A Pastor in Britain has written concerning the decline of the Methodist Church there (but what he says applies everywhere it seems to me):

If your church is in decline and not growing, it is because your congregation has decided to die rather than to live (alas, there is no in between when it comes to churches). The majority of our churches are not growing, thus we have a huge challenge before us. Still, our major challenge is not to find good resources for helping a church grow and live into the future; our challenge is to have pastors and churches who want to do what is necessary to live into Christ’s future.

This ties up with what I have seen in the UK, in various denominations. Too many churches are attended and led mostly by people who are quite happy for their church to decline. They recognise that they are personally getting older and will eventually die, and their expectation is that their church will decline with them and also eventually die. They have no vision for the church being revitalised and no will to make any of the changes that might be necessary for this to happen. Indeed they resist change of any kind. They welcome new members, including younger ones, but only if these people conform to the way things have always been done.

And, from what I have seen, the same can also be true of specific groups and ministries within churches.

Is there any hope for a church in this condition? Well, nothing is impossible with God, and he could revive such a church with his Holy Spirit. A new pastor with a strong vision just might be able to get a church like that going again, by stirring up any remaining embers of true spiritual life, but is more likely to break himself or herself in frustrated efforts to beat a dead horse into motion.

In a very fine essay Paul Coughlin writes

Another pitfall of overprotection is a heartbreaking irony: Because over-parented children are taught to obsess over themselves, they don’t learn how to connect with others. Helicopter parents, who think they are drenching their children with love, are raising lonely sons and daughters. The kids’ constant self-focus, developed under the tonnage of unending parental intervention, handicaps them in every social setting.

Self-focused kids—whether they’re shy and withdrawn or brash and mouthy—do not reach out to other people. They’re not friendly, so they don’t make friends well. Their near total self-consciousness appears to others as self-absorption. What they need is wise guidance and encouraging nudges. Problem is, that’s exactly what many overprotective parents find distasteful and don’t want—nudging their kids outward, even little by little, would negate their constant presence and persistent meddling.

And when they do allow their children to enter “the realm of others,” by demanding special consideration, they expect others to coddle their child. They tend to unleash harsh words and passive-aggression on those who don’t, whether grown-ups or youngsters. Such parents, mostly mothers, stack the deck against their own best interests as they contaminate play and turn their children into the pariahs of the kid world.

He says many other wise things as well, and his essay is perfect for those who hover over their children, managing their every moment and forming their every thought for them and hindering their normal social interaction. Do read it all.

The Annual Church Profile report from the Tennessee Baptist Convention is out- and decline is the word of the day.

All areas reported by churches declined except Sunday School enrollment and financial giving, reported Libby Eaton, information specialist of the TBC. The number of TBC churches reporting this year also declined — 3.4 percent — from last year. The TBC has about 3,000 member churches. Eaton said she had hoped the number of reporting churches would increase as church secretaries and association secretaries are trained to report online. The TBC has offered online reporting for two years via TeD (Tennessee Electronic Database).

The cure? Commitment.

Please pray for Tim & Ashley. Ashley was hospitalized this afternoon with two blood clots– one in each lung. Please pray for her as she undergoes treatment to remove the clots. Pray for wisdom for the doctors dealing with her specific condition. Pray for Tim as he cares for their 5 week old daughter, while Ashley is in the hospital for at least the next week. Thank God that the clots were found before they moved and caused more serious problems!

Our Association participates in the Angel Food Ministries.  Check out the link- it very well may be something you would like to make use of; or someone you know might wish to as well.

Recent research from Lifeway Research indicates that total membership in the Southern Baptist Convention dropped nearly 40,000 last year, prompting one official to declare America’s second-largest faith group officially a “denomination in decline.” New statistics released by LifeWay Christian Resources listed total SBC membership in 2007 as 16,266,920, a 0.24 percent decrease from the 16,306,246 reported in 2006. Baptisms, long used as a marker of Baptist vitality, dropped more than 5 percent to their lowest level since 1987.

And

A prerequisite for membership in most Southern Baptist churches, the number of baptisms has now declined for three consecutive years and seven of the last eight years. Baptisms are at their lowest levels since 1970.

And worst of all

In 1950 Southern Baptists recorded one baptism for every 19 church members. Today the ratio of baptisms to total membership is 1:47.

Our denomination is in decline- as is the whole of Christianity.

There’s lots of information here.

For the family of Rema Ladd. She passed away this morning and the family will need your prayers on their behalf. Funeral arrangements will be posted here when they become available.

UPDATE: The funeral arrangements are as follows: The family will receive friends 6-8 Wednesday the 23rd at Evans Funeral Home, Rockwood. Funeral will follow at 8. And the burial will take place on Thursday at 2 at the Oak Grove Cemetery, Rockwood.

A map to the cemetery is available here.  And here’s the directions to the Evans Mortuary.

Available here.

And you know it when they head off to their Senior Prom.  Wartburg’s prom was tonight and before some of the kids headed out, they posed for their folks.  You can view them here.