Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor's Page
Dear Friends in Christ,
Twenty-plus years ago someone on our District staff stated at a conference that the life of a church can be compared to that of a human. New congregations under the age of 30 were supposedly vibrant. But as time passes, just like us humans, the church slows down as it nears its inevitable death (ie: closure). That was disconcerting to me because I was serving a congregation that was over 100 years old. But in the eyes of some “professional church-growth people,” that congregation had one foot in the grave. It wasn’t true. I wondered then even as I wonder now, how could someone be so arrogant and insensitive? I believed they were wrong then and I still believe it today.
Recently I read a very insightful paper written by Rev. Dr. Mark Wood the managing director of the LCMS “Church Planting, Renewal and Support.” I’d love to share this document with you but it’s over 4 pages long! Instead, I’d like to share a few excerpts. And hopefully you’ll be encouraged by what he says as well as inspired to be upbeat and committed about the survival (and thriving) of congregations like ours. (His words are in italics.)
Rev. Wood starts by dispelling a myth. He said, “It’s easier to give birth than to raise the dead.” That adage, still popular in some church planting circles, is defective in two significant ways. First, it implies that a congregation in decline is either dead or dying – that it has no life. Second, it views both church planting and revitalization as human efforts. A Lutheran perspective of revitalization rejects both of these errors.
Some people believe that it’s easier to just start a new congregation than to work on an older, existing one. But that’s not true. He states: For several reasons, many of those communities are unlikely locations for starting new congregations. Revitalization is the best avenue for ensuring (insofar as we can ensure) the continued presence of a local pulpit and altar for the care of those gathered into Christ’s Church and for reaching those who are lost and perishing. That makes sense. Do you really think that a newly formed congregation in our small, rural towns is going to flourish better than our current ones? Oh, it may attract attention for a while, but that will fade and we’ll be right back to where we’re already at.
Rev. Wood points us to 1 Corinthians 3:5-10 for guidance. He stresses the fact that the vibrancy of a congregation cannot be generated by us humans. He writes: Revitalization provides us opportunities to continue and expand our “planting and watering…” Once again it is important to remember that we cannot by our efforts increase vitality. We can increase the use of God’s Word and Sacraments among ourselves and we can increase the sharing of God’s Word with those around us, but “God alone gives the growth…” This underscores that revitalization is not a work that we do using human methods, but a work that God does through us by His Word and Sacraments. It’s through God’s Means of Grace that He grows His church and not through fancy programs or other temporal things.
However, Rev. Wood does say that there are things we can improve on if we want to thrive rather than merely survive. He says, Perhaps the most neglected system among our declining congregations (as hundreds of congregational self-assessments have identified) is evangelistic outreach. It seems that the most common response to congregational decline is to compound the problem by furthering an inward focus. Once a congregation turns its attention, energy, and resources to maintaining the congregation primarily (or, in many cases, solely) for the sake of the dwindling number of people already gathered, it has entered into a downward spiral of decline.
You see, the minute we stop trying to reach out to our community around us and only care about our current membership, the boat begins to sink. It may require us to come up with innovative ways to connect with both sets of people. We dare not change our doctrine to accomplish that. And we certainly don’t need to imitate other churches around us in order to attract people to our congregation. The pure teaching of God’s Word along with genuinely caring for one another is the best “magnet.” We can be faithful to what we believe while using the “tools” of our modern society to reach people. However, good old fashioned personal contact is always a good idea. So let’s start discussing ways that we can actively work on revitalizing our congregations and working together to not only survive but to also thrive as we seek to fulfill the Great Commission.
In Christian Love,
Pastor Meyer
