Declining Churches or Refining Faith?

Over the last four years I have read too many books, blogs, and articles which rail against the mainline churches, their decline, and how this is proof of their failures and a terrible thing. As I start my ministry it creates a great deal of pressure for me. I was born and raised in a mainline church and I believe my home church and my denomination are not failures but still do good ministry. Unfortunately the way to measure success is often placed in terms of membership numbers. For this reason I feel intense pressure as a new pastor to have new members joining my churches. If only United Methodist churches were growing then we would know that we are doing something right. Now, I certainly agree that churches doing something right can be seen as growing, but I also do not see the loss of membership in mainline churches as necessarily negative. In the 1950's and 60's the church was the social gathering spot. Church membership was not necessarily about devotion to God, but also about climbing the social ladder. For this reason I do not think it is necessarily bad if membership is down. I would hope that it can be a way for mainline churches to work on refining their members faithes. Church membership can easily become a measure of trendiness, rather than faithfulness of members. For this reason I think that every church of every type should be looking not just at how many people are sitting in the pews, but how the church is helping to grow their faith. Looking at myself, and relaixing how I am shaped by the culture around me, I wish the pressure was more on developing the faith of people instead of just getting more people. The conversation about the decline of churches does not focus on the staunch faith of a 80 year old, life long Methodist, it just focuses on the lack of Methodists. I think we need to change the conversation from what to do about declining membership to what we need to do about refining people's faith.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas?

I will be the first to admit that I am rather picky when it comes to Christmas. I expect, even demand, there to be snow on the ground come Christmas. Not even that, I expect a white Advent. The temperature today is just around freezing, there is fog in the air and enough rain to dampen anyone's windshield or spirit. This is not the sort of weather that makes me think about buying Christmas presents or getting in the mood to celebrate the brith of Christ. I know that there really is no connection between the birth of Jesus and snow, but in my mind there is. I mention this because I think there is a strong connection to the church. Too often I think there is negative thinking around mainline churches. Time and time again as I read books, attacks are made on the mainline churches and their failures and declines over the last thirty years. I do not want to dispute the factual nature of these claims, but I want to argue their continued negative effects. It is one thing to bring attention to the issue, but I doubt many churches are not aware of, and uncomfortable about their decline. For those few that this is the case, these comments might be useful in arousing them from their blissful slumber. For the most part congregations, and pastors in particular are aware of the need for change. I think what is needed is an atmosphere of hope. When it is gloomy outside and looks like spring, or autumn, I do think of winter and Christmas. We in the church need to remeber that with God there is always hope. We need to remember that there is always a reason to be hopefully and to generate this hope around us. I do think we should be unaware, or niave about the way things are, but we do need to cultivate a hope, a sense that things will in prove, that God is still speaking, still acting, still working with and through our churches. Are the glory days of the 50s and 60s gone from mainline churches for good, yes, but I think that better days are still ahead of us. I believe if we build that atmosphere of hope our ministy will grow because of it.