Monday, December 22, 2014

Jenks Remembers: The First Half: 1973-1994

The First Half:  1973-1994



During Jenks’ first 20+ years at Trinity, Sunday church attendance rose from about 35 to over 110.  In retrospect, Jenks thinks that all of the significant events in those two decades relate to this growth in attendance and the resulting evolution of the structures and processes of Trinity.

In April 1979, Jenks remembers that Trinity went through a crisis.  Attendance was down, the budget was severely in deficit, the vestry was often at odds with Jenks, and the church began to think it might close its doors.  Jenks was not thinking of going elsewhere, but he did realize that, at six years, his tenure was already longer than almost all recent rectors of Trinity.  Jenks says that he came to Trinity a young minister at his first church, full of his own ideas, and into a church that was family size (less than 50) where everyone knew each other and most grew up with one another.  

Trinity engaged a consultant, Bernie Johnson, from our diocesan staff, to guide the church through a painful but productive planning process.  Jenks said that he learned to listen to and really hear what the vestry had to say to him; and the vestry learned that adding to the congregation many new people that they did not know required rethinking almost everything about the church.  Through a rigorous process in the summer and fall of 1979, Trinity began to grow the vestry, adopted specific goals for the church, and expanded the organizational structure and processes, thereby involving more people in church leadership.  

Jenks recalls that from April 1979 to December 1979, attendance grew from about 30 into the 50s, and the church ended the year with a surplus of $5000, not with closed doors as had been feared! Years later, he read materials that told him that the church had grown from a Family Chapel to the beginnings of a Pastoral Church.  In a family church, says Arlin Rothaugh in Sizing Up a Congregation (I borrowed a copy from Jenks), “well established patriarchs and matriarchs” guide the church as an extended family, with the priest serving as family chaplain, but not as “the primal father.”  As the church grows into a pastoral church, leadership shifts to the minister, who is at the center of almost all activities.  Jenks thinks that "the rise in attendance, income, and activity resulted from embracing together the reality of a pastoral sized church having passed the limits of what a family chapel size could do.”  He reflects that “from a somewhat negative and fearful attitude resisting change in early 1979, we managed to evolve into a congregation which welcomed everybody’s gifts and was excited about moving forward together.”

Based on the new structures and processes and the “education” of Jenks and the vestry, in the 1980s and beyond, Trinity grew in its programs, services, and lay leadership out of a self-conscious sense of what Trinity was and what it wanted to be.  Sunday School grew as the number of children increased. Lynne Baines was an early Sunday School Superintendant; Lucy Oliver and others followed. The Wednesday morning Bible Study began by reviewing the readings for the coming Sunday. Then in 1986 they began at Genesis 1:1 and read straight through for 16.5 years. (they then began again 12 years ago this month). Jenks has always led this, but in the very collaborative style that he seeks to apply in many aspects of leadership at Trinity. Trinity’s involvement in Curcillo aided in raising up lay leadership and involvement.  Later in the decade and into the 1990s, lay readers, lay litanists, and lay eucharistic ministers grew in participation in services and church work.  Jenks recalls one parishioner quipping, “If we keep this up, Jenks won’t have anything to do.”  This growth and expansion of programs and lay involvement was integral to the influx of “boomers” and their children.  

By the 1980s, it was obvious to many members that the church needed to expand physically, as well as programmatically.  A first step was taken in 1985 when twenty feet was added to the Parish Hall.  This created the Bromfield Room and space in the basement for the rector’s office and parish office, which had been located in the rectory.  But, this was only the beginning.

With 110 in regular attendance on Sundays and growing, many began to think that the sanctuary was too small and that the lot was too small to facilitate any further expansion.  A long study process in the early 1990s recommended that Trinity move its building to the edge of town and build a new parish hall.  Jenks says this was a very difficult time in the church as the move was not popular. It was a time of acrimony and angry voices filled many open meetings, with Jenks and the Senior Warden taking much of the heat.  It became clear that the church wasn’t going to move because such a decision would have divided the congregation.  No architectural plan that was explored for expanding the sanctuary proved feasible or affordable on the existing site.  So, another solution to growth emerged in 1994----the 9:15 family service.

In a growing church, increasingly filled with newcomers from elsewhere, ideas for changes in the worship service were bounced around. In the early '90's Trinity decided to experiment at the 11:00 service once a month with a differently styled "family service."  When Jenks was on his first sabbatical in 1994, he explored alternative worship styles in various churches.  In December 1994, Trinity the separate 9:15 service was born.  It was a short 45 minutes, more informal, filled with upbeat hymns that young children did not have to read, and included the now famous Question Box.  Charlotte Nichols first played the organ for the service, as well as led the choir for the 11am service.  But, soon Lorraine Duisit joined the service with her children and volunteered to play the guitar.

So, besides providing alternative services for the increasingly diverse congregation, the 9:15 service provided an imaginative way to expand worship space as the numbers continued to grow in the later 1990s to around 130 average Sunday attendance.  Without knowing it, Trinity had grown toward the upper edge of the Pastoral sized church.