Eight Options for Congregations to Move from at risk to Risking for Mission Many churches come to a time in their congregational life where the question of sustainability or viability is raised. At this crucial juncture it is important to look at a wide range of options and to prayerfully discern what direction God is calling the congregation. In the information that follows, your church s leadership can look at strategies congregations in similar circumstances have taken. There is no right or wrong answer but rather the goal is to be faithful to the situation facing your congregation and the unique setting of your ministry. It is always helpful to have a person from your synod office participate in the process. Financial sustainability/viability not the same thing as mission viability. Each option listed has significant benefits and challenges. Only you know your church situation and your mission field. Any decision needs lots prayer and reflection so that we move beyond just our own personal needs and tastes and come to a place where we believe we are faithfully following God s call into our future. Whatever path you consider, we hope you will surround your discerning process with prayer and listen for God s voice in the midst of your deliberations. Option 1: Congregational Redevelopment One option a congregation can choose is to do an intentional redevelopment or transformational ministry process. This process requires: A new pastor: A pastor who is new to that congregation or a pastor who has had a transformative experience and has a new sense of passion for ministry. Participation in the Behavioral Interview Process is expected as part of the pastoral selection process. A willingness on the part of the congregation to focus on spiritual development/discipleship. An outward focus on the community around the church with the needs of those not yet in church taking priority over the needs of the current congregation. Lots of change around church structure, finance and leadership as the congregation discerns its missional direction, utilizing resources to fulfill it. Churches that want to consider the redevelopment or transformational ministry option need lots of support in terms of training and ongoing coaching. Redevelopment or transformational ministry processes involve covenants that are affirmed through congregational vote. A redevelopment pastor will spend no less than 50% of his/her time in the community. This intentional outreach focus often requires that lay leadership help with pastoral care and administration to free up the pastor s time. Also, if this option is chosen, leadership must protect the pastor s back ; standing firmly in support of the pastor when someone criticizes him/her for not spending all their time with the current membership. The benefit of a redeveloping congregation is that it rekindles its spirit and sense of mission and becomes linked to the community around the congregation. Part of determining whether or not this option is right for your church includes looking at the size of the current congregation, the energy level and the mission field around the church.
One deterrent to redevelopment or transformational ministry is the time that it takes for the redevelopment to occur. The redevelopment of a ministry typically takes 5-7 years and requires determination and use of resources. The risk is high but the payoff is great, as a congregation is reawakened to God s mission and adapts to new mission strategies and strengthens ministry partnerships. Congregational renewal/redevelopment is not a one person project, it involves the majority of congregational members actively collaborating and working together toward mutually discerned goals. Option 2: Consolidation A consolidation is when two or more churches sell their buildings, change their leadership and move to a new location with a new sense of ministry and usually a new church name. Advantages of a consolidation include: Elimination of the turf wars of whose building we stay in. A new location with new pastoral leadership can often give two or more former congregations a fresh start. Budgets, buildings and resources are consolidated for one mission. A new church building can help to launch a new sense of ministry and mission. This option can be very fruitful but does require a lot of prayer and strategizing by two or more congregations. Disadvantages of this option occur if there is turmoil when all financial resources are put into one pot and/or if congregations argue over keeping a former pastor in this new venture. People have to be ready to give up their old sense of identity and accept this consolidation as a new church. If one or more of the congregations view themselves as a closed club for their members and their own needs as paramount, consolidation will not work. However, if this option is done well, there is an opportunity to move to a new mission field or community and for a new venture to blossom. Consolidation offers possibilities for full-communion partnerships between congregations that choose to federate or become union congregations for the sake of reaching the mission field with greater emphasis and clarity. Working with judicatories of the denominations involved takes time and energy, but can have powerful long-term benefits that allows for focused resources and greater impact on the mission field. Option 3: Merger A merger is when two or more churches move together into one of the existing buildings and share resources. In many cases, a merger allows two struggling congregations to share one pastor and to pool dwindling resources, enabling a continued presence in a community. Challenges of merging into an existing building include: Turf issues of whose church is it.
Questions about which pastor remains as leader of the merged congregations. Feelings of one church winning and the other losing. Power struggles. No new sense of mission or energy. It is also important in your reflection to understand Merger Math. If one congregation has 100 members and the other 50, it does not mean the merged church will end up with 150 members. Usually, after two or three years, the congregation will be back to the size of the larger congregation. Merger may be the best option in some settings in which there are limited resources and obvious duplication of buildings and efforts. However, prayerful consideration should be given to the long range effects on ministry and mission rather than just the short-term advantages. Are we fulfilling God s vision for our mission field or are we simply postponing the inevitable? This option may work well for full-communion partnerships as long as all parties are fully informed and aware of issues around pre-existing and shared assets. Federation agreements allow for making distinctions between pre-existing assets and assets that are established as a merged congregation. As well, such agreements help establish norms for how full-communion partners work through polity differences. This option works best when purpose for merger is based on a vision for mission and ministry, rather than need for survival. Option 4: Yoking A yoking occurs when two or more congregations agree to remain in their existing buildings and ministries but share one pastor (or pastoral staff, program staff or support staff team) for both congregations. This option can be helpful in terms of having a full-time pastor (or staff team) in a community and offers the opportunity for two or more congregations to work cooperatively towards a shared vision. This is probably the easiest option for full-communion partnership, as the merging of assets and shared ownership does not come into play. While this option offers flexibility for staffing creatively, there are challenges that need to be prayerfully considered as well: As staff time is divided and often congregations may worry who is getting more of the staff time. There are limitations of a pastor s (or pastoral team/staff) availability. A large geographical distance between the churches makes yoking more difficult. There are a limited number of pastors who enjoy yoked situations. In considering a yoked situation it is very important to weigh the benefits and challenges in your particular setting. This option is open to full-communion partnerships in which congregations may be served by clergy of full-communion partner denominations and/or yoked congregations may be full-communion partners. A memorandum of understanding can clarify expectations of shared staff. It is also helpful for elected leadership groups to meet together several times a year to ensure a strong and trusting partnership. Option 5: Adoption
A growing number of smaller congregations are looking at adoption as a way to maintain ministry. Adoption is when a smaller congregation approaches a large, healthy congregation and asks to become a satellite or branch of the large church. Adoption means a smaller, struggling congregation becomes part of a larger church but maintains its building and presence in the community. The larger church can then offer staffing, resources and their healthy DNA to this smaller church. The challenges of the adoption approach are that the smaller church becomes part of the larger and falls under that church s vision for the future. The smaller congregation loses its own identity and turns its building and resources over to the larger church. Churches that are looking at this option have to value keeping a presence in the community over their own needs to maintain the heritage of the current congregation. If a congregation values serving the community this is a valuable option. Option 6: Part-Time or Synodically Authorized Minister (lay pastor) Some congregations, faced with dwindling resources, will opt for a part-time pastor who is bi-vocational. Parttime, ordained clergy do provide the essentials ministries for a church and they often understand the stresses of many of the parishioners as they are working in the secular world as well. The pastor s workplace may provide an entry into the community and often stronger lay leadership is needed to make up the difference. The challenges include the lack of availability of the pastor and scheduling conflicts. Clear job descriptions help in this situation as often churches expect full-time service for part-time pay. *A Synodically Authorized Ministry (lay pastor) is often an alternative and at its best it produces a more realistic expectation of what the pastor will do. The pastor may be a member of the congregation and already know the region well. The difficulties that sometimes arise with a lay pastor are the lack of experience, lack of authority and lack of leadership. With either a part-time ordained pastor or synodically authorized minister it is important to think through the long range implications. What is God calling us to do and be in this community and how can we best reach those goals? Option 6.5: Bi-vocational pastor and/or faith community Option 7: Close and Re-Open as a New Church In this option a church chooses to end its ministry, to close the doors for 6 to 12 months and then re-open as a new church start. This option means that the existing congregation recognizes it no longer reaches its mission field and that someone else or another congregation will do so in the future. The existing congregation agrees to go and find other congregations to join; based on personal needs and the building and assets are turned
over to the synod who will take the responsibility to determine new church potential including who will be the new start pastor called to develop a new congregation reaching new people. This option works best with congregations that value a presence in the community over their own needs to maintain the status quo. That kind of perspective only comes after much thought and prayer. Turning over the keys to the building is a kind of letting go that is remarkable when done well. This option is often helpful when a congregation has grown old and can no longer reach a community or when the community has had radical demographic change and the congregation no longer matches it. The benefit is that a new pastor who matches the new demographic can be called and can reach this population that the existing congregation could not. Option 8: Holy Closure Some congregations reach the point where they feel it is time to close the church, sell the building and turn all the assets over to the synod for further mission use. Good Friday grief becomes Easter joy when congregations realize maintaining a large building in a place where they cannot reach their mission field is poor stewardship. Remarkable work can be accomplished when remaining congregational assets are used creatively for mission elsewhere. This option requires some sober realization of the existing situation and a period to grieve the loss of the church many people have loved. Existing members will need to find new church homes and that transition is sometimes difficult. Holy Closure provides significant resources to be released to start other congregations, to fund churches that are turning around, to develop new ministry and mission efforts. Members of a congregation that has reached Holy Closure can often find a deep sense of satisfaction and faith in seeing their gifts blossom in new ways.