Has the Parachute Opened?

 

After years of steady decline, there is now some post-COVID good news for The Episcopal Church.

In my work with Church leaders in congregational development, I have often been asked to work with churches in decline. Sometimes such decline has been long-term and substantial as the decline of TEC has been since 2000. I have written several times on this decline and what could be done about it. I have also monitored the statistics for the whole church and commented on them several times. While our dioceses are still showing an overall decline in membership and attendance, there is a recent report that shows that since the end of COVID, the numbers of declining, stable, and growing congregations have changed.

Background: For almost two decades the statistics showed that 60 to 70% of our congregations were in decline, and many of these were in substantial decline which fits the information we have on closing congregations. Only a small number of congregations showed any significant growth during these two decades. A summary of our decline can be expressed in the simple fact that the declining congregations outnumber our growing ones.

The new report on our recovery of membership, attendance, and financial support changes this long tendency. Now while 50% show decline and about 20% show stability, a substantial number of around 30% now show substantial growth. This is good news indeed.

Let me interject here that often when I have written about the decline some leaders have accused me of spreading gloom and doom. This is unfair. I did not make them up. I took them directly from the official Episcopal website.

When I was the mission person for the Diocese of Texas working under Bishop Payne, I initiated collecting this information and reporting them over ten years to show the trends of individual congregations. Then I helped Charles Fulton and other staff members of TEC to gather this for all our congregations. These three items reported over ten years gave important and strategic information to our local leaders. They are important indicators of the health and vitality of congregations. I have been a priest for over 50 years and taught leaders about growing congregations. It is wrong to suggest that the decline information is what I wanted to see. I want the Church that I have served to flourish. So, I am glad to hear of this new post-COVID information.

Why This New Information is Important: When a congregation is in steady decline, the first goal of leadership is not growth, but stabilization. I like to call this “having the parachute open” phase. Once stability happens, then leaders can make plans to develop and grow the community. This change from decline to growth is not like throwing a switch. Stabilizing demonstrates viability and builds morale among present members along with a stronger ability to reach new people. The new people open the door to expansion and growth. Once that skill is rediscovered by members and leaders, there can be a new path to health and vitality resulting in growth. This parachute phase is essential to the future. I see the Episcopal Community now in this phase. The parachute is opening. We are finding stability and creating a more hopeful future for TEC.

This is happening at the time we are about to choose a new Presiding Bishop. What does this have to do with this phase? Interestingly, As I have written in other blogs, every change of a PB in the last 50 years has led to a significant change in the Church’s statistical trends. The decline during Bishop Browning’s tenure was followed by growth starting with the election of Bishop Griswold. Decline accompanied Bishop Shori’s election and continued with Bishop Curry. The parachute phase has happened in Bishop Curry’s last few years. Will the new PB inspire us build on this phase? We shall see.

Summary: COVID had a significant negative effect on the Church. The news that we are now recovering from COVID and two decades of decline is good news for sure. TEC’s trends are changing, and we are entering a time of opportunity. After such bad news for so long, this is something to celebrate. A key issue will be for us to learn from our growing congregations what they are doing right and to encourage all our congregations to follow their examples.