Pastor’s Corner – December 16, 2021
I have been using recent articles to share thoughts and ideas about a vital future at Friedens. So far, I’ve invited you to think about what it means to interact more with younger people in our community and what community partnerships might mean in terms of increasing rental revenue and advancing our mission.
Today, I want to talk about metrics of vitality. For decades church vitality has primarily been measured in terms of attendance, membership, and offering amounts. Church growth experts feel these metrics can be a self-defeating measurement in an era in North America when religious affiliation is in broad decline, with the drop accelerated by the pandemic. Please know this does not signal resignation to our responsibility to fulfill our commission of making disciples. Friedens continues to be committed to sharing the good news of God’s grace in Christ with new people. This decline does signal that more and more people in North America (and especially among younger generations) are opting out of religious participation. It is important to serve in our community with honesty about the realities and challenges.
So how do we measure our vitality these days? One idea is to measure the difference we are making in the community. Our mission is to share the love of Christ. Measuring the difference we make in the community is a way to measure our mission, and thus our vitality. What are some of the recent difference-making measurements at Friedens? A record number of home baked pies for Wheeler Mission; strong donations to Weekender’s Back Sack Food Ministry; more than twenty members and friends recently commissioned for our Visitation Ministry to folks who are homebound; and, opening our facility to the Garfield Park Winter Market. These are some of the measurements that suggest vitality at Friedens.
Of course, we will continue to keep an eye on attendance, membership and offering amounts. But we also need new ways of telling the whole story of vitality at Friedens Church. If this sparks any ideas please let me know at pastormarc.friedensucc@outlook.com, and with our new congregational president, Lisa Soard at lsoard@indianabiosciences.org.
Yours in Christ,
Marc
