By Rev. Kathy Neary and Patrick Scriven
Rev. Kathy Neary: Let’s pick up where we left off and finish exploring the alternative approach to centering discipleship, which you shared last week.
The model you suggest is basically the non-denominational “a mother church plants new sites” model… and they have money and people. How do we Methodists align resources, and what sacrifices will some people have to make to make your model work?
Patrick Scriven: I once visited a satellite of a large, non-denominational church in the Seattle area that understood this concept. I disagreed with much of their theology, but I couldn’t ignore how intentionally they designed Sunday worship to funnel people into formation.
During the worship service I attended, the church also prayed over a group of roughly 20 people who were leaving homes and jobs to move to a new community to help start a new satellite. Again, not a big fan of their theology, but they understood the concept of formation.
We don’t need to imitate their theology or brand. We do need to learn from their clarity: they organize people, money, and leaders around formation.
If we’re serious about hubs (centers of formation and shared ministry that support multiple worshiping communities (sites/outposts) in a geographic cluster), “alignment” can’t be a slogan. It will require choices that feel costly, especially to communities used to having “their own” pastor, “their own” schedule, and “their own” building functioning as a complete church. We’ve lost resources through experimentation and passivity, but we still have significant assets if we have a will and a vision.
Methodist alignment could look like this:
- Covenanted giving across the cluster. Not “each church pays its own bills first.” A defined portion of received funds supports the formation staff and shared ministries that serve everyone. For this to work, the commitment to supporting the health of the whole, including its staff, would need to come before any one part. Ideally, finances would be consolidated for efficiency and to make real the shared commitment to ministry in the area.
- Redeploy people, not just pastors. Healthy church plants send teams. We will need to do the same: inviting (and sometimes asking) mature disciples to form a “core” at the hub for a season to provide small group leaders, mentors, worship leaders, age-level ministry volunteers, and mission volunteers.
- Property honesty. Some buildings will need to be leased, shared, sold, or repurposed. The grief is real, as property holds memory, but keeping every building fully functioning starves spiritual formation everywhere.
- Schedule sacrifice. Some communities will lose weekly worship at their site. Some will shift to twice-monthly or seasonal gatherings. That is loss. The question is whether we’re willing to grieve it for the sake of a church that can form disciples.
- Identity sacrifice. Some people will need to let go of the idea that faithfulness means “keeping our church open as it has always been.” Faithfulness may look like becoming a satellite, an outpost, or merging into a hub.
None of this works without institutional clarity and transparency, offered pastorally. We need to name the tradeoffs, tell the truth about capacity, and refuse the fantasy that we can optimize our way out of decline without anyone giving anything up.
Any transition needs clear timelines, grief work, and ongoing sacramental care, especially for communities losing weekly worship.
KN: I love the idea of each hub establishing a rule of life to guide its work. What else, besides an emphasis on discipleship, might this rule include?
PS: A rule of life should be more than “do more church things.” It should be a shared rhythm that shapes people, protects them from burnout and drift, and forms resilience against the more toxic aspects of our culture.
As part of our discipleship as Methodists, a hub rule of life might include:
- Worship as a weekly anchor (participatory, not passive).
- Scripture and prayer as daily practices (simple enough to sustain).
- Sabbath, rest and healthy boundaries (especially for leaders; a rule that produces burnout is a bad rule).
- Fellowship, fun and shared mission work (social and missional gatherings build relationships).
- Mutual care and accountability + small groups (everyone is known, someone notices when you disappear)
- Generosity and stewardship (funding formation and mission, not just maintenance).
- Hospitality and invitation (table fellowship, welcome, and everyday evangelism).
- Justice and mercy locally (sustained partnership, not episodic service).
- Leadership development (mentoring baked in, every disciple a potential disciple-maker).
If hubs become formation centers, the rule of life is the shared ‘operating system’ that keeps the hub from devolving back into what we already have. A rule of life only works if it’s livable. If it’s a simple rhythm ordinary people can actually keep, and leaders model it publicly, it can become the pathway for real growth.
As I shared at the start, I’ve been part of many churches over the years. Because I’ve served in a variety of church settings, I know I may under-estimate the grief some will feel. That grief is real, and it deserves patient, pastoral leadership.
At the end of the day, we need change, but we also need to know why we need to change. For that, our decline isn’t enough motivation. We need to be convinced that our United Methodist witness is essential and valuable to our communities. If we believe that our witness is optional or replaceable, we won’t do the hard work needed to reform our structure and way of being, regardless of the model we choose.
If we can name our distinctive gift, perhaps we’ll have the courage to change.
KN: What is it about our United Methodist witness that is essential and valuable to our communities? That is an excellent question you pose, as it gets under our need for healthy disciples to purpose. Let’s focus on this question as we move toward concluding this series.
Rev. Kathy Neary serves as Transitional Ministry Developer for the Pacific Northwest (PNW) Conference of The United Methodist Church. She is in dialogue for this series with Patrick Scriven who serves as Director of Communications for the PNW Conference.
