I was reading an article by Kate Bowler, the author of our 2022 Lenten devotionals, where she shared that she was in “durable remission.” I didn’t realize until then, but she had stage 4 colon cancer. And now she doesn’t. And of course, she reminds everyone: Go get your colonoscopy! She went on to say, “I have a great belief that what doesn’t kill you is usually sort of waiting to get you again tomorrow.” I chuckled somewhat nervously, because there’s more truth to that than more of us want to admit.
But in the rest of the article, she wrote about the unusual place in which she finds herself, “between victim and survivor, between sick and healthy, unwell and perfect.” There are “so few words to describe what it actually means to ‘survive’. How do we live in the in-between?”
That struck an ecclesial nerve for me, and I found myself pondering how that might speak to us in the mainline church who find our churches in that unusual place between living and dying as our attendance and resources are on the decline. How do we live in the in-between? Suppose we’re in a kind of “durable remission,” somewhere between pandemic shutdown and vibrant life? The pandemic didn’t kill us, but it seems like it sucked some of the life out of us, and we were already somewhere on the right side of the church lifecycle curve (right).
At one of our Leadership Summits this year, we admitted out loud that we have a “short runway” and will need to get busy and do something to lengthen it before our plane comes in for a landing. This Spring, we formed an Exploratory Team (ET) to work on that. After reading several books and a number of articles and guidelines, the ET decided to host a symposium for churches in our area and our presbytery who find themselves facing a similar runway. We’ve invited two speakers from the Presbyterian Church (USA), Tony Oltman from Vital Congregations and Steve Keizer from the Presbyterian Foundation, and
one from the Episcopal Church, Richard Laribee, author of Church Mergers: Factors Contributing to Success or Failure in Congregational Mergers, to come talk about our options. We can: reimagine our church ministries and circle back over to the left side of the curve; merge, partner, yoke, or engage in shared ministry with (an)other church(es); or allow our church to die but determine where our assets will go. In that way, we can leave a lasting legacy for others to continue the good work that we began at Faith (death and resurrection to new life).
Just by hosting this symposium, we are making a positive impact on our presbytery and other churches in our area, besides helping ourselves to discern God’s call to us as Faith Community, so I hope you will attend and join the conversation! Mark your calendar now!
December 2, 2023 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at Faith Community Presbyterian Church
“I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isa 43:19) God is faithful and will keep God’s promises. Let us also be faithful to God and our calling as the Faith Community Church at 10 Mile and Christina. With God’s help, nothing is impossible!
With many blessings,