It is no secret to anyone in North American Christian circles that Christianity specifically, and organized religion in general, have fallen on hard times, from an institutional development point of view. In many rural communities the decline is part of a general demographic shift caused by the substitution of agri-business for family farming and the attendant migration of rural middle-class Caucasian populations to urban metropolitan centers with more diverse employment opportunities.
But the shift of population to urban and suburban settings does not mean that Christianity, in its most traditional manifestation, is moving into the city with the people. People who move away from traditional congregations in the country increasingly stay away from traditional congregations in the city. This “secularizing” of the urban landscape is also increasingly affecting communities of color which have, for a long time, been more comfortably “religious.” Although it is still true that participation in religious congregations is higher in immigrant communities and in African Descent groups, rising generations are showing signs of following the general trends in urban life away from conventional congregational affiliation.
Suburban congregations continue to experience some growth with tried and true models of “program-attractor” evangelism. But the conventional methodology of devising and marketing religious programming and using these programs to draw “church-shoppers” into participation is losing popularity — most notably in mainline liberal Protestantism, but increasingly in conservative Evangelical and non-denominational Churches as well.
The result of this trend, in terms of institutional strength and denominational impact, has been staggering. When the ELCA formed in 1988, the Metropolitan Chicago Synod was a synod with 251 congregations and 135,000 baptized members. On an average Sunday, we saw 40,000 people in worship. Our congregations were receiving a total of approximately $50 million in income. Of this $50 million, $3.7 million (7.5%) was being passed onto the synod as undesignated mission support. These proportions in 1988 dollars gave the Metropolitan Chicago Synod considerable freedom to staff the bishop’s office, provide program support for a wide range of standing committee activities, and still pass on over 70% of our income to organizational and institutional partnerships.
In 2011, the Metropolitan Chicago Synod was a synod with 193 congregations and 91,000 baptized members. On an average Sunday, we saw 28,000 people in worship. Our congregations were receiving a total of approximately $75 million in income. Of this $75 million, $2.9 million (3.9%) was being passed onto the synod as undesignated mission support. This means that even though our aggregate congregational income, as a synod, has increased by 50%, we have lost 25% of our congregations and 33% of our people. Undesignated mission support as a percentage of income has dropped to a little more than 1/2 of its 1988 level, translating into a loss of 20% in actual unadjusted dollars. These proportions have placed stress on every expression of the church and its mission, reducing the funds available to the ELCA, our mission partners, and synod staff.
There is no clear and certain picture of what it is going to mean to allow ourselves to be made new.
Congregational ministry and mission, now, are more contextual, with each congregation developing, to a higher degree than before, a distinctive congregational culture which has less and less in common with other ELCA congregational cultures. We have certainly not been idle in attempting to confront these trends. But obviously what we have tried thus far is inadequate to meet the challenges we face.
Where Are We Going?
In our context, there is no clear and certain picture of what it is going to mean to allow ourselves to be made new. We have many valuable resources at our fingertips; none of them provides a clear and simple answer to the challenge. We are trying to figure this out together.
From my vantage point, our response to the challenges of our time is going to require the proliferation of a significant number of new faith communities that are growth- and outreach-driven, built with an affordable and adaptable organizational structure.
The process begins with a recollection of the basic anatomy of Christian community around three intersecting mission circles:

Faith communities built on this essential model can be of virtually any size, living in any culture, in any socio-economic position. They do not require a discrete building or even a professional staff. Like all communities, they need some sort of leadership and they need some sort of support and accountability structure to stay healthy and growing.
But we may be able to imagine communities of this nature as AFFILIATED MISSION COMMUNITIES (AMC’s), born from existing “incubator” congregations. Such communities can form a distinctive identity while at the same time keeping a sense of connectedness to the parent congregation and to other AMC’s. Because they are likely to begin as smaller communities, several of them could be effectively led by one “missionary pastor” who is part of the staff of the incubator congregation.
The essential features of these AMC’s would be:
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In some fashion, they express all three of the essential mission circles of proclamation, service, and justice.
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The primary focus of these groups would be to create Christian community outside the church IN THE SPACE IN BETWEEN CONGREGATIONS, rather than trying to attract individuals into the inside of a traditional congregation.
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They would be led by a missionary who may lead up to 3 of these communities simultaneously. These missionaries could be ordained, or in candidacy, or experienced ELCA global mission workers.
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The communities would meet weekly for spiritual growth and nurture as well as outward expressions of the mission.
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Word and Sacrament worship would be experienced in some established congregation. This may be at the parent congregation or it may move from place to place.
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All would be grounded in a reproducing leadership model that measures success by growth and the creation of new leaders and new communities.
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Communities and missionaries would be guided by an “accompaniment team” made up of representatives from some combination of synod staff, synod council, pastor/mentors, and congregation members.
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The synod would establish and fund the missionary pastors in partnership with incubator congregations and other partner congregations.
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In some cases, instead of incubator congregations, a cluster of existing congregations may partner with each other to call a missionary to a shared mission vision.
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At least 10% of these new communities would focus on the formation of faith community among people living in chronic poverty.
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The primary mission objective is to create a faith community option for the growing number of people who will NEVER affiliate with a traditional congregation.
What Could We Look Like?
If this model stirs the mission imagination of the synod enough to invest in it, the result, in six years could be:
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If 20 congregations or clusters become incubators for 3 AMC’s each, in six years we could once again have the number of active faith communities we began with in 1988.
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Our synod will once again be in a position of creating calls for new leaders instead of facing a decline in leadership opportunities.
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We will have a new model for building community among the poor that is not based on charity, but rather on mutuality.
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We will have a way of touching the lives of those who would never affiliate with a conventional congregation.
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New communities can be sustained and grown indefinitely with a financial load structure approximately 20% that of a conventional congregation.
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Parent or incubator congregations can continue to grow indefinitely without significant escalation in their own debt and expense structure.
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Video story-telling from these new communities can be gathered on a synod YouTube channel for more effective mutual sharing and resourcing within the synod.
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We get back to investing more of our resources on saving lives and a little less on saving buildings!
What Will It Take to Get There?
Finding A Place in the Vision
Every existing congregation can find a place in this vision if they choose to do so:
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Some congregations may choose to become incubator congregations. This does not require huge numbers or resources, but since there may be some need to send out small starter communities, being an incubator probably requires a worship attendance of 125 or more.
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Some congregations may choose to work with others to form a cluster or strategy team working together to call a new missionary and launch AMC’s.
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Some congregations may choose to adopt and support one of the mission community networks with direct financial or volunteer partnership.
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Existing congregations may engage more actively in the Turnaround Synod Initiative renewal strategy, to build strength to become an incubator congregation at a later time.
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Some congregations that are struggling for survival may see in this vision the possibility of letting their own ministry die with hope and invest their resources in the birth of a new AMC network.
Financial Stewardship
Although there are a number of ways to finance this vision, initially we need to re-establish our focus on the stewardship strategy of the synod, and specifically on the need to grow in our commitment to one another.
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It is virtually impossible for the synod structure to be faithful to its constitutional duties and faithful to our organizational partnerships with less than 5% of our TOTAL income given back as undesignated mission support to and through the synod. For congregations giving more than 5%, this will require holding firm on those commitments as we work on growing general participation. For congregations giving less than 5% we need to work more diligently at reaching this minimum threshold for participation in the mission of the whole church.
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Once we have reached this 5% threshold we can begin to look creatively at how to grow toward being a tithing synod again through designated mission gifts. Some of these designated gifts may be given directly to the emerging ELCA 25-year appeal, which will extend our mission impact to every corner of creation. Some of these designated gifts may be given either to a dedicated synod fund for new mission communities, or directly to the local mission networks described in this report. By building back to our 1988 level of 7.5% we can release an additional $1.5 MILLION dollars every year for the creation and growth of new mission communities.
The dreams and concepts put forward in this article are bold. Though they are grounded solidly in many things we are already doing and things that we already know how to do, as a strategic vision it is quite different from anything we have tried before. So we need prayer and conversation and engagement to test the ideas, to live the ideas, and to allow them to give birth to new and better ideas.
Join the Conversation
How might your own congregation be called to participate in this vision of affiliated mission communities?
How might the church might begin to build among areas of deep poverty Christian community that is based on mutuality rather than charity?