A new book by pastors in the most dechurched region of the United States seeks to show the abundance and vitality and the moments of joy that is found in ministry and missions in the Pacific Northwest.
Excerpt: Despair, Decline, Abundance, Resurrection
The Pacific Northwest is the most religiously challenged region in the United States. Yet vibrant ministry is happening, congregations are making a difference, and lives are being transformed.
I am one of thirteen clergy authors in this book, “Filling the Void; Voices From the None Zone.” In it there are stories of hope, testimonies to the fact that God is at work here in the None Zone.
Here’s an excerpt from the introduction:
Here in the Pacific Northwest, and particularly here in the global mission field of Seattle, our context is both one of fear and hope, of scarcity and abundance, of confusion and clarity.
We are the Christ canaries in a deep cultural mine that increasingly is void of the oxygen we need to stay alive. And yet, this same cultural mine, has different forms of life growing within it. The mine has different ways of not merely surviving but thriving and revealing the treasure of a better world that is possible.
Here in the Pacific Northwest, the proclamation of the Gospel and the presence of the church is both floundering and flourishing. It is a time of despair and a time of enthusiastic creativity. The church as we have known it appears to be in irreversible decline. And yet, there are testimonies, here and there, now and then, that surprising new life is rising.
This little book will invite you into some of those testimonies, and some of those struggles as a church on the frontlines of resurrection and faithfulness.
Rev. Rich Lang, District Superintendent of the Seattle-Tacoma Missional District of the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church
Who and Where are new things happening?
I was enthralled reading through the stories of amazing ministries and effective pastors, many stories I never knew despite years of solidarity with my colleagues through the ups and downs of ministry. No matter your location, these stories will inspire and guide you through whatever transitions or difficulties are in your ministry context.
Stories are shared from these Pacific Northwest pastors in Washington state, with their cities and towns bolded as the most important aspect of their writing:
- Introduction by Rev. Rich Lang, former district superintendent of Seattle-Tacoma missional district of the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference // Pastor of Lake Washington UMC in Kirkland (as of July 1, 2019)
- Rev. Lara Bolger, pastor of Redmond UMC
- Rev. Kristin Joyner, Deacon at Bothell UMC
- Rev. Dave Wright, Chaplain and Spiritual Life director at University of Puget Sound
- Rev. Heather Sparkman, church planter in Olympia
- Rev. Kelly Dahlman-Oeth, pastor of Ronald UMC in Shoreline, Washington
- Rev. Meredith Dodd, pastor of Bryn Mawr UMC south of Seattle, Washington
- Rev. Bradley Beeman, pastor of Aldersgate UMC in Bellevue, Washington
- Rev. Jan Bolerjack, pastor of Riverton Park UMC in Tukwila, Washington
- Rev. Emma Donohew, pastor living and working in Bellingham, Washington
- Rev. Joseph D. Kim, pastor of Bothell UMC (sermons)
- Rev. Jennifer Kay Smith, pastor of Marysville UMC (blog)
- Rev. Jeremy Smith, pastor of First Church in Downtown Seattle (blog)
- Rev. Karen Yokota Love, former Pastor of Mason UMC in Tacoma // Pastor of Blaine Memorial UMC in South Seattle (as of July 1, 2019)
- Lynne Pearson, Editor, Filling The Void
And an introduction by Rev. Dr. Kah-Jin Jeffrey Kuan, President, Claremont School of Theology, which is moving up to Salem, Oregon, to be a closer repository and resource for the Pacific Northwest!
Get the Book
Here’s the most important thing to know: Profits from the sale of each book will benefit the United Methodist Committee on Relief’s US Disaster Fund. 100% of these donations go to places of need, not to administrative costs or staff salaries. So by buying the book to help with your ministry, you are helping with the mission to care for others. A win-win!
- Buy the book directly from Market Square Books to ensure the maximum payout goes to UMCOR.
- Buy the book from Amazon (net proceeds will still go to UMCOR) and it benefits our sales ranking.
- For local churches with Cokesbury accounts, here’s the link too.
Thanks for supporting ministry in the Pacific Northwest, which I believe informs and empowers ministry across the United States and many areas across the world. If we can figure out what ministry will look like here, then when sweeping secularism washes across your shores, you will be better prepared than we were. May this book be a helpful offering to you in your context. Blessings!
So the most liberal region is the region with the lowest church interest. A statistician might opine that it is the lack of “absolutes” in church that is causing the decline in attendance. Perhaps it is a lack of traditional values that is causing the disinterest.
One might also be very wrong in that opinion.
https://blog.capterra.com/church-attendance-by-state-how-does-your-state-stack-up/
Vermont is pretty liberal politically, New Hampshire not so much. Wisconsin?
As you skim though the list, there’s little statistical difference between Washington (30%), Montana (31%), North Dakota (33%), etc.
FYI, this is non-denominational data.
I’m looking forward to your spin, Dave.
And then this popped up on my reading list:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/southern-baptist-church-needs-change/591331/
“The SBC is contracting in both membership and church attendance. It has shed a stunning one million members since 2003, and is on pace to lose nearly 100,000 people each year for the foreseeable future. Annual baptisms, which are of obvious importance to Baptists, have plummeted to a 70-year low. Additionally, the denomination is failing either to attract new young people or retain the ones it has. Only half of children raised Southern Baptist choose to remain Southern Baptist.”
So clearly, ‘hard core conservatives’ are having the same issue as you suggest the WJ having.
Once again we really do agree. There is perhaps a great deal of correlation between a person’s politics and church attendance or very little correlation. There are so many variables that one cannot draw absolute conclusions. Yet, I continually read that the UMC must liberalize its BoD in order to attract more people, and that the decision to remain traditional at GC 2019 will drive people away. Sounds like you agree with me that nobody can predict the effects of that decision on attendance. Thanks for helping bring clarity to false assertions.
And by the way, attendance is no measure of whether a church is successful or not. One of many ways in which Methodism is falling short is this fascination with membership, income, pensions, etc. The true measure of a religion is whether it helps people to have a true and fulfilling faith. Period!
I surely hope you agree with that.
I do agree with that, Dave. We might have some different ideas on the ‘how’, but the end goal is agreed upon.
Regarding your prior point:
“There is perhaps a great deal of correlation between a person’s politics and church attendance or very little correlation. There are so many variables that one cannot draw absolute conclusions.”
Wholly and fully agreed. In the south and southeast, it’s more sub-culturally ingrained to attend church, to be a member of a church. Not as much in the northeast or the west (I assume the midwest is in between, but I have a hard time placing them on the scale to be honest).
“Yet, I continually read that the UMC must liberalize its BoD in order to attract more people, and that the decision to remain traditional at GC 2019 will drive people away. ”
It’s driven me away, and I’m not LGBTQ+. I know of a LOT of families who are moving on from churches who haven’t stood up and said that the Traditionalist Plan is wrong.
There might be a backfill there – I don’t want my former church home to fail, even if I disagree with them on specific issues. But the average age of my church just leapt dramatically, the sunday school and youth programs are being decimated, Vacation Bible School is likely to be cancelled, a number of the ‘regular volunteers’ for mission work and the driving forces behind community engagement have all left. In 30 years they won’t have a congregation left if nothing changes demographically. This church is in the process of being gutted, primarily because they are a moderate one and didn’t really want to take a side on the issue. I think the ‘unity’ message utterly failed.
Now the counterpoint, had the BoD changed – we’d likely have lost the Traditionalist group, who certainly donates more of the funding to the church. If they were to leave, it might even fail faster (I don’t honestly know the numbers there). But there would be less of an impact on the attendance numbers.
So we’re in a no-win situation here.
Your “spin” is very close to mine after all. I was driven away by a Lesbian preacher who could do little else but lecture about sexuality. I go (went) to church to learn about God and salvation, not bedroom escapades. She was reported to the DS for poor performance by our SPRT but nothing was done, probably for fear of lawsuits, etc. I know this because I was head of the Leadership Team but resigned and cannot support the UMC in any fashion. I reason I support the Traditionalists is simply that they have a spine and are trying to obey the church rules that have existed for 50 years.
I cannot conceive why a person who despises the BoD rules stays in the UMC. Akin to staying in the KKK because you want them to be better people.
Why can’t the Progressives see that lunacy? I know
“I cannot conceive why a person who despises the BoD rules stays in the UMC. Akin to staying in the KKK because you want them to be better people. Why can’t the Progressives see that lunacy?”
That is a terribly extreme example, but I get the gist, and I can tell you this one. I (and many like me) stayed because I expected change at GC2019. I may have been naive about that (though even the Traditionalists who had been counting numbers didn’t think they had an edge until the 11th hour).
But the ‘Homosexuality is a sin’ doesn’t come into play in my church life at all. My pastor doesn’t agree with that. There are a couple of people in my church that would SAY it aloud, more would think (I’m finding out) “Well, it IS a sin, but we can still love the people anyway”, and some are against it entirely. Not all of that last group are leaving; I don’t know if they plan to push for resistance from within or if they will just ‘get along’ in the church they’ve been a part of for decades.
Had there not been a ‘GC2019 is coming, where we will deal with this problem’ message, we’d have left a couple of years prior. Because the solution was supposed to be coming soon, we waited. I’m not willing to wait any longer. God tells us to be unafraid. I’m hurting, but I’m doing the right thing here.
Join the “Don’t Marry Movement”. There are 3 main points:
-Never legally marry an American woman
-Never have children with an American woman
-If you are married to an American woman, never buy a house so she cannot steal it from you in divorce
Read the full essay explaining the purpose of the movement here: https://womenarestupid.site/blog/the-don-t-marry-movement
American women are trash and only pathetic losers marry American women anymore. Never marry an American woman.
Married to the same woman for almost 37 years with a commitment to death do us part. Maybe if you married a Christian woman and committed yourself to Christ and his teachings you would not be so bitter. We all need to pray for you and those in your group.