A Volley from the Canon, Number 132--Small Congregations Plead for Their Lives

A VOLLEY FROM THE CANON, NUMBER 132 “What Must We Do to Be Saved?” Part I: Small Congregations Plead For Their Lives Clergy and lay leaders come to the bishop, or to the Diocesan Council, or to one of us canons, asking for help with “congregational development.” Of course, what they want is not congregational development. That is like asking for an investment strategy when you are broke: you have to have a viable congregation first, before you can develop it. When folks ask for a reduction of their diocesan apportionment, or for diocesan-subsidized clergy, or permission to sell off a piece of property to pay their bills, they are saying, “We’re dying here! We can’t make it anymore!” They don’t want to develop the congregation they have, they want a new one. What people mean is, “How can we grow?” or even “How can we survive?” Church growth is different from congregational development, and our congregations, small to middling size, do certainly need it. We are not alone in our standing as “The Amazing Disappearing Church,” if that brings any comfort. Active church members or clergy of various denominations ask me about the present state of the Episcopal Church. I respond honestly, describing both positive and negative observations. I used to be a bit hesitant, expecting some derogatory, judgmental comment, as these are people who would not be described as friends of TEC. That never happens, though. The response I get is a sad, “We have the same situation in our church. Maybe worse.” Yet we are more vulnerable than some, because we lack the membership “fat” of many communions, to feed off of during today’s leaner times. A 10% loss to a larger congregation is disconcerting: to most of ours, it is catastrophic. The reality is that the care and nurture of the small congregation is absolute life-and-death for us, especially in West Virginia, because that is who we are. When I make presentations about the behavior of congregations according to church size, I don’t bother with the two largest sizes—we don’t have any of those. All of our congregations are in the two smallest categories, and most are in the smallest. We have struggled, over the years, trying to make the Episcopal Church available as an option to the Christians in all of our West Virginia counties, with congregations located in as many of our market towns as possible. Every time we lose one of those congregations to attrition, we force tens or dozens of people to make a different choice, and that whole population loses the option of worshiping God in the Episcopal tradition. That is a serious and sad situation. I have some good news. Our church is growing in some places, and it remains strong and vibrant in others. To get to the good news, however, in all honesty, we have to dig through some bad news, and some very bad news, by way of several tough, challenging questions. The time for sugar-coating, if ever there was one, is long gone. If we want our small congregations to make it through the coming decade, as many of them as can, we have to face up to those questions, and answer them honestly. Over the next several weeks, I plan to explore them and offer some concrete suggestions for church growth, leading to congregational development for those brave, energetic, and motivated enough to use them. For this week, I offer one major suggestion that is prerequisite to all the others: DON’T FALL FOR MISTAKE NUMBER ONE: TO KEEP DOING WHAT YOU’VE ALWAYS DONE, HOPING FOR A BETTER RESULT. Salvation requires change. Yes, always.