Church of England - Evangelism on the Agenda

It would seem an obvious thing for a church to prioritise evangelism. Jesus parting words were 'go and make disciples of all nations' (Matthew 28), and the outcome of Pentecost was that the first disciples would be witnesses to Jesus (not 'do' witness but be witnesses). After a serious finger burning exercise in the 'Decade of Evangelism', it's exciting to see the CofE picking the ball back up.

General Synod next week has a large chunk of time devoted to evangelism. I used to witter repeatedly about the failure of the national CofE to engage with mission, one reason this blog is a bit quieter than usual (apart from having 2 1/2 years without a full time colleague) is that I've less to complain about.

As well as debates on Estates evangelism, and growing faith in families and schools, Synod is also going to be asked to approve GS 2118. Calm down now, I know you're excited. If approved, the national parliament of the CofE will be signing up to 4 headline commitments
1. That every worshipping community makes evangelism a priority
2. That every parish gets involved in 'Thy Kingdom Come', a (now global) prayer initiative focused on seeing more people come to faith
3. That every diocese helps all their members to find more confidence in sharing and living the good news of Jesus in daily life
4. That the church be held to account for 1-3, plus a cluster of other recommendations (see below).

Readers of this blog from other church streams may be slapping their foreheads repeatedly at this point. Surely evangelism as a priority is a no brainer? Well a) not if you're Anglican and b) not if you're British. We've never been that comfortable talking about faith in public, and indeed when we do it puts a substantial number of people off.

There are several key ideas underpinning the report
 - The integration of evangelism and discipleship. I remember the stir caused by William Abrahams 'The Logic of Evangelism' in the 1980s, reminding evangelicals that we are called to make discples, not converts. The report therefore sees evangelism as an integral part of discipleship, not a separate activity.
 - The work of LICC and others in exploring 7 day a week discipleship
 - The word 'confidence', which keeps recurring - as a church, and as individuals, many of us lack the confidence to share our story, or even invite people to a church event.

The report sets out 6 'operational priorities' for the next few years. These are going to be challenging, but exciting, if we take them seriously
a) Every person equipped to be a witness - 'mobilising the million' CofE members to be more confident in sharing their story and Jesus' story, and developing a culture of invitation in the church

b) Every person released to live out the gospel 24/7 - which links up with the discipleship/setting God's people free agenda currently being rolled out nationally.

c) Every church prioritising children and young people in evangelism  - with the startling statistic that 65% of CofE churches have less than 5 members under 16, and half of these have none.

d) Every church a welcoming community, both as people and as places, and makes the most of 'life events' to connect with the community and build an ongoing relationship

e) Every church considers developing a new worshipping community. London diocese has traditionally led the way on strategic church planting, but it now looks like this will become a national expectation

f) Every leader trained and equipped to be competent to lead in evangelism and encouraging disciples. Though this is the last of the 6 priorities, this is the potential bottleneck. For many vicars, their gifts lie elsewhere than evangelism, and for many others, it's simply not on the radar. This will take quite a shift in culture, but it's a shift that's needed.

An appendix to the report picks up on specific areas - new estates, ethnic minorities, chaplancy and youth.

A few thoughts
1. There is a concern threaded through the report that this work will lose 'momentum' and not become embedded in CofE culture. This may have half an eye on the future leadership of the CofE - John Sentamu is retiring, and Justin Welby is 6 years into his stint as ABofC - most recent occupants of that role have managed about a decade.

2. Linked to 'confidence' is apologetics, which doesn't get a mention in the report. One of the things which gives Christians confidence in their faith is seeing that it answers key questions well and coherently. This work may be happening elsewhere, but it strikes me that the CofE needs to regain its nerve in the sufficiency of the Bible and its worldview to provide a framework for life, ethics, thinking, and spirituality.

3. 'Setting God's People Free', with its focus on everyday discipleship, does seem to be gaining traction, and has the potential to transform Dioceses and local churches. It's good to see the evangelism agenda linking up with this, but it will take excellent resources, prayer, and consistent leadership over many years to see these changes get to the 'average' churches. A small number of churches 'get' evangelism already,  small number will probably never get it, so it's good to see the report zeroing in on the thousands of 'average' CofE churches in the 20-60 membership range, and considering what this all looks like for them.

4. This is being driven/led from the top, to which I cry 'at last!' But at Diocesan level it needs to be broken down a bit, otherwise Dioceses could end up appointing a forest of advisors and facilitators. I've said it before and I'll say it again, anyone in a Diocesan post needs to be part-time in a parish, so that they remain grounded in the realities and responsibilities of parish life. Advisors in spirituality need to be leading their churches in prayer, advisors in evangelism need to be equipping their own local church to share faith with confidence etc. That gives credibility and context to the people promoting this stuff, and also prevents them 'going native' into a Diocesan culture which becomes separated from the coalface realities of parish life.

So is it true?

Here's a few recommended links to blogs and websites which tackle the truthfulness and relevance of the Christian faith in the face of common challenges and modern ethical and spiritual issues. These were all pinged my way after asking for recommendations on a Facebook page, so I thought I'd post them in case anyone else found them useful

https://christianity.org.uk/  website with lots of links, topics and things to explore on spiritual questions.

https://www.rzim.org/watch  lectures on a range of different topics around faith, world religions, science, moral issues etc. Nabeel Qureshi (one of the speakers) is highly recommended

https://benjaminchangblog.com/  good blog by scientist and Christian by Benjamin Chang, with blogs, articles and videos on a range of topics

https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings articles by William Lane Craig, who does lots of public debates and discussions on the Christian faith, the evidence for it, and some of the common challenges to it. Lots of videos and other materials on the website.

One that's been around for a bit longer is the L'Abri fellowship, founded by philosopher and evangelist Francis Schaeffer, and they have a vast online library of lectures and talks on modern thought, philosophy, psychology and Christianity. A real treasure trove http://labri-ideas-library.org/index.asp 

New CofE short films: quite inspiring actually

A new series of short films from the CofE, on the thinking and vision emerging for the renewal and reform of our national church. "They wanted to know 'if Jesus is real, how can we get to know him?' I used to wonder if it was possible for the CofE to have a coherent, Christ-centred vision for its work, given the diversity and culture of the thing. How exciting to be proved wrong.

Here's the summary of the other films in the series:

A Hopeful Future

The second of our four films themed on the vision and narrative. The Bishop of Burnley is joined by Youth Council representative Alexandra Podd, and Archbishops's Council member Rebecca Salter, in looking to a hopeful future.

A Realistic Assessment
In the third film in our Renewal & Reform vision and narrative series, Programme Director Mike Eastwood, and Area Dean Kate Wharton, look at the challenges facing the Church of England.

A Growing Church
The fourth film in the series exploring the vision and narrative looks at how, in a world crying out for God's love, we can once again become a growing church for all people in all places. With Secretary General William Nye, Church Army's CEO Mark Russell, and the Revd Smitha Prasadam

'Evangelism Team Leader' - new post at Diocese of Bath and Wells

It wasn't so long ago that my Diocese released a course for all its churches, including a talk from a senior staff member who argued that local churches should 'forget about being missionary'. There was maybe an important point buried in there, but it was symptomatic of a wider complacency about evangelism, mission and church growth.

How things have changed - we're now recruiting for this:

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Diocese of Bath and Wells as we start to implement our new strategy which seeks to put mission and evangelism at the heart of everything that we do.

We want to appoint someone who is passionate about Evangelism who will inspire, teach, train and enable others in this ministry, working across the diocese at every level.

We are looking for someone who has:

- An understanding of evangelism and mission in an Anglican context
- Experience of developing church planting, fresh expressions or of pioneer ministry
- Ability to enthuse and inspire others
- Proven ability to develop evangelism and mission and enable numerical and spiritual growth

more details here. Great news.

Evangelism: never the first word in a conversation?

Words of wisdom from the ABofC

speaking at a reception for leaders of other faiths in the garden of Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop insisted Christians should not actively “proselytise” non-Christians.

Asked where he drew the line between evangelism and proselytism, he said: “I draw the line in terms of respect for the other; in starting by listening before you speak; in terms of love that is unconditional and not conditional to one iota, to one single element on how the person responds to your own declaration of faith; and of not speaking about faith unless you are asked about faith.

“That’s a shorthand but I could go on.

“I draw a pretty sharp line, it is all based around loving the person you are dealing with which means you seek their well-being and you respect their identity and their integrity.”

Nothing there that you wouldn't find in 1 Peter chapter 3, or indeed in Stephen Coveys 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. There's an interesting contrast to the commentary on last years Talking Jesus survey, whose recommendations said a lot about talking but next to nothing about listening, despite the fact that far more people were put off becoming Christians by our efforts at evangelism than were attracted to it. 

Having said that, there's potential for a real double standard here. Imagine a world where people don't talk about football unless they're asked about football, or don't talk about their political views unless they're asked about them. How come that's fine (though pretty tedious) but starting a conversation about God isn't? 

PS sorry about the formatting, not quite sure what's happened there - you can read between the lines ;-) !

Talking About Jesus - Would It Be Better If We Didn't?

Talking Jesus this week published a survey of just over 2500 'normal' people and 1500 Christians. The findings are going to General Synod later this month.

Here are the questions the research was trying to get at:
What do people in this nation know and believe about Jesus? What do they really think of us, his followers? Are we talking about Jesus enough? And when we are, are we drawing people closer towards him, or further away?

The work was a joint project between the CofE, Evangelical Alliance, and other Christian agencies. Some of the findings:
 - 40% of the general population believe the Bible is God's word
 - 60% think Jesus really existed, 25% of under-35s think he is a fictional character
 - 21% think he was God, the majority believe Jesus was a spiritual leader/normal human being
 - just over 40% think Jesus was raised from the dead

A key focus of the survey was evangelism, how Christians are seen and how we share (or don't share) our faith:
- 2/3 of people know a 'practising Christian', and 60% of them enjoy that persons company. That means 40% don't/didn't know
- When asked to describe their Christian friend/acquaintance, positive characterstics scored much higher than negative ones (hooray!) - caring, friendly, generous, good-humoured were all about 5x more common than hypocritical, narrow minded, uptight and foolish.

Here's the really worrying bit: the majority of Christians feel comfortable to some degree in talking to others about Jesus, look for opportunities to do so, and have done so in the last month. But as for the fruits.....
 More than half of English non-Christians who know a Christian (58%) have had a conversation with them about Jesus. Younger adults 18 to 34 (61%) are somewhat more likely than adults over 35 (54%) to report having had such a conversation. Two out of every five non-Christians say evangelism made them glad not to be a Christian (42%). Another two in five don’t know how they felt about it (42%), while only 16 per cent felt sad, after the conversation about Jesus, that they did not share the Christian’s faith. 

 When Christians talk about Jesus, the response is mixed. One in five non-Christians say they, after such a conversation, felt open to an experience or encounter with Jesus. But almost half say they were not open to such an experience (49%) and six in 10 didn’t want to know more about Jesus (59%). One in five did want to know more (19%); 16 per cent felt sad that they did not share the Christian’s faith; nearly one-quarter felt more positive about Jesus (23%) or felt closer to the Christian with whom they had the conversation (26%).

Whilst Christians who share their faith feel positive about having done so, the clear majority of those on the receiving end are turned off Christian faith, and the one telling them about it, by the experience. Christians think that the effects of their talking about Jesus is positive, but that's not what most of their hearers think. 

The recommendations from the survey don't reflect any of this. They pick up on some of the positives (that there are millions who believe Jesus was real, was God and rose from the dead, but haven't joined the dots, that Christians are generally seen in a positive light), but there is nothing that addresses our inability to share our faith in a helpful way in the majority of cases. Though the full report mentions a goal of (enabling) Christians to have millions more sensitive, positive, culturally-relevant conversations about Jesus that could be deeply effective in evangelism, I don't actually see anything that explores what sensitivity and cultural relevance look like. 

For many Christians, talking with a friend about their faith and about Jesus is a key part of their journey into faith. Sadly it sounds like for many non-Christians, such a conversation could also be a key part of their journeying away from faith. The solution is not to stop talking about Jesus, but to find out how to do it well, in a sensitive and relevant way.

There are many encouraging findings in the report, but I wish that there was a bit more engagement with the discouraging ones. I'm with Andrew Brown - there's no point encouraging more of us to talk about Jesus if we're not doing it very well. It's very helpful research, and the powerpoint summaries are really useful, but there's no point doing the research if we ignore one of the key findings. 

Training your dog in evangelism

A friend has the maxim that, if he has a bright idea, he waits for at least 2 other people to come up with the same idea before doing anything about it......

Being out and about is vital as lots of life in Derwent is conducted out on the street so we got a dog, and it was brilliant to see the kind of 'God things' that happened as a result. Billy looks like a greyhound on steroids but he's actually a lurcher/Staffordshire bull terrier cross so he has got quite a lot of street cred because of his quite 'tough' appearance. When we first took him out for walks, people would say things like, 'Would you look at the muscle tone on that?!' The irony is that he wouldn't hurt a fly, but Billy's unconventional looks have certainly sparked many a chat we wouldn't otherwise have had. There are a number of neighbours we now count as friends through these haphazard conversations. (read the full story here)


and from a new book on sharing faith:

Some of their ideas are pretty quirky - like getting a dog just so you can chat to your neighbours when they happen to be in their garden - but the idea behind them is the same: to get talking to the people around us.

Their ideas are laid out in their new book from Moody Publishers - A Field Guide for Everyday Mission: 30 Days and 101 Ways to Demonstrate the Gospel. 

"Walk your dog when your neighbors are outside. Strike up conversations. Invite them over. No dog? Here's your chance to guilt trip your spouse into getting one," they write.  

There. You were thinking about getting a dog weren't you? Not that 'guilt tripping your spouse' is a great way to conduct your marriage, though I'm hoping that quote is tongue in cheek. 

It's also an ethical dilemma: how does a Christian (or any person for that matter) justify spending money on feeding, insuring, housing etc. a dog when there are human beings who have neither food or homes? 

I once did a research degree on a chap who declared that his dog was his spiritual director. It took me years for my attitude to our canine friends to recover, though now we own a dog, I can occasionally see what he was getting at, even though I disagree with just about everything else he said. 

Call to Prayer from Justin Welby

Prayer has to be our first priority, if we are to call more people to follow Christ, and to invite others to share in the story of God’s love for the world. The wonderful news is God is always ready to hear our prayers and to send his Spirit that we may proclaim the good news afresh. I urge every church community and individual to set aside time to pray and to share God’s heart for all his people.”

Having an Archbishop of Canterbury prepared to say that the main business of the church is calling people to follow Jesus, and calling us to pray together for that, takes some getting used to. But I'm quite happy to get used to it. This call to prayer is on the new Use Words website, one of the first fruits of the Archbishops new evangelism task group. I love the title: there is a lot of talk about the supposed line from St. Francis 'preach the gospel, use words if necessary'. The spurious attribution to Francis (there is no record of him ever having said it) gives it credibility, the idea that words are an optional part of the gospel ('good news') is simply bizarre. It's a great escape hatch for British Christians who are shy about evangelism, and it needs to be challenged. 

The other great thing is that a site devoted to evangelism in the CofE starts by being devoted pretty much entirely to prayer. Spot on. The Pentecost story (which the CofE is living through at the moment in the church year), sketches out the pattern: spend time with Jesus, wait, pray, then into Spirit-led mission. The 'great commission' is given with the instruction to wait prayerfully first. 

Justin Welby has also written this tie-in piece 'what we talk about when we talk about evangelism', for Christan Today

update: excellent piece by Chris Russell in the Church Times. 

Job Description for a Bishop

Our new Bishop of Bath and Wells is being installed this weekend (makes him sound like a piece of software). Here is the opening section of his job description, or 'Archbishops Charge' to give it the proper title:

Recalling God’s mission entrusted by Christ to His Church to proclaim God’s Kingdom, to  heal the sick and to make disciples of all nations, I now set before you the key tasks identified for you by the Crown Nominations Commission, to guide you as you prepare to take up your new office and ministry 

 To share the gospel across the diocese of Bath and Wells and to nurture the confidence of others to do likewise; to foster spiritual and numerical growth in parishes, benefices and communities encouraging aspirations for a growing and flourishing Church. 

That'll do for starters. See the rest here. It would be great if this (or a version of it) could be the opening paragraph of every clergy job description in the Diocese too. After all, it's only 69 years since the CofE recommended this change, I think that's long enough to wait.

Peter Hancock, the new bishop, has even recorded a Pentecost sermon for showing in local churches this Sunday:



"each and every day I need to ask God the Holy Spirit to stir me up, in order that my life might reflect faithfully the love of Christ"

"Send your Holy Spirit upon us
and clothe us with power from on high"
Amen

General Synod on 'The Priority of Evangelism and Making New Disciples'. No, you're not dreaming.

Following this afternoons debate on 'Intentional Evangelism' (which prompted some wag on Twitter to ask what 'Unintentional Evangelism' might look like), the CofE General Synod passed this motion:

'That this Synod in the light of the priority of evangelism and making new disciples:

(a) support the formation of an Archbishops' Task Group on Evangelism with the terms of reference and timetable as set out in GS 1917 and urge that its members include:

(i)  staff of Anglican home mission agencies with expertise in helping local churches engage in effective evangelism and disciple-making, and

(ii)  those with a proven record in those disciplines at local level".'

(b) call upon the Task Group to make its first priority a new call to prayer;

(c) commend to the Task Group an initial programme for its work around the seven disciplines of evangelisation as set out in the same paper; and

(d) call upon every diocesan and deanery synod and every PCC to spend the bulk of one meeting annually and some part of every meeting focusing on sharing experiences and initiatives for making new disciples.'

(e) urge every local church in 2014 prayerfully to try tat least one new way, appropriate to their local context, of seeking to make new disciples of Jesus Christ.".'

Bits in italics are amendments added during the debate. 

One concern already voiced is that 'top-down' initiatives from the CofE rarely work, and that encouraging evangelism and disciple-making needs to happen from the bottom up. What the top can provide is accountability, encouragement, permission, and reshaping of structures. Sections d and e won't amount to very much unless bishops, archdeacons, clergy and church members all pick them up and run with them. But if they become standard practice, then they could make a huge difference. 

I'm encouraged by the fact that both Archbishops have made this a priority, both in Synod agenda terms, and in their own commitment to it - up to 6 meetings a year on the task group for up to 5 years. This is the kind of long-term leadership we need to bring about a change of culture and practices. It can't happen soon enough.

For snippets from the main background paper to this debate, have a look here.

And for a penetrating insight into Synod processes, try this. Really, try it. 

The Church of England, the Gospel, and the Future: my prayer for General Synod

The good news of Jesus Christ is not a human invention but the revelation of God’s grace to humankind

This gospel of Jesus Christ offers forgiveness for sin for those who are alienated from God and a renewed relationship with our creator and with one another. The gospel offers guidance for the lost, spiritual food for the hungry, healing for the broken in spirit, freedom for those who are captives, order and safety for those whose lives are in chaos, fruitful living for those whose lives are barren. The gospel offers the gift of life in all its fullness and fellowship in the life of God the Trinity both now and for all eternity. The gospel offers the rich gift of resurrection and life beyond death for, in Christ, the power of death itself has been vanquished and resurrection life is offered to all.

From this paper for General Synod, meeting in the next few days. Amidst all the women bishops stuff, the Synod actually kicks off with a paper and debate on Intentional Evangelism. The paper goes on to say:

The Church is compelled to proclaim the gospel with imagination and perseverance out of 
love for God, whose gospel this is, and out of love for the world. We have nothing more, and nothing less, to offer to the world around us than this pearl of inestimable value. The world around, at different times, may ridicule, scoff or reject the message. But the response of the world does not invalidate the gospel or excuse the Church from the call to proclaim it.

and states plainly what the CofE needs to do:

Evangelism is not something which will happen in the present climate on its own without a deliberate and intentional emphasis and strategy to guide us forward which is owned at every level across the Church of England. The lessons we have learned and are learning need to be shared, owned and developed in a clear and systematic way. We need the urgent investment of resources, time and energy into each of the different aspects of evangelism over the medium and long term. We need to be focussed in our prayers and in our resourcing of this aspect of our calling in the local church, in dioceses and in the national church. We need, in brief, to be intentional about evangelism in this next period of our life as the Church of England, not for a five or ten year period but for a generation or more in order to reverse the decline we have seen over the last century and to lay a foundation for the growth of the Church in this land in future generations. 

Yes, we need to get on with ordaining women to the episcopate, but we have only so much time and energy as a church, and this single issue is consuming far too much of it. Apologies to everyone campaigning for women bishops, but my prayer is that if there is anything at the coming General Synod which shapes the CofE for the future, it is this. GS1917. It is more important than who we ordain to the episcopate, and therefore deserves more time and energy than our debates over women bishops.

the paper itself recognises this:
the translation of this desire for a strategy into a meaningful and workable plan for the next period of our common life has still to be achieved. Motions in the General Synod about evangelism and the growth of the church are in danger of becoming bland. We seem to be at the point where evangelism cannot be taken forward by the embracing of one or two big new ideas but is more about an intentional shift across a whole range of disciplines. 

Headline motions about the growth of the church cannot by themselves prevent this agenda being squeezed by the seemingly more pressing calls to focus time and attention on questions of gender and ministry or human sexuality

There are 4 core proposals:
1.  an Archbishops’ Task Group on Evangelism which will enable national leadership and co-ordination in this area of Church life 
this is proposed in the motion, the group will include both Archbishops and will meet 4-6 times annually for at least the next 2 years. That's a significant commitment. The focus of its work will be prioritising evangelism and prayer within the CofE as a whole

2. Support for a national call to prayer around this agenda in the coming years. 

3. Support for a programme of action to be articulated by the Task Group around the Seven Disciplines of Evangelisation
sounds churchy, but have a look at the 7 Disciplines on page 14ff, evangelism, church planting, nurture, church growth, apologetics...

4. A call to every PCC and every diocesan and deanery Synod to take time annually to develop and focus on this agenda
I mean, what have we been doing if this isn't happening already?

But I'm hopeful that at last it is going to happen. Pray for the Church of England this week, that it will get its priorities right, and put its energies in the right place. I pray that this paper sets the tone for everything that follows, not just in this next week, but for the next generation.

update: some other synod previews here, one by the Bishops Chaplain from our diocese (which, in constrast to this post, is entirely about women bishops!), and this excellent post by Pete Broadbent looking at mission, ministry and reshaping the church.

St. Aidans Day, 31st August

Everlasting God
you sent the gentle bishop Aidan
to proclaim the gospel in this land:
grant us to live as he taught
in simplicity, humility, and love for the poor;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen


FROM the aforesaid island, and college of monks, was Aidan sent to instruct the English nation in Christ, .... it was the highest commendation of his doctrine, with all men, that he taught no otherwise than he and his followers had lived; for he neither sought nor loved any thing of this world, but delighted in distributing immediately among the poor whatsoever was given him by the kings or rich men of the world. He was wont to traverse both town and country on foot, never on horseback, unless compelled by some urgent necessity; and wherever in his way he saw any, either rich or poor, he invited them, if infidels, to embrace the mystery of the faith or if they were believers, to strengthen them in the faith, and to stir them up by words and actions to alms and good works.


...... whatsoever gifts of money he received from the rich, he either distributed them, as has been said, to the use of the poor, or bestowed them in ransoming such as had been wrong. fully sold for slaves. Moreover, he afterwards made many of those he had ransomed his disciples, and after having taught and instructed them, advanced them to the order of priesthood.


...It is reported, that when King Oswald had asked a bishop of the Scots to administer the word of faith to him and his nation, there was first sent to him another man of more austere disposition, who, meeting with no success, and being unregarded by the English people, returned home, and in an assembly of the elders reported, that he had not been able to do any good to the nation he had been sent to preach to, because they were uncivilized men, and of a stubborn and barbarous disposition. 

They, as is testified, in a great council seriously debated what was to be done, being desirous that the nation should receive the salvation it demanded, and grieving that they had not received the preacher sent to them. 

Then said Aidan, who was also present in the council, to the priest then spoken of, "I am of opinion, brother, that you were more severe to your unlearned hearers than you ought to have been and did not at first, conformably to the apostolic rule, give them the milk of more easy doctrine, till being by degrees nourished with the word of God, they should be capable of greater perfection, and be able to practice God's sublimer precepts." Having heard these words, all present began diligently to weigh what he had said, and presently concluded, that he deserved to be made a bishop, and ought to be sent to instruct the incredulous and unlearned; since he was found to be endued with singular discretion, which is the mother of other virtues, and accordingly being ordained, they sent him to their friend, King Oswald, to preach; and he, as time proved, afterwards appeared to possess all other virtues, as well as the discretion for which he was before remarkable.

source: Bede. My emphasis. 

We don't need any new church initiatives

"By every means possible the clergy must be set free from all hindrances, spiritual as well as material, which prevent them from exercising an evangelistic ministry. More particularly must they be given time to fulfil their primary responsibility of training the laity for evangelism"

It's 68 years since that sentence was written in the CofE report 'Towards the Conversion of England'. How different things would be if we'd actually got round to implementing it. How different things will be if we do.

General Synod: Sneaking in a radical growth strategy whilst everyone is looking at women bishops

I've been critical in the past for the absence of mission from the agenda of General Synod. Looking at some of the papers for sessions starting next week, I'm quietly encouraged.

The full agenda is here, and most of the Saturday is going to be spent in small groups trying to thrash out the women bishops issue (again). The day closes with a 90 minute debate on GS1895. Stay awake at the back there! This is a half-time review of the Church of Englands 3 priorities for the current 5 year cycle. They are:
 - contributing as the national Church to the common good;
- facilitating the growth of the Church;
- re-imagining the Church’s ministry.

Each of these will be the subject of a major General Synod debate in the next 12 months, with church growth kicking this off in November.

The paper makes it quite clear which of the 3 is considered to be top priority:

The opportunities for contributing to the common good at a time of considerable social and economic distress are enormous. But the Church of England’s capacity will be less than it would wish unless it can also make progress in reversing the long term decline in numbers and increase in the age profile of its membership. (p2)

(there is a)  ‘mistaken conflation of evangelism and evangelicalism…growth is an authentic priority for all the strands within Anglicansim and should be a practical priority for all’

from the conclusion: it is, rightly, the challenge of growth that is increasingly at the centre of the church’s agendas. As in New Testament days there is a sharp awareness of the challenge posed by an abundance of fields white to harvest and a relatively limited supply of labourers (p10)

Hidden away are some radical thoughts: in a section on vocations there is a growing sense that the current stress on the individual’s sense of vocation needs to be redressed to a greater extent by reference to the kind of clergy who are suited to the present mission challenge and especially to meet the need for greater diversity. I.e. the CofE is looking at rewriting the criteria for leadership selection to put mission leadership as a much higher priority. 

The paper outlines some of the work being done under each of the 3 headings, and adds in a paper by Steve Croft, bishop of Sheffield. It's worth a read, outlining some of the reasons why we don't talk about church growth in the CofE:

"The agendas of bishops meetings and other meetings are dominated by questions of gender and ministry and human sexuality leaving little quality space for deeper engagement with evangelization"...

tick

and suggests '7 disciplines of evangelisation', which is a really interesting section: watch this space on this one. It's classic Croft: take some practices and ideas which have been beyond the pale in Anglican circles and describe them in terms and ways which bring them into the fold. Thus 'ecclesial formation' (church growth) 'forming new ecclesial communities' (church planting). You may see a lot more of this quoted in the months and years to come. 

The Croft paper is also here, on his blog as Bishop of Sheffield. 

Finally, there is GS Misc 1054. Otherwise known as "Making new disciples: the Growth of the Church of England" I almost feel I need to repeat that title, just in case you thought you'd misread it first time round. It's a companion paper to the Quinquennium review above, and makes the theological and practical case for prioritising church growth in the CofE. It recognises that decline can't go on for much longer without the parish system ceasing to function, and that traditional Anglican outreach to the 'church fringe' is no longer enough. It's the kind of honest appraisal of where we're at as a church that I've been wittering on about for some time. 

Some outlines of a national and diocesan church growth strategy are proposed, down to very basic stuff such as actually talking about it. I've just received the Bath and Wells annual review for 2012, there is not a single mention anywhere of diocesan membership or attendance. Amid all the lists of achievements and met targets, you'd be forgiven for thinking we were growing and thriving and didn't need to do much differently. We aren't, and we do.  

There is some key stuff in the paper - e.g. on recruiting and equipping clergy who in turn can train their lay members as evangelists and agents of outreach, on mission action planning as a growth tool, on benchmarks of good practice in basic things like welcoming newcomers, and identifying the 'levers for growth' available to diocesan and national structures. It's well worth a read.

A few short extracts:

these quinquennial goals give us a clear framework of spiritual growth - numerical growth - kingdom growth; all of which need to be held inextricably together. A vibrant Church which grows new disciples will have more energy to transform the world through the power of God’s love. This holistic vision of growth is focused on the Kingdom of God, not just on church attendance. Yet without a regular flow of new disciples, the Church will be less and less able to fulfil its calling to be an agent of God’s transformation in the world.

There will be great danger, however, if our  motivation for making new disciples is a desire to preserve the Church of England, or ‘to keep the show on the road’

The urgent missionary task facing the Church is to make new disciples for Jesus Christ who will seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. The priority of growing the number of new believers is not for the sake of the Church itself, but to enable the Church to fulfil God’s mission to be a sign, agent and foretaste of his Kingdom, where ultimately every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Turning around the decline in the number of new disciples is a massive task for the Church: far too big a task to be delegated to a small task group; way beyond what the National Church Institutions can achieve; more profound than a General Synod debate or two can fix. It will only happen if people at every level in the Church are enabled to catch the vision, pray passionately and work together. 

amen to that.

Update: Justin Welby has just appointed an adviser on Evangelism and Witness. Judging by this, and what the Archbishop has already said, I think we can say he takes all of the above very seriously.

Pentecost, the Sequel

It's quite striking to compare Peters Pentecost sermon with the one he preaches a few days later in Acts 3. There's a lot of common features:

 - Peter deals with misconeptions: this time of the beggar. He is clear about what he can offer, and what he can't. What he can offer is healing in the name of Jesus. The apostles are not to be one in another long line of benefactors, they have something different, something better.

 - Peter explains what's going on: Jesus has made him walk

 - Peter keeps the focus on Jesus - he recounts pretty much the same as he did in Acts 2, how God had set Jesus apart, God's people had killed him, and God has raised him to life, and the apostles are witnesses of the fact

 - Peter gives them a clear way to respond: again, pretty much the same as Acts 2 'repent and turn to God' for forgiveness, and for 'times of refreshing' (a way of talking about the gift of the Holy Spirit?). Interestingly, he doesn't call for people to be baptised, as he does in Acts 2. Is that purely pragmatic (2000 extra men, and only 2 apostles, it might have taken some time)? Or do we take it as read?

It's looks very much as though Peter has rehearsed and clarified what he is going to say before he goes into these situations, he has the same focus on Jesus, the same clear and concise story of Jesus special status, death and resurrection, the same call for a response of repentance and commitment and the gift of divine grace.

At the Diocesan church growth strategies conference last week, I heard of a group of 18 ordinands (potential vicars) who were asked what they'd do if someone came to them and said 'how do I become a Christian?' Only 2 gave a remotely adequate answer. This is criminal. We need a church where every member can do what Peter does - know the story, know it well, and be able to tell it and show people how to respond. That means that for church leaders, we need to take time and effort to train ourselves, and others, so that this comes as naturally as us as it did to Peter.

Explaining Pentecost

Peters Pentecost speech struck lots of chords with me this year. He does 4 things, all of which resonate very strongly with the present day:

 - Deals with misconceptions ('these people are not drunk'). Often that's the starting point, there is stuff that needs to be dealt with before people will even give the Christian message a hearing.

 - Explains what is going on in terms people can understand ('this is what was spoken about through the prophet Joel'). As fewer and fewer people are familiar with God or the work of the Spirit, we have to do more explaining, not less. 'Preach the gospel at all times, use words if necessary' is a dangerous nonsense, preaching the gospel always involves words, because if people are encountering God and seeing him at work they will not often realise what's going on. And most folk are a lot further back than the Pentecost crowd, who knew who the 'prophet Joel' was, the Holy Spirit is an utterly foreign language to them. I've had several recent experiences of seeing God touch the lives of non-Christians or people who are exploring the Christian faith, and actually pointing out to them that perhaps this is God they are experiencing. Otherwise it's just put down as a 'strange peaceful feeling' or a coincidence, or not noticed at all.

 - Puts the focus on Jesus - 'God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ'. Peter could have stayed with the phenomena, the amazing gift of languages which enabled dozens of nations to hear Gods' praise in their own local dialect. That in itself would have been enough for most people. But he knows why this has happened - the whole point is that the church should bear witness to Jesus, and that the disciples should make disciples. So he makes it clear that this is all about Jesus.

 - Explains how to respond  - 'repent and be baptised'. No messing around, no Alpha course, no invitation to join us at our next family service. They are ready there and then if they're willing to say yes to Jesus. Do we have a clear explanation of who Jesus is, and how people can respond to him? I heard during the week of a small group of soon-to-be-vicars who were asked as part of their preparation how they would lead someone to faith in Christ. A depressingly small number had anything approaching a decent and immediate answer to the question. If people can't find the door then they can't get in.

Justin Welby said during the week that evangelism is "emphatically not just a clergy thing, it's a Christian thing." It's bad enough that many clergy can't go through the 4 stages above, it's that we're not equipping our church members to do it either. And here, like many preachers, I'm preaching to myself.

Diocesan church growth strategies 3: Archbishop Justin Welby

A few excerpts and quotes from Justin Welbys address on Weds night to the 'diocesan church growth strategies' conference I'm currently at. It was immensely encouraging to find that the new Archbishop had made space in his diary to be with a group of people looking at church growth in the CofE. Here's a few quotes to give a flavour, and a few paraphrases on some of the other key points. Hopefully you'll be encouraged.....:

“it’s incredibly exciting that in (the stated priorities of the church) is spiritual and numerical growth…that would never have happened a few years back, this is something quite new.”

The Archbishops 3 priorities:

 - prayer and renewal of the church's spiritual life

 - reconciliation, within the church and as an agent in the world

 - evangelism

Spiritual Renewal

“A growing church, an evangelistic church, starts with a church that is not focused on anything other than Jesus Christ … it is in the renewal of our spirituality, in seeing Christ and his love for us, that we overflow into the world.”

In his prayer pilgrimage before taking office, the ABC prayed in 6 cathedrals, expectations were that 3-400 might come to each event, the smallest turnout was 2,000, and in total 12,500 people joined in praying. During the week people came to faith "it was about trying to find a way to make it easy for people to encounter Jesus Christ, and focusing on him and not on us and on the church.”

“If (the people of God living in the discipline of regular prayer) doesn’t happen I don’t think a lot else is going to…if there’s going to be effective evangelism, there needs to be a renewal of spirituality.”

“In my own parish over 7 years we grew a lot, and quite a lot of that started with funerals and weddings and baptisms and just being human and just being reasonably friendly.” His message wasn't complex - if a church does the basics well (worship, welcome, pastoral care, being human and loving, being able to explain and share the faith) then it can grow.

Reconciliation

To be an agent of reconciliation, the church has to model it. He commented on the way that Anglicans currently speak to each other, both in correspondence (Lambeth Palace gets 15k+ letters a year) and in the blogosphere. Some of the language we use about each other is 'not just a slight failing', and (my words here) we really do need to get our act together and raise the standards we work to and the standards we expect from one another. The church needs to learn to disagree passionately but lovingly, and with great care for each other. 

Is the church a safe place for the vulnerable? If we don't get safeguarding right, if we don't properly take care of the vulnerable, then that's not good enough "an ethical institution takes safety very seriously". 

Rediscovering the Psalms and their overt highs and lows of lament and praise: “(in the Psalms) there’s not a lot of ‘O God we’re glad things aren’t too bad at the moment and could be worse, all things considered.’ " We need a diet of lament and celebration in worship that isn't driven by circumstance. 

Evangelism

"Evangelism has to be a priority" and the CofE at present has a bit of work to do on this. Is it on the agendas of our meetings, synods, etc.? It must also be seen as normal for everyone  “this is emphatically not a clergy thing, this is a Christian thing.” 

“Dealing with the really hard issues, solidly, is absolutely fundamental.” Churches need to help people with apologetics, dealing with the tough questions, and being able to explain their faith.  

“There is no reason why not, in 15-20 years (that) the church could not be twice the size it is now, and more”  but that will involved hard work. "A church that is growing will find that everyone is working pretty hard"

Overall it was a clear and simple message, powerfully stated - spiritual renewal focusing on Christ not ourselves, reconciliation (and the church has to get its internal house in order on this) and evangelism. Not much rocket science, plenty of hope and confidence, but courage patience and wisdom required. 

On a personal level I was challenged too - can I clearly say what my top priorities are in ministry and leadership, and how I intend to go about them? (I think the answer is yes, but having to identify and clarify them is a helpful process)

see here for other reports from the Diocesan Church Growth Strategies conference. More later.

How Not To Invite People to Church

Excellent set of videos on how not to invite people to church (or anything else for that matter)




links direct to the Skit Guys website, so you don't get the adverts
Weatherman
Dead Cat
Goulash

No More Walls

They come or we go? from Incarnate Network on Vimeo.

Painfully familiar. Great discussion starter.

church on the streets

What would happen if the church went out onto the streets on a Sunday morning, and gave stuff away....? One church in East Anglia set up a tab behind the counter at the local Greggs bakery, and gave away 'free hugs' to passers by....

While we are merrily hugging people on Sunday morning, people also encounter a grace gift as they stand at the till ready to pay for their food at the bakery just behind us. Some people (but not a lot) come out to express their thanks. Others decline the offer and ask that the gift is used for people who need it more than they do. The ladies working in Greggs do a great job as evangelists. “would you like the Church to pay this for you?” I hear the assistant manager ask people as one after the other people come to pay.


After a couple of hours I take a break from hugging and call in at the local tattoo shop to catch up with the staff and they ask what I’ve been up to. The owner, a loving young man is touched by the simplicity of showing love to people that he thrusts £20 into my hand to refresh the money supply behind the counter of Greggs.

After giving more dosh to the staff to use to offer people a free gift I direct some guys off the streets who are homeless to choose their lunch. They express their gratitude as they leave Greggs with a hearty lunch each… Courtesy of a man who owns a tattoo shop and served by Greggs staff who explain that their lunch is a gift from the church.

more at be the light

apologies to anyone who read this before 9.30 and couldn't make sense of it, the paragraphs are now in the right order!!