Saving grace: Consultants help rebuild struggling churches

By MICHELLE BOORSTEIN
The Washington Post
Saturday, November 27, 2010

St. Augustine's was facing a death sentence.

The little Episcopal church in Washington, D.C., on the waterfront had seen the signs. Since its founders proudly formed St. Augustine's as a racially integrated church in 1961, membership had wilted from 180 to 28. Key members passed away or moved. Paint peeled off the ceiling. Mold grew in the basement. The church couldn't pay its bills.

"It was literally dying," the Rev. Martha Clark said of her parish's state in 2007, when the regional bishop gave St. Augustine's three years to become self-sustaining or be shut down.

That's where Bob Gallagher came in. A former Episcopal priest, the gentle 60-year-old is a professional church savior, a consultant who travels the country trying to resuscitate houses of worship that are losing people and passion. With large swaths of organized religion in decline nationwide, Gallagher's dance card is full.

His initial meetings at St. Augustine's were emotional. He confronted people who had been focused on paying the mortgage with more wrenching questions: Do you really have a reason to be in this neighborhood, or could you move somewhere cheaper? What does it mean to be an Episcopalian? Could you merge with a church from another denomination? Do you agree on worship styles? Who are you? the rest