The “good old days” ended about fifty years ago for traditional mainline church bodies. This was the boom time after World War II. My denomination had 4,625 congregations in 1945. It grew to about 6,000 twenty years later. That is a growth rate of new congregations of about 7% per year. Now we are withering at about 2% a year.
After the war came the great suburban out-migration, as most central-city residents acquired automobiles and moved out to bigger houses and lots. Those were the years of extensive church planting. The congregation I serve was started in 1958. The district made such planting a high priority. I can remember my pastor father and his pastor buddies complaining about how much more money the district executive wanted them to raise to support these new churches. They were like salesmen complaining that their quota had been raised. But the result in kingdom building was worth the effort.
Those were very good years, except for the central city churches that did the sending. I watched the sanctuary of my home congregation get emptier at Sunday services every year. It closed in 1976. In any major social movement, there are winners and losers. Only a few of the city congregations are still in existence, and those that are left are learning to become dual parishes served by one pastor.
The great church-related social change of our present time is a shift away from traditional mainline churches to non-denominational community ones. What will become of the suburban mainline congregations? Will they go the way of the old central city churches?
We are past the time of salvation by gimmicks, or advertising, or better denominational services. It is time to rethink basic assumptions. Where will withering congregations get fresh energy to turn around their decline?
There is only one reliable source of energy for Christian congregations. This is the Holy Spirit, Christ’s Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, who calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth.
The boom years went well in part because of the need suburbanites had for the social relationships in their new community. All social organizations, like lodges and veterans clubs, were growing. Church members from central city churches shared a culture that led them to seek out and build what they had before.
In 1970 I did my Ph.D. dissertation on a study of 56 suburban pastors from five mainline denominations—Episcopalian, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian and United Church of Christ. These were churches whose pastors were “professionals” with a seminary education. Interviewing them in their church offices left the clear impression that, despite their different heritages, they were all doing basically the same programs for suburbanites.
In that research, I found what I was looking for. Pastors with good organizational and administrative skills were rated more effective than those who came with the professional emphases of those days. The data did distinguish four types of pastors, based on their scores from a measure of Organization Perspective and another on Professional Perspective. Congregational leaders and a denominational executive rated their effectiveness. The Professional orientation worked out with seminary professors, had very little impact on effectiveness. Such differences were explained almost completely by their interest in organizational matters.
Recognize the Spirit as God’s empowering presence with believers today. Such presence is a good summary of what Paul recognized in his letters to churches. Christ’s Spirit produces in individuals and in congregations special Spiritual energy, energy beyond what community social organizations can generate in clubs and lodges.
How do you tap that energy for your church? Basically, know what you are looking for, learn to recognize when this energy is happening in your midst, and share with others this evidence. Most of all, pray for the Spirit’s movement in your life and congregation.
Name, Share and Seek More of the Spirit’s Presence and Power!
Is this (withering) not a function of demographics as well?
My church has only 1 family with children. Father and mother are US Army retirees. Everyone else in the congregation is above 50 years of age; most are above 60.
Average attendance has dropped to 35 from 180. The prayer list contains many who are eithe home bound, bedridden or in nursing homes.
The current attendees are supporting a church built for 300.
Yes, demographics are key. In retrospect, the mainline churches were at their peak when the American culture was favorable. For Lutherans the ethnic loyalty to Lutheranism was strong. But that can not be expected to remain with grandchildren who know little of the culture that was so effective in the move to the suburbs. We could assume loyalty. Now we have to earn it with every new generation.
There are many congregations like yours that have withered so much. The withering will continue as the old pass away. Challenge the congregation, while it still has financial resources and a building, to launch out into new ministries. Think about planting a church that fits the demographics of your neighborhood. Find a new congregation that is growing and invite them to use your building. Chances are a new congregation and leaders will not know the full Lutheran heritage. But you can work out with them the basics of Gospel ministry. Chances are their leaders will agree.
Good advice. Thanks. Now, to deal with the sadness and seek the Joy of Servant hood in His name!
Thanks Pastor Dave…I’m now retired…more or less…still need to stay busy…productive…should be doing some consulting soon if all goes well…see you soon!
Hi Randy, I have been waiting for this new phase of your life. Let’s talk about how you could do ministries in and beyond Royal Redeemer!
Pastor Dave, you have reminded me of the way our church and school was energized by the Holy Spirit.
Our Pastors and leadership saw the opportunity to reach out to the communities to bring people, and especially children, to know Jesus as their Savior. The leadership and congregation saw the need to bring Christian education to young children with the first Christian Preschool in the community. The Holy Spirit moved leadership, members, teachers, families and children to seek ways to grow and support a Lutheran School when no other schools were being started. I saw how parents took on major roles in the school to grow programs, grade levels, sports programs, fundraising, and making strong connections with our church and school striving for a combined mission… Making/Bringing disciples for Christ. Throughout these growing years, it was so evident that the Holy Spirit was moving through everyone to continue in this mission. And, it was our Pastors and leadership that were listening, praying, and guiding others to bring people to Jesus. Many families that came to the school joined the church and brought other families to the church and school. The church and school grew programs, activities, bible studies, sports programs, reconfigured how to meaningfully provide a confirmation program to our youth, added Saturday night kids’ church, worship teams and a large choir that members enjoyed being a part of as well as members enjoying this special part of services and cantatas. There are so many more ways I could mention as well. The bottom line for me is if our Pastors and leadership had not opened their hearts and minds to the Holy Spirit’s calling, most likely this wonderful time of growth, fellowship, programming, reaching out to many communities, and planting churches would not have happened. Growth is difficult, takes a tremendous amount of time, sometimes has pitfalls, but is so worth it because in the end, it’s so amazing to see how the Holy Spirit works through all of us in bringing people to know Jesus’ love and the saving grace He gave for us.
Thank you for being a part of our church’s leadership and encouraging us to keep listening to the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Karen’s comments are spot on. The principles she has articulated remind me of the first century church. I believe the same principles apply today.
One implication of the Royal Redeemer story that Karen highlights is that there is one canned approach. New church leaders stayed open to opportunities and responded in trusting faith that bills would get paid. Growth happened. I know senior pastor Jim Martin as a truly spiritual man who could discern opportunities. That is not taught in business schools and often not even in seminaries.
Hi, Karen. You and I have shared this history of the development of our church’s pre-school and grade school. You were a key agent of the Spirit, making step by step advances that made sense. Pastor Martin was key in encouraging you and the congregation. I just came from the Ohio District pastoral conference, where tradition is heavy. I think fear is a major factor holding churches back. Yes, lots of things could have gone wrong. We addressed them in sensible ways. Could other churches have done what wwe do? Hard to say. It was perhaps a unique coming together of lots of personalities and opportunities, like the $1,000,000 gifts that allowed us to build the large Activity Center.
Key thought: Thank God for his blessings and the opportunity to share in this adventure. Thank him, too, for the new leadership that continues to try new, sensible ministries.
Thank you, Pastor Dave. I am in awe still of what God has done through people and spiritual and financial gifts over the years. I thank God for all the blessings I’ve had at RR and continue to pray for our beloved school and church. I thank you for all you have done to grow our school and church. Your expertise in working with volunteers and architects was amazing. I thank God for Pastor Martin because of his leadership and trust in God’s will, that so many people were inspired to grow our school and church. It was such a wonderful memory for me. I continue to pray for our school and church and our Pastors and Leadership. God is so good!
Amen to all you say. Plus it was fun.
I found this article helpful as I’m writing a sermon series about the impact of our congregations continuing to function as though we are still in Christendom. The insight that people needed the church as a way of finding community when the suburbs were being populated was useful.
One post-Christendom fact of church life I’m faced with: our people consider themselves “faithful” or “members in good standing” if they worship once or twice a month. Worship has become an option, a choice among many activities that grow in number each year. The downside for us is for we who anticipate the Holy Spirit’s transforming power to be engaged during Sunday worship, we’re aware that the majority of our people are not maturing at an effective rate. Viewing worship as optional has far-reaching implications on every aspect of our faith lives, and I’d love to hear what other congregations are doing creatively to slow down the incline that leads to the loss of faith.
You present the central challenge of ministry today, at least for old established mainline churches. Back in the village churches of previous centuries there was intense social pressure to “go to church” on Sundays. That kind of social pressure is mostly gone. Consider two implications. One is that the weekend service has to be engaging and rewarding. I know you work hard at that. Many don’t. The other is that spiritual growth opportunities have to happened during the week. Developing small groups is a good effort, but I don’t see them reaching a high proportion of the congregation. I think online community sharing of faith experiences will help. Today is supposed to be a deadline for the programmer. We’ll see.
As I read what you wrote, I was struck by something. We put a lot of we emphasis n the leaders of the church, but somehow, I feel we have left out the most impt element, the body of the church. The body of the church is faced with a great deal of secular influence, esp social media which entertains them to the point they expect their church to entertain, not preach the word of god. Entertain we do in many ways. What gets lost is the concept of a relationship with the godhead. The true knowledge of who God is, who Jesus is, and who the spirit is. Yes, we definitely need help from the spirit because, in the final analysis, our churches need an spritual infusion.
Hi Jeanne. Yes, the whole body is important. But any group of people needs leaders who find new way and new energy. Paul sees a congregation as a body of Christ. But he also sees a fellowship of the Holy Spirit. I think it is more productive and opens new perspectives to focus on the fellowship and the differing ministries of those exercising their differing giftings from the Spirit.
I’m delighted with the comments from Karen from the above message, The Holy Spirit has certainly energized your Church, & it sounds like your emphasis on young people especially thru the School has spurred growth throughout your Church, and we should
praise the entire Congregation, not just the Laity & Church leaders.
We are missing a large change in America over the past 50-60 years. Pastor Dave talked about his home Church in ’76 closing, Marilyn & I who grew up in that intercity Church. We saw Cle change right around us. First of all the great things that Pres. Dwight Eisenhower started with the inner-belt system that was a tremendous idea that brought our Country from coast to coast much closer, however it reduced Cle from 820,000 to 320,000 today. The riots reduced the city also. The area around our Church that was predominantly German in the ’50’s & ’60’s was changing to a Latin couture that after we tried to sell our Church property, we ended up giving it to one of the smaller groups, we even tried to get a few of the groups to get together with the thought they could sustain it with a bigger congregation.
Most of the folks that we grew up with in that area moved to the Suburbs, then over the next 30 – 40 years, another phenomenal thing happened, younger people stopped joining anything! Jaycees went from 19,000 in Oh to a little over 5,000 today. Our City had the very active VFW retire their colors because none of the soldiers coming home from the Middle East don’t want to join anything, including the big old Church on the corner. The Holy Spirit has to be talked about a lot more & prayed that the third person in the Trinity come into the lives of everyone we come into contact with. Lord give us that power.
Church membership should not be about the numbers from Sun. services, but that Jesus blood & righteousness with the Holy Spirit should come into our lives & we count the souls we saved should be our priority.
By the way Pastor Dave, where did you find that pix? there wasn’t a RKO Theater in Cle
Yes, our culture has changed a lot, as is evident in the old inner-city neighborhood of St. Mathew. Will the suburban mainline churches go the way of the old inner-city churches as non-denominational churches flourish. Probably many will. I am proud of how the St. Matthew church property was given to a Hispanic Pentecostal church that has faithfully ministered to Puerto Ricans over the decades. I hope that as suburban congregations die out, they will find ways to pass on the property to churches that are ministering well.
Thanks for the illustration of the Junior Chambers of Commerce. Another example is the decline of bowling leagues even though bowling still seems popular.
I’ll bite, what kinds of questions and priorities define “professional” and “organizational” pastors?
In Jesus’ day, his message was truly Good News. If we look at the situation of the day and ask why, it’s easy to see why Christians had such enthusiasm fueled by the Holy Spirit. If the Gospel were news as good to us today, sharing and inviting would be easy. How is it not? But it is! Can it be that we really don’t appreciate the gift we have? It’s just so matter-of-fact in our church culture. Not so in cultures where it’s spreading like wildfire.
I love to read the Bible in The Message. I know it’s a paraphrase. In today’s language, I hear the Holy Spirit as I did not anticipate. It’s exciting! I’m told it’s an accurate paraphrase of the Hebrew and Greek into English. If it as accurate as most other translations, which I’m told it is, none of which is perfect, it’s worth adding to my resources. This is not intended to start a debate about translations and paraphrases. It’s intended to say that, as written in the original manuscripts, the Bible is far more exciting than us non-Hebrew or Greek scholars knew. It’s a game-changer.
Before you criticize, ask if some simple, available tools can convey the message and breathe the Holy Spirit into the Church of today. How can we defend a shrinking church when world population is bursting and the harvest is ready? God is on the move. Others are talking the Holy Spirit to eager ears. We can learn something from them. This is not against our doctrine to listen and learn. St Paul said we are to see where the Spirit is working and join in.
The promise of the Gospel is a better life now and in eternity. In older churches, that hope can turn into a guilt-inducing obligation that loses the joy. Thank God for new believers who can remind us of the life-changing different hope in Christ and the fruit of the Spirit can make.
Glad to hear of your excitement. I love the challenge of finding meanings we miss today because languages change over 20 centuries. The Spirit was a much greater part of Paul’s theology than he became in Reformation theology.
Listen and Learn! Then Name and Share!
Congregations who are alive with the Spirit have come to know that waiting and recruiting disciples for Christ by bringing them into a building(Church) to join a family is not cutting it anymore. John Wesley and the Methodist Circuit riders who rode out across the United States so long ago knew that the church needed to come to the people–and that’s happening more and more again to turn souls to Christ! More and more of us are reaching out to our community with programs that meet the needs of the people–Mine is a Family Storytime and pre-k preparedness class that is free tot he community. OUr community parents of many faiths come together to learn and grow with good values, kindness and love–The love of Jesus Christ shines through me and my volunteers to the muslims, Islamic, buddhist, and catholic alike. The teachings of Christ light up the room, and the people respond in kind. OUr homeless program is built on the same premises: Jesus didn’t stand still and wait for people to come to HIm, and we don’t either—but we also know that the core of CHurch is built on the cornerstone of faith and faithful disciples who are called by God’s Spirit and purpose to transform a dark world to see the light of Christ–Homebase is one part of the CHurch–reaching out in the name of Christ is the other part. I thank God for my Church and it’s revelation on this.!!
Well observed and said! Even Lutherans had circuit riders at the beginning. Go where the people are.
Glad your ministries are going so well and that you have an exciting congregation. Blessings