Our Lenten study this year is on Diana Butler-Bass’s book, “Christianity For the Rest of Us.” It is a thought-provoking and well-researched expose on the declining mainline church, and how certain congregations have managed to defy that trend through renewed spirituality and Christian practices.
Please go to our website at www.salisburycongregational.org
and find the summary for our first class on the “Pastor’s page” – then leave any comment you’d like on here related to the material.
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I like that the author is not looking at “why churches are closing”, which seems to be the New England focus these days, but instead is asking, “why are some churches vibrant and growing”! I am looking forward to getting deeper into the book to see what she has discovered.
I believe the answer lies somewhere beyond “how do we bring in more members”, “how do we raise pledges”, “how do we get more people in the pews”, and “how do we get more people to participate in committee life”. I think that those things occur if a church can re-discover its passions and purpose.
Pastor Steve said this on The Pastor’s page, “…once a life-giving answer is discovered and introduced, it seems that so often it is thrust upon us with the label of “panacea” and reduced to a formula; once that happens, its half-life of effectiveness has begun, and it won’t be too long before it becomes obsolete.” I agree that “answers” that are imposed on a community often fail…the key is to grow something organic, something that is true to the heart of each individual and unique congregation. I will be intrigued to learn what the “leaven” in the loaf may be!