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You are here: Home > News >United Church News > Growth is tough topic for many church leaders Growth is tough topic for many church leaders November, 2000 By Tiffany Vail With everything churches are doing to welcome newcomers these days — experimenting with contemporary worship, developing adult education programs, improving nurseries, creating Web sites — one might think church growth is a hot topic for discussion. But, according to a new study, the same church leaders who enthusiastically embrace such programs and changes often do not do so with the goal of increasing the size of their congregations. Alban Institute Senior Consultant Alice Mann recently conducted an intensive study of seven Southeast Area churches which are located in growing communities. All the churches had grown in recent years, but had seen their attendance plateau at about 250 a week. In each of the seven churches, Mann administered a detailed survey to 30 leaders and active members, did a leadership analysis with the senior pastors, and interviewed the pastor and two lay leaders in each church. One of her primary findings, she said, was that talking about numerical growth is difficult for many congregations where the “dominant ethos is ‘Golden Rule’ Christianity.” The phrase “Golden Rule Christians” was coined by author Nancy Ammerman to describe those who feel the most important attribute of a Christian is caring for the needy and living one's Christian values each day, but who do not wish to change the beliefs of others. According to Mann, such people have such a respect for diversity that they are reticent to evangelize — which can make it difficult for a church to even talk about how to reach out to newcomers in a growing community. In six of the seven churches in the study, leaders overwhelmingly identified themselves as “Golden Rule Christians.” “That so clearly describes us,” said Lynn Devnew Wolfe, chair of the strategic planning committee at the Pilgrim Church in Duxbury and one of the study participants. Wolfe said working with Mann helped her to realize that it is okay to make growth a goal. “We had always thought ‘if we do things right, people will come.’ We were looking at growth as an after-effect, not a goal,” she said. Wolfe said the study process helped her and other church leaders see that the new programs they have begun — including the addition of a contemporary worship service and a Thursday afternoon church school class — all fit together under a single vision. “This may, in effect, change the emphasis in our church. When Alice started talking about there being a responsibility to grow — it gave us a new focus,” she said. In her preliminary report on the study, Mann says most churches describe growth as something that "happened to" their churches. “Only a few articulated a clear moral or theological case for stepping up to the next size in order to make room for the people moving into their communities," she said. “I think it matters whether our churches meet the needs of these populations. Our churches have been wonderful on the other side of outreach — providing service and advocacy, that's been our long suit. The other hand of outreach, the invitational hand, is going beyond feeling that we are welcoming to an actual analysis of what our capacity is and what the needs out there are.” “This transition is one of the hardest or the hardest that a congregation will go through,” she said. “It's not a minor change, it's a major change in the congregation's self concept, a major retooling and revisioning of how we do church.” Other churches that participated in the study were: Dennis Union Church; First Congregational Church UCC, Falmouth; Second Church of Plymouth, Congregational, Manomet; Trinitarian Congregational Church UCC, Norton; Federated Church of Orleans; and First Church of Christ, UCC, Sandwich. To help churches take steps toward intentional growth, Mann hopes to use the results of the study — which was co-sponsored by the Conference, the Southeast Area and the Alban Institute — to develop an online course that will be used nationwide. The Conference is now looking for 15 churches whose average attendance is between 180 and 225 to participate in a pilot program to test the online course. Anyone interested can contact Susan Dickerman or at (508) 875-5233. |