Through the Flaming Sword

Solutions

We are in decline. Membership is falling, some individual meetings are on the verge of dissolving, charitable giving is flat, while our costs are steadily rising. But this structural decline is only part of the story. I fear that we are declining spiritually as well.

This is a perennial complaint of white-hairs like me. John Woolman recounted such a complaint from an elder in the very early 1700s. And I bet it was true. 

When’s the last time your meeting for worship was gathered in the Spirit? Are you getting Spirit-led vocal ministry? Do you have a lot of attenders who only come to meeting for worship? 

The good news is that we’ve also been through periods of renewal, usually at the hands of young adult Friends. Cases in point are the emergence of programmed worship and pastoral meetings in the 1870s and ‘80s, the emergence of the liberal Quaker movement in the late 19th century,  the growth of meetings in college towns in the 1950s and ‘60s, and the revitalization of our witness life during the 20th century’s wars.

I believe that renewal in our own time will come from the Holy Spirit. That is, it will depend on Friends called to the ministry of renewal. Are you so called? And it will take two forms: effective in-reach and meaningful outreach. 

It WILL NOT come from restructuring our meetings. I served on New York Yearly Meeting’s first Renewal Committee in the early 1990s. The yearly meeting has since then convened no fewer than six more formal efforts focused on meeting structure; all failures. Real renewal comes from God.

In this post, let’s look at in-reach. In the next post, we’ll look at outreach.

In-reach

Holding onto visitors

I believe that newcomers to our meetings decide to stay when they get at least some of these three elements of meeting life:

• True fellowship of the Spirit—a warm personal welcome, including especially, for young families, childcare and First Day School already waiting for them; not necessarily already with kids, but adults prepared to welcome any families who show up.
• Spirit-led vocal ministry—messages that speak to the yearning that brought those visitors to us in the first place with their hopes for an experience that answers that of God within them, messages delivered with discipline and integrity and genuine spiritual inspiration.
• A living silence—achievable only through the presence of a critical mass of spiritually mature members holding the meeting in grace.

Holding onto newcomers

Once visitors become attenders, they need more than just a welcome and the meeting for worship. They need to know that there’s a there here. This means visible and regular efforts at spiritual nurture—a vital culture of eldership. 

• Does your meeting have a committee or at least individuals who proactively pay attention to newcomers, inquiring about their lives and spiritual interests? 
• Do you have adult religious education or other programs that introduce them to the Quaker way, and especially about Quaker worship and vocal ministry?
• Do you inquire into newcomers’ spiritual gifts and interests? 
• Do you invite their participation in things besides committee work (though that, too)?

Membership

• Do you regularly announce and explain the process for becoming a member and invite newcomers to consider applying, in a general way?
• Do you approach individual newcomers when you think they might be ready?
• In your clearness committees for membership, do you try to identify the applicant’s spiritual gifts (not just what committees they might want to serve on), and try to identify their ministries—whatever they are doing in their lives that they could see as Spirit-led service? Do you explore their spiritual interests, what kind of spiritual formation and  nurture they might welcome?
• And after people become members, do you follow through with focused personal mentoring and support on the things you’ve discovered in their clearness committee?

The culture of eldership

• Do your committees, especially adult and youth RE (you have them, right?) and worship and ministry committees—do they regularly consider how to foster deeper vocal ministry, how to support leadings and ministries, how to nurture individual members and attenders in their spiritual lives?
• Do you know how to conduct clearness committees for personal decision making and the discernment of leadings, and regularly announce their availability?
• Do you hold discussion groups and worship sharing opportunities around aspects of the Quaker way and any issues the meeting may be currently facing?
• For the newcomers who do not attend meeting for business and/or your programs, are you willing to use the meeting for worship itself as a venue for these kinds of spiritual nurture? Or are you treating the meeting for worship as a fixed outward form and as a sacred cow that can’t be experimented with?

§ One Response to Membership Decline Case Study, Part 4

• John Jeremiah Edminster says:

  September 6, 2026 at 9:06 am

  Good morning, Steve.

  The only immediate test of whether the words that will follow are from the Holy Spirit (which is to say, prophetic ministry from Christ), or are merely John’s opinion, lies in the heart of the reader. That is, Does thee, reader, discern that what follows is truly prophecy? (See Barclay’s Apology, Proposition 10, §VII — p. 237 of the Quaker Heritage Press edition: “…and his words and ministry… reaches to the heart of the heart of his hearers and makes them approve of him and be subject unto him.”)

  The second test (and you’ll find this in Deuteronomy 18:21-23) is, if it speaks of something to come, does that thing come to pass?

  If they are merely John’s opinion, reader, please forgive John for wasting your time. As George Fox wrote somewhere, “We own not opinions.”

  This is serious: George Fox, using the words of Acts 26:18, said many times that he was sent to the people, by the Lord, “to open their eyes, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.” (You’ll find at least two doxen references to Acts 26:18 in Fox’s published Works in the Quaker Bible Index, which you can find online.)

  That is, George Fox, at least in his own eyes, was a prophet sent from God.

  And then, in 1662, Francis Howgill received a revelation that the people called Quakers were a covenanted people of God, and that God would sooner break His covenant with the sun, the moon, and the seasons, than with us, His people.

  If God intends renewal among Quakers, it will happen, in such a manner, and at such a time, as God thinks best. But what would such a renewal look like?

  I say. it will look like Quakers being raised up to give ministry that opens people’s eyes, and turns them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.

  Reply