By Greg Yee, Superintendent, PacNWC
Fall blessings to you as kids go back to school and we enter cooler weather. I hope that summer was filled with new adventures and a centering rest that has brightened your spirits. Bring on The Big Dark!
If you didn’t get a chance to read last month’s article please do so here. It introduces this one. I shared three stirrings I’ve had. They are not comprehensive by any means, but it’s where my attention has been for us in this season. As I launch in, I’ve decided that I will address one at a time starting with de-centering Sunday mornings.
Studies vary, but reports say that 65-80% of churches are in decline. About 10-20% are plateaued. 10-25% are growing. Our 73 churches definitelyreflect these stats, probably closer to the 80% in decline compared with pre-pandemic levels.
Many of our once-larger churches are needing to right-size as they find themselves in this 80%. Others made necessary shifts. Many of our churches are aging in place. We’re seeing a notable increase in church closures. “Build-it-and-they-will-come” approaches are fruitful in some of our churches, but overall it’s rapidly mis-focused. Sunday mornings are increasingly challenging. It seems we need to de-center it.
So much of what we’ve known of church rhythms revolve around Sunday morning. It’s been our core experience from which everything previously flowed. I believe a reversal is needed where the core experiences of being part of church happens during the week. More intentional and intensive discipleship experiences are needed. Even though we are always fighting against schedules and the multiplicity of choices of what we give our best to, I believe that we need to raise expectations of our discipleship commitments. More on this when I address doubling down on discipleship in December.
With current challenges and such rapid changes, it’s tempting to be discouraged. It’s certainly disorienting. When we talk with pastors and leaders there is no shortage of weighty matters. But, I will say that despite all of this, at our core, there isn’t a decline in faithfulness or dare I say hopefulness. I don’t see a decline in eagerness for Christ-likeness or being filled with the Holy Spirit or for God’s kingdom to be established here in the Pacific Northwest. If anything, there is a greater desperation and longing for all of this! There is a tension.
I am drawn to the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) with the different distribution of venture capital among the servants: tall, grande and venti…Embraer 175, Boeing 737, 777…Mount Jefferson, Mount Hood, Mount Rainier. Hopefully you got one of those PNW references – 1, 2 and 5 talents!
Many of our pre-Covid experiences were more likened to a 5-talent flow. We stewarded that for the season that it was. For many of us things clearly changed. So we’ve returned back to the owner and now he is asking us to go back out. But this time he’s asking us to steward 1 or 2. And that’s okay. That’s not failure. That’s not incompetency.
The parable did not rank the servants. They were all equally tasked to take what they were given and to steward it with reckless abandon – to be all in. The contrast was taking what was given and to be hesitant. Playing it safe and mismanaging even the smallest amount given was harshly judged and tossed into the heaping piles of fiery garbage outside of the walls of the city! We have what the owner gives us right now. How are we using it?
I’m just starting Cindy Lee’s, Our Unforming – De-Westernizing Spiritual Formation. It’s a good primer for helping us reflect on the beauty of other worldviews to complement our discipleship journey. As part of this, she explains that for western-minded folks our journey is mostly oriented around a linear orientation fueled by production and progress. Even when we experience hardships, we tend to see it as part of our steps towards a destination of perfection. The target is up and to the right. With the parable, we might be quick to say, “Oh, we had 5 talents and now we only have 1. We must not have been ‘good and faithful so shame on us we need to work harder.’” Perhaps, but perhaps that’s too western.
Lee contrasts this through her own experience as an Asian American. Asian cultures think more cyclically. Joy and hardship are close companions, and we go in and out of them in the cycles of life. Similarly, Indigenous worldviews are tied to the seasons and to the cycles of nature. Cue up Lion King’s “The Circle of Life.”
Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again. The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles…No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content…Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!” But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new… Ecclesiastes 1:4-9 (NLT)
I’m trying to say, don’t be discouraged. We may have had 5, but now we’re given at least 1. We have exactly what God wants for us in venture capital. We now need to discern what investing it with reckless abandon might look like. How do we not bury or play it safe?
What would it look like if we de-centered Sunday morning? Pastors, what would happen if you spent much more of the venture capital on developing people and outreach rather than on sermons and liturgies? What would change if you got out of your office more, walked your streets, invested in the leaders of your community, schools, and towns? What would happen if you didn’t settle for luke-warm faith? Contrary to popular concerns about people’s time, what would happen if we actually called people to greater commitments and raise the bar of what it means to follow Jesus? What if people started to drop their nets?
Lay leaders, what would it looks like if you spent more of that venture capital on the church’s connections and investments in the well-being of your community? What would happen if you grew more generous and hospitable and opened up your building more, built greater community partnerships and encouraged new ministry opportunities including incubating church plants? What if you didn’t staff for Sundays? What do you need to let go of? How are you playing it too safe? What if you freed up those reserve funds? What if you prioritized prayer together and regularly fasted?
Please don’t hear me saying that I think corporate worship is unimportant. I’m not saying that we should cancel Sunday services. I’m saying we need to think differently. I’m saying that if we continue to do what we’ve always done we’ll continue to get what we’ve been getting – 80%. The glory days are fading. Something new is emerging.
I believe that as we pour more attention and invest more of our time and attention on what we’re doing during week in outreach and discipleship, that a new revised and revived Sunday will naturally emerge. I don’t think it’s going to happen the other way around. We will move away from being Sunday Christians to actual followers of Christ.
Do you agree? Disagree? I’d love to hear more about what your church is experiencing especially if you’re already moving in this direction?