The cultural context in which we minister has changed radically over the last fifty years and congregations are struggling with how (and often whether) they will adjust. Congregations are called to be both faithful to our Lord and relevant to their community (I Corinthians 9:22-23). All congregations are culturally relevant; the question is whether they are relevant to the culture that currently exists in their community or to a culture that has disappeared decades ago and lingers on only in the cultural island of the congregation itself.
Consider the following pervasive changes impacting our communities in the last four decades:
In 313 C.E., Emperor Constantine and the Roman Empire became officially Christian. The boundary between church and culture became enmeshed and Christianity ceased to be a contrast community. This partnership has largely dissolved over the last fifty years. American culture is increasingly secular and pluralistic. Going to church is no longer the respectable thing to do; we have lost our “home-team advantage.” The mission field is no longer only on foreign continents; it is in our communities where 60% of our neighbors are not meaningfully part of any Christian community of faith. On any given weekend, less than 20% of Americans go to worship – and yet people’s hunger for and interest in spiritual matters have never been higher! This makes our world today more like the world of the New Testament church than it has ever been since Christianity became the official religion of Rome – but vastly different from the way it was when most of our congregations were formed and most of our United Methodist leaders grew up.
Most leaders in congregations today – both lay and clergy – grew up in Christendom and have little or no personal experience of living life outside our faith. In Christendom, evangelism was seen as something done by missionaries in Africa or India. Consequently evangelism has become an unpracticed, untaught and nearly forgotten art in most of our congregations and seminaries. Many church leaders have no idea how to help a secular person know what it means to follow Jesus. The e-word scares most of us, truth be known. After all, how do we talk to others about something as basic to us as breathing?
For centuries, one generation was pretty much like the one before and after. Values, hopes, expectations, lifestyle tastes and preferences in music or clothes – all remained fairly constant for generations. Congregations could effectively minister to the next generation as they had to the one before. Today, however, most congregations have at least four generations in their community: Builder, Boomers, Busters and Generation X’ers. Though they are variously described by different observers, all recognize significant differences between the generations. Gone are the days when one ministry style fits all generations. The Church is increasingly less effective in reaching persons for Christ with each subsequent generation. Only 4% of persons in their 80’s and 90’s say they have no religious preference. That figure jumps to 11% with the Baby Booms. But among young adults born between 1980 and 1984, 27% say they have no religious preference. In 1940, the average age of United Methodists was 30 years old; in 2000, the average age was 60.
The demographic landscape of America has radically changed since the “1965 Immigration and Nationality Act”. Consequently, we are now culturally, ethnically and religiously the most diverse nation on the planet! For example, there are now more Muslim Americans than Episcopalians. No longer a cultural melting pot, we are now a richly textured mosaic of peoples. America has become more urban: in 1925, the heyday of Methodism, ¾ of the USA population lived in rural areas; today, ¾ of the population live in non-rural areas. Because of advances in healthcare, there are now more Americans over 65 than under 18. Those over 60 are growing 3 times faster than the population at large – especially in Florida! Add to this ever-changing landscape demographic churn: 55% of people in every zip code in Florida have moved there in the last five years. How do we effectively minister to the people that now live in the communities surrounding our congregation’s facilities?
Imagine a world without computers, the internet, email, cell phones, Blackberry’s, digital recordings, conference calls and cable TV. These new technologies have changed the availability of information and how we process it. They have changed how we relate and communicate with one another. Yet, how many of our congregations still minister as if the world of technology has not progressed since the 1950’s?
Many of these cultural changes can be addressed at a “how-to” level by learning “best practices” from congregations that are being fruitful in reaching and ministering to persons in communities similar to our own. As has been said earlier, there are vital, effective congregations in every district in our Conference from whom we can learn. Congregational leaders can also improvise and experiment to learn more fruitful, more culturally fitting methods of being in ministry to fulfill Christ’s missional purposes in their particular community.
But learning “how to” be more effective in our continuously changing cultural context by adopting “best practices” and experimenting to discover our own “best practices,” will only take us so far. We must also address the underlying spiritual loss of motivation by many congregational leaders. One pastor wondered: “Why are so many congregations “contentedly declining”? We now move from concerns about “How” to be more effective to concerns about “Why” we should and naturally would want to be more fruitful in ministry? Without the spiritual desire and commitment to become more fruitful in ministry, all discussion about “how-to’s” and “best practices” won’t make much difference.
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