Faithfully yours - Reinventing ourselves

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Published on Saturday, June 20, 2015

By Neil Strohschein

The Neepawa Banner

As time passes, growing numbers of local congregations are being forced to make decisions that, 20 years ago, would never have been imagined. They are being forced to cease operations—close their buildings, liquidate and disburse the assets and find other places to worship. The pain these small congregations feel is worse than the pain of losing a loved one in death.

When a loved one dies, we feel the sting of death very keenly. But we can, especially if he or she suffered from a prolonged illness, take some comfort in knowing that we did all we could to get our loved one the medical care he or she needed. But as it was his or her time to leave us, we are content to say good bye, celebrate a life well lived and move on.

But the decision to close a church building is often accompanied by a great deal of guilt. People feel as though they have let each other down, let their communities down and more importantly, they feel as though they have let God down. I understand those feelings. I share them and I feel the pain that the former members of recently closed churches feel.

But I do not consider the decision to close a church to be a failure on the part of anyone. Most of those churches would have closed 5-10 years ago had it not been for the dedicated support, the sacrificial giving and the hard work of a core of faithful people. They did their best—but they were up against challenges that made it impossible to maintain a viable, self-sustaining church.

Those challenges are no surprise to those in The Banner’s coverage area. Two generations ago, when people settled a new area, the first building they constructed was a school in which to educate their children. Religious services were conducted in private homes.

As the numbers gathering for worship grew, they began to meet in the school and raise money to pay for a church building. Before long, this area was dotted with little country churches; most of which were comfortably full on Sunday morning (or Saturday—if that was your belief). 

These congregations were served by itinerant preachers known as “circuit riders.” One minister was responsible for anywhere from 6-10 congregations (maybe more) and he would go from community to community, completing his circuit every 4-6 weeks. The rest of the time, the people lead worship and looked after each other.

That’s how it was in rural Manitoba 100 years ago. What happened? Why have we seen so many small churches close? And why can we expect to see more of that in the next 25 years?

Two significant developments can be identified. Rural population is declining as farms are being consolidated. Businesses that supply farm equipment, animal feed, chemicals, etc. are located in major centres. These changes have severely impacted small communities. Many of their schools, businesses, and community facilities have either closed or see very limited use. The last thing to close is the local church building. Is this the end of “the church” in these districts?

Absolutely not!! The buildings may close but the church is still alive and will still be alive for a long time to come. But as part of that church, we need to reinvent ourselves. We need to discover what it means to be the people of God and to live as the people of God in a post-Christian (some may argue a post-religious) era. How to do that will be the topic of the next few columns.