Wow! Applications for the creative ministry fund representing 25 congregations from throughout Diocal were received by the first deadline.
It's clear there's lots of creativity in the diocese. The committee meets June 25th to consider these requests. In the meantime, lots of people are busy reading materials, preparing for interviews, (about 25 people are site interviewers who are donating time to visit the congregations to help the committee understand more about the application) and being excited by what's happening in the congregations of the diocese. More about this will follow...
Journalist Mary Lou Creamer thinks so: " After two decades of struggling with declining membership, not only have the numbers been stable for more than a decade, but surveys indicate the trend is starting to reverse itself with increasing numbers at Sunday services." Continue reading for the remainder of this interesting article (which includes info from Nancy Ammerman, church sociologist extraordinaire and whose books you'll find in the condev cyber bookstore.)
Mainline churches again filling pews
Families are returning to tradition after years of decline
By MARY LOU CREAMER
Times Herald/PORT HURON, MICHIGAN
When Becky and Peter Hopersberger went looking for a church to be married
in, she did what most in her generation do: She got on the Internet.
Then, the couple did something else more of their generation is doing: They
stayed with that church.
"I love our church," said Becky Hopersberger, 27, who lives in Harrison
Township and makes the 25-minute drive each Sunday to St. Paul's Episcopal
in St. Clair.
"I love the traditional service, and I love the fact that they use all of
those wonderful old hymns," she said. "From the very first time we walked in
the door, everyone was so welcoming."
The Hopersbergers are among a growing number of people returning to mainline
denominational churches. After two decades of struggling with declining
membership, not only have the numbers been stable for more than a decade,
but surveys indicate the trend is starting to reverse itself with increasing
numbers at Sunday services.
Mainline churches, such as Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopal and Methodist,
have, in the past 10 years, settled into a new place in society, said Dr.
Nancy Ammerman, one of the nation's leading experts in the sociology of
religion.
"They're not in the tailspin they were in for a couple of decades,"
Ammerman, a professor at Hartford Seminary said. "They recognize they're not
going to be the dominant influence they were for a couple of centuries
before.
"Some, like the Episcopal and Lutheran churches, have made some gains and
realize that they can come back, it's just not going to be rapid growth."
Dr. Diana Butler Bass agrees. Although the numbers are small, there is hope,
said the author of the book Strength for the Journey and director of the
Lilly Endowment project at the Episcopal Virginia Theological Seminary in
Alexandria, Va.
"The hemorrhaging has stopped," she said. "People are rediscovering the
quiet beauty, theological resources and rich traditions of the older
mainline churches. They're taking their oldest stuff -- musical heritage and
ancient practices -- and presenting them in new ways. People are finding
that attractive."
Brand loyalty
Mainline Protestant churches once were considered the bedrock in any
community. Membership in those churches today is one-third lower than it was
30 years ago, according to the Princeton Religion Research Center.
Experts point to several demographic factors, such as a drop in childbirth,
aging, education and mobility for the decline in the 1970s and '80s. But the
biggest reason is the exodus of the Baby Boomers, said Dr. Robert Wuthnow, a
sociologist at Princeton University.
"They were tired of the establishment and left. When they did that, they
took their children with them," he said.
The Rev. Mark Thomas, 50, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Port Huron,
agrees. He's been coping with the declining membership for all 23 years of
his ministry.
"At times I think we're still learning and trying to get a handle on why
this happened," he said. "But in truth, I think the mainline churches were
more the victim of cultural and social change than it actually being
anything we did or did not do.
"There was a time when if you bought a Chevrolet, then you were a Chevrolet
man for life. It was the same with churches. That's gone today; you don't
have that loyalty."
The Rev. Bill Bendert, pastor of Pilgrim Lutheran Church in Marysville,
calls it the "death of denominationalism."
"People don't come to our church looking for a Lutheran church," he said.
"They come because someone invited them, they hear about our reputation, or
they keep driving by our building and think it looks interesting.
"Most people in mainline churches today grew up in some other denomination
than the one they are in. Most are no longer those lifelong, cradle-to-grave
members."
Numbers game
Membership has been slow to bounce back, but attendance is on the upswing.
An example, Butler Bass said, is the Episcopal Church, which in 1970, had
roughly 3.2 million members and an average weekly Sunday attendance of
750,000 people. In 1997, it had 2.5 million members but average weekly
Sunday attendance was 1.2 million.
"That's one out of two Episcopalians coming to church on Sunday," she said.
"So, now instead of counting members, many denominations track attendance.
These statistics tentatively indicate that while people hesitate to join
mainline churches officially, more are attending than in a generation."
The struggles also have been good for churches.
"It's forced us to recognize the goodness of grace and wisdom in the ways we
practice our faith," Butler Bass said. "Instead of weeping over numbers,
it's time to appreciate where God has taken us. For some, it has brought out
the very best."
Thomas agrees.
"We've stopped trying to be all things to all people," he said. "Instead,
we're celebrating and respecting our differences and have gone back to doing
the things we do really well."
Back to the basics
Research shows there is a growing thirst for spirituality in this country.
While many Generation X members may rely on cyberspace for religious
experiences, those coming behind them will hunger for a more traditional
experience with a deeper spirituality.
"All the reports say the younger ones want substance, not entertainment,"
Thomas said. "They want meat and potatoes.
"Well, the mainline churches have been serving meat and potatoes for 1,000
years. So, that's great news for us."
Originally published Sunday, May 25, 2003
ABOUT THIS REPORT
* This story is the second installment in a series by Mary Lou Creamer
looking at the diverse attributes, interests and perspectives of the faith
of people in the Blue Water Area.
* If you have comments about this story, or suggestions about future
stories, call her at (810) 989-6279 or e-mail mlcreamer@gannett.com.
tramadol for pain relief Yesterday upon the stair
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today --
I think he's from the CIA.
tramadol
According to The Teal Trust, a leading Christian think-thank/resource from the UK, the answer is YES. They say:
"There are a range of characteristics of Christian leaders :
- Humility in the use of authority and power entrusted to them
- Trustworthiness
- Willingness to lead out of leadership gifting and ability rather than from their leadership position
- A desire to encourage growth and development in others.
- Integrity to live out Christian principles consistently.
- Future vision is earthed in an understanding of God's calling
- An active prayer life.
Whilst Christian leaders are not the sole practitioners of the first four, and the fifth can be partially found in non-Christian leaders, the final two are likely to be the sole preserve of the Christian leader. It is the combination of the seven, that give a style of leadership that is distinctly Christian. This leadership is in no sense "weak", since the self-awareness and self-giving love required to display these characteristics can only be found in the most mature of personalities. Christian leaders will need to adopt a servant leadership style, modelled on that demonstrated by Jesus."
To read more , click here.
Grant money is available. Here are the deadlines:
May 23, 2003..............Deadline for June applications
June 25, 2003.............Committee meets for grant decisions
September 26, 2003....Deadline for October applications
October 23, 2003........Committee meets for grant decisions
January 21, 2004........Deadline for February applications
February 17, 2004.......Committee meets for grant decisions
The Creative Ministry Fund is part of Jubilate Deo. Matching grants for creative ministries that strengthen congregations are available. For info, click
Do you spend hours and hours wondering and worrying about where to buy quality books on congregational development? Do you find yourself confused -- even at a loss -- amidst the forest of condev resources, and wishing someone could point the way to clarity and condev fulfillment? Probably not. But you need to buy condev books and now it's easy.
Thanks to Doane Atwood (at the Church of the Advent of Christ the King in San Francisco), condev@diocal now has an Amazon click-through bookstore, where you can find books mentioned in this blog, in workshops, and other books I think are good condev resources. To enter this cyber bookshop, click above, OR look over to the side of the blog mainpage (at the upper right-hand side) and click where indicated. You'll be glad you did.
Pre-broadcast reviews say a new PBS series on African-American religious experience (to be shown in June) is real must-see-tv.
According to a PBS press release "In six hours of dramatic storytelling, THIS FAR BY FAITH: AFRICAN-AMERICAN SPIRITUAL JOURNEYS examines the African-American religious experience. From the arrival of the early African slaves through the Civil War, reconstruction, Jim Crow, the great depression, the civil rights era, and into the 21st century, THIS FAR BY FAITH, airing on PBS Tuesday-Thursday, June 24-26, 2003, (check local listings), explores the connections between faith and the development of African-American cultural values. Lorraine Toussaint (?Any Day Now,? ?Crossing Jordan?) narrates.
The Rev. Dr. Cecil Williams (of Glide, SF, one of the most creative, inclusive, wonderful congregations in the country) is also featured. For details, click here.
You can't do much planning for congregational growth or development without hearing about "program size;" or about "life cycles"; or about "parallel development." These (and related) ideas are basic condev concepts, and YOU need to read about them. So, here's a simple way to read the (short and compact) c l a s s i c texts that were the source of such info, and for free.
These booklets, including: Sizing Up A Congregation For New Member Ministry, The Life Cycle in Congregations: A Process of Natural Creation And An Opportunity, and Parallel Development: A Pathway For Exploring Chance And A New Future in Congregational Life have boring titles, but they are fascinating reading -- and essential texts for anyone interested in church growth. And best of all, courtesy of the national condev office, they're free for the down-loading. Click here, and let your Adobe reader do the work.
The deadline for the first round of Creative Ministry Fund grants is fast approaching: May 23rd.
In order to be fair to all, there will be no extensions of the deadline. Late-comers will be considered for the grants to be made in October. For more info, email me or check the earlier entry in this blog.
"Small congregations are backbone of Episcopal Church, study finds." So headlines the following article from the national "Episcopal News Service" (ENS), which gives more info on the research I mentioned in a previous blog entry. But backbones can ache; read on for details.
Small congregations are backbone of Episcopal Church, study
finds
by James Solheim
(ENS) "The relationship between congregation size and church
growth is surprisingly tricky to measure," says C. Kirk Hadaway,
the Episcopal Church's new director of research, in a new study
just released by his office.
The study seeks to provide a more balanced perspective and
combat what he calls "misinformation being circulated around the
church using inadequate research procedures that gave an
erroneous picture of the relationship between church size and
growth, denigrating smaller churches and over-emphasizing the
contribution of larger churches to the growth of the Episcopal
Church."
"Unlike other mainline Protestant denominations, the Episcopal
Church grew rather than declined in overall worship attendance
during the last five years," according to the study. "Not
counting new congregations, the Episcopal Church increased by
nearly 17,000 attendees from 1995 to 2000."
Most of that growth was added by churches in the two smallest
size categories. "Very large churches added substantially to the
overall growth of the denomination but not as much as churches
with average Sunday attendance of 100 or less. Clearly, smaller
churches are the major source of growth in the Episcopal
Church."
Sources of growth
Yet smaller churches are more "volatile" than larger churches,
more likely to grow but also more likely to decline and die,
according to the study.
"So what is the relationship between size and growth in the
Episcopal Church? Actually, there is not a strong relationship,
but to the extent that a relationship exists, it is the smaller
churches and the largest churches that are most likely to grow,"
the study concludes.
"But the fact that small churches are more likely to grow is not
the whole story. Smaller churches are also more likely to
decline than churches in larger size categories," for a number
of reasons. They don't have the people, money, staff and
programs that would help them grow and "often have great
difficulty paying a full-time priest. "And the condition of
smaller churches seems all the more dire because many of the
churches that are smaller now have declined into their current
size category. Thus the presence of very weak, declining
churches among the current set of small churches obscures the
fact that many small churches have great potential for growth."
The study found, for example, that "the typical Episcopal
congregation has an average Sunday attendance of 80 persons--and
it is the typical Episcopal church that has been our primary
source of growth during the last decade," according to Hadaway.
He said that bishops in dioceses with many small churches "found
the emphasis on large churches and the impression that most
small churches were dying to be demoralizing. These wrong
impressions had to be corrected before they came to be reflected
in program and policy decisions."
"The point is that any church can grow or decline, depending
where it is on the growth cycle," said the Rev. Charles Fulton,
director of congregational growth and development. "But lots of
people are confused about why and how that happens."
We all think we have friendly congregations (don't we?), but it's hard to judge whether that's true or not -- unless you're a newcomer. One of the top predictors of whether someone will visit a church again is if they find it a friendly place. So, how can you tell if you're friendly?
There's no litmus test (and what's friendly to some is intrusive to others). But there are some simple ways you can test yourself. See, for example, the "hospitality checklist" Canon Kevin Martin, former condev officer in the Diocese of Texas, once wrote. As a bonus, you'll also find a couple of other articles by Canon Martin, including an interesting history of the '70s "renewal movement" in the Episcopal Church, and a sermon about Boomers and M.A.S.H.