Christian Century: On a mission by Martin Marty
When asked, "Whatever happened to the mainline Protestant churches?" as I often am, I respond: Mainline decline is an old, tired story, but mainliners' mission is urgent. How are mainline churches recovering? By going local in order to turn global.
Let me explain. Philosopher Stephen Toulmin, who has written on the paradoxes of modernity, gives us a clue: today, he says, people who are poised to be cosmopolitan tend to trust and share the local more than before. Mainliners, who may have been put off by what they often perceive as remote mission causes—church budget items that are bureaucratic or generic—are relearning outreach by beginning where they are: at home.
If you want a sense of what churches are up to in regard to outreach, scoop up Sunday church bulletins from 30 or so mainline churches, throw in bulletins from Catholic parishes, synagogues and some evangelical congregations, and study their weekly calendars. One sees that these congregations are filling urgent needs and niches in their communities as they serve the homeless and ill and hungry, act as companions to the dying and offer hospitality to addicts—on whom the doors are shut when the professionals go home. ...
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