Reconfiguring the Mainline?

According to a Christian Post news posting entitled, "PCUSA Decline in Churches, Members Continued in 2013," Presbyterian Church (USA) denominational statistics continue to look grim. The generations long decline of mainline Presbyterianism seems to be continuing unabated.  A second look, however, hints that things may not be quite as dire as the numbers suggest and that something very interesting could be happening.  The article notes that the denomination lost some 224 churches of which148 left PC(USA) and the remaining 76 were dissolved.  It also notes, however, that some 200 "new worshipping communities" (NWCs) have been formed in the last two years under the denomination's 1001 Worshipping Communities initiative.  These communities and those participating in them were not counted in the official statistics for 2013.

If we do a little guesstimating of our own, it seems at least possible, maybe likely, that a transformation of sorts is taking place.  Setting aside the churches that left for other pastures, the actual loss of congregations to decline was only 76, which loss seems to be more than offset by the rate of growth of NWCs certainly in numbers of members as well as congregations.  What may be happening is that PC(USA) is trading in small, dying organized (old-fashioned) churches for innovative, experimental (new-fangled) communities that are more about creativity than Book of Order propriety.  Maybe.  Or maybe not.  The 1001 initiative could be a flash in the pan, a trendy fad of the moment.  It may, on the other hand, mark a new direction for at least part of the the Presbyterian Church, transforming it from an institution back into a movement. The bottom line is that whether or not something of a reconfiguration of PC(USA) churches is taking place this is the sort of thing that needs to happen—must happen.  And it looks like there is the potential for it actually happening.

"A Rose by Any Other Name"

Back in September,Carol Howard Merritt posted an article entitled, "Why I refuse to use 'mainline' any longer," on the Christian Century website.  Merritt argues that we need to dispense with the term, "mainline,"for two reasons: first, the term does not reflect the actual sources of "mainline" faith, which is much more than the white, suburban, 1950s image suggested by the term.  Second, the word also fails to reflect the hopes and possibilities the "mainline" denominations have for the future.

In the introduction to his keynote address for the 2012 Craigville Colloquy, "Where is Mainline Protestantism Today?", William McKinney suggests one of the problems with discarding the term, "mainline," namely there is no good replacement for it. He observes,

“Mainline” is one of several labels (among them: “mainstream,” “ecumenical,” “modernist,” “public,” “established,” “old-line,” “progressive” and “liberal”) used to refer to Protestant churches and sensibilities whose experience in America dates to the early years of European immigration. Each of these terms is theologically and sociologically imprecise due in part to the fact that in the US setting today even the term “Protestant” is problematic. Sociologically and theologically, the term “Protestant” has little meaning beyond suggesting what one is not: not Roman Catholic, not Jewish, not Muslim, not a “religious none.”

And "mainline" adds to that list of things we are not namely, not evangelical, not fundamentalist, and not Mormon—among others.  The term, "mainline," is widely recognized and widely accepted.  In the face of the fact that no other term is really any better, the effort involved in trying to replace it with something else that is no better seems problematic.

More to the point still, in some real senses and perhaps sadly we still are mainline churches.  We are mostly white, stagnant, and still behaving institutionally as if we are the establishment churches of our communities long after we have ceased to be such.  There is, of course, much more to being mainline today than these characteristics, but by the same token the term mainline still resonates with our core identity.  If names matter and if we should call each card by its right name, then we remain mainline churches.

Rather than change the label, what we are learning increasingly is that we need to substantially transform the contents of the package.  In Britain, Anglicans and others call the process of discovering new ways to be the church, "fresh expressions."  In the PC(USA), a similar movement is called, "1001 Worshipping Communities."  The goal in both cases is to establish new-fangled churches that are viable faith communities within themselves and better able to share their faith with others.

In short, what we really need to do is to think about what it means to be mainline in new ways—own the label and really make it our own by redefining it.  Amen.