Remembering Saint Congregations on All Saints Day
As you remember individual saints on All Saints Day, we invite you to join us in remembering saint congregations: Those communities that have made room for you to experience love, to find formation, and to build relationships with those who taught you what it meant to be a person of faith. Even if the church no longer worships together. Perhaps especially, then. Every good work accomplished through those congregations continues to live in you.
Denominational Resources for Closing and Merging Churches
Denominational resources for church closure and merger include congregationalist and centralized polities. Read more from Baptist, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Methodist, Presbyterian, Unitarian, Reformed, Anglican, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), United Church of Christ, Catholic, Quaker, and uniting churches.
Church Closure in Five Stages
As we at Good Friday Collaborative resource clergy and churches who are concluding ministry, we have noticed five distinct Stages of ministry endings that most communities move through. While every church has their own unique story and process of ending, these general Stages can help make sense of the natural work of endings.
Asking for a Friend…Call for Questions!
Have a question about church closure or merger? Submit your anonymous question to Good Friday Collaborative's holy closure advice column, "Asking for a Friend!" Our church closure experts will respond via our blog and newsletter.
A Ministry of Endings
Would we close? Or could we keep going?
It was the question that occupied my mind as I drove to meet with a denominational leader about my congregation.
Read the full post at Fidelia Magazine.
Church Closure & Merger Books
Thinking about church closure or merger? The Good Friday Collaborative has assembled a book list for our newsletter subscribers. Download the annotated resource list as a first step for support in the sacred work of congregational endings.
Meet the Team: Lorrin Radzik
I didn’t go to seminary to close churches. And yet, God calls us to and equips us for ministry in mysterious ways.
Meet the Team: Diane Kenaston
You are only failing if the gospel is failing. All you have to do is be faithful.
Meet the Team: Chelsey Hillyer
The church wasn’t dying. It was being reshaped. What a time to be in ministry!
A Blessing for Good Friday
When congregations close, it can feel like a perpetual Good Friday.
This blessing is for you.
You are not alone.
