The Unchurching of America

Yesterday Jean Hopfensperger completed a series in the Star Tribune called “the unchurching of America.” This is the final article of four she ended up writing.

The first was about how a way of life is finishing as churches close and denominations fade away http://www.startribune.com/as-minnesota-churches-close-a-way-of-life-fades/486037461/. 

She wrote about the burden on local churches with fewer pastors http://www.startribune.com/fewer-men-and-women-are-entering-the-seminary/490381681/

And she wrote about the growing segment in American culture that profess “none” as their religion.  http://www.startribune.com/fastest-growing-religion-in-minnesota-the-nation-is-none/498664191/

I wrote responses to in my own blog.

In July I wrote this: https://chainlink-chainoflakesncd.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-unchurching-of-america.html

In September I wrote this: https://chainlink-chainoflakesncd.blogspot.com/2018/09/who-gets-to-write-this-stuff-responding.html

Last month I wrote this: https://chainlink-chainoflakesncd.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-unchurching-of-america.html

Yesterday Hopfensperger wrote about how no one model fits churches as they take their message to this culture of the growing “nones.” She shared examples of different types and styles of ministry. She wrote about a new church called “New City” a new congregation founded led by Rev. Tyler Sit.  According to their web site New City is dedicated to environmental justice.  It took me some searching on their web site to discover that they are a United Methodist congregation.  She also wrote about a Liberian congregation in Brooklyn Park and the mega-mega church in the north Metro called Eagle Brook.

One quote from Hopfensperger's article that resonated with me was by Scott Thumman, director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research who said, “The model that fits with modern society are malls are boutiques. There will be very large churches and smaller niche churches.  Dinner church.  Bluegrass church.  Pop-up church.  We’ll have a greater variety of styles.”

This is the reality of the religious landscape in Blaine.  Here we have the mammoth Eagle Brook who is the large mall.  The rest of us fit in the boutique category.  We have a new church just starting down the road who is committed to starting new congregations. We have a Catholic church and two main-line churches (Lutheran and Methodist), and then we have all sorts of “flavors” of church.

For now Chain of Lakes Church—the congregation I serve—fits the boutique.  We were started using an old model of starting church—the parachute drop.  Parachute the pastor into a new area, who will gather the denominational adherents and then start a church.  With only seven families who came to the first meeting on my first day, this model revealed its flaws.

But since then Chain of Lakes has constantly improvised to learn how we can find our niche in the community.  We’ve become known as the church who will help homeless youth.  Despite our young age Chain of Lakes has received awards for our ministry with homeless youth.  Just recently we started a musical theatre ministry called “Common Good Theatre.” We believe that youth and kids will want to be involved in theatre, even if it’s being led by a church.  As Chain of Lakes moves closer to building a gym in a first-phase building, we will have more recreational ministries.    

As my coach, Tom Bandy, has often told me, “go find what is missing in the community and then create a ministry that meets that need.  And then go do that ministry very well.” 

I have conversations all the time with people who have hard questions about God and church.  They might have had a bad experience in their own faith journey that has caused them to question the need for faith.  A person can just open the newspaper and read about how the Catholic church protected priests who abused children.  No one wants that.  In these conversations I do the best I can to encourage these hard congregations.  Then I share that our congregation (though certainly not perfect) takes the safety of children extraordinarily seriously.  “Check us out and see for yourself,” I’ll say.  Some do; some don’t.

Church leaders who haven’t developed “the mall” will continue to have to wrestle with their own niche in the community.  Finding this niche can work and it can work in an extraordinary way.  Though it takes plenty of starts and stops and changing and adapting.  One of the mantras I share often at Chain of Lakes is “we’re masters at Plan B.”

The good news is that inside almost every human is knowledge that there is something out “there.” Most know at some level that what we see on this earth is not the end.  There’s a force or goodness or “something” out there that wants to connect to us.  It’s the spiritual quest.  Even though the church is struggling that spiritual quest hasn’t changed.

So even though Hopfensperger is right that the unchurching of America exists, church leaders who can respond to these spiritual questions can design faith communities that work.  We can’t just open up the denominational hub and expect the adherents to come.  We must be aware of the needs in the community and then create ministries and experiences from a faith-based perspective that meet them.  Those who do this well will succeed.