By Robert C. Blezard


Study guide


Resurrection: Churches find new life F


acing declining membership and tightening budgets, thousands of Lutheran congregations are asking the same question: How do we be God’s church for the 21st cen- tury? Fortunately, several congrega- tions have stretched themselves to find renewal through service and transformational ministry. They are blazing a path for the rest of us.


Exercise 1: Stuck in neutral? Why do some congregations need a “makeover”? Look at your congre- gation’s financial picture and mem- bership totals over the last 10 years (your congregational trends profile at www.elca.org can help). What do the numbers say? How do you explain them?


Ask each person in the study group to rate your congregation’s need for renewal on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 signifying no need and 10 being a dire need. Have each do this without discussion, writing the number on paper. Share and compare responses, asking folks to say why and how they came up with the rating. As a group, come up with a consensus rating. What would you do about it?


Exercise 2: Resurrection churches Using the term “resurrection” to describe renewed congregations car- ries interesting implications. Before anything can be resurrected, some- thing has to die first.


Analyze the stories in the article. For each congregation, what had to “die” for a resurrection to occur? What attitudes, practices, “sacred cows,” properties, expectations, etc.? Think of your congregation. What needs to die for new life to enter?


Exercise 3: Inspiration Cindy Novak’s articles profile varied congregations that found new life in different ways. Ask study group members to identify which congrega- tion’s story they found most inspira- tional and to explain why. • What similarities are there between the profiled congregations and yours? • What differences? • What lessons could and should your congregation learn from the resurrection churches in the articles? • Could transformational ministry work at your congregation?


Exercise 4: Asset mapping Many resurrection congregations found strength when their leaders looked at the advantages they had to offer (their assets) and found ways to use them in the community. Discuss specifically how some of the congre- gations in the articles did that. Now take a fresh look at your congregation and inventory its assets. (For inspiration, check out the free online guide “The Quick and Simple Asset-Mapping Experience” at www.alban.org.) Look at such things as location, physical plant, surrounding neighborhood, skills of its membership, status in commu- nity, history. How could your church use its assets to make new inroads into the community?


Exercise 5: Unmet needs, unserved people Many resurrection congregations find new relevance and make new connections by meeting the needs of their community or finding people who aren’t served. Discuss how some of the congregations in


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the article did just that. Brainstorm about your community, both in church and surrounding church, and make a list of needs that you see and the people who are not served. • How can your church’s assets (from exercise 4) be of use in help- ing to meet the needs and serve the people? • What would it mean for your con- gregation to do so?


Exercise 6: Community connections


“When a church turns its face toward the poor, the stranger and those without the gospel, it is always being renewed and transformed,” said Ste- phen Bouman, executive director of ELCA Congregational and Synodi- cal Mission. “The congregations that connect to their communities are the ones being renewed.” • Why is there a correlation between community connections and congre- gational vitality? • Is Bouman’s observation true for your community? • How would you characterize your congregation’s community connections? • How does it relate to its vitality? • In years past was your congrega- tion closer to the community than it is now? What happened? • In your community who are the poor, the stranger and those without the gospel? • How can your congregation better serve them? • How might it transform your church? 


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.


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