Net Results Online

The last generation has been a disaster for mainline Protestantism. The denominations that once dwelt at the center of American religious life have drifted to the margins as they declined in numbers and influence. Doomsday prognosticators claim that if the decline continues at the same rate, mainline Protestantism will disappear from the American scene in another generation. Obviously, a viable mainline witness requires significant congregational revitalization. The question is “What will that take?”

A currently popular hypothesis suggests replacing traditional mainline ways of worship, nurture, and ministry with the highly successful methods of the evangelical megachurches. Some even argue that the only mainlines to prosper will be high-commitment churches that offer contemporary worship, praise music, and multiple small-group opportunities.

I recently served as the lead pastor of a very traditional, large, urban church where little has changed in a half century. I shuddered at proposing we replace the pipe organ with a rock band. Only a remote possibility existed that our members would agree to cease using the hymnals and commence singing praise choruses projected on large screens dropped in front of the stained-glass windows. Because most believed the “fruit of the Spirit” list should include “dignity,” our members did not take well to the casual informality of contemporary worship. Although they claimed to love all religious music, many assumed that meant “from the greatest works of Bach right on down to the lesser works of Bach.”

Does a congregation that has no interest in the Evangelical Megachurch Model have a chance at renewal?

That question drove me to research fifty older, large, mainline congregations that have renewed themselves for mission and ministry. In that study I discovered that the factors leading to mainline renewal are more varied and complex than often assumed. The ministers of these congregations employ different styles of leadership. Some vital mainline churches are socially conservative and/or theologically evangelical. Others one could better describe as “middle of the road” and still others as quite liberal. Some older, yet dynamic, faith communities are located in growing areas, and others thrive in declining neighborhoods. Some vital mainlines use the Evangelical Megachurch Model. Others do not. In fact, most I studied adhere to slightly modified, but still traditional, ways of worship, ministry, and mission.

In looking past these differences, we can observe a discernible pattern of shared characteristics emerging. These include attributes of leadership, congregational ethos, and approaches to change. Specifically I noticed that

These churches attract a constituency for the same reason that a grizzly bear seeks a beehive. Both places offer nourishment. These faith communities vibrate with the presence of God. People find empowerment for life’s structures of meaning when they participate in the church. Something happens that makes the job, marriage, family, and faith--as well as civic participation--more fulfilling.
Several factors seem to contribute to this vitality. Every vital congregation has a vision of where it is headed and an agreed-upon plan to get there. In keeping with mainline traditions, these congregations seek a mission focus, rather than expecting theological homogeneity. In addition, renewing mainlines set high expectations for everything they do in ministry and mission.
Every established congregation has a distinct story. This narrative includes the way the congregation thinks about the gospel and talks about its own history. In addition, the congregation’s story determines the way the church conducts its daily affairs. A particular faith community attracts an individual when that congregation’s story resonates with that person’s faith journey.
A vital established congregation that renews into a new generation acknowledges the importance of its story by changing in ways that remain true to its distinct way of doing and being church. Consequently, the congregation’s members perceive the renewing process as one of writing a new chapter in their story rather than composing a totally new story. The congregants see the link between where they have been and where they are going. As a result, most renewing older congregations tend to appear as the next generation of what they have always been, rather than as a new species of faith community.

When I proposed doing a study on how large mainline congregations renew over long periods of time, I did not feel hopeful. One denominational leader warned me that such a study would not take long because “There are not many churches like that.”

I finished the study more hopeful about the renewal of mainline Protestantism than I have been for many years. These churches not only can but are renewing all over the country. Renewal happens when intentional, high-expectation leaders work within the congregation's historical understanding of itself (i.e., its story) to plan for and sustain a vital faith community where mission is clear and worship as well as program are indigenous to the life of the congregation.

A more thorough discussion of this study on how mainlines renew as mainlines is found in his book Dinosaur Heart Transplants: Renewing Mainlines as Mainlines (Abingdon Press).

For Example . . .

Actually I found that these renewing mainlines had undergone considerable change. They did not reinvent 1952. The changes, however, [were] gradual, incremental, and called “first order changes” in the literature. . . . Visiting these churches was like seeing people’s grandchildren. They are not the same, but you can see how they got to be the way they are. . . .

In the last years, somehow renewal has come to be understood as necessarily divisive in the life of a congregation. While my study revealed that it is seldom easy or problem-free, it can and should be a positive experience. . . . Change that renews and revitalizes a congregation need not destroy that faith community nor denigrate everything the church has been and done in the past.

Although there are places that took the church back to a “faithful few” remnant and rebuilt using a brand new story, it doesn’t have to happen that way. I saw renewal taking place in ways that were indigenous to the mission and ministry of that congregation. . . .

Many ministers are being pushed to do things the congregation has never done as the way to insure a strong future. For instance, “do an alternative contemporary worship service.” We tried one at the congregation I served. We did it “in style” with big money [and the] best band in the city. In five years we “grew” that service from 126 on the first Sunday to an average of 23! It just didn’t work for us. Our architecture, history, faith story just did not attract a group of people looking for that style of worship. I thought there was something wrong with us and our service. In my study, I found this happening with some regularity in other places. A church just cannot do those things that don’t have some relationship with the sacred story of that congregation. In places where the leadership could make a connection with a contemporary style of worship, it worked for them. . . .

One of the things that I found interesting is that these [renewed] churches were all mission focused. In the traditional mainline way they seemed, by nature, to be outwardly focused. People come to church to encounter the presence of God, but because of that encounter, are sent back into the world to do the ministry to which God called them--e.g., [to be] a Christian parent, Christian spouse, Christian in the world. . . .

The vision of mission and ministry for the congregation might be enormous--“Change the city for Christ.” However, only the leaders catch the full breadth of the vision. Most people want to know, “Where do I fit into this?” A proper analogy might be the annual budget of the church. The goal may be for a $2,000,000 budget, but the average person wants to know, “What am I expected to do? What challenges me?” Make sure the vision for mission and ministry has a way for the individual to get on board.

--R. Robert Cueni, from his Net Results Online Seminar, www.netresults.org.