The Blood Church Warning

The Blood Church Warning

Luke 3:23-38

Rabbi Dr. Rev. Michael H Koplitz

Luke 3:23 aWhen He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, the son of Eli, 24 the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, 25 the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Hesli, the son of Naggai, 26 the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda, 27 the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, 28 the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er, 29 the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, 30 the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, 31 the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, 32 the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon, 33 the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, 34 the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, 35 the son of Serug, the son of 1Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Heber, the son of Shelah, 36 the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, 37 the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, 38 the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

A problem with pastoral preaching is sometimes you have to talk about a hard truth that people do not want to hear. Sometimes you have to upset the congregation with truth in order for them to see the problem. It is equivalent to showing a cigarette smoker the scans of their cancer ridden lungs to get them to stop smoking. This is one of those messages.

My Doctor of Ministry degree was in Christian leadership. My project thesis for this degree was a study of the leadership of pastors and different size churches. The church modeling that I use was based on Arlen Rothague’s work on church modeling for the Episcopal church. His work became the basis of church modeling. Basically, there are four types of churches identified. The family size church, the pastor centered church, the program centered church and the corporate size church. Each of these different churches, because of their size, requires different leadership needs from the pastor. I also discovered reasons for church attendance increase and decrease. I want to concentrate on decreasing attendance and membership in this message.

Inside the family size church, as you would expect from the name, the people are of the same family. In rural areas of Pennsylvania, there are pockets where everyone is a cousin. Well, I should say most people are cousins. I call these the blood family size churches. Family size churches are characterized by having 90 or fewer people attending worship every Sunday. There are family size churches outside of the rural areas, especially in some of the inner cities where small groups of like-minded people come together to worship God in Christ.

In the rural areas of Central Pennsylvania, most of the small churches are actually blood family size churches. My first appointment to a United Methodist church and actually my last appointment was at a blood family church. Each church was in the southern rural part of York County, Pennsylvania.

Now let me start by saying that I am not condemning the blood family size church at all. I would have no problem offering this type of sermon to a blood family size church because what I want to do is emphasize that these types of churches have been in decline for several years and are going to phase out. There have been numerous blood family churches in the Susquehanna conference of the United Methodist Church that have closed over the 25+ years that I’ve been in ministry. Almost all the closings have been family size churches. I cannot say that they are all blood family size churches because many of them were gone before I even started my doctoral studies.