For a study guide, see page 26.
Church survival is about going into the world on Monday By Wendy Healy
W
e gather on Sunday and go out into the world on Monday. Both worship and action—like diet and exercise—make for a healthy church. As churches struggle with dwindling membership and finances, congregations are evaluating their community responsibility as a means to both meet people’s needs and
invigorate their ministries. “We either gather on Sunday only or go forth into the world on Monday,” said Russell Meyer, executive director of the Florida Council of Churches and a contractor for the Florida-Bahamas Synod. This difference, he said, can determine whether a church is growing, holding its own or preparing for its own funeral. Meyer, who has studied church and society, contends that there are two types of churches today: • Those that focus inward. • Those that focus outward.
The outwardly focusing churches, he said, exhibit imagination and
dreams, developing ministries to meet emerging community needs. The oth- ers, he added, are open for Sunday worship only, teach fewer and fewer con- firmation students, fellowship among themselves and hold funerals. “We need a new imagination for the life of a church,” Meyer said. “Sur-
vival is all about a church’s understanding of how God sends us out into the world.”
It only takes a spark ...
St. James Lutheran in Crystal, Minn., is one of the churches to which Meyer refers. With imagination and a desire to take its ministry into the world, the congregation formed a partnership with the local school district. With an average worship attendance of 200, the congregation had experi-
enced declining membership for 20 years and wanted to get outside its walls, sort of like a “new Pentecost,” said David Lechelt, pastor. “You get to the point where you want redevelopment.”
So the congregation began working with the Robbinsdale school district to provide weekend snack packs to students who might otherwise go hungry. Along with House of Hope Lutheran Church, New Hope, and First Lutheran Church of Crystal, Brooklyn Park, they pack 2,580 food bags, enough for every other weekend. The churches decided that the packs would be offered to all children, not just those in need, to not differentiate. The program, which St. James has been participating in for 18 months, is so rewarding that the three churches formed Bonfire Ministry, reflective of the spirit of a new Pentecost. The ministry has launched other initiatives like a parish nurse program and a flu clinic at the three churches.
Healy is a freelance writer and a member of Trinity Lutheran Church, Brewster, N.Y.
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