In all the GC kerfuffle, I missed Bishop Willimon’s post about revitalizing existing churches.
It includes this zinger:
If your church is in decline and not growing, it is because your congregation has decided to die rather than to live (alas, there is no in between when it comes to churches). The majority of our churches are not growing, thus we have a huge challenge before us. Still, our major challenge is not to find good resources for helping a church grow and live into the future; our challenge is to have pastors and churches who want to do what is necessary to live into Christ’s future.
Try this one out at the next ad council meeting.
John Meunier
John:
A usual the good Bishop cuts to the chase.
Thanks for the link.
As I’ve said on another blog, I don’t think that congregations decide to die.
Congregations may resist change, they may deny that change is needed, they may know that change is needed and not have a clue what sort of change or how to facilitate it.
If congregations actually decided to close - as opposed to hanging on until life became impossible - this might actually be a positive thing. In the US, is there actually a lot of experience of congregations of 30, 20 or 10 members trying to keep a large building going? That’s actually the typical scenario in my circuit.
I think the Bishop’s statement is inflammatory and unhelpful, actually.
I think Willimon’s point is that if a congregaton does all the things you say - resist change, etc. - it is deciding to die.
I agree that the bishop may not be taking into account the reality of many small rural churches. As another author said, there are some churches that will never be anything but a small church
And there are other ways to grow than by adding bodies.
But I do think there are a lot of churches that are more than happy to be what they are. There are a great number that do not live out our committment to free grace (everyone needs grace) and sanctification (going on to perfection).
Is Willimon being blunt? Sure. But sometimes that is a good thing.