My wife Nicole and I moved to Franklin, PA in January of 2012. I'm not a native Pennsylvanian, but we've invested our lives in this town for more than a decade, and raised our daughter here. We hear a lot about trends, good and bad, with respect to the Church in America, in various other parts of the world, and globally. But what about the Church, the collective Body of Christ, here in Franklin (with some thought spilling over, by necessity to the larger Venango County)? How is it doing? Is it healthy? Growing or shrinking? United or divided? On mission or distracted? I'd like to try to answer those questions from my own, admittedly limited and potentially biased, point-of-view. My answers are drawn from my own interactions with pastors, church members, and non-Christians in this community. I've also been instrumental in organizing and leading ecumenical ministries and worship for most of my time here, so my chances of knowing what is going on are better than most.
Let's leave the question of whether or not the Church here is healthy to the end, that's a fitting conclusion.
1. The Church in Franklin has neither significantly grown nor significantly shrunk in the last decade.
Since we arrived in 2012, our area has seen several elementary school closures, and the loss of most of the workforce at Joy. Those losses fit with the trend of the population in this town and this county slowly declining for the past several decades. At some point, unless the percentage of people choosing to be a part of the Church rises significantly, we would expect to see church closures as well. For the most part, that hasn't happened yet. On the contrary, we actually added a couple of growing congregations in the area, including Oil City Vineyard (Pastor Charlie Cotterman) and Redeemer Anglican (Pastor Eric Phillips, they worship here in 1st Baptist's building down the hall from us). Over the past decade plus, some of the local congregations have grown and some have shrunk. Here at 1st Baptist we've experienced both trends in that time period. Overall the congregations of the churches have grown older, along with, on average, the residents of the county. Unless my sense of things is mistaken, we have neither seen great revival, nor significant loss in recent years. We have challenges on this front to be sure, but certainly no reason to panic.
2. The ecumenical spirit of cooperation and corporate worship remains strong.
As with many things, the Covid stoppage sapped the momentum of our two primary county-wide worship opportunities (Thanksgiving and Palm Sunday) Prior to 2020 they had grown to 150 or more including upwards of a dozen pastors. Since they restarted, we've only been in the 40-50 range with 5-6 pastors on average. The numbers are disappointing, but the spirit of joyful fellowship and worship remains strong with those who continue to participate.
As a contrary bit of evidence, the Franklin Good Friday crosswalk has not suffered a loss in participation after Covid, we're still in the 125+ range (weather dependent).
I would be happy to see more opportunities for ecumenical worship, and more people enjoying that Spirit honoring worship, time will tell if we can better recapture what had been one of this community's best features.
3. Distractions are tempting, but Gospel-inspired ministry in the community continues to be central to our daily mission.
We have had a few flare-ups of things that don't truly impact our calling to Gospel mission, but by and large the cooperative church ministries and para-church ministries have grown and continued to impact the lives of those in need in our area. I'm thinking of our multiple food pantries (shout-out to the hosts St. Patrick's and St. John's) as well as ABC Life Center, Mustard Seed Missions, and Emmaus Haven. Along with other partners like Salvation Army, Community Services, Child Evangelism Fellowship, Youth for Christ, Meals on Wheels, and on and on.
I grew up in a small town with a minimal amount of this kind of para-church ministry happening, particularly missing were intra-church cooperative efforts. Some of you reading this may not understand how good we have it here in Franklin because you haven't known what it is like to be in a community without these blessings. As a pastor it is deeply refreshing and encouraging to see so many lay leaders and lay volunteers doing their part to be the hands and feet of Christ. Don't take this blessing for granted, be a part of it moving forward.
4. The health of the Church here is strong and vibrant, but with significant challenges.
In the end, irrespective of how our community might compare to generations past here, or how it might compare to the Church in other portions of rural America, we still will answer to God for what we have done with the opportunities and resources that were available to us in this time and place. I, for one, think that we've done well. Without minimizing the failures that have occurred, we have much to be proud of with respect to working together to make a difference, worshiping together, and being a representation of the "salt and light" that Jesus has commanded us to be in the world. We could always be doing better, Christ-likeness is after all our sky-high standard, but in this case the perfect is not the enemy of the good, Christ is our inspiration and we've made progress in that direction.
For more specific thoughts on the health of the local Church, see the 4 further points below:
4a. Historic / orthodox Christianity is being taught consistently, but it is also being attacked by a Hebrew Roots inspired cult.
In the fall of 2022 I first became aware of an organization that was now operating in our community: First Fruits of Zion. They had started what they call Torah Clubs and were teaching something I hadn't seen before. After some research, I spoke with the men and women who serve the church alongside me at a Franklin Christian Ministerium meeting. The response was both a deep testament to the shared commitment to orthodoxy that connects our various churches, and what a community needs from its pastoral leaders when facing a difficult challenge: They unanimously supported a public statement affirming orthodoxy and warning people not to participate in this group.
Long story short, and those of you who follow my blog and/or YouTube channel know it is a long story, the ministerium stood firm on the Trinity, salvation by grace through faith, the historic and apostolic Gospel, and everything else associated with this controversy. I was, and am, proud of them. {For more on this matter: The Dangers of the First Fruits of Zion and their Torah Clubs}
4b. Nationalism has divided the devotion to the Gospel of some, but it is not at an endemic level.
The response to Nationalism has been more difficult to gauge given that it is a much more subtle danger to the hearts and minds of those in our congregation than it would be if it was a defined cult like FFOZ. I certainly have been troubled by some of the local social media posts, including a upsetting furor aimed at local business people about a rumored (but untrue) arrival of immigrants {Venango County businesses were harassed on social media, again, based on rumors. We need to be better than this.} We have also seen a local couple attempt to turn property in the area into a haven for Nationalism, but so far this seems to have failed to gain the traction that they hoped for. {Why plans to build a "Christian" Nationalist Retreat Center in Franklin, PA is not a good idea for the local churches or our town.}
Would I like to see a healthier understanding on the part of the Christian community that our kingdom is not of this world and our citizenship is in heaven? Certainly. Would I like to see less politics and more theology in our discussions and fellowship? Absolutely. That being said, there have been much more dangerous reports of churches around the country going all-in on a political / culture war version of the Gospel, we have largely avoided that trap here locally; thanks be to God.
4c. Finding new pastors is becoming an increasing challenge, but the men and women who serve here now are Christ-honoring leaders. This area is blessed to have them.
One of my responsibilities for the NW area of the American Baptist Church of PA & DE is to help congregations in the pastoral search process (Baptists don't assign pastors, we're all independently employed). In that capacity I've come face-to-face with the demographic realities confronting every church in America that show we have a significant pastoral leadership shortage, something that will only get worse in time. I can't speak to who might serve in these roles in the future when finding new pastors becomes more difficult, but I can absolutely endorse the men and women who have served alongside me in the spiritual trenches. We are truly, and powerfully, blessed by God with honorable servant-leaders. Some of these have moved on to other places since I got here, I deeply miss Bill Hastings, Mother Holly, Scott Woodlee, David Janz, and my dear friend Jeff Little, and a few of them have gone on to their reward, the losses of Tim Tygert and Steve Henry were felt far and wide. Yet we have retained some amazing men and women, and gained some new leaders who have risen to the occasion. I won't name names lest I leave out someone who deserves the praise, but I would gladly recommend a couple dozen pastors in our area whom I know to be honorable servants of Jesus Christ. We are truly blessed here.
4d. Reasons for pessimism can be found, but most of those regularly connected to an area church maintain hope for our future.
A last thought: We could find reasons to be pessimistic about the Church in the Franklin area today, and/or about its future. There are problems and challenges, some of which we will overcome, some perhaps not so much. I'm not in that camp. I've served here since 2012, which makes me, somehow, one of the longest tenured pastors in the county, and I can say that I remain strongly positive about our present, and deeply optimistic about our future based on the countless conversations, interactions, and joyous moments I have witnessed.
How are we doing? We are doing well. We are doing well together: One Lord, one faith, one baptism.
Optimism? Yes, I have it, and you should too.
