Shawn Coons raises an important question or two about membership and mission that seemed to dovetail with a couple of emails that have gone around my own session.
This past Sunday I had the pleasure and challenge of filling in for the pastor of my church to preach and lead worship (putting that M.Div. to work). It is a classic reformed building in the style of a large raised center pulpit, stained glass windows, etc. You have been at a church just like it and perhaps preach in one on a regular basis.
Since my wife and I have been going to this church, now for the past two years, it has been in a rebuilding stage after a less than amicable stage in its development about a year or two prior to our arrival. It is strange because looking around at the congregation demographics of regular attenders, an entire generation is missing. There are a lot of golden agers and a lot fo really young families, including my own, but there is no youth group. We have a lot of small kids, but no real high school age group yet. Our pastor’s vision has been to rebuild what had been damaged.
The weekly attendance is normal for what constitutes most membership roles in the PCUSA. We get about 100-120 each week over three services. As of 2006, almost half of all PCUSA congregations have a membership of under 150. There is something vital and important about the small church ministry that in some ways seems anachronistic in our culture of larger than life spectacle and consumerism. In many communities, such as the one in which I live, the small church still plays a vital and central socio-cultural role.
Yet there I stood, towering above this modest, yet normatively sized congregation behind this massive edifice to bring the Word of God. I felt distant and very alone up there. In short the architecture did not serve its purpose, it actually betrayed its purpose to a degree since it physically spread people apart.
As we continue to build and restructure the identity of my small church, there seems to be something of vitality to the ideas of being incarnational, missional, and non-hierarchical (emergent buzz words) to fostering community development. In many ways, the house church model would seem to cater well to a small church seeking to build and reimagine itself. What I find it hard to do is to wrap our community in these ideas that are so often socio-culturally alien to the expected form of community and worship that people tend to bring to the table namely, the pastor as the traditional head of the church, traditional use of architecture in worship, and on and on. Postmodernity is miles away from these types of communities.
So what are your thoughts? What can the emergent ideas do for smaller congregations such as my own that are trying to rebuild and re-imagine their roles as an important part of the community? What can emergent ideas do in the midst of the rather foundational lives of the local residents? How can these ideas bridge clear generational expectations by continuing to respect the elders while at the same time seek out and be vital to younger generations?
About dtatusko
i appreciate this post, tying emergent to small churches that are (or are potentially) undergoing redevelopment (or whatever you would like to call it). from what i’ve seen and heard and read, beginning a new community of faith is often far easier than letting something emerge from an existing and struggling and restless traditional church community. i’ve seen those new communities spring up in locations where there is a wealth of creativity and energy. yet, how does something emerge from a traditional worshiping community that is bound by location and is bound by a location that doesn’t fit the mold of an artsy, creative, energy-filled location?
That’s pretty much my question! I think it’s important since almost half of PCUSA churches are in said locations. Not sure how it breaks down with other denominations either.
I mean does emergent work in a place where 33% of the residents have bachelors degrees? These folks could give a rat’s behind about postmodernism. It’s all about bibles and casseroles for them. Yet, we cannot deny that their churches are in danger if we look at the aging boomer population.
We are in a small church in a rural community. One of the things that we did was to start an afterschool program. Our Sunday school program was was drying up so we decided to start having Sunday school on Tuesday. We began by picking kids up in k-5. The first year we had 12 now, 6 years into the program, we do two afternoons. K-5 on Tuesday and 6-12 on Wednesday and we minister to about 50 young people.
This program had an impact on Sunday morning with younger families coming to church. Our church looks very different than it did seven years ago. The average age of our congregation has dropped and our church has grown by about 40%.
Jim
http://www.junctionbarkers.blogspot.com
wow, jim! that’s awesome. you all definitely identified a need and it fit with your community. i appreciate any and all efforts to identify needs of communities and find ways to walk alongside of or with people in addressing them. one thing you mentioned caused me to wonder, and that is that you are in a small (though, not as small today as before) church in a rural setting. i do believe there are vast differences in the challenges faced by small churches in rural settings and those in urban/suburban settings. for instance many of the typical niches that we might try to fill in our community are already being done by other churches and, practically speaking, are probably being done better than we could do given their 2000 member church and the budget to boot (not to mention the people power associated with that membership). anybody see those differences differently?
I pastor a church of 200+ (so medium size for pcusa) in a rural county seat and a politically conservative, socially traditional place, but young adults here are just as interested in bigger ideas, deeper connections, more meaningful work, relationships and faith as other places. There are fewer of us to draw together than a metro area, admittedly. I’ve just ordered a bunch of books, “Who Stole My Church? What to do when the church you love tries to enter the 21st century” for the session, deacons and floater copies. We have forgotten for whom and why we exist. I’m hoping this book will move forward conversations about what we need to do to be faithful rather than doing what makes us comfortable.
Personally, I never need to eat another casserole, nor jello anything:)
JG,
I hear what you are saying and I can see how that it would be challenging in an urban environment. My only experience of small church urban ministry came while I was in seminary in Austin. There was a small church in Hyde Park that whose pastor was a retired missionary. The church was located across the street from Baker High School which was an alternative school for students with discipline problems, that is putting it mildly. The church adopted the school and began a mentoring program in which several of us seminarians participated. It was very challenging and stretched me and the church. It did not add to their numbers but that was not the point. The church was extending the love of God to a group of young people that needed it. We did one on one mentoring once a week and then did group activities. We even took a group on a camping trip.
There was a speaker at the small church luncheon at this past general assembly that compared the small church to a speedboat that could respond by rapidly changing direction. They struggled to find their niche in their context and each time they did things changed and they had to move to something different, and they continue to seek their niche. Here is a link to the story http://www.pcusa.org/ga218/news/ga08043.htm. I think that each church, large or small, rural or urban, has a calling and we need to be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit in finding where God is calling us to serve in our communities.
Jim
I am reading with enthusiasm and with a bit of question this Presbyterian attempt at change. I really feel it is necessary if we are to continue to exist that we change the old thought about what is the church.
I read a lot of missional and emerging blogs and communicate with lots of people about what we as Christians might be doing in the world where we live. I am part of a new thought as I am a CLP and I serve full time at 2 small (less than 100) churches in frontier Nebraska.
The first thing I notice is the use of emergent, it seems that word describes a closed thought process. Most are using emerging and as I thought about that emerging opens us to what next and emergent as I said is closed. (just my rambling thoughts)
I noticed some saying they are in an area where the mega church is taking care of the programs. What about community, the small intertwined family of believers that really change each other and those around them. There is also the concern over membership — that discussion would seem lost in believing a church is placed in a locale to serve a function of mission for God. When and if that is completed God will close said church, until then????
As a point of interest, I was recently approached to baptise an infant for a couple who live near KC as all the churches there require membership prior to, (good thought) but that they have a charge for membership.
Maybe if someone is near there you could reach out to the community and offer a place of worship and family for free. (what a novel idea)
enough from me, great post and thoughts
WaynO