Decline & Renewal, 11: Mark Manassee Guest Column

Editor's note: Here’s another in our series of guest columns on church decline. During the rest of March, you'll read thoughtful words from church leaders like Tim Spivey, Andy Wall, Stan Granberg, Aaron Metcalf, Rick Gibson and more. Articles in April will focus on renewal.

Our sixth guest column is from Mark Manassee, a native of Southern California. Mark preaches for the Culver Palms Church of Christ in Culver City, home to some of California’s biggest movie studios. Mark has experienced church life outside the West Coast, and his eyes are wide open to the unique opportunities and challenges that our churches face. Mark is completing a DMin at Fuller Seminary in Missional Leadership, and he’s helping his church re-learn what it means to partner with the mission of God in their community.

The View from Mark Manassee

I love Southern California. I have lived in several states from the Northeast to the South to the Midwest but I am a Southern Californian through and through. I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley, graduated from Downey High School, attended Cerritos College for a year, and then graduated from Pepperdine University before making my way to the southeast to go to seminary at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. I grew up attending Dodger and Laker games; often staying afterward to get my favorite player’s autograph. The sound of Vince Scully’s voice was almost as frequent as any family member’s.

I also came to faith in Jesus Christ through Churches of Christ in southern California. I did not grow up in a Christian environment and went into that watery grave of baptism at the age of 14 at the Imperial Highway Church of Christ in Downey, CA.  My new life in Christ also gave me a new family. They loved me in tangible ways that changed my life. My faith deepened through the years and now I gratefully serve as the Senior Minister for the Culver Palms Church of Christ in Los Angeles.

So it is with a great deal of personal investment and gratitude that I observe Churches of Christ in southern California. Sadly, over the last 20-30 years our influence and numbers have waned. The Culver Palms church is also no stranger to this dynamic.

Culver Palms has declined from a Sunday morning attendance of slightly over 300 at the turn of the millennium to slightly under 200 since the beginning of this year. It is hard to point to a single reason, or even a handful of specific reasons, for the decline. There were long periods without a youth minister. There have been people who move to other towns, go to a church closer to their home, or just quietly leave. But these departures have never come in large numbers or at single points in time. The obvious point is we simply have not reached people in large enough numbers to replace those who have left.

There are, I believe, several larger trends that at least partially account for the decline of Culver Palms specifically and our churches in general. And perhaps, if we can understand the causes of this decline, we can begin to reverse them. These trends are based on both personal observations as well as documented research.

The first trend is the ending of the migration from the South.

Churches of Christ in the western United States were largely formed by the western migration of southerners. The impact of this westward movement is well detailed in the book From Bible Belt to Sunbelt by Darren Dochuk. This migration gave Churches of Christ a definite southern feel that made many transplants feel at home. However, this migration has ended, our communities have undergone significant ethnic transitions, and congregations have not always re-contextualized themselves to their neighborhoods. Sometimes our congregations seem like an island of southern culture in a vast sea of Californian life. At other times, congregations have become more multi-ethnic in make-up yet still have the feel of an Anglo congregation.

The second trend is the collapse of Christendom.

We no longer live in a Christian nation (and perhaps we never did). The church and the values of the gospel are not the dominant forces in the way people in our communities live life. Churches exist more on the margins of society than ever before. This second trend is well discussed in the book Missional Map-Making by Alan Roxburgh. This calls for the church to take seriously their position as a community in exile and calls for the church to take a more missionary posture.

The third trend is the failure of the attractional model of church life.

This is a direct result from the second trend. There was a time when a congregation could have great preaching, vibrant worship, and an active youth ministry and simply open the doors and advertise. People were looking for a church, one’s congregation could be fairly attractive, and you could count on people showing up. But things are different today. Most unchurched people are not looking for a church. Simply being an attractive congregation will not get people in the doors. Again, this calls for a more missionary stance where the congregation operates outside its walls more often. This does not imply that congregations should not be attractive (they should). It simply means that it is not enough in the new world we find ourselves in.

These trends are affecting all churches and Culver Palms is not exempt from these forces. The danger is we will not recognize them, deny them, or think we can go back to a world that no longer exists rather than beginning the slow but steady process of learning from each other and charting a new course.

                
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Bio:
Mark is a graduate of Pepperdine University (BA, Religion, Speech Communication; M.S., MInistry) and Emory University (MDiv). He has ministered for churches in California, Georgia, Missouri, Connecticut, and Tennessee. He also served as a chaplain and co-director of the Department of Pastoral Care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. In addition to his ministry with Culver Palms, he is an adjunct instructor in the Religion Division at Pepperdine University. He is a married to Angela, a hospice chaplain, and they are proud parents of a six-year old son, Micah.