I ask this question on the day when Laurie completed and submitted our 2015 parochial report. This is a congregational accounting that is made to the secretary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and includes both statistical reports and responses to questions about our ministry. Among the things we report are: baptisms; confirmations; deaths; transfers of members into and of the congregation; income and offerings; expenditures and assets. We answer questions about our Christian education program, i.e., “Do you have a Sunday School? What is its enrollment? Whose curriculum do you use?”

We’re also asked to report our average weekly worship attendance. Although there are two categories of membership: baptized and confirmed, which are akin to “gross” and “net” when reporting income, the true measure of a congregation’s size is its average attendance. Our baptized membership as of December 31, 2015 was 435, up 3 from 2014. Our confirmed membership as of the same date was 281 and also revealed a modest increase from the previous year. However, our average attendance for 2015 fell by 10 people, from 133 to 123. In fact, our average attendance has slowly declined over the past decade. Some of our decline in 2015 may be attributable to some rotten weekend weather last winter (and we’ve had our share of that in 2016 as well). But I suspect most of our decline reflects a trend that most churches are experiencing. We have more members, but they worship less frequently.

People – even church people – don’t attend church as regularly as they once did. There was a time when the absence of nearly every faithful member was a cause for alarm. “Is she sick? Should we contact the next of kin?” These days the rule of thumb is that if someone misses three consecutive weeks, it’s advisable to make pastoral contact. I must admit that it’s sometimes hard to keep track of everyone’s attendance. I often rely on those who sit in the proximity of the missing to relate their concerns to me. Usually when I make contact, I find that my fears are unfounded. The reality is that we’re busier than we’ve ever been. When I was a kid, living in a predominately Protestant part of the world, nothing much happened on a Sunday except church – the stores were closed, kids didn’t have athletic events scheduled, many restaurants weren’t open, and those that were couldn’t sell liquor on the Sabbath. The world has changed, even where I grew up. Our communities aren’t homogeneous – not everyone in town celebrates the same

Sabbath, or any Sabbath, for that matter! It’s understandable and desirable that we’ve made way for the diversity of our neighbors. Why should our Jewish friends be prevented from shopping on our Sabbath, especially when they were prevented from doing so on ours in so many times and places?

The church can adapt to a diverse world, but not at the cost of our own piety! From its earliest existence, the church has gathered for worship regularly.
Look at Acts 3:46, “Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread [Holy Communion] at home [the house church] and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God, and having the good will of all the people.” The 2nd century document, “The Teaching of the Twelve,” also known as the Didache”, makes clear that Christians of that early era gathered weekly to share the Eucharist: “On the Lord’s day, gather yourselves together and break bread, give thanks, but first confess your sins so that your sacrifice may be pure.” For twenty centuries, regularity at worship meant weekly church attendance.

Worship is at the center of our life together, as it has been for Christians from the beginning. Whatever else we do as faithful members of the Body of Christ is grounded in our gathering around Word and Sacrament. “Liturgy” means “the work of the people,” and our chief responsibility to God is coming together to receive his gifts and thank him for them. Think of worship as our spiritual occupation – church attendance corresponds to the 40 hour work week. Everything else – feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, housing the homeless – essential as it is, corresponds to spiritual overtime.

Yes, nearly all churches are experiencing a decline in worship attendance, but I like to think of St. Timothy as exceptional. The final question on our 2016 ELCA parochial report was this: “Which of the following best describes this congregation’s future?” Six options are given, from “We are thriving and that should continue,” to “We are not sure this congregation will survive much longer.” I was tempted to check one of the “in-between” answers, either “We are okay and that should continue,” or “We are okay, but the future is very uncertain,” but I opted for the most optimistic – “We are thriving and that should continue.” Our future is in God’s hands. If you agree, please make weekly worship attendance routine.

In Jesus’ name,

Pastor Robert M. Mountenay