ST MICHAEL’S CHURCH, GALLEYWOOD
40 DAYS OF DISCERNMENT…THE FUTURE OF OUR CHURCH
MY VIEWS ARE:
A. THE MISSION STATEMENT
1. Our church states that: God calls us to – Show the love of Jesus; Share His word with everyone; Grow together as His family
IF WE TAKE THIS AS THE CONTEXT within which the church must decide upon what action is best then we must consider the following factors:-
B. MODERN DAY SUNDAYS
1. We should look at the modern day Sunday – not the Sunday we Christians might like to see but the Sunday that exists and that will stay.
2. The modern day Sunday offers work; sport; shopping; festivals; theatres; museums and much more. These force people to work; to go to see sport if they want to follow their team, play, officiate etc; make compromises about shopping and so on.
3. Consequently Sunday provides difficulties and competition for time, which can be made more complicated by family pressures if not both partners are practising Christians.
C. CHURCH ATTENDANCE
1. Our church attracts about 300 people each month, which is about 5% of Galleywood’s population.
2. Take out the church members, who live outside Galleywood, then the % of Galleywood’s population who attend church slips lower.
3. How is the demographic going? Looking at the current joining and leaving trends amongst the church family, can the church be confident that those church members who will die in the next 25 years will be replaced by new members? If not then our church is in trouble. So, the church must seek to broaden its members both by age, gender, work background, postcode and (dare I say it) social class. Failure to do so could lead to our church becoming unviable, maybe reducing the clergy to just the vicar, as had happened in other churches.
D. WHO ARE WE AIMING AT?
1. We need to retain our current worshippers
2. We need to attract new worshippers
3. This needs careful consideration, as both of these could encourage conflicting actions and achieving one but losing the other would be counter productive.
E. BUT HOW DOES THE CHURCH ATTRACT MORE WORSHIPPPERS?
This is a difficult issue. Probably, the answer is multi-faceted, including:
1. Prayer
2. Providing what potential worshippers might want: a wide variety of services in time and content – the one size fits all model does not work in the C21st; regular start and finish times of service; clear knowledge of what to expect at the service; new/uncertain worshipper friendly services; encouragement to attend from others and other facets I expect.
3. Does the church wait for new members to arrive or go out and get them. If the latter, then how?
4. Sadly, the national image of our faith is poor at present, with seemingly continual internal bickering over difficult issues; a lack of apparent vision and drive; a sense of drift; plus competition from other faiths and a secular world. There is no clear national Christian message at present strongly coming from national church leaders that will inspire new worshippers into our church, I fear. Ours seems to be the only faith that can comfortably be ridiculed and criticised in the media and is so. I doubt if these national problems will change in the near future.
5. Consequently, it seems to me that the answer will need to be a local one, where our church has to contradict national stereotypes and trends.
6. In short it is up to us in Galleywood to increase our numbers, as Lambeth Palace is not likely to deliver an increase in congregations, I fear.
F. PUT ALL THESE POINTS TOGETHER
1. How do we increase the church’s attendance, our church’s family?
2. Our church should move to a worship plan that allows as many worshippers as possible to attend.
3. Such a plan should provide:
a. as many opportunities to worship as possible….holding 2 services at 10.30 offers one opportunity to worship and, so, is not an efficient model to attract more worshippers.
b. certainty of times….8am services on some Sundays but not all can cause confusion
c. clarity of worship style….what will I receive if I attend. Uncertainty causes non-attendance.
d. discipline in services ….the 10.30 service can end at any time between 11.30 and 11.55am, which can be off putting, can create uncertainty and can cause non-attendance.
G. A POSSIBLE WAY FORWARD………..this is an outline plan.
1. Every Sunday could look like this. All services are weekly and held at church:
a. 8.00am 1662 communion service. 8.45am finish.
b. 9.30am more modern service similar to the current school based service. Compulsory 10.30am finish with no exception. Communion 1st & 2nd week of the month.
Late leavers of the 9.30 service and early arrivers of the 11.00am service will meet over coffee.
c. 11.00am traditional service using more traditional hymns and content. Compulsory 12noon finish with no exception. Communion 2nd & 4th week of the month.
***Both 9.30 & 11.00am services will cut their content to meet the one hour deadline. Preachers will need personal discipline and as will service leaders to keep the momentum of the service going and keep to the time limit. Both of these are weaknesses of current services, which often drift aimlessly and have no time discipline. Non liturgical matters should be resisted, as current services can be more like social gatherings to which new and irregular worshippers can find excluding them due to a lack of understanding of what is happening as well as being irrelevant and unnecessary.
d. 3pm Family gathering for anyone. Fun activities for children and refreshments for parents with short spiritual input. First steps to Jesus? To include all baptisms?
e. 6.00pm service based upon the current 5.30/6.30pm service. Twice monthly communion service.
**But what about Sunday school and youth groups? Can these be accommodated at church? If not then a radical and creative solution must be found.
2. The weekdays could look like this. Frequency anything from weekly to monthly:
a. Mondays: youth gathering – open to neighbouring parishes. Dynamic and relevant discussion, activity based worship with contemporary films, music and media. Cross between a mature youth club and challenging spiritual gathering. Something you might want to bring your mate or girlfriend to and not be embarrassed.
b. Tuesdays: women’s meeting and worship. WI meets Friendship + (without children) meets young wives meets singles club. A social and spiritual meeting with refreshments. Something at which both regular worshippers and non-worshippers will feel comfortable and interested at attending.
c. Thursdays: men’s meeting and worship: relevant discussion: activities. Something at which both regular worshippers and non-worshippers will feel comfortable and interested at attending.
G. PRESSURE ON THE CLERGY
1. Clearly this plan would put great pressure on the clergy but it would raise the issue of what can the church family do to help and support the clergy.
A wise saying that is regularly used at management seminars is: “If you continue to do the same things then you will get the same outcomes.” If our church is serious in setting out to attract more worshippers and to: “ Share His word with everyone” our church must address the issues outlined above and be prepared to adopt radical proposals. But will it?
Good luck to all who will be making these decisions. May God be with you all in your thoughts, discussions and decisions.
Mike Arnold
40 DAYS OF DISCERNMENT…THE FUTURE OF OUR CHURCH
MY VIEWS ARE:
A. THE MISSION STATEMENT
1. Our church states that: God calls us to – Show the love of Jesus; Share His word with everyone; Grow together as His family
IF WE TAKE THIS AS THE CONTEXT within which the church must decide upon what action is best then we must consider the following factors:-
B. MODERN DAY SUNDAYS
1. We should look at the modern day Sunday – not the Sunday we Christians might like to see but the Sunday that exists and that will stay.
2. The modern day Sunday offers work; sport; shopping; festivals; theatres; museums and much more. These force people to work; to go to see sport if they want to follow their team, play, officiate etc; make compromises about shopping and so on.
3. Consequently Sunday provides difficulties and competition for time, which can be made more complicated by family pressures if not both partners are practising Christians.
C. CHURCH ATTENDANCE
1. Our church attracts about 300 people each month, which is about 5% of Galleywood’s population.
2. Take out the church members, who live outside Galleywood, then the % of Galleywood’s population who attend church slips lower.
3. How is the demographic going? Looking at the current joining and leaving trends amongst the church family, can the church be confident that those church members who will die in the next 25 years will be replaced by new members? If not then our church is in trouble. So, the church must seek to broaden its members both by age, gender, work background, postcode and (dare I say it) social class. Failure to do so could lead to our church becoming unviable, maybe reducing the clergy to just the vicar, as had happened in other churches.
D. WHO ARE WE AIMING AT?
1. We need to retain our current worshippers
2. We need to attract new worshippers
3. This needs careful consideration, as both of these could encourage conflicting actions and achieving one but losing the other would be counter productive.
E. BUT HOW DOES THE CHURCH ATTRACT MORE WORSHIPPPERS?
This is a difficult issue. Probably, the answer is multi-faceted, including:
1. Prayer
2. Providing what potential worshippers might want: a wide variety of services in time and content – the one size fits all model does not work in the C21st; regular start and finish times of service; clear knowledge of what to expect at the service; new/uncertain worshipper friendly services; encouragement to attend from others and other facets I expect.
3. Does the church wait for new members to arrive or go out and get them. If the latter, then how?
4. Sadly, the national image of our faith is poor at present, with seemingly continual internal bickering over difficult issues; a lack of apparent vision and drive; a sense of drift; plus competition from other faiths and a secular world. There is no clear national Christian message at present strongly coming from national church leaders that will inspire new worshippers into our church, I fear. Ours seems to be the only faith that can comfortably be ridiculed and criticised in the media and is so. I doubt if these national problems will change in the near future.
5. Consequently, it seems to me that the answer will need to be a local one, where our church has to contradict national stereotypes and trends.
6. In short it is up to us in Galleywood to increase our numbers, as Lambeth Palace is not likely to deliver an increase in congregations, I fear.
F. PUT ALL THESE POINTS TOGETHER
1. How do we increase the church’s attendance, our church’s family?
2. Our church should move to a worship plan that allows as many worshippers as possible to attend.
3. Such a plan should provide:
a. as many opportunities to worship as possible….holding 2 services at 10.30 offers one opportunity to worship and, so, is not an efficient model to attract more worshippers.
b. certainty of times….8am services on some Sundays but not all can cause confusion
c. clarity of worship style….what will I receive if I attend. Uncertainty causes non-attendance.
d. discipline in services ….the 10.30 service can end at any time between 11.30 and 11.55am, which can be off putting, can create uncertainty and can cause non-attendance.
G. A POSSIBLE WAY FORWARD………..this is an outline plan.
1. Every Sunday could look like this. All services are weekly and held at church:
a. 8.00am 1662 communion service. 8.45am finish.
b. 9.30am more modern service similar to the current school based service. Compulsory 10.30am finish with no exception. Communion 1st & 2nd week of the month.
Late leavers of the 9.30 service and early arrivers of the 11.00am service will meet over coffee.
c. 11.00am traditional service using more traditional hymns and content. Compulsory 12noon finish with no exception. Communion 2nd & 4th week of the month.
***Both 9.30 & 11.00am services will cut their content to meet the one hour deadline. Preachers will need personal discipline and as will service leaders to keep the momentum of the service going and keep to the time limit. Both of these are weaknesses of current services, which often drift aimlessly and have no time discipline. Non liturgical matters should be resisted, as current services can be more like social gatherings to which new and irregular worshippers can find excluding them due to a lack of understanding of what is happening as well as being irrelevant and unnecessary.
d. 3pm Family gathering for anyone. Fun activities for children and refreshments for parents with short spiritual input. First steps to Jesus? To include all baptisms?
e. 6.00pm service based upon the current 5.30/6.30pm service. Twice monthly communion service.
**But what about Sunday school and youth groups? Can these be accommodated at church? If not then a radical and creative solution must be found.
2. The weekdays could look like this. Frequency anything from weekly to monthly:
a. Mondays: youth gathering – open to neighbouring parishes. Dynamic and relevant discussion, activity based worship with contemporary films, music and media. Cross between a mature youth club and challenging spiritual gathering. Something you might want to bring your mate or girlfriend to and not be embarrassed.
b. Tuesdays: women’s meeting and worship. WI meets Friendship + (without children) meets young wives meets singles club. A social and spiritual meeting with refreshments. Something at which both regular worshippers and non-worshippers will feel comfortable and interested at attending.
c. Thursdays: men’s meeting and worship: relevant discussion: activities. Something at which both regular worshippers and non-worshippers will feel comfortable and interested at attending.
G. PRESSURE ON THE CLERGY
1. Clearly this plan would put great pressure on the clergy but it would raise the issue of what can the church family do to help and support the clergy.
A wise saying that is regularly used at management seminars is: “If you continue to do the same things then you will get the same outcomes.” If our church is serious in setting out to attract more worshippers and to: “ Share His word with everyone” our church must address the issues outlined above and be prepared to adopt radical proposals. But will it?
Good luck to all who will be making these decisions. May God be with you all in your thoughts, discussions and decisions.
Mike Arnold
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