What was that!

One of those days which promised so much on the diary and delivered something completely different when the doorbell rang!

Expected travel and ended up staying at home - a day of encounter nonetheless but it was varied and yet somehow frustrating. Feeling myself to be totally at the hands of other people's folly, forgetfulness and general shortcomings and yet in the dock; the missed targets of others lying at my feet!

There are often two tensions in life. The first is caused by the words of Jesus which call us to treat others as we would have them treat us. The second come from the lips of St Thumper of Bambi in that, "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all!" I try to express myself honestly and to .make my yes be yes and my no be no' - Not always a popular move. Try the other tack and say nothing and this is taken as assent, which I don't want to give. I'm happy, at times, to say that I'm not sure but will let it go it life cannot be lived by abstentions; it requires courage, honesty and decision!

So I stand by and see things split so people get to do their own thing - it's not mine and has little to do with me and the proletariat cheer in the streets because they're doing stuff. The rulers of the kingdoms are happy because stuff is getting done. But shouldn't we all be doing it in one name and as one people?

Discipleship calls us to make our way through this world making Jesus, the Christ, known and we do it as family (that is Church). All I have ever sought in Church is unity and dialogue and working for each other to do the stuff and yet my experience has been isolated endeavour with division always a hand's breadth away. I love it when I can celebrate the triumph of others and relish the opportunity to engage with and support what others are doing. But I experience that so rarely - is this my misfortune or am I just getting what so many others are getting?

Church is about people, and I love people. It's about Jesus, and I love Jesus. But it seems we are too busy; wound up in our plans and structures and outcomes and demands to get more in the plate and more bums on the pews.
Is this strangling the Church?

Shouldn't we be a party rather than that which we are making Church?

Where are the people who are passionate and on fire?

Are they missing because we, the clergy, are not setting them alight with a zeal for the Lord?

Have we made Jesus everything He isn't and find ourselves looking for commitment where joy and zeal should be?

Have we stopped looking to see new creations in Christ and born again being something exciting and life-giving?

All these questions to be answered and the fear that the problem might be me - am I doing too much, or too little, or doing it in the the wrong place, or doing the wrong thing? Colleagues tell me to do less, thinking I work hard (am driven) because of some desire to prove myself, and yet the reality is that the tide is rising and the time to get people to the safety of the high ground is short. I think of the words that speak of those in Noah's time partying and getting married and having a good time just a few ticks away from the flood and see us not about to be in the same boat. I look at the cross and the salvation that is at hand and, seeing my life changed, want that for others.

That's the role I've taken. That's the role I was given. All I have is Jesus, in and out of season. I'm a bond slave, chosen to have my ear pierced and to be the property of my master even though I am a free man, and in this become the freest man of all.

I write this journal here so others may dialogue with me should they wish. I do it to,be as privately honest and I am publicly assumed to be. This is not about posturing or looking good, for I fear for many I rarely do - and yet isn't this the 'fool for Christ' bit?

I visit people in their homes, and in the care homes, and communicate them and communicate with them. I cry at their losses (where no one sees lest I usurp their grief) and I celebrate their joys. The richness of this wonderful ministerial life I live.

My over-zealousness, my oft misunderstood attempts at honesty and the hope for dialogue which is so often dashed to the ground, expectations unexpectedly dismissed yet again. Where I find like minds and passionate defence in unapologetic ways I rejoice for we are not out to build our piddling kingdoms but one triumphant Kingdom with the Christ on the throne.

Lord, may I have done that in some small way today. May the things in me that distract become less and the things in me that look and smell like Jesus to the world be made greater.

I am left with the words of Wynne Lewis, amazingly used and confusingly gifted - I'm sure he should shave sold used cars: "Victor, you often look like the world to the righteous people in Church and yet you look and smell like Jesus to the world outside our doors. Never let that gift slip from your hands!"

If that is mine and Christ is with (and within) me,  who or what can stand against me and the Gospel of Christ? I love my life; my Lord, my family, my friends and those who I call brothers and sisters. Help me to serve them as Christ came to serve us.

Wherein lies our trust, our courage, our hope?

Last night whilst taking my third communion service of the day I found myself drawn to words from 1 Corinthians 16:

'Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.'

Be alert. Keep watch. Be steadfast. Be brave. Be strong.
Let love be the key, the guide, the reality, the reason and the means by which we exist.

And of course that love is the love that sees Jesus come to this world of ours to bring about the means by which we are reconciled with, and to, God. It is in the Good News of Jesus, the Christ, that we find the path through the dense forests and cloying mire that life demands we pass through.

The problem is that we, the Church, are no longer alert.

The watchmen on the walls are asleep or distracted by issues which, regardless of how important we are being called to think they are, are nothing but a distraction.

The people who bear the name 'beloved'; those who corporately are what is otherwise known as 'The Church' are hopping from foot to foot and turning this way and that as they try to be correct in terms of language, mindset and discipline. They vacillate and vary their beliefs to avoid being unpopular and yet, in doing so, present not a welcoming church but a weak Church!

The Church has set aside being brave for being popular and this means that we have become cowardly in the delivery, and the living out, of our faith. Our strength is failing and we are about to be overrun.

'But,' I am sure some will say, 'We are doing it in love. We are being strong because we stand against those in 'The Church' who oppose x and y and z. We are steadfast and courageous as we change our position and welcome those who otherwise might not be welcome; those who would find the traditional views of The Church unpopular and unwelcoming. We're just being creative.' 

The problem is that what is being created is fluffy fiction not solid faith!

Last night, as I left the church building, one of those who had been present came to me and said:

'The Church is full of cowards. If we believed that Jesus holds the keys to life then surely we would have the courage to tell those we love about Him. Surely we would act to see them brought into relationship with God through the atoning work of the cross.'

He thought he was being controversial - I thought he was being exactly what I wanted as a response to the sermon last night.

And that's part of the problem with Church today. We focus on the wrong things and believe those who tell us that they are more important than the Gospel itself and when people stand for the real issues, they are told they are out of touch or confused or just a little bit bonkers!

When we find the average age increasing, the average attendance decreasing and the ability to pay the parish share a challenge, what do we do:

i. We start becoming fixated on 'bringing children and young people into church',

ii. We stop looking outside the building and gather in a fear-filled huddle inside it, looking out only for ourselves,

iii. We become more concerned with numbers (age, attendance, money) and, letting this become our focus, take our eyes off of Jesus,

iv. We see bringing people in as the solution to our ills and yet are unwilling to create for them a place of welcome, security and nurture: We take things of the menu to ensure that there's nothing difficult for people to swallow,

v. We promote diocesan, deanery and parish plans and call people to concentrate on whatever the fad those who are supposed to be leading have been convinced to take up as the salvation of the Church, and

vi. We rush off to see what thew 'successful' churches are doing in the hope that emulation and 'adopting best practice' will reverse the trends.

There are many more points I would like to add but by now, if you're anything like me, you're probably so depressed / angry / frustrated / (add your emotion here)  that I would just be compounding the misery.

Love is the key; and that love begins, resides and ends in Jesus.

I'm going to be an even bigger pain over the next few days and week because I'm going to challenge colleagues and congregations and the man in the mirror before me and the person with the pointy hat and those who occupy the elevated positions within 'The Church'. I am fed up with being someone who is among a people who are discontent at 'managing decline' and yet resigned to that role. I am so grateful for that one person last night who has inspired me so (and got me out of bed and praying and reading my Bible and scribbling these thoughts at four in the morning) - this is the passion and the spur I desired to see in the church: one out of a population of 100,000 in our town: I think that's probably all we need to get the stone rolling away from the tomb!



Be warned (and be watchful)

Be afraid (very afraid)

Be blessed (and be a blessing)

Church: Custody rather than visits

I happened across this today and it struck a nerve that had been exposed by a conversation yesterday:

After the niggle came the rationalisation and as I started to think of those I know who gain (or are parted from) their children for short periods of time and the associated pain of loss at the knowledge that the joy will be just a brief moment before the child is gone and putting God into the parent's place.

So where were you this weekend?

ps. I don't think you HAVE to be in church all the time but I do think being at family gatherings is part of being family - this was brought home as our family (biological, extended and eternal) came together for a celebration this weekend. Being at a celebration is what families do.

If church isn't a celebration then make it one - I'm sure the dogcollar will moan at first but . . .

Happy Monday - see you all next Sunday :-)

Some days it's a Struggle . . .

You know what it is like when Sunday comes around - you're faced with those difficult choices:

Sundays

How do you do yours?

'Twas the week before Christmas...

And unlike the well-meaning attempt by one of the Police Forces to do something or other with the poem which deals with night before Christmas there's no stressing out or drink or sexual nastiness and blinking awful verse.

Here we are - just a week away from the nativity of the blessed Babe and I have just two Christingle services left. Seems like weeks since I did the first Christingle of the Advent season of the season (the reason being that it was weeks ago!) and yet here we are - glowsticks at the ready and virtual Christingle loaded and good to go. . . And I'm still excited!

There are still carol services to be done (loads of them) and candles to light (that's why we call them candlelit) and mince pies and mulled wine and Communion and ... Well, you know ... Loads of stuff.

There's still loads of time for people to tell me how, 'This must be your busy time!' Ironically, all the time is my busy time (and you thought I just worked one day a week) and the funerals crowd in as grief and Christmas trees clash and fight for the number one slot. There's still people who need communion at home and still more who need a listening ear and a gentle touch amidst the sea of life's problems.

Yes, it must be 'my busy time' - but that's true of every day that God gives me, because that's the nature of the calling (and the man) - so here's a gentle plea:

i. Please pray for those who daily toil is situated within the walls of God's house.

ii. Please don't assume that everything is squared away and sorted - use your eyes and head as see if you can offer assistance.

iii. If it looks like it's going wrong then, having discerned it, get stuck in and resolve it.

iv. Please don't tell your friendly dogcollar that you don't need to come to church on Christmas Day because you've already been if you went on Christmas Eve! Perhaps that should be 'Don't tell me' - but the reality is that Christmas Day is, along with Easter, one of the most important 'red letter' days in the Church's calendar.

v. Did I mention pray?

Have wonderful final week of Advent - our tree goes up this weekend and Christmas will be welcomed in to our home (the twelve days eagerly awaited and the journeying Magi awaited) - May Christmas be a blessing as we celebrate Jesus, God's wonderful Christmas presence.

Pax

CofE Statistics - A longer view (relative ages) - part the first

So here we are again taking a longer view at the CofE stat's (as shown below); this time we're going to have a bit of a think about the issue of children/young people:

The reality is that we have haemorrhaged a quarter of the children and young people over the past ten years and this is something that those around me are cheering (and we do need to cheer about it) over the 2011 (year-on-year) rise of 1.2% that the 216,900 (average weekly attendance) represents.

Couple this with the 139,751 baptisms (another rise in the year-on-year of 4.3%) and the massive rise (again year-on-year of 11.9%, that's 6,582 in 2011) in the area of blessings, and you can see reasons indeed to be cheerful. But this is something we must not only celebrate but also build upon and consolidate as a matter of importance.

The problem is that where I am some regard us as being 'lucky' because we have young people and children because they are 'unlucky' and have none! I often visit churches where the mantra is, 'We are committed, engaged, enthusiastic and becoming old and we have some/few/no* children/young people.' (*delete as applicable)

One of my first questions relates to the area of baptisms, for these are often a place in the church's life where families with young children are to be found. The dialogue then goes a little like this:

'We do baptisms but we can't get the people to do any real prep' and they don't come back afterwards. In fact we used to give the baptism certificate a week or two after the baptism but they never came back and so we just give it to them on the day and never see them again!'

Another person complained that, 'We can't compete with sport on a Sunday and other things that draw the children away. Neither can we make ourselves relevant with regard to the young families around us!'

And you know what? I think we can - and are in many places :-)

CofE Statistics - A longer view (attendance)

Last week we found ourselves presented with the Church of England's annual statistics for 2011 and the picture painted was one that held out some hope that the tide was slackening and perhaps even beginning to turn.

As much as year on year comparisons provide a 'finger in the air' to see which way the wind is blowing (we're not being rude!) we need to step back a little to get a real feel for the trends to make sense and provide a truer picture. So, thanks to BRIN (British Religion In Numbers - University of Manchester) and others (for the figures quoted are also found in many other places) here's some salient and informative stat's that we need to review and consider:

Click on image for larger view

Of course, everyone who gets church statistics rushes to those which relate to the issue of attendance; after all, they are the defining element aren't they? That and how much money is generated - the two defining issues: numbers and ability to pay - sustainability!

For me, the decline in Sunday attendance and the apparent rise in other day attendance is a reality and this is borne out by the 13% (actual and average) decline in Sunday and the 4% less figure that relates to the rest of the week. But before we smile at the relative success of the weekday we need to realise that we're only talking about less decline and not growth!

Where I am the growth of the weekday communion is indeed, in many churches, offsetting (or at least diminishing) lower numbers on a Sunday and this is good news (of the limited kind) but we mustn't let it divert us from the issues of Sunday attendance and decline (which for many is one and the same thing). Huzzah, we're seeing more footfall during the weekdays - but not enough to compensate for the loss on Sunday (and compensation isn't the goal - it's growth, isn't it?). 

Talking to others I hear the familiar lament, 'Oh dear, there's less in on Sunday and no one comes to the evening service,' and then comes their earth-moving advice that we drop the pm slot because, 'No one wants to come!'

I hope that the next bit doesn't offend but I think the problem is dual in that we have 'hobby Christians'  and 'management of decline' clergy conspiring together and when we add to the mix some of the senior clergy and their motivational speeches and programmes I am reminded of deck chairs, orchestras and sinking ships - something for later methinks. The cheering news is that we do have bishops and their staff who are out there and up for it (three cheers for Bob Jackson, George Fisher and others) and they aren't alone.

But how's about a bit more worrying still stuff? The number of churches where anyone under the age of forty is considered to be young!! The twenty-five percent drop in the usual Sunday attendance in children/young people over the ten year period is encouraging compared to the realities I engage with; the churches bemoaning the age-gap and exhibiting the impotence to address same; the congregations where the only children to be found live in the Vicarage.

Something else to discuss sometime soon!

But that's a start (hopefully in the right direction) - catch you later for more thinking.

CofE Statistics Released

The figures are in for 2011 and, like the Curate's Egg, not all of it is bad:

Smile At:

Christmas (2011) saw a year-on-year increase of 14.5% more worshippers to our services with a grand total of 2,618,030 (and the 2012 are looking to be better still).

Baptisms also increased by 4.3% (with a rise of just over 5% in adult baptisms) bringing the combined number of baptisms for 2011 to 139,751 baptisms.

Thanksgiving Services also increased by 11.9% (that's 6,582 for the year).

Frown a little at:

Average Weekly Attendance which fell by 0.3% (which is almost static!) to 1,091,484 and leads one to smile (again) that the decline has been (nationally) arrested and smile even more that this means that many places are seeing growth to bring this about (Praise God or what?).

Smile again that:

Growth - around half of the regions are reporting growth in Church attendance, with 46% (20 out of 44 dioceses) enjoying  increases.

Young People - A 1.2% increase in children and young people attending (risen to 216,928).

Need some work with

Weddings which decreased by 3.6% (perhaps we need to look at the preparation and welcome/image and prices?) - that said, we still did 51,880.

Conversely

Wedding Blessings - have risen by 4.5% (so we must be doing something right!).

An interesting aside comes in the information that the trend over the past decade has been that the CofE married an average of 1,000 couples every week and that is pretty much maintained (but needs some real work).

Funeral  numbers have fallen slightly as in 2011 there was a year-on-year drop of 2.8% (that's still 162,526) but the ONS (Office for National Statistics) posts a fall of 1.8% death for the same period so there is some correlation  When you think that we do more than 3,000 funerals each and every week (400 a day) it is obvious that this pastoral office is a large part of the parochial mission and ministry to those around us!

Cheering news to send us all back to our kneelers methinks

Happy Tuesday

What Makes church valid? (post the third)

Over the past years I have continually been assailed by some whose key indicator of a church's validity has been the ability to pay. That same old same old assessment that:

Those who can pay can have - those who cannot pay cannot have!

And I have never disputed that we all need to pay our way and make ends meet but I have said, on many an occasion, that there are also charity, mission and the impact of that congregation under the microscope on the people and community it was established to serve.

All too often we (the Church) appear to be more taken up with numbers than we are the Gospel and making it known. 

Whenever clergy meet other clergy or encounter those from 'head office' it appears almost mandatory that the question, 'And what's your ASA or how many do you have in your church?' will arise.

All too often I meet with people who want to look at a Mission Action Plans (MAPs) or get their church into mission with the prime mover eventually coming down to numbers rather than a desire to be effective. Now I don't care what gets the church moving as long as it gets moving, but we have a Gospel to proclaim (a good opening for a song there I reckon) and when we focus on numbers we struggle to focus on Jesus, the cross and restoration of relationship with God - and that's what is central, not numbers (unless you're thinking of how many times we are forgiven and likewise forgive).

That said I do have to (quite hypocritically perhaps) have to admit that there are some numbers that I think do matter; one of these being the percentage of a church's congregation that is effective and engaged. My reason for placing import here is that the those who are 'doing' are also (usually) 'owning' what is happening and the only way we will make our message real and known is by a real 'all member ministry' model. I don't mean those who are directed and treated as drones but those who do what they do in partnership with others. Where the whole body is connected to the next member and the whole acts in concord with the individual. (1 Cor 12: 'Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.' springs to mind)

This is one of the elements that makes church (and Church) valid and leads to perhaps the first part of the definition I am seeking to create:

A truly active all-member ministry where the person with the ultimate responsibility is primus inter pares (first among equals) rather than the monarch (despotic or benign)  which seeks to celebrate Christ in the midst and make Him known outside of the body.

Pax

ps. Thank You for the comments and emails I have received regarding the 'valid church' posts - extremely helpful and for those whose pain I both understand and feel - be assured of my prayers)

What makes church valid? post the first

An interesting discussion on the question 'what makes a church valid' soon stretched into what makes a service valid too.

After all, if you put on an evening service and you get six or seven people turn up for it, is this an effective use of the clergy's time?

Does the fact that those who come would not have come to a church service had the evening service not been on offer suddenly make it valid?

What about the same service with only four turning up, where does the line get drawn and how long is it before we perhaps consider the example from the Old Testament (Gen 18: 16 - 33) and find ourselves pleading for our services in the same way that Abraham pleaded before the LORD for the inhabitants of Sodom:

When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?  Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”
Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know. The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.

Then Abraham approached him and said: 
“Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing - to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?”
“If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”

Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?”
He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”

Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?”
He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?”
He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”

Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?”
He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”

When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.

So can we take from this passage some guidance? Do we decide that 'valid' church has to have more than ten in a service?

Do we look at fifty (midi church) as the number that renders a congregation, fellowship or church as valid?

Do we take one hundred (large church) as the critical mass (sorry not knocking high church here, honest!) and the number that confers validity, efficacy and sustainability?

I know of a person for whom, in my view, the existence of a church service is made valid because they cannot do morning services and because there is an evening service provided they can remain part of Church and come alongside others to worship. The fellowship, the provision and the ability to come before the Lord in a church setting all conspire to make this a valid service.

But what of those buildings which see but a handful for their evensongs, should we decide that they are 'no longer to be tolerated' after all, if we stop these services we can stay at home and watch 'Downturn Alley' and the like. To quote a colleague, 'They don't want to come out and I'm happy to let them!"

Are numbers the deciding factor?

Are we merely becoming lazy or downhearted when we resign ourselves to the fact that once of a Sunday (and in the morning) is enough?

Church - How do you like yours (and why and what and how and who and . . . )

How many do we need in a place before we can save it and those within I wonder?