I returned from vacation and found that the CE committee has decided not to have an installation for Sunday School teachers during worship, but to have them recognized at the family night dinner. The email from the CE committee chair said that "As you may remember last year, we only had a few of the teachers even show up for that worship service. Seems like we might have more present at the dinner so that is what we would like to go with."
Hmmm, what does that say about the CE committee and even worse about the Sunday School teachers.
I'm disappointed and unsure what to do. It's just more evidence that this is not a church, but a club.
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3 comments:
I hear you. Interim Church has NO ONE on the CE committee. The Superintendent was teaching one mixed-age class, mostly her kids, and now the family is leaving. I have two choices: try to get control of it myself by offering it at a time other than worship(but what's the point of that since I am only there temporarily?) or allowing chaos to reign (so they can see what they have lost and re-evaluate a number of things). What to do? Hoping I'll know when I go back to work next week!
To me, this sounds like depression. When a church is dying, the people in it go through the same grief cycles as individuals do when someone they love is dying: denial--(big one, can last decades), bargaining, anger,(often at the pastor), and depression. The depression phase often takes the form of low energy, can't get anyone to do anything, why make the effort, no one seems to care, etc. At systemically depressed congregation knows, at some level, that their church as they know it is dying.
I had never considered depression, though I suppose I should have. I used to walk into the building and immediately become depressed. And the pastor prior to me had severe depression. Several parishioners are suffering from severe depression.
So, how to minister to them?
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