Thread below on the story that made the rounds yesterday:
"Cottage Grove church to usher out gray-haired members in effort to attract more young parishioners."
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"Cottage Grove church to usher out gray-haired members in effort to attract more young parishioners."
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People I really like were rightly upset about older people being disrespected. See:
twitter.com/MelissaFloBix
twitter.com/MelissaFloBix
I too thought some of the original communication about the changes sounded harsh and insensitive.
The church and denomination both responded with clarifications:
And today this story with additional reporting was published:
The church and denomination both responded with clarifications:
And today this story with additional reporting was published:
The United Methodist Church has the fourth oldest median age of any denomination according to CCES 2018 data.
And here is another chart from 2014 Pew Research with the United Methodist Church being the 5th oldest:
And here is another chart from 2014 Pew Research with the United Methodist Church being the 5th oldest:
The United Methodist Church has for many years struggled with what to do with all of the small churches it subsidizes. (Baptist churches are different. They are independent so are not subsidized by the denomination). The United Methodist Church is "connectional" (tied together).
In the United Methodist Church, the regional "Bishop" appoints a clergy person to each congregation. (In contrast, for Baptist churches, the local church invites a person to be their pastor). In the UMC, the congregation has little say about who they get.
Will Willimon writes about the UMC, "We have more small membership churches than any other denomination … We have allowed small, declining, insular congregations to dominate our denomination."
in "Bishop: The Art of Questioning Authority by an Authority in Question" (2012).
in "Bishop: The Art of Questioning Authority by an Authority in Question" (2012).
Will Willimon writes about the UMC: "our church subsidizes and produces small, unproductive, static congregations …Equitable compensation and other subsidies ought to be abandoned in favor of offering short-term, accountable seed money."
"Bishop," 2012.
"Bishop," 2012.
"The annual mortality rate for religious congregations is 1 percent, which is among the lowest mortality rates ever observed for any type of organization." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, (2008). jstor.org/stable/20486915
"The unusually low mortality rate probably indicates an organizational population whose weakest members live on in a weakened state."
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, (2008). jstor.org/stable/20486915
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, (2008). jstor.org/stable/20486915
There are far more restaurants, stores, and businesses that close than churches because a congregation can continue existing as long as one person mows the lawn and pays the electricity and water bill. Discernment is needed on whether a small congregation should keep a building.
Declining congregations often rent their building out to growing congregations and the congregations meet at a different time slots. Sometimes the old congregation even ends up selling or giving the building to the growing congregation.
Unlike Baptist and other independent congregations where the local congregation just muddles through by themselves, the United Methodist Church works as an institution to try to have all of its congregations thrive, and this involves decisions about the allocation of resources.
My take:
- Denominational officials must be gracious, patient, and forthright.
- A denomination, if its procedures permit, can withdraw subsidies or subsidize a replant.
- People can still keep gather elsewhere if they like or join the replant.
- All should be gracious.
- Denominational officials must be gracious, patient, and forthright.
- A denomination, if its procedures permit, can withdraw subsidies or subsidize a replant.
- People can still keep gather elsewhere if they like or join the replant.
- All should be gracious.
See also my twitter friend Michelle Van Loon writing about not especially this story as much as the general disrespect for older people in churches:
Thread from a United Methodist who describes what is going on here legally and pastorally:
The local NBC TV affiliate did reporting and interviews for their video segment and write-up: kare11.com/article/news/l…
Thread from a sympathetic United Methodist Church pastor:
Excellent reporting and writing from Ruth Graham, who vividly illustrates the issues here:
