BLOG 7/2/19. DYING CHURCHES IN DENIAL ARE A COMMON PHENOMENON

BLOG 7/2/19. DYING CHURCHES IN DENIAL ARE A COMMON PHENOMENON

In the heyday of the Christendom era, it was assumed that the mission at hand was to create church institutions, replete with sanctuaries and staffed by gifted clergy, … and that, all too frequently, without much thought given to what the God-given mission of that church was to be, or how its participants were to be equipped to be a significant part of that mission, … or of what the role of the church even is in God’s new creation. Especially, was it seldom even a passing thought that a particular church has a life-span, i.e., that it can actually fulfill its mission and then move into a whole new place and in a new form to be faithful in the mission of God, … that it can ‘morph’ into a new incarnation of God’s new humanity in some other form or setting.

That being so, it is not at all uncommon to see (ostensible) church institutions that have gone into decline, and that have lost awareness of their missional purpose and of their current context, looking back on their days of glory and romanticizing them, … and trying desperately to reclaim them, … when, in fact that almost never happens. It is not uncommon to witness them seeking to refurbish decaying sanctuaries, or calling a new pastor in hopes of reclaiming that past glory.

I have witnessed in my own lifetime many such churches in major cities, which a century ago were significant forces in their place, and with a significant endowment, seeking now to staunch their decline by denying their impending demise in just such ways. I have been sought as a pastor by some of them. It’s a sad phenomenon. A couple of decades ago, the Roman Catholic Maryknoll Order, becoming aware of it precipitous decline, contracted with a cultural anthropologist, Gerald Arbuckle, to study the reasons for the decline. His conclusion was that whenever such a community dilutes, displaces, or forgets its “founding myth” (its true mission and reason for being) it returns to (what he calls) ‘chaos’. He further concluded that they could rarely be restored, but rather that they needed to start all over again, and be (what he terms) ‘refounded’.

While some are looking (with denial) at their community’s decline (return to chaos) and seeking to solve the problem in attempts to restore sanctuaries, or call a new pastor, … other new Christian communities are springing up in the same neighborhood and flourishing by keeping the mission of God always as their raison d’etre, and engaging in their role of creating communities that demonstrate God’s new humanity in Christ, and in equipping their members to be contagious with the message and mission of Jesus Christ—and in seeing meeting places and church leadership (pastors) defined by that ‘founding myth’. They are also sensitive to the cultural realities of the present generation, youthful and creative. They form communities that are flexible, mobile, and versatile. Their meeting places can be quite informal and pragmatic. But, … they know why God has called them to this time and place.

But church communities do have a lifespan, which is usually vital for a couple of generations before the “forgetfulness, diluting, or displacing” begins to take its toll. I have written extensively on this in Refounding the Church from the Underside and other works, in case you are interested.

Peace!

About rthenderson

Sixty years a pastor-teacher within the Presbyterian Church. Author of several books, the latest of which are a trilogy on missional ecclesiology: ENCHANTED COMMUNITY: JOURNEY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH, then, REFOUNDING THE CHURCH FROM THE UNDERSIDE, then THE CHURCH AND THE RELENTLESS DARKNESS. Previous to this trilogy was A DOOR OF HOPE: SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IN PASTORAL MINISTRY, and SUBVERSIVE JESUS, RADICAL FAITH. I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, a graduate of Davidson College, then of Columbia and Westminster Theological Seminaries.
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