How a Small, Aging Congregation Is Making the Most of a Meager Budget

T he A-frame sanctuary of Pitcher Hill Community Church is a distinct feature that makes the building stand out in its neighborhood. On paper, it may stand out because, perhaps against the odds, it’s surviving. The doors here are still open.

Churches in New York have especially been struggling in the last 20 years, says Randy Karcher, an elder at Pitcher Hill Community Church who has lived in the area since 1980. Even without a full-time pastor, and despite a dwindled congregation and budget, the spirits of congregation members are still up. The church continues to be in and for the community—an intentional choice that is reflected in the church’s name. And finance-wise, the church is making the most of a five-figure budget.

Here’s the story, laced with challenges and creativity, driven by community and a commitment to share the love and peace of Jesus Christ.

Coming to terms with reality

In 2000, Karcher says that church membership at Pitcher Hill Community Church was just shy of 300 people. Today, there are fewer than 70 people on the church roster. Weekly attendance for Sunday morning worship averages about 20 people.

“There’s been a great dive,” he says. “The same has happened with the other area church in the denomination, which is also without an installed minister right now.”

But the church has some longevity in its members, some of whom have been attending Pitcher Hill for decades now. That includes a 102-year-old member, who faithfully attends as able.

“We have a mature congregation,” says Karcher. “Right now, we have no children in our church. That’s common in our classis [family of local congregations].”

That being said, the church is committed to keeping its doors open—and very likely without a full-time, installed minister at the helm. That’s a reality that the congregation has lived with for a few years now.

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Surviving without an installed minister

In order to have a full-time pastor in the central New York area, Karcher says the church’s budget would need to double. Karcher adds that, as is the case with a number of other small churches, Pitcher Hill Community Church “simply can’t afford that.”

“We’ve been in the black for the last six years. If we had a full-time minister that wouldn’t be the case,” says Karcher. “We would have folded.”

The pulpit vacancy comes after a revolving door of ministers over the last 15 years. The pastorate became vacant in 2009, after the church’s long-time, married co-pastors took their next call to ministry. For the next two years, there were two specialized interim ministers who helped lead the church, which, at the time, was financially stable enough to look for a new pastor.

In 2011, Pitcher Hill Community Church called a former active-duty Air Force chaplain to be its pastor. He stayed for eight years before returning to his home state, halfway across the U.S.

In time, the church invited a bivocational hospital chaplain to stay in the church’s parsonage and to preach the Word on Sundays. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement. But her work as a palliative care chaplain in upstate New York during the COVID-19 pandemic took its toll. In 2021, she left Syracuse—and Pitcher Hill—and took a position at a smaller hospital in another state.

“We then went through a period when I found ministers to preach from a variety of places—all within our covenant [of agreement],” says Karcher. “I asked the local like-denominations for their lists of pulpit supply, and they were willing to share those.”

To fill in the gaps of not having a full-time pastor, the church has a number of trained liturgists who lead most of the worship elements, except for reading the Gospel lesson, preaching the sermon, and giving the benediction, which the preacher does.

One of the rotating ministers, Rev. James Kim, a chaplain, is still with Pitcher Hill Community Church. Now under an annually evaluated contract, Kim, his wife, two children, and recently his mother-in-law, live in the church’s parsonage. He preaches two Sundays each month, plus major holidays. Kim’s other job is as the manager of spiritual care development at Upstate Hospital.

“He’s not installed as the pastor, but he has no plans to leave,” says Karcher.

With an ordained elder, Kim presides over the Lord’s Supper on the first Sunday of every month. On the Sundays when Kim does not preach, Karcher (or another elder) preaches, following the Revised Common Lectionary.

Resources like the Revised Common Lectionary and others, both those available through the denomination (Reformed Church in America) and like-denominations, enable continued ministry at Pitcher Hill, says Karcher, who wears many church leadership hats, including planning worship. He also keeps an eye out for how other small churches are surviving and helps Pitcher Hill apply some creativity to keep its mission alive.

Related: Two churches, one pastor: an old model for the present and future church

Utilizing assets to make ends meet

One of the creative, cost-saving solutions that has been realized at Pitcher Hill involves the use of its Allen Renaissance organ.

“It’s a beautiful instrument, installed in the 2000s. At the time, part-time church organists could expect to be paid $10,000 a year, which is too much for a small church to afford,” says Karcher. “Currently, no one in our congregation knows how to play the organ.”

However, the organ has a musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) that opens up some options. The congregation can still use the organ in worship, but without significant cost—or specialized expertise.

“Church Music Solutions [is a company that] provides MIDI files for hymns,” says Karcher. “When the file is input, it’s like a player-piano, and you see the stops fly in and out. And it plays perfectly.”

Another cost-saving asset for the church is its parsonage, just a stone’s throw away from the church building. Karcher says it’s been well maintained throughout the church’s ministry, and it’s in a great neighborhood. The parsonage, currently occupied by the Kims, is part of the payment package for Kim, as it was for a previous interim minister. And, its location means a shorter commute for Kim to his job at the hospital.

Lastly, the church building itself contributes to keeping the church’s finances in the black. Thrive by Five, a certified agency to help children with special needs, leases the otherwise unused education wing of the church (added during an expansion project in 1991). That means the church building gets used—for the community—every day, with Thrive by Five’s daily program, which is in both English and Spanish.

“That agreement helps a great deal with the finances of the church,” says Karcher. “We’ve also opened up the church to a whole bunch of community groups. As other churches in our area have closed, the groups needed a new home. Right now, we have two Scout troops, Cub troops, Alcoholics Anonymous, an African violet group, a bonsai group, and a knitting group.”

The extra income is a gift that boosts the church’s finances, but even more meaningful is the ability to remain in and for the community, as Pitcher Hill Community Church has always sought to be. That’s a commitment to Christ and the community that is worth some necessary creativity to keep on being a light.