Life in the PCUSA (the Incredible Shrinking Denomination)

My church, the Presbyterian Church USA, is shrinking.

This is not new news. It's been shrinking for at least two generations. The only thing "good" in this news for the PCUSA is that everybody else is shrinking too. Except for the "nones." They're growing. Fast.

This is frustrating, on one level. Our American culture loves things that are getting bigger, growing, capturing market share, etc. Culturally, we're growth-obsessed. We worship growth. Being part of a shrinking organization is humbling and makes you feel crummy.

Take a step back from the bad vibes, though, and it becomes clearer that shrinking itself isn't bad. There are two main scenarios where a shrinking institution is good:

1) You were too big in the first place.

2) You're at a place in your life-span where shrinking is a natural part of your evolution.

Both of these might be said about the Presbyterian Church. We were a major force in mainline Protestantism, during which the way of Jesus was baptized into mainstream American culture (and neutered in the process). In the mid-20th century, the mainline church had illusions of cultural saturation. Without a doubt, this expansion diluted the edginess (and essence?) of Jesus' message. It's fine to shrink back from "a church on every corner" IF (note the big letters) the edginess comes back.

Also, church forms die. No church lasts forever in the same form. Churches today don't look like the church in 50CE Antioch or medieval France. Churches constantly shift--birthing, growing, falling back, dying. Mainline Protestantism is a cultural form that has very likely run its course. Decline is natural.

The challenge for pastors is how to live with integrity in this moment of decline. How do I help our church claim a vital, culturally-antagonistic (ie, subversively anti-capitalist) Jesus? and how do we nurture the declining modality of mainline Protestantism (which still nourishes some of our folks... who are also the ones paying the church's electric bill) WHILE we move toward the next form of church that is emerging?