Coming to grips
with struggling congregations
Challenges abound, but so do ministry responses
By Linda Nansteel Lovell F
or everything—and that includes congregations—there is a sea- son. Periods of growth are inter- spersed with periods of decline; peri- ods of stability are offset by periods of struggle.
Across the ELCA right now, statis-
tics and anecdotal evidence suggest that a significant number of congre- gations are struggling to stay viable. For some, the reasons are eco-
nomic. It might be that the endow- ment upon which the congregation has based its budget was severely impacted by the vagaries of the stock market. Perhaps unemployment rates in the area continue to increase, and churchgoers are unable or unwill- ing to increase their support. Older churches face daunting building maintenance costs even as mission support from members declines. According to statistics compiled by ELCA Research and Evaluation from annual congregational reports for 2000 to 2008, the number of con- gregations operating with deficits
Lovell is a freelance writer living in Ellicott City, Md.
20 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
increased sharply from about 3,000 to more than 4,400. This occurred as the number of congregations on the ELCA rolls decreased. Another significant cause for struggles is declin- ing worship attendance, which traditionally has been the yardstick by which a congregation is measured. From 2000 to 2008, 68 percent of ELCA congregations declined 5 percent or more in worship attendance. Strictly in economic terms, the decline in worshipers in those years more than offset the slight increase in per capita giving (from $1,236 to $1,705), leading overall to a slight decline in average income for congregations, with the trend leading downward, while costs for basics like energy rose. The decline in worship attendance has led to more
than just financial challenges, however. The average size of an ELCA congregation, based on worship attendance, dropped by four people in the last decade of the 20th century, from 148 to 144. In the first eight years of the current century, however, aver- age membership dropped from 144 to 128. Research and Evaluation predicts that, by 2013, the average con- gregation will have 114 people in worship. In the larger scheme of things, the ELCA had 10,816 congregations on its rolls in 2000. Of those, just more than 2,200 were categorized as the smallest size (between one and 50 in worship). By 2008, the number of congregations had decreased to 10,396. At the same time, the number of smallest-sized congregations had increased to 2,900.
Kenneth Inskeep, executive for Research and Evalu- ation, emphasized the significance of increasing con- gregational deficits in the broader context of member- ship decline. “The people who are remaining part of this church,” he said, “are digging deeper and deeper in their pockets to support the infrastructure that we have (for example, their buildings) and what comes on to the churchwide organization. There’s a limit to how long that can happen.”
Inskeep also noted that in small congregations the capacity to call a full-time pastor or carry out other
SCOTT STREBLE
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