Give us this day our daily bread.  (Matthew 6:11)

Last week I took some time away from “all of this” and spent the day with my BFF Vicky.  Vicky is my ‘soul-sister’.  She has been part of my life since Before Kids . We worked for years on the same team together; she was present at both of my kids’ births (one that involved a looooonnnnnggg time standing over me and the loss of a pair of shoes because I threw up on them) and has been a God parent and indulgent auntie in my whole family’s life.  Vicky and I live in different cities now so we have to work to spend time with each other. So we met at a wonderful little hamlet,  had an awesome lunch with each other, and then went shopping at that fancy-dancy store on the main drag.  Not that either of us needed anything.  But sometimes just shopping and looking at pretty things is fun and entertaining.  In the past the shopping has always ended up in impulse buys that I often later regretted, but something weird happened on this trip:

We cruised through the store.  Looked at all the things.  Then both said almost simultaneously; “I don’t need anything, so lets go”.  As we were walking out, Vicky said to me “I really do have everything that I need.”.

And so do I.  Really.  But this was kind of a monumental moment in my soul development, right.  Because it means that at the ripe old age of 60, I could separate what I ‘wanted’ from what I ‘needed’ almost instantly.  No wrestling with myself.  No mental calculation of the cost of something.  No mental laundry-list of excuses for my purchase.  Just an immediate separation of ‘wants’ and ‘needs’.  But the feeling was even more than that.  I was not only aware that I didn’t ‘need’ anything, but I was also completely content that my needs were being met, and that I didn’t have any real ‘wants’ on top of it.

I’ve been doing a ton of reading recently for my course work.  My faculty advisor had recommended I read Goldschmidt, W. (1978). As You Sow: Three Studies in the Social Consequences of Agribusiness. Rl Inactive Titles.  I put the reference there just because it was easier to ‘copy and paste’ it out of my bibliography.  I’m not suggesting that you need to get it.  In fact, I had to order it specially because its out of print, but I was told it was a classic so I needed to read it.  The book is basically about economic structure and community health; has a chapter describing the experience of a faith community in a specific area and draws a big overall conclusion that suggest that rural communities that fare better are ones that stay local, have a flattened social hierarchy and rely on relationships over profit and economic advancement.  What’s cool is that the whole scenario plays out in the churches that he researched as well; that the simpler, less hierarchical churches with robust lay-involvement were the ones that were thriving, were busy, and had increasing or at least stable attendance.

Now I know that this is a 1978 publication, and that MUCH has happened in the church world since then, so I have another piece of more recent research that I want to tell you about.  This one is from Mealey, S. (2024). Not dead yet: Is the decline of the Canadian church a myth? Flourishing Congregations Institute. Retrieved from https://flourishingcongregations.org/not-dead-yet-is-the-decline-of-the-canadian-church-a-myth/. This article is pure CRA data, with a ton of tables that are a bit difficult to read, but what I’ve gotten so far from it is that:

• Our beloved United Church is in deep doodoo, with about one in 7 congregations closing each year and a 25% decline in givings. The Anglicans, Presbyterians and Catholics are about at the same closure rate, but their givings are about breaking even.
• BUT, overall, there is only a 2% loss in adherence in the Canadian Christian Church. Not only that, but the givings of the total are actually increasing.

Wild, eh.  I just want you to sit with this info for a moment.  Because what this data says is that the problem is with the mainstream, established churches.  Not only that, but that the smaller, less established and hierarchical denominations were actually

Thriving.

And all of this has me thinking about the difference between ‘wants’ and ‘needs’, Right!  All of this has me wondering if we strayed too far from what we actually need for faith-formation and discipleship formation and forgotten the core of who we are and why we gather.  And by this I mean all of us United Church people, right!  We are a wonderful, hierarchical system with rules and procedures and all sorts of layers of people in charge that need a paycheck so they can feed their families.  We have systems to ensure that as a body we are living out the Micah 6:8 verse of justice, mercy and loving God.  Our countryside is dotted with United Church buildings; some simple, some extravagant, all less than half full, and by the statistics are going to be closed and crumbling sometime in the near future.  Unless…

We take several steps back and reclaim what our Gospel stories tell us is our truth and our way of discipleship and being.  Because our stories continually remind us that we will get what we need if we are faithful as God’s bodies.  Our stories continually remind us that our faith isn’t contained in prominence or power or even big and well-established, but instead is contained in being present, and serving God as a total body of believers.  Our stories tell us about an alternative way of being that isn’t driven by profit or even by development.  Not only that, but our best research tells us that thriving communities are ones that remain based in  the small, the local, and relationship-driven ideals.

So.  What to do with all of this stuff?  How do we now respond as a community to this direction?

Honestly.  I think we need to just keep on keeping on.

Bethel is small.  Bethel is rural.  Bethel has a modest and simple outlook on what it means to gather in worship.  We love each other and our whole outlook on church is that it’s the gathering that’s important, and out of this gathering comes our stewardship and discipleship.  We are known to be ‘the little church where everyone pitches in’, and that’s because we really do.

And while all of these traits are things that Bethel, and other churches have apologized for, and felt a little like we were the country cousins, I’m starting to think that maybe we’re onto something.  Because there’s this part of me that’s slowly coming to the conclusion that this is the solution.  That this is where our hope and our future lies.  This place where simplicity and modesty just is part of who we are and what we do and where we prioritize each other so that we can be equipped to serve the world means our future and thriving.

So stand up my dear Bethel friends.  Stand up and remember that we were taught to pray for our daily bread.  Because that’s all we need to thrive.

Blessings today, and remember you are Loved,

~Rev. Lynne