Home » Thoughts for the Week » A picture of the church? (8 Sept)

A picture of the church? (8 Sept)

The thought this week has been written by Graeme Ross, EBA Regional Minister

The ‘close the gate’ sign didn’t appear out of the ordinary until I realized that there was no fence attached to the gate.

As I was praying about what to write for this latest thought for the week, I remembered taking this picture a few years ago. At the time, the sign made me laugh, but as I thought about it again just now I began to wonder if the picture is also a reminder of a trap we can fall into as churches. A lot of time and effort could be put into opening and shutting the gate in the photo and when there was a fence in place and animals enclosed this would have been very important, but now it would be pointless because things are different.

Are there are things we do in church life because they have been done a certain way as long as anyone can remember? Here are a few things I’ve been pondering:

• My understanding is that our Sunday service times are the result of milking times, to enable farmers to come to church. With Sunday now being such a busy day and families in particular often booked up on Sundays, are the times of our services an unhelpful barrier to people who would be open to exploring faith? Is there a better time to gather that would be more helpful to those in our church and wider community?
• Why are churches like football matches? In a football match, 22 people in need of a rest are watched by crowds who are probably in need of some exercise and many people have observed that churches are often similar. Is the passive nature of church members the result of the consumeristic model that many churches bought into where services are done by relatively few people and most people effectively watch or follow the lead of others. It’s strange to reflect on the fact that church services can sometimes resemble more the Old Testament form of worship where a priest was required to mediate faith for those who were far from God, than any form of discipleship that we see from Jesus in the gospels. Is it time to pause and ask why do we hold our gatherings in the way that we do? Perhaps a starting point might be to consider what we want to achieve and then reflect on what would be the most effective ways of doing that? How can we disciple people in such a way that they engage and we learn from one another?
• Is it necessary to hold a single weekly gathering in a building to be a church? Have we elevated holding a weekly service above our call to make disciples? What is our disciple making strategy for those who work every Sunday? Could we make disciples  more effectively if we held multiple meetings that could be held together by a common theme or perhaps some video content that is then applied by each group? If this was true, would this be instead of or in addition to a Sunday service model?
• What is our motivation, do we want bigger congregations or is our greatest hope that people would come to know Jesus? Are we trying to shut gates metaphorically to hold on to people? Would it help or hinder our disciple making if we were to la aside some of our congregational independence so that we could work more collaboratively?

For me, the process of asking questions like these is much more important than assuming what a final answer might be. We should also remember that when we as leaders have identified areas that the churches we serve need to change in, that we give people the time and space to go through the process of change, rather than assuming that people will understand it instantly if we preach on it.

May we become more open to asking why we do things and also more passionate about seeking the leading of God as we call on the Holy Spirit t lead us through change.