One of post-2008 Recession’s reality checks has been the challenge placed on many congregations and denominations. Local churches were frail enough already, and for some, the economic downturn accelerated a series of anxious questions and difficult decisions. Churches closed. Some churches lost significant endowments while also dealing with the consequences of higher than prudent use of principle if not their dividends to meet operational shortfalls. Churches without a reasonable grasp of their financial and property management (admittedly few and far between) are still bailing out the water, often casting clergy with modest compensation and some benefits overboard in favor of part-time pastors who still are expected to keep up with the duties of their predecessors.
It’s been a tough few years, hasn’t
it? Working with churches as a
judicatory staff member has attuned me to the types of conversations churches
attempted over the years. The churches
who met the challenges with diligence and thoughtful planning have navigated
the rough seas as gracefully as one could expect. For others, conflicted or mismanaged
congregations are worse, not better, for the experience. Some clergy look forward with relief that
retirement can be no longer deferred.
Others ponder what ministry will be like with twenty-plus years still to
go, facing a future of primarily only bi-vocational opportunities with few, if
any, pension and healthcare provisions.
Add in the studies regarding pastoral attrition, and it’s a volatile
mix.
Called into the midst of ministry in
these times, the Rev. L. Gail Irwin, an ordained minister and freelance writer,
offers some deeply pastoral words for persons who love the local church yet
struggle greatly with the challenges of stricken stewardship, waning relevance
and buildings leaking and creaking in rural towns and inner cities. Through this book, Irwin summons us to
remember the God who turns mourning into dancing, seeing new possibilities
where decline, decay and death have seemed the only viable futures available to
some congregations.
Irwin speaks as a minister well
acquainted with the faltering churches of our day. She shares earnestly of her pastoral and
personal frustrations and heartache as congregations she served could not
embrace healthier ways as well as moments when she could see a far greater
narrative at hand than the dispirited faithful could tell about their
future.
Irwin’s forthright prose speaks to the
truthfulness of congregational longevity.
History is marked with the rising up and the drawing to a close of
countless congregations, yet in our post-Christendom funk, we feel ourselves
particularly challenged. Irwin observes,
“The decline we are seeing now in the life of institutional churches is part of
the greater story of how God keeps nudging us out of our comfort zones and on
to that better country. It is our task
to keep moving forward with trust, even when we’re not sure where we are
headed” (p. 21).
The book offers wise words for all who
love and toil within the world of congregations: congregants, lay leaders,
pastors and denominational staff. Irwin
invites us to address the depth of our grief when hard decisions loom. Taking stock of the psychological and
spiritual toll difficult times place on church leaders is encouraged as
well. I found her chapter on
“Expressions of Grief in the Faith Community” especially helpful as I work with
congregations, and I admit her thoughts helped me process some unresolved
matters still lingering within my own pastoral journey with struggling
congregations.
Irwin challenges churches to have a
clear understanding of the possibilities before churches aware that they are
nearing an ending. Understanding the
community around a congregation and realigning the church’s mission may move a
closure situation into revitalization. Irwin offers laity and clergy the
opportunity to consider several pathways into the future rather than the “boom
or bust” mentality far too familiar. She reminds the reader that hard decisions
are best made within the faith community together, not just deferred to a few
key leaders or the clergy (or the bishop/judicatory official, etc.). While we struggle, it is helpful to remember
that the facing of the future is communal as much as it is inevitable! Irwin wisely observes, “Once we are able to
face the change that is already happening around us, we may open our hearts to
the possibility that God is yet at work in our struggling churches” (p. 38).
Reading the book slowly and thoughtfully
will give you the opportunity to hear the wisdom of persons interviewed by
Irwin and assure you that your church’s challenges are very much relevant
issues among many churches. The
questions accompanying each chapter offer a number of thoughtful reflection
opportunities for individuals as well as small groups. Pastoral collegiality groups would find this
particular helpful, as the book addresses many situations of church transition
and challenge commonly experienced at some point over the years of ministry, if
not already!
The book also addresses the fruitful
ways churches can opt for closure. The
way in which a church plans its last wishes, divesting of all assets, can be a
time of building up a lasting legacy.
Practical advice helps difficult decisions be ones of great joy,
reminding us that one congregation’s ending is the beginning of something else
God will plant and bring to flower.
Resurrection, we are reminded, comes in many wonderful ways, bringing
new life where it was thought to be otherwise!
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