Assessing the Capacity of a Congregation to be a New Church

Posted in Assessments and Evaluations, Change Management, Church Decline, Church Growth & Vitality, Entering and Engaging the Congregation, Legacy Churches / Church Closing Tagged with

10 min 43 s

Rev. Dr. Jonathan New

  • How I think about the church’s capacity to be and to do church
  • The 5 things that bear directly on a congregation’s capacity to be/do church
  • Helping the congregation to increase its self-understanding
  • The pattern of who leaves a church and who stays

The Rev. Dr. Jonathan New is an intentional interim minister currently serving First Congregational Church of Natick, MA.  From 2014-2019 he served as Associate Conference Minister for Stewardship and Financial Development with the former Massachusetts Conference, UCC, where he oversaw Conference fundraising and provided direct support to local churches on matters of stewardship, finance, organizational management, and vitality.  He also led the Conference’s Threshold Church ministry, guiding lower capacity churches in their discernment about faithful next steps, including closure or new directions.  Prior to this, Jonathan was a settled pastor and intentional interim for several UCC churches, as well as an Open and Affirming facilitator and consultant on congregational vitality and stewardship, in the Vermont Conference.  He has taught UCC history, theology, and polity in a variety of settings, including Andover Newton Theological School, General Synod, the Massachusetts Conference CE Certification Program, and Super Saturday workshops.  He served the wider UCC on the Manual on Ministry re-visioning committee, assisted in the development of church closure and legacy materials, and contributed to efforts to enhance the denomination’s Threshold Ministry efforts.  Jonathan is a graduate of Oberlin College (B.A. ’89), holds theological degrees from Harvard Divinity School (M.T.S. ’93) and Andover Newton (M.Div. ’97, D.Min ’11), and was ordained through the Metropolitan Boston Association in 1998.  He makes his home in Cambridge, MA with his wife, Debbie, and spends his free time trying to keep up with the exploits of his two adult daughters, Sarah and Ellie.

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