By September I will have been the minister here for 5 years. In years 1-3 the church grew without us doing a lot. We did some stuff, Essence & Labyrinth were the main things. The church seemed to grow organically (hate the term) from about 75 regular worshippers to 100 regular worshippers. Then last year we stagnated a bit some folk dropped out of circulation contact was maintained but they driffted off.
I now each week drop into the church to pray which is something that I feel God is asking me to do and I have responded. We have begun to get invovled in mission -Hope08 being the catalyst. Yet tne numbers have been in steady decline for at least 12 months. We now average less than 80 on a sunday.
It is hard not to take it personnaly but i do belvie that what we are doing is what God is wanting us to do.
Flowers - giving them away each week - the response is great
Car Washing (free) - again the response is good
Holiday Club - looks exciting
Back to Church Sunday Looks great and potentially very positive
Baby Blessings - for outsiders again positive response
What is happening why is it like this?
1 comments:
Is this the five-year blues?!
If it is any consolation, the membership of my church has shrunk since I arrived - albeit mostly a biggish clump when we closed the building - but the average congregation size has remained pretty steady. A couple of new folk and a few transients, but generally just stable.
We are a very different church from what we five years ago, even though it is mostly the same people. I suspect the same may be true where you are, too.
It's really hard not to take things personally - if things go 'well' it is obviously the members and/or God, if they go 'badly' it's the minister or devil.
I guess in years to come I'll be remembered as the minister who closed the building and in whose time the children's work finally died. The only good thing is that by the time that's my 'epitaph' I'll be somewhere else doing something else!
Sounds to me that, like us, your church has shifted focus towards more overt mission, and the reality is that some people just can't deal with that. For those who want/need a chaplain to the faithful, ministers who think when God says 'go' that's what it means can be a tad scary!
Keep your chin up, as the saying goes. And I'll buy you a pint next Baptist Assembly...!
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