I just came across a reference to this church: http://www.docklandschurch.org.au/. Basically - it's an Anglican Church that was started up in docklands a few years ago, with a membership of 12. Now they currently have
a membership of over 200 - not bad I reckon.I know that we shouldn't compare ourselves with others, yadda yadda, but I think the contrast between our City Light Methodist Church and the Docklands Anglican Church is too striking to ignore.
You see, we have here two churches, situated literally next to each other. They both start out small, and are both part of very similar traditions (the Methodists are offshoots of the Anglicans).
Yet, over time, both have taken very different courses. Our church at the moment is still struggling with membership, funding, pastoral leadership, organisation, etc. Our brothers/sisters next to us, however, seem to be chugging along at a nice and healthy pace. Why? Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that they're really working with the Docklands communities, and targeting their activities as such ( they have "Sex in the City" Seminars and hold Bible Studies in local pubs - need I say more ?).
Now, I don't believe that growth is necessarily the definitive sign of the health of a church, but with the church leadership mulling over how to grow our church, I don't think we can ignore and shut ourselves off from what's going on around us. In fact - sometimes looking at others leads us to reflect long and hard on ourselves. Perhaps this is something we need to do a bit more :P
4 comments:
We have enough "Purpose-driven" rubbish and seeker-sensitive propaganda driven into our heads.
Numbers aren't that important. Quality matters.
It's about time we realized that we can't save everyone.
Or was it about saving people in the first place?
Yes I'll agree with the statement that quality matters.
But let's put it this way - what would happen if you had a 100 high "quality" Christians, working together? If John Wesley was right, you'll be able to turn the entire world upside down for the gospel. (He famously said - Give me 100 men who love no one more than God and hate nothing more than sin, and we will change the world)
When you have shrinking memberships, internal squabbles and conflicts, and brothers going against brothers, I think we shouldn't fool ourselves into the cop out statement "our shrinking membership doesn't matter - it's the quality that counts!" If a church has 'quality', it will naturally make an impact on its local communities - that is the very nature of the gospel.
The reality, however, is that memberships dwindle, congregations shrink, and churches die and close down. They become inward turned and stagnated. Unless we are willing to accept that the decline of churches can be part of God's desire for his people, we have to constantly be on the alert for the signs that something is wrong.
Both of you make some valid observations. I've been involved in both large and small churches in my time, and numbers aren't everything. From what I've observed over the last two years, if the congregation is committed, passionate, motivated, and willing, it can make an impact on the community, regardless of its size.
Hi ross - haven't seen you blogging for a while! Yes - i totally agree...God can use all churches big and small. I just think I've seen too many small churches use the 'size doesn't matter' excuse when there is something deeply wrong with the church - as evidenced by internal conflict, declining membership (bcos of disagreements/tensions), etc, and when they aren't really making a huge impact on their communities.
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