The Death of a Congregation
What happened?
The congregation was not open to change, the kind of change that it needed to make to be viable in the twenty-first century. It would have liked to have had additional members as long as it did not require it to make changes needed to attract them and as long as the new members did not disrupt the way that it did things.
The congregation had weak leadership at critical points in its life cycle. The lay leadership became divided between an official leader and a de facto leader. The latter called the shots. The latter, however, was not someone who should have been leading a church in this century.
The building in which the congregation worshipped was located in a community which at one point none of its members lived. Consequently, the congregation had negligible connections with the community in which it was located. Its longest-serving pastor lived in a different community from the one in which the building was located—roughly a 30 minute drive from that community.
The congregation was inward-looking and not outward-looking. Early in its life some effort was made at community engagement. The members of the congregation did not understand what they were being asked to do, how it worked, or the length of time that it would take. When it did not produce immediate results, they gave up. They adopted the attitude, “We’ve tried everything, and nothing works!” They were highly resistant to attempting anything else.
The congregation relied on the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, The Hymnal (1940), and a traditional style of worship to attract additional members. People living in the region acquainted with these worship resources, much less attached to them, formed a very tiny, shrinking population segment. The congregation made no attempt expand beyond this base. It bound itself to the use of the King James version of the Bible in its bylaws when it could have used more recent translations of the Bible in its services of public worship under the canons of the jurisdiction with which it was affiliated. Members of the congregation, however, used the more recent translations in the Bible reading and study at home.
Demographically the congregation was a good fit with the community in which its building was located. However, its use of the aforementioned worship resources and its particular style of worship were not a good fit. They were too unfamiliar to the occasional visitor to the congregation’s services of public worship from the community. They were, however, what the congregation preferred, and it placed its preferences before community engagement. The services were long and included lengthy recited portions.
The congregation experienced a number of splits in its life cycle as members vied with each other for leadership of the congregation. It changed jurisdictional affiliation several times and was affected by splits in the jurisdictions with which it was affiliated.
The congregation had a poor understanding of the nature and purpose of a local church. Its idea of the local church was a chaplaincy which served the small number of families that formed the congregation. The priest, when the congregation had a priest, functioned as chaplain to these families, instructing them in the faith, administering the sacraments, and meeting their pastoral needs.
The congregation was not proactive in welcoming visitors. It had no one at the door to greet them and several minutes might lapse before someone stepped forward to welcome them. Too often congregants waited until the end of the service to greet a visitor. By then the visitor had departed.
The only people in the community that will miss the congregation will be the man who mowed the grounds surrounding the congregation’s building and the pre-natal and maternity clinic which received an annual donation from the congregation.
Why am I posting this postmortem? I am posting it as a warning to other small Anglican congregations. A congregation in decline can make changes at key points in its life cycle, which will give it a new lease on life. This congregation chose not to make those changes. While its members might like to blame circumstances for its demise, it chose to die!