Anglican Bishop Sue Moxley is determined to get more people into church, even if she has to go out and get them.
Moxley, leader of the Anglican church in Nova Scotia and P.E.I., handed out invitations to passersby on the Halifax waterfront Wednesday morning. In full bishop’s regalia, she certainly stood out.
Good for her!
I was involved in the church growth business in the Episcopal Church during the ‘Decade of Evangelism.’ It was pretty clear to me that no one really believed that church growth was possible, or even thought it was important. They wanted to make their churches important community organizations, they wanted lots of “activities” and they wanted to operate child care facilities and schools to make money. But they weren’t, as far as I could tell, particularly interested in getting bums on pews, much less evangelizing.
And you none of them were prepared to go outside in funny clothes to spread the word. There was any amount of activity, with church growth consultants called in to run workshops and plans for starting pre-schools and other essentially secular operations, but no one wanted to hit the streets, go door to door, or even advertise in the local newspaper–back in those days before the internet was ubiquitous.
If I was walking down the street and someone in full bishop’s “regalia” approached me, I would be hesitant to hear anything they had to say.