Martyn Atkins calls for the Methodist Church to look again at the money, personnel and resources made available for mission – including the development of fresh expressions of church – if it is to meet the challenges of today’s fast-changing society.
Reflecting on his report to this year's Methodist Conference, the General Secretary urges the church to build on its firm foundations but take risks in order to encounter those
who don't find it easy to encounter the Gospel, see the relevance of Christ or experience the love of God in society'.
In an online interview with Anna Drew of the Methodist media team, Martyn outlines the pressures facing many churches and chapels in Britain, saying that the kind of worship and church life enjoyed by many devoted Methodists attracts fewer and fewer people from the general population. This is turn sets up a
disquiet from God,
prompting increasing numbers of Methodists to look at the missional agenda and ask,
What does God want of us in this time?
Martyn emphasises that developing new forms of church needs a disproportionate amount of time, people and resources to tease out ways in which people can encounter an authentic Christian life in the 21st century – rather than trying to get them to repopulate the churches and take their place in the pews.
In calling for a more radical shift, he says this can't be done by using
fag end time and fag end money,
warning that – as church changes – nothing is sacred in terms of trying to hold on to the way that things have always been done.
In looking at the big picture, the questions revolve around,
How do we move this forward? How do we take the risks that we think God is leading us to? How do we become that discipleship movement shaped for mission?
Regrouping for that mission is not about managing decline but it does involve taking a good look not only at inherited church resources but, vitally, how things such as fresh expressions are financed. Until now they have been resourced from money in the bank but that has to change. Martyn says,
We're put more and more in a situation where we can't do both; which are we going to do?'
He urges Methodism to take the risk of using a greater proportion of money on something far more than
simply servicing church as we know it.
Instead he calls for the 21st century version of what Methodism did originally – looking to reach those the inherited church doesn't reach.
The Methodist Church has 5,300 chapels,
far too many for what we need,
says Martyn.
Bold questions should be asked as to whether they are fit for purpose. Does the Church need them all and should it own them? How many of them do we need and where should they be?
He exhorts Methodism to continue to use
a disproportionate amount of finite resources in exploring what God might be leading us into.
At present £100,000 to £110,000 a year goes to Fresh Expressions with clergy stipends amounting to some £64m a year.
In the seven years of the Fresh Expressions movement our latest statistics for mission tell us that one third of all Methodist causes in the country have formed what they consider to be a fresh expression of church. And that's all happened on £110,000 a year…
Looking to the Methodist Church as this radical agenda is explored, Martyn is clear,
The Spirit of Jesus is saying to the church, 'Can I use you or can't I? Are you going to be with me incarnationally in Britain, in the 21st century or are you going to be a movement consigned to a particular time in history?' History's replete with the bones of churches that didn't hear the cry to follow and accompany Christ into a new world; with dirty fingernails; with resolute prayer; with a pretty radical agenda of social change and social justice and the promise of an inhabiting spirit that makes all things possible.