Becoming a House Church or Fellowship
Is your congregation discerning whether nor not to become a House Church or Fellowship?
Albany Presbytery has assembled a task force and produced the following document which helps congregations in the Presbytery transition into house churches/fellowships when the congregation becomes too small to be financially solvent.
(from the document, “Is God Leading Your Congregation To Become a House Church or a Fellowship?“):
“What alternatives do congregations have when they find their building maintenance outstrips congregational finances and creates paralysis within the congregation? What alternatives do congregations have when they have little or no energy to do anything beyond the minimal effort to attend worship? What alternatives do congregations have when their leadership team is failing to work together in healthy ways due to burnout among the leaders?
These are among the issues many congregations are facing in Albany Presbytery and the paths for addressing these issues have been limited. The options have been to attempt to engage in a transformation of the congregation, continue as they had been doing, or close and disband the congregation. Often, for many congregations these choices have been undesirable or impractical.
Sensing something different was needed a Fellowship Task Force was created to create a new path, which might prove to lead to a healthier and more vital ministry. The Fellowship Task Force has created a discernment process for congregations to use in deciding whether or not to become a house church or a fellowship.”
To read the document in its entirety, click here (.pdf file)
Glad to see folks are considering options such as this and a well done guide!
A few questions/critiques:
- I really like the definitional answers on page 3 of what a congregation is and what a fellowship is. My question and one that I think could help this document and ease the transition for people reading it and discerning whether they want to engage in this process – what is a church? Perhaps that is defined in Chapter 7 of the BoO. If so, reprint here in the guide. If not, we need to answer that.
- Top of Page 6 – “Membership” My experience tells me that for most people this is not that important. Seems like this is important for the guide. Can a fellowship decide that they are not linking membership or they frankly do not care to keep people on the roles of the PCUSA? Seems to me it is more important to make sure people are cared for, whether that is in our denomination or not.
- The Discernment Process has the key points to hit. But does not seem to describe how to go about answering these questions. I think this is too bad. If a community has reached the point that they are looking to dissolve or evolve or whatever the right term is into either a house church or a fellowship, they likely do not have the leadership that can take those questions into a good process. Seems to me that should be addressed.
- On page 18 – “Transformational Strategies” – it says that this “change takes a lot of time, energy, and perseverance…” While correct, hard for me to put this as a negative. Seems to me that the Presbytery and the Denomination should be encouraging this of every church – even the most successful – and first, not as one of a series of other options for struggling congregations.
But, like I said, glad to see this being worked on. Others have thoughts?
Comment by timfry — April 23, 2009 @ 1:34 pm