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Right person is more important than a spiritual status quo
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From Sue Noble.
WHILE I have the greatest regard for Robin Pittman (JEP, 11 May) and understand his feelings with regard to retaining a diversity of ‘churchmanship’ within the local Anglican Church, I am not convinced that this should be a necessary consideration for the Church in Jersey, or elsewhere for that matter.
The Christian Church is founded on the Gospel (good news) of forgiveness of sins and the unconditional love of God for all who repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and this message is unchanging and as relevant in the 21st century as it was in the 1st.
However, the way in which we reach each successive generation with that good news must necessarily be a matter for wise and prayerful consideration and be accompanied by a willingness to change the way we do things. This need not and indeed should not mean that the truth contained in God’s word is ‘watered down’ or any less powerful.
I think it would be true to say that the majority of those in our society under the age of 35/40 have little or no personal experience of church but they do have a perception that what goes on inside our churches every Sunday is old-fashioned, boring and irrelevant to their lives. The Church of Christ by divine commission is called to ‘go and make disciples’ and the reality is that we do not see these people storming our gates.
This was a concern for the congregation of my own church back in the summer of 2008 when we had to face the fact that about 80 per cent of our congregation were over the age of 60 and we only had two families regularly attending, although there were another three or four who would turn up occasionally.
We made the decision to change our monthly pattern of services so that in addition to the more traditional Holy Communion and a morning worship service, which has a variety of liturgy and worship styles, we would include, twice a month, a more relaxed, contemporary and family friendly service, which we have called ‘fresh start’.
Now, nearly four years on, we have 11 new families worshipping with us, all of whom have become actively involved in the life of the church.
While I understand and truly sympathise with those who find change in their church unsettling and sometimes uncomfortable, I thank God for those members of our congregations who, with grace, are willing to embrace new styles of worship and technology in order that we may reach out to a diverse generation who are under stress and pressure as never before.
If St Mary’s church wardens and congregation feel that in order to build on the good work of Bob Naylor and reach out to more members of their community they need a particular type of person to lead them, then helping them to find that person has surely got to be more important than to keep a form of spiritual status quo.
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