By The Rev. Dr. Carl Grosse

My career in technology introduced me to Agile methods. The four core values of Agile methods are:

1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.
2. Working software (or product/service) over comprehensive documentation.
3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.
4. Responding to change over following a plan.

I found that following these values when developing products or implementing customer solutions used less resources and produced better results. Agile methods only worked when the stakeholders were clear about objectives and resources. 

Some of the torah controversies Jesus got into, like healing on the Sabbath, seem to suggest that He might have worked along Agile lines. Of course, Jesus followed torah and never encouraged anyone not to. However, He did have uncanny ways of interpreting and applying torah in specific conditions. In reading the gospels, you get the sense that for Jesus, torah that worked for people was more important than comprehensive documentation. His adaptations favored people over processes. 

Church at so many levels seems to operate in reverse of these values. Disagreements among Christians, and the documentation and processes and plans we’ve developed to go along with them, have created fragmented organizations that have, in many ways, become ends unto themselves rather than means of serving God and people. Within congregations, routines and rituals become fixed and we can easily lose adaptability and responsiveness to what God wants us to do in particular situations. Often, we rely too much on dynamic individuals and fail to tap the power of the collaborative “priesthood of believers”. 

A former colleague reached out and wondered if I would consider going back to the old company after I finished here. The answer is no. There’s plenty of work to do in my new line.