(This article was initially published in response to the debate about ‘fresh expressions of church’ prompted by the General Synod’s Mission-shaped Church report.)
If we believe in the God of grace, then we must also believe that even the traditional parish church is not beyond redemption. Currently, St Botolph's Beyond-the-Stix is somewhat in the dog-house.
'Fresh Expressions of Church', which sounds so much more mellifluous than church-planting, is rightly getting a high profile. The Mission-shaped Church report made a powerful case for the newer network church and it is a case that still needs to be made. The obstruction the Co-Mission Initiative churches have been subject to in Southwark Diocese shows that there is still institutional resistance to these vitally-needed fresh expressions of Church.
But a proper theology of grace demands that the voice of the traditional parish church also needs to be heard. It has been rightly pointed out that we are elderly, small and carry too much institutional baggage in an age where the network predominates. We are near the lower rung of Eddie Gibbs' S-curve in the cycle of church decline (see his Church Next, co-authored with Ian Coffey, IVP). The further we fall down the S-curve, the harder it is to extract us out of it.
Once churches fall below 50 adults on a normal Sunday, it can get pretty hairy. I can testify from personal experience. I work in one.
Why are traditional parish churches worth saving? Because we have old ladies. They are our secret weapon.
Of course, it is essential that we do not have old ladies exclusively, and in order to reach a wider range of people, particularly families, we are going to have to change. There is no such thing as a church-growth free lunch for the traditional parish church though we may have to lay on a lot more of them if we are to see growth. But the fact that we have old ladies means that, unlike the newer network churches with their 20- and 30-something age profile, the traditional church can, under God, become a Christian community spanning new-born babies to 90-year-olds.
Again, I can testify from personal experience. I have seen it happen in the traditional parish church in which I am privileged to minister in South Yorkshire.
This spanning of the generations offers huge benefits. First, in an age scarred by family breakdown, older people can offer pyschological and emotional healing to the younger generation.
Secondly, my observation is that old ladies are often more prayerful than younger Christians of either sex. That prayer ministry brings untold benefits to local churches.
Thirdly, what a powerful witness it is to see the God of grace transcending generational divides. That witness to Christ's Gospel of grace can be visibly in evidence in traditional parish churches.
For these reasons and others, the traditional parish church is worth fighting for. So, come on out the dog-house St Botolph's and let your old ladies come to the rescue.
Julian Mann is vicar of the Parish Church of the Ascension, Oughtibridge in South Yorkshire