Quote of the day:
“You think your pains and heartbreaks are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me the things that tormented me were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who have ever been alive.”
--James Baldwin
We’ve seen an explosion in church growth over the last 20 years. In this country the growth is concentrated among conservative, mostly nondenominational churches. Many of these churches have become very large.
Conversely, in the same 20 years the mainline churches (United Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Lutheran, etc.) have seen a steady decline in both membership and attendance.
Those of us in the United Methodist Church have carefully studied the techniques used in the growing congregations, often attempting to emulate them in order to reverse our decline.
One method used has been to introduce informal worship, using a minimum of liturgy, lots of video and music played by rock band. Sometimes this is a bit successful, but almost never to the point of spurring rapid growth.
Attracting people to worship is a complex situation, and goes way beyond the assumed duality of younger people being attracted to “contemporary” worship and older people being attracted to “traditional” worship. It's more about taste, churched/unchurched (that is, level of experience in churches), and where people are on their spiritual journeys.
And that relates to why mainline churches have declined, while conservative nondenominational churches have grown. Spiritually inexperienced people like the latter because they can feel comfortable with the people and the surroundings, and the sermons are simple how-tos. They don't have to know anything before they walk in the door. They go, have a good time and get some life advice.
The UMC and other mainline churches tend to attract people who are more spiritually mature. Often people who are serious about their spiritual life or their theology will migrate from the nondenominational churches into a mainline church. I saw this when I was doing membership at one of the churches I’ve served.
Attracting the spiritually inexperienced is something we're not good at, with a few scattered exceptions.
Trying to grow the mainline church the same way the conservative, contemporary churches have grown is a bit like asking GM to build Toyotas or IBM to build Apples.
GM and IBM have huge, dug-in corporate cultures that support hundreds of thousands of employees, and that do lots of good things. If they’re interested in growing the way Toyota or Apple have, they can imitate the techniques of Toyota or Apple, perhaps with a little success.
But they don’t have the “DNA” that Toyota or Apple have, to innovate, design, and meet people’s needs.
The mainline churches don’t have that DNA either.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Can Mainline Churches Grow?
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2 comments:
Interesting comments, Craig.
Just a thought-
I would say that since the traditional churches have identified the problem, that of spiritually mature vs immature, that they use that as a way to attract new members. Some sort of campaign like an "Are you ready for more than smoke and mirrors?" type of thing.
Good idea, and it has been the focus of marketing in the UMC and other churches. Just like in any business, it's hard to steal customers. People develop bonds with their churches that go beyond spiritual needs, and unless they are somehow dissatisfied, they won't budge. It's a tough situation. But you're right that we ought to aggressively position ourselves as the place to come when you want more. Things will slowly turn around. Thanks, John.
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