I got an email from Joe recently, with a link to the diligent work by a heritage group trying to save rural United Churches which have been "decommissioned" after amalgamations with other congregations or outright closures. One of these church buildings is pictured above.
I wasn't sure how I should take this email. Joe has a strong interest in the arts so may have simply felt that I would be interested in this initiative. He also has a wry sense of humour, and the fact that there is a proposal to turn one of these defunct church buildings into a mastadon museum may have tickled his funny bone.
All I can say is that I laughed out loud. Mastadons were once a powerful species roaming the country, but are now extinct. What an apt, although disturbing metaphor for the United Church! While there are pockets of enthusiasm and even growth for the UCC we are, overall, the incredible shrinking, aging denomination.
As someone in my mid-fifties and with thirty years of ministry in the rear-view mirror I am keenly aware of my mastadon-in-training status. I have spent more than half my lifetime trying to buck the cultural trend away from organized religion, particularly in the mainline churches. In fact, I have been defiant at times about not sending up the white flag to our secular "signs of the times" but must confess that I am battle-weary.
Many of our older members are still passionate about their Christian communities but worn out. At St. Paul's we are blessed with involved younger families, including a number of readers, but you must notice that many of the younger crowd are rather half-hearted about active, involved faith. I congratulated a mother recently on being in church the morning of one daughter's birthday. The party was happening in the afternoon but the family decided both worship and festivities could happen the same day.
At the risk fo getting into a major fogey rant, maybe the real mastadons are the people who want the vestiges of another day, showing up for "hatch, match, and dispatch," but don't get that sustaining a living Christian community requires participation and discipleship. Do they realize that their mommies and daddies won't be around forever to keep the churches going?
I do wonder about the future of our denomination. I have seven years before my earliest retirement date, but I have a son, himself an endangered species because he is in his twenties, who will be ordained as a United Church minister in 2011. It will be a very different UCC for him.
Thanks for the inspiration Joe. I would love to hear from readers on this one.
2 comments:
Well, mastadons are interesting. How big is this church? Is this like how many people can you fit into a volkswagon?
In regards to young parents and church involvement, I think its just too overwhelming to be active members of anything these days. We tend to revolve everything around children's activities and there are so many now. When I was a child, we played outside in completely spontaneous games. We were also left to our own devices much more. I roamed a creek as an 8 year old, unattended. It wasn't even all that close to our home. Icould be gone for an entire day without anyone worrying. My own kids were pretty much tied to my waiste, the times had changed so much. There is also a huge sense that you are depriving your kids of something vital if they aren't participating in whatever thing is "in". I have found my own participation increased as my kids got older. I participated when they were young but to a much lesser degree. What I remember is exhaustion. I volunteered in their schools and never missed a field trip. AS in churches schools depend of the same handful of volunteers. I remember once being told a field trip would be cancelled if I didn't volunteer. I was sick, but off I went to an outdoor Ed facility. I had trouble walking back up the stairs and worried that I would have to be carried out. [really,I had been trying to breathe on less than half the required oxygen at the time, we're not talking the sniffles] And honestly I don't think younger people do realize that a church keeps going based on the strength of its congregation. I think we are too much a consumer product. We pay for things and we are serviced. You can pay someone to walk your dog, clean your kids' bedrooms, do your gardening, etc. You could probably pay someone to tie your shoes if you look long enough. And so I think money paid tends to end the sense of obligation for services rendered.
I didn't know the term mastadon but your description makes it an interesting parallel.
I suppose I have come to terms somewhat with the decreasing interest in organized religion and feel there isn't likely anyone, or anything we can do to dramatically reverse this trend today. We can't guilt people into commitment. We do have to hold true to our beliefs, and keep making a difference in the world but also I truly believe we need to be willing to change our structure and look to a new future with less buildings, less one purpose buildings, more shared ministries that allow for "specialists' like youth ministers and mission and outreach specialists that can guide the congregations in these important areas. These shared ministries in some form would allow us to spread the workload around for both the paid and volunteers, along with decreasing the costs, and sharing of those remaining costs, allowing us to be energized by the strength that does come from numbers, and true Christ centred work as we move forward in God's name.
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