An interesting article to consider...

Hidebound traditions are missing the mission
Tom Ehrich, Winston Salem Journal

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE
Saturday, March 24, 2007


Why, asks a reader, have new community churches had "such tremendous growth," while older denominational congregations show "declining church attendance?"

Some want the answer to be better doctrine, conservative ethics and politics, and a fundamentalist biblical theology. Nonsense. This isn't a partisan victory dance. Our democracy depends on religious vitality to encourage self-sacrifice, religious diversity to undergird tolerance, and sound ethics to guide our economy. Otherwise, we will self-destruct in bullying and greed. When large segments of the Christian movement sag and sputter, the entire society suffers. God will go on. No, we are the losers when decay strikes religion.

Systems, not people, are focus

So, if growth and decline aren't a consequence of right-opinion vs. wrong-opinion, then what is going on? Here's my take on it:

First, it's about systems, not people. The decline in mainline Protestant churches that began in the mid-1960s wasn't caused by bad people, lazy clergy, women in ministry or gay bishops. Denominations simply weren't an asset. Denominational labels provided brand identification during the yeasty period after World War II, when millions of Americans migrated to cities and suburbs and looked for familiar institutions. Soon, denominations became overhead. Their inherited traditions spawned turf wars, stifled creativity and responded slowly - if at all - to cultural conditions.

Second, the quest for permanence is counterproductive. The longer a congregation exists, the more it implodes into bickering over preference, resistance to change and generational conflict.

In a fast-moving world, a slow-moving church has little to offer. It cannot see people's emerging needs, because it filters reality through old lenses. Leaders don't feel free to act, so tentative new constituencies drift away. Bureaucracy denies congregations nimbleness.

Third, longtime congregations are paralyzed by their own infrastructure. Buildings mattered in the stability-seeking years after world wars. Now, Gothic piles have become the point, and maintenance costs stifle mission and ministry. Worse, buildings distort our identity. Our Web sites show bricks and mortar, not people; they offer guided tours of rooms and grandeur, not calls to mission and knowing God. People seek wholeness and faith; they don't want to pay for deferred maintenance. Fourth, like any hierarchical institution, we became obsessed with who gets to run things. Instead of dealing creatively with systemic issues of gender, race and sexuality, we squandered good will in fighting over who got ordained. Diversifying seminary enrollment has proven to be a meaningless response to injustice and deprivation in the world. The promise of expanding roles for laity got sidetracked into bickering over Sunday duties.

The good news is that it doesn't have to be this way. Churches are human institutions, and we can change our ways. Denominations don't have to be overhead. Permanence doesn't have to be our god. Buildings don't have to control us. Ordination doesn't have to be our battle.

The bad news is that changing our ways means changing our ways. Institutions with long histories of resisting change aren't likely to choose life now. They might have to die first. Just as the Gospel says.



About the author: Tom Ehrich is a writer, consultant and Episcopal priest who lives in Durham, NC. His e-mail meditations and essays are available at http://www.onajourney.org/. You are also invited to receive the Church Wellness Project’s free weekly newsletter by writing Tom at tom@churchwellness.com.

GROWING GOD'S MISSION!

We are living in a time when 40% of the people who live around us are not connected in a life giving way with a faith community; when 75% of the 163 congregations of the South Carolina Synod show little growth or a decline in their average attendance; and when 80 areas of our state are growing at the pace that would support vital new congregations.

At its 2006 Synod Assembly, the South Carolina Synod adopted a proposal for "Growing God's Mission." This blog is dedicated to those efforts. You are invited to join the conversation as we "think outside the box" and look at our efforts in fresh, new ways. Our God is creative; let's follow His lead.

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