In Search of Growth
“People want to be at church,” says the Rev. Richmond Webster. “They want to be under the steeple. Unfortunately, I don’t usually see the church providing the answers to questions drawing folks to church now.” This is something St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Birmingham, Alabama, takes seriously.
“The church can’t go on providing 19th-century answers to contemporary questions. Today newcomers are asking, ‘Did I find church a good experience?’ and ‘Was it useful to me?’” These days, St. Luke’s asks only one question in return: “How do we make church work for them?”
“It really all starts with breakfast,” Webster says. Recognizing people’s desire to be at church, at a time when corporate worship was nearly impossible, St. Luke’s turned to food.
“During the pandemic, people really missed gathering, missed being on the church grounds. In response, one of our parishioners, a retired chef, suggested we begin a takeout restaurant.” One commercial kitchen certification and hundreds of meals later, the leadership of St. Luke’s realized just how binding food is for community fellowship.
“In the South, a church breakfast is a sign you’ve made it,” Webster says. “Now, we have adapted that tradition, and the fellowship it creates, to the needs of today.” Today, St. Luke’s offers a warm grab-and-go breakfast available all morning.
“It is great because it gets people talking. Parents are happy because it makes their mornings more flexible, children are happy because they can take their food and run around, and that warm bacon smell welcomes people all morning! It really is about doing St. Luke’s your way.”
Another way St. Luke’s makes the church work for people is by expanding its use of digital communication. “We live in the Amazon era,” Webster says. “People shop on their phones, people read on their phones, and people bank on their phones. Why shouldn’t they also pledge or join the church on their phones?”
Service bulletins at St. Luke’s provide QR codes for people to make offerings, change their details in the church directory, and sign up for activities. “Allowing people to invite St. Luke’s into their phones is about one thing: getting in front of people,” Webster says. “These are simple market principles.”
At St. Luke’s, these principles do not only apply to administration and communication, but also to experience. “If going online during the pandemic gave us one thing, it was the availability to see ourselves,” Webster says. “And what I saw wasn’t very engaging.”
Webster and the leadership have shaped the liturgy with an eye toward the streaming experience. “All of our services are now under an hour—people will let you do just about anything as long as it’s under an hour. Of course, now people don’t leave after Communion!”
St. Luke’s has also experimented with new service times to address changes in family gathering patterns. Last Christmas, it held a 10 a.m. Christmas Eve service. “It’s about recognizing the desires of the people out there and offering them church,” Webster says. “That’s why over 400 people were at that Christmas Eve service.”
Of course, such change isn’t unilaterally embraced. “That’s why I tell my people it’s about Ark and Temple—the two places we see God dwell with his people in the Old Testament. In the Ark, God goes where his people go. That is our inspiration when crafting church experiences that work for people today. In the Temple, God is unchanged and worshiped in glory. That is why we preserve our central traditional service,” Webster says.
“We also see a lot of family participation at our traditional services,” he adds. “Parents love to see their children carry the candles.” The focus on youth at St. Luke’s does not end after the service. “Today, it’s children who bring their parents to church. That is why we try so hard to create an atmosphere they enjoy.”
As high schoolers, teenagers at St. Luke’s may teach their own Sunday-school classes. “This gives the teachers leadership experience and Bible teaching experience, and their peers the opportunity to hear a relatable message,” Webster says.
For younger students, St. Luke’s offers Bible Club—an afterschool activity that gives parish youth the opportunity to play and learn about the Word of God, and parents some time off. “You cannot not afford to teach third graders about the Bible,” Webster says. “What is so great about Bible Club is that the Bibles we search for passages in and highlight are the same Bibles we have in our pews. It is little things like this that make our young people feel a part of our church.”
And it would seem youth do feel a part of St. Luke’s. Last year the church had over 52 baptisms. “We have become exceptionally younger,” Webster says.
The congregation’s modal age, the most frequently recurring age of active parishioners, he said, is now 39, 30 years younger than the Episcopal Church’s modal age.
“This is good news because it means children continue to bring their parents to church,” Webster says. “It is our job to prove the church is as beneficial for them and their children as Sunday morning soccer.”
If numbers are any metric, St. Luke’s added 224 new members to the rolls in 2024.
“Decline is not inevitable. The question is how we can do what we love while making others also understand,” Webster says. Convinced the Word of God is perennially relevant, St. Luke’s has worked hard to build a church mirroring this truth. “Of course, we have had to change some things, but that has allowed us to become the most welcoming church in town. As I see it, our only limit now is parking!”
Weston Curnow is a student at Duke Divinity School and a postulant from the Diocese of Kansas. St. Luke’s is a partner of The Living Church.
Weston Curnow, a recent Kansas University graduate, is a student at Duke Divinity School, preparing for ordination in the Diocese of Kansas.
