c. 2007 Religion News Service

SOMEWHERE OVER MIDDLE AMERICA _ At the other end of this cross-country flight waits a congregation that is eager to get moving again.

In recent years, like many mainline congregations, they have experienced some decline in membership, a weakening of financial stability, and a vague but troubling loss of clarity of purpose.

“People are confused and frustrated,” says their senior pastor.

“We aren’t living up to what we are,” says a lay leader. “People are in shock. They don’t know where to move next.”

Analyzing the decline yields scant comfort or direction. Neither documenting the decline nor assigning blame for it gets to the larger question: What now?

The issue is one of will. Do faith communities have the will to engage sea-changes going on in the Christian enterprise in America? Do they have the will to make their own changes? Do they have the will to venture beyond the inherited and safe and to enter a world where “best practices” of congregational health are accessible but challenging?

I’ll know more about this congregation after spending a weekend with them. But I do know this: The question of whether congregations can muster the will to be effective is the critical question facing mainline Christianity.

Since the salad days of postwar expansion ended in 1964 and a long, slow and painful decline set in, mainline traditions have tended to avoid this question of will. They spent a decade not even noticing the missing members. Then partisans began using decline as a weapon against whatever ecclesiastical changes they didn’t like.

More recently, denominations have allowed themselves to be torn apart by minor issues masquerading as epic moral concerns. Fed up with conflict, older parishioners drift away and young adults flock to more responsive Christian movements.

Lately, however, I have begun to sense the tide turning. More and more congregations are asking “What now?” and accepting the likelihood that the way forward, as in any enterprise, is unlikely to resemble the past.

Whether it’s merely a survival instinct or a discovery of holy purpose, the will seems to be strengthening.

One sign is a new kind of assertiveness among lay leaders. Unlike former battles over allocating clergy roles so that laity got to share the good stuff, the new lay leadership insists on performance standards that are normal in business but largely absent from church life. Budgets reflect actual income, not wishful thinking. Staff are being held accountable.

Another component of strengthening will is pushing through the control exercised by longtime members. Fresh ideas matter more than historic clout. Younger voices are welcome. Laity are standing up to each other.

With their denominations paralyzed by faux moral issues, congregations seem to be going their own way.

Much work remains, such as getting past the gender politics of recent years, weeding out ineffective leaders, raising up a new generation of young clergy, and pulling the subsidy plug on dying congregations that consume resources needed elsewhere.

Old ways die hard. Congregational cultures grounded in complaining and gossip don’t change easily to assertiveness and transparency. A loud negative can still derail a promising initiative. Stale nattering can intimidate fresh leaders.

Nevertheless, I find myself feeling hopeful about the mainline Christian enterprise. The settled are unsettled and asking, “What is the way forward?” They sense that the answer won’t be attending a conference or devising a new mission statement, but the hard work of adopting best practices.

(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/JM END EHRICH650 words

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