By Bria Bell, SiouxlandMatters.com. (Sious City, Iowa)
The merged church — Faith United Presbyterian Church — will be located at Morningside Presbyterian’s current residence.
“I know that people are very much looking forward to this new beginning with energy and enthusiasm,” said John Daniels, a member of Morningside Presbyterian Member.
Faith United Presbyterian Church will be the new home to both Morningside Presbyterian and Third Presbyterian Church beginning on New Year’s Day.
Both congregations will combine resources in an effort to reestablish the identity of the denomination.
For more than 30 years both churches have seen a decline in member numbers and those currently affiliated with the church say the fresh start is a new step in the right direction.
“Congregation really…church is really the only place to go and now there’s so much more going on on Sundays that i think is taking the young people away from us,” said Dick Mesmer, a member of Third Presbyterian Church.
“We have to be open to some new stuff. That’s been part of our problem as a denomination [Presbyterian Church USA)] and over the years we’ve not been always open to new things,” said Reverend David Koehler of Morningside Presbyterian.
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It is always sad to hear about a church declining in size and strength, and this makes one wonder why the decline occurred. It is tempting to assume that it was something that an individual church did, or did not do, that caused the problem. But sometimes there are indications of larger issues at work.
Out of curiosity, I pulled the most recent PCUSA 10-year reports for the five churches currently located in Sioux City. The information I discovered was very interesting.
Of the five churches, Morningside and Third had the largest rates of decline over the last ten years, but all five of churches lost members. Westlawn has the smallest decline at -23.2%. The average loss for all five churches was -33.5%. Given the fact that there are no PCA, EPC or ECO churches in the area to which some of these lost members could have moved, this means that there are just a whole lot fewer Presbyterians in Sioux City today than there were ten years ago.
Of the five churches, only First seems to be a strong congregation in terms of its membership, its Christian Education program and its budget. But even First is a 30% smaller congregation today than it was ten years ago.
Perhaps some of the readers on this site are familiar with the situation in Sioux City, and have some insight to offer about why all five of these churches have been struggling over the last ten years. It just seems odd to me that not a single one of them has grown, not one.
As we kmow, churches go through lifecycles. They may grow fast in the beginning but later one as things change, they may level off and even die. This is why it is so important that churches engage in regular comprehensive self studies. Through a self study, a church can take a real hard look at itself. What demographic changes have occurred? Are we still being effective? How do we respond to this change?
These are some of the questions that a self study will answer. As Jesus said “you cannot put new wine into old wineskins”.