There was a time when small churches had little choice but to affiliate with larger church bodies. It was their only way of assuring access to quality leadership, resources, and to effectively reach out to the world at large.
Times have changed. Hierarchies have grown while supporting churches struggle. They are expensive. Congregations can’t afford them and are beginning to realize they are not as necessary as they once were.
During formational years, denominations are eager to sign up as many congregations as possible. As time passes, relationships change.
Meanwhile, the care and feeding of the hierarchy continues. Smallest neighborhood churches are in jeopardy.
The measure of a regional body is how it honors the promises made to the smallest congregations when they joined the denomination.
Some joined with as few as 20 charter members. Today, with 80 or more members they may be deemed not worth saving. Their property and assets? That’s a different story.
Few congregations ever set out to grow beyond a certain sociological level. Church experts call them family/parish/program or corporate categories. Family churches are happy being family churches. Program churches are not trying to be corporate churches.
The focus of most congregations is and always will be local. Sometimes congregations find themselves adding a new sanctuary or growing their staff. It is usually a reflection of neighborhood growth. Often significant growth never happens, but the church can still fulfill its mission in its neighborhood.
If growth is the goal, most neighborhood congregations are at a severe disadvantage. They have far fewer options in attracting professional leadership. Denominations even admit to assigning “caretaker” pastors with low expectations for ministry. This drains a congregation’s resources and self-esteem.
A pattern begins. Small congregations know they are not getting equal services. They withhold support.
But hierarchies accumulate more than wealth. They accumulate power. With dwindling support from small and neglected congregations, they begin to exert power. As part of the process, they equate the level of support they are receiving with the congregation’s viability. They try to get resources wherever they can and if the congregations choose to not support the regional body — well, watch out!
Regional bodies and church agencies start to look for ways to fund the structure they have become accustomed to. “Development Offices,” funded with the offerings of many churches, target donors — who are most likely members of the participating congregations. The word “mission” will be in all their promotional material. People are more likely to give to corporate “mission” than to corporate “rent.”
They are now in competition with their member congregations for offerings. They want a bigger piece of the church pie.
With the recent court ruling in southeastern Pennsylvania, church hierarchies — even those prohibited from taking church assets by their founding constitutions — can legally reach directly into the wallets of their congregations without their permission. They need only issue an “opinion” that the church is not viable. We at Redeemer, know how easy it is for leaders to reach that “opinion,” especially when the denomination is running a six-figure deficit budget.
In the end, this is self-defeating. Eventually, the regional expression of the denomination will be funded by a roster of churches — all in financial decline.
Eventually? Look at the church statistics.
Almost every church in SEPA Synod is in decline!
The success of the future church is still dependent on a presence in neighborhoods. That’s where most people attend church — where they live, vote, send their children to school, and where every other aspect of their lives has roots. It will always be this way. People are not attracted to church by the size of the parking lot but on how they fit in. Statistically, most Christians choose to join small churches.
That’s 2×2’s mission. We support small church ministries.
