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Mead and Mayo disagree over future of mainline denominations

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BLACK MOUNTAIN, N.C.--Financial difficulties may be the reason for decline in mainline churches, according to Loren Mead, founder of the Alban Institute and author of "Financial Meltdown in the Mainline," who spoke at a recent national stewardship conference in North Carolina.

"We are in bad trouble in the churches," he said. "We won't be out of it in your lifetime or mine."

Churches increasingly depend on a donor base that is getting both older and smaller, he said. Meanwhile, younger adults are racking up more personal debt and giving less to the church, the Biblical Recorder reported.

Building maintenance issues, of particular concern to many mainline churches whose buildings are historic, bog down the finances of dwindling congregations, according to Mead. He said efforts to simply survive can sap the energy of a church so that any efforts at outreach or missions is lost. Growth is then impossible.

Methodist minister, the Rev. Jerry Mayo of Murfreesboro, Tenn. said that fear of decline detracts from ministry. But he told The Tennessean he thinks there's too much discussion about how mainline churches are losing members.

There's typically lots of doom and gloom when people talk about these denominations - the Presbyterians, Lutherans, Disciples of Christ, Episcopalians and United Methodists. But these churches aren't dead yet, said Mayo, pastor of Murfreesboro's First United Methodist Church.

He recently wrote "The Lazarus Church: Resurrecting Passionate Ministry in Mainline Congregations."

'When Jesus is the focus of the church, it's raised to new life,' he said. 'The focus shifts from the power of death to the power of life.'

As pastor, Mayo led the Murfreesboro church into a new, $13 million building in time for Easter last year.

Mayo hopes his book will help people realize that mainline churches still have much to offer. 'God is calling the old mainline churches to be Lazarus churches,' he said. 'I love the old mainline churches, and I felt a need to affirm the history and life power of the old Methodist churches.'