A Mainline Paradigm Shift?

Last Sunday I chaired my third ecclesiastical council in the past month. It was considered by many of those attending the most important of the three because it was to approve or deny the ordination of a pastor.

The By-Laws of our Association require that 50% of the congregations making up the Association be represented in order to have a quorum for an ecclesiastical council. I've been aware that we have come close to not having a quorum ever since the first one I chaired as president of the Association.

There are now 25 congregations in the Association and last Sunday, when I called the meeting to order, there were only 11 present. The agenda I have created for ecclesiastical councils begins with my introduction, followed by a prayer and the singing of a multi-verse hymn. The idea is to allow as much time as possible for late-comers to arrive before the roll is called. We were on the 4th verse of that hymn before representatives of 2 congregations came into the sanctuary: 13 congregations out of 25 really cut the margin for a quorum close.

Since Sunday I have begun feel as if I may be hitting my head against a brick wall. In past years we have had no problem in obtaining a quorum for meetings. Yet, over the past several years, we have had a lot of difficulty.

Today I raised this question with pastors from several other Mainline denominations. In the main (that wasn’t meant as a pun) they report the same problem and concern, although we seem to identify it differently. For example, one pastor spoke of older congregations, where the average age has increased to over seventy. He said he thinks that folks have more difficulty attending extra-worship activities. Another responded that his congregation was also elderly, but attended the activities such as dinners and weddings, but seldom attended functions such as ecclesiastical councils. He suggested the reason was apathy towards the wider church.

That word—apathy—became central to our discussion. Have members of Mainline denominations truly become apathetic toward the Church? If I had taken a poll of those pastors, I would suspect that the majority would answer that question with “Yes.” However, I didn’t take a poll.

And I admit that I myself do not have an answer. I recognize that there has been a paradigm shift in mainline Christianity in the United States over the past thirty or so years. I encountered this while I was pastoring my first congregation almost twenty years ago. In that small community, churches were not then affected by the shifting paradigm that had already touched so many Mainline denominations that people were beginning to say, “Mainline Christianity is no longer on Main Street.” What we were experiencing there and then was that a number of people were no longer attending worship, either because they did not feel the need or because they felt that their needs were being met by TV and radio evangelists.

It was during those days that I was first introduced to the books of Lyle E. Schaller. He seemed to have some insights into the “new paradigm.” In the first of Schaller’s books that I read back then—I don’t remember its name and do not even know if it is still available—he made the statement that contemporary churches and pastors were facing dilemmas that had never before been encountered in the history of the Church. I remember then feeling that I had chosen a poor time to shift careers from social work to ordained ministry.

Back to the present. During today’s discussion of the existing problems that our Mainline Churches are facing, Schaller’s name came up again. A Presbyterian pastor said that he had just obtained what he believes is Schaller’s latest book, A Mainline Turnaround: Strategies For Congregations And Denominations. He said that he is reading the book, along with several others, to discern what is currently going on in U.S. Christianity and if there are ways of addressing the apathy that each of us, in one way of another, have identified.

I hope Schaller can provide some insights and new strategies. I firmly believe that there is a place for Mainline Christianity in the United States, whether or not we are “on Main Street.” So I just ordered A Mainline Turnaround: Strategies For Congregations And Denominations. I’ll let you know more after I read it.