Welcome to the year 1662. William Shakespeare’s works are almost a hundred years old. The English Civil War has ended and the monarchy restored. By 1689 the crown will liberalize church attendance in England. That is, skipping church without a valid excuse will no longer be punishable by a fine or jail time under English law. Once compulsory attendance was lifted, attendance dropped. Likewise up until 1972, cadets at US military academies were required to attend religious services. At St. Anne’s in Annapolis Maryland, a fourth 6:30 AM service had been attended by nearly 200 midshipmen for decades. Once compulsory attendance was lifted by Congress, the fourth service at St. Anne’s was dropped and only a handful of cadets nationwide continued to attend church or synagogue.
Why am I telling you this? Because the other night I had dinner with key lay leaders at several of the large downtown Muskogee churches and they shared a concern that seems to be universal for certain types of churches – attendance is down. Clearly some churches are growing and some are not. Since we are about to embark upon a major building program, it might be useful to understand why some grow and some do not.
As I wrote and discarded three other sermons this week, I continued to mull over this question. What are the strengths of Grace Church I wondered? What are the strengths of these other churches? What do we have in common? How do we differ from the churches out on the highways that seem to be growing rapidly? Is there anything we can do to improve our situation?
Grace Church and many of the venerable downtown churches are blessed with a strong social network that goes back generations. We are all blessed with substantial financial resources and a variety of social, business and family connections into the leadership of the community. We are blessed with our respective church traditions that emphasize thinking over blind acceptance of literal interpretations. We are blessed with church traditions that focus on the accepting, inclusive, loving nature of Jesus rather than a judgmental, wrathful God. So with all these blessings why is attendance down for our sister churches downtown?
These things go in cycles. We enjoy success and growth for a while, then complacency sets in, external factors lock the new pattern in place and decline becomes the norm. In that period of complacency we allowed our social connections to dominate the churches while our teaching and outreach sagged. Preparation for confirmation in the Episcopal Church has reached such a low point that there is a common joke about getting rid of bats in the bell tower. The solution is to have the bishop confirm the bats and they will never come back to church again.
The 1662 prayer book traced the rise and fall of the British Empire. As the British Empire began to wane and church attendance began to fall in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Anglican evangelicals (lay people) launched an enormous range of social reforms in England including the abolition of slavery. While they were so engaged in reforming their society, their churches grew. This strong commitment of lay people in their churches to various social reform programs is what attracted others to attend the church and get involved.
If you want some guidance as to where we might make a difference in this community, pick up the newspaper. The lead article on Saturday noted that more than 10% of 13 year olds in Muskogee have had adult relations. 13 year olds! On the bright side, the Salvation Army provides respite for people escaping the heat. What if we decided to tackle just those two problems? We could be a haven from the weather, winter and summer. We could also find ways to help in teaching families about life skills. We could make a difference right here.
The other reason those highway churches grow as well as the Anglican evangelical churches of the 18th & 19th centuries is that they emphasize teaching. First I need to let you know that the word “evangelical” is not reserved for a particular political or theological agenda. In some respects it was hijacked by a few who used it as a label in political contests. But the word simply means one who brings the good news to others. In England the evangelicals realized that in order for people to attend church they needed to have a better command of the Bible and church traditions. So they began schools that met on Sundays to teach these things. From this the idea of free public education was born. Their churches began to grow again.
Quite a lot has been written about very conservative, growing churches in America repeating the ideas of 18th century Anglican evangelicals but why can’t we reclaim our own heritage? I am not suggesting any political orientation, but the twin pillars of works of mercy and Christian formation is a proven approach.
Where is Grace Church going now that we know this? We started an environmental ministry last spring and I hope that will take off. It has enormous potential. This fall we will begin a pair of programs for adults and youth called “Confirm not Conform.” While it is not strictly a confirmation class, it addresses most of the shortcomings of traditional didactic educational programs. Confirm not Conform as the potential to breathe a lot of new life into Grace Church not just for those who attend but for the entire church community.
You have homework today. When you go home I want you to look over some of the questions being handed out. Please talk to your family and friends about them. The basic idea of church growth is quite simple: If you want your church to increase in size, then the members must increase in Spirit. Amen