Reversing the Church’s Decline

From The Living Church via TitusOneNine:

Posted on: May 7, 2010

By Kevin Martin

Now that several leaders are acknowledging the seriousness of the Episcopal Church’s declining attendance, membership and congregations, let’s think about how to change this situation. How can we move toward a more hopeful future for the Episcopal Church? Do we have to accept decline as our fate because other denominations are also in decline and everyone knows Episcopalians have a low birthrate?

If you’re trying to rescue a struggling institution, whether it is General Motors, Dell or Freemasonry, it’s wise to identify what factors will turn the crisis around. These factors are not difficult to identify. Further, if leaders establish a core of critical priorities in time, energy and resources, they would yield fruitfulness.

Our problem is not that we do not know the way toward a turnaround but that, like most failing organizations, we lack the corporate will to make it happen. For example, when General Motors faced its most recent crisis and sought a government bailout, numerous experts in the auto industry addressed what the management of GM needed to do. There was a strong cluster of agreement among the suggestions. Why did GM executives not try those proposed solutions?

The answer, best articulated by John Kotter a decade ago, is that many leaders are too complacent and too invested in the status quo, even if it is failing. Change is often difficult because it means letting go of what we know and moving toward what we do not know.

Throughout the wider North American Church, there are many thoughtful and wise mission leaders who keep pointing to proven strategies and methods. The Episcopal Church’s leadership occasionally plays with these strategies and methods, but we have yet to see a systematic and determined effort to make them dedicated priorities.

What might these strategies be? Here are four proven areas that would help us dramatically turn around the decline in the Episcopal Church:

Develop younger lay and ordained leaders with an emphasis on reaching younger generations of unchurched people. In the 10 years since Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold announced this as a priority, the average age of seminarians has risen by nearly 10 years. We clearly need to do a better job of identifying and developing younger leaders who have hearts to reach their generations for Christ and for the Episcopal Church. A key tool would be to create a Mission Training Center for these leaders and recruit our most successful, innovative, and creative leaders to provide the training.

Start new congregations using proven innovative methods to reach newer and younger communities for the Church.New church planting continues to be the singularly most proven method for reaching the unchurched in North America. If we could learn from other churches how to move away from our Episcopal obsession with buildings, property, and parochial boundaries, we could liberate those new leaders to seek the lost — or those lost to the Church. The Church of England is doing very creative work in this area through Fresh Expressions, much of which can be translated into the North American scene.

Intentionally identify 10 to 20 percent of congregations that demonstrate a readiness for revitalization and give them the leadership and tools to accomplish this.The key word here is readiness. Not all declining congregations are truly ready for revitalization, but some are. Research in congregations shows us the marks of these communities. Once identified, they can receive the resources they need to make a substantial turnaround. These churches are not the hundreds of congregations that would like to have 25 younger families who will join their church, giving on the same level as the most committed givers, and who will not ask that anything change. Such churches are not ready for revitalization. If we could assist 20 percent of our churches and add this to the just over 20 percent showing steady numerical growth now, we would make a substantial change in our future.

Enact a plan to reach different ethnic populations, especially Latinos in the U.S. There are two important points here. First, whenever Latinos are mentioned as a target for development for Episcopalians, a coalition of other ethnic and minority groups within the church undermine this emphasis by insisting that we should aim at all people. The sad but simple truth is that few of these other groups show the openness and receptivity to the Episcopal Church currently shown by Latinos.

Of course we should welcome all people, but we need to give ourselves permission to pick the low-hanging fruit first. We have a great advantage in this area because we already have just such a plan. This plan was presented at the 2009 General Convention. Sadly, it failed to receive sufficient funding to make it more than a mere token effort, but every Episcopal leader should read “The Strategic Vision of the Episcopal Church for Reaching Latinos and Hispanics” by Anthony Guillen, who wrote it in collaboration with many of our outstanding Hispanic leaders.

There are other areas that would work, but these four comprise a workable cluster of strategies that would lead to dramatic results. It is not too late for those of us who care about this community to start to demand it. It is also worth noting that these strategies can begin right now on the local, diocesan, and regional level and do not need leadership, staff or funding from 815 Second Avenue to happen. We all can contribute to making these our priorities for the days ahead.

The Very Rev. Kevin Martin is dean of St. Matthew’s Cathedral, Dallas, Texas.