We're taking in more new members this Sunday

[Critters2]

This is the first church I've served that really is growing. We take in new members about every 6 weeks. Two more this Sunday, and four more (two lesbian couples) who will join in a few weeks, but can't be here Sunday.

And the interesting thing to me is that it is absolutely clear that the reason we're growing is our progressive theological and social position. Our Open and Affirming statement, which is printed in our bulletin each week, helps, but it's not just the glbt issue. We've taken in more straight people than gays (but we're still known as "the gay church"), and have so many new children that we've had to buy new Sunday School chairs and tables.

All of this flies in the face of those who insist that mainline churches are dying because we're too liberal. If anything, I've now come to believe, we're too timid and equivocating about how liberal we'd really like to be. When we speak out clearly about our progressive values, there are those who want and need to hear our message.

Just thinkin' out loud.

Pastor Critters
(who is actually too conservative for some of her members!)

[RevCheesehead]

1. Congrats, critters!

That must be very satisfying, to see seeds not just planted, but sprouting and growing. I look forward to experiencing that, someday. :)

[Critters2]

3. Believe me, it's a new experience for me!!

People give me the credit for it, but I'm not doing anything differently here than I've done in other churches. There are two differences...the community is growing (hard to grow a church in a declining population!), and the church has been very clear and public about its progressive theology and social justice work. That started before I got here. The national ad campaign has helped, too, which has surprised me (I don't really like the ads--they strike me as abrasive). We've had several new folks say they hunted us up after seeing the ads.

My fear now is that the new folks are more liberal than some of the longer-term members. There's occasionally a little tension, nothing explicit yet. I worry a little though.

But that's my nature.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. The token fundamentalist columnist in the Minneapolis paper

was taunting the Minnesota United Methodists for having adopted a resolution in favor of gay marriage at their state convention, saying that it was the reason that the mainline churches are declining and the fundies are growing.

But stories like yours (and the experience of my own Episcopal parish, which regularly takes in new members by the dozens) would belie that accusation.

I suspect that the discrepancy comes from the mainline churches being

1) Slow on the pick-up when suburbia boomed, as opposed to the fundies, who were right there

2) More friendly to single people or GLBT people, while the fundie churches are all "family this" and "family that."

[Critters2]

4. I know

as a single person, "family" things don't feel welcoming to me. I sometimes wonder if that's just code for "gays not welcome".

And you're right, we're not doing church=planting in growing communities. It drove me crazy in Iowa. I went to a support group thing every 6 weeks in West Des Moines--the fastest growing community in the state. I drove past lots of large fundie churches, one large ELCA, but the UCC was doing NO work in the area. I heard a couple of explanations for this. Some said the big church in Des Moiens didn't want the Conference pursuing this. Others said no one wanted to offend other denominations by acting like we were in competition. I don't know if either of those were true. But, the fundies DO see us as competition, and we need to offer ministry to the non-fundies of the world!

They want to come to church...our growth is proof of it!!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. It may be code for "gays not welcome," but it has always felt more like

the kind of attitude that impels newly married people to drop their single friends. In such churches, I've always felt like an awkward presence, as in, "She's not paired off. She doesn't fit into any of our neat little categories, because she's not a kid, not elderly, and not married, and what else is there?"

[realisticphish]

6. i've always felt isolated

at my church, I wasn't in the youth group (hated the leader, and the members), so I fell outside the approved social containment for teens.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. Then you need to find a new church!

There's no shame in shopping.

:-)

[realisticphish]

8. well

i like the pastor, and I don't go there often anyway, since I live at college