St. Marks Presbyterian Church
7922 State Road 52, Hudson FL 34667
Phone (727) 863-5646 FAX (727) 869-9529
Sermon by Pastor Kenneth F. Gruebel
Sermons Every Congregation Should Hear: Why is the Church Falling Apart?
John 15:1-17
Have you ever heard about “The Book?” No, I don’t mean the “book of life” that, according to the Book of Revelation, lists all those who will make it into heaven. ( Revelation 20:11-12) I’m referring to this book – The Church Registry of St. Mark’s. It lists the names of all of those who have joined St. Mark’s since it was founded on November 3, 1974. Rex and Jean Barnes, John and Helen Davis, Jo Heimer and Helen Jorgensen are all charter members on that list who are still members today.
You have heard of the letters “B.C.” or “A.D.” referring to before or after the birth of Christ. Well, I measure this book by “BK” and “AK” – “Before Ken” and “After Ken.” The first “After Ken” members were received on October 20, 1991. Of the 24 members who joined that day four are still active: Irene Bilas, Art and Cathy McKenzie and Marky Pontlitz. In fact, if you added up all the “AK” members, they would total 789 regular members and 121 affiliated members for a total of 910 members! That’s a lot of St. Markians over the last twenty years!
In the early days of my ministry with you we had only one service at 10:30 a.m. It got so crowded that we added an early service during the winter months that soon expanded to a year-round service. I remember one year back in the 1990’s we averaged 500 worshippers every Sunday with attendance sometimes surpassing 650 in the winter.
While we were doing great, churches “up north” were losing members left and right; that’s because they were probably all retiring and moving to Florida. Loss of members for those churches meant loss of revenue, then loss of staff and programs. Some of those churches began to close. Meanwhile, at St. Mark’s, I was going nuts trying to minister to a growing congregation.
Then, very quietly and without much fanfare, St. Mark’s started to lose more members than it received each year starting in the year 2000. Sometimes churches decline because of major disagreements or problems, but that wasn’t the case here. We just began to lose more members to the “Church Triumphant” (death) and to reverse migration, where those who had moved to Florida decided to move back “up north” to be closer to family. Now that loss of membership has become an epidemic, not only for St. Mark’s, but for mainline churches and denominations through out the country: Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, United Church of Christ, Moravians and even the Baptists.
I went to a preaching conference last year with 1800 other pastors. At one of the lectures a preaching professor asked, “Is anyone here serving a church that is not in trouble?” Not one hand was raised. Everyone was in trouble. Six years ago, in 2006, our presbytery was served by three full time executives, a part time stated clerk, a part time resource librarian and four full time staff members. They are all gone! Some were laid off, some transferred to other places, and some retired. We now are served by one executive, one resource librarian, one part time bookkeeper and one part time stated clerk!
Why is the church falling apart?
No one knows for sure, although many have offered reasons. Some say that the younger generations don’t seem to be as interested in church, at least not in church as we know it. My parents were born in the 1920’s and always went to church. My generation born in the 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s are not as faithful but still worship regularly. Our children, born in the 1970’s and 1980’s don’t attend much at all. I raised my children in the church. One attends on Christmas and Easter and the other attends three or four times a year.
Some say that the decline is caused by denominational fights over ordination standards: should gays and lesbians be ordained as elders, deacons and clergy? This disagreement has been going on for forty years and is very painful. Some say that the decline is due to the worship wars: organs or guitars, sermons or videos, suits or shorts, Sunday morning traditional or Saturday night contemporary?
Others say that worship is boring and out of touch with the times.
One professor has suggested that such a downturn is part of the American religious cycle. Just as recessions are followed by upward spikes in the stock market, so also “Great Awakenings” in faith follow down turns in religious participation.
One religious commentator has said that most churches are dealing with this trend in one of three ways; Denial, Despair or Magic. That is, they deny their church is sinking or they wring their hands in anxiety or they think there is a magical solution like a youth minister, or super duper program or a great preacher or going back to the 1950’s.
To be honest, no one has come up with an answer as to what is happening and no one has come up with a solution as to how to address it. All we know is that the church is going to change; it is going to look different and probably be different.
I know many of you think of me as the “owner of the church” but not even I can fix either churches across America or our little corner of it here at St. Mark’s. I’ve been thinking about this dilemma for some time and I keep coming back to this passage from John that we read for our Scripture lesson this morning. Do you remember the first part?
“I am the tree vine and my Father is the vine-grower,” [says Jesus.] “He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.” (John 15:1-2)
If we believe, as I do, that the church is in God’s hands, then the quandary that we face is trying to figure out if God is chopping us off because we are fruitless and therefore worthless or if God is simply pruning us back so that we, the church, will be more fruitful in the future. Being chopped off or being pruned is a painful experience.
Before I had my right knee replaced last summer, I had some pain and was somewhat limited in my ability to walk. After my surgery, I was in a lot of pain and could barely move. I was hoping I was being pruned because the knee hurt a whole heck of a lot more after the surgery than before I had surgery.
So what should we do as we wait to see what God has in store for us?
My sense is that we need to continue to be as faithful as we can be. I plan on continuing to share the good news of the gospel by how I live, how I speak and how I act. I hope you’ll join me. I think we need to continue to do mission as creatively as we can, and you have been very creative in doing mission.
“Drop Your Drawers Here.”
I think we need to be good stewards of what we have which means for the time being we are going to have to do ministry with fewer financial resources. That is going to be painful, but it has to be done. I believe we need to be open to change and flexibility. I have been grateful for that spirit in this congregation. We worship at 8:00 a.m. for those who like to get a head start on the day and at 9:30 a.m. for those who like the contemporary style and at 11:00 a.m. for those who like the full service traditional style. We have done all kinds of special services at all kinds for different times and you haven’t complained.
I remember our former parish associate, Bill Whitledge, used to say to me, “Ken, you don’t know how lucky you are.” “Why do you say that?” I asked. “Sometimes you remove the pulpit, sometimes you remove the communion table and sometimes you remove everything and nobody ever gets angry with you,” Bill replied. “Maybe they are more mature in their faith than we realize,” I said. “I think you’re right,” said Bill. I think that is what it will take as we face an uncertain future.