Taking the Evangelical Church in Central Germany as an example, we analyse the conflicts originating within one clerical municipality in the context of territorial reorganization as a reaction to socio-demographic and financial shrinkage. In specific, we elaborate on (1) how the people involved in clerical work relate to other actors involved in the re-organization, (2) what expectations they have towards their own pastor, and (3) what image they have regarding possible reactions to shrinkage. We use SAHR's (2006) postulate that spatio-territorial orders cannot be distinguished from different types of social spatiality, and that these are - in practice - inter-related and co-constitutive. Based on extensive empirical surveys, we plead for a further development of surveys in the context of the geography of religion towards a performative understanding of "grounded theologies" (TSE 2014).