How many people came to church on Sunday?\u00a0 How many baptisms?\u00a0 How many weddings?\u00a0 How many came to the Fresh Expression gathering?\u00a0 Are the numbers going up?\u00a0 Are our churches growing?\u00a0 These were our questions three months ago.\u00a0 Then we left our buildings and we had a whole new set of questions.<\/p>\n
How many logged into church on zoom?\u00a0 How many watched the video on youtube?\u00a0 Hurrah, more people are connecting remotely than ever came to church in the building!\u00a0 Then more recently: How many of our online viewers will join us when we are back in the building?<\/p>\n
But what if these are the wrong questions?\u00a0 What if we are not supposed to be concerning ourselves with church growth at all, at least not in the numerical sense?\u00a0 Dare I say that we should concern ourselves with other priorities than church growth?<\/p>\n
Forty-six years ago Lesslie Newbigin returned from India and in 1989 wrote a book: \u2018The Gospel in a Pluralist Society.\u2019<\/em> \u00a0\u00a0It has become a classic, much read and quoted but the point often missed, because his point is that committed faithful believers will always be a minority.\u00a0 It is how it always is.\u00a0 It happened to Jesus so who on earth are we to think it will be different for us \u2013 he had crowds in the beginning but numbers dwindled.<\/p>\n Newbigin argues that the church has a key and important role to play in wider society, that our presence within society bringing challenge and change is critical.\u00a0 We are to be confident in what we learn from Jesus, to live out and communicate faith.\u00a0 But we are to bear in mind that our individualistic society has blinded us to communal aspects of salvation, meaning counting numbers is missing the point.\u00a0 We\u2019re to focus on changed society as the outcome rather than church growth.\u00a0 Newbigin writes: \u2018We get a picture of the Christian life as one in which we live in <\/em>the biblical story as part of the community whose story it is\u2026 from within that indwelling try to understand and cope with the events of our time and the world about us and so carry the story forward.\u2019 (p.99.)<\/p>\n What if we take seriously the calling to be salt and light, yeast in the dough, at times visible and other times invisible, a small ingredient that changes the whole?\u00a0 What are our questions now?\u00a0 How many people turn up on Sunday morning is no longer the priority, unless we have fallen into the trap of caring more about the institutional structures than the heart of what God is doing.<\/p>\n The questions then become about what the world need us to be and do, right now, as we face this crisis and wider societal challenges. \u00a0What is God working on?\u00a0 What needs to be said and done in order to support society to re-engage well, to move forwards into something more connected, more earthed, more real, kinder?\u00a0 Who are our partners in this work for the Common Good?<\/p>\n I find it hard to care as much as the church thinks I ought to about numbers coming to church.\u00a0 I understand that people gathering to share together in the story of God is a good thing.\u00a0 We need refreshing in what renews our vision, we need one another, we need God.<\/p>\n But turning up isn\u2019t the point \u2013 the point is whole lives lived in God.\u00a0 Right now, there are bigger questions at stake than numbers at church, whether in a building or online.\u00a0 We have a unique moment as society, we have choices to make.\u00a0 Right now, that is what I care about, that is what matters, and that is where my energy is going.<\/p>\n Cate Williams 1st June 2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How many people came to church on Sunday?\u00a0 How many baptisms?\u00a0 How many weddings?\u00a0 How many came to the Fresh Expression gathering?\u00a0 Are the numbers going up?\u00a0 Are our churches growing?\u00a0 These were our questions three months ago.\u00a0 Then we … Continue reading