Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Small Churches, etc.

Small Churches, etc.

Here’s our second posting on the future Presbyterian Church (USA), a church in decline. Our basic notion is that the church needs to get smaller if it is ever going to grow bigger. Embrace our smallness, we recommend, and we advise modesty about who we are by the mercy of God. We think the church is actually too big, as in too big for its britches. Today’s topic is about small churches chained to big old buildings, and then strays into the contested territory of stewardship. See what you think. And then share it, if it’s not too much trouble.

God must love small Presbyterian churches, since so many of them were created. Such churches are the bane and the blessing of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). We served the sweetest small church (as in under 100 members) for nine splendid years. Smaller membership churches bless us with their abilities to survive with little resources for sustained periods. Those graces will increase in importance as the whole denomination shrinks and shrinks.

Small churches reveal the future of many congregations, which casts a baneful shadow over the whole church. They are also the ones most affected by the current Presbyterian decline. One of our sources informs us that much of the membership decline of the denomination can be traced to losses within the old “First” churches of small county-seat towns throughout the nation, along with churches in farming communities that are in retreat, agricultural and otherwise. When those towns are losing population, Presbyterian churches are especially vulnerable to congregational leakage. We tend to emphasize education, which means that we send many of our children off to college, and few will return to the old home town that lacks opportunity.

The bane and blessing of small churches are their buildings. Because of our denominational history, we have a lot of old church buildings. Some are pure gems, and stand as beautiful and solid witness to the perseverance of faithful saints. The best of these shelter a small gathering of worshipers who are able to support themselves and to reach out to the surrounding community with welcoming hearts and helpful hands.

Others are not so fortunate, and their aging buildings are but money pits, strangling the congregation’s ability to afford adequate preaching, teaching, and pastoral care, not to mention any meaningful mission. Thus, here’s the New Rule:

If the upkeep of any church building cripples that congregation’s calling to serve both its internal and missional needs, that church will sell said building and use the receipts to support itself in a different physical setting.

Every church, large and small, should attend to the mission of God beyond its property lines at the minimal level of the tithe, or 10% of its annual income. A church of whatever size, whose outreach potential is destroyed by brick and mortar concerns, is guilty of idol worship. Buildings are sometimes strong, sometimes subtle seducers of the Spirit. We can come to love them too much, and Presbyteries can steer church members away from this particular sin.

A small church freed from the albatross of maintaining a moldy old building might form one or more house churches. It may seek to build another, more efficient structure scaled to its needs. It may rent from a near-by church or school. It may merge with some other congregation. Many directions are possible, but each one would insure that its missional tithe is paid.

While we are talking about churches doing what they rightly expect from their members, that is, tithe their income, let’s offer this New Rule:

From now on, all churches will pledge 10% of its income to the wider church. That’s the missional bottom line. Another percentage can be added for mission projects the local church chooses.

Most of the minimal pledge would be made to Shared Mission Giving. That covers Presbytery, Synod, and General Assembly. If the congregation is in a Presbytery with a high per capita apportionment, it would be free to count that money as part of the 10% pledge. For obvious reasons, the larger the church the higher the percentage of mission giving that church can afford. Medium-size churches can set goals of 25% of income given away, splitting it between Shared Mission Giving and local causes. A church that gives lives the Gospel, and so do its people.

That’s the big reform proposal for the day. Churches too small or too poor for their buildings need to walk away from them and breathe the air of liberation. All churches need to practice what they preach: tithing. And if they don’t preach it, why the heck not? Are they chickens or Christians?

What say ye?