We just went through Mt. Vernon, IL last weekend. Had lunch, took the grandchildren to a park, and got gas on the return trip. Seems like a decent town or small city. I'm sure Burge did everything he could to "save" the church, whatever that means, and unlike some, I'm reluctant to second-guess his efforts.
One related thought did occur to me. This was how frustrated Gary North's Tyler (TX) bunch was with the churches there. Tyler is considerably bigger than Mt. Vernon, but is similarly the main city in an otherwise rural area of East Texas. It's a very nice, small city, in a bastion of the Bible belt, and you'd assume the churches are mostly pretty solid, but apparently they suffered from the same foibles and growth struggles American churches seem to encounter everywhere.
I have family in Southern Illinois, and I spent many summers there growing up, where my grandparents lived on a lake within 30 minutes of Mt. Vernon. I was baptized at their church. So Ryan's story strikes a personal chord with me.
With a child's eyes, that region was amazing. Great memories. It depresses me to go there now, though it doesn't help that I only ever make it back for funerals. I'm sure with another set of eyes, it still has its charms.
I would think there's an important difference in that East Texas is a growth region. Obviously that's accumulating towards the largest metros. But Tyler is still growing. Meanwhile Mt. Vernon is shrinking. Even Carbondale, home to SIU, is shrinking. The nearest metros of any size are rustbelts that are very far past their peak: St. Louis and Evansville.
Aaron helped me crystallize a thought that I had bouncing around: "Decline produces concentration." This reveals itself in many ways. A growing town is going to attract new churches. A shrinking town is going to result in some churches shrinking beyond the point of viability, resulting in the remaining members progressively jumping ship towards the churches that appear viable. I feel for Ryan and I'm not putting down his efforts, but it should be obvious that a shrinking church with a volunteer lay pastor is almost surely going to end up on the "not viable" side of the ledger.
My late grandparents' church was, thankfully, still doing reasonably well last time I was there. Some cousins go to another church that is not doing as well. All of these churches are Baptist. Southern Illinois feels like the most Baptist place I've ever been. I've lived my life in the South, and while it's certainly Baptist here (especially if you include non-denoms in the mix), there are still plenty of alternatives for those seeking them. Though we remain Baptist.
We'd been through Mt. Vernon once before, at night some years back, and it hadn't left as good an impression. I remember gassing up and watching a bunch of teens in a shopping center parking lot trying to have fun. Typical small-town stuff where there's just not much to do, and I couldn't help thinking, "there's not much here to keep a young person from heading to greener pastures, and whoever did stay was probably not doing so great."
It's the dilemma of small communities everywhere, a "brain-drain" where the best and brightest get pulled away and never come back. Aaron is right about decline producing concentration, and it's a valuable insight. Concentration is happening all around the world, with rapidly-aging populations and plunging birth rates. I don't think most folks have any notion of how fast the effects will be upon us.
The data Burge compiles is certainly interesting (his stuff almost always is), but too much can be made out of it. For pretty much all of my adult life we've seen the electoral tides slosh back and forth, and with decreasing magnitude, every two or four years. Parties that proclaim "Permanent" or "emerging" majorities end up looking quite foolish after the next time at the polls disabuses them.
Re: Why is it so hard to accept that it is happening out of choice?
Sure, but choice is not random and generally not based on mere caprice. Our choices are motivated by external influences and limits. For example, I would love to travel to Europe, but I cannot afford to. I would love to visit Russia but the current tensions between the US and Russia make that seem quite ill-advised (a guy at my church, married to a Russian immigrant, has said the same thing, although his wife has gone back for some visits). And given current trends it appears that the biggest reason birth rates continue to fall is because partnering in relationships has also fallen off, especially for the young. "There's too few good women/men out there" or "I never meet the right guy/woman" has become a common complaint.
We just went through Mt. Vernon, IL last weekend. Had lunch, took the grandchildren to a park, and got gas on the return trip. Seems like a decent town or small city. I'm sure Burge did everything he could to "save" the church, whatever that means, and unlike some, I'm reluctant to second-guess his efforts.
One related thought did occur to me. This was how frustrated Gary North's Tyler (TX) bunch was with the churches there. Tyler is considerably bigger than Mt. Vernon, but is similarly the main city in an otherwise rural area of East Texas. It's a very nice, small city, in a bastion of the Bible belt, and you'd assume the churches are mostly pretty solid, but apparently they suffered from the same foibles and growth struggles American churches seem to encounter everywhere.
I have family in Southern Illinois, and I spent many summers there growing up, where my grandparents lived on a lake within 30 minutes of Mt. Vernon. I was baptized at their church. So Ryan's story strikes a personal chord with me.
With a child's eyes, that region was amazing. Great memories. It depresses me to go there now, though it doesn't help that I only ever make it back for funerals. I'm sure with another set of eyes, it still has its charms.
I would think there's an important difference in that East Texas is a growth region. Obviously that's accumulating towards the largest metros. But Tyler is still growing. Meanwhile Mt. Vernon is shrinking. Even Carbondale, home to SIU, is shrinking. The nearest metros of any size are rustbelts that are very far past their peak: St. Louis and Evansville.
Aaron helped me crystallize a thought that I had bouncing around: "Decline produces concentration." This reveals itself in many ways. A growing town is going to attract new churches. A shrinking town is going to result in some churches shrinking beyond the point of viability, resulting in the remaining members progressively jumping ship towards the churches that appear viable. I feel for Ryan and I'm not putting down his efforts, but it should be obvious that a shrinking church with a volunteer lay pastor is almost surely going to end up on the "not viable" side of the ledger.
My late grandparents' church was, thankfully, still doing reasonably well last time I was there. Some cousins go to another church that is not doing as well. All of these churches are Baptist. Southern Illinois feels like the most Baptist place I've ever been. I've lived my life in the South, and while it's certainly Baptist here (especially if you include non-denoms in the mix), there are still plenty of alternatives for those seeking them. Though we remain Baptist.
We'd been through Mt. Vernon once before, at night some years back, and it hadn't left as good an impression. I remember gassing up and watching a bunch of teens in a shopping center parking lot trying to have fun. Typical small-town stuff where there's just not much to do, and I couldn't help thinking, "there's not much here to keep a young person from heading to greener pastures, and whoever did stay was probably not doing so great."
It's the dilemma of small communities everywhere, a "brain-drain" where the best and brightest get pulled away and never come back. Aaron is right about decline producing concentration, and it's a valuable insight. Concentration is happening all around the world, with rapidly-aging populations and plunging birth rates. I don't think most folks have any notion of how fast the effects will be upon us.
The data Burge compiles is certainly interesting (his stuff almost always is), but too much can be made out of it. For pretty much all of my adult life we've seen the electoral tides slosh back and forth, and with decreasing magnitude, every two or four years. Parties that proclaim "Permanent" or "emerging" majorities end up looking quite foolish after the next time at the polls disabuses them.
Re: Why is it so hard to accept that it is happening out of choice?
Sure, but choice is not random and generally not based on mere caprice. Our choices are motivated by external influences and limits. For example, I would love to travel to Europe, but I cannot afford to. I would love to visit Russia but the current tensions between the US and Russia make that seem quite ill-advised (a guy at my church, married to a Russian immigrant, has said the same thing, although his wife has gone back for some visits). And given current trends it appears that the biggest reason birth rates continue to fall is because partnering in relationships has also fallen off, especially for the young. "There's too few good women/men out there" or "I never meet the right guy/woman" has become a common complaint.