The following is the text of a letter submitted to the church council of Good Shepherd McKees Rocks in the summer of 2020; I had joined the church council as a member at the beginning of 2020.
Interestingly, this letter was composed and submitted almost exactly a decade after I composed a history of Mt. Calvary Cemetery for the church in 2010.
See also my subsequent video presentation which elaborates on this report at https://youtu.be/6dxPDzQ-26I.
Interestingly, this letter was composed and submitted almost exactly a decade after I composed a history of Mt. Calvary Cemetery for the church in 2010.
See also my subsequent video presentation which elaborates on this report at https://youtu.be/6dxPDzQ-26I.
_________
For Submission to Church Council
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church – McKees Rocks
Church Council Meeting
Wednesday, September 9, 2020
Respectfully submitted by Council Member Donald E. Simpson, PhD
Dear Council Members,
I have been greatly and increasingly frustrated as a council member this year, and was particularly upset following the August meeting at the lack of progress on issues relating to the fiscal unsustainability of this congregation. It has been clear for some time that this congregation is not self-sustaining and is not in any way moving that direction.
I was also moved, quite frankly, by recent sermons by our pastor on the theme of “letting go” (which would seem to apply to too-big-to-maintain church buildings as well as people), and being honest and forthright about disagreements (instead of passive aggressive or only seeming to appear conciliatory).
Therefore, I am putting my cards on the table.
On Labor Day, to satisfy my own curiosity, I extracted attendance, offering, and budget figures from the monthly GSLCRMR Grapevine newsletters residing in my emails as attachments dating back to March 26, 2017 (when I first began receiving them), as well as the September 6, 2020 Bulletin (the most recent figures available). These figures included:
• Weekly attendance figures
• Weekly offering totals
• Monthly budget figures
• Monthly offering totals
I omitted Benevolence figures, since these would not seem to affect the operating budget of the church.
I entered these figures into a simple Excel file and created several charts that I believe dramatically illustrate the reality we all recognize.
For a number of reasons that I explain in the endnotes, these numbers should be regarded as imperfect, but for our present purposes they illustrate graphically what we all know is a worsening attendance and economic picture in terms of offerings facing the congregation. I’m sure data can be obtained prior to March 26, 2017 that would only show a longer history, but essentially the same picture, of decline that these charts do.
One may argue over the temporary short term and long term effects of the Pandemic; one may also object that charts and statistics can be made illustrate any point one desires. However, I challenge anyone to manipulate these figures or the underlying reality they represent into a picture of growth, prosperity, or progress for GSLCMR. Indeed, more detailed and complete information, were it obtainable, would only show a rising average age of congregants, I would guess from the mid-forties to the mid-sixties over the past decade, the lack of new members, particularly with growing families (myself and my brother aside), and an increasing attrition rate due to retirement, medical care, and mortality. I would suggest these trends were already worsening prior to the Pandemic—we’ve been using our Rainy Day Fund, as it were, before the rainy day, and that rainy day is here.
The most alarming graphic in my estimation is Figure 3, which shows the weekly budget vs. the weekly offering from March 26, 2017 to August 30, 2020. As the trendline indicates, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church McKees Rocks has gone from meeting more than two-thirds of its weekly budgeting needs in offerings to only one third, in only three and a half years. Even prior to the Pandemic closure, offerings were only about half what they were three years ago (half of two-thirds in one-third), while budgeting needs have remained relatively stable.
One might add that those budgeting needs have remained artificially stable in recent years only because necessary roof, stained glass, and other maintenance issues have been postponed. Those repairs are nonetheless inevitable and no doubt will only balloon the budget exponentially in the next eighteen months.
Figure 2, similarly, shows a decline in Sunday service attendance, averaging from 42 per week in spring 2017 to about 23 per week before the Pandemic closure almost exactly three years later. As we know, since reopening, attendance has averaged only 15 per week (13 worshippers, the count of the Last Supper, along with two salaried attendees). Needless to say, no one is expecting the Pandemic to abate for the remainder of 2020, and few are optimistic about 2021. Without a vaccine or other remedy for COVID-19, there is little reason to expect either attendance or offering figures to improve before 2022. Indeed, there is some possibility that the figures will further decline.
(As an aside, I took my brother Glenn for a check-up last week. His UPMC physician—a gastroenterologist, not an epidemiologist, but presumably one keeping close watch on this situation—offhandedly remarked we will be wearing masks for “at least another two years,” and should probably not expect a vaccine before that time.)
Figure 1 shows Sunday service attendance for the same period, but including the Pandemic closure and subsequent reopening. The trend it projects is obviously worse; it could be discounted because of the Pandemic, but I personally see little reason to regard the Pandemic merely as a slight bump in the road. There is little reason to assume a much rosier picture going forward.
Again, that rainy day is here.
One thinks of several analogies: trying to put new wine into old wine; if you’re being pushed, jump (a saying I associate with Martin Luther, for some reason); the Writing on the Wall.
It is true that Good Shepherd is blessed with revenue sources outside of congregational offerings. However, the cemetery, I take it, was created to provide a needed burial site for Mt. Calvary, and was never intended to be profit center propping up a congregation well on its way to extinction, and rental of excess facilities that were once vital to the functioning of the church (when it needed Sunday School rooms in the basement, presumably during the Baby Boom) is not a sign of robust health.
A number of dwindling congregations have faced merger or dissolution, and it is not the End of the World. Preaching and teaching, worship, music, and quilting will all go on.
These assets do not belong to a congregation; they belong to a community, a church, and to the Lord. They are only entrusted to us as long as we shepherd them wisely and leverage them optimally. If this cannot be done, we are obligated to turn them loose, and free them back into the wild so to speak, and do our best to find new shepherds and flocks that will make better use of them.
My church offering for many years has been to enable my mother to continue attending services, even as her independence has declined; my brother’s return to the Pittsburgh area has been an enormous blessing, and he has lifted a great deal of that burden. I also invested in two musical instruments and have contributed to the church ensemble.
Others have volunteered to a far greater extent; my mother, Betty Simpson, was always the super-volunteer—both at my home church of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Livonia, Michigan as well as here. But we are now at less than a skeleton crew, and the situation is not sustainable from any point of view. As I remarked at the last Cemetery Board Meeting, Good Shepherd has empty nest syndrome, and it is time to downsize from the big old house that was nice to have but now is just a needless burden.
The question before the council, I would suggest, is whether the plan is to continue to make up for a worsening shortfall in offering revenues by other means. I insist that this is neither sustainable or moral, regardless of whether it is technically legal or not.
We can indulge in nostalgia and sentiment—I would like nothing more than to see Good Shepherd remain open at least long enough for Betty Simpson’s funeral, since the sanctuary was host to the memorial services of her parents, George Ghee and Luella Collins Ghee. But I fear she will outlive us all.
By the same token, we can indulge in personal acrimony and backbiting—but then we have to ask, what is the point of a congregation?
I have not time for nostalgia, sentiment, or acrimony. And I am growing impatient at the passive-aggressive lack of action of this Council, which to me is the worst of all possible worlds.
Suffice it to say that the council already has at least a couple of options on the table which predate my tenure as council member, none of which receiving more than passing mention during meetings I’ve attended in 2020. These include, as I understand it, reaching out to Faithbridge congregation and essentially turning over the obligations of this building to them, and merging this congregation with Ascension Lutheran Church. I will not attempt to describe these plans here, but details should be well-known to the Council by now.
In my view, we face two options: Ascension or Attrition. The latter is surely happening regardless.
Therefore, I close this informal report with a strong personal urging for the council.
Council must immediately bring these matters to the attention of the entire congregation, present the options under consideration, and hold an up and down vote without any further ado. I suggest All Saint’s Day, Sunday, November 1, 2020 as a firm date for such a vote. Representatives of Faithbridge and Ascension should be invited to participate and present.
This is a reasonable time, I would submit, to complete an assessment of the church properties and to formulate any counter arguments for the congregation to persist in an unsustainable and immoral course. It is time to stand up and be counted.
Sincerely,
Donald E. Simpson, PhD
GSLCMR Council Member
See below for charts and notes.
For Submission to Church Council
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church – McKees Rocks
Church Council Meeting
Wednesday, September 9, 2020
Respectfully submitted by Council Member Donald E. Simpson, PhD
Dear Council Members,
I have been greatly and increasingly frustrated as a council member this year, and was particularly upset following the August meeting at the lack of progress on issues relating to the fiscal unsustainability of this congregation. It has been clear for some time that this congregation is not self-sustaining and is not in any way moving that direction.
I was also moved, quite frankly, by recent sermons by our pastor on the theme of “letting go” (which would seem to apply to too-big-to-maintain church buildings as well as people), and being honest and forthright about disagreements (instead of passive aggressive or only seeming to appear conciliatory).
Therefore, I am putting my cards on the table.
On Labor Day, to satisfy my own curiosity, I extracted attendance, offering, and budget figures from the monthly GSLCRMR Grapevine newsletters residing in my emails as attachments dating back to March 26, 2017 (when I first began receiving them), as well as the September 6, 2020 Bulletin (the most recent figures available). These figures included:
• Weekly attendance figures
• Weekly offering totals
• Monthly budget figures
• Monthly offering totals
I omitted Benevolence figures, since these would not seem to affect the operating budget of the church.
I entered these figures into a simple Excel file and created several charts that I believe dramatically illustrate the reality we all recognize.
For a number of reasons that I explain in the endnotes, these numbers should be regarded as imperfect, but for our present purposes they illustrate graphically what we all know is a worsening attendance and economic picture in terms of offerings facing the congregation. I’m sure data can be obtained prior to March 26, 2017 that would only show a longer history, but essentially the same picture, of decline that these charts do.
One may argue over the temporary short term and long term effects of the Pandemic; one may also object that charts and statistics can be made illustrate any point one desires. However, I challenge anyone to manipulate these figures or the underlying reality they represent into a picture of growth, prosperity, or progress for GSLCMR. Indeed, more detailed and complete information, were it obtainable, would only show a rising average age of congregants, I would guess from the mid-forties to the mid-sixties over the past decade, the lack of new members, particularly with growing families (myself and my brother aside), and an increasing attrition rate due to retirement, medical care, and mortality. I would suggest these trends were already worsening prior to the Pandemic—we’ve been using our Rainy Day Fund, as it were, before the rainy day, and that rainy day is here.
The most alarming graphic in my estimation is Figure 3, which shows the weekly budget vs. the weekly offering from March 26, 2017 to August 30, 2020. As the trendline indicates, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church McKees Rocks has gone from meeting more than two-thirds of its weekly budgeting needs in offerings to only one third, in only three and a half years. Even prior to the Pandemic closure, offerings were only about half what they were three years ago (half of two-thirds in one-third), while budgeting needs have remained relatively stable.
One might add that those budgeting needs have remained artificially stable in recent years only because necessary roof, stained glass, and other maintenance issues have been postponed. Those repairs are nonetheless inevitable and no doubt will only balloon the budget exponentially in the next eighteen months.
Figure 2, similarly, shows a decline in Sunday service attendance, averaging from 42 per week in spring 2017 to about 23 per week before the Pandemic closure almost exactly three years later. As we know, since reopening, attendance has averaged only 15 per week (13 worshippers, the count of the Last Supper, along with two salaried attendees). Needless to say, no one is expecting the Pandemic to abate for the remainder of 2020, and few are optimistic about 2021. Without a vaccine or other remedy for COVID-19, there is little reason to expect either attendance or offering figures to improve before 2022. Indeed, there is some possibility that the figures will further decline.
(As an aside, I took my brother Glenn for a check-up last week. His UPMC physician—a gastroenterologist, not an epidemiologist, but presumably one keeping close watch on this situation—offhandedly remarked we will be wearing masks for “at least another two years,” and should probably not expect a vaccine before that time.)
Figure 1 shows Sunday service attendance for the same period, but including the Pandemic closure and subsequent reopening. The trend it projects is obviously worse; it could be discounted because of the Pandemic, but I personally see little reason to regard the Pandemic merely as a slight bump in the road. There is little reason to assume a much rosier picture going forward.
Again, that rainy day is here.
One thinks of several analogies: trying to put new wine into old wine; if you’re being pushed, jump (a saying I associate with Martin Luther, for some reason); the Writing on the Wall.
It is true that Good Shepherd is blessed with revenue sources outside of congregational offerings. However, the cemetery, I take it, was created to provide a needed burial site for Mt. Calvary, and was never intended to be profit center propping up a congregation well on its way to extinction, and rental of excess facilities that were once vital to the functioning of the church (when it needed Sunday School rooms in the basement, presumably during the Baby Boom) is not a sign of robust health.
A number of dwindling congregations have faced merger or dissolution, and it is not the End of the World. Preaching and teaching, worship, music, and quilting will all go on.
These assets do not belong to a congregation; they belong to a community, a church, and to the Lord. They are only entrusted to us as long as we shepherd them wisely and leverage them optimally. If this cannot be done, we are obligated to turn them loose, and free them back into the wild so to speak, and do our best to find new shepherds and flocks that will make better use of them.
My church offering for many years has been to enable my mother to continue attending services, even as her independence has declined; my brother’s return to the Pittsburgh area has been an enormous blessing, and he has lifted a great deal of that burden. I also invested in two musical instruments and have contributed to the church ensemble.
Others have volunteered to a far greater extent; my mother, Betty Simpson, was always the super-volunteer—both at my home church of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Livonia, Michigan as well as here. But we are now at less than a skeleton crew, and the situation is not sustainable from any point of view. As I remarked at the last Cemetery Board Meeting, Good Shepherd has empty nest syndrome, and it is time to downsize from the big old house that was nice to have but now is just a needless burden.
The question before the council, I would suggest, is whether the plan is to continue to make up for a worsening shortfall in offering revenues by other means. I insist that this is neither sustainable or moral, regardless of whether it is technically legal or not.
We can indulge in nostalgia and sentiment—I would like nothing more than to see Good Shepherd remain open at least long enough for Betty Simpson’s funeral, since the sanctuary was host to the memorial services of her parents, George Ghee and Luella Collins Ghee. But I fear she will outlive us all.
By the same token, we can indulge in personal acrimony and backbiting—but then we have to ask, what is the point of a congregation?
I have not time for nostalgia, sentiment, or acrimony. And I am growing impatient at the passive-aggressive lack of action of this Council, which to me is the worst of all possible worlds.
Suffice it to say that the council already has at least a couple of options on the table which predate my tenure as council member, none of which receiving more than passing mention during meetings I’ve attended in 2020. These include, as I understand it, reaching out to Faithbridge congregation and essentially turning over the obligations of this building to them, and merging this congregation with Ascension Lutheran Church. I will not attempt to describe these plans here, but details should be well-known to the Council by now.
In my view, we face two options: Ascension or Attrition. The latter is surely happening regardless.
Therefore, I close this informal report with a strong personal urging for the council.
Council must immediately bring these matters to the attention of the entire congregation, present the options under consideration, and hold an up and down vote without any further ado. I suggest All Saint’s Day, Sunday, November 1, 2020 as a firm date for such a vote. Representatives of Faithbridge and Ascension should be invited to participate and present.
This is a reasonable time, I would submit, to complete an assessment of the church properties and to formulate any counter arguments for the congregation to persist in an unsustainable and immoral course. It is time to stand up and be counted.
Sincerely,
Donald E. Simpson, PhD
GSLCMR Council Member
See below for charts and notes.
 |
| Figure 1. Attendance from March 26, 2017 to August 30, 2020, including the Pandemic. |
 |
| Figure 2. Attendance from March 26, 2017 to March 10, 2020, before the Pandemic. |
 |
| Figure 3. Weekly Budget vs. Weekly Offering, March 26, 2017 to August 30, 2020. |
Notes: There are a number of obvious imperfections and irregularities in the Grapevine numbers, suggesting that they should be taken as a heuristic only. For example, a number of Sundays were not reported in the Grapevine; for those Sundays, attendance figures were left blank, although in some cases the offerings could be inferred by subtracting the other Sundays of the month from the total monthly offering number given for that month. The weekly attendance, weekly offering, and month total for one month, December 2018, are completely repeated the following month, January 2019, a statistical impossibility, an obvious proofreading error.
Midway through 2018, the monthly budget figure of $6,184 doubles to $12,368 (the combined June and July figure) and remains $12,368 for the rest of the year, even though the weekly budget of $1564 remains consistent throughout the year. Along the same lines, midway through 2019, the monthly budget changes from $1564 to $1546 (obviously and inadvertent transposition of the 4 and 6), and remains so for the rest of the year, although the monthly budget remains consistent at $6,184 throughout the year. Also, in early 2020, the weekly budget drops to $1,491 but the monthly budget paradoxically rises to $7,730. Finally, the Grapevines for February and March of 2020 report Sunday, January 12, 2020 twice, with the same attendance figures but different offering amounts. There were also one or two Sundays given in the Grapevines with the wrong dates (January 28, 2018 instead of January 25, 2018, for example), which have been corrected here.
Presumably, these inconsistencies are due to sloppy and careless cutting-and-pasting and a lack of oversight, although certainly someone should be proofreading the newsletter before such data is published and goes out to the congregation. No doubt actual figures are recorded elsewhere other than the Grapevine and should be consulted for verification. However, as I argue above, it is unlikely that more accurate numbers will significantly alter the general picture of decline, atrophy, and attrition that Good Shepherd Lutheran Church – McKees Rock is experiencing.
_____________
*Note:
This text was composed by Donald E. Simpson in 2020, based on number compiled from The Grapevine (the church newsletter) as well as weekly church bulletins.
Information was correct and current as of September 9, 2020.
Down In the Rocks is not affiliated with Mt. Calvary Cemetery, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church McKees Rocks, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, or the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod, nor has this content been authorized or approved by any of the aforementioned parties.
See also my subsequent video presentation which elaborates on this report at https://youtu.be/6dxPDzQ-26I.
Please study the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America handbook, Leaving a Legacy: A Resource for the Closing of a Congregation (2016), which our council is currently studying under the guidance of the SWPA synod to develop a plan of discernment for the church.
___________________________________________
Content is ™ and © Donald E. Simpson 2020, all rights reserved.
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