Big Picture Trends and Its Effect on Stewardship

One of my favorite programs is the PBS show Religion and Ethics Newsweekly.  Anyone with an interest in religion or who worries over the future of our parish should watch this show because it gives a current pulse of religion in our country and around the world.  Over the summer there was a piece on how Churches in Ireland are now empty.  Can you imagine Irish Catholics not going to church?  But that's the reality.  

As most of you know, the number of pledging units at Trinity and many main-line churches is going down.  This is a trend both in the United States as well as in Europe, though its happening much more significantly there.   As parishioners of Trinity, we need to ask ourselves "what's behind these trends?"  The hard truth is we can have the greatest Episcopal Church in the country in terms of preaching, music and programs, and still be loosing membership every year - unless we look good and hard at the big picture trends that are behind falling church membership and take steps to at least mitigate their negative effect on our parish. 

At the same time, we need to look to those churches that are growing in membership, be they Episcopal or otherwise so that we can at least try to understand those forces drawing people away from churches like ours and toward other forms of worship.  NPR just ran a story that highlighted a church that has grown from 68 people to over 4,000 in just over a decade.  

"In little more than a decade, New Life Covenant Church in Chicago has grown from 68 people to more than 4,000 members; it had to abandon its old building and meet in Clemente High School. When you include the other churches New Life has started, its membership comes to some 12,000 people."  This proves that church growth is possible.  

Moving forward, some areas of discussion that I think would prove useful are these four.  Please use the comments section to add more as you see fit.

• Who are we and where are we going as a parish
• What does it mean to be an Episcopalian
• What does it mean to be a religious person no matter what faith and why any person of faith is our ally
• How do we respond to those forces that drive down all religious membership regardless of tradition.

~Rich.

 

Thoughts on Public Narrative

There has been a lot of talk about "Public Narrative" of late, but like the 'Occupy Wall Street' movement, people have difficulty defining what it's all about. So, let me give a shot at what I think Public Narrative should be about for Trinity Church, and by all means, please post comments to add your input.

Public Narrative is an attempt to have a deliberate conversation within the parish. It is about getting to know one another more deeply as individuals and from that to better understand who we are as a community.

Story telling is at the heart of the narrative process. By telling our individual stories, we learn about who we are as individuals and from that who we are as a community. As the Public Narrative process unfolds, I would hope that different story-telling expressions will unfold. This could be one-to-one conversations, essay writing, audio and video recordings, and public speaking. When we later look more broadly at the common themes that run through our stories, we learn more deeply who we are as a community. From this understanding we grow closer together and are better able to project to the broader community who we are and what it means to be a member of Trinity Church on the Green. This Blog site will hopefully assist us in that effort.

Trinity also needs a place to reflect on other matters affecting the church. Everything from how to finance our activities to how to grow in an era of declining church membership, needs active parish participation. I hope that this blog or other more focused blogs linked to this one will assist us in these conversations.

If you wish to contribute to this site, please contact any member of the Evangelism Committee and they can help you.

~Rich.