The Observation Deck

A few years back Pastor Smith asked me to assist the United Church of Christ with its strategic planning by looking at Lakewood market segmentation.

It was very clear this congregation was on the way out, not reproducing at a rate to keep the barque afloat on Warren. Most of its aged members had moved West, were dying in fact. The hike into Lakewood was becoming more and more difficult for them.

(How will the increased cost of gas effect the collection plates, when the congregation is traveling so many miles to return to the old neighborhood church? Another material reason to look elsewhere for another faith flavor, I would suspect.)

Anyway there was generational/cultural divide with little capacity to fire up belief and cash flow from Lakewood homies.

A disconnect, between cultures and generations, one evident in various shrinking congregations. The culture wars - the blue/red business - is still being fought in these mainline churches, which are subject to enormous pressures from the evangelical right.

There is quite a bit of literature about these campaigns against liberal Mainline churches.

Jacksonian culture, with its evangelical and imperial thrust toward certainty and simplification of message concerning Almighty God, has been battering the more relativistic, liberal mainline churches for some time.

It seems Jacksonian culture is on the rise in Lakewood churches too.

Church of Yaweh in Bird Town went Baptist rather than Goddess.

The evangelical skateboard controversy last summer captures an instance of Jacksonian religious culture coming up against Lakewood's liberal disposition.

Kenneth Warren

There is much to celebrate in First UCC of Lakewood's merger with Church of the Redeemer in Westlake. There are also very natural, normal processes going on for First; the truth is, the usual lifespan of a church, all else being equal, is about 75 years. Early life of the church rises dramatically with the energy of the founding; revitalization can often happen when a church starts a new one.

I believe that happened fifty years ago when First started Redeemer in Westlake. It gave both churches energy.

CoR has gone through a daring and exciting re-envisioning process, complete with capital campaign to allow it to engage the community as, in essence, a whole new church. If it is successful (and I believe it will be, because I believe the people there are being faithful both to Christ and to who they, and their community, are) then I believe they are in for a rollicking good time of a future. They also have an exceptional preacher as pastor; I never fail to be inspired by his well-honed treasures of sermons.

The fact that First is contemplating becoming a part of this new future is cause for celebration. The unique image of the church moving full-circle to settle in with the church they once started is indeed inspiring.

Lakewood is still well served from a UCC perspective by Lakewood Congregational and by Liberation (the latter living in a building gifted to them by the Completing of Ministry by Parkwood UCC some years back); both of these churches have unique ministries and are led by very, very fine pastors. Both churches are growing.

The real issue is not the Completion of Ministry by some churches; it is whether we have the will and the commitment to start new ones. I've been quite taken by the number of UCC congregations (and I suppose it is true of other denominations as well) that were started in the same year. That means that there were LOTS of churches being started some time back; somehow, we've become less energetic in our zeal to do so. We are learning, however; in the UCC, we've relearned that it is CHURCHES that start churches, not judicatories or denominations. And when churches start new churches, they grow stronger themselves in the process.

By the way, the desciption upstream about Pilgrim is right on, though I think their attendance is now up to about 300 on average; I know we're greeting monthly membership classes, and the diversity of each is quite breathtaking. But Pilgrim is, in essence, a new church start. It certainly is not the same church it was a decade ago. Architecturally, as well as in its embrace of ministry, it is truly a gem.

-Curt

Rev. Ackley.

While I appreciate and undestand your response, in some ways I wish you hadn't written it.

Gracefully written as it was, the stark message behind it is that "there's no money here, time to move on." And as much as I accept the reality, it's sort of painful to see it in black and white.

I guess I would ask, if Lakewood is "well served from a UCC perspective" by Lakewood Congregational and Liberation (which I know nothing about), was there any effort to merge First Lakewood UCC with either of those churches?

Despite the cheery talk of "re-envisioning", it seems to me there's not much difference between First UCC merging with Redeemer and Fairchild moving its Chevy dealership to Westlake. I know it sounds blunt and harsh, and please believe me, I understand the pressures in keeping a congregation together. It's tougher,too, in Lakewood, where there just aren't many Presbyterians among recent immigrant populations or the "creative class."

But let's face it. "Completion of ministry" is just a really warm and fuzzy NCC-ese term for "Going Out of Business."

Can one be sympathetic and angry at the same time?

I believe there is more pain coming on this front. It won't surprise me if Lakewood loses one congregation a year well into the foreseeable future. In some cases, it's demographic trends and general drift away from the message of mainline Protestant ministries.

On the other hand, I know of two churches of the same denomination, less than one mile apart, which are both struggling, yet refuse to even consider a LOCAL, LAKEWOOD merger. Often, what damage the world can't inflict on churches, they somehow manage to do themselves.

On this particular score (and I am not a UCC member), I am absolutely with Mr. O and Mr. Warren. I want to worship where I live. The "completion of ministry" at Lakewood UCC doesn't afford us "much to celebrate" at all, at least from a Lakewood perspective.

Thanks you for your deeply felt and evocative post, Ms. Roberts, which prompts me to post a broad take on spiritual terrain, one not targeted to the loss or merger of any particular church.

Herman Melville said it, “Dollars damn me.â€Â￾

Ditto Lakewood. Unless, of course, we can activate our own imaginative metaphysics, beginning with a chicken wing feast serving gallons of invisble Lakewood Kool Aid, connecting ourselves to the source of love and participation through the suburban edge our city has lost over the course of the past half century.

That's how we stand as people of faith and knowledge.

Sprawl is a spiritual problem whereby one becomes lost in space, stuffed with matter.

Spirituality compels dwelling and participation in place. That’s why I was always troubled when the Lakewood ministers opt for digs out west.

To dwell in place or move in space - that is the deep question a westward ho merger bespeaks.

Clearly Lakewood’s capitalized edge of faith has drifted west into “bulldozed spaces,â€Â￾ scorching our memories of the sacred places.

“In this bulldozed space people can be located and given an address, but they cannot dwell. Their desire to dwell is a nightmare,â€Â￾ writes Ivan Illich in H2O and the Waters of Forgetfulness.

“Only those who recognize the nightmare of non-discrete space can regain the certainly of their own intimacy and thereby dwell in the presence of one another,â€Â￾ writes Illich.

The condition of driving to sacred bulldozed space tests our souls and our very perception of sanctified places in the city.

Our will to dwell in the deep, mysterious, enigmatic place we call Lakewood is tested by the temptation to move into space.

While congregations may drift west and shrink with age, let us build our territory of re-sanctified Lakewood homies through love for one another we make palpable through our dwelling in this place.

Kenneth Warren

Mr. Warren.

Quite frankly, on this particular issue, I want to don faitgues (skip the cigars) and join you and Mr. O in a "First Ring Suburbs Liberation Front"

Because as sure as I'm sitting here, the same UCC (or whatever denomination, they/we are ALL doing it) that is cheerfully "celebrating" its cutting and running from Lakewood will trumpet in its next denominational magazine the opening of a "urban mission" in (your city here).

Again, it's anger mixed with sympathy. Sympathy for the tough row churches have to hoe. But anger in the sense that it plays far better with Protestants' noblesse oblige to treat Newark as a "mission field" than to keep a congregation alive in Lakewood.

Too rich to be a mission. Too poor to keep what we have alive. Where are those fatigues? Where is my cigar?

That is not meant to imply that churches should ignore Newark or Tremont. It IS meant as a variation of what my mother always told me.

"Make new friends, but keep the old......

Ms. Roberts:

Even through the thick cigar smoke of apocalypse, we see the force of capital ripping through space, turning our beloved Lakewood homies into the congregation left behind.

Lakewood - Neither rich enough; nor poor enough; nor conservative enough; nor liberal enough.

Not divided enough to make the cut.

That old time center, Yeats said, cannot hold.

Lakewood - the grand old American middle ground where the Moralist Culture of New England met the Individualist culture of Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism (always carrying a seed hostile to capitalism) meeting the Jacksonian Traditionalist Baptist. With each culture somehow gathering around a public school system, shepherded by the old time moderate republicans.

The sanctified common sense mixed economy of the American middle - decent and humane.

That's why we stay. That's why our presence in fatigues shames those bent on bulldozer space.

Kenneth Warren

Christianity Is Not A Business

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal." (Matthew 6:19-20 RSV)

"There is great gain in godliness with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world; but if we have food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and hurtful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced their hearts with many pangs." (1 Timothy 6:7-10 RSV)

"But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word; but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ." (2 Corinthians 2:14-17 RSV)

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.(Matthew 6:24)

.

Mark Crnolatas wrote:My wife raised Episcopal, says they have lost the most, due to an aging population, and the biggest problem was they elected a gay Pope, which lost quite a few of the hard-core members.

Actually as an Episcopalian I can say your wife is wrong. The Episcopal church has actually shown some small gains in membership since the election of the gay bishop. Sure, the hard core conservatives have left, but that's more than been offset by more liberal, social justice oriented parishioners.

For example I go to Trinity Cathedral downtown and there has been a huge increase in membership over the last 2 - 3 years. But as has been noted before, it seems most successful mainline churches tend to be more than just a place to go on Sunday morning, they become a destination with lots of programming.

Personally I just think Lakewood has too many churches to support the mix and size of its current population and I think these church mergers are helpful and healthy. I grew up Lutheran and went to St. Paul near the library. While sad to see it merge with Pilgrim, I think in the end it was the healthiest thing to do.

The time is ripe for starting new religions. That is a good way for making up new Offices, Indulgences, Blessings, and Pardons to sell on Ebay.

The role the church used to play somewhat informally has been replaced by more formal structures. It is better to be a lawyer or a bureaucrat or tv network executive than a Deacon, Pasteur, Priest, Friar, or Minister or Pope.

Karma Cola is a good primer for how to import Religion Planning Methodologies.

Ryan

Only ten years old...

http://obism.com



.

Jim O'Bryan wrote:Ryan

Only ten years old...

http://obism.com



.

Who wouldn't buy a t-shirt that reads, "I am Still Exploring My Options"

Ms Roberts,

Thanks for your thoughtful postings.

For the sake of clarity about a very confusing denomination (I speak of the UCC), I need to clarify a piece of polity. The choice for a church to merge, or close, or start a new program, or hire a pastor, or not hire a pastor, is entirely up to the congregation in the UCC. My role as Association Minister was simply to listen to them, and offer possibilities. UCC churches are autonomous, and ultimately decide what they are doing themselves. I believe they have been faithful in their discernment.

The good news, from a Lakewood perspective is that Liberation-- a new church start in Lakewood not too many years ago-- is growing quite happily; and Lakewood Congregational, a larger, more corporate church, is also on a nice growth curve after some years of decline and re-envisioning.

None of which has the power to blunt the grief of a community for a church that is part of the landscape in Lakewood, as it comes to the end of one phase of its life and engages in a rebirth ministry with its offspring congregation. But some of the gift that First Lakewood has given the city is a revitalization of BOTH Lakewood Congregational and Liberation, with whom it had engaged in coordinated ministries of late. I admit I'm a booster of each of these churches (not to mention my city, Lakewood-- I think this town ROCKS, which is why I chose to move here from the suburbs), but I still believe that there is reason to honor the great history of this church at this point in its life, and to wish it well as it moves on.

I'll refrain from commenting further on First's future, because it is their story to tell. I do believe their legacy will be vibrant, however.

-Curt