Church Merger: Are You “Better Together”?

Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, Lahishin, Belarus

If you are part of a small church and you’re thinking about merging with another  church, you may want to pick up a recent publication called “Better Together”  by Jim Tomberlin and Warren Bird (Jossey-Bass, 2012).  This book has some valuable advice about the potential for church mergers that couple a “lead church” with a “joining church”.

It is written primarily to independent, evangelical churches, and most of the examples come from younger, healthy congregations (“lead churches”) that grow their ministry’s effectiveness by joining with smaller churches (“joining churches”).  The mergers often result in one congregation being folded into another, or, in some cases, a multi-site church using two or more buildings.

Some useful nuggets in this book include a chapter on how to determine if your church is a good candidate for a merger, and practical lists of administrative and staffing issues to address in carrying out a merger.  I appreciated the stories about multi-site churches (in which a unified staff leads congregations in several locations).  This is an emerging model for ministry being experimented with.

Here are some reasons the authors believe churches should consider merging:

• To be better together than each church is individually
• To begin a new church life cycle
• To reach more people and make a greater difference for Christ
• To better serve your local community
• To maximize use of church facilities

They also point out that many mergers fail because two desperate churches in decline try working together as a last ditch effort to stay open.  These mergers are “motivated more by survival concerns than by vision.”

If you are from a denominational tradition that values lay-led ministry, some of the merger stories in this book may rub you the wrong way.  The churches cited tend to be strongly pastor-led and free of the encumbrances of denominational oversite. (The authors claim a merger can be completed in a year or less…on which planet, I wonder?).  They also fail to adequately address the unique sense of community that is formed in congregations with deep roots, and how difficult it is for these churches to relinquish their identities.  Nevertheless, Tomberlin and Bird have some practical things to say about why some mergers  have not worked in the past, and how they can work in the future.

I would recommend this book to anyone considering a merger, even if you have to “translate” the guidance offered for your own situation.  Just be sure you keep the most important question in front of you:

Can we accomplish more effective ministry together than we can separately?

*Photo by Y. Yaroshko, licensed by Wikimedia Commons

New Uses for Holy Ground

The Water Chapel

I got a LOT of interest in a recent post about whether or not congregations should consider selling their buildings.  I think this is an issue under the surface that church leaders are considering, but reluctant to talk about with their congregations.  Here’s some information about a couple organizations that are thinking creatively about church properties:

Partners for Sacred Places is a non-profit organization that helps congregations team up with their communities to find new uses for their buildings.  Here’s a story about a church in Fort Worth that has become the new home for an eye clinic for the poor.

Sacred Places has also developed a system for assessing the economic value of churches to their communities.  This was originally done for Catholic dioceses when they had to decide which churches to close in consolidations.  Sacred Places actually helped them figure out which churches were generating the most social and economic benefit in their neighborhoods.   (Think Robert Putnam’s “social capital” from his book “Bowling Alone“, only with dollar values attached).

Here’s a story about what they learned in a community called Covington.

And here’s something wierdly fascinating!  www.churchshare.net offers its customers…

“a turnkey church rental package. You can literally move in tomorrow! Not only can you afford it, but you’ll be occupying a real church with room to grow and prosper.”

This Florida business offers church buildings to congregations who want to rent and are willing to share space with other congregations.  Large scale campuses; retreat space; you can even rent the ”Water Chapel” pictured above for that special immersion baptism you are planning  (no anchors, you anchorites!).

If you are interested in reading more about what’s happening with church buildings and closures, check out Episcopal blogger Joe Duggans’  website and accompanying Facebook page Congregational Seasons.  I have him to thank for many of the stories I’ve found.

Tell me what you think of these options!

Should Two Churches Merge?

When I started researching churches that had declined, sold their buildings or closed, I couldn’t find many happy stories about church mergers.  Some judicatory leaders would say dismissively, “Oh, we’ve tried those, but they never work very well.”  In one urban area, I found a cluster of churches that had chosen what they called “blending”–informal mergers in which one church sold their building and migrated en masse to another church, taking their assets with them, but without enacting a legal merger.  Some of these “blendings” have worked out fine in the long term; one resulted in disappointment over the management of  financial legacies.

Some of the misgivings I’ve heard about mergers include:

• One church always resents giving things up to merge with the other;
• When two struggling churches merge out of desperation for survival, they generally become ONE church desperate for survival, which is not really an improvement;
• Although two churches might share denominational roots and geographic location, they may be light years apart culturally or theologically, or may even have some enmity between them in their past.

These kinds of comments made me reticent about suggesting churches explore merger.  But recently, I am seeing more positive stories of successful mergers.    Here’s an article about two Episcopal churches in Akron that discerned the call to gradually merge their churches and sell one of their buildings.   It seems to have worked because each congregation was sensitive to the others’ differences and needs, and they took their time developing common ministries and worship before they made a final decision.  One sign of their success is that a substantial number of members have joined since the merger occured ten years ago.

I have a couple colleagues who are currently working on a merger project.  They have painstakingly formed joint exploration groups to study how different aspects of their two ministries might become one.

And a 2012 publication, “Better Together”, by Jim Tomberlin and Warren Bird, suggests that new approaches to merger may hold some promise.

There is more for me to learn  about mergers.  (This may require adding a chapter to my book!).  Let me know if you have a happy or sad merger story to share.

Thanks to Joe Duggan for sharing the above story on his Facebook page: Congregational Seasons.

Small is Beautiful

I have been small my whole life, and it has rarely done me any harm.  (Well, there was that one time I had to bark at an unruly parishioner twice my size…then go to my office and cry).  Still, I wonder why some people consider smallness to be–a disability?  To me, it just means I don’t have to pay for extra leg room on airplanes.

Steve Willis has written a book for the Alban Institute, “Imagining the Small Church” (see the excerpt here), which points out that, in American history, the small church was the norm until urbanization made large downtown churches possible around the turn of the 20th Century.  Willis proposes that, in this century, the small, resilient church may have things to teach the rest of us about how to move into the future.

One of my mentors, Rev. Dave King, is a church consultant in the John Knox Presbytery in Wisconsin.  He writes in his blog at sandburconsulting.com about some of the strengths of the small church:

Healthy small churches have distinct advantages in this age of post Christendom: they can communicate rapidly and effectively; their relationships are deep and strong; they can be nimble in response to changing circumstances; they have a rich experience of trusting God to lead and support them in difficult times; they know and understand the resources (even if limited) that God has placed at their disposal; they often have a history of strong lay leadership; and, they tend to act without waiting for permission if the need requires.

Small churches that have always been small are used to struggling for vitality and viability.   But churches that used to be large and are now small have it even tougher.  They have to learn how to do church in a new, smaller way.  That means adaptive change.

Some churches may try moving from full time to part time pastors.  (See the book “Part Time Pastor, Full Time Church” by Robert LaRochelle on how to make this work).  Some make their committee structures more lean.   But maybe the most important change required is that of self-image.  Your congregation may need to talk about ways you are no longer who you used to be, mourn for your lost identity, and then re-focus on the kind of church God is calling you to be now.  Once you accept a new identity as a smaller church, the possibilities for what you can do in ministry may open up.

Here is an interesting leadership model used in rural Australia: one pastor serves half a dozen churches, each with its own lay preacher.  The pastor and preachers  get together once a month to study the lectionary.  The ordained leader rotates between churches on different Sundays and performs sacramental ministry.  The lay pastors preach, visit the homebound and carry out administrative duties.  In essence, these little churches run themselves.

Is it working?  Philip Hughes of Edith Cowan University researched this model and concluded:

“The vitality of the lay-led churches was no different from churches led by ordained ministers. In many lay-led churches there is a strong sense of ownership by the lay people, and those involved in leadership often reported that they had grown in faith through their responsibilities.”  

Small can be beautiful, and it is no excuse to stop doing effective ministry!

Meeting Nanette

A Wicker Park Wordle

I was happy to see Nanette Sawyer interviewed in a recent issue of The Christian Century (1/23/13).  She is the founding pastor of Wicker Park Grace, an innovative ministry with young adults in Chicago.  I had the privilege of meeting Nanette on a couple occasions and have read her book “Hospitality–The Sacred Art”.   I have found her to be an inspiring voice in new church development.

One day in 2008, I made the 5 hour trip to visit a gathering at Wicker Park, which was not exactly a church.  From their website,  I knew the address and what time they met; I knew there would be improvisational jazz, and that I should bring some food to share.  I brought cherries.   When I arrived for the event, I found it informal: different people stood up and read poetry, a home-made video of a justice project was shown, and two brilliant young musicians played.  A  bound journal was passed around and we all wrote our prayers into it.   Although Nanette read and explained the scriptures, there was no formal sermon.  Afterward, I shyly hung around for the simple meal.  The cherries I brought were praised and shared.   Then I drove back home and never saw any of them again.

Except Nanette.  I met her again a few weeks later at a conference at Montreat.  She invited me to  talk about her ministry over a meal one day. I asked her if she thought Wicker Park was a church, or would ever become one.  She said something I never forgot: if a church starts a food pantry, we may call it a ministry, but we never expect  it to become a “church”.  She saw her outreach to young adults as a ministry, but not necessarily as a church.  That comment has changed the way I think about new ways we might be the Church–or do ministry– in the future.

Nanette has helped create a ministry by sharing a cup of tea or some poetry or art with people in small groups.  She has exposed some young adults to Christian teachings who would never venture into a traditional church.   But she does this without drawing attention to herself or her own views.  She simply creates the space for people to talk about their faith.

Recently, she began serving half time in a more traditional church and sharing their building with the ten year old Wicker Park ministry, which is now called Grace Commons.  My guess is that the shared building use is a way of adapting to keep both ministries more sustainable.  The church (St. James Presbyterian) meets on Sunday mornings.  Grace Commons meets on Sunday nights.  So now, she does both “church” and “ministry”.

What IS the difference between a church and a ministry?

If you are interested in new church planting, a conference called “Church Planters Academy” is being held in Minneapolis in August including leaders like Nanette.  You can read about it here. 

Flash Mob Church

My friend Wendy sent me this video of a group of singers from a church who orchestrated a flash mob singing of Christmas carols at a shopping mall.  It’s interesting to see the reactions of the crowd; you can’t tell for sure which people are part of the choir and which are bystanders.  While the act might have been offensive to a few, it clearly touched others.   There are probably a lot of people who don’t go to church on Christmas, but who still feel some connection to the ancient story of Christ’s birth.  The flash mob brought a holy moment into a secular setting.

A wise colleague reminded me this week that Christ is not only the Lord of the Church, but also the Lord of the World.  We have so carefully contained our version of “Christ” in our churches that we are hard pressed to recognize or acknowledge his presence anywhere else.

Those of us who struggle with how to maintain our beautiful church buildings may want to reflect on what shape our religious practice might take if we had to practice it out in the world, “in front of God and everybody”.  I wonder what it would feel like  if we had to gather for Communion in restaurants, or meet at the beach for baptisms, or sing hymns in the mall.  Would it change the way we experience our rituals?  Would it change the way the “bystander”  experienced us?

How is your church visible when you are not in your building?  And is it possible that your church might continue to be visible even if some day you don’t have a building anymore?

Thanks for the inspiration, Wendy!

Making All Things New

My father used to take us skiing at Mammoth Lakes when I was a girl.  I remember being scared and cold all the time, but I tried to make the best of it. My dad, like any good dad, wanted to push me out of my comfort zone and challenge me to do something I could be proud of. So I tried.   I learned to work the bindings on my skis, hop off the chair lift and do the snowplow.  But I really didn’t enjoy it.  Finally, one winter when I was about 13, I told my Dad I would not be going along this year.  It just wasn’t my thing.  He gracefully let me stay home.

As a parent, I now know the feeling of disappointment when discovering that my child is not excited about the same things I am.  We all wish we could share our deepest joys with our kids–our Joni Mitchell albums, our 80′s hairstyles, our favorite novels.   They, of course, laugh at what we love.

But they will have their own joys to discover, and we can still push them to go beyond their comfort zones into new territory we will never explore.

These days, my father is aging and has dementia.  Without realizing it, he has once again pushed me out of my comfort zone to help my siblings care for him.  When I get frustrated by this unfamiliar role, I remember our days on the ski slopes and remind myself that, this time, I cannot back away from the challenge.  He is still teaching me.

In the church, we are different generations trying to worship God and follow Christ together.  Sometimes the way of the elders just doesn’t work for the young.  The elders have to get over their disappointment about this and let new forms of Church emerge.  The younger have both the burden and the joy of creating those new forms.  The challenge of discipleship doesn’t go away just because you don’t like the form of Church your parents worshiped in.

Behold, God is making all things new.  How can you help Her?

David Schoen on the Importance of Place

Photo by Kevin Bauman

Rev. David Schoen works in the area of church vitality for the United Church of Christ.  In his Congregational Vitality Newsletter he wrote recently that an increasing number of congregations wonder what to do with their buildings when the building no longer matches up with the mission of the church.

He says, “Older generations in our churches…tend to be attached to buildings, sanctuaries, and places.  Their spiritual journey is a journey of place in which they identify with a place that has significant meaning for their faith.  Anyone younger than most baby boomers is on a different spiritual journey.  What is important to younger spiritual seekers and disciples is relationship.  They are on a journey defined by building relationships and being engaged in missionally driven congregations.  So place and facilities don’t matter so much to new generations or disciples – they are most concerned about the community and the mission of a congregation.”

His remarks may be a broad generalization, but they remind me of churches I’m acquainted with that give much of their energy and attention to their beloved, historic buildings.  The facilities may be in great shape and beautiful to look at, but their dwindling congregations have little time for outreach and mission after they are done repairing windows and tuckpointing the brick.

By contrast, Schoen offers examples of younger churches using new kinds of worship space like retrofitted commercial or rented space.  They are growing, not through “bricks, butts and budgets” (as one of my interviewees put it), but through souls bonding to one another in Christian community.

Nevertheless, one emergent church I’m aware of began by renting and has since attempted to buy a building.  The pastor says they have already been forced to move once by landlords, and now he doesn’t want to have to cut ties with another neighborhood.  They want to stake a claim, to be accountable to a community.

Older Christians must keep in mind that our attachment to our beloved holy places may not be inherited by the next generation.   Younger Christians might   consider how we can root ourselves in a mission field, whether we own or rent.

As Rev. Schoen reminds us, either way, it is the mission that must define where, how and why we gather, not the building.

But of course the question remains: what happens to the buildings…? 

Any ideas?

The Temple Community

Last summer my family took a trip to China.  One of my favorite experiences was visiting an incredible Buddhist temple we encountered in the busy center of Chengdu, a city of 14 million people (!!).  The day we visited the temple was scorching, and the smog was so thick you could taste it.  We walked several blocks from our hotel along wide streets crowded with cars, bicycles and motorbikes, well dressed women and sidewalk merchants.  Thanks to my exceptional navigational skills, we found the temple concealed inside a walled compound stretching over several acres.  At the gate, we were charged a small fee to enter.

Once inside, we discovered a different world.  Near the entry were several Buddha statues behind glass (see photo in my last post).  A container where incense could be burned was centrally located.  Beyond this entry area were pockets of gardens with walkways, sitting areas and fountains.  The compound included a tea house for snacks and chess playing, a small shop where one could purchase religious objects, open air tai chi classes and, in a back corner, an outdoor sanctuary where we stumbled on a worship service being conducted by brightly dressed monks.

It dawns on me now that this sacred space was multi-purpose and delightfully public.  Although the small fee was required, it was accessible to families with children, people seeking exercise, recreation, private prayer and fresh air, as well as formal worship.  All these things could go on at one time.  There were very few walls.

What would it be like if our churches in the future felt more like sacred public space?  Instead of fenced off Sunday School playgrounds and locked doors, the community might find open space, mixed use facilities and quiet in the midst of a busy world.  Anyone could come, religious or not.  And there would be a lot less walls.

I wouldn’t be able to imagine it if I hadn’t seen it in Chengdu.

Springhouse Church Sharing Project

Springhouse Church (Star Tribune Photo)

Here is a group of churches I really want to interview in Minneapolis.  This article tells how three congregations decided to work together sharing a redesigned space that can work for all of them.

One of my dreams for future churches has to do with shared space.  I imagine church “centers” where a group of churches share various sizes of worship space, administrative offices, parking, etc.  Maybe you could retrofit one of those mega- churches to be an ecumenical church center.  Maybe some events could be done jointly, like certain types of education or community service projects.  But the worship would stay distinctive to each congregation’s character.

I got this idea when I visited the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.  I worshiped in an alcove there with a Syrian Orthodox congregation.  They were one of several ethnic churches that shared space in that historic and very dusty building.  I thought it was cool!

Can you imagine sharing space with another congregation, or are you already doing that?  What do you imagine the future holds for churches and shared resources?