Claiming the power of place
 By Cynthia Woolever and Deborah Bruce
What is the perfect location for an energetic, mission-driven Presbyterian church? Most people would say a growing suburb, a nice-weather oasis in California or Florida or a state with numerous Presbyterians, such as North Carolina.
Those answers perpetuate an often-heard myth: community features determine a church’s ability to achieve its mission. The good news is that a congregation’s vitality does not depend on its context — the neighborhood, city or region in which it is located. Good ministry happens everywhere when congregations see their location as a gift, promise and strength.
None of the following congregations can claim the textbook version of an ideal location. These churches thrive, not because they have the “right” location, but because their ministry focus and leadership decisions fit their communities.
Photo illustration by Michael Walker; compass, © istockphoto.com/ DNY59La Mesa Presbyterian Church, in Albuquerque, N.M., is located in the heart of a working-class neighborhood where residents earn about half the median income of the city as a whole. Across the street an elementary school serves Hispanic children, many of whom receive free lunches. The church is invisible to cars on Albuquerque’s most-traveled streets. It’s not what most would consider an “ideal” location.
Yet La Mesa is committed to partnering with the school and its neighborhood. The church raises money for school supplies and uniforms for children whose families cannot afford them. The church’s ministries also include a free after-school arts academy for children; support for a bilingual counseling center that provides affordable family therapy; and an annual street festival to celebrate the neighborhood’s cultural diversity. The congregation works with an interfaith community organization and the school to advocate for better education.
“It is not yet Jubilee,” says La Mesa’s pastor, Trey Hammond, “but there is something akin to the spirit of Pentecost present here.”
Whitelick Presbyterian Church, located just beyond the Indianapolis beltway and suburbs, traces its rural beginning to 1851 when the founders purchased a small plot of land. “Exurb” (extra-urban) best describes this community.
The congregation found that among its many strengths were its worship services, where members and visitors said they felt God’s presence. The resulting membership growth presented a challenge: move or rebuild? Because members persevered through tough times, the church is the county’s oldest continuous place of worship. Members found it hard to walk away from a location that symbolized their history and sacrifices. The pastor and lay leaders felt God’s continuing call to ministry in this particular place.
So they decided to tear down one building and replace it with a 6,000-square-foot multi-purpose facility, complete with meeting space, library, kitchen, nursery and offices. The new building equips the church to continue in this place as a center for worship and community.
Pastor Joy Bilger Goehring says, “Our new building and remodeled sanctuary support our mission to ‘Worship — Grow — Serve’ in the name of Jesus Christ, and to take the church outside the building.”
Map Photos by Michael WalkerThe village of Nineveh, located on the banks of the Susquehanna River in New York state, has two central landmarks: the Nineveh Presbyterian Church and the Nineveh Country Store. When the river overflowed in 2006, water filled the church basement, swamping the heart of the church’s ministry — its Christian education space for children and youth.
Faced with the prospect of repeated flooding, the church invested in its future by building a Christian education wing — this time, above ground. Good worship and programming for children and youth remain central to the congregation’s identity.
“If the Lord wants us to move,” says pastor Emrys Tyler, “then the next flood will have to take out the sanctuary, too. Otherwise, we’re here for the people of Nineveh.”
A 19th-century industrial center for textiles, Lowell, Mass., faced near economic collapse in the 20th century. In the 1970s creative community leaders sought to renew their town’s distinctive strength — the ethnic heritage of previous immigrants and mill workers.
Eliot Presbyterian Church started a multicultural ministry with Cambodian refugees fleeing Pol Pot in the 1980s. (Lowell now has the highest percentage of Cambodians in America — about 10 percent of the population.) The congregation’s generous welcome eventually extended to other new immigrants — Africans and Brazilians. Members cook, sing, learn and pray together.
As members are proud to say, “The world gathers at Eliot from North, South, East and West and finds a home in the family of God.”
What drives your congregation’s thinking about its location? Do members see God’s promise in your current address? Or do they see unyielding adversity? Congregations that subscribe to the secular real estate model focus only on “location, location, location” and assume a passive role toward their community. When congregations do not see their location as a gift, they begin to treat their place as just another negotiable commodity. Claiming the power of place means seeing the incalculable worth of the church’s location.
The biblical story of Esau describes the loss of something priceless and irreplaceable — his birthright. As the eldest son, Esau stands to receive as his birthright his father’s property and his place in the family lineage. But Esau sells his birthright for a bowl of soup.
Congregations loosen their grip on their location birthright when they fail to recognize their one-of-a-kind local heritage. For most Presbyterian congregations, the past serves as a deep well of values and conveys significant theological meaning. Worshipers believe God founded their church at a unique moment in history on a particular spot on the globe. A congregation’s birthplace grants it a unique birthright — a nonreturnable gift and promise from God. The congregation’s “birth story” is a meaningful narrative that recounts its faithful response to God’s gift. Claiming your church’s birthright means claiming your location and community on behalf of God.
“Never lose your place in the world” appears on Amazon.com bookmarks. This is good advice for mission-minded churches, too. Does your congregation believe that Jesus Christ is present and active in this place? Do members have a clear “theology of place” — an understanding of what God wants you to do in your location today? Or do they use an outdated location script — a way of viewing reality that suited the era of the church’s founding but now hinders more than it helps?
If we lose our way and sense of place, God meets us in the gap — leading us to a new vision for our inherited birthright. Too often, myths immobilize and trap us in dead ends, blocking us from fully living out the answer to our most important question: What is God calling us to be and do in this place?
Cynthia Woolever and Deborah Bruce have co-authored three books, A Field Guide to U.S. Congregations (2003), Beyond the Ordinary: Ten Strengths of U.S. Congregations (2005) and Places of Promise: Finding Strength in Your Congregation’s Location (2008).
Recent research debunks several myths about location that ill-serve Presbyterian churches.
Photo illustration by Michael Walker; compass, © istockphoto.com/ DNY59
Myth 1: Effective Presbyterian churches provide the same ministries in the same ways in every location.
Reality: To be effective each congregation must offer ministries that are appropriate for its location.
Churches affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are relatively concentrated — almost 60 percent of all Presbyterians reside in just 10 states. Effective churches in heavily Presbyterian areas do ministry differently than those in areas with fewer Presbyterians. For example, since Catholics can attend Mass at various times, a Presbyterian church located in a heavily Catholic area might also offer multiple worship services, making it easier for children engaged in Sunday morning sports to stay involved. In the South, where most congregations are Protestant and members are used to attending church school, Presbyterian churches tend to have strong Christian education programs.
Presbyterians in low-concentration areas — such as Utah — may feel like outsiders in an alien culture. Yet this minority status may fuel a distinctive church identity that clarifies ministry focus.
Myth 2: Presbyterian churches around the country attract similar types of people.
Reality: New people in Presbyterian churches (people who began attending during the previous five years) fall into four categories:
8% — First-timers with no church background
27% — Returnees who were not attending anywhere before coming to the local Presbyterian church
35% — Switchers whose previous church was not Presbyterian
30% — Transfers whose previous church was also Presbyterian
Presbyterian churches in the South attract more switchers. The southern United States contains numerous Southern Baptist and United Methodist churches, and some of their former worshipers are attracted to strong Presbyterian congregations. Churches elsewhere attract more first-timers and transfers.
Myth 3: Presbyterian churches grow when the local population grows.
Reality: Many factors lead to church growth. The link between membership growth and population growth varies from church to church and location to location. Some congregations fail to add new worshipers even when the local community is growing. Congregations with multiple strengths — including meaningful worship, empowering leadership, and caring for children and youth — attract worshipers more easily.
Many congregations focus their efforts on the needs of current members, but potential new worshipers may not respond to the same programs and worship services. When churches meet the spiritual needs of people in both the congregation and community, they flourish.
Making the most of location
Places of Promise: Finding Strength in Your Congregation’s Location, by Cynthia Woolever and Deborah Bruce (Westminster John Knox Press, 2008)
U.S. Congregations — Includes resources and information about the U.S. Congregational Life Survey, including a free study guide for Places of Promise that can be downloaded in pdf format. |
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