Decline & Renewal in West Coast Churches of Christ, part 1

"Can Liberal Christianity Be Saved?" This op-ed piece by Ross Douthat in last summer's New York Times prompted lots of response. Many jumped on the bandwagon to say that the Episcopal Church had lost its way. Its blatant liberal path had caused more and more of its members to hit the eject button while attracting fewer and fewer new members. The numbers were bleak (23% decline in the last decade) and the outlook bleaker. This was the conclusion of Douthat and many who re-posted and commented on his article.

"But not so fast!" retorted church scholar Diana Butler Bass in her op-ed for the Huffington Post. While she didn't disagree with the data about the Episcopal Church, she reframed the question. "Can Christianity Be Saved?" was the title of her article. Her point? Churches of all stripes and types are declining in North America.

Say what you will about liberal churches, but all denominations are struggling—even conservative ones. Southern Baptists? Declining. Missouri Synod Lutherans? Losing members. Roman Catholics? Holding steady, but only because of Latino immigration. Take away the immigrants, and they're declining like everyone else.

What about Churches of Christ? In 2000, Churches of Christ could claim 1.26 million members with over 13,000 congregations. Our membership remained mostly unchanged from 1980 to 2000. But over the last decade, our churches have lost members at a clip that matches national trends. Some stats don't yet bear this out. Our system of self-reporting leads to lags in accurate, national records. But even with the slow reporting, California, where I live, showed a 12% loss of membership between 2000 and 2010 according to the Association of Religion Data Archives.

 

Unless I'm badly mistaken, we have a problem. Our churches are declining. No, we're not the only ones with this problem. But we're the only ones who can face our unique struggles.

Over the next few weeks, I want to talk about decline and renewal in West Coast Churches of Christ. I hope to have several guest "columnists" during this series. My goal is to build some conversation and think together about what this all means. I have no interest in beating us up. Nor do I hope to find some simplistic answer that will solve our membership loss. There is no “easy” button.

What's my goal? I am interested in looking at the true state of things. We need to be honest with where we are. Let's be real.

But let's not wallow and moan. We still have a job to do. Unless we’re ready to throw in the towel, we can still make an important difference in the lives of our members and in our communities.

First, however, we need to ask important questions: What is God calling us to be and do in light of the new reality that surrounds us? Is there an important niche for our churches beyond a caretaker role? To what special mission is God calling us in our unique contexts?

Please spread the word and join the conversation.