About

Our mission:

Bring the best of church change research, advice, and counsel to the small church caught in a state of plateau or decline.

To meet that objective, we will do the following:

1) offer articles and perspectives based on the best of academic research into the dynamics of mainline churches and the American religious landscape,

2) make available the valuable insights of U.S. clergy, consultants and church change leaders from a variety of traditions and perspectives,

3) provide links to professional, academic and other resources that can help inform the change efforts of small churches,

4) offer original articles and resources that empower local congregations with the insight and tools they need to determine their own future, and

5) provide additional services and resources that meet our mission and serve the small churches that are our passion.

Our team: Terry and Lowell Bascom

The Rev. Terry Bascom has a Bachelor of Science in Sociology and a Masters of Divinity. He was ordained in 1993 and is a member of the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches, an association of churches in the historic congregational tradition. He taught religion at the college level for 4 years, and pastored churches for 11. He also served as a member of his association’s Church Development Board, tasked with planting new churches and developing means to help declining churches arrest and reverse their course.

Terry has an extensive familiarity with the field of the sociological study of American faith communities. He edited the short-lived Leadership & Transformation newsletter, sponsored by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, and he has annotated over 1000 articles from 25 research websites funded by the Lilly Endowment’s Religion Division, which help populate a new Lilly-sponsored website, titled Insights into American Religion. Terry continues to provide support for the site by annotating new research and by providing “where to find” articles that help information seekers identify germane material produced by Lilly-supported research.

Terry has a passion for small churches. He knows that consultant fees are far beyond the financial ability of many small, troubled churches. His goal is to provide the resources consultants bring through articles, resource links, and downloadable self-guided workshops.

Mr. Lowell Bascom has a background in entrepreneurial business and web-based site development and marketing. He operates 5 sites of his own, as well as this one and several others for family members. His goal in this endeavor is to help make the information Terry is providing as accessible to small churches as possible.

With his experience in developing websites, Lowell is considering providing video instructional materials for churches that would like to develop their own sites. He is also evaluating the viability of providing those services to churches that would prefer to have somebody else establish a site for them.