I was working with a small group of people gathered from a number of churches recently and the subject to members and money came up. We were talking about how churches could enable new congregations to form and flourish within their church but that these fledgling groups would perhaps need their support to get established.
For the first time someone said out loud what I have always suspected churches might feel about this approach… members, real members, would have to support these groups with their money. How would these new congregations pay their way?
I have to say that the person who expressed this was perhaps just saying out loud what he suspected others might say but I was still a little taken aback.
The church as we know it is dying. I for one am not too sad about that because the church as we know it is pretty much irrelavent to the vast majority of society and that needs to change. And things will change with or without the support of existing congregations.