'lucky church'

If anything is destined to light the blue touchpaper with me it us those people who tell me we are a 'lucky' church!

Recently, I was given a lecture from a couple of local church members telling me how 'lucky' we were to have children on our services when they had none. Not only that but we were also 'lucky' to be growing and having new members and were even 'more lucky' to have so many people working and doing stuff in our church. Apparently everything that is happening to others around them is the result of nothing more than 'luck' - which explains it all I guess.

Sadly, the application of facts tends to pull down the 'lucky' label because:

1. When we started out the only children in church were ours!

2. The people who have joined us have done so because of a number of reasons, which include community involvement and contact, a gobby dogcollar and the church building being the focal point for much that happens in our patch.

3. Percentage-wise we have a large number of our members who are active. The services regularly involves a number of people and there are usually at least six voices heard in the services. But of course when you are running with an ASA of forty something, even 100% involvement is always less than fifty!

The church the 'unlucky' observers came from boasts perhaps twice the number of helpers we have (but of course that's a lower percentage). It also has an ageing congregation and a bag of excuses for not growing or attracting the young. It has a greater passing trade in young people and greater potential for much - but it is still a church in decline.

Seems there are some who are ridiculously optimistic when it comes to growth and mission. They expect God to bless and fill where the congregation fails to act.

There are others who see the game as lost and cling in holy huddles to the days when people queued to get in to Evensnog. They sit within their empty mausoleum and reflect on how the 'Spirit has left' and merely wait for God (getting more forlorn and vitriolic as time (and members) pads away.

Then there are those who work to understand their patch, struggle with Mission Action Plans, engage with the community and seek to bless what God is doing rather than wait for people to return to where they've never been.

When I became a Christian I was told that we 'didn't do luck, but did mission, obedience and love', perhaps that's the key?

Pax

ps. For those who know where home is, don't assume you know the church in question - you might just be wrong!