Thomas G. Bandy, Moving Off the Map: A Field Guide to Changing the Congregation. Abingdon Press, 1998.
Referenced in: Strategies for Congregational Renewal – Easum and Bandy’s Diagnostic on Thriving Congregations
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
Bill Easum and Tom Bandy have written extensively on how congregations may position themselves for effective ministry in the twenty-first century. For a complete layout of their model, and how each of their volumes contributes to its development, see the resource guide on the Easum and Bandy System.
Moving Off the Map is an extensive 280-Question Congregational Mission Assessment tool that is central to the development of the Bill Easum/Thom Bandy model of thriving churches. A more recent volume by Bandy, 95 Questions to Shape the Future of the Church, is seemingly an updated, abridged version of the same assessment. The two volumes supplement each other.
Those who read Thom Bandy’s Kicking Habits or Bill Easum’s Growing Spiritual Redwoods may be inspired toward conducting a complete congregational assessment and facilitate deep congregational transformation. Here, Bandy presents the next step with a process of strategic mapping.
Strategic mapping should be distinguished from strategic planning. In chapter 15, Bandy highlights some of the differences. For example, strategic planning is linear, assuming change occurs through a continuous series of actions and consequences that can be reasonably predicted. Strategic mapping is omnidirectional, assuming that change comes from a variety of directions and influences happening simultaneously and is rarely predictable. It cannot be placed on a timeline, but seeks to seize opportunities as they emerge. Similarly, strategic planning is performed by technicians and experts who had well-defined results in mind and engineered the ecclesiastical machine toward those ends. Strategic mapping is performed by explorers who know they are in new territory and have no proven tactics to deploy, but will try, make mistakes, and learn along the path of growth. Also, strategic planning allows for little deviation from the plan. Strategic mapping not only allows deviation, but expects constant deviation.
Part I consists of two chapters that present an excellent summary of the unique challenges of the twenty-first century missional context and the new paradigms this requires of church leaders. Part Two, the next five chapters, present the 280-question Congregational Mission Assessment and how to interpret the results of the assessment. These questions uncover the strengths and weaknesses of the church and identify future directions with regard to Bandy’s model of the eleven subsystems of the thriving church.
Part III, the next seven chapters, describe how to lead a church beyond the interpretation of the Congregational Mission Assessment to actually clarify the core of congregational life. One chapter gives instruction on how to mobilize a church for this process through congregational gatherings, focus groups, interview teams, survey teams, and listening-prayer triads. After this, he devotes a chapter to each of the “Basic Boundaries of Congregational Life,” including core values, bedrock beliefs, motivating vision, and key mission. This is followed by another chapter on interpreting the results of these clarifying processes. Part IV then shows how to take all of this data to draw a new ministry map for the congregation.
Moving Off the Map presents an exciting and visionary picture of what can happen when a church intentionally breaks free from its unproductive habits into a more missional mindset. It is an excellent assessment tool that is best used alongside the other volumes in the Easum/Bandy model, but may also be a profitable consult to build a own hybrid congregational assessment.
From the Publisher
In his book Kicking Habits: Welcome Relief for Addicted Churches, Thomas Bandy provided the “big picture” of the five stages of congregational renewal and transformation. Similarly, in Growing Spiritual Redwoods, Bandy and Bill Easum provided new metaphors for change to help congregations break out of outmoded attitudes and assumptions, and described the nature of spiritual leadership necessary to grow spiritual giants that would change the face of the cultural forest. The purpose of Moving Off the Map: A Field Guide to Changing the Congregation is to answer the question of what to do next. Here are powerful processes and tools to help congregations identify their strengths, weaknesses, and addictions. These processes can help a congregation shift attitudes, deepen spiritual awareness, receive Biblical visions, and shape ministries for the future.
About the Author
Thomas G. Bandy is a leadership mentor and consultant for faith-based organizations. He is the author of more than fourteen books and numerous articles, including Why Should I Believe in You? (Abingdon Press) and Talisman: Global Positioning for the Soul (Chalice Press). He has been a pastor, teacher, lecturer in philosophical theology, and national denominational leader in the United States and Canada. he is now an internationally known workshop and conference leader.
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