c. 2007 Religion News Service

KEARNEY, Neb. _ When I congratulated a chorister on her choir’s excellent performance at the opening service of an Episcopal diocesan convention, she was pleased. They work hard, she said.

“I also do the altar guild,” she added with a mild grimace. “We just don’t have enough people.”

This congregation serving a small college town surrounded by glowing cornfields in full harvest has young adults and older adults, but is missing the middle group.

Other congregations nearby report an absent younger generation, who leave for college and, except for those who will inherit family farms, don’t return. Even congregations in lively Omaha are growing more slowly than they would like.

Episcopalians here seem tired. Not restive, not angry, just tired. Weary from four decades of steadily declining membership, weary from trying to keep familiar church life going with fewer worker-bees and shrinking resources for clergy. Weary from dodging the bullets of a denomination that cannot stop fighting. Weary from grappling with the changing landscape of a farm state where economic vitality is focused on one city hugging the eastern border.

Personally, I believe the Episcopal Church is poised for tremendous growth. So, too, are other mainline Protestant denominations. I believe we have something unique that our nation and culture need.

Yet the dilemma facing us is fatigue.

We have modernized many of our organizational structures. Those who can’t abide diversity have moved on to more homogeneous environments. Now we face the lingering reality of weariness.

When I visit churches, I hear laity who are just exhausted from decades of making do, and veteran clergy counting the days to retirement. At seminaries, I hear tired systems that are unclear about their purpose going forward. I hear staleness in the top ranks of leadership, not so much because people are stuck, but because they are worn out.

I don’t think it is a matter of age. Many younger clergy come into these tired systems and quickly become weary, too. Nor is it a matter of money. We have trimmed our operations to more or less sustainable levels.

In my opinion, we need new members. We need the vitality of fresh ideas. We need to be drawn outside ourselves by the new needs of new constituents. We need to hear how meaningless our stale battles are to a changing and challenging world.

We need to know that the gospel message is alive, transformative, rich and pungent. We need to see newcomers taste the joy of worship, feel the amazing grace of acceptance, weep at the reality of being loved and yearn to go deeper.

We need to know that these decades of staying afloat have led somewhere. Our bitter arguments might have been less than illuminating, but God has been glad for double-duty lay workers, steadfast clergy trying their hardest and bishops driving long miles to visit the weary.

Now we offer that treasure to a needy world, and, joy of joys, the world is eager to receive it. The wilderness has led to hope.

In my opinion, it is time to throw every resource into growth in membership. Money, personnel, programs, open doors _ all for growth. If some activity doesn’t lead to growth, let’s set it aside. If an argument won’t yield growth, let’s zip it. If some people won’t work for growth, let’s nurture those who will.

It is time to move from survival to growth.

(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus,” and the founder of the Church Wellness Project, http://www.churchwellness.com. His Web site is http://www.morningwalkmedia.com.)

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