Thought for the Week: Declining or Growing? 20 June 2022

Last week, at our PCC meeting, one of the Church Wardens gave me an article entitled ‘Methodist Church on Track to die out by 2045.’ (Friday June 10, Methodist Recorder.)

This forecast had been made by John Hayward, a mathematician and specialist in church statistics. Mr Hayward uses the R rate, familiar during Covid-19, to analyse the set of figures produced by the main denominations in the UK. Simply put, if we have a negative R rate, the church is in decline, but if it is greater than 1, we are growing. Under his forecasts, the Church of England will be here until at least 2060.

Well, what do we think about that, and what, if anything, can we do about it?

I’ve reflected on this prediction over a long period of time. Indeed, as we look around at many of the churches in Colchester, including our own, things have been difficult during and after Covid: things haven’t quite got back to ‘normal’. Many people are not keen to be in large gatherings, and we have got used to being somewhat isolated or to doing our own thing. Where is the joy? Where do we find hope? And will we see growth?

Yes. We will. We are already seeing green shoots from the many mustard seeds which we have scattered during the long months of Covid and before. How do we nurture and tend these green shoots, bringing them to growth and fruitfulness?

We pray: pray for those we love and pray for those we find it hard to love. Pray for growth: ‘Ask the Lord of the harvest to send our labourers into the harvest.’ Matt 9:38

We listen: upward to what God is saying by his Spirit, and outward toward those in our neighbourhood. We listen and end to our inner voice and vision too.

We love. Indeed, God commands us to ‘Love your neighbour’. ‘Change begins with simple authentic and everyday acts of great love.’ (From ‘To Alter Your World’, by Frost and Rice, p51.)

We build relationships. We get out there and be a faithful presence in our community by making disciples and serving the common good. Tots groups and StanWell Hub are good examples of this.

We live faithfully and ‘hold steady’, as Bishop Guli told us last week when she visited Colchester Deanery last week.

We change the narrative from one of scarcity to one of abundance. (Bishop Guli). God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit invite us to be part of their dance or the ‘great sharing’ of the love between them. This is what gives us hope: ‘God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.’ Romans 5:5. Not just trickled in or drizzled in or dropped in, but the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit – abundant love.

We begin Fresh Expressions of church – in prayer and faith and working together, watching, waiting to see what might grow. We take risks and rejoice in success, but we are not afraid to fail. Even when things don’t work as we had imagined, we learn and grow and touch lives through them, trusting in the working of the Holy Spirit.

Hear and follow God’s invitation to live wholeheartedly in the world, allowing God’s transforming presence to work in us and in the places we live, work, serve and play. This is the very work of God’s people. Growth will come!