Twin warnings about the Church of England becoming irrelevant ”“ or even sinking into near oblivion ”“ are being sounded in the North.
And the oblivion forecast comes from Bishop of Manchester Nigel McCulloch.
He sounds the grim message in the September issue of Crux, his diocesan monthly.
The doyen of Anglican Church leaders in the York province declares: “We are in a missionary situation.
“Alarming recent projections shared at the General Synod suggest that unless we start growing our congregations now at the rate of three per cent each year, we will decline into near oblivion.”
I was with him up until I got to,
[blockquote]He adds: “Churches seeking growth are the ones looking at how to do church in a different way – making their services relevant to the people of today.
“When Jesus was teaching the disciples he used the language of that time. Is that not a challenge to us?â€[/blockquote]
I think I heard the exact same thing in the run up to the 1979 BCP.
Another pet peeve of mine is the “do church” lingo. People “do drugs” and unless one is a true Marxist, they don’t “do church”.
Connecting with people is important, but they better be sure that the message is still the Gospel of the Lord and not the gospel of the day.
If there is no sin, there is little relevance to the gospel.It is not about liturgy.
Umm, one does not “do church.” Rather, one “attends” church, and hopefully learns and absorbs the lessons of the day and the teachings of the Gospel of Christ in the process. Otherwise, what’s the point of going to church?
[blockquote]Umm, one does not “do church.†Rather, one “attends†church…[/blockquote]
I respectfully disagree. One does not “do” church, agreed, but one does not “attend” church either. People [b]are[/b] church (collectively). Church is not the activity, it’s not the building, it’s not the worship on Sunday or any other day, it is all of life as a community in Christ.
Maybe that sounds a bit pedantic, but with “what church looks like” being very much a moving target (and about time too), speaking and thinking accurately about “church” is key.