From personal experience, I can tell you that closing a congregation doesn’t happen without much spiritual and emotional suffering. The ending of a congregation is a death experience both for the remnant of members and for remaining ministerial staff. They experience grief and need a ministry of healing grace, perhaps for a long time to come.
But God uses the suffering of his children to bring blessing to the world. Even though the closing process is painful, the ending of a congregation can have a positive impact on the Kingdom of Christ.
Rick Hurst
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“The church that gave itself away,” is probably how Weatherford Memorial Baptist Church in Richmond will be remembered. Although nearly five years have passed, talking about what happened is still painful. I was pastor of the church when the congregation closed its doors to never meet again. It was an odd feeling and a very emotional experience for me — and for the 100 members who left on Sept. 25, 2005.
It was a death experience. And yet, it was also a resurrection.
As the racial and economic makeup of south Richmond changed over the course of many years, the church experienced steady decline. Eventually, it became impossible for the congregation to maintain a facility built for an attendance of 800. After several years of planning and soul searching, the church decided to do the most dynamic Christian thing it could do — leave a living legacy! Church members gave their $3 million facility to the 10,000 member Saint Paul’s Baptist Church.
Weatherford had always had a commitment to the people who lived near it, but was unable to find a way to reach them. Giving the facility to an exploding African-American congregation seemed to be the best way to fulfill our mission of reaching people for Christ. I am happy to report that our belief was justified. St. Paul’s Weatherford campus is now thriving, with an average Saturday evening worship attendance of 750.
The Weatherford Memorial endowment fund and other considerable resources were given to the Richmond Baptist Association and the Virginia Baptist Historical Society. The remaining members of Weatherford Memorial dispersed to several local congregations, where most of them found new church homes.
Just how in the world can a Baptist pastor, who had been taught that the church cannot die, lead a declining congregation to close its doors forever? Four years earlier, Charlie Brown, professor of pastoral care at Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, asked me one of those congregational/family systems questions that made my head spin. He said, “Rick, did your mother have a good death?”
After I climbed back up in my chair, I said, “Charlie, you know my story. My mother had been sick all of her life. I was with her when she died. I held her hand and saw her draw her last breath! Charlie, where are going with this question?”
He then said, “Rick, just answer the question — did your mother have a good death?” I answered somewhat reluctantly, but truthfully, “Yes, Charlie, she had a good death.”
He replied, “Good, Rick. Because God has called you to sit by the death bed of Weatherford Memorial, hold her hand, and make sure she has a good death!” It took me over a year to process what Charlie had said to me, and to come to terms with the fact that the Weatherford Memorial congregation was dying, and God had called me to do one of the most difficult things possible.
The emotional and psychological burden was and is difficult. Even to this day, I have mixed feelings. Yet I know that closing the congregation, giving our resources away and blessing someone else to take up the torch of ministry in south Richmond was God’s calling! I believe as William H. Willimon said, “Ministry is an act of God. Service, self-giving love, is God’s idea before it is ours.” I do agree that serving as pastor of Weatherford Memorial was God’s idea before it was mine.
Ministry is not easy in any context, and leading a dying congregation is a most difficult task. It requires us to trust in a power much greater than ourselves.
As last Good Friday approached, the cross of Jesus cast a particularly dark shadow over some of us. Death with all of its pain, suffering and cold silence invaded every aspect of our lives and even our congregations.
Yet peeping just over the horizon was the light of new life. It is the amazing reality of the resurrection! For many congregations and pastors struggling with issues related to decline and death, the Easter season brings a renewed calling for a living legacy!
Rick Hurst is director of donor relations for the Virginia Baptist Foundation.