Churches Cry Out: 
Revive Us Again!

by Richard Adair

We see diminishing numbers, lack of working spirit among the congregation, failure to attract and keep new younger families and little enthusiasm about our churches. Is that what’s botherin’ you, Bub? Well, those problems are nothing new. Any student of church history can point out all the highs and lows in church popularity. It is not a question of people not going to church, but they just are not going to OUR church. We want to know why!

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CCD Chairman the Rev. Rob Joy and author the Rev. Richard Adair played devil’s advocates (complete with horns) at the NACCC 2000 Annual Meeting. Their mock opposition to church revitalization made the case for it.
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I would like to address several issues which face most of our NACCC churches:

• First, name identification.
• Second the three Fs: faith, fellowship, and FREEDOM.
• Third, the issue of change.

All three may be seen roadblocks to potential growth.

First—Name Identification:
We have all heard the question: “What is a Congregationalist anyway?”

What do you believe, what do you affirm, what are your creeds, and where did you come from? We stumble and mumble and say something about each person is encouraged to find his/her own way to God, through Jesus Christ and that each person’s faith journey is different. Then we hand them a booklet: What it Means to be a Member of a Congregational Church, by Henry David Gray.¹ You would be one of the lucky ones if you got this book. But the potential member stands with his finger in his ear and says, “WHAT?”

We have a real image problem. People do not know who we are. Then someone will say, well why don’t we push a national campaign, with billboards, TV ads and radio spots to let people know who the Pilgrim people are. We don’t even have enough money to meet our National Budget so where does this money come from? Most of us get this far away look in our eyes and think back to another life when Pilgrim people came here for freedom to worship and we daydream about those days far gone bye-bye. The hard facts of life are that we have that image problem and it is hard to project our belief in concrete terms.

What is the answer to this problem? Each church needs to do the grunt work of figuring out its vision in Beloit, Wisconsin, or Akron, Ohio, or Flower Mound, Texas, or Dixfield, Maine. Each church needs to figure out who they are and what God wants from them at this point in time and space. Then write it down in a concise Mission Statement. Then when someone approaches members of your church, they can say this is what we believe. This is the vision that we have for our church.

Now that prospective member has something substantial to hang his/her belief on!

We need this key element before growing a church or pumping new life back into these old veins.
 

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	The brochure written by the late Rev. Dr. Henry David Gray, former editor of The Congregationalist, remains the authoritative source for defining Congregationalism.
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Second—
Faith, Freedom and Fellowship:
We face some of the same problems with these three watchwords as we do with our identity.
Most people understand faith, believing in what is not seen nor fully understood. We understand fellowship—fun with our fellow man or woman (that will get me in trouble). But we get in a great deal of trouble with the freedom part of our trinity. We have so much freedom that we cannot really find what we want. Let me give you an example. When Henry Ford came out with his first car, you had your choice of one color. Today, you need to take an interior decorator along to order a car. TOO MANY CHOICES

Another example: years ago I worked with my brother in the building business. We offered a small selection of flooring products and two books of wall paper samples. A wife, usually the decorator in the family, would come in and within one or two hours have the carpet, vinyl flooring, and the wall paper all picked out. Most of the time she was happy and did not change a thing. Then I thought I would be customer-friendly and offer a wider selection of wallpaper books and more flooring samples. Now the wife would take weeks to come up with her decorating ideas and was seldom happy with what she had picked. TOO MANY CHOICES.

Do you get the point? In a world with so many choices in every thing that we consume, people do not want to have to make all kinds of choices when it comes to their faith, their belief and their church. Just tell me what to believe and let it go at that. I will adhere to your ideas and your belief, just don’t make me think about this too. Church seekers are looking for something that they can buy or reject. They want you to stand for something or you will fall for everything. If they look at our mission statement, or our covenant and can buy into our vision, then they are more likely to join us and hang in there with us for a much longer period of time. Whenever the church has run into trouble, it has narrowed its vision so that it becomes more attractive to the masses.

So I ask: is your church a growing thriving church with an appealing, well-defined vision?

Third–The Issue of Change:
In spite of the fact that most of us say we are willing to change in order to save our church, we really aren’t just paying lip service to the age-old question: are you willing to change to grow and be vibrant? Refer back to the last article: “Revive Us Again, or Just Cry Wolf.”² Change will happen no matter what we try to do to retard it or stop it, it is going to happen. Change is life and life is change. New or prospective members see people who are resistant to change, who have a built-in “whine” room in the church. So the seekers go somewhere else where they do not hear those cranky sounds. The choices are out there. They will shop to find what they want with the best fit. The generation that we are trying to attract likes comfort. They are not about to plant a new church but they will go find one that fits.

How do we approach this issue of change? We have to make change a natural part of our routine on a daily basis both in the church and at home. We want things the way they used to be, but we want to keep all the comforts that the industrial age has brought us.

We want all the bells and whistles on our latest automobile purchase. We want all the latest in technology and energy efficiency in our new homes, and we want the latest and a fastest computer we can find. But we want church to be like it was in 1950.
Most of us are driving a stick shift, three-on-the-column classic church in a rocket-fueled world. Jesus said something about new wine in old wineskins. It is time to wake up and smell the cappuccino, brothers and sisters. It’s a new world calling for a new church!

Are you with me? Do you want to be revitalized? Then look out!!!

The Rev. Richard Adair, Senior Minister, Second Congregational Church, Beloit, Wisconsin, is a member of the Congregational Church Development Division (CCD).
 

From The Congregationalist December 2000