This Christian Life

Churches Are Flailing Around

…to figure out how to bring our understanding of the Christian gospel to those who need it. How do we do that? I’m not sure we know how…”

“Churches in decline often have no idea that they have any purpose other than to keep the church going,” Vande Berg said. “We’ve put too much time and energy into keeping old wheels running, instead of seeing how people live and experience God. That’s what it means to be faithful, and we’ve lost that.”                      “There is widspread agreement within their New York jurisdictions that many churches have been unable, or unwilling, to adapt to their fast-changing communities. Too many congregations stayed white, European and insular, rejecting evangelism as beneath them or politically incorrect, even as German and Dutch immigrants stopped arriving at Ellis Island and church neighborhoods underwent ethnic and religious transformations. “

“In the past few years, the five denominations have started intense programs in New York to reinvent mainline Protestantism by reconnecting church and community. Their vision calls for churches to be lean and outward-looking, focused on neighborhood concerns, dedicated to the spiritual and material needs of all who come to them, and led by laypeople who reflect their communities. “
 
It’s a streetwise, missionary vision that some say will require a mini-Reformation—and it’s contrary to everything for which mainline Protestants are known.

“If we do our job right, we will reflect the cultures around us,” said Suffragan Bishop Catherine Roskam of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, who oversees Westchester, Rockland and Putnam. “If we don’t, we will die. And we should die, because we would be failing to respond to the mandate of the Gospels.”

“Church leaders agree that they couldn’t shake off their establishment mind-set. For many congregations, a deep-set complacency took hold. Reaching out to minorities from different faith backgrounds, let alone recent immigrants, just seemed too hard. In some cases, it was simply not desirable.”

“We’ve always been real good at missions overseas, but not too good at welcoming Hispanics and African-Americans next door,” said Everett Parker of White Plains, the retired head of national communications for the United Church of Christ. “Too many congregations are run by old folks who would rather sink the ship than give up their parking spot.”

“It seems obvious, but churches need a religious message, a spiritual component to what they do,” said Kirk Hadaway, who researches church reform for the Episcopal Church. “Soup kitchens and Midnight Runs are good work but can’t be your focus. Too many mainline churches—the majority—are flailing around, not knowing who they are or what they offer as churches.”

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