February 12, 2011
You can’t have Resurrection without a Death
Currently a small group, with our minister Rev. Bill Robertson, are reviewing the Church and its future in terms of “Our Calling”. The 4 elements of this calling are Worship, Learning and Caring, Service and Mission/Evangelism. Today we met for the second of our Breakfast and Discussions on Learning and Caring.
During the course of our discussions, Bill made the comment that “You can’t have Resurrection without a Death”. Having reviewed all the groups operating in our church in terms of how effective they are in linking faith to everyday life, those which we considered successful all had fellowship, warm friendship, mutual support and care featuring in these groups. In all honesty we have groups which have outlived their usefulness but have been part of the life of the church for years. However, there is no growth and they do not appeal to many people today. So- is it time to say enough is enough, move on and try something different.
The same argument applies to new ventures, which we are trying but have not really been successful – so why continue when there is no perceived interest within the church family and the community.
Where have we seen growth with new faces coming into our fellowship? Within worship, the Sunday evening Praise and Worship, which is informal and ecumenical has drawn in people with quite different church (or non-church) experiences. Unfortunately, the Morning Worship numbers are in decline because it has a predominately elderly congregation. During the past year several have died and only a handful have come new into the church. Young families are few and far between and any new families coming along soon go elsewhere to find larger numbers of their peers. What will happen in 10 years time when many more of us have died?
The choir is another area of deep concern because most of us are elderly. Choir practices are held on Friday afternoons, so no younger working person can possibly come along!! No chance of growth there unless there is a willingness to have evening practices once again and so encourage younger people to form the next choir. The type of music and songs will also have to be more modern than it is now.
It’s interesting to look at other churches and denominations, not only in the locality. Would some of their ideas be right for us or not? Are there some activities which we should stop and try new things? Hence the reference to death before resurrection. An analogy is that of pruning rose bushes in the garden-getting rid of dead growth and weak stems.
During the last 2 discussions in this series we will see similar examples of growth and no-growth in reviewing activities in the areas of Service and Mission. At the end of all this we will, however, be in a better position to move forward, with faith, that this lovely church is alive and healthy and growing.
A postscript to the above that comes as a warning to the latter positive ending! Someone said in our discussion ” It’s such a shame that we have no new younger people coming to our Morning Worship. What can I do because I am too old?” If everyone thought the same, the church would die but there would be no resurrection! So we can’t afford to sit back and continue with the activities which are dying but look to encourage those which are growing or are new things to try (successful or not).
