Entrepreneurial Churches Will Survive
The Church tends to think of itself within narrow economic confines.
- Church professionals will busy themselves with all things mission-related.
- Laity will generously give money to them…and work hard, too!
The model is failing.
Small churches face the most pressing problems. We suspect that they hold some answers for changing things but are rarely given the opportunity to explore solutions. It is too tempting to just close them and rake in their assets.
Large church numbers are down too. Status quo must be the mission goal, because that is about the best you can find when reviewing parish reports—even in big flagship churches! A church boasting of 7000 members is likely to see only 10% at worship.
The temptation is to keep this age-old economic model going as long as possible.
- Beg for money from people—be they dead or alive.
- Build endowments that must be protected as a legacy for the hierarchy and not spent (or as synod’s tend to say, squandered) by the congregations that provide it.
- As the smallest churches begin to fail, modify denominational polity to ensure congregational assets are churned into the greater church, whether or not the donors of the wealth agree.
- Call the acquired assets The Mission Fund. Use it to help the hierarchy survive.
This is the current state of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (SEPA)of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). They are camouflaging a crisis. The only remedies we see being presented as we travel from church to church is more of the same. Commitment Sundays. Stewardship Sundays. It’s surprising how many of these we have encountered in our random visits. Lots of talk about finding the money to keep doing things the same way.
Churches continue to struggle.
And yet we keep trying to do things the same way—making the same mistakes over and over.
Reality must be faced. Money for mission and growth is not going to come from the offering plate. There are simply too many worthy causes demanding members’ expendable income and some of them have the force of law behind them.
If congregations are to survive they must start thinking entrepreneurially. The resources at hand must be viewed as money-producing assets for the benefit of the congregations — not the synods! Mission must be the priority. Existing assets must be used accordingly—to ensure that the activities of the Church help fund the mission of the Church.
If we are going to grow in mission in new ways, we must be willing to make new mistakes. Risk is necessary when the dependable model is failing. Otherwise we are fending off failure.
Why is progress so difficult?
The steps that need to be taken are unlikely as long as we rely on leadership from hierarchy that depends on churches failing for their survival.