I was reading an article in Huffington Post by Skye Jethani about Megachurches (Megachurches: When Will The Bubble Burst?) when I ran across this unsettling quote: “On average 50 small churches close their doors every week in America.”
What? Fifty small churches are closing their doors every week? That’s not very encouraging, especially for a denomination, like, say, the UUA, where two thirds of its congregations have 150 members or less. Does not bode well, if you ask me. And I think small congregations know this, too. Business as usual is not going to cut it any more. Small congregations in any denomination are going to find it more and more difficult to maintain the status quo, let alone grow. Which I why I’m so pleased that the Prairie Star District offered a Small Congregation Conference last weekend in Des Moines, Iowa.
The conference was the brainchild (love that word!) of the Rev. Michael Nelson of our congregation in Manhattan, Kansas (Go Wildcats!). Michael noticed that the UUA regularly sponsored conferences for large and midsize congregations, but had never, as far as he could tell, sponsored one for small congregations. So Michael contacted me and we talked things over and decided this needed to be done. Thanks to a Chalice Lighter grant from Prairie Star, we were able to afford to bring in a topnotch keynote speaker. And knowing that a prophet is seldom welcomed in his or her hometown, we decided to ask someone from outside of the district to be the main presenter at the conference. I’m happy to say that our choice, the Rev. Andrew Pakula from London, England, delivered the goods. Andy offered three presentations over the course of two days. On Friday he gave us the recent history of his congregation in London (check out their website at www.new-unity.org) which has gone from six members in the 2001 (yes, six) to around 35 in 2006 under the leadership of his predessor, and then from 35 to over 100 members in the last 5 years under Andy’s leadership. What’s really exciting about that growth is that 50% of those new members are young adults.
Andy’s follow up presentations on Saturday dealt with using social media and attracting young adults. We also had a variety of workshops led by some terrific people: the Rev. Meg Riley talked with folks about what CLF (Church of the Larger Fellowship) is doing to help small congregations; the Rev. Charlotte Cowtan offered information on the demographics of various communities around the district; the Rev. Thea Nietfield presented information on right relationships and conflict engagement; Lori Emison Clair and Moria Leu of the Des Moines congregation did workshops on membership and music, the Rev. Jill Jarvis & al. talked about moving toward ministry, and Tandi Rogers, UUA growth specialist, did two workshops on faith development in small congregations. The participants were equally stellar as well. We had 12 affilitated congregations from throughout the district represented, along with folks from three new fellowships forming in Prairie Star. All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. Hopefully there will be more events like this in the future.
Phil's Little Blog on the Prairie 
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November 9, 2011 at 7:50 am
Robert
“Warm and welcoming people who are committed to becoming more spiritually alive” is that a common theme among successful churches?
November 9, 2011 at 9:04 am
Phil on the Prairie
Yes, I’d say so, Robert.
November 9, 2011 at 8:35 am
Shannon
The idea of a conference for small congregations sounds brilliant, and the sessions you mention all sound really helpful. Congrats to you and Rev. Nelson for pulling it together!
But I wonder…
What does “50 small churches close their doors every week” mean? That’s in the neighborhood of 2,500 every year. A quick Google search, and a quick LexisNexis search, didn’t turn up a source for that number, though an organization called Keep God in America cites a Barna study claiming up to 4,000 closures per year (though I couldn’t find the Barna study).
What I’m getting at is that if we’re talking about churches in a narrow sense–say for agument’s sake something like , “formally organized congregations with a history of at least a few years (maybe with a permanent church building, maybe renting space in another facility)”–that tells us one thing about small congregations in America. If the statistic captures both that type of church and less formal congregations, or congregations that start-up and last less than a couple of years, maybe that tells us less about ‘small congregations in America’ and more about ‘the difficulty of starting up a self-sustaining enterprise.’
Does the number capture just ‘churches’ of a more-or-less Christian flavor, or does it include the congregations/temples/forms of other faith traditions?
And none of these questions is to imply that I think small congregations don’t have serious challenges they have to address, but whenever I see this sort of “X number of Somethings that Sound Like You so Watch Out!” statistics my first thought isn’t “what can/should I do with this information?” It’s, “what’s the person telling me this trying to sell me?”
November 9, 2011 at 9:10 am
Phil on the Prairie
I think you’ve nailed it when you ask for specifics about what kind of congregations we are talking about. My point, of course, was that small congregations are facing tough times with even tougher times in the future, and they deserve our attention because they make up such a large part of our “denomination,” just as they do of most other denominations. That said, I think it’s time to start thinking creatively about how we can support all sorts of small groups that may not see (or want to see) themselves as a “congregation.” Thanks for the comment, Shannon.
November 9, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Skye Jethani
Phillip, the finding was published by James B. Twitchell, professor at U. of Florida, in his book “Shopping for God” on page 231: “Little congregations of fewer than a hundred at worship, in rural communities and inner cities, are shutting their doors at the rate of fifty a week.” -Skye
November 9, 2011 at 7:10 pm
Phil on the Prairie
Thanks, Skye. I figured it had more to do with worship attendance than membership.