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BY MELISSA LAUBER
UMCONNECTION STAFF

This Sunday morning, only 17 percent of Americans will go to church for worship.

When church is a part of your lifestyle, this number, taken from 2010 U.S. census figures, can be hard to fathom. Even more difficult is the prediction by experts that, if substantial changes are not made, that number could drop to 10 percent by 2050. More than 125,000 churches closed between 1990 and 2010. Eighty percent of churches in the U.S. are experiencing decline.

These are facts the church needs to confront head on, said the Rev. Jim Griffith, who believes he has the resources to help United Methodists do so.

The hard work of Kingdom building

Griffith, a consultant hired to do training events and coaching in the Baltimore-Washington Conference, cautions churches who are "looking for that magical pill. Adding the next 10 adults to your church will be the hardest work you've ever done. The day of low-hanging fruit is over. Roll up your sleeves. It's hard work."

In a week-long training event in the Baltimore-Washington Conference in November, Griffith spoke with candor at two separate training events – a discernment workshop for 50 pastors interested in planting new churches, and an existing church workshop with small groups from 10 churches who were invited to meet with him based on their potential for growth.

He urged those in the discernment event to move beyond the pastoral mindset that now seems to prevail in the church and to adopt an apostolic viewpoint. Pastors nurture, care, teach and equip the saints. They're community-based and seek to grow disciples and build the church. Apostles proclaim, preach, go, reach and seek. They focus on the lost sheep, seekers and the unchurched, intent on expanding the kingdom of God. Pastors create order. Apostles thrive in chaos.

Bishop John Schol agreed with Griffith. Both stressed that this is not a case of "either/or" – either apostolic or pastoral. Rather, the bishop said, "church growth is 'both/and.' The apostolic and the pastoral are both essential." However, the two men cautioned, the very definition of a vital church includes adding to professions of faith and increasing worship attendance. "Healthy churches produce fruit."

Leadership key to new church success

The absolute easiest and most effective way to bear this fruit and bring in new members is to start a new congregation, said the Rev. Andy Lunt, chair of the conference Grow Congregations Team.

But a new church is absolutely dependent upon the pastor who creates it, Griffith said. "The church will grow out of who you are," he told those who gathered to explore and gain greater clarity about their call to plant a new church.

"People are not looking for information. They want faith in their leaders, in their goals, their success and the stories they tell. The church grows out of you," Griffith told the gathered pastors.

As they discerned more about their call, Griffith urged them not to allow their vision to veer off into wishful thinking. "There's nothing wrong with having a fantasy, but don't ask United Methodists to pay for it. We need to bear fruit, not fantasy."

In helping them make that distinction, he urged the pastors to consider that the best predictor of future behavior is past and current behavior. "It's about past history, not potential," Griffith said. "People tend not to change patterns of behavior."

Embracing an adoption model

In church growth circles, there are several models for church plants. One of the most common is the franchise model, capitalizing on the denomination's "brand name" and placing a congregation where there currently is no United Methodist presence. Multi-site churches are franchises.

Another way to start a new church is the "parachute model" dropping a pastor into a community and letting them start a church from scratch.

But both of these models have shown limited success, said Griffith, who advocates the "Adoption Model" of church planting, based on the Antioch church in Acts, which sent out strategic members, Barnabas and Saul, from the mother church, targeting an adjacent community.

The church in Antioch did not see this as a loss; rather it was a way that the strengths of the mother church could be shared to grow the Kingdom of God by adopting a small church or faith community.

In the adoption model, a thriving church of 300 or more members, with effective systems in place, extends the church's footprint by adopting the building and resources of a nearby church that is struggling.

"The adoption model will lead The United Methodist Church out of darkness," Griffith said. However, he warned, the struggling church must be willing to be dechartered and surrender its property, assets and identity. "There are rules, and quite bluntly, the vanquished do not get to dictate the terms of surrender to the victor. In the past, that's been the heart of many problems."

The smaller church becomes a mission field that is served with the best resources the mother church can offer. In many ways, it is a takeover. But we're seeing this happen in The United Methodist Church in cases like Ginghamsburg in Ohio, Griffith said. "It needs to happen more. It needs to be wildfire."

Called to risk, change, grow

Starting a new church is easy, Griffith said. "It's sustaining and growing it that's the hard part."

But church leaders need to know that it's never going to appear like they have enough to do what is necessary, said the Rev. Olu Brown of Impact UMC in Atlanta, who spoke to the church planters. "The bottom line is that you have to trust God to do great miracles. If God gives vision, God will always give provision."

To the 653 churches of the BWC Griffith sent out a call to move out of isolation and into the community as witness of God's love and Christ's transforming power.

One of the first steps in growing a church, Griffith advised, rests with the nominating committee. If your church's programs are not bringing in flocks of new people, you need to question their effectiveness. "You may need to own up to the fact that your current ministry doesn't seem to be working or you would be inundated with people."

"Vote the naysayers (who limit change) off the island," he said. "But don't throw people off the bus, stop the bus and let them get off. There's a difference."

Getting out into the mission field

Church leaders also need to recognize that growth is not about their current members. "How are you going to reach new people for Jesus Christ," Griffith asked, urging United Methodists to begin to focus intently on their mission field.

Seventy-eight percent of Marylanders are unchurched, he said. "That's plenty of people in the fields. The fields are ripe."

The first step in reaching the unchurched and nominally religious is to learn who they are. Come up with a snapshot of the people around your church, Griffith advised. Be specific in defining their demographics, heritage, religious traditions, culture, and the social and economic concerns.

"Your mission field will determine your methods," said Griffith. "It will determine your essential ministries."

Some older members may not be happy with the changes. With a grin, he shared the motto of one church seeking to bring in young adults, "If the music's too loud, you're too old."

Let the mission field determine everything – from the time of gatherings to musical styles. "There's no one right way of doing something, but if the people you're trying to reach simply don't like what you're offering, they won't come," said Griffith. "Apathy toward our mission field will keep us in isolation and decline."

The Rev. Matt Poole, a church planter who now leads Glen Mar UMC in Ellicott City, shared how reaching out to the community can bring about personal spiritual growth as well. "When we're in the mission field," he said, "God grows us."

Invite, invite, invite

For United Methodists, the key to survival is "opening up a few windows and interacting with the people out there."

Pastors, Griffith said, should consider not using their office and work instead at a spot out in the community. They should also be given the opportunity to spend 20 percent of their time networking.

"This doesn't mean adding eight more hours to a 40-hour work week. It means pastors need to be given permission to spend 20 percent of their time in the mission field, deeply involved in the civic affairs of the community, reaching out to new people."

In the end, Griffith admits, it's often a numbers game. With a new church start, in the first two years, a pastor might be expected to make 10,000 contacts. The more people you reach out to, the more opportunity there is for people to respond.

While the pastor's leadership in this arena is essential, lay people should also be expected to be invitational. "Invite, invite, invite," is a good mantra for church members, Griffith said. By some estimates, 87 percent of all people who come to church and stay, do so because someone invited them. "Lay members need to be personal evangelists and act like it."

"We sustain our vision and our goals by taking risks," said the Rev. David Shank of InterConnection, a new church start in Anne Arundel County. "But there's also risk in what we choose not to do. We're called to action."

The Rev. Rodney Smothers of St. Paul-Corkran Memorial Cooperative Parish in Oxon Hill agreed. "We need to move from a membership culture to a discipleship culture," he said. "We're called to grow."