"Leaving Church"

Over at Revgalblogpals they have started a Book Club with the first book being Leaving Church by Barbara Brown Taylor. In April we will be reading and discussing Christianity for the Rest of Us by Diana Butler Bass, and in May the book will be Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. I bought all three books, but had not had time to read the book by Barbara Brown Taylor until last night. The discussion that was going on about the book led me to just go ahead and read it once the kids were asleep. I would have kept reading it except my eyes gave out and my brain quit. I did get to chapter 8. I have read other books of hers. I like her sermons a lot. They have been inspiring to me. I have heard her preach and teach at the Festival of Homiletics, and marveled at her ability to put the sermon together the way she does, and her way with words. But as I have read her sermons, I realized they would not work at the churches I have served. I have realized her style is not my style and that's okay. I have gained a lot from her book The Preaching Life.

Several things stand out to me in this latest book. She talks about her becoming a Priest and moving on to a church of her own as "natural course of things," and "I wanted it." I don't know about becoming a Priest, not being Anglican, but I do know that becoming a Pastor was not "the natural course" of things for me, nor did "I want it." But every body's call, direction in ministry, and following God's will is different than mine. But it makes me uncomfortable her saying it was the natural course. And I get uncomfortable hearing her say she wanted it, and not saying this is what I understood God wanting for my life, my ministry. I don't know, that may just be traditions, and language differences.

She also talks about the long, full days at her first church with no reference to days off, and losing herself there. And then she falls into the same pattern at the second church. That scares me reading that, no wonder she lost herself, burned out, was overloaded and then made the decision to leave the church. I can't say I have been perfect about getting my day off, but pretty close. And I can tell you my husband lets me know when I don't, and so do the kids. And I have been fortunate to have served in churches that cared whether I took care of myself or not and got my day off. Most recently my DS told me, that because I was serving a needy congregation to be sure to take breaks from it, get away and do something different. And I have.

The other thing I hear as I read the book is a somewhat romantic, naive view of the church and of the Priesthood. She did not grow up going to church and had very little idea of what the church could really be like. Having grownup in church, my father and mother being very involved, I have had an idea of what churches can be like, what preachers can be like, the good and bad. I have had to struggle through discovering what this appointive itinerant system is like. And each church is different and so I have had to learn the ins and outs of them.

I think I am going to stop now, because I have work to do, and I don't want to over load the reader. I'll post more later. I have enjoyed reading the book so far. By the way you can go to the revgalblogpals associate store at Amazon and order the books I have mentioned.

Growing Healthy Churches conference

Growing Healthy Churches conference challenges churches to be more obedient to God

Written: 2/13/2007

On February 9-10, more than 100 North Alabama clergy and laity gathered at the Brandon Ministry Center in Florence for the Growing Healthy Congregations conference sponsored by the Northwest District. The featured speaker was Dr. Paul Borden, author of the books Hit the Bullseye and a new book Direct Hit. Dr. Borden is Executive Minister of Growing Healthy Churches (formerly American Baptist Churches of the West), which is an association of American Baptist Churches in Northern California and Northern Nevada. Since the mid 1990s, this association went from only 36 of its 200+ congregations experiencing growth to now more than 170 growing congregations. They have now stated a new vision of a double portion which is to not only have growing existing congregations but to plant 300 new growing congregations by the year 2012.

You can read the full article here.

If you look at the picture on the front row, I am next to the woman in the pinkish orange blouse, I have on a brown long sleeve tee-shirt. Yep that's me with the short brown hair cut.

Highlights: During the two-day conference Dr. Borden shared stories and insights of how he has seen and helped declining local churches become vital, growing, disciple-making congregations. Growth indicates health; no growth indicates no health. He also explained one challenge for local congregations is shown in a recent Barna survey. It revealed that 91% of church members said they believed local congregations exist to serve them. Dr. Borden shared how this inward focused, as opposed to an outward, community focus, is part of the disobedience of many congregations. Borden explained how it was important for pastors and staffs to learn to exercise leadership behaviors such as passion, courage and flexibility. He also said it is important for leaders to keep growing and resource themselves and be resourced in their growth.He emphasized that the pastors and staffs role, as described in Ephesians 4, is to equip the saints for ministry. This means staff should help lay people discover and use their gifts and passions in the ministry of the church rather than doing all the ministry of the church. Borden also explained to pastors that is their job to establish the mission and vision of the congregations. And then not only cast the vision, but create a sense of urgency to energize people to jump on board and work toward that vision.

One thing I would like to do is go to the Hit the Bullseye Conference'07, here is the brochure for it. One of the reasons I want to go, is that it has workshops for women in ministry and dealing with change in your congregation, and the unique problems women can have. Plus you get to see and meet with the congregations that have changed. Anybody else interested? I think I'll ask for some financial help to go.

Our district has begun what they are calling Healthy Church Initiative based on Borden's work and Natural Church Development. I was able to get ST. John to agree to be part of this initiative. It hasn't started yet, but when it does, I'll be posting about how it goes.

Churches with rising attendance numbers:

According to a new study, success stories often involve men, drums, a joyful environment, and a concerted effort not to be too "reverent."

That's the conclusion of a December report from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, a nonprofit research group at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Conn. While most US churches continue to be predominantly of one race and to count more women than men in their pews, the HIRR survey of almost 900 congregations found growth is most likely when:

*A church is multiracial.

*Men make up at least 60 percent of regular participants.

*Leaders describe worship as "slightly to not at all" reverent.

*Drums or percussion are always used in worship.

Such innovations make churches exciting places to be, says report author Kirk Hadaway. It also explains why atypical churches, which are prone to innovate, often lead the pack in growth, he adds.

"If it's not uplifting, interesting, provoking ... it's perfectly acceptable in American society to not go [to church] anymore," says Mr. Hadaway, director of research for the Episcopal Church USA. "Churches that are providing a more uplifting worship experience and community are those that are growing. And those that do it well are not typical anymore."

For many congregations, learning to grow is a matter of survival. Six mainline denominations, all of which have been losing members for 40 years, saw worship attendance figures drop by as much as 12 percent between 1999 and 2004, according to a November report from the Presbyterian Church (USA). The United Methodist Church (UMC) lost about 34,000 weekly worshipers, or 1 percent, from 2004 to 2005.

"We have a sense of mission to reach new people with the Gospel and to minister to people's needs - that's why we exist - and we realize that we're failing in our mission," says John Southwick, director of research for the General Board of Global Ministries for the UMC. "We need to turn the ship around, and that means to start growing again."

For stagnant or declining congregations, Hadaway says, the new findings, based on data collected in 2005, offer hope because churches can usually cultivate at least a few attributes correlated with growth. But, church experts caution, this prescription for growth won't work if a congregation doesn't also lay the necessary groundwork.

"What's more, according to Bandy and Hadaway, changing a congregation's attributes often creates stress and conflict, which HIRR found to be the No. 1 factor when attendance takes a dive.

But perhaps the bigger danger in racing to emulate growing churches is losing sight of more primary priorities, according to theologian Philip Kenneson.

(See full article at Christian Science Monitor)

Well, maybe I should have brought that drum set for my son after all. But seriously, how to introduce this to a congregation of older people? How does one turn this ship around? Lots of groundwork. Vision. Empowerment. Encouragement. Willingness. The Holy Spirit.