By Perry Chang
Although change can be scary, many congregations are ready to change. Three in five worshipers surveyed in the 2008-2009 U.S. Congregational Life Survey said their congregation is always ready to try something new.
I saw evidence of this in May at a two-day celebration of the 100-year anniversary of my wife's childhood church. Ever since I began attending, Washington Avenue United Methodist Church, on the South End of Columbus, OH, has been a small, struggling congregation. Like one-third of congregations that participated in the survey, this congregation has fewer than 100 in attendance at the main worship service. As in many mainline Protestant congregations, many Washington Avenue worshipers are older adults.
It was clear during the celebration, however, that a congregation like Washington Avenue is not by necessity flying on auto pilot and mired in a hopeless spiral of decline.
Several years ago Washington Avenue started a Wednesday night program–dubbed "Wonderful Wednesday"–with a free meal, worship, and food pantry access. The Wednesday before the celebration some 140 people–many from the surrounding neighborhood, which the recent recession has hurt badly–were there.
Over the last few years this congregation–like three in ten congregations in our survey–has watched their finances decline. When my wife and I arrived for worship a month before the celebration and found the sanctuary empty, we wondered whether the church had closed. But we wandered down to the basement and were pleasantly surprised. The congregation had embarked on three important physical changes, and they were worshiping that Sunday in the Fellowship Hall to celebrate. They had enlarged the food pantry, built a ramp into the basement, and installed a lift elevator from the basement to the sanctuary.
Pastor Jeremy also explained that Washington Avenue had decided on a trial association with another Methodist congregation located about a mile away. After a year, both congregations are agreeable, the church will become the Washington Avenue campus of the Church of All Peoples. We estimate that about 4,000 U.S. congregations either merged with other congregations or absorbed other congregations during the year before the survey.
The Church of All Peoples staff and worshipers were very involved in the celebration weekend. They staffed one of the two bands that played live on the lawn in front of the church on Saturday, while longtime Washington Avenue folks served hamburgers and hot dogs. And All Peoples members brought lasagna for the meal after Sunday worship, while those who attended circulated around the Fellowship Hall peering at photos from 10 decades of Washington Avenue history.
Although he was tired after lunch, Pastor Jeremy was also reflective about the changes. "Soon after we got here, it was clear that this church was eager for change," he said. "They just needed a little push." And, with a little push, change is what they got: a bigger Wednesday ministry, a more accessible building, a tentative association with another vibrant congregation, and a renewed connection with the neighborhood.
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