Dear Church Family,
Year after year our church shows signs of vitality. This can be seen both in how we care for each other and how we care for those suffering in the broader world. This past year I recall hearing a member say, “Our members do a better job of caring for each other than any church I have been in.” At the same time, we intentionally involve ourselves in the world beyond our walls through our service, advocacy, and action. A few months ago the director of a non-profit organization told me that he frequently cites our church in conversations with office staff because of our example of social engagement. One of the fruits of our vitality is that we continue to attract and gain new members with twelve joining in 2013 and seven joining already this year.
While our church has prevailed against the common trends of shrinking membership sizes among mainline churches, we would be wrong to assume that we do not continue to wrestle with the same troubling issues with which many churches contend. One of these issues pertains to how churches are structured and organized in ways that impact the time commitments of members. Scholars tell us that one of the factors behind membership decline since the 1960s pertains to how individuals and families arrange and dedicate their time. Key factors include women entering the workforce in large numbers and families making Sunday at-home time to be together.
Mega-churches have responded to this situation by turning to a Walmart model in which those who attend are consumers for whom the church staff provides various products and services on a large scale without necessarily requiring much from attendees in the way of time. This is far different than the traditional model in which the church survives due in large part to the high participation of members in making the church operate. In this model, a church cannot be composed of a significant number of passive consumers or else it won’t be able to function.
I believe churches at their best should be participatory. Church should not be a spectator sport, and while charity has its place, Christianity is a lifestyle and not a matter of paying others to do good deeds on our behalf. With this said, I am not convinced we face an either/or situation: either we mimic the Walmart model or we continue with traditional models of organizing church participation. For this reason, I am particularly excited that our church decided to address this issue head-on at our all-church retreat last year. Next month, we will begin to experiment with conducting many of our committee and ministry meetings on the same night with potluck food and childcare adding a greater degree of spiritually nurturing fellowship and family-friendly assistance.
One of the keys to being a strong and vital church is how we gather and unleash the energies and passions of our members. This is essential to how we fulfill our callings. Our sense of fulfillment and our future depend upon it. We are poised to be successful in this regard because of the dedication and talent of both our members and staff. The year ahead is full of promise and potential.
Your brother in Christ,
Pastor Brooks