Isaiah 29:13–16 (NRSV)
The Lord said:
“Because these people draw near with their mouths
and honor me with their lips,
while their hearts are far from me,
and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote;
so I will again do amazing things with this people,
shocking and amazing.
The wisdom of their wise shall perish,
and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden.”
Ha! You who hide a plan too deep for the Lord,
whose deeds are in the dark,
and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”
You turn things upside down!
Shall the potter be regarded as the clay?
Shall the thing made say of its maker,
“He did not make me”;
or the thing formed say of the one who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?
Proverbs 20:11 (NRSV)
“Even children make themselves known by their acts,
by whether what they do is pure and right.”
Every congregation has a quiet pedagogy, an unspoken curriculum that shapes its life together. It is not in the annual report or some overworked mission statement. It is in our language, our rhythms, our habits, and our culture. It shows up in what we celebrate, what we attend to in the community, what we ask people to show up for, and what we ignore or de-emphasize. Over time, these choices teach us who we are and what we believe it means to follow Jesus.
What we signal and model is never neutral. To center particular ministries, to highlight and resource them, is to make a claim about who we are. To leave other things in the background, to include them on page 7 of the bulletin in 8-point font or have them hidden deep in the church’s website, is also a choice. What we model most consistently becomes what we truly believe.
This clarity matters, especially in an increasingly fragmented, frenetic, and flattened world. And given the decline in attention spans, it may matter more now than ever. Researchers link this phenomenon to multitasking and information overload, as people increasingly juggle multiple screens, tasks, and notifications, leaving behind “attention residue” that fragments focus and drains cognitive energy. As a result, many find it harder to keep up with their commitments, to avoid feeling overwhelmed by competing demands, and to discern what truly deserves priority in a given moment.
In short, people do not need more activity, information, or rhetoric. People need communities that know what is central and live it plainly. If our center is fuzzy, people are left to guess. And in an age already filled with so much noise, guesswork won’t cut it.
Congregational life is like a newspaper. The “headlines” are the ministries and practices we place at the top of the page. They capture attention and tell the story of what matters here. The “footnotes” are the things that may still be true and good but are easy to miss. Every church has both, but the difference between the two signals our priorities.
And then there is what people “read between the lines.” These are the behaviors and cultural patterns that may never be announced but are always felt implicitly or intuitively. They can reinforce the headlines, or they can contradict them. A church can say the headline is discipleship, but if what people read between the lines is busyness, spectacle, and keeping “the machine” running, then that is the story that will shape them.
We could also put this in terms of stated values versus actual practices. Congregations often proclaim one thing but inadvertently embody another. We may aspire to center discipleship, hospitality, or justice, yet if those commitments are not lived in visible, consistent ways, they remain aspirations rather than realities.
Jesus modeled and signaled particular headlines: the poor, the sick, the stranger, the table of welcome, prayer, mercy and justice, the subversive ways of God’s kingdom. He did not leave these priorities implied. They were lived and embodied, beyond doubt.
When a congregation headlines and actually practices things like hospitality, prayer, justice, and mercy, not only in language but in budgets, rhythms, and habits, those practices become the touchpoints of life together. There will surely be some important footnotes to accompany these headlines, but knowing the difference makes a difference. What we headline and embody will either draw us deeper into Christ or into something else entirely, revealing the story we are really telling, the formation that is actually happening.
Prompts for discussion
Headlines and Footnotes
What are the headline ministries in our congregation? What important things might be stuck in the footnotes, and how would moving them to the center change us?
Reading Between the Lines
What might people read between the lines of our behaviors and culture? How do those signals reinforce or contradict what we say matters most?
Values and Practices
Where do you see alignment between stated values and practices? Where are the gaps, and what would it take to close them?
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