What is a “thriving church?” Often the answers point to things like membership size and numerical growth, financial stability, and a growing presence in the community. Churches whose membership is small and static or even shrinking are rarely considered to be “thriving.” Even church people often adopt the cultural understanding that bigger is better and even bigger is even better. The corollary to size and numerical growth extends to church finances, and churches that regularly struggle to get the bills paid or that are spending down their endowments or savings to meet basic needs are not usually thought of as “thriving.”
By the usual reckoning, most of the churches that make up the Mountain Maryland Ministry Group would not be considered “thriving.” Five of the eight churches have fewer than 40 members, and so it is easy to point to the things that such churches don’t have… a growing membership, a church school or youth program, a large bank account, etc… and in a couple of cases, a regular preacher. But what the churches of our ministry group do have is both a desire and a willingness to act as the church of Jesus Christ where they are. They (we!) respond to issues and opportunities that would challenge larger congregations.
For instance, the Emmitsburg church recently found itself facing a major structural issue in the bell tower of their 112 year-old sanctuary. Needing tens of thousands of dollars, with the generous help of Baltimore Presbytery they raised more than $50,000 to repair the tower. Perhaps most impressive was the response of the larger Emmitsburg community, as the people and businesses of the town found the continuing presence of our 265 year old congregation to be worthy of helping to maintain and so pitched in a considerable amount of money toward the project. (It should also be noted that a few years back, the Barrelville church faced a similar situation, and in the same way found the support needed to repair their aging church structure as well.)
There are a number of similar things that could be pointed to that suggest that “thriving” need not always code for “big and getting bigger.” What “thriving” means for our Mountain Maryland churches is that congregations respond to the challenges that present themselves with faith and joy. So it should be noted that the Presbyterian Church of Hagerstown has been operating a weekly feeding program for street people for a number of years. St. Andrew is in the process of raising more than $100,000 in order to move to solar energy. In communities where there is a ministerium or local council of churches, our congregations are invariably involved, both with volunteers and dollars. First of Cumberland continues to be at the forefront of the Dakota partnership. And the list could go on…
So, in a variety of ways, our congregations are thriving – not to suggest that any of them would not like to have more participants and donors, but that given who and what we are, the God whom we seek to serve has been faithful and generous, and we are grateful!
– Walt Peters, Mountain Maryland