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www.HartfordBusiness.com • August 5, 2019 • Hartford Business Journal 7 By Gregory Seay gseay@hartfordbusiness.com C hurches, like most for- and nonprofit institutions, need financial, operational and marketing guidance in order to satisfy their religious and secular ambitions. Houses of worship, too, are not im- mune to the mounting pressures for satisfying their financial, staffing and programming obligations, particularly as fewer people in Connecticut and nationwide attend church. Signs of tough times abound. One Protestant congregation in Hartford's North End a year ago put its sanctuary on the market for $1 million. There are currently 22 church or religious prop- erties for sale in Connecticut, accord- ing to online commercial realty listing website LoopNet. Inside and outside Connecticut, the Catholic Church has shuttered schools and church buildings and consoli- dated parishes to save money. A recent Gallup poll found only 50 percent of Americans belong to a church, syna- gogue or mosque — an all-time low. So, where do faith leaders and their congregants turn when their paths turn rocky and uncertain? Several Hartford area houses of worship have found a secular adviser- partner in Fathom LLC. The 12-year-old West Hartford consultancy, co-founded by Brent Robertson, over the years has counseled some of the region's most in- fluential employers: Bloomfield health insurer Cigna, nonprofit Foodshare Inc., aerospace manufacturer Kaman Corp., and West Hartford accounting- consultancy blumshapiro, among them. In spring 2018, a mutual acquain- tance put Fathom in touch with Erica Thompson, senior pastor of one of Hartford's oldest churches, Asylum Hill Congregational, in the city's West End. In 12 months since, Thompson says, Fathom has met periodically with Asylum Hill leadership and many of its 1,200 members separately and togeth- er, to harvest their input and concerns about the tenor and direction of their church. Many felt their church had lost its way following the cloudy departure two years ago of a popular minister and the retirement of another, she said. The results from Fathom's engage- ment, on which Thompson says the church has spent about $50,000, have been palpable. For example, Asylum Hill Congrega- tional drew 1,000 people to this year's Easter service — a number that hadn't been seen in a decade. "One of the things we aspire to be is a 'big tent' church,'' she said. "But one where there's diversity in all the ways we think of diversity.'' Amid all that, Thompson said Fathom helped her church realize it could, and should, do more to welcome everyone. For instance, Robertson said Fathom arranged a church "conversation'' centered on Asylum Hill's longstanding posture as a sanctuary to Hartford's les- bian-gay-bisexual-transgender (LGBT) community. The church has since held conversations or outreach around other church and community issues. Conveying brand Scott Thumma is a sociology professor at The Hartford Seminary and directs its Hartford Institute for Religion Research. Thumma says the rising partnerships between churches and secular advisers on finance, opera- tions and marketing are a response to a growing social-media culture and other modern-day pressures on their congregations and ministers. Rarely, Thumma says, are minister- candidates exposed to finance and mar- keting in seminary. That's the value of organizations such as Fathom, he said. "Churches really need someone who can help them think about what colors go well together or how to convey their brand,'' Thumma said. "You're taught in seminary how to communicate with people in the pews. But you're not taught modern approaches to reach out to others'' beyond the pews. To attract or retain churchgoers, houses of worship across Connecti- cut and the U.S., observers say, are tinkering with everything from pew colors to distributing "welcome'' cards that visitors fill out so congregations can network with them later. Others are reviving or fortifying their youth and young-adult ministries to sustain their flocks. Some now allow wor- shipers to watch live or tape-delayed church services or tithe online. The Hartford Institute for Religion Research published a 2015 study that established a connection between con- gregations with a strong vision and identity and growth. "To the extent religion has become a consumer-oriented marketplace,'' study author David A. Roozen wrote, "it should not be surprising that congre- gations that stick out from the crowd are more likely to be growing … .'' Secular Guidance As churches struggle, parishes embrace business consulting firm to find new path Fewer Americans belong to a church Church membership has declined, especially in the past 20 years. The chart below shows the percentage of U.S. adults who say they are church members. 1938 1943 1948 1953 1958 1963 1968 1973 1978 1983 1988 1993 1998 2003 2008 2013 2018 90 76 62 48 34 20 73 76 73 73 71 71 68 69 70 64 61 59 55 50 % of U.S. church members Source: 2018 GALLUP poll Continued on next page >> Consultant and Fathom LLC co-founder Brent Robertson and Hartford's Asylum Hill Congregational Church Senior Pastor Erica Thompson. PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER