When Is a Church Not a Church?

            When is church not a church? When it is SoulTable.

            First some background

            This morning I read yet another article in the Washington Post about how Millennials mostly don’t like church, leave churches, and don’t go back (http://tinyurl.com/y6j6sfhq). This trend is even more pronounced in Canada, which has always been a more secular country than the USA (“Canada to lose 9,000 churches over the next Ten Years” http://tinyurl.com/y2rrguzt).

            Of course, not a few of these articles note that the trend is not quite as pronounced among Evangelicals. This isn’t saying much, since Evangelicals are also sticking by President Trump, which doesn’t suggest a high level of spiritual discernment or cultural insight among this group. It’s an old Christian mistake. Align yourself with power, because that makes you powerful! But when that power turns out to be oppressive and evil, the church will get painted by the same brush. 

            So, churches are dying, everywhere. Or setting themselves up for a massive comeuppance.

            Does this matter? Well, I suppose your answer will depend on whether you go or not. I go. In fact, I am a Christian minister in a liberal church (our motto: United, Unorthodox, Unlimited). The members of my church certainly lament the aging of our congregation, the small Sunday School and Youth Groups. I love traditional church music (even if I rarely agree with the theology), and the warmth of my congregation. Though aging, it is slowly growing too. I love the good things my church and its members do in the community and the way the children of this congregation have been taught to be responsible, caring citizens. 

            Beyond my personal feelings about church, there certainly are greater cultural losses as the church declines: loss of community in an increasingly lonely society, loss of cultural depth when it comes to understanding how Christianity has shaped the literature, philosophy, and values of the West, for example. Imagine reading Margaret Atwood’s Madadam trilogy, or The Handmaid’s Tale or her new Testaments without a good grasp of scripture. You’ll miss a lot. In fact, lots of readers miss most of it.

            On a more positive note, the waning of the church also means that it is being stripped of the coercive power that has embarrassed it so often in the past. 

            Sure, the church has done good things too, but it has also been a dependable champion of those in power, of the status quo, of sexual repression, of sexual exploitation, a supporter of residential schools, a racist institution that happily relegated non-whites to ghettoes and prisons, and so on. And all that is just in the past 100 years. Dig a bit deeper and you get Crusades and Inquisitions and Indulgences and pogroms and moral justification for any empire the church ever found itself in. The American Empire is merely the latest.

            But the same critique that I just made with respect to the church could be made for just about any powerful historical institution of the past few thousand years. Whether political regimes or banks, corporations or guilds or invading hordes of Steppe Tribesmen, when humans work together they tend to do both good things and bad. The church is not different. Which is a disappointment of historic proportions. 

            Still. There is the gospel! There is the good news! If you can believe it. The church’s (as, perhaps, opposed to the Bible’s) singular focus on salvation and life eternal has more often served as an other-worldly reward than motivation to redeem this world. I love the moral exemplar that Jesus is, especially considering his context. I am inspired by it. But I will make no claims about virgin births or children raised from the dead or resurrections or Trinities. (Not anymore, that is. There was a day.) Millennials, for the most part, find this sort of stuff unbelievable too.

            At Lawrence Park Community Church we’ve watched all this happen with some sorrow, some regret, but also count ourselves as part of the resistance. We want our church to grow, to make a difference in the city of Toronto, to inspire people to be good neighbours, to act on climate change. We want to inspire people to be more like Jesus.

            So, SoulTable. I’ve written about it before, and promised an update. SoulTable is a weekly gathering in our church’s large community hall. We launched on September 22. The format is meal/contemporary secular music (with a spiritual angle)/and a TEDx type speaker on a topic that we hope will accomplish our goals. We serve wine and beer, devote a good amount of time to discussion, and don’t pray much or read scripture much (not that we’re against it, but there is a lot of other good stuff to reflect on out there too).

            On Sept 22 we launched with 160 people in attendance. They were there to hear Neil Pasricha, author of The Book of Awesome. Attendance has ranged, since then, from 35 (Thanksgiving weekend) to about 80 or so. On Sunday we listened to spoken word artist Micah Bournes (from LA) riffing on race, justice and freedom. Next week Gretta Vosper (the United Church of Canada's atheist minister) will speak about how she approaches death and dying, funerals, and families all over the faith map.

            SoulTable is not really church. It’s an event built around Biblical themes, with music, striving to be community, and encouraging people to love like Jesus did. Or is that church?

            It’s radical. It’s different. Naysayers will laugh or complain that we’ve caved to culture,  that we don't treat scripture as authoritative or infallible or inerrant. We don't. Millennials, of course, just say “no” and leave the naysayer churches. Anyway, we’re investing our church's endowment into this. We’re trying to be relevant  and inspirational. 

            Check us out 5pm, every Sunday, at Lawrence Park Community Church, 2180 Bayview, in Toronto. We’re just south of Lawrence, and across the street from Glendon College and Sunnybrook Hospital. We have (Sunday only) free parking across the street. We’re trying something different, and so far, it seems to be working!

The Church's Strategic Plan Is Done. Next, We Take a Plunge. Join Us!

            What should be last (if I wrote this chronologically) is first here, because for now it is the next big step. Lawrence Park Community Church (LPCC) is looking for a few good people to serve on its launch team for a new worshipping community! And we’re looking for people who would love to work on our wonderful morning service. Here’s the back story.

Toronto's "Brian Barlow Quartet" jazz ensemble leading
worship at LPCC, 2017.

            My congregation has been discussing strategic planning since shortly after I arrived in 2012. At first these discussions were about, “maybe doing this someday.” Later, we pulled a lay committee together to begin the strategic planning conversation. Finally, in early 2016, the church’s council decided Strategic Planning was their responsibility. Monthly meetings were given over to the process. We were organized and led by a fine professional who does this sort of thing, Warren Coughlin, who also happens to be a member of our congregation.

            Along the way we did some interesting things! We had a Sunday service given over to talking about what we dreamed about and how we might accomplish those things. On another Sunday, we invited our members to visit other churches that they had heard about through the grapevine, instead of coming to our services. The next Sunday was given over to discussing what we experienced and how we felt about it. On another Sunday, the sermon was staged as a bit of a congregational revolt against the Strategic Plan. Members rose in the middle of the sermon to complain about the stuff that was going on in church. I, staff, and council members responded to the objections (that was fun!). And, naturally, we posted all the information that came in on the internet, discussed it at congregational meetings, and finally voted on whether or not to proceed with our strategic plan, just a few weeks ago.

            During the process, Warren pulled together what he heard from council members and the congregation, and made up a tentative list of our values, and the vision that animates us. We discussed one of these values, and people in the congregation who embodied them, each Sunday over the summer. We have not reduced these values and the vision to a snappy line or two—at least not yet. But we did compile this in written form for editing and sharpening later on. We also agreed that our final plan needed to both embrace those who worshipped with us now and it had to reach out to a younger demographic than our current demographic.

            Meanwhile I used this information to continually draft and redraft the evolving strategic plan. The plan commits us to being a voice for liberal (and post-liberal) Christianity. We believe our values, both lived and taught, will inspire our members personally. But they will also carry those values into the wider world. They will care about social justice, participate positively in the public square and industry, and be a healing community for each other and neighbours. 

            I could go on for quite a while about the plan’s details, but it boils down to three things. We’re going to enhance our morning worship service by doing even more of what our current members already love: great religious music for organ, piano and choir; a variety of other music from jazz to Broadway; strong preaching (I hope!); great community; and some drama, dance, and brass. It will have a strong “arts,” focus.

The Arts are already a key focus at LPCC.

            We’ll also begin a second worshipping community in our facilities. It will meet around food, secular (but spiritual) music, and small groups (we need to flesh this out), probably on Sunday later afternoons or evenings. Worship will be brief but lively. And finally, we’ll bless congregational initiatives (like our Art Show or Meditation Group) that people want to try with the church’s support and blessing.

            Along the way I also studied church planting literature intensively. Most of it was written from an Evangelical perspective. I mined these books for information about what sort of resources, plans, and personnel were required for a successful launch. The books covered other matters, too: timelines, practical advice about research and marketing, and so on. I also read books about the "Millennial" generation, and pored over demographic research about our neighbourhood and city. All this helped inform the launch plan and staffing goals we settled on.

            Early in the process, LPCC realized that a sizeable amount of money was available from our Presbytery to help fund a new initiative. To apply for the money, Presbytery wanted to evaluate our strategic plan, and wanted to see a business plan, a budget, and a timeline for the length of the funding. Presbytery could grant up to 100,000 dollars the first year. Each succeeding year, if certain conditions were met, the funding would continue, although it would be reduced by 10,000 dollars per year. 230,000 dollars would be made available in the first 30 months alone. Funding could continue after that (and a further reapplication), but only if concrete benchmarks for attendance and revenue are met. Presbytery wants the new launch to be viable for the long term. So does our congregation!

            At LPCC, one of the key matters that came up for discussion along the way was “how much should we contribute to this plan?” The perspective that framed the shape of our answer was this: If we do nothing, in ten or fifteen years, if present trends continued, the church will likely “age-out,” and have to close down. Upon closing the Presbytery would receive the bulk of the value of the church’s real estate assets—perhaps as much as twenty or more million dollars! Why not use some of those assets now, to change course and do a new thing? Sure, it is risky. LPCC might fail. But the worst possible outcome would be that we still close, but leave a million dollars or so less to Presbytery.

            In the end, the decision was to invest an amount of money about equal to Presbytery’s commitment over 30 months. That would limit our initial financial exposure to the amount of money we have in our endowment. Further investment will depend upon meeting our long-term financial and numbers benchmarks. If we are meeting those, we can continue investing along with Presbytery for up to ten years before the projects are self-sufficient. We also agreed that we would not ask current members to increase their giving to fund our initiative. We’d take out a line of credit, instead, if necessary.

            Using those numbers and the strategic plan itself as a guide, a business plan was written. It included thirty- and ten-year budgets, timelines, as well as all the other stuff you expect to find in a business plan. We’ll be investing in church consultants, in a community engagement person who will focus on getting the word out about both of our worshipping communities, advertising, and (given our current plans) a new minister. But we’re flexible, and will seriously consider course corrections that our consultants suggest.

            And that is where the launch committee comes in. We need half a dozen people who want to fully engage in this project. You don’t have to be a member of our congregation now, to get involved. You can be very young or not. You might be in seminary, or in a neighbouring church that wants to “look in” on what we’re doing, or you might be a community person who is intrigued. But we need people with a sense of adventure, people who are spiritually curious, and people who are committed to our congregation’s “big umbrella” approach to church.

            If this is up your alley, send me an email (johndsuk at mac dot com)! If you want to be the new minister to take on a project like this, send me an email! (American UCC ministers invited to inquire too!) And if you want to read earlier blogs on this topic, here is a list of earlier articles I’ve written.

1.     Is Strategic Planning Like Taking Cod Liver Oil?A Request for Insight. (Sept, 2014)

2.     How Do You Grow a Liberal Church? (Dec, 2016)

3.     A Modern Crisis for Churches . . . and What LPCCWill Do About It. (May, 2017)