Quitting Church

I have been sitting on Julia Duin’s Quitting Church, Why the Faithful Are Fleeing and What to Do About It for a couple of weeks now. I finished it, but it took me a while to think about what to write about it. Julia Duin is the religion editor for the Washington Times. I read the book through the lens of this being a journalist’s investigative piece. But I realized, after it sunk in, that this is a narrative written by someone who feels hurt, or at least let down by the church. That makes the book just as useful, but also different. Duin shares, through interview and her own experience, a picture of the mass exodus from our mainline churches. For our people at University UMC, it is hard to grasp this with our amount of growth, but most mainline churches are in serious decline. The book gives a ton of great insight into the problem though none of it is especially new. But it does it in an almost prescriptive way, a way that is a little mind boggling. If pastors could just be dynamic, spirit-led biblical scholars who could provide programming that taught the depths of theological understanding while giving singles a place to meet their future spouses and providing for the needs of all while establishing a true sense of community and if those same pastors could be sure to pray for and visit and attend to the spiritual needs of all in their flock, and if possible be good friends with everyone, our churches would be fine. If it sounds like I am poking at the author, I am not really; I am poking at the problem. When you combine the true needs of God’s people, with the true lack of vision and leadership in our churches, with the new consumerist mind set that says, “I will shop around ‘til I find what I need” the problem seems impossible. It seems that many of our churches have either given up, or tried to address every problem at once and ended up with nothing.

If you care about the future of our churches, you should probably read this book. Be prepared to be convicted, flustered and occasionally annoyed. Consider it a good thing.

peace,

Will

Intensity

A lot of people have been asking how I like my new position at University. I love it. But, if I were asked to describe it in one word, the word would be "intense."

University is a pretty good jump in size from the previous two appointments, the last one having a membership of about 1000 and the one before that around 1300. In any place other than Texas those would be considered large churches but they are about 1/5 the size of University. What makes University so much more intense is not just that the size means more people and programs. What makes it intense for me is how to work changes at this size. Working in a very large church like University, when it is well managed as University is, allows for a lot really well qualified staff and lay leadership. In a thousand member church, even though there are many more resources than in a small church, the pastor is still required to wear a huge number of hats. At Grace in Corpus and even at Oak Hill in Austin, I found myself answering the phone, fixing a computer, even investigating where a water leak was coming from. At University, there are people far more qualified than me to do everything else. I even have dedicated staff (including the incredible Laura and Elizabeth) to assist me directly in accomplishing what I need to do. Now, if you are a pastor at a small church, this might begin to sound really good. Here is the intense side: Because everyone around me is taking care of everything else, I can focus solely on what I am called to do in my position here. And there is a reason for that. With 5600 members and an amazing number of programs and systems, someone needs to be doing what I am doing all the time at a pretty intense level of function. Where this gets intense is that this all means that I work on creative, administrative and decision making functions for huge chunks of time without many mundane interruptions to give my brain a rest. The sheer volume of creative writing, problem solving and decision making is, well, intense. Often one day here feels like a whole week in my past appointments. Which is all pretty exhausting, but totally cool!

So back to the question, how do I like my new position at University? I love it and there is a lot to love.

peace,

will