3. Small Churches are a luxury good

Although I serve an urban congregation in Denver, about half the congregations in our Regional Church of the Dakotas could reasonably be described as “rural,” located in North and South Dakota towns which range from small to very small. Consequently, these congregations tend to be small as well: none is over a hundred in membership, and there are no realistic prospects for  significant growth in towns which have been steadily depopulating over the last few decades. Nearly every time a pastor moves on, the congregation must soberly assess its future. Can they really afford a pastoral salary? Is it time to think of something drastic, such as sharing a pastor or even merging with another Church?

Thankfully, there is a steady supply of older pastors, near or past retirement age, who are glad to serve where they are needed and don’t have the financial needs of men with young families and mouths to feed. These days, there seems an even greater supply of fresh seminary graduates with few or no children who are equally willing to take a call which will get them established in their pastoral careers: they know they may not be able to stick around

for more than a few years, but at least the pulpits stay filled.

That’s not an ideal situation, but it’s the unfortunate demographic reality of rural Church life. What, then, accounts for the presence of a similar model in urban areas such as Denver? Just to point out the obvious, the difference between a small town and a city is people. Lots and lots of people. Hundreds of thousands of people. With all those people, what accounts for multiple OPC and PCA congregations, some a little under a hundred and some a little over a hundred, in the same metropolitan area, especially when their members drive past other congregations of like faith and practice on the way to services? 

Here’s what accounts for it: a few years ago I was talking to a South Dakota pastor, originally from the Denver area, during our two presbyteries’ joint youth Bible camp. He had been solicited to begin a new Church plant in south Denver, just equidistant between a PCA Church and a URC which both happened to be pastored by friends of mine. Yes, they were friends of mine, which necessarily calls their good taste into question, but they also were ministers in good standing of Churches of like faith and practice not more than a 10-minute drive from the geographical area in question. Why had a “core group” begun talking with this pastor when they could easily join a small (around or under 100 members) Church in their area?

I can claim neither prophetic nor telepathic insight, but I’ll tell you why: they wanted a Church which was to their particular preference. Neither that PCA nor that URC was quite what they wanted, but they had learned from experience that there are plenty of pastors who need a job. All they had to do was demonstrate an ability to provide a nominal salary for a year or two, and they could get a pastor who would provide the kind of preaching and/or pastoral care they liked.

In my more cynical moments, I describe the OPC (and sister denominations) not as “small,” but as a “boutique” Church. Cities have plenty of stores which are small in size because they have to fit into cramped quarters. Cities also have plenty of boutiques which are small not out of  necessity, but by design: they provide luxury goods which are of interest and affordable to only a few, and especially the few who are willing to pay the price.

Many (although by no means all) confessionally reformed Churches have well-educated and relatively affluent members; if these members are willing to tithe or even give beyond their tithes, then a relatively small number of members can pay the relatively small salary asked for by a man who wants nothing more than to preach the Gospel. This concentration of wealth gives them the buying power to acquire a preacher who is not merely faithful to God’s Word, but who also provides the style of preaching which they’d like to hear on a regular basis.

Demographic reality dictates that rural areas will have small Churches. In an urban area, small Churches are a luxury good.

D.G. Myers on Cancer, Dying, and Living

In a recent Econtalk podcast, host Russ Roberts interviewed the literary critic D.G. Myers, who is dying from cancer and has been writing on the subject. They begin with a lovely discussion of the reality of death and dying, deconstruct some popular euphemisms for being afflicted with disease, and then turn to literature and the field of creative writing in the universities before concluding with the Deuteronomic imperative to choose life.

Recommended.

An indispensable podcast

I stopped acquiring audiobooks because of the inordinately large number of podcasts to which I subscribe: while I listen to an hour or more a day whilst doing chores or working out (anything to distract myself from the misery of physical exertion), I can find myself two or more weeks behind their release dates. However, so many podcasts went into reruns or hiatus at last year's end that, come Christmas, my podcast playlist almost dwindled down to nothing.

Almost.

That was when Russ Robert's Econtalk (my second-favorite podcast after The New Yorker's fiction podcast [because I love the short story and appreciate hearing intelligent readers discuss them]) did a joint episode with Tony Gill's Research on Religion, a weekly discussion on the social scientific study of religion. For anyone with any level of interest in the role of religion in our culture or in how religions (and in practice, Christian Churches) function as social organizations, it's a terrific resource. In my opinion, it's indispensable for pastors and Church leaders given the ever-changing, and evermore forgetful of the First Amendment's free exercise clause, legal landscape: for example, this week's episode on religious property cases coming before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Not every episode is equally indispensable; I felt no compunction over skipping the one on Roman Catholic saints, for instance. That, however, is a fairly high mark: one has to check out each installment for fear of missing something absolutely necessary. If you subscribe to podcasts, add this one to your list.

The Up Side of Down

On last week's Econtalk, host Russ Roberts discussed the salutary benefits of failure with Megan McArdle, author of the recent The Up Side of Down. McArdle forcefully argues that, as the book's subtitle says, "failing well is the key to success." I agree, but have to note (as Russ Roberts does) that failing well does not guarantee success.

Of greater interest to me than that principle was the theme of the first thirty or so minutes of the conversation: the crippling refusal to take risks which can result from a fear of failure. Being willing to risk failure is necesary to succeed at any noteworthy endeavor; refusing to risk failure can also be a refusal to experience the satisfaction and joy of acquiring a new skill or exploring the unknown. I was reminded of some conversations Mrs. Curmudgeon and I have been having about how to educate the curmudgelings, as it's become apparent they need to learn that failure is not a referendum on self-worth but an opportunity to learn something new. Along similar lines, I wonder whether a fear of failing at life draws some Christians to rule-based schemes which, absent any apparent Biblical warrant, promise a pain-free future for one's family.

Voltaire's Bastards

On last week's Econtalk podcast, Russ Roberts spoke to John Ralston Saul on the occasion of the re-issue of his 1992 book Voltaire's Bastards. In it, and in the interview, Saul argues that rationality has displaced the old humanism, and a society which uses only the norm of rationality is a poor and deformed one. I would have enjoyed the interview without necessarily making a recommendation were it not for the close. Saul raises the example of Nazi architect Adolf Eichmann and Roberts replies with Saul's own point that technology has improved, but humans are still the same. Provocative.

Matzo and Christian liberty

I listen to the Planet Money podcast for information and insight into economics, but the latest edition related more nearly to my day job. It proved the point of Westminster Confession of Faith 20.1, which says in part "...under the New Testament, the liberty of Christians is further enlarged, in their freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law, to which the Jewish Church was subjected." The story on the Manischewitz corporation's matzo production facility illustrates the incredible lengths to which Jews have had to go in order to keep the ceremonial law. Of course, rabbinic Judaism, which is descended from New Testament-era Phariseeism, has adumbrated that law with any number of requirements; no doubt, law-keeping during Biblical times was not nearly so complex. Nonetheless, this contemporary illustration can help the modern-day Christian understand just what Leviticus is going on about.

The restlessness of the temp

Whilst in seminary, I worked as a security guard for Pinkerton, assigned to the Hewlett-Packard plant in north San Diego county. Like the security guards, most (if not all) of H-P's non-salaried employees were in fact contract employess, including the line workers assembling printers. A regular feature of my job came whenever a line was shut down, the product run having been completed. The standard procedure was to wait until the last day, inform the workers about halfway through the shift, and also notify them their contract was up and they were now without work. Extra guards would be assigned to the line area to make sure nothing was stolen and no one indulged in a little spiteful vandalism. At the time, it seemed to me a policy which assumed it would offend and outrage those subjected to it might need some rethinking.

In a discussion of the Sabbath as occasion for enjoyment, Peter Leithart draws out some spiritual implications of these hiring policies:

The problem is that many larger corporations fail to give employees any sense of being part of a larger whole, and this is especially true when the employee’s employment is precarious. How is a worker supposed to experience the social satisfactions of labor when he’s never sure if he’ll be part of the team for the next project? It is like being in Egypt; it is like bricks without straw, labor without Sabbath.

Demographics & Depression

If this pastor gig doesn't work out, my backup plan is to move back to Virginia and pursue graduate studies in economics at George Mason University. With economics suddenly becoming a very timely and interesting subject, I listen avidly to the EconTalk and Planet Money podcasts. I've thus heard any number of theories and explanations for the present financial unpleasantness, but none so idiosyncratic or compelling as this from David P. Goldman (until recently, the pseudonymous "Spengler" of the Asia Times):

"Credit markets derive from the cycle of human life. Young people need to borrow capital to start families and businesses; old people need to earn income on the capital they have saved. We invest our retirement savings in the formation of new households. All the armamentarium of modern capital markets boils down to investing in a new generation so that they will provide for us when we are old." He goes on to argue that the demographic decline of young two-parent families in Europe and America has resulted in a concomitant decline of credit markets which, in turn, can only be reversed by an increase in young families.

You can read "Demographics & Depression" in its entirety in the May 2009 issue of First Things, available on better newsstands everywhere.

(Are there any newsstands outside of Manhattan and downtown Chicago anymore?)