Did you know that, last year, the majority of churches in this diocese reported that their attendance was growing?
The Bishop regularly shares this information during her visitations, drawing from the 2025 parochial report data. And when she does, people are often surprised.
Not because their own church is growing or healthy, they can already see that with their own eyes! They’re surprised because they think it’s just their church, not so many others as well.
I think that says something important.
I think that suggests that people are operating with outdated and inaccurate assumptions about the Church and its future. The dominant story we’ve been hearing (especially during and after the COVID period) has been framed almost entirely around decline, as if decline were the only possible story to tell.
But that narrative often does not match what many of us are seeing in our own congregations.
Psychologists sometimes call this the “framing effect.” The way a story is presented shapes how people understand reality and how they respond to it. If the Church is constantly framed as dying, shrinking, and failing, people begin to assume decline is inevitable, even when evidence around them suggests something more hopeful is also true.
Framing matters.
People respond differently to stories of possibility than they do to stories of decline. Congregations that hear only messages of scarcity and decline can become anxious and resigned. Communities that recognize signs of growth, resilience, and new life are far more likely to imagine a future worth investing in.
Again, in the Diocese of Newark last year, more than half of congregations (52%) showed increases in attendance, while another nearly 20% remained essentially stable. Given the aging demographics many churches face, stability itself often reflects real growth, because congregations have had to welcome and integrate new people simply to maintain their numbers.
This matters for Stewardship.
Stewardship is not fundamentally about scarcity. Stewardship begins with noticing abundance. It begins with paying attention to where God is already at work and asking how we can nurture, strengthen, and expand those signs of life.
When we constantly repeat a doom-and-gloom narrative about the Church, we cultivate anxiety and resignation. People become less likely to invite others, less likely to imagine a future, and less likely to invest generously in ministry. After all, who wants to give their time, talent, and treasure to a story that sounds hopeless?
So, let’s stop telling an outdated and inaccurate story about the churches of this diocese. The reality is that there is far more growth, vitality, and resilience than many people realize.
Incidentally, this phenomenon of “green shoots” is not unique to the Diocese of Newark. A recent article in The Living Church highlighted research suggesting that healthy change begins by identifying “bright spots” and then asking how those practices can grow and spread.
Stories about growth matter.
That, too, is Stewardship work.
Stewardship means telling truthful stories about God’s abundance. It means recognizing resilience, celebrating generosity, and naming the many ways congregations continue to change lives and serve their communities faithfully.
Are there challenges ahead? Of course. But the Church has always lived through challenge and change. The more urgent question is this: what story are we choosing to tell about ourselves?
If all we proclaim is decline, eventually people will believe decline is inevitable.
But if we begin telling the truth about vitality, faithfulness, growth, generosity, and hope, we create space for people to see possibility again.
And that, too, is Stewardship.
