How a community decided to close its 150-year-old Michigan church - mlive.com

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JACKSON COUNTY, MI – The church started in a one-room schoolhouse in 1868.

It grew from 14 people, taking hold in the Clark Lake community of farmers and locals through years of change. Its pastors baptized congregation members in the very lake it looks across. It faced fires, it weathered vacationers coming and going.

But the 152-year-old Clarklake Community Church won’t survive much longer, its congregation members said. In early August, they voted to dissolve their beloved organization and leave their home on Hyde Road. The last service is set for Dec. 27.

It was a painful decision, the church’s moderator Walter Reed said. But years of declining numbers have led them to seek a new congregation to fill its pews.

“I’d say it’s like watching a parent die," Reed said. "You don’t want them to die. You want the pain to stop. You can’t stop going to see the parent because it’s your parent. And so maybe a bad analogy, but it’s killing us. I mean, we love our church. But obviously, others don’t.”

The church built its first house of worship in 1872 on Jefferson and Hyde roads. When a train set nearby grass ablaze and burned their first church building in 1912, another one was built. The one standing today is near the same property but was built in 1961.

Years of becoming “comfortable” attributed to the decision to dissolve, church officials said. They estimate their largest congregation was in the 1950s and 1960s, when about 90 people were in regular attendance.

For years, the congregation tried to attract new members from the vacationers on Clark Lake – they even changed the name mid-way through the 20th century from Clarklake Baptist Church to Clarklake Community Church to attract more protestants.

Vacationers came from Ohio to spend a week in their second homes or have a day on the lake on their boat. They even dropped their kids off at youth day camp – but they still wouldn’t come to services, Reed said.

“Vacationers don’t go to church on Sunday morning,” he said. “Sunday is just another vacation day. And so that didn’t work. But we had a big enough community that we continue to bring people in here.”

Decline became apparent by the 1990s. Now, only about 25 people regularly attend Sunday services. Most are older adults without children nearby to pass the church to the next generation.

The Executive Ministry Team, the church’s governing board, first turned to the American Baptist Churches of Michigan, of which the church is affiliated, thinking it would tell the board how to save the church. Instead, it received a questionnaire to determine the congregation’s viability. The questions highlighted many of the church’s struggles.

Are there at least 30 adults regularly in worship? No. Can the congregation pay all its bills from cash flow? No.

Are 80% of regular attendees between the ages of 35 and 55? “Not even close,” Reed said.

Clarklake Community Church’s dissolution is a common trend in the United States. Members estimate that 1,000 churches close annually. Other figures estimate that number could be thousands higher.

Declining membership in churches attributes to closures. So does the increasingly secular American culture. On average, 69% of U.S. adults were members of a church in 1998 to 2000, compared with 52% in 2016 to 2018, according to a Gallup poll.

The church building is in good shape, Reed and the Rev. John Reed said. The sanctuary has deep, high vaulted ceilings and padded chairs for worshippers. There’s a nursery, a cafeteria large enough for Sunday School and a kitchen.

So Clarklake’s goal for its future is to “plant a church,” or sell the building to another congregation that’s looking for a more permanent space. The team hopes a church currently meeting in schools around Jackson County will be interested.

“Our No. 1 priority by far is to try to get somebody else in here that preaches God’s word,” John Reed, pastor for about six and a half years, said. “That’s what Christians do. We have been told, internalized, live by what we think is the best good news anybody could ever hear and it’s our responsibility to share that. That’s what this place is about and that’s what we’re about.”

If that doesn’t happen, the church wants to continue supporting its community. Leaders are willing to sell the property to a nonprofit, community-oriented organization, such as a community center. If all else fails, the building can be rented out.

And while members of the congregation mourn the loss of their community, their pastor sees hope. He looks forward to the possibility of a new congregation in the building, continuing their Christian mission. He’s excited about his Bible study group’s future – about “going where they’re sent.”

“I have no idea what’s going to happen to me," John Reed said. "I just know – like I tell people from the pulpit or anybody that will sit and listen to me for very long – don’t spend so much time feeling sorry for this church and maybe for yourself. Understand that God’s not done with you yet. This right here might be over, but God’s not done with you yet. There’s still work for you.”

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