Madeleine Davies Church Times ‘In church-going terms, we have failed’
“Are lessons from the mixed results of church-growth programmes being learned”
Augustine Tanner-Ihm ViaMedia.News The Sovereignty of God and Pastoral Responsibility in Political Turmoil
Neil Patterson ViaMedia.News What Have the Bishops Done?
Pippa Bailey The New Statesman The race for Lambeth Palace
“Can the next archbishop of Canterbury unite a divided Church?”
It would be a great pity if the focus on the Archbishops means that we fail to note Madeleine Davies’ excellent article on the absence, or poor quality, of analysis relating to how and why church growth and mission projects have succeeded or (more commonly) failed.
Nic Stacey’s herculean efforts to revive Woolwich churches were very inspiring and admirable. The fact they failed to produce the expected result has been forgotten down the decades, during which many people banged their heads against the same brick wall to little effect. People have learned nothing in their increasingly desperate madcap schemes to attract the heathen English. We have replaced the quiet, loving Anglican presence in every parish with a hateful debate about gay people, to the accompaniment of guitars and drums.
I agree strongly with Simon. The Church is insecure about its missiological failure and unwilling to probe deeply regarding this, or to scrutinise in good time “charismatic” charmers who seem to offer a hope of connecting with the young: Ball, Brain, Smyth, Fletcher, Pilavachi and others. The anxiety Madeleine Davies’ article addresses is part of the context for understanding why the Church is vulnerable to dangerous abusers. On one level it’s a different subject from this week’s crisis, yet there is a connection.
That’s an interesting spin on Madeleine’s article, James. Thank you.
Nick Stacey realised 60 years ago that people just aren’t interested in attending church. That was long before there were other, more interesting options of how to spend one’s Sundays. The situation is much more pronounced today and shows no signs of changing. Some may like to know we exist, some may even come to us to mark the major milestones of life, but it is very unlikely they will ever return to church in great numbers. That is reality in a post-Christian, materialistic world. The Church should continue to do what it has done in the past, proclaim God’s… Read more »
I think you’re homing in on the main issue: when we live alongside people and extend practical love to them, we start to be relevant to them. When we obsess over dogma, less so.