“What Can One Church Do to Make the World Turn Around?” was the theme of our 2007 stewardship video featuring Christ Church children.
Now we’re looking at an unmistakable decline in church attendance in general and mainllne church membership (that’s us) in particular. What can one church do to turn around a cultural shift that views “church” as another family entertainment activity to be juggled along with soccer practice and shopping at Target? In a nutshell, we’re doing several things, all funded by the Mifflin Bequest:
All four of these bulleted items fall into the category of evangelism. Yes, evangelism can be as simple as inviting a friend or neighbor or loved one to join us in worship; yet, many of us still don’t practice that intentional and relatively painless act with its potential to bear great and everlasting fruit.
I won’t dwell too much on the bad news from the recent U.S. Religious Landscape Survey conducted by the Pew Forum, but only 1.4 percent of the 35,000 Americans surveyed identify themselves with the Episcopal/Anglican church. The fastest growing group is “unaffiliated,” a potpourri of everything from atheists and agnostics to “nothing in particular.” People are shopping around, leaving the denomination of their parents to look for something that, well, better meets their needs.
Of the 18.1 percent who identified themselves with a “mainllne” church – e.g., Episcopal, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist – 91 percent were white and 70 percent had no children at home. Such an overwhelmingly white, aging population could spell even more precipitous decline for mainllne churches in the future.
That’s the first sign that we may be bucking the trend here at Christ Church. If you scanned the crowd at the Pentecost Pig-Pickin’ Picnic, you saw lots of children who are part of our faith family. And I believe our diversity is another healthy sign that we are holding our own against mainllne decline – for example, four of our 12 vestry members are African-American, and Andre Watson is our junior warden.
At Sunday’s forum on this topic, two of our newer families – the Weavers and the Niccolos – talked about our church’s friendliness, their children’s involvement in Godly Play and acolytes, and their conviction that their children (six between the two families) are made to feel welcome at worship. We are blessed to have the Weavers, the Niccolos, and so many new families worshiping with us.
Our Average Sunday Attendance has been coasting along on a plateau. It was 164 in 2007, up a bit from 156 in 2006. Pledging, however, is dropping off significantly, from 142 pledgers in 2006 to 130 in 2007 to 116 this year.
Evangelism is not about “getting our numbers up,” although we cannot thrive if we don’t attract new members and incorporate them into our faith family along with all membership entails – including financial support for our ministries.
Christ’s commission to us is to baptize, teach and make disciples. We incorporated that commission into our vision statement at Christ Church. Some may be uncomfortable with the “E-word,” but that is core to our being as members of the Body of Christ. Evangelism doesn’t have to mean standing on a street corner with a bullhorn; it can be something as simple and natural as inviting someone you know to our Sunday worship.
(If you would like to view the charts and other graphics used in the original Forum presentation, click here.)
— Lee Ann Walling
lwalling00@comcast.net