Renewal & Reform - Diocese of Gloucester...Church of England Attendance Trends -14% -16% -14% -23% %...

1

Renewal & Reform

2

Couple of graphs

3 Clergy Numbers 2000 – 2021 (Projected)

6397

7465

8115

6863

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

10000 National number of stipendiary clergy

National Projection

Diocesan Projection

Diocesan Ambition

50% more vocations by 2020

4 Slow Decline

Average Annual Change (based on last 30 years)

0.3%

-1.3% -1.4%

-1.0%

English Population Sunday Attendance Electoral Roll Stipendiary Clergy

5

0

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000

1,400,000

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Electoral Roll

Average Weekly

Attendance (AWA)

Usual Sunday

Attendance (uSa)

Average Child

Sunday

Church of England Attendance Trends

-14%

-16%

-14%

-23%

% Change

2003-15

6 National Attendance

Usual Sunday

Attendance (uSa)

1989: 1,155,000

= 5,000 People

7 National Attendance

Usual Sunday

Attendance (uSa)

1989: 1,155,000

2015: 759,400

= 5,000 People

8

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1979 1984 1989 1994 1998 2005 2014

Average Age (Adults and Children)

Church of England UK

C of E Age Profile Trend

12.3 Years

9

0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5% 3.0% 3.5% 4.0% 4.5% 5.0%

0 to 10

11 to 17

18 to 24

25 to 45

46 to 65

66 to 75

76 to 85

86+

Percentage Population in Attendance

Population in attendance by age

National average: 1.7%

10

3.6%

0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5% 3.0% 3.5% 4.0% 4.5% 5.0%

0 to 10

11 to 17

18 to 24

25 to 45

46 to 65

66 to 75

76 to 85

86+




11

3.6%

0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5% 3.0% 3.5% 4.0% 4.5% 5.0%

0 to 10

11 to 17

18 to 24

25 to 45

46 to 65

66 to 75

76 to 85

86+




12

3.6%

0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5% 3.0% 3.5% 4.0% 4.5% 5.0%

0 to 10

11 to 17

18 to 24

25 to 45

46 to 65

66 to 75

76 to 85

86+


4.2%



13

3.6%

0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5% 3.0% 3.5% 4.0% 4.5% 5.0%

0 to 10

11 to 17

18 to 24

25 to 45

46 to 65

66 to 75

76 to 85

86+


4.2%

2.0%



14

3.6%

0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5% 3.0% 3.5% 4.0% 4.5% 5.0%

0 to 10

11 to 17

18 to 24

25 to 45

46 to 65

66 to 75

76 to 85

86+


4.2%

2.0%

1.0%



15

3.6%

0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5% 3.0% 3.5% 4.0% 4.5% 5.0%

0 to 10

11 to 17

18 to 24

25 to 45

46 to 65

66 to 75

76 to 85

86+


4.2%

2.0%

1.0%

0.6%



16

3.6%

0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5% 3.0% 3.5% 4.0% 4.5% 5.0%

0 to 10

11 to 17

18 to 24

25 to 45

46 to 65

66 to 75

76 to 85

86+


4.2%

2.0%

1.0%

0.6%


1.0%


17

1.5%

1.0%

0.6%

1.0%

2.0%

4.2%

3.6%

0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5% 3.0% 3.5% 4.0% 4.5% 5.0%

0 to 10

11 to 17

18 to 24

25 to 45

46 to 65

66 to 75

76 to 85

86+



4.9%


18

1.5%

1.0%

0.6%

1.0%

2.0%

4.2%

3.6%

0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5% 3.0% 3.5% 4.0% 4.5% 5.0%

0 to 10

11 to 17

18 to 24

25 to 45

46 to 65

66 to 75

76 to 85

86+



An 81 year old is 8 times more likely to

be a church attendee than a 21 year old

4.9%


19 Attendance projection

0

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

700,000

800,000

900,000

Adult A

ttendan

ce Attendance Projection range

50%

of sce

nario

s

80%

of sce

nario

s

Midpoint projection

20

Renewal & Reform

22

• Renewal & Reform is an ambitious

programme of work which seeks to

provide a narrative of hope to the Church

of England in the 21st century

• A growing church in and for all people in

and for all places

23

Narrative

• A plentiful harvest

– Luke 10:2

• A hopeful future

• A realistic assessment

• A growing church

24

The implementation challenge

• Diocesan strategies/narratives – Missionally ambitious

– Contextually appropriate

• Supported by:

– Senior leadership training

• Bishops; Deans; BAME; Strategic Leadership Development Programme; Strategic Learning Communities

– Strategic development funding

• £24 million pa

– Peer review

25

The cultural change challenge

• Evangelism – Inc digital evangelism

• Discipleship – Setting God’s People Free

• Vocations – What each diocese needs

• Simplification – Make it easier

26

Setting God’s People Free

• Discipleship/Kingdom connection

– Setting God’s People Free: This report identifies the need for two

shifts in culture and practice that we see as critical to the

flourishing of the Church and the evangelisation of the nation.

Until, together, ordained and lay, we form and equip lay people to follow

Jesus confidently in every sphere of life in ways that demonstrate the

Gospel we will never set God’s people free to evangelise the nation.

Until laity and clergy are convinced, based on their baptismal mutuality,

that they are equal in worth and status, complementary in gifting and

vocation, mutually accountable in discipleship, and equal partners in

mission, we will never form Christian communities that can evangelise the

nation.

27

For avoidance of doubt

• It calls for a shift in culture – not a narrow, centrally driven strategy.

• It looks beyond and outside Church structures to the whole people of God at work in communities and wider society – not to ‘fixing’ the institutional Church.

• It seeks to affirm and enable the complementary roles and vocations of clergy and of lay people, grounded in our common baptism – not to blur or undermine these distinctions.

• It proposes steps to nourish, illuminate and connect what is working already in and through frontline parishes – not to institute a top down approach.

• It aims to see confident involvement, engagement and leadership of lay people wherever they are called to serve – not to devise lay alternatives to clergy.

28

In reality

• Value School teachers or Sunday School leaders?

• Previous reports have made a difference

– But enough of a difference?

• Demonstrate impact

• Make changes by inspiring or cajoling?

• How to make it real?

– Emerging fashion for Rule of Life

• Setting all God’s People Free

– Or just the adults?

• 150 hours vs 5,000 hours

29

Renewal & Reform

• Long obedience in the same direction

• If it was easy would have done it

• Methods of the past got us to where we are

• Implementation gap

– What are you doing differently tomorrow?

30

The new(ish) favourite word

• Intentional

• But for avoidance of doubt:

– Not expecting or desiring uniformity

– Not after a single prescription

– Not favouring a particular approach or ecclesiology

– Etc etc

31

Thoughts from elsewhere

32

Some questions

• How high are you setting the bar for appointments? – Birmingham: Children & Family Missioners

• Are you investing in leadership? – Durham: Missional Leadership for Growth

– Liverpool: Transforming Wigan

• Are you exploring different models of ministry/parish structure? – Exeter: Growing the rural church

– Chelmsford: Turnaround teams; interim ministry

• Are you taking hard decisions? – Chelmsford: Dis-appointing clergy

33

Some more questions

• Are you giving targeted support to parishes?

– Sheffield: Mission and admin support

• Are you planting churches/congregations?

–Rochester: Re-establish mission in a town

– Liverpool: Multiplying congregations

• Are you establishing resource churches?

–Chichester; Birmingham; Southwell & Nottingham …

34

Most important lesson from elsewhere

• Implement your own plans

• You can’t do everything

– So do what you do well

35

Context

36

The shape/structure of church

• More clergy, but fewer stipendiary clergy

• More congregations

• Bigger missional/ministry units

• Multiple forms of leadership

• Multiple patterns of deployment

• More confident ecclesiologies

• Higher/lower appointments bar

37

Select

Train

Deploy

Deploy

Train

Select

Multiple patterns of deployment

38

Culture and relationship

• Higher accountability

– Mutuality within the body of Christ

– Your charge and mine

• For such a time as this

– I didn’t get ordained for this

• Priestly/episcopal/apostolic

39

Some thoughts from Joshua

• As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake

you. (Joshua 1:5)

• When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God … you are to

move out from your positions and follow it. 4 Then you will know which way

to go, since you have never been this way before. (Joshua 3: 3-4)

• Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each

of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder … 6 to serve as a sign among you.

In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 tell

them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the

LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These

stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever. (Joshua 4: 5-7)

Renewal & Reform - Diocese of Gloucester...Church of England Attendance Trends -14% -16% -14% -23% %...

Documents

Transcript of Renewal & Reform - Diocese of Gloucester...Church of England Attendance Trends -14% -16% -14% -23% %...