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Passing the mantle: Facing reality is first step to rebirth for dying churches Mary Jacobs, Jul 17, 2009
PHOTOS BY LINDA COLEMAN
The Munger Place sanctuary featured stained-glass windows such as this one.
By Mary Jacobs Staff Writer
Last year, Laird Hill United Methodist Church, a small congregation near Kilgore, Texas, seemed to have come to the end of its road. Sunday morning attendance had dwindled to a few dozen. The church, built in 1935, was in disrepair. The average age of church members was over 80.
And the surrounding community was all but gone, too. Originally, the church served the “company camps” built for East Texas oilfield workers. After those closed, residents left.
So church members had a choice: continue as is, allowing the church to die a natural death, or find another way to move forward.
That’s a question facing a significant number of United Methodist churches every year. According to the General Council on Finance and Administration, an average of about 220 churches have closed each of the last three years (2006-2008). An additional 90 or so per year closed as part of mergers with one or more other congregations.
The good news is that more churches like Laird Hill are getting denominational guidance as United Methodist leaders find models for dealing with “dying” churches in ways that are more realistic, intentional and ultimately more hopeful.
When a church is truly ready to die, leaders must first face reality, says the Rev. Ed Kail, a United Methodist pastor and field outreach minister for the Southwest District of the Iowa Conference.
He was part of a team that developed the “HOSP” model of identifying the three lifecycle stages of a church: hospice, hospital and “places of radical hospitality.”
“Hospice” churches are marked by a persistent decline in membership, attendance and mission to the larger community.
“These are churches that have become focused on the comfort of the people inside,” Mr. Kail said.
Most organizations, such as businesses or community service clubs, typically move through a natural lifecycle of growth, maturity, decline and death, Mr. Kail said.
“But churches are unusual,” he added, “because we have ways of keeping them on life support far beyond what any other organization might do. Churches have a way of hanging on and maintaining the outward form long after the life has ebbed away.”
“Hospice” mirrors the medical concept of providing quality end-of-life care, when a cure is longer a realistic possibility. Churches burdened by costly old buildings, declining neighborhoods and dwindling membership may need palliative care rather than active treatment.
“Hospice is a wonderful thing for someone who is terminal,” Mr. Kail said. “The goal is to keep the patient as comfortable as possible.” Likewise, in a hospice church, “you’re not going to do another mission statement or create a new program,” said Julia Kuhn Wallace, a ministry developer and consultant. “The congregation needs the pastor to be a caregiver, to visit people in the hospital and to preach well.” It’s better for church leaders to be clear about that, she said, rather than expect a pastor to single-handedly bring in new people or create new programs.
While the hospice model may seem like “giving up” on a congregation, Ms. Wallace argues that admitting the inevitability of a church’s eventual demise can open up new possibilities.
“Resurrection does not follow denial,” she said. “It follows death, and sometimes that means truth-telling. It means asking, ‘What needs to be let go of? What needs to die?’”
For Laird Hill, what needed to go was the church’s big, costly and deteriorating building. The congregation voted to close their building, deed the property back to the original donors and merge into nearby Pirtle United Methodist Church. The congregation held its final worship service on June 7, marking its 74th anniversary at that location.
“The decision to leave a location is never easy,” said the Rev. Dudley J. Plaisance Jr., the church’s pastor. “But obviously these brave, courageous souls realize the work is more important than any of us.
“We will always hold dear the memories created here, but we’ll also make new memories as we move forward and accomplish the work before us.”
The new, combined congregation resumed worship in a “uniting service” at Pirtle UMC that same morning.
“Without change, progress stalls and death is inevitable,” said Mr. Plaisance. “When a group of people take it upon themselves to accept change, especially if it is drastic, their decision shows a great deal of character and faith.”
For members of Stratford Hills United Methodist Church in Richmond, Va., what had to die was the congregation itself. Three years ago, internal strife and dwindling membership led church members to the decision to close. They made a sacrificial choice to turn the church’s building and financial resources over to Emmaus UMC, a growing congregation of Korean-Americans.
Emmaus was carrying a debt on its previous building, which the congregation had outgrown. By moving into Stratford Hills’ building, Emmaus boosted attendance by about 30 percent, to about 400 every Sunday.
Now the church is looking to plant another congregation for second- and third-generation Korean-Americans, using the previous Emmaus building, which was paid off through the gift from Stratford Hills.
Stratford Hills’ story exemplifies an “Elijah church,” the idea that one congregation’s “death” can spark new life and even growth, according to Marc Brown, director of connectional ministries for the Virginia Conference. The name recalls the Bible story of the prophet Elijah, who passed his mantle to a successor, Elisha. In response, Elisha boldly asked for a “double blessing” of Elijah’s spirit.
“To be an Elijah church means the church is willing to pass on a double share of its blessing,” Mr. Brown said. When Stratford Hills’ members realized they could not move forward, “they saw a way to make an intentional choice about the future. They gave a double blessing.”
“The people at Stratford Hills were willing to yield up everything, to have the ‘mind of Christ,’ and that brought new life,” he said. “Sometimes, a church must ‘crucify’ the old ways of doing things. You have to figure out what you have to give up in order to start something new.”
The story of Elijah was also retold to members of 96-year-old Munger Place United Methodist Church in East Dallas, at the church’s final worship service on June 28.
The proud old church, built in 1913 in what was then an affluent area of Dallas, had suffered a steady decline in membership. A small but vital group of 40 or 50 active members were working determinedly to serve the surrounding community, but the financial burden of maintaining the church’s stately old building had become overwhelming.
“The sad fact is, if you reach only ‘the least of these’ you’re not going to have the money to support a big building like this,” said member Linda Coleman. “Even if we had 1,000 people in worship on Sunday and they were all tithing, there wasn’t much chance of paying for all the restoration the building needed.”
The solution: nearby Highland Park United Methodist Church, a large and affluent congregation, offered to take over the building and its restoration to create a new extension ministry.
Preaching at the final service at Munger Place, former pastor the Rev. Jim Ozier recalled the story of Elijah and Elisha, and praised the congregation’s determination to minister in a changing neighborhood against growing odds in recent years.
“Like Elisha, your successors need a double portion of your historic spirit if they are to be as relevant in ministry in their day as you have been in yours,” said Mr. Ozier, who is now director of new church development and congregational transformation for the North Texas Conference.
As part of the final service, a mantle was placed on the shoulder of Munger Place’s senior pastor, the Rev. Charles Stovall. At the conclusion of the message, church members signed the mantle.
And as the congregation applauded, many through tears, Mr. Stovall then passed on the mantle to Elizabeth Ethun, who will serve as one of the campus pastors for the new ministry.
“Two words sum up the great passing of the mantle,” Mr. Ozier said during the service. “Resurrection and transformation!”
PHOTOS BY LINDA COLEMAN
That’s a question facing a significant number of United Methodist churches every year. According to the General Council on Finance and Administration, an average of about 220 churches have closed each of the last three years (2006-2008). An additional 90 or so per year closed as part of mergers with one or more other congregations. 
“The decision to leave a location is never easy,” said the Rev. Dudley J. Plaisance Jr., the church’s pastor. “But obviously these brave, courageous souls realize the work is more important than any of us. 
“The sad fact is, if you reach only ‘the least of these’ you’re not going to have the money to support a big building like this,” said member Linda Coleman. “Even if we had 1,000 people in worship on Sunday and they were all tithing, there wasn’t much chance of paying for all the restoration the building needed.” 
