Ten Dynamics Impacting American Denominations
On March 1, 2007, I gave a lecture at the Lexington Theological Seminary's Convocation. The title was The Future of Denominations. It was a long presentation. In my blog, I'm going to post the essential ten points that I made, and in a future blog, will outline some of the places that I find hope. While the material I presented makes the future look bleak for the historic American Protestant denominations (with ramifications for the Roman Catholic Church, too), Christians are a people of hope. There are signs of hope. So don't let this blog get you down, but I do hope you will take it seriously. It is meant to provoke thought, and stir up your imaginations.
The Ten Dynamics Changing American Denominations
There are 10 critical dynamics impinging on American Christianity, forcing radical and very rapid changes:
1. A major realignment within and between American denominations moving like a tsunami across our religious landscape. Based in convictions about the authority of scripture, denominations are experiencing internal conflicts over issues related to human sexuality and human reproduction, gender roles, and the mission of the church in society.
2. Denominations are becoming increasingly post-denominational and what denominational distinctions remain are blurring. This is both a signal of our ecumenical successes over the past 60 years; and also a sign of the dying importance of ideas and systematic theological thought in favor of powerful, transformative personal religious experience. Congregations may drop a denominational label from its name, in favor of a more generic and inviting name.
a. One cannot assume that this is purely a Protestant phenomenon. Catholics, who once stayed in a neighborhood parish, are now likely to seek out a congregation and priest whose style matches their own perceptions of what it means to be a Roman Catholic parish. Moreover, parish councils in Catholic congregations have gained great power over the past 25 years. If they don't like their priest for some reason, they can usually put enough pressure on the Bishop to find them a new priest more to their liking.
b. Roman Catholics, whose liturgy has been borrowed by many Protestants in the previous era of liturgical renewal, now often borrow from Protestants, e.g., baptism by immersion is increasingly practiced in Roman Catholic churches. This is both a sign of our ecumenical successes, but such adaptations also signal less rigidity in praxis that allows for the subjective dimension to find satisfaction.
3. The post-modern intellectual attitudes cede the possibility of certitude and absolute truth to a more subjective apprehension of truth for me and a willingness to allow others to have similar or even different truths for themselves. Post-modern attitudes undermine the possibility of authority residing in an ecclesial office or in any historic documents.
4. Post-modernism, and post-denominationalism have not led to Christian unity, resulting not in creeping congregationalism, but in a more American populist syndrome that can be deemed localism. People no longer have trust in institutions that they cannot see and do not control. The absence of trust in distant hierarchical forms of institutional life pervades much of American society.
5. People are spiritually hungry, but that hunger expresses itself not so much in a desire to understand theologically or intellectually, and not in a desire to apply aspects of theological understanding to other complex areas of human life such as economics and national security, but in a desire for religious experience. Given a post-modern attitude, an individual may be able to accept a wide array of doctrines, so long as the experience meets the essential needs of the individual at a particular point in his life. When the experiences no longer feed the individual, they may move on to a new context in search of meeting their spiritual needs.
6. Denominations face declining financial support from local congregations, due to the absence of knowledge about what functions are carried out by the denomination's structures, and due to the absence of trust for institutions beyond local control.
7. Denominational life is changing so radically and so fast that denominational executives and administrators can barely handle all the changes. In the most part these institutional representatives are trying to do all that they formerly did with about half the financial resources, and half the staff. The problem is not that people are giving less money to their churches. In fact, studies show that people are giving more than ever before, but more and more of that money is staying home within the local congregation.
8. American cultural populism tends to resist long-term institutionalization of any dynamic.
9. American cultural impulses for immediate gratification may also be blamed, in part, for the attitude of keeping "money at home," rather than sending it to a collaborative organization.
10. Organizations or organizational structures whose work is not immediately visible become less attractive recipients of individual and congregational financial support, and thereby tend not to be funded, or to be understood as part of their inherent mission.
Some Potential Consequences
The consequences of these ten dynamics endangers the capacity of the local church to see the forest for the trees, to have a truly global understanding of the body of Christ, and may yield a situation in which there will no longer be adequate educational and support services necessary to allow congregations to see and minister beyond themselves. In danger of disappearing are the denominationally distinctive Sunday School curricula, the certification of clergy, and the maximized use of time, energy and money in mission work.1. A major realignment within and between American denominations moving like a tsunami across our religious landscape. Based in convictions about the authority of scripture, denominations are experiencing internal conflicts over issues related to human sexuality and human reproduction, gender roles, and the mission of the church in society.
2. Denominations are becoming increasingly post-denominational and what denominational distinctions remain are blurring. This is both a signal of our ecumenical successes over the past 60 years; and also a sign of the dying importance of ideas and systematic theological thought in favor of powerful, transformative personal religious experience. Congregations may drop a denominational label from its name, in favor of a more generic and inviting name.
a. One cannot assume that this is purely a Protestant phenomenon. Catholics, who once stayed in a neighborhood parish, are now likely to seek out a congregation and priest whose style matches their own perceptions of what it means to be a Roman Catholic parish. Moreover, parish councils in Catholic congregations have gained great power over the past 25 years. If they don't like their priest for some reason, they can usually put enough pressure on the Bishop to find them a new priest more to their liking.
b. Roman Catholics, whose liturgy has been borrowed by many Protestants in the previous era of liturgical renewal, now often borrow from Protestants, e.g., baptism by immersion is increasingly practiced in Roman Catholic churches. This is both a sign of our ecumenical successes, but such adaptations also signal less rigidity in praxis that allows for the subjective dimension to find satisfaction.
3. The post-modern intellectual attitudes cede the possibility of certitude and absolute truth to a more subjective apprehension of truth for me and a willingness to allow others to have similar or even different truths for themselves. Post-modern attitudes undermine the possibility of authority residing in an ecclesial office or in any historic documents.
4. Post-modernism, and post-denominationalism have not led to Christian unity, resulting not in creeping congregationalism, but in a more American populist syndrome that can be deemed localism. People no longer have trust in institutions that they cannot see and do not control. The absence of trust in distant hierarchical forms of institutional life pervades much of American society.
5. People are spiritually hungry, but that hunger expresses itself not so much in a desire to understand theologically or intellectually, and not in a desire to apply aspects of theological understanding to other complex areas of human life such as economics and national security, but in a desire for religious experience. Given a post-modern attitude, an individual may be able to accept a wide array of doctrines, so long as the experience meets the essential needs of the individual at a particular point in his life. When the experiences no longer feed the individual, they may move on to a new context in search of meeting their spiritual needs.
6. Denominations face declining financial support from local congregations, due to the absence of knowledge about what functions are carried out by the denomination's structures, and due to the absence of trust for institutions beyond local control.
7. Denominational life is changing so radically and so fast that denominational executives and administrators can barely handle all the changes. In the most part these institutional representatives are trying to do all that they formerly did with about half the financial resources, and half the staff. The problem is not that people are giving less money to their churches. In fact, studies show that people are giving more than ever before, but more and more of that money is staying home within the local congregation.
8. American cultural populism tends to resist long-term institutionalization of any dynamic.
9. American cultural impulses for immediate gratification may also be blamed, in part, for the attitude of keeping "money at home," rather than sending it to a collaborative organization.
10. Organizations or organizational structures whose work is not immediately visible become less attractive recipients of individual and congregational financial support, and thereby tend not to be funded, or to be understood as part of their inherent mission.
Some Potential Consequences
What denominations are in danger of losing as they become more determined to do what they always did is the insight of peers in the ecumenical community, the possibility of fresh vision and imagination, and the exponential increase in clout through joint actions in the public policy arena. If denominations continue to try to maintain all their previous programs and functions with declining financial resources, they will continue to lose congregations in to the great maw of indistinct, amorphous locally centered Christian eclecticism.
It will be crucial for denominations, perhaps working with the ecumenical bodies that they are so drastically under-funding, to work together to imagine a new future and new ways of resourcing the local church to keep it accountable to the Gospel of Jesus, to offer mutual support, mutual discernment of what, where, and how God's Holy Spirit is leading the church, and to keep each other honest. Without such imagination and prophetic leadership, eventual collapse of the historic American Protestant denominations is possible. I have a friend in the Netherlands, a theologian of some repute there, who says quite frankly, based what he has witnessed of these same dynamics over the past 40 years in western Europe, that we may be in the last century of the Christian religion.
I am not quite so pessimistic. A future blog will outline signs of hope.
Living always in hope for unity, justice, and peace, Nancy Jo
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