What if we did nothing? What if we just decided that it is more important to get along and keep things the same, not wanting to try anything new or different, just keep going in the way we always have. What would our future look like?
There are Lutheran churches that in my view did just that. Established before Amazing Grace, closer to the perimeter highway, in changing neighborhoods. And I see a consistent pattern. This is what I see as touchstones:
1) Ignored their neighbors. The congregation just kept offering worship Sunday after Sunday, with a de facto mission of repeating whatever was done last year. They weren’t interested in meeting or engaging their neighbors beyond the occasional visitor who graced their doors. The main reason for this was because the (new) neighbors were different than they were.
2) Became an Island. Members moved to homes further away from the church, in more desirable locales, but kept their membership with the church. This caused two things of note: a) the church lost its connection to what was going on around it, being less responsive and less aware of setting and/or neighborhoods in which the church existed and b) because a critical mass of people were driving a long distance to church, living elsewhere, Sundays became the main day for ministry. After worship, the council met. After worship, the committees met etc. It is difficult to do worship and ministry all in the same day. Meanwhile, the rest of the week it was quiet at the church.
3) Didn’t Change. Let’s just say there was a robust optimism that what they were doing was going to work….eventually – despite evidence to the contrary.
4) Started Renting to Tenants. Because of #’s 1 &2, the church began to rent space out to outside groups, be it to another congregation or an entity such as a daycare center or office space for non-profits. Because the church space wasn’t being used during the week by the church and because the church needed income, they rented. Renting isn’t inherently bad, in fact there are examples where renting can be mutually beneficial to a church and the tenant. But renting space limits what a church can do during the week and lessens its space for programing.
4) Revolving Door of Pastors. Be it a symptom of the problem or the cause of the problem, pastors came and went. Perhaps the pastor couldn’t get on the same page as the congregation, perhaps the congregation called the wrong pastor to begin with because it didn’t know who it was and where it was going. Whatever the reason(s), there was turnover. Going through more than one pastor in a small amount of time causes all sorts of trouble.
Churches who went through this process didn’t die fast. They died slowly. It is a subtle degradation, and often circumstances have to become really unbearable before a congregation wants to change its ways.
So then these churches called the bishop’s office, asking for help. The bishop sent a person or team to the church and that person told the congregation that they needed to reach out to its new neighbors. Now things are so bad in the church that the congregation desires to actually do this. By then it is often too late. Too old, lacking vitality and interest to become something new, the congregation is left with a small faithful core, exhausted and burned out.
I’m trying to avoid that for us. In these writings, I am seeking to emphasize the neighborhood. That is key. I don’t want us to be the next cautionary tale.
Prudence prevents me from naming the churches in Atlanta I know who went through this process. They were painful times for well-intentioned lay people and their pastors. But the examples are out there, many of them.
There is hope. There are churches who have turned around their ministry, who have evolved with their neighborhood. One example I will lift up is our mother church, the church that established Amazing Grace, none other than Rock of Ages in Stone Mountain.