Paperweight Churches

I have a very special paperweight. It is a postcard size slice of Pink Georgia marble that belonged to my grandfather. For 30 years of my life that piece of marble never left his desk. Then I inherited it. For many years it occupied a prominent place on my desk, keeping one of the mountains of paper in line. 

Now the paperweight is packed away in a box somewhere. It has lost its utilitarian purpose. While it is still beautiful and still of emotional and nostalgic value, it has lost its purpose. 

Two things happened to make paperweights obsolete: air conditioning and the Cloud. First, air conditioning. Before offices had air conditioning, they had open windows and fans. And while a strong breeze was desired, it wreaked havoc with stacks of loose paper. Hence, the paperweight was born. It solved the problem of loose papers blowing in the wind. It was a necessary and valued tool on every desk. Even a rock was sufficient to serve in a very effective way. 

The wealthier one became, however, the more extravagant became the paperweights. Crystal paperweights, silver paperweights, brass paperweights, ornate and artistic paperweights all became even more valuable because of their clear utilitarian purpose. But no wind, due to AC, then no purpose. Still beautiful and still used on stacks of paper, but no longer essential. 

Then came the Cloud. My office once generated and processed mounds and reams of paper. Stacks of paper filled my file cabinets, the credenza and the drawers in the desk, plus the stacks of paper in the in and out boxes. And then there were all the stacks of paper still weighting to be processed. 

Now I lead a virtually paperless life. My phone, tablet and computer carry everything and it's all filed and backed up on the Cloud. It is available to me anywhere in the world with an internet connection. 

So now my paperweight has no utilitarian or intrinsic value. It's still pretty and it's still nostalgic, but it's lost its purpose. 

And that brings me to the acknowledgement that most mainline churches I know in Europe and the US have become paperweight churches. This is so clearly observable in most of the great historic churches of Europe. They have great historic, artistic and nostalgic value. But their purpose has been lost. What they do is no longer valued or needed. Therefore they sit empty except for the tourists, and they do not fulfill the Great Commission of making disciples.

I think of some of the great churches of my own denomination, my own Conference. Grace Atlanta, Druid Hills, Atlanta First, Trinity, Atlanta, Woodstock, St. James, Toccoa just to name a few. Once they were vital, useful, impactful churches. But somewhere along the way they became obsolete. Like paperweights, they have artistic value and nostalgic value, but they became divorced from their purpose. 

Air conditioning and the cloud made paperweights obsolete, but that is not what happened to those churches. Other changes occurred in the community and culture around them and they simply would not or could not adapt. A forensic examination is needed to determine the reasons for their moving from vitality to obsolescence but there is no doubt they have done so. 

Now what to do with Paperweight Churches? It seems to me we have four or five options:

1. One is to pretend they have not lost their purpose and have not become obsolete. This will lead to ultimate death, but it may be a long, slow death depending on the wealth of the congregation or the endowments established during previous times of vitality. But whether slow or fast, the end is clear and sure: death.
2. Another option is to turn them into museums or shrines or other community centers such as a wedding chapel or an auditorium or bar. This will preserve the building, but not the church. However, since the Western church has such an edifice complex, that may be enough. 
3. Sell the property and invest the proceeds in new Church plants either locally, nationally or internationally. This takes the resources faithfully given by a congregation to advance the mission of the church and continues to use them for that purpose. This requires a mission-driven approach to ministry.  For example, when Oglethorpe Atlanta closed, the property was sold and the proceeds were invested in starting the Johns Creek Church, now one of the largest in our Conference. 
4. Assign a totally new leadership team with a very clear vision of mission, and with the appropriate gifts and graces and reinvent the church. This is what Atlanta First is attempting to do. I pray it is successful. 
5. Close the church, but reinvent a ministry in that location utilizing the physical structure and the physical resources to create a new ministry totally unrelated to the old church. It must be a ministry which will not be obsolete and have no utilitarian purpose. It can do ministry in a way the old church never could. A recent example is the Berkmar Church in Norcross, now the Net Church. A Latino pastor is developing a multicultural, bilingual congregation there, something that simply was not possible for the old congregation. They had become a Paperweight Church. 

Now the hard thing for Conference leaders, episcopal, DS, Lay and clergy, to do is to identify the Paperweight Churches in the Annual Conference and make a conscious decision as to which one of the five options above needs to be employed. 

One of the saddest days of my ministry occurred in a Cabinet meeting while serving as a District Superintendent. One of my fellow DS’s reported she had discovered she had 30 churches in her district which had not received one new member by profession of faith in 30 years. While I knew it was true, it was still hard to comprehend. 

Paperweight Churches - does the leadership have the insight, the courage and the will to do anything about them? What if they constitute 50% or 60% of our 1,000 churches in North Georgia? I suspect they are at least that many. (This is based solely on observation and experience in over 45 years in the UMC. An analytical approach is needed to determine the actual number and identify the Paperweight Churches). How will we deal with them? 

Past performance is the best prediction of future performance. Given that, I fear most Paperweight Churches will be left in option one above. That does not contribute well to our mission of making disciples and our tribe will continue to decline as a percentage of the population. 

Does that have to happen? Absolutely not. But to avoid this current reality from becoming our destiny, we must rediscover the passion we once had for making disciples. The evangelistic fervor fueled by the Holy Spirit will have to once again be the driving force of our lives as the basis for our strategic deployment of human and physical resources as we again “Offer Them Christ.”