By JACOB LOCASCIO
When Ryan Franey, the pastor of Emergence Church in Glen Rock, first heard of officials’ plans to close his campus, he felt a strange sense of excitement. Emergence, a non denominational church, had been experiencing financial troubles and attendance shortages, among a myriad of difficulties during the pandemic. Franey was anticipating such news. But given that he had been the head pastor of Glen Rock for five years, Franey admitted that his immediate excitement at the news “sounds weird.”
While Franey mourned the loss of his campus, he pondered the future of the church. His feelings were intermixed with hope and the reassurance that the situation would work itself out. These emotions compelled Franey’s sense of excitement, a reaction which would have otherwise been abnormal for a pastor whose church just closed.
“I kind of had this immediate feeling that God was behind it,” he said. Franey explained that since he knew God was in control of the situation, he was looking forward to whatever God had in store for him and the church after the closure.
“If this is the decision being made, then alright, let’s see what’s next, and where God’s moving,” he said.
Emergence Church is among the 20 percent of churches nationwide facing the possibility of permanent closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Emergence, consisting of 4 campuses, recently made the decision to close down their Glen Rock and Roxbury churches. The announcement became public in February and disclosed Emergence’s need to consolidate its multi-campus structure due to pandemic related difficulties. The Glen Rock congregants and staff alike were upset by the news, as it meant both the loss of their campus and the newfound uncertainty regarding the future of their place in Emergence.
“It was a hard decision. It wasn’t a decision that we wanted to be making. But at the end of the day, after looking at all the facts, we felt that it was the best decision,” said Franey.
Emergence Church closed because of lack of attendance which resulted in a reduction of income and volunteers, according to Franey. This closure impacted the church in a variety of ways, such as changes in leadership, staff roles, and interpersonal relationships within the church.
The closure is not unique when it comes to significant pandemic driven changes in American churches. Although only 17 percent of religious attendees say that their congregation is not open for in person services, 64 percent of attendees say that their churches have opened with precautions such as social distancing and mask wearing, according to Pew Research Center. Only 12 percent of attendees report that their churches have opened with services held the same way pre pandemic.
With pandemic challenges still present and with the loss of two campuses, the pastoral and service staff as well as the congregants had to adapt to the changing dynamic of the church and cope with the changes the closure brought. This task of readjustment proved especially difficult to those who attended and served at the Glen Rock and Roxbury campuses, who were now faced with a decision to relocate to Ringwood, Totowa, or another church outside of Emergence.
The pastoral staff deliberated over the decision to close the campuses. For Emergence, it became increasingly difficult to sustain their four different campuses in Ringwood, Roxbury, Glen Rock and Totowa in terms of finances and attendance. This issue proved to be the main impetus for closing.
“The main problems were a lack of resources,” explained Franey. According to Franey, the resource deficiency included financial assets and personnel shortages, as Emergence did not have “enough core people that we felt would be ready to serve and be a part of seeing the work go on.”
Many churches have lost attendance over the past year. More than half of churchgoers, or 51 percent, did not attend in-person services as of Jan. 2021, according to Lifeway Research.
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Churches across the U.S. have also experienced financial woes similar to the ones plaguing Emergence during the pandemic. According to the research group CapinCrouse, there has been a 56 percent decrease in church donations. According to the group State of the Plate, church giving is down 65 percent nationwide. According to the National Study of Congregations’ Economic Practices, 81 percent of congregations’ revenue comes from individual donations. The decrease in giving has clearly been a financial catastrophe for churches in America.
A closure might address the issue of finances, as the financial needs of two campuses would be eliminated. This reasoning would also be applied to the lack of sufficient staff available to Emergence.
“We didn’t want to burn people out by trying to keep all these campuses going when we might not have enough people, so we decided to consolidate from 4 campuses down to 2,” he said.
The main campus of Totowa remained along with Ringwood, a campus that Emergence initially planned to close as well.
“We were given that property in Ringwood and kind of made a promise that we would always have a congregation there. We decided to keep that one open,” said Franey.
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Congregants and Staff Reaction
Congregants were understandably upset when the news broke, as it signaled the loss of their church home.
John Kender, a churchgoer who has attended Emergence’s Glen Rock campus for 5 years, expressed anger and dismay upon learning about the closure.
“I just didn’t like the timing,” said Kender, who already felt “shut in” by the quarantine and restricted in his activities. “To hear that like our church, kind of like something we were very looking forward to attending and going back to once COVID ended, was not gonna happen was just really frustrating.”
Franey personally spoke to many congregants one on one and relayed the news of the closure before the public announcement, an approach that John Kender felt “really happy” about.
[AUDIO: Listen to Franey explain why he chose a personal approach to tell congregants the news.]
Most congregants responded in a similar manner to Franey’s news, expressing both sorrow and discernment.
“The most common reaction was ‘this makes sense, I understand it, it stinks and I’m really sad, but I’m excited and looking forward to what God has next,’” he said.
Kender feels that he can understand the church’s reasons for closing, but does not agree with the decision. He feels that the Glen Rock campus has displayed enough perseverance amidst hardship before and could have weathered the storm of COVID-19.
“I feel like they should have given us another shot, maybe one more year or 8 months post pandemic to kind of see how things would work,” he said. “But I mean listen, if it comes down to dollars and cents, you know, you can’t get blood from a stone.”
Paid staff members at Glen Rock were perhaps hit the hardest by the closure as the status of their employment became uncertain.
“It was a shock,” said Kate Schneider, former campus coordinator for the Glen Rock kid’s ministry. “It was definitely a challenging thing to hear just because it kind of seemed of the blue.”
Her and her fellow staff members realized that the closure was “a really hard thing”, but nonetheless, their faith in God helped them persevere.
“Knowing that God is in control of things I think was the ultimate comfort of just being like ‘okay, we don’t what this looks like, we don’t know where God is taking this, but we’re trusting that God is doing something,'” she said.
How Has Emergence Been Impacted by the Closures?
The closures have significantly affected the dynamic of Emergence church, both in terms of the overall church and the individuals within the church. In the months since the closure, Emergence has experienced both staff and leadership changes as well as the emigration of congregants from closed campuses.
While some immediate effects of the closures are evident, it is still unclear how successful the closures were in mitigating Emergence’s COVID related issues.
According to Franey, the effect of the closures on Emergence’s financial and attendance problems remains “unknown.”
“Financially, yes, we saved some money on staff and also rental,” he said. “But as far as like having us better primed to flourish on the other side of the pandemic, we’re kind of in the midst of that so it’s hard to tell.”
Despite the uncertainty, the closures have resulted in some notable improvements for the church.
According to Franey, many former Glen Rock and Roxbury churchgoers are now serving at the remaining campuses in Totowa and Ringwood, a development which Franey thinks will “help bolster the efforts there.”
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Some staff roles in Emergence have shifted dramatically since the closure, particularly in the campus of Ringwood.
These roles included both pastoral positions and service positions in various ministries.
After the closures, Ryan Franey’s role as head pastor of Glen Rock immediately changed to head pastor of Ringwood replacing the former head pastor.
Between March and April, Franey helped members of Glen Rock transition while he prepared to focus on his impending job in Ringwood. Franey officially started as Ringwood’s head pastor on April 11.
[AUDIO: Listen to Franey explain why he was chosen as pastor of Ringwood.]
John Kender believes that the church’s decision to elect Franey as pastor of Ringwood was a “great move”.
“I think the fact that they’re retaining him and holding him in and giving him a broader role or a more active role is really good,” he said.
For Franey, the most significant personal impact of his new job is the “changing of relationships.” As the new head pastor, Franey has new relationships to make in Ringwood. However, he also has lost some of his relationships with Glen Rock congregants who chose not to attend Ringwood, a development which he calls the “biggest negative” of his pastoral transition.
Yet Franey also views the changes with optimism, as he believes that the new role was ordained by God. By taking on the position, he feels that he can “step into the next thing God had for me anyway.”
Glen Rock members in service positions were also faced with drastic changes to their roles in the church. Some Glen Rock staff members had to relocate to another campus and resume their duties there, and other staff members lost their positions entirely.
The three main staff members in charge of worship music, technology and the kids ministry at Glen Rock all needed to adjust to a new role in Emergence after the closures.
The staff member in charge of the technology aspect of Glen Rock currently works at the Totowa campus. The staff member in charge of Glen Rock’s worship music has been overseeing the music development for Emergence’s youth ministries in both Ringwood and Totowa, according to Franey.
Kate Schneider, who was in charge of Glen Rock’s kids ministry, no longer works as an official staff member in the church. She calls the loss of her position a “mutual decision” between her and Emergence. According to Schneider, there were no leadership positions available for her at other campuses. She also recalls feeling “burnt out” due to spiritual and personal reasons related to COVID-19.
Schneider now works as a volunteer in the kid’s ministry in Ringwood, a position which she expresses enthusiasm about.
“It’s been a lot easier than I thought it was going to be transitioning back to the role of volunteer,” she said. “Just serving as a volunteer and helping out the team in whatever capacity I can is gonna be, you know, an effective part of ministry.”
As for the rest of the Glen Rock staff members, Franey assures that they are “moving on well”.
The Fate of Glen Rock Congregants
With Glen Rock shut down, the congregants had to decide which of the remaining campuses they would be attending if they still wished to stay with Emergence.
Fortunately for the church, the majority of Glen Rock congregants elected to stay with Emergence.
Following the closures, Franey sent out a survey to approximately half of the Glen Rock congregation. According to his own estimates, 40-45% of congregants are going to Ringwood, 40-45% are going to Totowa, and around 10-15% of congregants are leaving the church altogether.
A marked concern among congregants following the closures is the distance between them and the remaining campuses in Ringwood and Totowa. Glen Rock and Roxbury congregants who once went to campuses in their hometowns now face a notably longer commute to Totowa and Ringwood on Sunday.
“I think the real test is gonna be months after the whole hurrah hits with Ringwood,” said Kender, who thinks that more Glen Rock churchgoers will eventually leave Ringwood due to the long commute and unfavorable weather.
“The Ridgewood-Glen Rock area is a bit of a a hike, especially when the weather gets colder,” he said.
Kender admitted that he will give Ringwood a try, but he will most likely end up leaving Emergence in favor of a local church.
[AUDIO: Listen to John Kender explain why he might find another church.]
For the Glen Rock congregants now attending other campuses, and for the campuses receiving them, the key moving forward may be to strive for unity and acculturation.
Kate Schneider thinks that the necessary actions Glen Rock congregants must take in their Ringwood transition are getting outside their comfort zone, meeting new people and getting used to the new dynamic of the church.
Shneider also wishes for Glen Rock congregants to consider themselves as wholly a part of Ringwood from now on instead of a distinct, separate community.
“Yes, Glen Rock was a thing,” she said. “But now we’re all Ringwood.”
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