Missional Church

This is one of the most insightful articles on the subject of "mission church" that I've read in a long time, particularly from a US perspective which often still seems to insist that "If we get our marketing right, they will come back". Uh uh.

The Death of the Funeral Society

Evangelical Universalist?

My friend Will Grady writes a really thoughtful post on the subject of The Evangelical Universalist.

The bit of the post I found most helpful was Will's pointing out that the final hope of the Christian is not that we "go to heaven" as disembodied individual spirits but rather that God has promised that he will bring about a New Creation into which all people will be resurrected.

From this, Will concludes:

It is to this new creation that Christians point, and in doing so we, by the Holy Spirit, bring God’s new creation in spots around the world. Mission, then, is the work of the Holy Spirit bringing in bits of what God will do definitely when Jesus returns at the final resurrection. Mission is spreading the gospel (good news) that Jesus is the world’s true king, and that announcement does in some since divide the world into those who would accept it and those who won’t.

A really good post and well worth a read.

Fit for Purpose

At our ministerial synod today, we were privileged to hear Martyn Atkins speak. Martyn is the new General Secretary of The Methodist Church in Great Britain. He is also a former President of Conference and former Principal of Cliff College. Apparently, this was the first time Martyn has given a presentation to a group since his Presidential year ended in July of this year.

Martyn asked the question whether the Methodist Church is currently 'fit for purpose' and he believes that we are. One of our main purposes is the purpose for which the Methodist Church was born: mission and evangelism.

During his Presidential year, Martyn asked Methodists all over the country what they think characterises the Methodist Church. They answered:
* Warm-hearted
* Inclusive and inviting
* Connected and committed
* Engaged and involved
* Often with the marginalized

Martyn asked the question: 'Do any of these things suggest a group of people who cannot cope with today's culture?' He thinks that all of the above values are ones that are in tune with society today.

But one of the things that Martyn wants to change is Methodism's 'narrative'. We've been telling ourselves for the last 30 years that we are a dying denomination and Martyn would like this to stop and he would like to change our narrative to a more visionary one. However, he also believes that we will need some radical change.

For me, there was one interesting point that came out in our question-and-answer session. Martyn asked the question 'Why do I meet in my travels many people ministering in movements like New Frontiers, in 'fresh expressions of church' and even in the Baptist Union who came to faith in the Methodist Church but who didn't want to remain in Methodism?'

His answer was an interesting one: that most of our services are 'lead from the front' but that, generally speaking, people under 40 don't have a sense of belonging unless they are active participants in worship. He reckons that movements like New Frontiers, etc., are structured so as to use the talents of the people who join. Martyn also observed that many people over 50 will normally expect to be passive participants in church and that many of them will not want to participate in worship, unlike the under 40s.

He reckons that we can't try to force people who want non-participative worship into a participative model and that we need to have a 'multiplex' mode of operation if we are going to attract young people. He suggested that the circuit system could be used to accommodate different communities with divergent narratives. Lots of food for thought and a thoroughly exciting ministerial synod!

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Edited on 14 November:  I feel that I may not have communicated very well about 'participative worship'.  I don't think Martyn meant 'OK, everyone, now at this point in the service, we are all going to....'.  I got the impression that he meant that, as new people join the church, they offer their own gifts for the use of the church and that these are gladly taken up and used.  Rather than, 'Well, we really don't need someone who plays the diggery-do' we say 'Thank you for offering to play the diggery-do to the glory of God, let's find a way to use it in our service.'

Sermon Blogging

Catching up on my sermon blogging:

A sermon for the 6th Sunday of Easter: Not a Private Kingdom

A sermon for Pentecost Sunday: Pentecost Mission

A sermon for Trinity Sunday: Trinity and Community

Bums on Pews

Call it what you like: bums on pews, Fresh Expressions, the crisis of Christianity/religion.

Why don't people come to church any more?

My own theory is simple and probably not very helpful. I think that people don't come to church any more because people don't want to join groups. Still less do they want to join institutions. Ask the Scouts, the Toastmasters or the Rotary. It's not like people are flocking to join these groups whilst studiously avoiding the church. I think that this is a sea-change in our culture and it's a change that is very difficult for the church in general even if individual congregations are able to attract numbers.

I'm not of the view that people don't come to church any more because they are more hostile to religion or to Christianity than they were in the past. In this, I disagree with a lot of my friends in 'real life'.

My disagreement comes from my past when I had an 'office job' and people were constantly askimg me about God and constantly wanted to talk about God. People are, I think, quite interested and eager to talk about God as long as they don't have to come to church.

Let's be honest. In the days of the 'church as a bulwark of general society' church was about individual congregations being essentially local clubs. What is church in this new cultural context where few want to join a club but many want to talk about God?

As usual, I have no easy answers. I wish I did!