Join forces

Decline and closure is not inevitable, says Richard Hardy.

An Anglican vicar approached me at a conference and said: “I have pastoral oversight of four small rural churches. One has 10 members; another 40; and the other two 20 each. We’re barely maintaining what we are doing. We’d love to engage more fully with the community - but how can we?”

It was one of those conversations that keeps me awake at night. For that is precisely the situation for many churches in the UK. (A while ago I met one exhausted church leader who had charge of 11 parishes!)

If it’s not possible for churches in situations like these to rise to the challenge, much is lost in our nation. Particularly when you realise that the average size of church in the UK has 49 members.

As I thought about my Anglican friend’s situation, a number of suggestions came to mind:

1. The churches need to stop thinking of themselves as four separate entities, and operate as one. On this basis they would be a church of 90. Most churches of 90 members are reasonably viable and often see themselves as too large to be intimate. So they tend to subdivide into small groups for pastoral care and discipleship, often geographically bringing church closer to people’s homes. If this church were to do the same, it would probably end up with more than four small groups. Which is in fact what they already have.
2. A church of 90 can accomplish more than a church of 10. It would be necessary, therefore, for the churches to covenant together to join forces. They could then agree on an annual project that would meet need in each village. For example, a group of members could tidy each village, one by one, in the course of a summer.
3. The church grouping could enlist the support of other larger churches in the area. The church group could act as co-ordinator for the joint initiative, approaching a number of larger churches and asking them to participate in different projects that together go to make a whole.
4. Sometimes village churches lack manpower rather than finance. Where this is the case, four churches working together could think strategically and, rather than each have a minister, they could create a specialised team to work across the villages. For example a family worker; senior pastor and senior minister could make a huge difference in such situations.

Where finance is an issue, joining forces can mean the difference between ministry and none. In such situations it’s important that the church consider carefully who they appoint. Should it be someone who will maintain the status quo, or someone with a heart for engagement who will seek to mobilise the congregation to turn their talents outwards?

Increasingly there are small rural churches that are discovering they don’t have to settle for the status quo; they are finding that decline and closure are not inevitable.

They have had to face the harsh reality – that if you always do what you’ve always done then you’ll always get what you’ve always got. Maybe it’s time for fresh thinking - for looking at the situation with new eyes - and trying something that has never been done before.

Last Updated 09 February 2009