This is the question put to me by a seminary classmate of
mine who is serving a smaller parish part-time in retirement. I have taken my initial response and
elaborated on it for this blog.
The first thing we should acknowledge right up front is
that most of our current leaders do not think this is possible. They give a number of reasons such as:
All
Mainline Churches are in decline
We are a denomination with older
members
Young
people are not interested in Institution religion
We
are not interested in numbers but quality
Secularism
and Atheism are replacing faith
Many of our churches are doing a
lot of outreach and many are inclusive places.
We don’t need to focus on growth
We don’t need to focus on growth
Growing Churches are offering
simple explanations to people. We Episcopalians are too sophisticated for that.
I think it safe to say that most diocesan Bishops would
be happy just to hold current membership and the number of congregations stable
and that few actually expect to have positive baptismal, or attendance
increases. Despite all these stated
reasons and more, I still believe it is possible to grow our community.
Let me start with the big picture. I will turn to congregational growth, but the
big picture and what it would take to change the big picture is important. First, TEC is declining because only about 18 to 20% of Episcopal
churches are showing numerical growth.
About 20% more are stable and nearly 60% are in decline with some of
these in steep decline even to the point of closing. In other words, the growing congregations
cannot sustain the losses in other congregations. If this balance of growing and declining
congregations continue, it means that our current decline will continue for
some time.
The last time we
were growing, from 1995 to 2002, about 35% of our congregations were growing,
30 to 40% were stable, and the rest in decline.
During this period, we were the only mainline denomination showing
positive growth in baptisms and average Sunday attendance. You have probably heard people say the Decade
of Evangelism didn't work, but the numbers show differently. This is one of the untold stories of TEC.
Of course, no one
joins the denomination except on the local level, so we need to turn our focus
more locally. We should start with a
Diocese. So how does a diocese get 30%
or more of its congregations to grow? The
answer is rather strait forward. It does
this by supporting and developing its current congregations and by planting new
ones among new communities and groups of people. The Diocese of Texas has continued to do just
exactly this kind of congregational development since 1993 through 3 diocesan
bishops and lots of changes. Each year
this diocese continues to offer educational opportunities such as “The Iona
Program,” the “Invite, Welcome and Connect” workshops, and a strong Vestry
equipping program. They also continue a
strong peer modeling and sharing where local clergy and lay leaders who are
doing outstanding work in some area of ministry share the “how to” with others.
Let me turn to
the congregational level. I wrote 5
Keys for Church Leaders to introduce the basic systemic issues related
to healthy growing congregations. The chapters
on paying attention to generational differences, opening the
front door, and closing the back door are aimed specifically at growth. These strategies have been proven on the
ground in all sorts of denominations and even within TEC in all sorts of
locations. I am not the only teacher
who offers this kind of information, but I mention it because I know firsthand
that it gets results. What I am saying
is that where there is a will and a strategy of intentional congregational
development growth can happen. We do not
need all of our congregations to grow. We just need more than 30% of them to do
it.
What about changing
culture and demographics many would want to ask. Remember that I pointed to the planting of
new congregations in new communities and among new groups of people. Let me point out that adults between 20 and
40 are “a new group of people” and rather than wait for them to find our
declining churches (and our few vital ones) why not start work aimed
specifically at them? A great example is
St. Thad’s in Los Angeles, but there are others examples. There are also millions of Hispanic people in
the U.S. not all of whom are Roman Catholics, but many of whom have seen the
Church in its catholic and sacramental forms.
We found plenty of these folks when I was Dean of the Cathedral in
Dallas. The Diocese of Dallas trained
leaders from our congregation who have gone on to become clergy and lay leaders. These good leaders have restarted churches
and started new Spanish language communities of faith. Notice I haven’t mentioned the multitude of
Africans moving here, many of whom are already Anglicans. The field is ripe for the harvest, but where
are the laborers.
This raises a critical
question about our ordained leaders and why, even though we have lots of
ordained people, we have a declining church.
I have written about this in other places, but let me underscore the
problem we have. Most of our clergy have been educated in a maintenance culture
where they expect the church to be given to them and that all they need do is
update liturgy, do the Lenten Program better this year, and talk about being
accepting and inclusive and people will come.
Our current situation underscores that this is not working.
Let me be clear, I am not
laying this matter primarily at the feet of our seminaries. I believe the primary goal of seminary is a
sound education in the disciplines of the ordained ministry such as Scripture,
Church History, Preaching, and all those other things that I for one hold
dear. However, we should also
acknowledge two things about our seminary training. First, despite all the language in seminaries
today about “Mission” and “Leadership” our academic folks are not up to the
kind of leadership development that mission leaders need. Second, the academic model is primarily
that if an ordained person has knowledge information and if she or he will teach this,
people will follow. The development of
new leaders goes much wider than seminary education. It starts with how we identify and select
candidates for ordained ministry. It
extends through seminary education and continues into the first 5 years of
ordained ministry.
I would like to
see regional centers for missional leadership training. These could be modeled on what Bishop Payne
has developed for new leaders. To this I
would add rotating faculties of proven leaders who have planted and developed
churches of different sizes and among diverse people. Remember that 20% of our congregations still
are showing positive numerical grow. Badly needed today are clergy who have
helped rebuilt once Pastoral Size congregations especially in town ministries
that have declined to Family Size Churches of 30 to 40 people gathering on Sunday. We have them, but sadly they are not the teachers
and mentors of new clergy.
Of course, congregational
development strategies are not all that we need to begin to grow TEC. We also need something else that I would call
passionate and contagious spirituality.
Here is how I get at this issue will local congregational leaders
especially Vestries.
I ask these leaders to rate
their congregation on a scale of 1 to 10.
1 is "I don't even know why I come here anymore, let along why I
would ever invite someone else." 10
is (tears in eyes) "Let me tell you about my church. My church is my family; I can't wait to go on
Sunday to see what will be happening next.
I am loved, accepted, and inspired there and I am challenged to grow spiritually
as a follower of Jesus Christ.”
Most Vestry members, remember
that these are many of the most involved members of a church, rate their church
between 4 and 6. Many times I've gotten
as low as 2s. Once is a while I will get
a few member who give their community a 7.
Then I point out that places were folks rate their church above 7 are already
growing churches. I share with them
that the role of leaders, clergy and lay, are to move those numbers up starting with the next Sunday! There are lots of ways to do this once a
community decides to do it. There are
many strategies that have been proven in other congregations both large and
small. The question before the leaders
becomes “are we committed to increasing the quality of the spiritual passion of
our community?” Once leaders understand
this as opposed to their work at balancing a budget, mowing the grass, giving
the clergy more benefits, or keeping the status quo, the community through its
leaders begins to have a sense of urgency.
In other words, there is a work that they must do NOW to fulfill their
calling.
Can we grow TEC? Yes, if we are willing to take the initiative
to bring to our congregations the kind of spiritual vitality that built the
community that has been bequeathed to us by previous generations of passionate
leaders. If you are a leader of a
congregation or diocese and you are not committed to this task, then you are
part of the problem. As the Holy Season
of Lent reminds us, there is great power in falling to our knees in tearful
repentance and asking God to kindle a new passion in our lives for the Church
for which our Savior was willing to die and rise again. Each one of us should make our prayer “Lord,
renew your Church and begin with me.”
