September 2026 Newsletter – Pastor’s Page
Hello church family,
As we approach fall, I’m excited to move into our regular rhythms of worship, celebration, and fellowship. Should we try pumpkin spice communion bread this fall? No, I think we won’t go there!
Embracing regular rhythms is a beautiful way to understand our faith. Christianity includes daily and weekly rhythms of prayer, reading, worship, service, and rest. We have seasonal cycles of anticipation, celebration, remembrance, and fasting. But just because we may find ourselves in certain rhythms doesn’t mean we should never change. In fact, if our goal is to remain a stable church, we are missing the point.
At our August Leadership Board meeting, I asked our board members to read the article “The Myth of the Stable Church” from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership. This report highlights a reverse of declining church attendance. The trend of median church attendance is up from 65 people in worship in U.S churches in 2020 to 70 people in worship in 2025. In the year 2000, the median was 137. We’ve seen a big decline across our nation, but this was the first uptrend in 25 years! In fact, more churches are growing by more than 5% – there is growing number of churches that are growing.
However, stable churches are a shrinking piece of the pie. Churches that grow or decline by more/less than 5% only make up 12 % of all churches. In long established congregations – not unlike our own – we tend to value stability. We like the budget to stay about where it was the previous year. We like to look around and feel like we know almost everyone we see. We like the predictability and rhythms of events, gatherings, and ministries.
However, if our primary purpose is to remain stable or survive, we will likely only shrink. That’s because habits of ‘stable churches’ no longer fit most congregations. If we only look inward or dedicate our time to our own “survival” we will miss opportunities to engage our neighbors and the people God sends us to meet. If our goal is to “stay stable,” the author reminds us that “we forget we are called to ministry with the people God has given us we do not yet know.”
I’m grateful our congregation is not obsessed with remaining stable. But any church can lose that sense of curiosity and choose an internal focus over outward relationship. We are outwardly focused, and many of our ministries are fueled by a purpose to help our community and connect with our neighbors. Let us continue on the sacred path of openness to new ministry with new neighbors. It is the only path of growth for our hearts, our souls, and our congregation.
We return to 11:00am worship on Sunday, September 13. See you in person or online!
Blessings,
Pastor Jared