Greenville: Being Salt In A Town of Change

I have been living with my family in Greenville, South Carolina for the past twenty nine months after many years away.  Downtown is a great place to catch a variety of hustling and bustling activities.  There is never a failure of good places to go out to eat.  Art galleries, museums and plays are easily accessible.  There are great parks around the county and we are short drives from many others.  Finding some good live music is always easy.  Places that were run down and frightening when I was a kid in town are now hip and cool places to go.  Greenville is a place that has completely remade itself.

Heck, just a few weeks ago, my bride and I rode up to the brand new Trailblazer Park in Travelers Rest and experienced something I thought impossible just a few years ago--a jazz concert.

Things are dramatically different in this rising Southern town.  Just the other day, I read in my father's AARP magazine that Greenville is one of the nation's small cities to live in.

I've also recognized a few other realities.  Church life in Greenville has changed.  Several newer churches have exploded with impact.  North Hills Community, Grace and New Spring all have significant gatherings every Sunday.  The church has exploded with several new church plants that are meeting all over the county.  On an expedition on Thursday, I spotted a fairly new cowboy church in the Southern part of the county.

However, just as there are several new churches that are exploding, many long-standing established churches are declining and dying.  Areas within Greenville county have experienced a doubling in population since 2000.  One might think that this increase of population would be revealed in even modest growth among churches.  This simply is not true among churches.  There are congregations situated in areas with exploding populations, yet several churches have steadily lost ground over the past fifteen years.  One church family I know well is in an area that had a 40% population increase from 2000 - 2012.  This church had a net gain of 0 in that same time period.  Neighboring churches had similar experiences of either holding steady or declining.

I think what is striking about the reality of population growth and church decline is the changes in cultural attitudes in Greenville.  When you think of South Carolina as a whole, the state holds many traditional and conservative ideas.  With that in mind, I can't help but remember a recent visit to the downtown area with my family.  Throughout the evening, I noticed several homosexual couples.  It would be hard for me to imagine these couples being so out in the open twenty years ago. When looking at a few local magazines that cover the cultural events in town, there are several pictures displayed that I believe would not be present here in town when I was growing up.  These experiences have certainly provided me with opportunities to talk with my kids about biblical teachings on marriage and relationships.

All of this leads me to ask, what does it mean to be salt and light to my neighbors in Greenville?  I want to bear witness to the Good News of Jesus.  The Gospel is true.  The church is God's means for making disciples.  Some churches are flourishing.  Many, many more churches are dying.  Culture is drastically shifting.  The reality of the fields being white unto harvest is just as real as it ever was.  Honestly, I don't want to just "preach to the choir" on how things are changing.  I want to engage the people I see in the town which I live.  I want my children to see and live in the power of God to bring new life to people that are far from Him.

--Rodney Bradford