CROSSROADS: Lino Lakes church rethinks its role

The church’s history stretches back nearly 150 years in the Lino Lakes area, beginning as a series of preaching circuit riders who traveled by horseback. It has held many names over the course of its history, and recently underwent another change, from Gethsemane United Methodist to Lino Lakes Community Church. The change was one measure to appeal to the broader community.

“Sometimes churches like this one with such a long history can get a bit into a rut of doing things a certain way,” Jakel said. “If we have changing times, changing cultures, but a church that won’t change, people are not attracted to that.”

A Gallup poll from 2020 found that 47 percent of Americans are members of a religious organization— falling below the majority since the first Gallup poll of this kind in 1937. Then, 73% of Americans belonged to some kind of religious organization.

The poll found that membership correlated strongly with age: 66 percent of U.S. adults born before 1946 belong to some faith community, but only 36 percent of millennials can say the same. Declines in church membership are also smaller among political conservatives, married adults and college graduates.

Although Gallup found that seven out of 10 Americans are affiliated with some type of organized religion, the number of them who have formal membership in a faith community has been declining.

There are many factors at work, not least of them being the struggles of holding regular services during COVID-19 quarantines. Churches scrambled to become accessible in a time when people were not comfortable gathering in large groups.

Politics have played a role as well, especially surrounding pandemic precautions. Some members of the church community took health safety very seriously, and others not so much, causing friction and potentially driving longtime attendees away.

“Some churches struggle to have civilized conversations around politics and theology differences,” Jakel said. “If they have a church where there’s arguing and not a careful, calm, humble listening, people want to avoid conflict at church too, just like they stop attending other groups that are too political or too filled with rancor.”

The overarching United Methodist Church caused controversy when it formally declared that it would not allow members of LGBTQIA+ community to become clergy or to be married in the church. The Minnesota United Methodist community, however, ruled in support of LGBTQIA+ clergy at its most recent conference, and gave individual churches the option of administering ceremonies according to their own values.

“I’m not sure you’d get consensus in this church on whether they want to be progressive or opposed to that, but that’s one of the issues sort of in the background that we’re not really talking about,” Jakel said. “Although I do make it very clear that everyone is welcome and we need to be loving toward people, even if you don’t agree with their lifestyle or their identity and how they present themselves.”

In addition to controversy, Jakel noted that changing cultural norms have left little free time, making it more difficult than ever for Americans to devote time to faith practices.

“We have to be very clear of our intention to move forward, because we can’t just hope for better days, hope young families come, hope people will show up by good advertising,” Jakel said. “We know we have to recommit, revitalize and almost reengineer how we do church.”

The first step is a conversation within the congregation about the direction going forward. Jakel anticipates 10-12 weeks of what he calls a Conversation at the Crossroads: regular meetings to discuss the interests of the current membership and what it will take to keep Lino Lakes Community Church afloat.

“If we as a congregation honestly say we don’t have the people, the money, the energy to do this, we’re going to close,” Jakel said. “If we chose to do that, that would be the choice of leaders here. Nobody wants the church to close. The conversation we’re having at the crossroads is not how to close the church, it’s how to be clear about our future.”

Jakel has brought his personal philosophy of deep personal connection to the congregation during his time there.

Many people are struggling with feelings of alienation, isolation, anxiety and depression—he sees the church as a space where people can connect and work to provide solutions to problems in the community.

Along with membership, Lino Lakes Community Church has seen a reduction in the types of programs that serve the community. For around 30 years, the church was home to a child care center, which has been sitting unused since October.

“We’re not actively engaged in ministry in the community like we used to be and like we need to be,” Jakel said.

A 2017 Gallup study found that those who attend church mainly go for sermons, as well as youth programs, community outreach and volunteer opportunities.

“If we reach out and have this be a welcoming, friendly, inspiring and joyful place, people come to that,” Jakel said. “We’re going to be curious about our future. Being afraid and doubling down on doing things the way we’ve always done them is not going to work for us.”