Ian Price, executive officer MRN (Mission Resourcing Network) in the South Australian Synod, the Uniting Church in Australia, presented the third paper at the Colloquium on Doctrine, Mission and Evangelism held in Sydney last month.
Pricey, as he is affectionately known among his peers, presented the five sustainable futures for organised Christian community being supported and resourced by the South Australia Synod Mission Resourcing Network.
1. Large, regional congregations
2. Small strong congregations
3. Faith communities
4. Virtual community networks
5. UCA agency-based communities
Large Regional Congregations
Ian critiques the focus so often found in large regional churches, the Sunday worship event. He suggests that we need to be thinking about these congregations as ministry bases for multiple, distinct ministries.
Ian’s best practice example was The Corner Church in Warradale, Adelaide. The property houses a ministry centre that comprises a children’s centre (pre-school and post-school care; play group etc); a Uniting Care counselling and care centre; an Op-shop and Coffee Shop; and two distinct congregations, one called Crossways, the other Fish Gate, each very distinct in style, theology and culture.
Small Strong Congregations
Ian talks about the common scenario mission planners find when working with small strong congregations. They feel undervalued and guilty about the lack of young people present in them, and can become unhealthily obssessed with doing something to reach the young people. Questions of authenticity are worth exploring here, Ian writes.
1. How is each participant living out a faithful life as a disciple of Christ?
2. How are we, together, an expression of the Body of Christ, i.e. are we a community that reflects the prayers of Jesus in John 17?
3. Are all people valued within this community and are they pastorally cared for in a way that enables them to be fully children of God and disciples of the living, crucified Christ?
4. Have we been able to discern God’s will for this community as it joins in the Missio Dei (I like the translation “the sending of God†best)?
5. Are the gifts of the people exercised fully and thoroughly developed?
Faith Communities
In the Uniting Church we have an official category for small groups of Christians who want to be recognized and supported without the trappings of the normal regulations surrounding congregations. They may meet as a house church, through a blog site, in a coffee shop or a place of work.
In Greenoch, South Australia, a congregation has taken the bold step to disband, form a faith community under the auspices of a nearby church, and, rather than sell their property, they have joined with the local community in transforming their property into a gathering place for their community. They have discovered new life, focus, ministry and engagement as they have been freed from the overwhelming problem of being church in the familiar congregational style.
Agencies and Congregations
Ian writes about the issues that arise when congregations and faith communities are attached to agencies, such as schools or aged care facilities. Matters of property management, conflict over priorities, values and ownership, and values, polity, professionalism, trust and values, all test the quality of relationships between leaders.
On Pastoral Care and Leadership
Ian writes about the tension faced in congregational ministry, between “looking after” the congregation’s members, and providing leadership for a missional movement.
“True pastoral care has to do with effective discipleship that understands the faith, lives out that faith, and engages the world in the name of that faith. Prayer and spirituality is at its best when it comes out of the imperatives of life.”
Evangelism Impotence
Ian says that most Uniting Church congregations are impotent in terms of evangelism. The UCA needs to resolve these issues:
- What do we mean by conversion? Can we find a language that is more whollistically encompassing that speaks of the transformation that comes in a person’s life when they encounter faith?
- How shall we speak of atonement? For many there is no need to find a new language, but for others the classical descriptions of sacrificial atonement are unhelpful.
- What are useful tools for discipleship formation?
- What tools of assimilation, mentoring, coaching and mission development will be effective.
First Thoughts from Me
Ian’s list of five sustainable futures for the church comes from Kennon Callahan’s observation that congregations that rely on one minister to maintain their momentum will find it more and more difficult to stay viable. We need alternative models of ministry and mission that are alternatives to the churched Sunday morning worship culture. But why is it that we go back to that model time and time again?
The Uniting Church Basis of Union places the “congregation” at the heart of the Uniting Church.
“The Congregation is the embodiment in one place of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, worshipping, witnessing and serving as a fellowship of the Spirit in Christ. Its members meet regularly to hear God’s Word, to celebrate the sacraments, to build one another up in love, to share in the wider responsibilities of the Church, and to serve the world. The congregation will recognise the need for a diversity of agencies for the better ordering of its life in such matters as education, administration and finance.”
That’s not a bad way of describing the modality approach to church – in which people of all ages gather together in one neighbourhood to support each other in living life locally. It doesn’t do justice, however, to the online communities that are formed by people whose lives cannot be contained in a local setting. Even in 1977, when the Basis of Union was adopted, we had little idea about the impact of increased mobility would make “local congregations” just one part of the puzzle of the church.
The Uniting Church at the Presbytery level, and often at Synod level, puts a lot of resources into the people who will be accountable to the religious institution – ordained ministers and deacons. A large portion of our funds and time gathered together is spent on selecting, training and forming people who will be agents of the Uniting Church. It’s no wonder then that groups who do not need clergy are often regarded as troublesome. We’ve associated the sacraments, communion and baptism, with ordination. And so to be valid as a sacramental community we find ourselves time and time again looking for a way of sustaining the livelihood of an ordained minister.
So what makes a group of people an effective expression of the Church? Is it having enough people to elect a Church council with chair, secretary and treasurer? Is it a share in a religious building? Is it the capacity to gather together to sing songs together on a Sunday morning? As Ian strongly contends, effective Christian communities can and should be measured in terms of discipleship lived out in everyday life in the community. That’s the accountability we need to be looking for.