and unlike fairy tales, not all the stories had happy endings. I also realized that parish ministry was emotionally draining, and as I looked at the coming years, I did not want to burnout or to make my family pay the price. Systems theory gave me a way to understand those parish stories in a new and helpful way. It gave me an insight into the emotional processes surrounding me as a parish pastor. It gave me a clearer understanding of my role as a leader in the midst of those emotions. Systems theory changed the way I functioned as a pastor. Over time, I have seen the benefits for my family, my congregation, and myself. All of this leads me to the purpose of this paper.
Since that first lecture nearly fifteen years ago, I have devoted a great deal of time to exploring systems theory and its implications for parish ministry. I am still learning and discovering. In my reading and study, one of the pieces that I have found missing, or at least not fully explored in systems theory, has been a bridge between systems thinking and the biblical witness. Certainly, systems theory has been applied to the parish and pastoral ministry, all of which, I believe, has been beneficial. However, the application.......