Photo by Bill McBee on Unsplash
Four years ago, my wife Katie and I and our five kids loaded up and moved across the country from Arizona to Massachusetts. We spent 15 years in Arizona planting a church and as a teaching pastor at a large church.
Recently, in an Overseed cohort, the conversation turned to leading change in a New England church and the challenges that come with that. In that conversation, I reflected on some differences between Arizona and New England and how they impact church leadership. Afterward, Jim asked if I’d share some things I’ve learned about New England culture as someone new.
As pastors and leaders, we must be observant and think like cultural missionaries. What makes a culture tick? What makes even the different states of New England so different? Connecticut is not like Maine. Rhode Island and Massachusetts are not the same.
The reality is that all cultures are different. Often, we think that every part of America is the same since we are all one country. But I don’t think we can overlook the impact of regions and states, especially as pastors. In my doctoral research, one of the books I read was American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America. In it, the author talks about how the founding of different states and regions of our country still impacts our world today.
When you think about New England, the people who founded it were the people who stayed. The rest of the country had to keep moving west. Many people who live in New England today were born in New England and their families have been here for generations. The number of people I’ve met in New England who can trace their family to the Mayflower is astounding. My guess is this is one reason change in New England churches is so tricky. In Arizona, you rarely meet someone who is from Arizona. Many people move west looking for something, on some kind of search. When I met someone new to Arizona and asked what brought them west, they often said something like, “I’m trying to find myself. I’m looking for something, but I don’t know what.”
Because people in Arizona are on some kind of search, it created an openness to friendships and community and an opportunity to step into new opportunities. In New England, many people have had the same friend group from kindergarten. This can be helpful, but it also makes it a challenge for someone new to a church to step into a community, especially if they aren’t from that town. We framed things in Arizona around finding something: finding Jesus, finding friends, finding purpose. This made sense because of the underlying search people were on. In New England, there is not that same sense of searching, even among those who have it. They feel like they should know it already, have found it, or that life is what it is.
One reason for this feeling is something that makes New England unique: the number of schools and colleges in the region. This emphasis has a significant impact on ministry. Depth, knowledge, etc., are a big part of following Jesus and being a disciple in New England.
When we moved here, our kids were some of the only new people at their public high school. As I’ve gotten to know people, I’ve learned that there is a strong sense of identity around where you are from in New England. Someone told me that if you aren’t born in Maine, you can’t ever say you are from Maine. This creates loyalty in people but makes it difficult to break into the community or welcome someone new. Many people who move into New England feel on the outside looking in. When one of the pastors at our church left, I was in the meeting where he told his volunteers, and one of them said, “I love you and will miss working with you, but I was here before you, so I figured I’d be here after you.” I sat there and thought, that perfectly sums up New England.
