Transcript The national background context to Urban evangelism and

A background to
urban evangelism and church growth
Chester Diocese 2012
The Sheffield Centre
Church Army’s Research unit
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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
Tough because of Church disconnected
10% ‘Regular’ at church
Attend monthly or more
40%: The Non-Churched:
Never have come
10% ‘Irregular’ at church
Attend less than monthly
Most
Evangelism
20% are open to
come back
Adults in England
20% are never
coming back!
40%: The De-Churched:
Used to come but don’t now.
It’s more serious than we thought –
ENGLAND Church attendance and experience segmentation in 2006
Closed
non-churched
33% 13.7m
Other
religions
7% 3.0m
Unassigned
2% 1.0m
Regular churchgoers
(at least monthly)
Fringe churchgoers
14% 5.9m
(less often but at least
6x yr. ) 3% 1.4m
Occasional
churchgoers
(less often but at
least annually)
7% 2.9m
Open
de-churched
5% 1.9m
Open
non-churched
1% 0.5m
Base: Adults 16+ in England (unw. 5907 w. 5774)
Closed
de-churched
26% 10.8m
Pop’n (000s) = 41,043
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
Most existing
churches are not
aware of this, nor
shaped to meet it
76% of ‘converts’
came from
the dechurched
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
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=
% Pop
Attended
<15 yrs
Non-churched:
Approx 60%
De-churched:
Approx 30%
Attending: approx 10%
15 25 35 45 55 65 75 85
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Attended
In 1998
Age
Some C of E indicators
PCC Vol’try Income
% change
1980-90
% change
1990-2000
% change
1980 –
2000
+42
+30
+85
-15
-15
-5
-14
-18
Electoral Rolls
-10
-13
-22
Easter HC
-11
-16
-25
Baptisms
-13
-24
-34
Xmas HC
-14
-24
-35
Child Attendance *
-17
-28
-40
Marriages
-11
-46
-52
Confirmations
-39
-43
-65
Stipend Clergy
Adult attend
* Child = <16
0
NB
In which
decade is
decline faster?
The variety of
fringe contacts
are declining
faster than the
core membership
indicators
Contacts with
those under 35 are
in steepest decline
Bob Jackson, Hope for the Church p. 2 – put in a different order
Why so tough: A new Mission Context:
We are in a radically new situation and cannot
dream either of a Constantianian authority or of a
Pre-Constantianian innocence
Bishop Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, p. 224
There hasn’t been a mission field like ours before
George Lings : Church Army Researcher
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
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 to
Coming 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”
?
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
What are you finding where you are?
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Are they …
Cultural
Educational
Social
Spiritual
Image
Peer pressure
Bridges– but how much progress really?
• Fair or unfair?
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Some ways forward
A]
The draw of authentic community
Restorative
Real?
Relational
Choices of where to start
Target
Group
The
Fringe
Open Dechurched
The Non churched
Closed
De-Churched
Or
Mission
Cotext
Christendom
Pre Christian
Post
Christian
Anti
Christian
Community:
theirs & ours
Apology
Starting
Worship
Place
Relational
evangelism
Climate
Warm
Cool
Cold to....
Arctic
“Style”
Control
Dialogue
Partnership
Listen ?
Ways forward cont …
B]
High tolerance of mess in church life
Expect church mess
We love it tidy and ordered, but …
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
Luther: re the Church
and
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
Not yet
“the kingdom of God is near you”
Luke 10:9
when you pray say “Your Kingdom come”
Luke 11:2
‘Not Yet’ Churches ?
“Already” churches ?
The Now and Not Yet of the Kingdom
It affects how we understand
Salvation
Spirituality
Inner purity
The Now and Not Yet of the Kingdom
It affects how we understand Salvation
We find three tenses used in the NT
I have been saved from the penalty of sin
I am being saved from the power of sin
I will be saved from the presence of sin
The Now and Not Yet of the Kingdom
It affects how we understand Spirituality
- starting & sustaining the God relationship
I have begun that journey
I am very aware of how far there is to go
I 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’ values
I am painfully aware of my inner thoughts
I 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
Salvation
Spirituality
Inner purity
Why don’t we apply that to church life & behaviour too?
Life at St Leonards Norfolk Park
Questions to ask
Go for life
transformation
not sin
management
• 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?
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
Railway
A57
South
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 …
D]
start something else
Can we invent what
we need and
preserve what we
already have?
Helps:
Free lay leaders
Use another day
Use low control with
high accountability
A major limitation – pressure on leaders
Rising competition – we’ll go elsewhere
Draining people
Rising Standards
Value for Money
Rising Expectation
Widening Roles
Burning Out
Can we start something else? pt 2
Old sheep dogs
and new tricks?
‘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.’
Ways forward cont …
• E] Learn from others
– Livability
– Urban Expression
– Faithworks
• Effective Church Presence and
Enterprise Project 2008
– Eden Projects
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Planning to succeed?
360 Practice
The building blocks of a great
community project
Jon Kuhrt,
Adam Bonner
David Arscott,
Livability
360º Building Whole Communities
Faithworks Conference 2010
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Equipping Christians to transform communities
•Direct work with
churches: talks, workshops,
evaluations and consultancy
•Website:
www.communitymission.org.uk
•Training events
•Resources and booklets
360º Building Whole Communities
Faithworks Conference 2010
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Urban Expression…
… is an urban mission
agency that recruits,
equips, deploys and
networks self-financing
teams pioneering
creative and relevant
expressions of the
Christian church in
under-churched areas
of the inner city.
Inner-city church planting
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What is different?
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What can be learnt?
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What methods are needed?
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What does this teach us
about future church?
Ways forward cont..
• The basis of our hope
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Not our strategies
Not even loving service and good community
Encounter with Christ which transforms people
The work of the Spirit leading to fruit
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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:
Values:
Gathered
Visible
Attracting
Dispersed
Invisible
Subverting
We are free to use all of them – which suit best after Christendom?