From The Pastor’s Desk:
Church Renewal
On the last Saturday of March the Upper Mississippi Valley Network to which we belong held a workshop in Wellsburg. The theme was church renewal. It started with some startling statistics. In the United States:
- There are approximately 375,000 churches
- The average Sunday Morning attendance in those churches is 65 to 100 people
- The percentage of churches seeing attendance decline is 54 to 73%
- Every year sees 4000+ churches close their doors
- That’s an average of about 75 churches closing every week
- Projections say up to 176,000 additional churches will close by the year 2050.
Those are not encouraging statistics.
The point of the workshop was not doom and gloom, however. Rather, the workshop looked at the findings of a book called Anatomy of a Revived Church by Thom S. Rainer that examines churches that have experienced renewal rather than closure.
Among other things, Rainer makes the following suggestions:
- Accepting Responsibility. There are a lot of excuses and explanations that can be given for why churches decline. Some of them are true. But Rainer suggests that blaming conditions we cannot control only leads to defeatism and stagnation. Rather than making excuses, churches need to be honest about the challenges they face and then get creative in overcoming them.
- Expanding the Scorecard. The easiest way to measure church health is to count attendance at worship. But churches can impact communities in more ways than just who is present from 9-10 on Sunday morning. One of the ways churches experience renewal is by finding new ways to have an impact.
- Giving up on Silver Bullets. Too often churches become focused on one thing that they are convinced will solve all their problems: “If only we had a younger pastor…” “If only we had a new building…” “If only we had a different worship style…” Rainer suggests this silver bullet approach is limiting, and that renewal comes through a process of gradual change and persistent trial and error.
There are other suggestions and learnings that can spur some vigorous discussion. In order to do that, we are going to create a Church Renewal Task Force. Anyone who would like to participate is invited. We are going to begin on Sunday, May 31 after Fellowship time and meet at least through the month of June. We’ll be going through the Anatomy of a Revived Church and discussing how we can implement its ideas at Trinity. If you would like a copy of the book (it is quite small, about 100 pages) sign up on the bulletin board and we will provide one for you.
May Birthdays
May 1 - Denise Abbas
May 2 - McKennah Litterer
May 6 - Ellie Jo Cordes
May 7 - Jurene Dralle, Mark Bangasser
May 10 - Pat Neal
May 21 - Pastor Russell Muilenburg
May 22 - Ann Shafer, Olivia Jones
May 23 - Mollie Stirling
May 25 - Colt Stirling
May 26 - Ron Henning
May 30 - Emma Ulrich
May 31 - Jordan Osterbuhr
May Anniversaries
May 6 - Roger & Joyce Marks
May Greeting & Refreshments for Fellowship
May 3 - Wendy Dralle, Pastor Russell & Beth
May 10 - Ken & Ruth Seehusen, James Seehusen
May 17 - Steve & Jennifer Heeren, ?
May 24 - Gary & Merrie Krukow
May 31 - Chad & Jamie Osterbuhr, Ron Henning
May Sound/Projector Operator Schedule
May 3 - Tim Junker
May 10 - Ryan Fleshner
May 17 - Matt Eberline
May 24 - Ryan Fleshner
May 31 - TBD
Video Operator Schedule
May 3 - James Seehusen
May 10 - Michael Shafer
May 17 - Lucas Junker
May 24 - Jodi Bangasser
May 31 - TBD
May Praise Team Schedule
May 3 - Praise Team 1 (Denise)
May 10 - Praise Team 2 (Ruth)
May 17 - Praise Team 3 (Kelly)
May 24 - Praise Team 4 (Denise)
May 31 - TBD