Replenish and Renew Exercises at Good Shepherd, Augusta worth following
One of the Diocese of Georgia’s largest parishes is going through a time of self-assessment and renewal and the learning taking place there is helpful to congregations of all sizes.
Congregational Life Cycles
Life cycles are a natural part of the way the world works. Birth and growth followed by decline leading toward death. Yet as an Easter people, we know that renewal and rebirth are possible. Good Shepherd, Augusta’s Rector, The Rev. Robert Fain, writes at a blog devoted to the process, “Moving to the decline side is inevitable and unavoidable for congregations.” While this is the way life works, it does not make the full cycle inevitable.
Fain goes on to write, “The challenge for leaders of these organizations is to recognize when that has happened and to begin to take the necessary steps to renew and revitalize the congregation’s self-understanding and purpose.” Renewal should happen before decline starts or barring that as soon into the decline as possible.
When this process for Good Shepherd began in early 2009, the congregation was in a slow decline in a attendance, but giving was up slightly. While the numbers in attendance and the dollar amount in giving are higher at Good Shepherd, many churches in the Diocese of Georgia have experience a similar pattern of declining attendance together with increased giving on the part of those who remain. To get a more detailed look at the life cycles and Good Shepherd’s own assessment visit robertfain.blogspot.com
The Process of Renewal at Good Shepherd
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Applying this to your congregation
As Canon for Congregational Ministries, I can facilitate your parish or mission in looking at the data, including your average Sunday attendance and giving to assess where your congregation is in its life cycle. In this work, you may find it helpful to consult the free booklet available in PDF form at episcopalchurch.org: The Life Cycle in Congregations.
The key is to then use this insight to harness the deep change which occurs when a congregation develops a shared passion for the ministry or ministries God is calling the group to at a given time. Discovering that your congregation is in decline is one thing. But that insight may already be apparent and in and of itself naming the problem will simply move the process of decline along at a steadier pace. After all, who wants to gather to talk about how badly things are going. But if the reality of the congregation’s current point in it’s life cycle helps first a vestry and then the whole church to reassess its sense of mission and ministry, then the parish or mission can move from despair to hope and from depression to joy.
The way make this shift toward hope and joy is to forge a shared vision for the congregation’s mission and ministry. I am not talking about mission statements, but real, tangible mission. The process toward forging that vision will be the topic of next week’s edition of The Loose Canon.
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue+
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