BECOMING A TURNAROUND CHURCH FOR THE GOSPEL (Vicar’s remarks at the APCM 26/4/07)
Churches that get small inevitably face challenges. If you put viability for a Church of England parish church at around 70-75 adults on a normal Sunday, then this particular parish church began to get into trouble probably around the late 1980s when according to diocesan statistics we began to fall into the 60s on a normal Sunday. The children and therefore family situation became extremely serious by the end of the 1990s with no children in the parish church on Christmas Day in 1999. Financially-speaking, we don’t pay our way in terms of parish share and were already a considerable net-receiver by the end of the ‘90s. If it wasn’t for the financial reserves that we have inherited through the generosity and good stewardship of previous generations, we wouldn’t even be able to manage the reduced parish share of £1,500 a month that we are currently paying. So we face the challenges of viability as a church that has got itself into the red-zone numerically and financially.
Much to thank God for
But in midst of the challenges we have much thank God for. Our God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the true God, is a big God. In his extraordinary grace and mercy towards us he has made our small resources stretch a long way in the past year. The five loaves and two fishes that we’ve got have been made to go a very long way indeed.
A church family of around 40 adults on a normal Sunday, a significant proportion of whom have earned their bus passes, managed twice this year to distribute invitations to our services to around 2,500 homes in our parish. The Christmas and Easter distribution of invitation cards was most encouraging and under God was an astonishing achievement. It may or may not have produced immediate results in terms of people coming along to church. I think it did at Christmas, not so much at Easter, but on one level that doesn’t matter very much. The point is we were going to people out there in our parish and telling them that we’re here for them. We weren’t asking people for money – we were simply inviting them to our special services. The whole thing undoubtedly raised our profile as a parish church serving our community and, God willing, we can follow up the good work with an information leaflet about our church and the various groups that we have around Harvest Time. Thank God for what He did through us at Christmas and Easter. His strength in our weakness.
The Sunday Club
The other great encouragement this year has been the Sunday Club. The Sunday Club feed-back in our morning services has shown us very clearly what God is doing in our work with children. First of all the Sunday Club has been growing numerically – that’s been obvious to see and secondly the Christian teaching has been of a very high standard indeed. Our Sunday Club has also proved to be an outstanding outreach vehicle into our community. Thank God for the 35 children who were in our parish centre on Good Friday. Thank you to the team that is working so well and so effectively for Christ in our Sunday Club.
Becoming a turnaround church
I believe passionately that Church of England parochial ministry still affords tremendous opportunities for the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am also fully persuaded that under God there is an opportunity for this parish church to become a turnaround church for the Gospel, to become both viable and effective for the glorious saving Good News of our Lord Jesus. But if we are to be a turnaround church for the Gospel, we’re going to need to play in a team or to use a better metaphor drawn directly from the New Testament we’re going to need to think and act as the body of Christ in this place – in terms of commitment to his eternal truth as he has revealed it in Holy Scripture; in terms of commitment to prayer-driven outreach and evangelism; in terms of the way financial decisions are made and our finances are stewarded and used for the Gospel; in terms of the way in which incumbent and church council co-operate in pursuit of the mission of this church in this parish. I’m very pleased to be able to say that by God’s grace there is a team building up here of real Christian people who want God’s church here to grow.
Loyalty to the parish church
I’d like to express my appreciation for all those in our church family who are committed to self-sacrificial, humble, Christ-like service in and through this small parish church with all its joys and struggles. There are larger churches within commuting distance of here that pull a much bigger crowd than we do; there are churches within commuting distance of here that offer you a more compatible age or socio-economic peer group than we can; there are churches within commuting distance of here that are more picturesque and historic than we are. But you are loyal to this little parish church serving the community in which you live and I count myself very privileged to be your servant.
Thank you to my wife
Finally I want to thank my wife for her wonderful support – some clergy wives are frankly a liability. They either disengage from the life of the parish – sporting tea-shirts declaring ‘I don’t make scones’ or they go round moaning. My wife thank God does neither. She’s active and she’s positive and she’s been right involved in the areas where by God’s grace we have seen growth in our church.
Now to him who by the power that is at work within us who believe is able to do more abundantly than all we ask or imagine – to the Lord God almighty be glory in this church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore. Amen.
Julian Mann – Vicar
The Parish Church of the Ascension
Oughtibridge