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.