c. 2008 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) It might be that church is the last thing financially challenged Americans jettison as they grapple with $10-a-gallon gasoline. But church leaders would be unwise to count on it.

Even among loyal churchgoers, the looming recession could test their willingness to support church as they know it.

As times get tough, will Americans continue to contribute an average of $3,000 a year to their churches? Will they continue to subsidize out-of-the-way locations by driving 30 to 60 minutes at $10 to $20 a trip?

If people are working longer hours and driving less, can midweek programs continue? Will church become more and more a Sunday-only phenomenon? The day might be at hand when the vast paved parking lots once deemed a sign of success become a reminder of former, but now lost, certainties.

I don’t find the emerging conditions to be gloomy. Deteriorating social conditions should be our call to action. If we could respond as energetically to societal stress as we do, say, to a death in the parish, we could actually make a positive difference.

What I find worrisome is the state of our common life and our leadership. In a word, we seem paralyzed. Entrenched members resist change, reward compliant and unimaginative leadership, and smite ferociously any leader who envisions a responsive tomorrow.

“Long-range planning” means short-term strategies to perpetuate the present. We are unprepared for the future because we cannot discuss a future that looks different. Even though we claim a Savior whose every step was a radical departure from inherited tradition, we behave like a religious establishment defending yesterday and privilege.

What could churches be doing to prepare for tomorrow?

We could start by assuming that tomorrow will be different, and therefore our institutional life must be different. It is time to cultivate fresh leaders who are grounded in such radical concepts as customer service, creative problem-solving and technology.

We could take religion to the people. Just because we own facilities that depend on centralized gatherings doesn’t mean we must perpetuate that style. Think Internet-based community, think neighborhood groups, think delivering religious goods and services at workplaces and on iPods. Think walking, not driving.

We could re-examine our facilities. If we insist on operating large buildings, then they should be open seven days a week and functioning at peak efficiency to serve societal needs. We must ignore complaints about sharing space with a brutish world.

We could demand accountability. It is time for leaders to focus on things that matter and to require performance. If a church isn’t growing, it must be shown how. If it refuses to grow, it should be closed or put in fresh hands. Congregations must have strategies for the future and the will to allocate resources effectively, not nostalgically.

Individuals could examine their faith. Not just their religious preferences, but the place that God holds in their lives and what they are doing to make the world better. Clergy must nurture a break from nominal Christianity, even at the cost of being disliked.

God needs servants and lovers, prophets and pastors, communities grounded in conviction and not convention, and a servanthood-based theology of abundance, not a self-serving ethic of power and safety.

(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.)

KRE/LF END EHRICH600 words

A photo of Tom Ehrich is available via https://religionnews.com.