The RCA has decreased in membership every year since the Nixon administration, or maybe it was Carter. This shrinkage is the source of great consternation. Typically it is taken as evidence that as a denomination we are asleep, irrelevant and unfaithful. Probably.
But maybe there are other factors at play in our shrinkage. Three things come to my mind.
Discernment
I once read an article by a Christian Reformed Church minister during the middle of the 1950’s, (I wish I could remember more about the author). It was a time when mainline church membership was thriving. Babies, a home in suburbia and church membership all seemed to go together. This CRC minister, however, said it was an era of decay and deception. A “true church of Christ,” he argued, should expect to shrink and be ignored in such decadent times. Eventually, we should expect nothing but a “faithful remnant” when Christ returns.
So how do we know when to play the “shrinking equals faithfulness” card, rather than the “shrinking equals unfaithfulness” card? I’ve yet to hear anyone suggest that RCA’s declining membership is evidence of stalwart resolve and integrity. Might it be?
Demographics
The RCA has had the misfortune to have the bulk of its congregations located in the northeast and upper Midwest. Maybe our slowness to start new congregations in the Sunbelt, our original reluctance to plant churches if there wasn’t an enclave of Dutch last names can be cited as unfaithfulness. But demographics have not been in our favor.
From my days in upstate New York, I recall small towns that once boasted of being the carpet-capital of the world, the glove-making or the shoe-making centers of the universe. A man could support his stay-at-home wife and family with a lifelong job in those factories. The towns, and the RCA churches in them, hummed. Those days are gone. Not only are the towns and churches much smaller, they also suffered from “brain-drain,” where the best and the brightest left.
Was this shrinkage a sign of unfaithfulness? Those who were uninformed, who lived in regions that were thriving, seemed to believe so. Often there was a quiet implication that if we just loved Jesus more, if we prayed as much as people in the Sunbelt, then our congregations in upstate New York would grow. But eventually some of the shifting demographics came to the Midwest. Then RCA congregations in California and Florida, that once could do no wrong, found themselves old and shrinking. Today, I notice that many of the “poster-child” congregations of the RCA from 10-15 years ago are struggling. They declared that they were going to “do church in a new way.” But now they face transitions in leadership, financial squeezes and a newer ring of exurbs farther out, where the growth and young people are located today.
Who Left?
It is pretty much accepted without debate that the people who left the RCA left for churches where the worship was more lively, the faith more fervent and the theology more conservative. To compete, then, we must start congregations that seem like Pentecostal and Baptist churches. However, Hope College sociologist, Don Luidens, has evidence that suggests there has been a quiet, but steady erosion of people from the center-left in the RCA. These people want more liturgical worship, thoughtful ministers and a socially-progressive church. They would say they want a truly Reformed church. Typically they’ll say, “I didn’t leave the RCA. It left me.” Many have drifted to the Presbyterians, Lutherans and Episcopalians. Truthfully, many have just stopped being part of a church. Perhaps our shrinkage is a result of unfaithfulness, but the unfaithfulness has been to our Reformed heritage, a willingness to sell our birthright for mess of pottage, and an unwillingness to trust our tradition.
I’ve asked more questions than provided answers. I don’t have the answers. But maybe we should be asking different questions about our shrinkage and what truly accounts for it.