So Much More than ASA
“It’s amazing that our small congregation has such an impact on our town. The more people who come to St. Paul’s, for whatever reason, the more opportunity we have to spread the Good News.” – St. Paul’s parishioner
My work with the Church Buildings for Collaborative Partnerships (CBCP) Thriving Congregations initiative has been transformative for me, both as priest and diocesan missioner. I will admit to being skeptical at the start of this project several years ago, and I confess to a complete change of heart regarding how important it has been to our congregations. Since I have one foot in diocesan leadership and the other in parish ministry, the practical and long-lasting effects of participation in CBCP mean so much to me and to my congregation.
During the first phase of CBCP we hosted the recommended community meeting at St. Paul’s, complete with tours, snacks, and lots of good conversation. Immediately after that meeting we welcomed a non-profit partner that conducts business in our office space (for a fee), a non-profit service-providing partner that hosts their regular meetings in our space (for free), and we began a monthly community event that offers free musical performances to the community (now in its third season). Jean Burns, one of two parishioners leading the First Friday Concert project, says this about the concerts
“Reaching out to share our church with the community, we at St. Paul’s resumed free monthly concerts that had once been provide by the local hospital. How gratifying to welcome local residents to our sanctuary for beautiful music and to reflect on the success and impact of the program.”
It occurred to me along the way that tracking and sharing the abundance of these offerings would be integral to parish buy-in and longevity. So, when our General Convention office launched an online tracking system to gather Sunday attendance, I decided to leverage that system to also track our partners’ usage.
From our Scouting America and gardening club partners to the three groups/offerings mentioned in the previous paragraph and more, I have dutifully tracked building usage for more than a year. (To keep it simple I asked our partners to estimate the number of attendees and the frequency of their gatherings when I wasn’t there to track actual information.) At our January 2025 annual parish meeting I shared the results with them. We were all surprised.
As you can see in this graph below, except for March (Lenten services) and August (when most of our partners take time off), our community/partner usage quite significantly exceeded our worship opportunities. You may remember Archbishop William Temple’s famous quote of “The Church is the only institution that exists primarily for the benefit of those who are not its members.” It appears that St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in La Porte is taking that to heart. Maybe we’re not yet doing it to the best of our ability, but we are certainly living into the reality more and more with each partner and offering we add.
Keep in mind that we are a smaller congregation, with an Average Sunday Attendance (ASA) of 25 for 2024. While our ASA has decreased over the years, our building usage has increased. It was interesting to present to the congregation how our connection with the local community has changed AND still remains strong. I reinforced that the more people invested in seeing our doors stay open, the better – even if they aren’t Sunday morning attendees. And we rejoiced in the many subtle ways we are being Christ’s hands and feet in La Porte Indiana.
We don’t know what the future holds for our congregation but right now we know that we are making a difference in more ways than Sunday morning. We are thankful for those opportunities. We rejoice in them. And we continue to look for ways to expand them. We know we are so much more than our ASA and we gratefully share our abundance with our community.
Written by The Rev. Canon Michelle I. Walker, Missioner for the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana and Priest in Charge of
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in La Porte Indiana. 2/7/2025