Decline & Renewal, 14: Aaron Metcalf Guest Column

Editor's note: Here’s another in our series of guest columns on church decline. Just a couple more to go. Articles in April will focus on renewal.

Our ninth guest column is from Aaron Metcalf, a native Oregonian who preaches for the Westside Church of Christ in Hillsboro, Oregon. The Westside church has experienced significant loss in the past decade, and Aaron’s perceptive thoughts help us look a little differently at church decline.

The View from Aaron Metcalf

The great passage from Acts 2:27, “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” has never been part of my ministry experience in West Coast Churches of Christ. I’ve never been a part of a church community that experienced rapid or even significant gradual growth. Most of the churches I’ve been a part of, in fact, would have been happy if the Lord sustained our numbers daily and stopped the decline. Forget growth; let’s just keep who we have!

In my current ministry context decline has taken place for a host of reasons. We went through major church divisions in the early and mid 2000s followed by 5 years of slow decline. When I partnered in ministry with Westside in 2008 the church was at its lowest, numerically. Like many churches in their situation, they hoped that by hiring a young, hip(ish), minister with a soul-patch (“baby beard”) the church would be able to reach out to new young people and retain those sticking around. Nearly five years later, the futility of that hope is obvious. Though we’ve slowed the trickle of leaving members and managed to gain some wonderful ones, we still often feel the stigma of a shrinking church. We now know, however, that there is most likely not going to be a quick fix for this decline and are more willing to look for creative ways to be a blessing . . . but more on that next month!

[Pause for confession] This is a difficult subject for me to address because church size isn’t something I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about. Church growth isn’t high on my “to-do” list. It never has been. While I like to think this is because of a rich theology of working counter to our cultural trend of consumption and that I’m standing against consumer Christianity, it’s probably just because I’m terrible at math and fairly naïve. So, though I’m really not a church-growth expert, I have noticed some difficult realities that occur due to church decline (other than less people who try to look interested while I preach).

One of the most dangerous effects of church decline that I’ve observed in the various church contexts I’ve served in is an “us against them” mentality. The “us” are those who have stuck it out lo these many years and many battles. The “them” are those who have left and sometimes those who are just now walking in. Oh, we’re happy to have them for sure, but we are suspicious at the same time. Folks like them, after all, have broken our hearts before and could very well do it again. “Fool me once . . .” New members have a hard time making inroads because we are certain that they won’t be with us long. We are a tight-knit family who has stuck it out for many years. When we do lose one of these newer members we respond with, “Well, they weren’t ever really plugged in to our family here.” Hear that? As if it’s their fault that we didn’t find room for them at our table . . . we are suspicious of those we haven’t known for a decade.

Declining membership can also stop us from asking risky questions or engaging in risky dialogue. We become consumed with finding stability for the purposes of retention and therefore stay on the safe side, lest we rock the near-empty boat. Sadly and ironically, one of the major reasons young people leave churches is because of a lack in risky, authentic dialogue. They desire an integrated faith that addresses our complex contexts. It’s hard to find our way forward when we are too afraid to ask the hard questions.

Obviously, both of these effects of church decline hinder church growth and, perhaps more importantly, lack mature theology and ecclesiology. Building a more robust and trusting view of others and daring to ask risky questions leading us to new understandings of who God is and how he works might actually transform our declining church bodies or at least give us a richer reason for existing as churches—other than trying to get big again. Trusting in God’s work, rather than only our own, will help us trade in our fear for faith and put God back in the center, as the one who does the adding often through encountering the other and always through asking the risky questions. In other words, perhaps God can still add to our number daily those who are being saved, if we can trust in strangers and ask the hard questions.

           
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Bio:
Aaron Metcalf was raised in the burbs of Portland, Oregon and attended Abilene Christian University for undergraduate and graduate school. He preaches at the Westside Church of Christ in Hillsboro, Oregon where he has happily served for nearly 5 years. Aaron loves the Northwest—the people, the scenery, the diversity, the food—and loves to watch Christians discover what it means to follow Jesus in such a diverse and wonderful city. When he’s not preaching, Aaron loves gardening, hiking, fishing, spending time with his family, and discovering ways not take himself too seriously.