Around The Region And In My Heart
Rev. Allen V. Harris
Regional Pastor & President
May 2024
First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Roswell, New Mexico – my home church as a child and a youth – stood as one of the prominent churches in town. Not only did it occupy an exceptional space on South Main Street across from one of the two hospitals in our city, it had in its membership lawyers, bankers, high school teachers, and even the owner of a major real estate firm in town. Our Senior Pastor (yes, there were two pastors on staff) was a respected leader of the community, serving on the Ministerial Alliance and a member of the Rotary Club. Before worship each week every single Sunday School classroom had students in it, from the nursery to the “Crusaders Class.” Youth group on Sunday night found the youth wing of the church overflowing with middle school and high school students. The summer that we took a ten-day “Disciples Heritage Tour” we had three large vans full of high school youth and adult sponsors, and both our Senior and Associate Pastor went on the trip!
It would be easy to be nostalgic about this snapshot of my home congregation being the “good old days” for they were exciting times, to be sure. The Mainline Protestant Church of the 1950’s and 1960’s was at the height of institutional and societal power and prestige in the United States as was anyone who was a member of it. Well, that is, if you “fit the bill.” Part of the reason the Mainline Protestant Church was so prominent was that it overlooked and perhaps even pushed out anyone who didn’t fit the image of what was put forth as a model Christian, including single and divorced persons, “unwed mothers,” and mixed-race couples. An implicit “not welcome” sign was distinct to those who openly questioned their faith/the faith, not to mention those who were “unmentionable,” such as women who felt the call to ministry, LGBTQIA+ persons or persons with a criminal record. Those who were of a different faith than Christianity or, God forbid, proclaimed no faith at all, were relegated to the margins of society and rarely, if ever, mentioned. The white Mainline Protestant Church seldom, if ever, understood the Black Church tradition to be in the same lineage of Christian history and tradition as it was, and was often viewed as “other” and exotic.
But oh how the mighty have fallen! Zoom forward to 2024 and my ministry as your Regional Pastor has been marked by a significant number of congregations closing and withdrawing from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). This trend spans denominations, and is even being felt in the evangelical and independent traditions. As of this writing eight Christian Church in Ohio congregations have closed since I arrived in April of 2021 (one of those closed previously but had not been reported until this year) and one additional congregation has voted to close and will do so by the end of the summer. In addition two congregations have sold their historic buildings but continue to worship and another has voted to do the same in the next year. Again, as of this writing eight congregations have officially left the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the last three years, although three of those had done so previous to my arrival but had not been recorded as such. There will certainly be others to come as we work through our directory of churches one by one and try to mend the frayed covenant due to the lack of contact we have had with and from our churches. We will surely discover more closures or withdrawals of which we were not aware.
The situation for the remaining congregations is discouraging as well. For many of who remain in church, although not all, they are faced with memberships that are smaller in number and older in age, who are managing buildings that are far too large for the current programs and participation and often saddled with significant deferred maintenance. Lay leadership seems to just rotate amongst the faithful but exhausted few, and the struggle to find new pastoral leadership – and have the financial resources to pay the living wages and necessary benefits for clergy – is harder and harder and taking longer and longer.
All of this could be seen as bad news. I do think we need to be more honest about this news and clarity and open conversation is needed about it, absolutely. But as I said in the title to this article, The Church Of Jesus Christ Is Alive And Well… But It Will Be VERY Different Than We Expected! Just like the “God Is Dead” scare of the 1960’s never really being about God but about the need for our perspectives and assumptions of the divine to change, the same is true today about the Church. Faith in God and commitment to Jesus Christ are not in danger on planet earth, but what is crumbling around us is the image of church with which we have become comfortable that really needed to be evaluated, adapted, and recalibrated constantly. And for the record COVID-19 didn’t kill our churches, it simply pulled back the façade that we had allowed to be in place in order to hide the truth from ourselves.
The Church of Jesus Christ is alive and well, but it is and will be manifested, lived out, and shared in a multiplicity of different ways than any of us can even yet imagine! Thanks be to God for this good news!
So to this end I would like to propose a renewed emphasis on the church of the future for this upcoming Pentecost season. We will look at both renewing, transforming, and revitalizing existing congregations, but also what it will mean to inspire, nurture, develop, and train leaders as “movement initiators that foster faithful communities,” in the words of the Rev. Dr. Jose Martinez, Minister for New Church Strategies for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). This conversation will take shape in three ways:
- On Sunday afternoon, May 19th Pentecost Sunday (and the 33rd Anniversary of my Ordination into ministry) I invite you to a “State Of The Church” address that will be livestreamed on both YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/ChristianChurchInOhio) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/OhioRegion) where I will explore the changing nature of church and where I find the most hope for faith and communities of faith in the future.
- Likewise, I would like to spend the days following Pentecost to share learnings and wisdom I have gained over the years, and that of other leaders across the life of the church, with biweekly “Pentecost Pointers” posts that will be available on Facebook, Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ccinoh/) and Threads (https://www.threads.net/@ccinoh)
- Finally, I want to move to having a contingent of dedicated Christian Church in Ohio leaders participate in the 2024 Leadership Academy scheduled to take place from Tuesday, October 22nd to Friday, October 25th at Meizon Church in Gainesville, Florida.
I will never ever again experience the wonder of church as I knew it as a youth in Roswell, New Mexico in the 1970’s. This is due to many reasons, not the least being the fact that it has long been closed after enormous conflict and a fundamentalist takeover. But to be clear, neither can we experience the church as Paul knew it in Ephesus or Corinth or James in Jerusalem in the first century either! But, if we understand God is in charge and the church can live IF we open ourselves to the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit we will be privileged to usher in a new age of the Church of Jesus Christ and new generations of faithful followers will experience the good news of the gospel and lives will be changed for good!
May it be so!
Living Thoughtfully & Loving Meaningfully 
Beautifully written and wonderful reflection. Also, very true. Praying for your remarkab
How kind of you, my friend. And you are someone who really “gets it!”