Church on Cape Cod thrives by looking inward, outward

First Parish, Brewster, is one of those postcard perfect New England churches, with white clapboard siding and a tall steeple. Founded in 1700 on Cape Cod, south of Boston, its current building dates from 1834 and has wooden box pews and an organ installed in 1861. On the walls of the sanctuary are drawings of sailing ships, a reminder that the church has been called the "church of the sea captains," for the many sailing masters who worshiped there. Yet for much of its three centuries of life First Parish struggled to survive.

From the early 1900s to 1960 there were anywhere from 5 to 25 people at the Sunday service. Twenty years ago there were 130 members. Ten years ago, 400, and now, 700. What made it grow? A combination of things. First Parish's longtime minister, the Rev. James Robinson, who arrived in 1982, is a large part of it, along with the staff who joined him. The growth on the Cape since the 1960s also helped. So has a thriving children's and youth ministry. The church also has been a leader in forming small groups where friends and members can connect to an intimate circle of people and it is also deeply involved in — and well-known for — social justice work.

But there are also reasons why the church should not have grown.

Until last fall there were only 27 on-site parking spaces. An arrangement with the restaurant next door has provided Sunday morning parking spaces for years, but it limited evening events. The Cape also has little affordable housing. The Cape Cod Times calls the area one of the five most expensive places to live in the U.S. Another growth inhibitor may have been that for several years children had to be bused to off-site classrooms because there was no room for them at the church.

When Robinson was called to First Parish 20 years ago the congregation consisted of 130 members, mostly retirees, and 10 children. He says, "They hired me because they wanted to build up the church school. There was a mandate to grow."

There actually was no Sunday School when Robinson started, so he had each member give him the name of a family who was not known to be connected to a church. They were sent letters asking if they'd be interested in helping start a church school where important religious values and religious literacy would be taught. Fifty kids came that first year and 50 more the next. "They were out there waiting," Robinson says. The church grew from 130 to 240 members in three to four years.

Growth has been a conscious decision at First Parish, says Robinson. "If we had grown to 240 and stopped, people would have said we're a success. I just kept saying we have a mission beyond this comfortable pastoral-sized church." When the decision was made to grow beyond 240, Robinson and the congregation focused on starting small groups so newcomers and others would have places to connect.

There were two kinds of small groups at first: spiritual direction groups and affinity groups. The former are groups of about four people who meet for four or five sessions with a spiritual director (Robinson) who helps them focus on their faith and clarify what is sacred to them.

Affinity groups provide sociability, support, and spiritual growth. Examples at First Parish include the women's Angle Alliance, a pagan ritual group, and groups focused on hiking, couples enrichment, and Buddhist meditation.

A third type of group has been added in recent years — Small Group Ministry, groups of 10 to 12 people who meet for two hours twice a month to get to know each other, share spiritual journeys, and discuss a topic of common interest.

First Parish currently has about 25 small groups among the three types. The groups have been key to the congregation's growth, says Robinson. He said he learned about small groups many years ago from the Rev. Dana Greeley, the first president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, who brought back stories from his visits to Japan's liberal religious group, Rissho Kosei-kai, about how the thousands of members of those congregations all belonged to small groups within those congregations.

"I never forgot that," says Robinson. "Our goal here is that 40 percent of our members will come to Sunday services on any given Sunday and that 80 percent will belong to a small group." He estimates about 600 friends and members attend either a small group or a Sunday service at least once a month.

Many friends and members are at First Parish because of Robinson. (Read his sermons and those of other First Parish ministers on-line.) He acknowledges he's part of the reason for First Parish's growth, but only part. The Rev. Mykel Johnson, assistant minister, says of him, "He encourages people to share their gifts. He makes room for other people to shine."