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Bulletin 116 Date : 2nd Nov 2007
Think Long Term - 3

Nestled high up in the hillside overlooking a Sicilian fishing village is this quaint little chapel which seats around 20 people at a pinch. As I sat inside praying, I thought about its role and purpose. Being remote, it was not frequented by many people at one time and I don’t expect that its patrons have a long-term strategy to knock it down and build a bigger church in the hope of a revival drawing more people in. And yet, it served its purpose as a wayside sanctuary where people, like ourselves, could drop in and spend time in prayer as we journeyed on to the next town.

And yet for many of us, we long for the day when our churches will attract bigger congregations and be bustling with community activity. And so it’s good to reflect upon our long-term strategies for our churches and consider some of the following points.

Location
Undoubtedly, some of our churches were built in the right place years ago, but if they were rebuilt today, we would choose another location. The reason is that people no longer live near the church. Perhaps a main road has been built which divides the main housing area from the church, or a new estate has been built some distance away, which means that the church is no longer at the centre of the community. Being at the heart of the community is very important in terms of building good relationships with the people who live round about.

Relevance
It is easy for a church, over the years, to lose sight of its missionary focus. I heard the story only this morning of a chapel in the north of England who were desperate for funds to renovate the building. So they went to their community to ask for help. It stunned the members to hear the response from the community, “No, we won’t help you because you don’t do anything for us’. Happily, this reaction galvanised the church members into a plan of action which involved asking the community for suggestion of how the church could serve their needs. Taking these suggestions on board, money was raised and the community started to come back to the church throughout the week as well as on Sundays.

Mission Audit
Therefore it is good, from time to time to ask yourselves, “Are we still relevant to the community in which we are placed?” The Fresh Expressions Team have produced a Mission Audit called “Listening for Mission”. It contains 5 stages in a process which gathers together a team of mission-minded people who, through conversation with people in the community, prayer and prayer walking and drawing up concrete plans, seek God’s guidance for a new form of church within the community.

The advantage of this approach over some other audit processes is that it involves the community in the development of the vision for the future rather than simply looking inwardly. This way, we can avoid the pitfall of the chapel I mentioned above who had lost touch with their community and had become a self-serving unit. The good news is that communities are increasingly looking to churches to provide a loving, serving and caring environment for the families who live there. When they see us doing this, they are keen to become part of the faith community which we know as ‘church’.

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