Beyond Decline, Beyond Death

I have been reading J. Russell Crabtree's The Fly in the Ointment (Church Publishing, 2008).  The book is making the rounds in middle judicatory circles.  The subtitle gets our attention, Why Denominations Aren't Helping Their Congregations . . . And How They Can.

One of the ideas that intrigues me is that churches stop growing when some "critical resource" is depleted.  Crabtree says that a new organization will spend its initial energy getting its house in order, laying a foundation for its future, shaping its common life with the vision of those founding members.  There isn't much growth in the Organizing Phase, but a lot of important work gets done.

In the Replication Phase the organization puts to work what it created in that initial stage.  It reproduces itself several times over, growing ever larger.  This growth requires the expenditure of critical resources (not primarily financial).  For example, the key entry positions in the organization get filled, so that newcomers do not really have a place in which to be involved and become incorporated into the body.  Space may also become an issue: Is there really room in the parking lot and in the pew for everyone?

Most of our local churches (and the conference and denomination itself) have settled into the third phase of the cycle, the Stable Phase.  This phase, it seems to me, is really not so "stable"; it is mostly about stagnation and decline.  We have yet to discover new resources to encourage new growth, new energy, and new life.  We look back to some former time, some former leader, and some former success.  But, what was it that God spoke to the exiles?  Remember not the former things, or consider the things of old.  I am about to do a new thing, now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? (Is. 43:18f.) 

So, I wonder what is the "critical resource" that has been depleted among us?  It would be easy to cast this solely in economic terms.  We no longer have the financial resources to thrive.  Our endowments are being depleted.  Our buildings are in need of major capital expense.  We can no longer maintain what others have built.  But I suspect that the "critical resource" that needs renewing is faith, trust in the God who called us into this community in the first place.  God still calls us to be the Church.  God still promises us a future beyond decline and death--resurrection, new creation, eternal life.  God still speaks.

And . . . it's not only about organizations and churches.  It's about us.  It's about me.  This is the stuff with which I struggle daily.  Does the past have more power than the promise?  Are memories of times and people long gone stronger than the gift of hope that propels me to a new day, to new people, and to a new way of being in the world?  It's ultimately about trusting in the faithfulness of the Living God.

How to rekindle the gift of faith . . . .