Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8 tells us that there is a time for everything – a time to live, a time to die… a time to weep, laugh, morn, dance… This is for everything under heaven – nature, all creation, ideas, organizations, people…the church.
For the past 7 years prior to my coming to Elk Grove UMC, I was part of a faith community where I dictated that the time of ending was not yet. I don’t give up easily on things in life, and so you can bet if I am a part of anything, I am going to fight for it to survive!
But is survival enough?
The process of letting go is so difficult, and most often, necessary. In ministry these days, I find it bombarding every corner of my thoughts. When is it time to let go of a ministry that has reached the end of its life? When is it time to process the letting go of membership instead of keeping our numbers inflated for fear that this letting go process is also a direct reflection of pastoral leadership? When is it time to look at oneself and realize that by “taking over” in order to survive, you haven’t let the church find its own path to thrive? As I work through the ministry assessment of a different local church, I can’t help but think – is this a time to let go… or is this a time to push forward and dream? Is there more than just survival at stake for this community?
To answer this, we need to ask ourselves what are the differences between surviving and thriving?
Surviving has many faces. For a church, it may look like a community that is financially stable with diminishing numbers in the pews. It may be an aging congregation unable to let go of what was in the glory days. It may be a faithful group of the church who put in 110%, are tired, but unwilling to give up hope yet, as finances dwindle, and resources are scarce. It may be a pastor who just can’t give up, thinking she can do it all on her own.
Surviving is exhausting.
Thriving may look like surviving on the outside. A church who is financially stable with diminishing numbers in the pews – and ministries that share the love of God with countless others within the community. Thriving could look like an old church building with new ideas on the inside. Thriving is not being afraid to look past the exterior to something new…to take a risk! It is honoring the past, and letting go of what no longer serves the community well.
Thriving is open and honest communication, knowing God is at the center.
Thriving is forward thinking.
Our conference, the Ca-NV Annual Conference of the UMC, has a vision for the conference as a whole and the local churches of the conference: Following Jesus, Thriving in Community, Healing the World. I am holding onto the vision statement as I discern my own thoughts on the information of this assessment process. How can this church we are assessing move from merely surviving to not only following Jesus – that is apparent in this assessment – but to thriving in community in order that they may be a part of healing the world?
The strength of the United Methodist Church is our connectionalism. This word, which is not even found in the dictionary, means that we are connected, like a spiders web, intertwined with and to one another – throughout our districts, our conferences, and the world. When one church struggles, we cannot sit in our little bubble and not struggle along with them. So often, our local churches feel like they are struggling alone. It was how I felt in rural Humboldt County. I was lucky enough to have a circuit that supported me as the pastor, that supported our church, and continues to support leadership there. And I still felt alone. Churches are often expected to figure out the problems on their own, and come up with solutions, and if the solutions don’t work, then maybe their life as a church has come to that point of ending, so that something new can rise up in its place.
I admit that this idea is not good enough for me. I want to know that if a church is struggling, that not only did that church truly do all that they could, but that our denomination did all that they could to support that church. When churches are close together, in the same communities, or cities, we often feel we need to support our own needs first, before serving the needs of other church communities. If we are truly being connectional, it will not be about our little corner of the world only, but about how we are able to collectively (as Methodists, yes, but more simply as Christians) follow Jesus so that we can thrive in community to heal the world.
What would it look like to give a surviving, but not thriving, church another chance? What would it take for us to say – I know I’m busy, but I will support your efforts, help you as I’m able, along the way, to do further discernment, to challenge the congregation, to seek out new ways of expressing church community, to be a friend, a coach, a cheerleader?
I don’t know what the answer is at this time – and somehow, in a week, a group of 8 of us will have to figure that out. I know that this has stirred up a lot of emotions and memories inside of me. I wish I knew 8 years ago what I know now. I can see now where I could have done things differently. I see now how I could have led differently. Sometimes, I wish I could go back. But I can’t … and thank God for that, because what I can do is move forward.
So, as I continue to be a part of this assessment process of a local church, I will continue to search out ways to be the pastor that my congregation needs; to be the colleague that my fellow clergy friends need; to be a person who can support and love, as I have been called by God; to share my gifts that might hopefully encourage thriving, not just surviving.