Brad Drell (Drell’s Descants) responded to numerous posts on the Episcopal House of Bishops/House of Deputies Listserv concerning the continuing loss of membership in the Episocpal Church with the following timely, true, and hard hitting post. I have his permission to re-post it here:
Church Growth – A Post To The HOBD Listserv

[HoB/D] TEC Continues To Hemorrhage-
I am going to play a little game with all of you here on the HOBD listserv. It is called the truth. I am going to absolutely tell the truth, as I see it in this post – no holding back. It is rather ugly, and I apologize in advance. But, reading this stuff about decline in our church, I’ve basically decided that my church seems to be ignoring some obvious problems.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about this whole church growth issue in terms of who is growing and who is not. The Catholic and Mormon churches are really growing. I think it is because they are birthing more members of their churches. Episcopalians I think have plenty of children, although probably less than most. The big difference seems to be that a lot of Episcopalian parents didn’t and don’t MAKE their children come to church. Children shouldn’t have a choice in the matter. I never did. Many of my friends did, however. I’m still in the church; they aren’t. Not a big surprise. Since we’ve skipped a generation of making children come to church, what are we going to do about it? Well, we might have to do some serious work to bring them and their children back.
There is a tremendous disconnect in our church. Much of it is the egotism of the baby-boomers. Yes, egotism on the part of a generation that was given everything by the great generation. It is driving Generation-X off. We have a tremendous gap in clergy, because people of my generation weren’t encouraged to go into the priesthood, but told to go get some “life experience” by the baby boomers. The baby boomers have produced a huge number of second-career priests. It was what I was told when I was looking at the priesthood before college. I think it is fine to have more women in seminary now than ever before. But, look at the ages of your average seminarian. I realize a number of the baby boomer generation ladies weren’t allowed to go to seminary when they were younger, granted, but where are the younger folks? **********’s Diocese of ************** is apparently doing something about this. Anyone else? No one said anything about what ********* has had to say about growth. He’s right on target.

If you want the church to grow, we need younger clergy. Period.
Some have said Generation-X doesn’t have “brand” loyalty. I would suggest that is not true. I would say the Episcopal brand isn’t what it used to be, for a lot of different reasons. I noticed that ******************** said some of her children have left the church. Why? I think you will find a number of conservative leaders have had children who have left the church because of the church’s direction, and I seriously doubt it is exclusively or even mostly over sexuality, as my generation has basically grown up with homosexuality as normative. Why are these children leaving for other denominations? My own priest is different, but one of his kids, after having grown up in moderate parishes all their lives, has found an Episcopal Church home in the Diocese of Ft. Worth, much to his chagrin. Maybe traditional ain’t so bad. Maybe? My brother and sister have both brought their spouses into the Episcopal Church (I married a cradle Episcopalian). They prefer the old Lord’s prayer, aren’t particularly interested in the latest liturgical innovations and like the “traditional” stuff. “Traditional” is very different today, because it is so rarely found. It is something Generation-X is looking for. Just ask them. I’ve even spoken to some of our generation-Y teenagers, as I teach them in Sunday School, and I think they might agree as well. Another ironic point – we have a better time getting teenagers to show up to acolyte than any other youth activity at our church. Why?
However, when it comes to sermons, they would prefer something different than the latest political punditry on television. They want to hear about God, not politics. Yes, we are Christians when we enter the voting booth, but we would rather hear about God rather than politics from the pulpit, because Generation X’ers are going to make their own political decisions. Additionally, I don’t think the Jesus Seminar/Spong/Borg type of theology is going to play well with Generation X’ers. I don’t think we have as tough a time accepting the idea that Jesus Christ actually rose from the grave as perhaps some other generations, but I could be wrong. I’ll put it this way. In all my interactions with the Episcopal Church, locally, Diocesan wide, nationally, you name it, I have YET to meet someone near my age who attends an Episcopal Church, whatever their opinions are on sexuality or politics, who didn’t believe Jesus rose from the grave. That just isn’t our issue. Sure, there are those of every generation who struggle with belief. That was THE struggle of the “God is dead” generation. That is not the struggle of Generation-X – turned out God wasn’t dead after all.
GenX’ers are all about hands on ministry, too. Our big motto has been “Think Globally, Act Locally.” *********** is right when he says liberal or conservative doesn’t mean missional.
Contemporary Christian music is not folk mass music from the 60’s. The 60’s is no longer contemporary. Please, keep up with the music or stick with the traditional stuff. Kum-by-yah just doesn’t cut it folks.
A couple of other questions to ask: If a woman becomes pregnant in your congregation, does the priest take the initiative to ask if she would like a blessing of her pregnancy as found in the Book of Occaisonal Services, or does she have to ask for it? Do young couples in your church end up being asked to work with youth, whether or not their gifts lie there? Does your church expect Generation X’ers to pay some sort of dues in certain types of labor before being able to participate in certain ministries in the church? Does your church offer a parents night out where child care is provided so young parents can go on a date or go shopping or whatever? When I was growing up, my confirmation class was taught by someone who was the same age as my grandmother. Grandma and Grandpa, are you teaching Sunday School to young children or junior high kids today? Does your ECW meet during the day or in the evening so working women can attend? Does your ECW sponsor a get away retreat for young mothers (at no cost to them?) Do you have a nursery during your ECW meetings, holy week services, and times other than Sunday morning? As inclusive as you claim to be, Episcopal Church, how truly inclusive are you?
More importantly, instead of guessing at what would draw Gen-X people to church, have you thought of asking them?
If we really want to make our church grow, just fund the mass-broadcast of the “Monitors” ad produced by the Episcopal Church Center. It beats the pants off of anything else in the church ad market. Why? Because it addresses real problems that create a real need for God. It will draw people to check out the Episcopal Church that haven’t before – primarily Generation-X women, because that is the target audience. The women then generally drag their husbands to church. That is just how things work. The question is, though, since it is directed primarly to Gen-X women, what are they going to find when they get there? Will it be enough for her to stay, bring her children, and then drag her husband there?
I’m sorry for the rant, but at least it had nothing to do with sexuality.