Chester Diocese 2012 The Sheffield Centre Church Army’s Research unit A background to urban evangelism and church growth.

Chester Diocese 2012

The Sheffield CentreChurch Army’s Research unit

A background to urban evangelism and church growth

1 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

10% ‘Regular’ at church Attend monthly or more

10% ‘Irregular’ at church Attend less than monthly

40%: The De-Churched: Used to come but don’t now.

20% are open to come back

20% are never coming back!

40%: The Non-Churched: Never have come

Tough because of Church disconnected

MostEvangelism

Adults in England

Fringe churchgoers(less often but at least 6x yr. ) 3% 1.4m

Open de-churched 5% 1.9m

Closedde-churched 26% 10.8m

Opennon-churched 1% 0.5m

Closednon-churched 33% 13.7m

Unassigned 2% 1.0m

Other religions 7% 3.0m

Regular churchgoers (at least monthly)14% 5.9m

Occasionalchurchgoers(less often but at least annually) 7% 2.9m

Base: Adults 16+ in England (unw. 5907 w. 5774) Pop’n (000s) = 41,043

It’s more serious than we thought – ENGLAND Church attendance and experience segmentation in 2006

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

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

15 25 35 45 55 65 75 85

De-churched: Approx 30%

Non-churched: Approx 60%

Attending: approx 10%

___= % PopAttended<15 yrs

____= AttendedIn 1998

Age

%

Most existing churches are not aware of this, nor shaped to meet it

76% of ‘converts’ came from the dechurched

Some C of E indicators

Child Attendance *

Confirmations

Xmas HC

Easter HC

Electoral Rolls

Adult attend

Stipend Clergy

PCC Vol’try Income

Marriages

-40

-65

-35

-25

-22

-18

-15

+85

-52

-34

-28

-43

-24

-16

-13

-14

-15

+30

-46

-24

-17

-39

-14

-11

-10

-5

0

+42

-11

-13Baptisms

% change 1980 – 2000

% change 1990-2000

% change 1980-90

* Child = <16

The variety of fringe contactsare declining faster than the core membership indicators

Contacts with those under 35 are in steepest decline

NBIn which decade is decline faster?

Bob Jackson, Hope for the Church p. 2 – put in a different order

We are in a radically new situation and cannot dream either of a Constantianian authority or of a Pre-Constantianian innocenceBishop Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, p. 224

Why so tough: A new Mission Context:

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

There hasn’t been a mission field like ours beforeGeorge Lings : Church Army Researcher

An image - the going of “Come” 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 toComing 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”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

• Are they …• Cultural • Educational• Social• Spiritual• Image• Peer

pressure

What are you finding where you are?

Bridges– but how much progress really?

• Fair or unfair?

Real?

Restorative

2 Some ways forward A] The draw of authentic community

Relational

Target Group

StartingPlace

“Style”

Or MissionCotext

Worship Relational evangelism

Community:theirs & ours

Climate

The Fringe

Open De- churched

The Non - churched

ClosedDe-Churched

Christen-dom

Pre - Christian

Post Christian

AntiChristian

Apology

Warm

Cool Cold to.... Arctic

Control

Dialogue Partnership Listen ?

Choices of where to start

Ways forward cont …

B] High tolerance of mess in church life

People

fall out

Roof needs £

Expect church mess

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

We love it tidy and ordered, but …

and

Luther: re the Church

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 “the kingdom of God is near you” Luke 10:9

Not yet when you pray say “Your Kingdom come”

Luke 11:2

“Already” churches ?

‘Not Yet’ Churches ?

The Now and Not Yet of the Kingdom

It affects how we understand

SalvationSpirituality Inner purity

The Now and Not Yet of the Kingdom

We find three tenses used in the NT I have been saved from the penalty

of sinI am being saved from the power of

sinI will be saved from the presence of

sin

It affects how we understand Salvation

The Now and Not Yet of the Kingdom

It affects how we understand Spirituality - starting & sustaining the God relationship

I have begun that journeyI am very aware of how far there is to

goI 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’ valuesI am painfully aware of my inner thoughtsI 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 SalvationSpirituality Inner purity

Why don’t we apply that to church life & behaviour too?

Life at St Leonards Norfolk Park

Questions to ask

• 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?

Go for life transformatio

n not sin management

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

South

A57Railway 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 …

A major limitation – pressure on leaders

Widening Roles

Value for Money

Draining people

Burning Out

Rising Expectation

Rising Standards

Rising competition – we’ll go elsewhere

Helps:Free lay leadersUse another dayUse low control with high accountability

D] start something else

Can we invent what we need and preserve what we already have?

Can we start something else? pt 2

‘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.’

Old sheep dogs and new tricks?

Ways forward cont …

• E] Learn from others– Livability– Urban Expression– Faithworks

• Effective Church Presence and Enterprise Project 2008

– Eden Projects

36Faithworks Conference 2010360º Building Whole Communities

Planning to succeed?The building blocks of a great community project

Jon Kuhrt, Adam Bonner David Arscott,

Livability

• 360 Practice

37Faithworks Conference 2010360º Building Whole Communities

•Direct work with churches: talks, workshops, evaluations and consultancy

•Website: www.communitymission.org.uk

•Training events

•Resources and booklets

Equipping Christians to transform communities

Urban Expression…Urban Expression…

… … is an urban mission is an urban mission agency that recruits, agency that recruits, equips, deploys and equips, deploys and networks self-networks self-financing teams financing teams pioneering creative pioneering creative and relevant and relevant expressions of the expressions of the Christian church in Christian church in under-churched areas under-churched areas of the inner city.of the inner city.

Inner-city church plantingInner-city church planting

What is different?What is different?

What can be learnt?What can be learnt?

What methods are needed?What methods are needed?

What does this teach us What does this teach us about future church?about future church?

Ways forward cont..

• The basis of our hope– Not our strategies– Not even loving service and good community– Encounter with Christ which transforms people– The work of the Spirit leading to fruit

• 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:

GatheredVisibleAttracting

Values:

DispersedInvisible

Subverting

We are free to use all of them – which suit best after Christendom?