RENEWING A "RETIREMENT" CONGREGATION:

ABOUT THIS ISSUE OF NOTES.

This is the story of a congregation finding renewal after having aged into the retirement stage of the life-cycle.   Though not a Bay Area congregation, the story of the Neighborhood Congregational Church thrust itself upon me because my mother was its long-time member, and it is such a good story.

The story parallels the typology that George Bullard offers for renewal and the threats to renewal (see endnote below.)

For more resources on using life-cycle analysis see the website of George Bullard whose workshops in the Bay Area in the late 90s inspired many to seek the renewal of their congregations: www.customzines.com/ bullardjournal/m3nf8k/index.shtml
 

NEIGHBORHOOD CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH,
LAGUNA BEACH, CALFORNIA

"When I came to candidate for interim in September, 1991," tells Dr. Tari Lennon, current pastor of the Neighborhood Congregational Church in Laguna Beach, "there were 54 people in worship, only one under 70,".

An energetic New England woman in 1943 had gathered like-minded friends to help create an outpost of their culture and piety in southern Orange County. A dozen people gathered first in the Sand Piper Restaurant and then in a house on Laguna's Pacific Coast Highway. The congregation raised money for a building by selling food for several years at the town's annual summer Festival of Arts. They got help from the denomination. They built a manse and a multipurpose fellowship hall and by the early 1950s were ready to grow.

The Bridge sisters, for whom the fellowship hall would later be named, persuaded an established pastor from Chicago to come west to build up the church. A sanctuary was dedicated in 1962, and when Dr. Richardson left in the early 70s there were 435 on the rolls, drawn both from the town and the new senior residential community ten miles inland across the coastal hills.

In spite of a succession of able, educated pastors, membership had declined to 300 in the early 80s, and to 200 when Lennon's predecessor had left. "Trustees meant well, but new things would be proposed and they would block them," says June Budd, church treasurer and a member since 1959.

Lennon has a rich résumé, including several years working as a consultant to businesses in human resource management. She brought new energy to the congregation. When the pastor search committee sought to find a candidate, they kept coming back to her. Long-time members and leaders of the Trustees insisted she stay "to grow the church." Resisting denominational advice to the contrary,they led the congregation in May, 1992, to call Lennon to be pastor. But four months later, 19 members, including many of the long-timers who had urged her selection, signed a petition demanding Lennon's resignation.

What had happened? "I had begun to change worship," Lennon concedes. June Budd says this was something her predecessor had wanted to do but felt no support for. "I had authorized use of the church by Laguna Outreach, including the church's dishes and silver." This was a program aimed at gay men. "And I encouraged the mother whose son had died of AIDS to have his memorial service in our church." She was taking charge, she was changing things, and she was a woman.

Within two days a second petition signed by 60 members demanded that Lennon stay, "If I had been younger I might have sought a showdown," admits Lennon, "but I decided what we needed above all was for the congregation to avoid a vote." She encouraged the congregation to get a mediator, and he organized a series of small meetings to let people talk. "It wasn't just me that was the issue. People were afraid of losing their church," says Lennon.

Membership was like a "revolving door." "I kept waiting for when things would settle down and our ministry could really begin," says Lennon in recounting the story.
Some new members were joining, enough that those who had signed the first petition saw they would not win and began to leave.

Membership dipped to around 100. For the next five years people would join, but conflict or disaster would continue to send other newer and long-time members away.

In November 1993 a firestorm hit Laguna and seven families lost everything. The church became absorbed in helping them, not able to focus on its new people.

At Easter in 1994 two boys playing with bottle rockets lost control and one rocket hit the shake roof of the sanctuary. The congregation worshipped in its fellowship hall for a year and a half while the sanctuary was rebuilt. "I had to scramble all that time just to keep them together. " recalls Lennon.

In 1995 Lennon battled an undiagnosed illness for seven months until a cure was found.
A highblown law suit began 1996, brought by the part-time music director against Lennon and the church after she let him go. Two Trustees wanted to yield to his threats and settle, but other leaders felt the charges unwarranted, backed Lennon, and rallied members successfully to challenge the suit.

What was drawing new people to the church in spite of it all?
This congregation fills a distinctive religious niche, Lennon feels. Laguna's 20,000 people are mostly Caucasian and well-off, but different ways of life belong to its artists, surfers, gardeners, old timers, and high earning newcomers. Among these is a substantial gay and lesbian population. "If you did not have children, which the evangelicals providing lots of programs for, and were a thoughtful thinking person, where would you go?" she asks. "You might try New Age religion. It offers freedom, and experimenting, but it has no roots. There is a space for us"

"Lennon's preaching makes religion relevant to the real world," says Karen Stone, one of the newer members. "She can talk about astronomy, music, plays, sports, art, and the challenges in the world. She will find parallels between readings from the New Testament and from the Koran, Jewish, or Buddhist writings. New people come because they find this kind of Christianity does not shut them off from others." Lesbian and gay singles and couples found genuine welcome and joined the church, but so have others like Karen Stone and her husband.

"The teaching ministry has always been central to any change I could help this congregation with," Lennon points out. Teaching means preaching, but also encouraging Bible and book studies in homes, some becoming so successful they spilled over into the church to have space for the group.

Things finally settled down by 1997.
The catalyst for transformation was a public attack. Lennon and the new Music Director, Roxanna Ward, conceived and publicized in the local newspaper a series dramatizing a robust, revisionist view of Christian tradition titled "Jesus goes to the movies." This became received by religious radio as an affront to true Christian faith. A station challenged Lennon to explain herself. "Thirty years ago, I wouldn't have accepted. Raised by a born again, conservative Baptist father I knew I would never get to finish a sentence and I wasn't going to convince anybody of anything."

"But God was with us," she says of the whole episode. She had urged members to listen to the program. On the air she was attacked. "They were like flies after honey. After each attack I would say, 'Thank you. That is very interesting. We should think about it.' But of course, there was no time to think because they just went on to another charge."

One church member challenged her the next Sunday. It was all a waste of time. She had not changed anyone's mind on that program. Others coming through the line after worship told her, "I did not know there was that kind of religion out there. I am so glad for our church. " Says Lennon, "They got it. They now knew the congregation had something that the Congregational Church has always stood for, something at the heart of our country: That God loves us all, that God's image is resident in every one of us, that no one has the corner on truth."

Ministry bloomed. A visit north in 1999 to the labyrinth at Grace Cathedral grew out of study members had made of ancient roots of spiritual practices. Since then the congregation has offered a monthly Wednesday evening when docents guide whoever comes in the spiritual exercise of a walk through a labyrinth set up in Bridge Hall.

A year ago a dozen from the congregation took a three-day training in healing touch ministry. Now every Monday night an hour of healing touch led by lay members is attracting up to twenty persons a week. "Wonderful things happen on some of those evenings," reports June Budd. "It is the Spirit working through us. We are even giving away the choir robes so we can have the space in the choir room for massage tables for the ministry." New people are coming to both these ministries. and some become members, including many to whom Lennon must teach a basic Bible introduction.

A year and a half ago the congregation voted to call the Rev. Kel Henderson to be Minister of Children's Spirituality. Then the congregation had just a few children, yet they gave up renting the manse so it could be turned over to the children. Last Halloween a Harry Potter castle in the house drew 250 visitors, and the congregation is now enjoying a growing Sunday school.

This is a renewed congregation with change but also in continuity with its past. Few old-timers are left. The music Sunday mornings is not what it was when the sanctuary was built and the membership grew in the 1960s. Sometimes there are drums and amplified guitars, other times flutes and cellos, other times the familiar organ. But the music is still presented with a strong sense of personal commitment, musicians are honored for their gifts, and the congregation sings with vigor. The bequest of a member who loved the classical competence of the church's music in that earlier era funds this music program today. She made her gift after Tari Lemon had come and change was in the wind.

June Budd admits she misses the choir where she and her husband sang so many years and the old friends who have left. But she relishes the new life in the church, too. "This is what we called Tari to do."

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Endnote

RENEWING THE LIFE OF A RETIREMENT CONGREGATION

Long term members begin to feel at the end of the Empty Nest stage that their congregation is no longer a good place to invite new people. As a result they become hesitant in their ministry to lost, unchurched, dechurched, and hurting people.

Retirement begins to emerge when these same people begin to express excitement about making another major effort to turn around the congregation. Permission is given and resources are provided for new program emphases..

The strategy [for renewal] is to diminish first the management practices of the congregation that control rather than empower. The renewal process takes three to five years. It must address inclusion [the renewal of relationships with God and neighbor} and programs before vision can be successfully cast.

Renewing the life of a retirement congregation is perhaps the biggest challenge of the entire life cycle.

The focus of permission-giving people may still be on the restoration of past glory rather than risking [new] undertakings. About 18 to 24 months into the changes stakeholders may realize things are not working the way they thought, seek to stop the change, and-if necessary-get rid of the leaders of the changes. It is possible that the congregation will have unhealthy conflict [and] split..

George Bullard, from Congregational Passages "Renewing the Life of a Retirement Congregation," Vol. 3, No. 11, 1998. BullardJournal@cs.com

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FRIENDS: I will be away in China for a year with my wife as Presbyterian mission volunteers with the Amity Foundation. I will teach English in a college of Pharmacy in Nanjing.
Reports on my experiences in China, August 2001-July 2002, including observations on congregations in China, will be on a personal website: www.oocities.org/hughwire. E-mail: hughwire@yahoo.com
 

Hope-Source Consulting focuses on urban congregations and organizations that serve them, helping leaders identify and use their opportunities -- often hidden in the stress of change -- to grow the church, serve the people, and enjoy their calling..