This fits with an article I’ve written for The Living Church titled “Revisioning the Church in the Post-progressive Era” that speaks to the urgent need we have to change the status quo. I liked your analysis. 🧐
The situation may be even worse. You can’t share a gospel you haven’t experienced. Prior to doing evangelism we need spiritual practices that feed discipleship. Are churches doing Bible study? Do we regularly and frequently pray with and for each other? Do we take the Lord’s Supper seriously and celebrate it frequently? Do we invite people— even our own families— to worship? Does Jesus get mentioned anytime outside of Sunday worship? Even in our meetings? I could go on.
I appreciate your essay. As a priest & pastor in the Episcopal Church, I can assure you we are not as asleep at the wheel as some might suspect. We’ve known for some time now that we are in decline, and we are actively discerning our next chapter as a church of Jesus Christ. In fact, we are now transitioning from discernment to action. Your essay points out one major issue that needs addressing: those big, beautiful buildings you visit in your essay. They are aging legacy buildings that require massive amounts of money and energy to maintain, which drains the money and energy needed to do outreach. As we boomers move on to heaven, it takes 6 younger families to replace the plate donations of 1 boomer family. What does a mainline church look like if it divests itself from the ball-&-chains of these giant buildings and focuses on outreach? How does that community now live, move, and have its being? These are some of the many questions that need to be addressed.
There are answers to the clergy challenge, which includes local education and formation of clergy in individual dioceses and a mutual ministry model of parish staffing. Those will help outreach, which will bring the Gospel of Jesus to a wider range of people.
Excellent description of the situation. I would love to see a study that compares growing congregations with declining ones both within and among denominations.
This fits with an article I’ve written for The Living Church titled “Revisioning the Church in the Post-progressive Era” that speaks to the urgent need we have to change the status quo. I liked your analysis. 🧐
The situation may be even worse. You can’t share a gospel you haven’t experienced. Prior to doing evangelism we need spiritual practices that feed discipleship. Are churches doing Bible study? Do we regularly and frequently pray with and for each other? Do we take the Lord’s Supper seriously and celebrate it frequently? Do we invite people— even our own families— to worship? Does Jesus get mentioned anytime outside of Sunday worship? Even in our meetings? I could go on.
I’ll sign that resolution.
So what I'm reading here is that if I want to have a church life in the 2040s I'm gonna have to tolerate the Dave Matthews worship?
I appreciate your essay. As a priest & pastor in the Episcopal Church, I can assure you we are not as asleep at the wheel as some might suspect. We’ve known for some time now that we are in decline, and we are actively discerning our next chapter as a church of Jesus Christ. In fact, we are now transitioning from discernment to action. Your essay points out one major issue that needs addressing: those big, beautiful buildings you visit in your essay. They are aging legacy buildings that require massive amounts of money and energy to maintain, which drains the money and energy needed to do outreach. As we boomers move on to heaven, it takes 6 younger families to replace the plate donations of 1 boomer family. What does a mainline church look like if it divests itself from the ball-&-chains of these giant buildings and focuses on outreach? How does that community now live, move, and have its being? These are some of the many questions that need to be addressed.
Not to mention the aging congregations and the lack of clergy in these small ones
There are answers to the clergy challenge, which includes local education and formation of clergy in individual dioceses and a mutual ministry model of parish staffing. Those will help outreach, which will bring the Gospel of Jesus to a wider range of people.
Excellent description of the situation. I would love to see a study that compares growing congregations with declining ones both within and among denominations.