Sam Trumbore is a Unitarian Universalist (UUA) pastor who currently serves as minister of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany (New York). Previously, he was Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Charlotte County, Florida. Recently he wrote a piece contrasting the experiences of living churches with those of dying churches. This article was originally published in the newsletter of a Charlotte county church: Pilgrim United Church of Christ. More recently it appeared on the UUA blog Congregational Stewardship:
Living churches always have a parking problem; dying churches don’t.
Living churches are constantly changing their methods; dying churches don’t have to.
Living churches have lots of noisy kids; dying churches are quiet.
Living churches expenses always exceed their income; dying churches take in more than they ever dream of spending.
Living churches are constantly improving and planning for the future; dying churches worship the past.
Living churches grow so fast you forget people’s names; dying churches you’ve known everyone’s names for years.
Living churches move forward and out in faith; dying churches operate totally by sight.
Living churches support community work heavily; dying churches keep it all at home.
Living churches are filled with healthy pledgers; dying churches are filled with tippers.
Living churches dream great dreams of beloved community; dying churches relive nightmares.
Living churches have the fresh wind of love blowing; dying churches are stale with bickering.
Living churches don’t have can’t in their vocabulary; dying churches have nothing but.
Living churches EVANGELIZE, dying churches fossilize.
So What?
Every church that still has a pulse must be intentionally and regularly engaging in self-evaluation and allowing the results from such processes to impact future action. Based on what you know about your local congregation:
- For each of Trumbore’s statements rate your church as either living or dying. While each can be viewed as continuum, his listing intentionally forces you to chose the label that most closely represents your church as it is today (not as you hope it will be in the future). What grade did you give your church (i.e. 8 living, 5 dying)?
- Living: Numerically rank all statements you rated as living based on their relative strength. How can your congregation benefit from leveraging its two or three greatest strengths even more strategically?
- Dying: Numerically rank all statements you rated as dying based on their relative strength. How can your congregation intentionally address the most troubling item or two on your list in the current year? What group should be tasked with doing further research and presenting a plan of action to the primary leadership body?