I sat with my friend in the diner having breakfast. We had not seen each other in a couple of years. He is the Pastor for a church in a major East Coast city. " How are things going at church ?
" I asked. My friend paused and said, " Well, you saw the attendance yesterday. It was 26. We usually have more people attending. The contemporary service had 30 people in attendance. "
I thought to myself this isn't great news, this church has had several hundred members and is located a in a good stable community. Where are the people ?
" Have you thought about renting space in the building for community groups to use ? " I asked.
"We're already doing that.", he said," We're doing al-right money wise, but we are not getting the attendance. Ten years from now we may not be here."
I thought my friend gave an accurate assessment of the situation. Indeed, this church probably has a lot of endowment money and perhaps regular expenditures of utilities, building maintenance etc. can be paid for by interest earned on the endowment principle.
Yet, this doesn't provide a road map, dare I say GPS, for the future of this congregation. The neighborhood where this particular church is located is stable, but it is changing. Instead of having almost solely Caucasian residents, there are now growing numbers of African-American and Latino residents. On the Sunday that I attended my friend's church there were several African-American and Latino people in attendance.
Right before church, I attended the coffee hour. There were two- people there, myself and a homeless man from the community. The homeless man wanted to make sure that I sampled the Raspberry Danish that was on the refreshment table.
I appreciated the hospitality but I again thought where are the people ?
During the church service that morning, I learned that this church is participating in the program "New Beginnings." This is a program that several denominations have used in an attempt to either reinvigorate existing congregations or to start new churches.
The plan for this church was to have members of the congregation break up into small groups and then study Rick Warren's book "The Purpose Driven Life " over an eight -week period, respond and communicate with one another via E-Mail and then participate in two potluck dinner/discussion events.
My friend told me at breakfast, " I am standing back and I am letting them ( the congregation ) determine what they want to do. They need to discover what it means for them to be a mission church, what it means for them to reach out in mission to others. "
As my friend talked, I thought that this is all well and fine, but I'm not sure that reading and discussing Rick Warren's "The Purpose Driven Life " is really going to turn around the current condition of this congregation. The pattern as to why the attendance is down at this church and the fact that people are choosing not to attend appears to have been going on for quite a while.
This congregation is not alone with this struggle for sustainability. There are plenty of other churches out there that are experiencing the same phenomena.
So the question becomes what can be done ? Can you offer a Parish Nurse to be available two times per month to provide medical nursing services i.e. blood pressure screening, Diabetes, Depression screening etc. ? Can you offer church space for a Parent's Day Out program to assist with childcare and respite time for caregivers ? Could you offer space at the church for a community group that wants to proactively address affordable housing ?
I asked my friend " Would your church be interested in possibly merging with another congregation, preferably a group of people who do not either own or rent a building ? " My friend replied "Oh, they will never go for a merger. "
I again thought well, I can appreciate the fact that they want to keep their own autonomy and identity, but they are facing the prospect that they may not be in existence in the next couple of years.
My friend's observation "people are not attending church anymore " speaks to a new reality. Some people are choosing to meet their socialization needs in a different way i.e. walking or biking with friends, working in community gardens, participating in a painting class, etc. Some people have also decided to pursue their search for the spiritual in different ways i.e. through nature, through the arts, through meditation, yoga etc.
What this will mean for organized religion, for church denominations, particularly mainline Protestant denominations, remains to be seen.
Mega-churches have tended not to have this problem of dwindling attendance. You will usually see hundreds , if not thousands, of people attend mega-church services. However, these congregations have tended to spotlight "the cult of personality " of their pastors and when there is set-back for these churches either in terms of sexual misconduct by the clergy or financial impropriety, they tend to fall hard.
I am still convinced that many people long for being part of a faith community that will really care about them and will want to provide a nurturing and sustainable environment. The challenge will be how the leadership in churches address the needs of the residents in their neighborhoods.
We may need to do more than book discussion groups or potluck dinners.