What attracts people to Church?

On Tuesday I had 10 minutes of fame being interviewed on BBC Radio Manchester (if anyone actually listens to it!!).

Someone had seen the poster outside our Church which said, "Easter without Jesus is dead". Now I thought it was a clever poster which might make people think about the importance of the resurrection and the fact that without Jesus the Easter holiday is just 4 days out of the office for people who work in banks.

Somehow the message that people were getting is that the church thinks Easter is Dead!

So I was interviewed on how we try to attract people to come to church. This was a curious experience as I am very indifferent now about the attractional approach. However, I think that there is still some value to attracting people who have lapsed or who have had some christian input in earlier life. I know that this is addition, but there are still some 20-30% of the population who could be brought in if the present members were more active in inviting them.

So for me the real issue is not the snappy posters, but helping the people who form the present worshipping community to become more attractive examples of what it means to be a Christian.

Loving the Lost

I am greatly inspired by Guy Muse who is a Missionary in Ecuador who is planting churches in homes. I believe that this is the way forward for Britain as well. The other day he mentioned that in America it takes on average 86 church members a year to bring one person to Baptism (full church membership). In the home churches in Ecuador the average is one baptism for every 3 church members every year.

Our church (St.Mark’s) is about 100 members. At the 86:1 rate after 15 years we would have 119 members assuming noone died or left. At the 3:1 rate of new members after 15 years we would have nearly 7,500 members in 15 years.
Guy gives some clues as to why the Ecuadorian believers are so fruitful. We have much to learn :

1) Praying daily for lost. Talk to any of the believers in a Guayaquil housechurch and they will show you their list of people they pray for daily ofunsaved family, friends, neighbors.

2) Active regular sharing of the Gospel. It is a very natural part of their Christian walk to share the Gospel with people they encounter in their daily lives. Christ has made such a difference in their lives, and they cannot help but share this with those they come in contact with.

3) Planning regular evangelistic events. The house churches plan regular evangelistic events inviting those they are praying for to attend (concerts, outdoor street meetings, special programs, family conferences, DVD/Videos, invited guest speakers, neighborhood evangelistic door-to-door blitzes, etc.)

4) Visiting the sick and personally ministering to lost friends, neighbors and family in times of crisis. They are very good about visiting sick people outside of their church family, praying for their healing and ministering to lost family and friends during difficult times.

5) Not distracted by a lot of outside issues. We too have our sticky issues, but they are more along the lines of things like can unmarried couples who get saved be baptized? How to counsel people with difficult problems? How to discern if someone is demon possessed or just emotionally unstable? How to handle questions that Roman Catholics always ask? Why doesn't God always heal someone when they are prayed for? If I were to share with them (and I don't) the issues that are causing all the uproar in the IMB and SBC these days, they would shake their heads in disbelief!

6) Intentionally focus on evangelism as a life priority. Talk to any of them andthey will tell you that their ministry is to win/disciple at least eight peoplethis year. They expect God to give them these souls and are consciously prayingand working to achieve this goal.

7) They maintain friendships/relationships with lost friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc. They play ball on the street with them, visit them in their homes, minister to them in times of need. How are we ever supposed to win people to the Lord if we have little/no relationship with the lost? How is a Christian supposed to win lost people if they do not even know any? Folks here know plenty of lost people whom they are burdened for their salvation.

There is no baking powder in the Kingdom of God

Prototype

I often hear God most clearly in my waking thoughts. Maybe this is what people in the bible meant when they report that God spoke to them through a dream.

This morning, as clear as a bell I knew that we need to run a “prototype” cell with a few people who really have the vision and values of the Kingdom of God. This little group of radicals will work out how to do nothing except what the Father tells us to do (John 5). We will seek first the Kingdom of God and not worry about the church buildings or be distracted by the church’s internal squabbles.

When we feel confident that we know what it feels like to be dead to self and alive to Christ we will invite a few others to join us and become two or three cells. In the new cells disciple making will take place. The new members will also need to discover what it feels like to be totally 100% dedicated to following Jesus. If we don’t get this we will never see multiplication. There are no passengers in the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God is like the yeast working its way through the dough. It starts small. At first it is slow. At the second and third stages it will be slow. But if the DNA is right it will multiply. There is no instant way to leaven the lump. There is no baking powder in the Kingdom of God.

Values are caught, not taught.

About 3 years ago I tried retraining all my cell leaders. We closed down the cell groups. We held meetings all together in the church building for about 6 weeks to go over the values together. We called this “Shining Brighter” and it was attended by about 35 people. I was a bit disappointed at the time that some of the potential cell leaders did not attend. In the Autumn while the cells were not running I led two cell groups, each with 10 members. We worked our way through the Cell Leader Training booklet produced by Cell UK.

By Christmas when we finished the training I was not convinced that we had the values, so I kept the two groups going and between Christmas and Easter we went through the “Breakthrough Course” which is based on Neil Anderson’s Breaking Through to Freedom in Christ. The idea of this was that it could be used for disciple making as it teaches things like: how to believe the truth; how to forgive; how to resist temptation; how to deal with anger etc.

Easter arrived and we re-launched the cell groups. But I knew even then that we were not ready. I knew that we did not really have the values fully embedded. So here we are two years later. The cells have mutated. We have not multiplied.

So why did the retraining not work?

This is not well thought through, but here goes:
1) The groups were a bit too large and so interaction was limited
2) Some people were present because they felt obliged to be there because the vicar said so
3) We were more focussed on the content of the training than developing genuine community
4) Because the group was expected to last for just 10 weeks some folk only saw it as a meeting and did not do the work necessary to become a community
5) I was also running an Alpha course on another evening of the week and preaching etc etc
6) As cell leader of two large cells I did not do a good job of pastoring the members in between meetings.
7) I did not have an assistant since everyone in the two cells were going to be either a leader or an assistant.
8) I did not spot the failure of the groups to form genuine community until too late
9) I became depressed when I realised the re-training was not working and that we were going to re-launch cells without the values fully embedded
10) Bill Beckham said “never try to change a structure until you have changed the value” but I was too impatient. He was right.

And that, dear friends, is why we are still in The Big Red Circle. But soon, I am not sure quite when, I will be looking for recruits from within The Big Red Circle to join the prototype cell. Maybe this time we will get it.

The Event Horizon

I recently heard Chris Neal of CMS describe the institutional Church as a black hole which pulls us into its gravitational field. How, I wonder, can I move into a new way of working when I crossed the “event horizon” some 16 years ago?

As vicar of St. Mark’s I do not want to abdicate responsibility for the well-being of the existing church community who have faithfully maintained a local Christian presence for many years. But I fundamentally believe that if this church is to be a more authentic witness it needs to radically change. Part of this change (I believe) is that it needs indigenous leadership who will rise up and tackle the challenges that face the community.

The tension that I am feeling is that there is such a legacy of clericalism that the church members expect me to lead everything, while I feel that if the church is to grow up they need to tackle some of these issues themselves. The problem is … I have helped to perpetuate the dependency culture.

In particular, I am aware that our Victorian building needs a dedicated team of people who will do what is needed to maintain it and keep it safe. During my first few years here I led a project to repair the clock, and to point the East end of the church. Next I worked with a team of people to have floodlighting installed, but in the end I had to take the lead to make it happen before the deadline. Other projects where I had to take a leading role were the reordering of the church “Welcome Zone” and the resurfacing of the car park.

At the moment I am conscious of various things that need leadership, but I am not hearing God tell me to do it. I believe that I just need to draw these to the attention of the worshipping community and ask who is going to step forward? What are these things?

The Friends
The church has insufficient income to pay all the bills, so last year we set up an organisation called the Friends of St.Mark’s Church. The idea is to find 100+ people who will give £10 monthly towards the upkeep and insurance. We have about 5 members so far. This needs promoting. Someone needs to do a mailing to all the people in our database of pastoral contacts (baptisms, weddings, funerals) who might be responsive. Members of the church need to persuade their families and friends to join.

The Database
The database is only partially completed and no-one yet knows how to print out labels.

The Clock
It is some years since the chimes stopped working. The dials need repainting.

The Stonework
Last year two large slabs of stone fell off the church tower. How do we know if the rest is safe and secure? Who is going to do something about it? Who is going to fill in the English Heritage Grant application forms?

The Treasurer
For most of the last 5 years I have been acting as Treasurer or helping the Treasurer to use the spreadsheet that I designed to keep track of the Church accounts. Just before Christmas our Treasurer went abroad and so once again I am acting Treasurer. I am setting up a new double entry book-keeping system and training a volunteer book-keeper. All we need now is someone who understands accounting to become the Treasurer.

Meanwhile ... what about the mission to the Gentiles?

Well there some folk at St. Mark's who are catching the vision and are eager to be part of the outreach. I hope to gather some of them together soon to explore what training we need. I am conscious that we must have a clear idea of how to disciple people without asking them to come to church. What do we say? How do we say it? How do we encourage them to read the bible in a non-book culture? We also need to be sure that we are free to spend enough time with the people of peace. I know that this will be costly. It will require a change of lifestyle for us. Will we have the stamina and persistance to keep going back to spend time eating and drinking with them? I hope so.

Expensive Church Expectations

At the Annual Parish Church Meeting on Sunday I was explaining how the Parish Share is going up this year by £6,000 to £42,000. This news was met with the usual grumbling and suspicion of the Diocese, and fear that “they” will squander it on unwise investments. I tried to explain the difference between the Church Commissioners of the 1980s and the Diocese of today, but I suspect that further efforts will be required.

A bit later on I was casting the vision for going out to make disciples and explaining that I wanted to spend more time with the 9,000 people in my parish who don’t come to church, rather than spending all my energy being chaplain to the 150 who do attend. I made the point that one implication of this would be that we have fewer communion services. This resulted in some grumbling. After all, who pays for the vicar?

An analogy came to mind. Some of the first class passengers on the Titanic feel that “their” officer should attend more of the formal dinners (Holy Communions) instead of hob-nobbing with the third class passengers on the lower decks. What they don’t seem to realise is that the third class passengers are not on the lower decks … they are freezing to death in the water.

We need more people to get into the lifeboats on rescue missions. We need to have a generous attitude towards those who are not on board. We need to lose our self-centred pre-occupation with getting what we want out of church.

Oh Lord! Please transform our hearts so that we love those who are perishing more than we love ourselves.

Will the “Samaritans” rebuild the Temple?

I am conscious that my blog has been very church-o-centric. This is because I am in transition and am working through the implications. Please bear with me, after all the dear old Church of England do pay me a stipend and provide a house for me to live in. I have not been told to walk away from this, instead my focus is to be the Kingdom of God. There is still a place for the mother church within his purposes.

A few years ago the Lord gave me a picture of his plans for St. Mark’s. The old tree was once very splendid, but is now just a stump. But it is not dead yet, it has a few living branches. In the middle of this stump is a sapling with all the potential to grow and become as splendid as the old tree once was. For a while the two trees grow together in the same place. By the time the old one dies off completely the new tree will be mature and fruitful.

So what of these Samaritans? In one of my earlier posts I suggested that the Samaritans are the people who come to church for baptisms, weddings, and funerals. They expect the church to be there, but they don’t worship with us except at Christmas (occasionally) and they don’t contribute financially. At St. Mark’s we have formed a “Friends of St. Mark’s” organisation to invite folk to share in the upkeep of the Victorian building. We are looking for 100 people who will contribute £10 a month to help pay the insurance, heating, lighting and repairs (about £10,000 p.a.).

When the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70 it was not rebuilt, and as far as I am aware the Samaritans did not see it as their responsibility to help. Will our “Samaritans” help? Or will they allow the church buildings of our land to fall into disrepair?

And what of the Gentiles? If the Samaritans are reluctant, how much less likely that the Gentiles will come up with cash? And yet I was reading Acts 11 this morning. The church in Antioch was a mixture of Jews and Gentiles – a real first century “Fresh Expression of Church”. This church heard about the famine in Judea and sent money to help the disciples in the mother church. In the DNA of a true Christian church is generosity and a sense of being part of the Body of Christ. So who knows what the future holds if our Fresh Expressions grow strong?

Is the Titanic really sinking?

Many Clergy believe that the Church of England will ride out the present storms and still be here for another millennia or two. I don’t feel quite so optimistic. The demographics are against us. In Bredbury, nearly all our new members are people over the age of 50 who went to Sunday School as children. In Mission Shaped Church there is a graph which shows how Sunday School attendance dropped drastically in the last century. Our fishing pond is getting smaller.

As a junior officer in the Church of England, I feel a moral obligation to do what I can to save the ship. There are others who are trying as well. Bob Jackson, the Archdeacon of Walsall has written a couple of books suggesting ways to plug the gaps and keep the ship afloat. Hope for the Church is a book full of statistics which suggest that decline is not inevitable.

The Road to Growth outlines certain strategies that can stop the haemorrhage of numbers, and even see growth. Briefly, these are 1) minimize overheads 2) create a growth fund to invest in fresh expressions of church 3) use Church Commissioners money to fund mission 4) have a Parish share system that does not “tax” growth 5) recruit younger ordinands 6) appoint people who will lead mission 7) keep vacancies short 8) invest in morale 9) make Continuing Ministerial Education growth focussed 10) find new opportunities for older clergy 11) employ lay people 12) train and authorize lay people.

If these suggestions are followed maybe we will stay afloat. The holes will be patched and we will be able to limp along for a good many years yet. There will be a small Parish Church in most places, but it will continue to be irrelevant to most of the population.

Some in the Church believe that we can become a mixed economy of “inherited mode” and “Fresh Expressions.” The picture that comes to mind is that the Titanic encourages its adventurous passengers to get into lifeboats and then celebrates as the entire flotilla chugs along together. I will be encouraging these fresh expressions. If the Titanic does sink most of these will stay afloat. The message of the Kingdom will continue even if the Church of England founders.

Various Hats

I am conscious that I am wearing a variety of hats.


As a vicar in the Church of England I feel a bit like an officer on board the Titanic who has realised that the boat is going to sink, even though the passengers are still having a wonderful time and many of the senior officers are in denial.


As a member of the New Wine Network and I am part of a group of happy cowboys who are bucking the trend of decline and proving that “come-to-us” churches can still attract some of the people. The key to this is (probably) having a generous heart that enables us to bless those who are not yet part of us.





As Chair of the Greater Manchester Cell Forum I am part of a group of evangelistic baby-boomers who believe that a radical restructuring of the Church is needed. We are already seeing some of the benefits of this restructuring, but we have not yet broken through into significant multiplication. As a self-reflective aside, we are a curious bunch who are post-modern at heart, but very modern in our belief that we can adapt a model and make it work here. Alan Roxburgh describes us as “Liminals” in his new book, The Sky is Falling (recommended by Todd Hunter).



Finally, in my racoon-skin pioneering hat I am standing on the brink of a brave new world. I hear the call to gather a team of church planters who will go to the gentiles with the message of the Kingdom. Is this just because I read Wild at Heart by John Eldredge? I don’t think so. I am being called out.

Links

I have added some links from my blog.

Simplechurch.co.uk is written by Alexander Campbell who is pioneering home based church in and around Bath, England. Alexander has spent the last 18 months doing some research on the state of church planting in Britain. The Mission 21 report is now available.

HouseChurch is a blog that I found through Alexander's links and it looks helpful.

Guy Muse is a Baptist Missionary in Ecuador who is planting new churches in homes rather than trying to get people to come into church.

Lou Davis is a member of a Methodist church in Cheadle Hulme and is exploring with friends whether they can do/be church in different ways. Here is an extract from her blog which shows that she is embarking on a journey of transition :

If Carlsberg made churches ....
Every so often, usually about once a month, I am party to a conversation that goes along these lines: wouldn't it be great if church was like ... hanging out with good mates, maybe in a pub or over a meal ... somewhere we could make real deep friendships that mean we naturally support one another ... where worship that is creative, meaningful and relevant ... where all can contribute ... there were great conversations about who God is, why should we believe him anyway and what difference does it make ... where you can feel safe to admit your doubts and questions ... something that refreshed people rather than draining them .... that leaves time for a life ... actively looks for ways to reach out to others and make a difference ... isn't bogged down with procedures and politics ... that is fun to belong to ... I'm tired of just talking about it. I think it's time to do something different. I'm
trying to gather together anyone I've had that kind of conversation with, so
that we can make a move toward a different kind of church.

Picture This !!

This is what I look like if you are 5' 1" tall.

I have just found out how to put pictures into my blog.

Making Disciples

This weekend I have been reflecting on how to make disciples. There is no quick fix. We need to invest a lot of time with people who want to learn. If they don't want to learn it is impossible to teach them. We expect church members to be mature after 4 or 5 years in the church ... but in that time they have perhaps only had a few hours of "Jesus-style" discipleship.

We expect too much of sermons. We expect too much of cell groups where the leadership have not been adequately discipled. They have lovely meetings, but they are very slow at making disciples.

This problem was thrown into focus for me this weekend by the fact that many members of St. Marks did not attend the Living Waters conference (see previous post). I can see how desperately they need healing and spiritual maturity, but for whatever reason they don't take advantage of the opportunities available.

For those who came to the conference there was excellent teaching and many opportunities to receive ministry. Much healing took place, and many now know what direction to take to continue being healed and restored. But what do we do about those who missed it?

Organising a conference is a huge effort. I had hoped that many more would come and realise that they can be healed and transformed; that they do not need to be content with their survival strategies and their compromised lifestyles. I felt disappointed.

The way I dealt with my feeling over the weekend was evidence of progress in my own healing journey. My disappointment over the absence of certain people was replaced with sadness that they were missing out. The encounter with the Rich Young Ruler (Mark 10:17-31) came to mind. Jesus loved him, but did not chase after him. Those who say that they want to be a disciple must be willing to give up everything in order to receive the blessings of the Kingdom.

I was tempted to despair: “How will we ever be able to grow the church now that they have missed this?” But this is “big church” thinking. Jesus did not have a worship band, a PCC and a congregation where half the people were content with a lukewarm version of discipleship. He called people into a radical form of discipleship.

John Wesley discovered this. He would preach to a crowd of thousands of people. Many would respond and be convicted by the Holy Spirit. Only a few would turn up for the discipleship class at 6am the next morning. But they were the ones who went on to transform the nation.

We need to “raise the bar” of what it means to be a disciple.

Blessed are those who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness

We have just hosted a Living Waters "taster" conference for the Manchester area. The conference was called "The healing of relationships through the power of the cross." Lisa Guinness who heads up Living Waters is an excellent speaker who clearly enables people to hear that we live in a fallen world and that our past experiences have left us wounded. But God wants to heal those wounds and restore us.

Lisa says that in many parts of the Church today there is a crisis of confidence in the cross; they have no message of hope for those who want to change. But we believe that there is redemptive power available through the blood of Christ for those who want to be holy. The cross is the place of exchange where we leave our filthy rags and receive our robes of righteousness.

Those who want to be holy are often too ashamed to ask for the help that they need. Shame keeps people isolated in the darkness. We wear masks in church for fear of being rejected if our true nature was made public. How can we create a church where people can be honest and real? How can we create a church where grace and mercy are experienced?

It takes time to absorb all the teaching and even longer to learn how to live a life of holiness, daily trusting in the grace available rather than slipping back into unholy or unhelpful ways of easing our aloneness. We need to learn how to press into the Lord for comfort and strength. We have to cling to the cross, to fall forwards into the Father's arms. We have know how to live by the Spirit so we do not gratify the desires of our sinful nature (Galatians 5:16).

Learning how to do this is best done with the support of other believers in an accountability relationship. We are relational beings, designed to function best when connecting with others. The deepest experience of koinonia comes when we walk in the light with one another (1 John 1:7).