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The Sky Is Falling, the Church Is Dying, and Other False Alarms
Is there only doom and gloom for the future of mainline Christianity? Or is it that the current sense of decline and malaise is only a mirage or the result of exaggerations by persons both within but also without these churches? Is the church threatened or are we on the precipice of new opportunities? While there has been some helpful work on the state of the church, others have uncritically parroted claims about decline and linked these claims with notions that the decline is due to relentless theological liberalism. The tragedy for churches is that many pastors now feel decline is inevitable and they are blind to the strengths that they do have. In this book, Ted Campbell begins with an accounting of the Church’s great treasure, the Gospel, and how mainline churches continue to minister in line with many thoughtful traditions. Tradition isn’t just “frozen success,” it also holds keys to faith’s relevance for the world today. Campbell continues to show how mainline churches came to understand themselves as mainline and how the media continues to misunderstand them. The book concludes with practices that will help churches build up the larger Christian community while reaching out to new constituencies.
116 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 26, 2015
Ted Campbell, a United Methodist clergy person and professor at Southern Methodist University, uses his position in the church as a historian to examine the claim that the church is dying. He addresses the myth, as he calls it, focusing on the mainline churches – or old-line churches – that seem to be suffering from a membership hemorrhaging. All while it appears that the more contrastive, evangelical churches are growing.
This has been a commonly stated problem for the mainline church, which Campbell identifies as United Methodist, Presbyterian (USA), Episcopal in the USA, United Church of Christ, among others, since Dean Kelley’s Why Conservative Churches are Growing was published in 1972.
Campbell highlights for the reader that when we look at the attendance trends, it is not all that bad. The sky is not falling. The church is not dying. Using this data, he brings to light that while membership overall has declined, regular attendance is up. The practice in the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s of reporting inactive members in the year-end membership counts is one factor that contributed to this.
Read more at http://jasoncstanley.com/book-review-...
This has been a commonly stated problem for the mainline church, which Campbell identifies as United Methodist, Presbyterian (USA), Episcopal in the USA, United Church of Christ, among others, since Dean Kelley’s Why Conservative Churches are Growing was published in 1972.
Campbell highlights for the reader that when we look at the attendance trends, it is not all that bad. The sky is not falling. The church is not dying. Using this data, he brings to light that while membership overall has declined, regular attendance is up. The practice in the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s of reporting inactive members in the year-end membership counts is one factor that contributed to this.
Read more at http://jasoncstanley.com/book-review-...
March 24, 2018
First of all, more people should write with this level of honesty, humor, and clarity. Second, this one needs to be required reading for all those being considered for candidacy, licensing, and/or ordination.
In 100 pages, I not only learned the history of Protestant denominations (and to a large degree, Christianity from the Great Awakening forward), I learned "how things worked" then and how it applies (or doesn't) now. Campbell didn't just spout statistics, he went to significant lengths to explain why the statistics proved his point (or, more accurately, disproved the assertions of media and certain maligners of historic Protestant denominations).
The only downside to reading this is a presupposition about UMC congregations Campbell makes on page 97: "... we all continue to share a sense of being part of a Wesleyan and Methodist way of being Christian." I disagree with Campbell on that one. Here in my neck of the woods (the Southeast), I don't see much cognizance of Wesleyanism or Methodism among the majority of Methodist parishioners in the Southeast.
In 100 pages, I not only learned the history of Protestant denominations (and to a large degree, Christianity from the Great Awakening forward), I learned "how things worked" then and how it applies (or doesn't) now. Campbell didn't just spout statistics, he went to significant lengths to explain why the statistics proved his point (or, more accurately, disproved the assertions of media and certain maligners of historic Protestant denominations).
The only downside to reading this is a presupposition about UMC congregations Campbell makes on page 97: "... we all continue to share a sense of being part of a Wesleyan and Methodist way of being Christian." I disagree with Campbell on that one. Here in my neck of the woods (the Southeast), I don't see much cognizance of Wesleyanism or Methodism among the majority of Methodist parishioners in the Southeast.
July 28, 2015
[I received this book free from the publisher through NetGalley. I thank them for their generousity. In exchange, I was simply asked to write an honest review, and post it. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising]
[ ~This reviewer is a retired United Church of Christ ordained minister, who served churches and communities as both settled and interim pastor. I have post-ordination training from the Alban Institute based Interim Ministry Program out of Maryland, taken both Basic and Advanced programing and was awarded a Professional Transitional Ministry certification in 2005. The work I did as an interim was transitional between settled ministers, or, in some cases, transitioning to church closure. I am aware that this training could possibly bias my review, but I believe that this is an honest, unbiased review of a book that discusses contemporary ministry~]
"In the end, there’s not much more to say. The preservation of the church, the renewal of the church is not our work. It’s God’s work. It’s grace. And that’s good news."
The Rev. Dr. Ted Campbell takes the media and the church to task and challenges both to remember Mark Twain's admonition that "reports of my death are greatly exaggerated". The millenial paradigm needs to be a little more honest than we "baby boomers" may have been. Attendance may not be proof of church membership as it was at the end of the twentieth century, and the media keeps pushing that the historic church is dying.
However, much as Barbara Brown Taylor's Leaving Church and Reba Riley's Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome have reiterated the same thing, Campbell, tongue planted firmly in cheek says its up to us, children of God and followers of God's Son, and not an outmoded idea of Contemporary Christianity, to determine where the "MainlineDecline" Church will stand as the Baby Boomers who supported the old paradigm, die off.
His caveat is what I have also proposed to my congregations in my 30 years of ministry: educate yourselves and your leadership to know exactly what it means to be a Christian and a member of your denomination. Know the history and present stances of your church, as well as other churches in your area. Support your outreaches, both (inter)nationally and locally. Ask questions, learn "stuff". And finally, be open to the grace and hospitality that defines a child of God. To my fellow pastors and teachers, please be open to challenges that active Christians may have after reading this small book... you might even learn something!
[ ~This reviewer is a retired United Church of Christ ordained minister, who served churches and communities as both settled and interim pastor. I have post-ordination training from the Alban Institute based Interim Ministry Program out of Maryland, taken both Basic and Advanced programing and was awarded a Professional Transitional Ministry certification in 2005. The work I did as an interim was transitional between settled ministers, or, in some cases, transitioning to church closure. I am aware that this training could possibly bias my review, but I believe that this is an honest, unbiased review of a book that discusses contemporary ministry~]
"In the end, there’s not much more to say. The preservation of the church, the renewal of the church is not our work. It’s God’s work. It’s grace. And that’s good news."
The Rev. Dr. Ted Campbell takes the media and the church to task and challenges both to remember Mark Twain's admonition that "reports of my death are greatly exaggerated". The millenial paradigm needs to be a little more honest than we "baby boomers" may have been. Attendance may not be proof of church membership as it was at the end of the twentieth century, and the media keeps pushing that the historic church is dying.
However, much as Barbara Brown Taylor's Leaving Church and Reba Riley's Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome have reiterated the same thing, Campbell, tongue planted firmly in cheek says its up to us, children of God and followers of God's Son, and not an outmoded idea of Contemporary Christianity, to determine where the "MainlineDecline" Church will stand as the Baby Boomers who supported the old paradigm, die off.
His caveat is what I have also proposed to my congregations in my 30 years of ministry: educate yourselves and your leadership to know exactly what it means to be a Christian and a member of your denomination. Know the history and present stances of your church, as well as other churches in your area. Support your outreaches, both (inter)nationally and locally. Ask questions, learn "stuff". And finally, be open to the grace and hospitality that defines a child of God. To my fellow pastors and teachers, please be open to challenges that active Christians may have after reading this small book... you might even learn something!
February 10, 2016
There's still life in the "sidelined" churches!
Finally someone has spoken what is true about the "Mainline" denominations in something other than grand, sweeping generalities based on faulty reading of the data! And in a way that is not encumbered by too much sociological statistical reportage. And with a dollop of humor! Prof. Campbell reveals what those who actively participate in the life of these "sidelined" and "beknighted" denominations have known for decades: it never was as good as we thought and is not as bad as we think. Written as an encouragement to the historic Reformation denominations (both of the Continental and Anglo-Scottish kind) that their rich lives are far from dead - "The news of my death has been greatly exaggerated." M. Twain - it also calls into question religious, political, and media pundits who have decided that the rich traditions they have are irrelevant to our times. I highly recommend this book to bishops, pastors, dedicated lay leaders, and denominational staff to bring some fresh breezes of the Spirit to the sails of the barque of Christ these traditions embody.
Finally someone has spoken what is true about the "Mainline" denominations in something other than grand, sweeping generalities based on faulty reading of the data! And in a way that is not encumbered by too much sociological statistical reportage. And with a dollop of humor! Prof. Campbell reveals what those who actively participate in the life of these "sidelined" and "beknighted" denominations have known for decades: it never was as good as we thought and is not as bad as we think. Written as an encouragement to the historic Reformation denominations (both of the Continental and Anglo-Scottish kind) that their rich lives are far from dead - "The news of my death has been greatly exaggerated." M. Twain - it also calls into question religious, political, and media pundits who have decided that the rich traditions they have are irrelevant to our times. I highly recommend this book to bishops, pastors, dedicated lay leaders, and denominational staff to bring some fresh breezes of the Spirit to the sails of the barque of Christ these traditions embody.
August 4, 2015
A beautiful and funny brief analysis of the church these days. And true to form, Campbell doesn't follow the crowd, but analyzes church history and statistical studies on church membership to conclude that the church is doing pretty well, thank you very much, even though it could always do better. He decides that the nominal church members who made the church look large in the 50s and 60s have now returned to the 'none' status, but that they never strengthened the church much anyway. Concluding sentences:
"The preservation of the church, the renewal of the church is not our work. It's God's work. It's grace. And that's good news. *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep*"
Give it a try if you care about these sorts of things. Campbell is always worth a good read.
"The preservation of the church, the renewal of the church is not our work. It's God's work. It's grace. And that's good news. *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep*"
Give it a try if you care about these sorts of things. Campbell is always worth a good read.
September 29, 2015
A message that needs to be heard by ordinary churches, an exploration of current myths surrounding congregations, and a counter-exploration of truths. Campbell's writing style is fun and to the point. The book’s movement is simple enough: myths, facts, legacies, strengths, and future. He addresses, from the vantage point of a historian, the many thousands of churches that cannot become megachurches because of time, place, and history, and he speaks as both prophet and pastor to the current status of church and ministry.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews