Good vicars equal growing congregations - a ramble on the Archbishop's challenge.

Good vicars equal growing congregations, so said the Archbishop of Canterbury during an interview on the Today programme on New Year's Eve.  Click here to listen to the interview.

One of the themes of the programme, guest edited by Barclays CEO, Antony Jenkins, was good leadership.  Jenkins was reflecting on good leadership in banking, but Justin Welby highlighted the comparison of leadership challenges within a different institution, the church. The Archbishop recounted the good work done by local churches and suggested that in some areas churches were the glue holding the community together. I know this to be true in my own experiences working in a UPA area where the church held a delicate position within the community. Through the work we did in the community we became more trusted  than other service providers. Trust was earned through the care the church community displayed for the area it served.  Service and blessing were at the heart of what we did and community engagement and service enabled us to live out the love of God.

We had a good leader too - and the church itself was growing.  The leader we worked with believed in enabling others, in supporting people's gifts, in growing new leaders and in providing adequate funding for new initiatives. His hard work, effective and prayerful leadership enabled the community to flourish and also for Christians to grow in faith and in discipleship.  His leadership now blossoms in New Zealand and a good vicar is lost to the Church of England.

I am thankful that again I work alongside a good vicar but I don't work in London any more.  Our community programmes aren't financed by CUF because we aren't urban.  How on earth can we transfer the community engagement we worked so hard at in one place into fourteen different communities?  How can we be good leaders in church communities that we might only worship in once a quarter? Can good vicar equals growing congregations really be an appropriate formula for rural ministry?

I can't answer that question yet, but it makes me think.  The areas of growth in our churches are where we engage with families through family worship or after-school worship.  Villages which have a small Sunday attendance, perhaps as low as 6 or 7 at a communion service can see 15 children and 25 adults at a creative family worship session.  A fledgling after school congregation sees 35 children and 20 adults worshipping God and learning how to follow Jesus.  These are wonderful things to thank God for but they are only the beginnings. How can we expect the adults and young people to continue their journey of discipleship and engagement with faith?  Do we kick them out of family worship age 11 and just expect them to fit in with our current programme of middle of the road Anglican worship? Or do we need to be thinking and praying and worshipping more creatively?

Community engagement is a reality in some of our communities, but  it is not the church who run the credit union or the food bank.  Others have had more concern for the community than we have.  We have maintained our worship centres, but we are only just beginning to engage with those outside it. We should be ashamed that our biggest achievement is maintaining Sunday worship and we should be seeking to redress the issue.  We have made a small amount of progress in that area, but there is so much more to be done. What is holding us back?

What about encouraging leaders - how can we actively enable, train, support and encourage new leaders when we are 65 miles away from most Diocesan approved training? How can we provide opportunities for congregation members to engage with the Bible and relate matters of faith to the world we live in?  When can we meet to talk about the world we live in, the issues humanity face and how we, as people of faith should and must respond? Where are our opportunities for transforming prayer, for debate, for seeking God in the world? Surely Sunday worship is the prime opportunity for this to happen, why doesn't it?

What about the transforming and life changing encounter of meeting Jesus in the Eucharist. What about all those we exclude from God's table? How can we encourage children and those on the fringes of church, those worshipping in our new expressions of church, where do they " do this in remembrance of me?".

Encounter with God changes lives. Preparing the Epiphany sermon I am reminded that the wise men from the East returned a different way, lives changed by their encounter with the living God.  They brought gifts, which presumably benefited Mary, Joseph and Jesus.  When the wise men met Jesus they worshipped him, the same worship that the disciples give the risen Jesus when they met him on the mountain in Galilee, (Matthew 28:17). Worship transforms us, meeting with Jesus transforms us and requires us to live differently and to share that transforming love with others. What gifts do we bring to meet with Jesus, how does meeting him change us, do we return a different way?

The low point for the Christmas celebrations was entering a church on Christmas morning where none of the current worshipping community were there to welcome people in.  People who wanted to come to worship God on Christmas morning were sitting in a cold, dark church wondering whether anyone would turn up. A mistake in communication, possibly.  I should have checked people would be there, probably.  As soon as we identified the issue people stepped in and it was all quickly remedied.  But it has made me think. On the one day of the year where we might expect a good congregation we were not ready. It was like the wise men turning up at the stable to find Mary and Joseph had popped out and only a shepherd remained to welcome them in.

Good vicars equal growing congregations - maybe. But perhaps the challenge this year is to try to be a good vicar and enable people to grow: in faith, in hospitality, in leadership and in discipleship.  This year has to be about growth, but it may not be about numbers.