Many Established Churches Are On Life Support

This church owned property in Richmond is just one of 
many that are up for sale, this one for a mere $3,800,000.

I attended a memorial service in Staunton Friday for someone who had moved there to teach at Mary Baldwin University and who had a lifelong career working in the criminal justice system. The service for her, held in one of the city's thirteen United Methodist congregations, was attended by fewer than 30 people, but in spite of the small crowd was conducted in the same traditional style as if the auditorium had been filled to capacity. In some ways little has changed, but in other ways everything has.

One of the members I spoke with afterwards lamented the fact that when he joined the church in 1972 it had some 400 members, but that today, on a good Sunday, attendance is down to around 30 or 40 congregants. A two-page directory available in the foyer listed 61 households, but fewer than half consisted of more than a single individual, and only 8 included one or more child or young adult member.

This drastic decline is concerning. Unless congregations have large endowments, they will simply not be able to continue to support a pastor and maintain what has become an oversized facility.

On the following day I attended an all day winter delegate session of our Virginia Mennonite Conference (VMC) held at the Waynesboro Mennonite Church. VMC is a part of Mennonite Church USA, a small denomination which like the much larger United Methodist Church is experiencing a major divide over the issue of accepting and affirming people in same-sex marriage and which has lost over half its membership in the past two decades. VMC has already lost numerous congregations on each side of this divide, and is almost certain to lose even more in the next few years. 

Attendance and membership are also in decline in most MCUSA congregations, including the congregation that hosted the delegate session. According to an old Mennonite Yearbook I have, it had 179 members in 1979, and while I do not know what its attendance numbers were in that year, on the Sunday prior to our meeting it was 61. 

I don't have any easy answers here, but the churches that are growing, unfortunately, tend to be doing so mostly from the numbers of dissatisfied people leaving other congregations rather than those becoming believers for the first time.

Maybe its time for ministers of churches to spend less time preaching from elevated pulpits and more time gathering their flock in holy huddles to do some serious soul searching about whether simply going about business as usual is really meeting their spiritual and belonging needs and those of the people in their communities. 

Maybe we need to gather more frequently in circles rather than in orderly rows, and spend more time in table fellowship and less in formal gatherings where people leave the service week after week without the opportunity to disclose their deepest needs and their daily struggles. 

Maybe we need sell off more of our real estate and/or to convert some of our holdings into places for feeding and housing those who need food and shelter, and for families who need day care and other services. 

Maybe we need to have our weekly meetings be not just about inspirational worship but about the intensive training of the "laos" (laity, the people, including the clergy) for the life-calling and mission of Jesus, that of bringing "good news to the poor, freedom for prisoners, the recovery of sight to those who are blind (literally and figuratively), release for the oppressed and of proclaiming the year of God's favor." 

Maybe we should focus less on meeting budgets to maintain our staff and facilities and for outsourcing our help through organizations and agencies, but to be engaged in freely and personally offering more of help to our neighbors across the street and around the world.

If I had my life to live over again, I believe this is where I would start. Surely people everywhere are still drawn to chosen family-like communities where they experience lots of faith, hope and love. And people still need to be empowered and blessed to love others in everyday ways that offer good news to others around them.

More like this:

All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.     

-Acts of the Apostles 2:42-47 (New Living Translation)