Study guide Shrinking church: Finding solutions E
By Robert C. Blezard
LCA congregations are follow- ing the national trend of decreas- ing attendance and cash flow. The reasons are complex, but it’s pushing Lutherans to search for new ways to stay relevant and reach the people who most need the light of Christ and are least likely to come to church to find it: the unchurched, the fallen-away and the young.
Exercise 1: Your congregation From 2003 to 2011 average worship attendance dropped 26 percent in ELCA congregations. Look up your congregation’s trend report for those years and discuss: • How has your congregation fared compared to the average? • If better or worse, how would you explain the difference? • If the same, to what degree does each factor listed in the article play a part?
Exercise 2: Congregational mix For a congregation to be healthy and strong, what would you consider to be an ideal mix of children, young adults, middle-aged adults and senior citizens? Why? How does the makeup of your congregation at an average worship service match that ideal?
Can you remember a time when your congregation more closely matched the ideal? What happened?
Blezard is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Arendtsville, Pa. He has a master of divinity degree from Boston University and did subsequent study at the Lutheran Seminary at Gettysburg (Pa.) and the Lutheran Seminary at Philadelphia.
Exercise 3: Show me the money How is your congregation doing finan- cially? Look at
your congregation’s trend. Are you meeting your budget with money to spare? If so, has your yearly surplus been stable or decreasing? If you aren’t meeting your bud- get, how long has it been since you did? Since the last time you had a balanced budget, have your deficits increased? What do the trends show? How do you account for it? How much “reserve” money does your congregation have? For how many hard years could your congre- gation hang on?
Exercise 4: Asset assessment What are the strengths of your con- gregation—its assets in the follow- ing areas: location, building (quality space for worship, education, meet- ing and socializing), grounds (places for gathering, socializing, playing), worship style and proficiency, edu- cation for youth and adults, pastoral leadership, lay leadership, media resources, outreach? Is your congre- gation using them to the fullest?
Exercise 5: Congregational mood It’s harder to feel encouraged when fewer people are coming to church or putting their money in the offer- ing plates. How would you gauge the mood at your congregation? What are positive signs? Negative signs? How do congregational leaders help people maintain hope?
Exercise 6: Community change From archives or by talking to your most senior members, answer the following: • Who founded your congregation? When? Why? • What was the community like
back then? Who lived there? Where did people work? What did they do for fun? How did the church serve them? • Over the years, how did the com- munity change and why? Who lives in the community now? Where do they work? What do they do for fun? How does the church fit into their lives?
Exercise 7: Mission-driven? Speaking abstractly about the Christian church, why do we exist? What is God calling churches to do and be? What Scripture references ground your ideas? How are Chris- tians doing as a whole? Now get local:
• Why does your congregation exist? What are its vital reasons for being? • If your church were to close its doors today, would it affect your community? How? Or why not? • Does your congregational mission statement match the reality of all your church does? • What is God calling your congre- gation to do and be in your current context? How can you discern a dif- ferent purpose?
Exercise 8: Hopes and prayers Make a list: What are your hopes and prayers for your congregation? Go concrete, describing them in as much detail as possible. What would a bright future look like? How would it be measured? What things could be counted? Now, how do you expect God to help the congregation make that future possible? What role does the congregation play in helping bring the hopes and prayers into reality?
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