My stepfather was a Methodist minister. His primary occupation seemed to be endlessly trying to "grow" the church. He used to come home and rant about being caught between a congregation which resisted change and growth and the district superintendent and conference, which demanded that the church increase membership and income. Very little of his time seemed to be dedicated toward faith or religion, good works, charity, helping others, community events, or any of that. Everything seemed to be about the business aspect, trying to increase membership and profits. The church was steadily losing ground, relying increasingly on donations from a few of its older and more affluent members, a group which was slowly dying off or losing money with the bad economy. All of this in a very religious region in a very religious state. He served at three churches during this period when I knew him, and all three had the same basic troubles. The second of the three was doing much worse than the others and apparently shut down not long after my stepfather was transferred to another location.
It seemed to be a common problem, based on things he said over the years. He used to talk about the entire regional conference being in a crisis state because of the widespread problem.
= new reply since forum marked as read