Do We Need More Small Anglican Churches?

By Robin G. Jordan

Do the various North American Anglican jurisdictions need more small churches? Don’t they have a plethora of struggling, small churches already? My answer to both questions is “yes.”

But when I answer “yes” to the first question I am not thinking about multiplying the number of small Anglican churches that live in the past, place their preferences before everything else, are inward-looking and disconnected from their communities, and otherwise fit the description of a stagnant, dying church. I am thinking about multiplying the number of small Anglican churches that are mission-oriented and are engaging their communities, in which Anglicans are connecting, growing, and serving together, and which in every way fit the description of a flourishing, healthy church. We definitely need a lot more of such churches.

When I answer “yes” to the second question, I am thinking that we have far too many small Anglican churches that fit the description of stagnant, dying churches. I am also thinking that these churches should not be kept on indefinite life support but should be allowed to die if they are unwilling to change their ways and become flourishing and healthy. What I am advocating is, in parenting and social work intervention, called “tough love.” We refuse to act as enablers and to rescue others from the consequences of their unhealthy behavior. An enabler is “a person who encourages or enables negative or self-destructive behavior in another.”

What has been my recent experience in small church ministry is that stagnant, dying churches, when they are given the choice between a leader who may be able to help them make a turnaround and a leader who will enable them to continue in their pattern of unhealthy behavior will chose the latter. The proclivity to chose enablers over healthier leaders is itself a part of their unhealthy behavior pattern. They prefer the status quo over change, even though maintaining the status quo will lead to the demise of the church.

What many small Anglican churches are suffering is a discipleship problem. They have an inadequate or distorted view of Christian discipleship. They may have never been taught a biblical understanding of discipleship. They may be facing a changing cultural landscape, demographic shifts, and a shrinking, aging base. But these factors, while they may present challenges, do not really account for the failure of these churches to thrive and grow. An insufficient grasp of what being followers of Jesus requires from them, however, does.

Jesus himself places a strong emphasis on following him. Trusting him, abiding in his words, and obeying his commandments are an integral part of his message. Those who do, enter the Kingdom of God.

Having water poured on us at baptism, hands laid on us at confirmation, and eating the bread and drinking the cup at the Lord’s Supper does not make us a disciple. Acceptance of the lordship of Jesus as God’s only begotten Son and his Anointed One does. We show our acceptance of his lordship, when we live our lives in accordance with his teaching and example. As my grandmother was wont to remind me as a child, “actions speak louder than words.”

Only when we are living with Jesus as the lord over our lives do we manifest the grace that we may have received at our baptism and in the Lord’s Supper. As the seventeenth century Anglican divine Richard Hooker warned, “all receive not the grace of God which receive the sacraments of his grace.”