Are we spending so much time maintaining our churches that we've lost our focus on mission? Bishop Graham Cray explores what needs to be done to make the Church 'the right shape' for our communities.
Most Christians in Britain have never experienced the Church as the Church is meant to be.
The growing majority of today's mission field are those who have never had a connection to any church. We are in danger of being the wrong shape and in the wrong place. But this can change if we want it to.
Ten years ago, in his book Hope for the Church, Bob Jackson, a Church of England mission consultant, wrote that the decline of the Church was
ultimately caused neither by the irrelevance of Jesus, nor by the indifference of the community, but by the Church's failure to respond fast enough to an evolving culture, to a changing spiritual climate, and to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
The cultural climate is less friendly today, due in no small measure to the rise of such horrors as fundamentalist terrorism and sexual abuse scandals, but Jackson's diagnosis remains accurate, as does his remedy – 'the repentance of the Church' – as long as we remember that this means changing our ways, not feeling sorry for ourselves.
What Went Wrong?
So what has gone wrong? How strange is the Church, as far as ordinary non-churchgoing people are concerned, and does it matter? Is local church culture a kind of bubble, a world of its own, impervious to unbelievers? It certainly can be. The language of our songs, prayers and conversations can seem alien or just quaint. We 'march on the land', we 'claim the ground', we sing 'songs of Zion' and sprinkle every prayer with 'justs' and 'reallys' and we don’t notice that we do it.
More serious is what I call the whirlpool factor. The more you are around church, the more you are drawn into its maintenance. Its need for our money, time and talents pull us into another world. Maintaining church can become the central demand on our lives, rather than equipping us for lives of Christian discipleship. The centre pulls us in, but the key place for mission is on the periphery, on the interface with the world, where the needs of the community and the not-yet-Christians are. Most churches in the UK are not big, but take a large part of their core members' available time and energy to maintain. Something is wrong if running the church leaves us too tired for mission. We need to find ways to travel light. Even pastoral care can be overdone if there is an introverted culture. One of the best ways to keep a church healthy is to shape it so that most of its members are part of groups involved in mission. Relationships tend to be healthier if they are involved in serving others.
Research on why people have given up on church finds people whose Sunday experience did not make any difference to the main challenges of daily life. Many of us live stressed lives, working long hours. If church does not connect, it soon drops down the priority list – until for many it drops off the end of the list entirely. There is also a contrasting age profile; the average Church of England worshipper is 14 years older than the average in the population.
A Growing Distance
These and other factors contribute to a growing distance between the local church and large parts of British culture. But the scale of that distance is not just the Church's fault. British culture has been growing away from the Church under its own momentum. We are part of a multi-choice, habit-forming, individualistic culture. It is consumerist. Its role models are celebrities. Its purpose is 'my' (and 'my family's') happiness. Many of those who live this way have little or no knowledge of the Bible or the Christian faith – unless they watch Rev. It's the role of the local church to offer them something better.
There are different groups in society, of course. An increasing number who struggle to survive financially, and many others whose work consumes their whole life. Others who long for a better world, and protest and volunteer to bring it about. Few of these people see the Church as relevant to their longings, challenges or struggles. Nor do they have the slightest sense of an obligation to 'go to church'.
Much of the Church as it exists now was shaped by an era when, in theory at least, the population had a Christian world view. The Church was the centre of the community, ministers were respected, people came to the church for all the key rites of passage, and had a sense of obligation to attend worship. In other words, the Church just had to be there and people would come. When this faded, we worked on making our churches more attractive and welcoming and 'seeker-friendly', but still people had to come to us, largely on our terms. But now churches have to attend more carefully to the culture, and mission has to involve going to serve and planting churches where people are – culturally or geographically.
God’s Action Plan
What sort of Church is needed to engage with the world in which we now find ourselves? To answer that question we need first to ask what the Church is for. The Church is for the world. Yes, of course, the Church is for God, but that means being for God's purposes in the world. Mission lies at the heart of the Church's identity and calling. Wherever God has located his Church, however complicated and networked that locality might be, it is there for that complex community.
Jesus called God's action plan 'the kingdom of God'. Many denominations and Church streams use similar language when they try to unpack this. They say that the Church is to be a sign, instrument or agent, and a foretaste of the kingdom.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the local church is called to be an imperfect foretaste of the kingdom of God. People should be able to see among us what God has prepared for the future world. It will certainly be imperfect. It will be made up of people like us. But it will also demonstrate the continual grace and forgiveness of God and the possibility of a new start. The Church is part of the good news. If we want to share the good news locally we need to be good news – the best news our locality has got.
Language BarriersFive church words the real world struggles with: Sin – There's something uncomfortable about this word, no one outside of church uses it and it resounds with judgement. Born again – For a lot of people, this conjures up an image of a bizarre surgical procedure, rather than a story of redemption and a fresh start. Witness – A word that Christians tend to think of as a good thing, but most people instantly think of some kind of court case: 'We are all witnesses.' 'Really, what happened?' Worship – It just sounds a little bit too much like warship, or a complete mystery. Salvation – Let's be honest, most Christians struggle to understand this concept, so calling someone outside of the Church to 'salvation' is like inviting them to a dinner party in a foreign language. Jamie Cutteridge
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Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has described the Church as 'what happens when people encounter the risen Jesus and commit themselves to sustaining and deepening that encounter in their encounter with one another.' It is the presence of the risen Lord, the King, which guarantees that the local church can live as a sign, instrument and foretaste of his kingdom – a community which offers its locality a better way of life and a call to discipleship.
Jesus said that if any wanted to become his followers, let them 'deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me' (Mark 8.34). A church which is a foretaste of the kingdom cannot be primarily about 'me', or 'my' preferences and tastes. Most of the churches I know are determined by the religious tastes of their members. We are used to creating churches in which we are comfortable. We join and leave churches because they do or do not suit us. Sometimes we sit in church more like theatre critics than worshippers, and then pass judgement over coffee after the service. But a consumer church – for that is what it is – conformed to the dominant spirit of the age, will never fulfil God's plan in Christ.
Church Gathered, Church Scattered
Church is a community of disciples whose lives are interdependent. It is about 'us', not about 'me'. It is a mutually supportive community. Christianity is a shared life in God – all of life – 24/7. Its purpose is not to be a whirlpool, drawing people into another world, but a launch pad, equipping each member for whole life discipleship. Church gathered is for the sake of Church scattered. A better way of life requires real community, sustaining and deepening our encounter with Jesus through our encounter with one another.
Church, as God intends it, is a worshipping community. The purpose of worship is to bless the Lord; any blessing received from him is a secondary by-product. If I have been truly blessed in worship I will be less concerned about myself and more concerned to please and honour him. When I worship as a member of Church scattered, my personal pattern of devotion will be to help me grow in the conviction that 'apart from him' I can do nothing (John 15:5).
Does your church draw people into a whirlpool or launch them into the world?How much of the effort that goes into your church is about maintaining the status quo? Does the shape of your services solely cater to the needs of the people currently attending? What does your church practically do to equip its members to bring Jesus to the world around them? How separate are the lives of your congregation away from Sunday mornings? Jamie Cutteridge
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Church, as God intends it, is a missional community. The prayer life of such a church would be centred on discernment. In what ways at this time is this church called to be sign, instrument and foretaste? How should the Body of Christ take visible shape there? Where is God already at work? Evangelism in this context must be disciple-making, and dare not concentrate on personal salvation and initial responses alone.
The 'right way up' logic of Christian discipleship is that it is in losing myself to follow Christ that I find myself. Personal fulfilment and identity are not found in selfish choices or a journey inward, but in relationship with Christ, the community of believers, and the communities which we are called to serve.
We need churches which are real communities, and which are instinctively missional. Leaders need to construct church life around the ministry by the Church in the world, rather than ministry in the Church that is largely confined to the existing members.
There remains the question of the location of churches. Many are in the wrong place culturally, and sometimes geographically. In Kent there are churches a mile or more outside the village. They are where the village used to be – before the Black Death. Our commitment has to be to reach people where they are now, not where they used to be. In every community we need to ask 'Who will never be reached and what will never change if we only do what we are doing now?' We will need to church plant and to plant fresh expressions of Church – planting congregations with a different style and ethos to those we already have – to reach many unreached groups and untouched contexts.
One of the primary purposes of Church gathered is to sustain us for Church scattered: the mission and ministry of our daily lives. Teaching, training and prayer need to be focused on the actual places, responsibilities and challenges which the members face from Monday to Saturday. Church on a Sunday can become the launch pad for being Church, possibly even planting Church, in the workplace, school, leisure centre and shopping centre. Pastors need to invest in their congregations' capacity to live distinctively Christian lives. Prayerful attention should also be given to the call of God to establish ministry among sections of the community where no Christian ministry is present or effective. The heart of God for the poor, powerless and invisible should always be at the heart of any local church.
Whole-Life Discipleship
A common thread through all of this is that of whole-life discipleship. It is the quality of personal and corporate Christian discipleship which can offer our nation hope. If we are to make the most of the launch pad and resist the whirlpool effect, the everyday lives of Christians and Christian communities remain the vital ingredient in the transformation and reevangelisation of our nation.