Q: My church is going down hill. We have fewer and fewer children to teach in the children's divisions each week and there just seems to be no life at all. Do you think I should look around for another place to worship? A: One thing you should definitely not do is stay where you are and continue to complain. As I see it, you have two options. You can keep attending your current church and be an agent of change or you can find a place to worship which meets your needs. I am concerned that if you do not make an effort to either change your attitude or your location, church will become more and more of a dreary place—not only for you, but for those around you. The more you complain, the more your attitude will feed into the downward spiral you are experiencing, collecting momentum and new players each week, all gathering in gloomy agreement that things are, indeed, going downhill at your church. Ultimately, you may develop a consumer mentality towards worship, waiting for others to deliver the ideal product, never finding a place which satisfies your expectations. As worshipers, we can enter church with either an active or a passive mentality. Those in the latter category are not difficult to spot. While a church is a volunteer organization, passive members often portray an attitude that suggests they'd rather not be there. Churches filled with passive members give the impression that they might tip over backwards, given all the weight in the back pews, with the front rows sitting empty. One wonders if members have a compelling need to be as close to the door as possible in order to race out the moment the sermon ends. (Have they all left their dinners in the oven which threaten to blacken with every increased minute?) As active members of a church, we all have the opportunity to make a difference. Part of being an agent of change is realizing that we are choosing to be part of our church community. No one is forcing us to attend. We are not consumers whose only job is to sit back and complain about not being fed. We are part of a body of believers. As one member, one person, one family, we can make a difference. We can arrive on time. Bring guests. Sit up closer to the front. Start a young adult Sabbath School class. Most importantly of all , we can be positive. Words have an incredible power within a congregation. Reflecting on the twelve congregations with which I've been privileged to worship,* I can readily call to mind people whose words have strongly colored their church environment. There are those who thrive on innuendo and negative talk, sending out a stream of pessimism that circles back to them and confirms their original premise that things are indeed dark. As I've thought about this, I've come up with the following theory: If enough negative people tell negative people negative things, the negative talk comes back around to the original negative-talkers and is used as proof that things are indeed negative! On the other hand, I've watched positive people infuse their churches with optimism and energy, sending out ever-widening circles of blessing. I think of Georgia Russell**, whose guitar-playing and gutsy laugh raised up a group of Pathfinders who couldn't wait for Tuesday evenings. I think of Dan Preston, a senior citizen baptized into a 20-member church, who breathed new life into the congregation, visiting sick members, teaching teenagers, painting walls, planning picnics with a spirit that lifted all of us whose paths he crossed. When it comes down to it, we all have the choice to edify or destroy, build up or tear down, raise or ruin. Your congregation needs you to be an agent of change. Do you have the strength to do it? *Being married to a pastor has its benefits **Surprise—the names used in this article are not pseudonyms! Sandra Doran, Ed.D. is an associate superintendent of education for the Florida Conference and enjoys being part of her husband's pastoral ministry at the Kress Memorial Church in Winter Park. She posts her monthly columns for you to read here, on her web site, www.tagnet.org/powerlines.

Sandra Finley Doran, Ed.D. 2028 Bluff Oak St. Apopka, FL 32712-3945 (407) 889-5524 email powerlines@juno.com

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