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 Sharper DefinitionHow a small congregation was reinvigorated by making membership mean something specific.
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After 18 years of ministry, I've become convinced that the way to lead a dormant church into exuberant, committed discipleship is not by lowering the bar, but by raising it. Our members are required to participate in at least one specific ministry, attend a weekly Bible-study class, and tithe regularly. We call it "intentional Christianity." Trinity's mission statement sums up the bottom line: "To help people make a positive, life-changing connection with Jesus Christ." Though that has always been my personal vision for ministry, bringing structure and reality to that vision was not easy. Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church was my first call after seminary. I remember driving by this little white church in tiny, blue-collar Pell Lake, Wisconsin, before our first interview. My wife, Cindy, and I were impressed with the neat and well-kept building. What the synod had written us about the congregation seemed pretty impressive: over 300 members, 98 worshipers each Sunday, and the salary was more than I had ever received before—for doing what I loved. But I quickly discovered that most of the 300 members couldn't be found; they had been baptized years before but were never incorporated into the congregation—or taken off the church roll. Sunday attendance was around 60, and if I wanted to receive my salary, it was pretty much up to me to raise the funds. (They never taught us at seminary how to conduct stewardship campaigns and preach about money.) I was warned by several pastors that this community would be difficult. I learned that the church council used to meet in the bar directly across the street from the church, and that the previous pastor complained that he had to do all the janitorial work. My greatest concern, however, was that there were no leaders in the congregation. As soon as my predecessor left (after three years), everything fell apart. I made a vow to myself that when I left, there would be biblically knowledgeable leaders in the congregation so that the ministry wouldn't cease when I left. My first day at work, I sat at my desk thinking about the enormity of the task and praying for help, realizing that without God's help I could do nothing. "You're from Pell Lake?"Driving into Pell Lake, population 1,500, you see no inviting skyline, no manicured lawns. Amid fields and farmland are narrow dirt roads, dilapidated homes, and a mudhole that, once upon a time, was considered a lake. The town is just north of the Illinois border and five miles south of Lake Geneva, a scenic resort community that is a playground for the Chicago rich. Pell Lake was a blue-collar version of Lake Geneva, and for many years, dating back to the 1920s, it was a pleasant summer destination for working-class families. But the town changed as the nation's economy wiped out countless industrial jobs. Instead of a resort for the working class, people bought the vacation cottages as cheap, year-round homes, and the town slowly developed an aura of indigence. |             |
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