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Transcript of Chester Diocese 2012 The Sheffield Centre Church Army’s Research unit A background to urban...
Chester Diocese 2012
The Sheffield CentreChurch Army’s Research unit
A background to urban evangelism and church growth
1 It’s harder than it used to be
• Some of you said so • How do we know? • What measures might tell us?• What images might illustrate this
Yet positively, our urban contexts, that can seem barren, may be the very seedbeds for finding shapes to post-Christendom mission and church
10% ‘Regular’ at church Attend monthly or more
10% ‘Irregular’ at church Attend less than monthly
40%: The De-Churched: Used to come but don’t now.
20% are open to come back
20% are never coming back!
40%: The Non-Churched: Never have come
Tough because of Church disconnected
MostEvangelism
Adults in England
Fringe churchgoers(less often but at least 6x yr. ) 3% 1.4m
Open de-churched 5% 1.9m
Closedde-churched 26% 10.8m
Opennon-churched 1% 0.5m
Closednon-churched 33% 13.7m
Unassigned 2% 1.0m
Other religions 7% 3.0m
Regular churchgoers (at least monthly)14% 5.9m
Occasionalchurchgoers(less often but at least annually) 7% 2.9m
Base: Adults 16+ in England (unw. 5907 w. 5774) Pop’n (000s) = 41,043
It’s more serious than we thought – ENGLAND Church attendance and experience segmentation in 2006
Don’t think ‘it’ll get better’
The % of people furthest away from living contact with or effective knowledge of the church is growing,as years pass
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
15 25 35 45 55 65 75 85
De-churched: Approx 30%
Non-churched: Approx 60%
Attending: approx 10%
___= % PopAttended<15 yrs
____= AttendedIn 1998
Age
%
Most existing churches are not aware of this, nor shaped to meet it
76% of ‘converts’ came from the dechurched
Some C of E indicators
Child Attendance *
Confirmations
Xmas HC
Easter HC
Electoral Rolls
Adult attend
Stipend Clergy
PCC Vol’try Income
Marriages
-40
-65
-35
-25
-22
-18
-15
+85
-52
-34
-28
-43
-24
-16
-13
-14
-15
+30
-46
-24
-17
-39
-14
-11
-10
-5
0
+42
-11
-13Baptisms
% change 1980 – 2000
% change 1990-2000
% change 1980-90
* Child = <16
The variety of fringe contactsare declining faster than the core membership indicators
Contacts with those under 35 are in steepest decline
NBIn which decade is decline faster?
Bob Jackson, Hope for the Church p. 2 – put in a different order
We are in a radically new situation and cannot dream either of a Constantianian authority or of a Pre-Constantianian innocenceBishop Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, p. 224
Why so tough: A new Mission Context:
There is no precedent for a mission to a culture that thought it had been converted when it hadn't and then publicly discarded the Christian faith.Harold Turner : Senior New Zealand Missiologist
There hasn’t been a mission field like ours beforeGeorge Lings : Church Army Researcher
An image - the going of “Come” An image - the going of “Come”
From the 4th century in the west, the surrounding culture brought people to the door of the Church.
What brought them ?Baptisms / Weddings /
Funerals
Questions of life / Pastoral Crises
Our church we don’t go toComing back to values or
past known Church
The mission task was : • Respond well to their requests • Take them, from enquiry to commitment
The coming - of “Going”The coming - of “Going”
With the ending of Christendom, and onset of secularisation, the culture no longer brings people to the door of the Church.Few churches
• have experience of this profoundly different shape to
mission• know how to travel out from Church in “go” mode• can envisage how to be fresh imaginings of church -
at the end of the journey
?
Consequences
• Evangelism changing and becoming a longer process
• Mission having to start further back
• Church looking more culturally distanced • Choosing different starting points from the
past
‘Process evangelism getting jumpy’
• How many find it starts for back enough?• How many find it conveys people all the
way to commitment and joining existing church?
Some ‘barriers’ to church
• Are they …• Cultural • Educational• Social• Spiritual• Image• Peer
pressure
What are you finding where you are?
Bridges– but how much progress really?
• Fair or unfair?
Real?
Restorative
2 Some ways forward A] The draw of authentic community
Relational
Target Group
StartingPlace
“Style”
Or MissionCotext
Worship Relational evangelism
Community:theirs & ours
Climate
The Fringe
Open De- churched
The Non - churched
ClosedDe-Churched
Christen-dom
Pre - Christian
Post Christian
AntiChristian
Apology
Warm
Cool Cold to.... Arctic
Control
Dialogue Partnership Listen ?
Choices of where to start
Ways forward cont …
B] High tolerance of mess in church life
People
fall out
Roof needs £
Expect church mess
Luther: re the Christian :
“Simul justus et peccator” In English that means “simultaneously justified and a sinner” cf Rom 7: vs 15-end
What is church made of ? only these ingredients
We love it tidy and ordered, but …
and
Luther: re the Church
Why should we expect mess ? 1 Because of Creation and Fall
And
• Everything is partial, incomplete, provisional• Even lots of Church doctrine has been reactive
“Those in glass churches should not throw stony theology”
Why expect the incomplete ?2 Because of the nature of the Kingdom
Already “the kingdom of God is near you” Luke 10:9
Not yet when you pray say “Your Kingdom come”
Luke 11:2
“Already” churches ?
‘Not Yet’ Churches ?
The Now and Not Yet of the Kingdom
It affects how we understand
SalvationSpirituality Inner purity
The Now and Not Yet of the Kingdom
We find three tenses used in the NT I have been saved from the penalty
of sinI am being saved from the power of
sinI will be saved from the presence of
sin
It affects how we understand Salvation
The Now and Not Yet of the Kingdom
It affects how we understand Spirituality - starting & sustaining the God relationship
I have begun that journeyI am very aware of how far there is to
goI will be finally fully united with Him
The Now and Not Yet of the Kingdom
It affects how we understand Inner Purity
- living out the Sermon on the Mount
I have accepted these are Jesus’ valuesI am painfully aware of my inner thoughtsI will be, one day, whole in mind
The Now and Not Yet …
If mess, provisionality and incompleteness affect how we understand and how we experience
Kingdom SalvationSpirituality Inner purity
Why don’t we apply that to church life & behaviour too?
Life at St Leonards Norfolk Park
Questions to ask
• Don’t think “how are they doing?” Rather ask • Where did they come from?• What are the signs of transforming
grace? • What is God calling them to?
Go for life transformatio
n not sin management
What’s so amazing about Grace – not what’s so dreadful about sin
Ways forward cont…C] Expect stages – like stepping stones
Perhaps not this safe
More risky … like this
Welcome to the Anston villages
North
South
A57Railway One Bridge through
Stepping Stones - early days
Stepping Stones further on …
Still Stepping out ….
Making it up as we go along ?
• Of course – that’s research
• Of course – that’s missionary
• Of course – we’re in a new context
Ways forward cont …
A major limitation – pressure on leaders
Widening Roles
Value for Money
Draining people
Burning Out
Rising Expectation
Rising Standards
Rising competition – we’ll go elsewhere
Helps:Free lay leadersUse another dayUse low control with high accountability
D] start something else
Can we invent what we need and preserve what we already have?
Can we start something else? pt 2
‘High above the crowd, Rex tried to remain focussed, still he couldn’t shake one nagging thought; He was an old dog and this was a new trick.’
Old sheep dogs and new tricks?
Ways forward cont …
• E] Learn from others– Livability– Urban Expression– Faithworks
• Effective Church Presence and Enterprise Project 2008
– Eden Projects
36Faithworks Conference 2010360º Building Whole Communities
Planning to succeed?The building blocks of a great community project
Jon Kuhrt, Adam Bonner David Arscott,
Livability
• 360 Practice
37Faithworks Conference 2010360º Building Whole Communities
•Direct work with churches: talks, workshops, evaluations and consultancy
•Website: www.communitymission.org.uk
•Training events
•Resources and booklets
Equipping Christians to transform communities
Urban Expression…Urban Expression…
… … is an urban mission is an urban mission agency that recruits, agency that recruits, equips, deploys and equips, deploys and networks self-networks self-financing teams financing teams pioneering creative pioneering creative and relevant and relevant expressions of the expressions of the Christian church in Christian church in under-churched areas under-churched areas of the inner city.of the inner city.
Inner-city church plantingInner-city church planting
What is different?What is different?
What can be learnt?What can be learnt?
What methods are needed?What methods are needed?
What does this teach us What does this teach us about future church?about future church?
Ways forward cont..
• The basis of our hope– Not our strategies– Not even loving service and good community– Encounter with Christ which transforms people– The work of the Spirit leading to fruit
• changed lives• gifts and ministries discovered• further Christians• more Christian communities
Do not despise the day of small things• Zechariah 4:10
a word in relation to only foundations being laid
In the NT • The widow’s mite• The five loaves and two fish• Become like a child …
Jesus different pictures of his people …
• The city set on a hill
• The lamp on the stand
• Salt• Yeast
Values:
GatheredVisibleAttracting
Values:
DispersedInvisible
Subverting
We are free to use all of them – which suit best after Christendom?