(Note: the blue horizontal menu bar directly above lists the subsections of "Your Congregation's Inner Life." Be sure to read each of these subsections before moving on to the next primary section, "Your Congregation's Public Profile.")

Your Congregation's Inner Life: Congregational Transitions

There is, however, a danger in trying to capture a congregation's character. History is full of surprises, and settling too rigidly on one portrayal of a congregation's character can result in missing the surprises in a congregation's life or doing injustice to the way it grows and changes over time.

Just as individual identities develop through life's stages, congregational identities go through transitions and, occasionally, radical transformations. A socially conservative congregation that failed to address racism in the 1960s can surprise us with a bold decision to become a sanctuary church in the 1980s. A once-dynamic congregation that played a powerful leadership role in its community or denomination can become a backwater.

So as the congregational historian, you must pay attention to the points in a congregation's life when its character seems to change suddenly and to those other times when it decisively reasserts its traditional ways. Those moments merit special consideration as you prepare to tell your congregation's story. But you must also look for the subtle changes—when a congregation becomes more participatory over a decade, or when its use of Scripture changes by virtue of a new way of teaching that spreads slowly over the years. Each nuance and trait you discover will result in a congregational history that helps members see how distinctive and colorful they really are.

Lebanon Lutheran Church, Bristol, Connecticut (c. 1950)