What is the Opportunity
in Change?
The Rev. Charles E. (Chuck) Blair
H
ow does one speak of change? How does one talk about it? Change is
painful. It is much easier just to carry on as we have always done so. After
all, the Church of our forefathers served many of us well.
The evidence is stark, not just for this General Church organization
but for Christianity as a whole. Many congregations are aging, resources
are contracting, engagement is flagging, and contributions are falling. The
average congregation in the General Church is older, smaller, and facing an
increasingly diminished financial future. This is not unique; the average age of
an Anglican parishioner in the United States today is 62. Methodism, in terms
of membership, has contracted for more than 10 straight years.
In a recent study, an outside group analyzing the demographics of the
General Church noted that only 3% of the current membership is “new,” as
measured by those who have been members for five or fewer years. With a 4%
death rate, that 3% growth rate signifies 1% attrition per year.
A question: Is it time for us to engage candidly the painful truth that our
Church as an organization finds itself in dire straits – in the same boat as much
of organized religion? We can both engage the painful truth such questions
bring to the fore, and at the same time maintain hope.
That hope centers around the fact that God’s will is creation. God’s will
is change and growth and transformation, or to put it even more simply,
resurrection and regeneration. As Swedenborg noted, “Maintenance is
perpetual creation.”
We will, however, find ourselves unable to move either toward the
necessary candor or the prayed-for hope unless we humbly put aside the
fear-inducing divisions that move us into conflict and away from the critical
collaboration that will point a way forward.
Many of us are tired of fear. Many tire of comments that unfortunately
position those wanting change and advocating for it as somehow less New
Church, less doctrinal, less religious. Those wanting change, it must be
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