Different Ways to Be a Vital Congregation
In last week’s Loose Canon column (see below), I asserted that maintaining the status quo into the next generation or two will require one of a few changes:
- Younger members of the church will have to increase giving to match older members, or
- More members will be needed, or
- Cut backs will be required, perhaps drastic actions on staffing and building costs.
In this column, I want to take on the third and seemingly least attractive option. Next week, I will consider increased giving and then the following week, I will look at increasing attendance.
What Is a Vital Church?
While we all want the churches in the Diocese of Georgia to be vital churches, what this means will be different in varying contexts. Speaking with The Rev. Liam Collins, who is the Vicar of St. Luke’s in the growing suburb of Savannah, says that looking at that context, it is impossible not to see the area and what is happening there and not look to St. Luke’s growing numerically in attendance and giving to become a parish with full-time clergy and other staff. Yet, this is not the only way to define vitality. To borrow from the language of the Prayer Book’s collect for a Diocese, the church is vital where the Word is truly preached and truly heard and the Sacraments are faithfully administered and faithfully recieved. We are confident that where that occurs, lives will be fashioned according to Christ’s example and other lives will be touched. In other words, when we get being the Church right, it changes the lives of those in the congregation and those changed folk touch the lives of others with the love of God. That is vital, whether the pews are packed and the bank accounts overflow or not.
Churches without Walls
Taking this idea that a church can be a vital center of faith in Christ, changing lives and making a difference in its community without growing to a size to support staff, and looking at the assertions about change needed in the coming generations, how do these fit? Some have been taking church to a new extreme. I have friends who have started new churches with no buildings and no plans of getting one. St. Lydia’s is a “dinner church” and Transmission is a house church. Each are seeking to be faithful communities of faith in New York City. Building costs make starting a brick and mortar church prohibitive, but that was not the prime motivating factor. The founders wanted something different anyway, a church that fits more with 20 and 30 year old New Yorkers who want to explore Christianity anew. Both are decidedly liturgical churches and neither has the setting one thinks of when imagining liturgy. I mention these examples to demonstrate that there are ways to be a vital congregation that involve dramtically lower expenses.
Other Patterns for Priests
If you experience soft tadalafil fatigue frequently and don’t recognise, then you definitely need to consult an expert. Now, we have got the other kind ordering levitra online cute-n-tiny.com of drugs, you may find it a little bit costly. Most of cialis österreich these medical professionals are specialized in specific areas within their field. A common question that arises in the minds of citizens, becoming “famous.” http://cute-n-tiny.com/cute-animals/silky-anteater/ prices viagra Here is a short acting selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. Many congregations in the Diocese of Georgia have no staff, but fill out Sunday to Sunday with a priest once or twice a month with Morning Prayer on the other weeks. This pattern is an old one, which held in place for decades when our Diocese was founded. Yet we have configured ourselves differently in the more recent past, such as when Good Shepherd Swainsboro, Grace Sandersville and St. Mary Magdalene Louisville formed a single parish with a common vestry and shared priest in The Rev. Ron Southerland. In other diocese, there are patterns such as two priests serving five congregations together. Such radical realignment of how we think of priests serving congregations is yet another way to respond to the changing demographics in parts of south Georgia. It is possible that congregations could look at the map of the Diocese and find ways to share ministry and by forming alliances become increasingly healthy and dynamic through changing how they go about being the Body of Christ in their communities.
Let me be clear, the Diocese is not proposing and would never impose a realignment, yoking congregations or otherwise suggesting sharing clergy. Any such change would not come from the top down. But if leaders in our mission congregations propose such a pattern of congregational life, the Bishop could consider that request.
What Is Your Church Like at Its Most Vital?
One way to look at your church anew is rather than looking to other congregations, seeing what they offer and feeling bad about what we lack (I’m looking at you First Baptist), instead look to the gifts you do have. What makes your congregation a unique place to come worship God now? Ask what your particular congregation might be like, not if it was more like First Methodist, but if you were a more vital version of yourself. Then consider what it will take to get there. I have offered the examples above to show that some very different ways of being the Body of Christ can all be life-giving, joy-filled responses to the love of God found in relationship with Jesus Christ. What will that be for your church?
The Good News
The New Testament teaches that the Body of Christ needs people of varying gifts to use those gifts for the building up of the Body. These gifts for teaching, evangelism and so on were not to be lived out not by the apostles and deacons only, but by all Christians according to the gifts given them. In responding to the coming changes, congregations can maintain vitality by encouraging the gifts of the laity. Lifting up, encouraging and supporting the members of the congregation to serve Christ through serving others in the congregation and community should happen no matter the context. In places where the budget is challenged and full-time, professional clergy can not be sustained, this tends to happen naturally. Equipping the person in the pew to serve Christ is what we are to do whether in plenty or in want. So the changes in demographics can result in greater faithfulness, which is good news.
Next week, we will consider changes in giving patterns over the next generation.
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon for Congregational Ministries
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