Growing Your Outreach Efforts When Your Community Shrinks

1. Growing Your Outreach Efforts When Your Community Shrinks Rev. Dr. Glenn E. Schaeffer Outreach Executive, Alberta-British Columbia District http://goandmake.ca

2. Shrinking Cities From 1990-2000: Shrinking World cities* increased from 1 in 6 to 1 in 4. * Minimum population of 100,000

3. Shrinking Rural Communities

4. Shrinking Rural Communities • Canada’s rural population has remained stable at about 6 million since 1981. • But, with stronger urban growth, these 6 million represent a smaller % of the population • In Saskatchewan and Newfoundland, the overall rural and small town population has declined since 1986. – Source: Stats Canada Dec 2008

5. Shrinking Congregations

6. Average # of baptized in LCC Congregations • Between 1987-2007, the average baptized and communicant membership in LCC congregations has shrunk 12%. The percentage change shown above is an annual rate of change. It is not the difference between the years shown.

7. Average Sunday Attendance in LCC Congregations • Between 1987-2007, Sunday worship attendance has shrunk from 92 to 78.

8. Canadian Trends • 19% of all Canadians (ages 15 and older) reported no religious affiliation in 2004 survey • “50% of Canadians aged 15 to 29 and almost 60% of all British Columbians either had no religious affiliation ordid not attend any religious services.” “Who’s religious?” by Warren Clark and Grant Schellenberg in Canadian Social Trends Summer 2006 Statistics Canada pages 2-9.

9. For Whom the Bell Tolls

10. “Until the pain to remain the same is greater than the pain to change, things will remain the same.”

11. All Is Not Lost! Shrinkage presents opportunities for growth and a new or renewed future • Oswalt, an expert on “shrinking cities,” asserts shrinkage is not a negative thing. On the contrary, Oswalt sees the shrunken city [church] as a template for the city [church] of the future, a canvas on which creative minds can develop new and better ways of living. • “There’s real promise in shrinking cities [churches],” says Schwarz. “It drives me crazy when people get all depressed about the decline, because there’s lots of opportunities too.” --- Terry Schwarz of the Urban Design Center of Northeast Ohio

12. All Is Not Lost! Shrinkage presents opportunities for growth and a new or renewed future “Everybody’s talking about smart growth, but nobody is talking about smart decline. There’s nothing that says that a city [church] that has fewer people in it has to be a bad place.” -- Terry Schwarz of the Urban Design Center of Northeast Ohio

13. Shrinking Smart Managing Transitions by William Bridges

14. “All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind as part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another.” – Antole France, French Writer

15. “Deep Doo-Doo, Next 750 Miles” – Ziggy cartoon

16. Canada in Transition Pre-Church Churched Post-Church

17. So, What’s Ending??? 4Pastors are irrelevant 4 Culture influences church or church in conflict w/culture 4 No Church Memory • Pastors are influential •  Church influences culture •  Church memory

18. “One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.”– Andre Gide, French Novelist  Inward  “Club”  Member Pastor-focused  Church-centric 4 Outward 4 “Mission Outpost” 4 Missionary 4 Missionary/Evangelist 4 Neighbourhood-focused

19. Expanding Outreach Exponentially

20. Expanding Outreach Exponentially • “The first step the city has to come to terms with is being a small city.” -- Anthony Kobak, chief planner of Youngstown, Ohio

21. Prayer Walking

22. Exploration & Discovery of Mission Frontiers in Your Community

23. Growing Your Outreach Efforts When Your Community Shrinks Rev. Dr. Glenn E. Schaeffer Outreach Executive, Alberta-British Columbia District http://goandmake.ca