If you had one vision - just one - with which you’d like to infect the church, what would it be? A group of us are meeting at the Windermere Centre from Monday 20 November - Thursday 23 November to brainstorm our vision for the United Reformed Church. We’re doing it in the conviction that the URC has reached a kairos. We’ve got to get this right now, because if we miss the boat this time, there ain’t gonna be a next time. It’ll be an exciting and important time.
The point is that we can’t carry on as we are. If we do, we will simply die - quite literally of old age! We’ll be about half the size we are now in 5 years’ time. It’s noticeable, too, that with an ageing church comes associated issues about energy, physical abilities and capacities for communicating across the gap between church and non-church people.
That’s what we will be doing. So what’s your vision for the church?
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Craig 11.20.06 at 1:48 pm
I want to get away from the set piece one hour hymn sandwich on a Sunday morning - ideally we would have finished the previous Sunday morning, or Wednesday afternoon or Friday evening (whatever suits that community) with some one like me or you opening up some possibilities with the text for the previous week and people will have spent some time in housegroups or on blogsites exploring with others their own thoughts/reflections on those texts - which we will share with one another in a context of prayer and worship the following week and someone like me will draw those reflections together into some kind of conclusion/challenge/meditation before opening up the texts for the following cycle - could work over a fortnight or a month - whatever is right for that community. But EVERYONE needs to be engaged - we have too many pew fillers not enough thinking activists.
Graham 11.20.06 at 6:02 pm
I confess(!!), I belong to the Congregational Federation, not the URC, but surprise-surprise, your question remains relevant! I think that rediscovering our sense of being a “movement” is at the heart of the matter - a movement as in a carnival, an all-age celebration; a movement as in a protest/demonstration/march, being a nuisance for the powers-that-be; a movement as in a learning/discipleship community, recognising that we don’t have all the answers! and a movement rather than a club or institution, because there always needs to be self-criticism, a readiness to reach beyond those who find it’s “just for them”.
Janey 11.21.06 at 11:41 am
Being a church without walls! Not fearful of change and disruption for the sake of the Gospel!
But as I say this I realise that we still need some form of structure to ‘maintain the work of ministry’! We need to begin to see that there might be other ways of being Church - but how we do this within a traditional model (that pays my stipend and gives me somewhere to live!)is difficult.
I’ve been both excited and dismayed in turn by the Catch the Vision ‘process’ - and I wonder if you should have held this high powered conference (are we suppossed to do high power in the United Reformed Church?) 2 years ago?
I am excited by some of the work coming out of ‘URC emerging churches’ and the exciting things some people are doing in local mission but as a national church I am concerned that we looked at structures before spirituality and people everywhere are wondering what’s going to happen!
I’m excited by what I see happening in some places at grass roots level but how we ‘infect’ others with that vision is beyond me. Most churches I’ve come across in my work are vaguely aware that ’something’ is happening (ie catch the vision) but are not likely to be caught by it! They are aware that District councils are going but are not sure how this will affect them in their mission. Inspite of the publicity through Reform and from Church house - people still do not really know (or care?) what’s going on. There’s only so much ministers in local areas can do to change this!
Maybe instead of just ‘high-powered’ good and the great of the URC gathering they should have invited some ordinary people from ordinary churches (not the usual suspects who get asked to do everything from big churches in wealthy areas!!)
Sorry to rant but I love the United Reformed Church and so this comes from the heart!
Stewart 11.21.06 at 9:51 pm
My vision is two fold.
The first is a sense of ‘radical welcome’. I love the UCC’s ‘Still Speaking’ campaign in the USA. The strap line is ‘No matter who you are, or where you are on life’s journey, you’re welcome here.’ I wonder how many churches of any denomination could say that with hand on heart? The committment to being open and inclusive is for me such a key area. In many ways we don’t even welcome those who come at the moment, and we certainly don’t value or encourage their contribution.
The second strand of my vision is of a place where worship is of high quality and is appropriate. Variety is crucial. For this to happen ministers will have to change, but then I guess that an aging church population is mirrored by an aging group of ministers. How will we equip a new generation of leaders who seem disinterested in ‘ministry’ as we know it? How do we ensure that new expressions of church are seen as just as valid as the old ones?
In my most cynical moments I hope the church will indeed die. At least then we can start again without all the baggage we have inherited. That won’t happen though because we will never run out of old people. (tongue firmly in cheek)
Good luck with the gathering Lawrence and sorry I can’t be there.
Craig 11.22.06 at 12:28 am
Just back from a Northern College lecture in which David Peel spoke on “Whatever happened to theology in the URC?” He shares Stewart’s second vision and in exploring how we can raise up theological churches suggests:-
1 Set theology at the heart of congregational life
2 The principle duty of the Minister of Word & Sacrament is to be a focus for theological thinking
3 Select candidates for ministerial training who have the will and aptitude for that task
4 Candidates need to be properly prepared for that task (as opposed to a functional view of Ministry)
5 We might value theological education more if Teachers were recognised as a distinct office of ministry - and thus theological provision should be expanded not reduced!
We talked about how a theological conversation can happen - a plea was made for a denominational journal that took theology seriously and David suggested that such a thing was happening through a blog he keeps hearing about that the Director of the Windermere Centre was producing every week - but as he is computer illiterate someone else would have to explain - so I explained how Disclosing New Worlds works, the links that we pick up to other sites and the sort of conversations we can have when Lawrence (or anyone else) asks the sort of question at the top of this thread.
There were perhaps 50-60 people there tonight - ministers, interested lay folk and educators - so I hope a few more will join in the conversation and allow their own voices to be heard.
Stewart 11.22.06 at 8:47 pm
Janey… have you seen or heard of the Church of Scotland’s Church Without Walls report and the stuff that has followed since? http://www.churchwithoutwalls.org.uk for more info.
Craig, good to hear that theology is still on the list of things that are important. I guess we need to do theology at all levels and in many ways. We need good academic theology which informs our congregational and community life but we also need to find ways, as you say, of engaging ‘ordinary people’ in theology.
David Peels thoughts on Teachers make lots of sense. I’ve often wondered why the church has valued one particular ministry above all others, but in doing so have often assumed that ministers of word and sacrament will be teachers, administrators and pastors. It just doesn’t work like that.
Lawrence 11.25.06 at 2:58 am
Thanks for all the responses, folks. Like Stewart, I’m a fan of the UCC StillSpeaking campaign - wish we could run something like that here! I hope that lots of people will join in the conversation - and not just URC people. Thanks, Graham, for your comment - and you’re forgiven for being a Cong!