PASTOR’S NOTES – JANUARY 1998
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands: “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance. I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them to be false. I also know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for the sake of my name, and that you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this is to your credit: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers, I will give permission to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God.
- Revelation 2:1-7 (NRSV)
Most of my church experience is with churches that have a long history. Most of these churches have been declining in numbers, but some have been able to grow slightly over the years. I have a number of colleagues who have founded churches, and it seems almost a general rule that these new churches, if they survive at the start, grow much faster than established churches. In Toledo, I was a member of the District’s Urban Ministry Board. I often wondered if part of our United Methodist decline in these cities has been that we invested so much energy in trying to revitalize existing churches (many of which really didn’t want our help - or interference) instead of starting new churches in our older neighborhoods. A few churches closed, and we sold the buildings to other churches, and while our church family could not even afford to bring the building up to code, the new churches grew and built more on the buildings.
Now I’m not suggesting that this church and others just pack it in and close up so that new churches start. I do believe that it is possible, and God’s desire, for growing churches in this community to exist and build on what is established. But I do wonder if this difference between the old and the new, that “love we had at first,” is worth exploring.
I asked persons at a Sharing/Leadership/Training meeting (every Thursday at 6:15 p.m., anyone welcome) to help me come up with some of the reasons why new church starts seem to grow faster than established churches, or at least why it seems to be easier for them. Here are a few of our ideas:
Ø New churches can’t say, “We’ve always done it that way…”
Ø New churches dare not say, “We’ve never done it that way before.”
Ø Leaders in new churches don’t feel the pressure of having to live up to expectations based on previous leaders.
Ø New churches in the neighborhood are likely to have a larger percentage of leaders who are living in the church’s community. They intentionally look to leadership in the neighborhood.
Ø People in new churches recognize the need to go out and make new friendships. Advertising, spreading the word, this is everyone’s priority.
Ø People in new churches recognize the need to form new groups, since they don’t have them. Sunday School classes, support groups, Women’s circles, etc. all have to be started from scratch, and new groups attract more new people than existing groups.
Ø New churches usually start without a building; they expend less people energy maintaining a building.
Ø New churches usually start without a set program or budget, and probably with a less-than-full-time pastor; they have less worry about meeting a budget based on what has happened before.
You might have other points that could be added to the list, but notice that the difference between established churches and new churches is largely a matter of the attitude of its people: what we say, what we worry about, where we expend our energy, where we look.
Now the question for all of us is Can an established church have a new church attitude? I am convinced that this will determine what happens to us in 1998 far more than changes in the neighborhood, deaths, building repairs, or even increased giving. If we are willing to repent, to turn ourselves back to our Lord, and do the works we did at first, we have every reason to believe that we can recover the love we had at first. This love God used to call the church into being and do vital ministry with its community. Isn’t this what God calls us to even now: “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:18-19) I challenge us to be in prayer that we might be as a new church in our community with a new commitment to be what God wants us to be now.
Peace,
