We Don’t Like Change!!

 

We were gathered around a table of the church’s kitchen, drinking coffee and eating cake after the Sunday service, when the supply priest who had officiated at the service declared, “We don’t like change!!” Except for myself, everyone at the table nodded their heads in agreement.

Since that time the congregation of what was a small dying Continuing Anglican church has disbanded and the church building put up for auction. The remaining members of the congregation now attend the church of the supply priest who made that declaration.

For this handful of people church was a safe haven from the changing world around them. Sadly, their fear of change kept them from radically obeying the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. They were not an unkind or ungenerous people. Change, however, was a fearful thing for them, and they chose to let their church die rather than make the kind of changes they needed to flourish as a church.

I do not know how they will fare in their new church. It is itself a redoubt from change. It is a proprietary chapel and will most likely keep going as long as its owner is able to conduct services and attract a congregation.

As for myself I prefer to be a part of a church that is close to where I live, and which takes a serious interest in the community in which it is located. The church that I presently attend meets those requirements. Is a perfect church? No. But does make a passable effort to serve its community. It is a better fit for me.

With the exception of the one church whose congregation has disbanded, all the churches with which have been involved since I was a child have been community-focused. They were a part of the community in which they were located. They took an interest in that community. They sought to build bridges with the community and to meet community needs.

From what I seen over the years is that a church to flourish needs a strong connection with the community in which it is located. It needs to host community activities and gatherings. It needs to sponsor community service projects or participate in them. It needs to undertake ministries that benefit the community. It needs to be seen as being a part of the community and serving the community. The church that closed never established that kind of connection with the community in which it was located.

I do not know what kind of connection that the proprietary chapel to which the remnant of its congregation has migrated has with the rural community in which it is located. But I do not see it thriving if it has no connection with that community. None of that remnant lives in that community. Some members live in a community that is a 15 odd minute drive from the church; other members live in my own community which is more than a 30-minute drive from the church.

It is much easier to invite people to a church located in the community in which they live than it is to invite them to a church that is some distance from their home and in the case of this particular church is also difficult to find. Being a proprietary chapel in which the congregation has little input into its worship and ministry is also a drawback. There is, in addition, little opportunity for young people to assume a position of leadership in the church. These factors limit the appeal of this kind of church to the younger generations. 

In the case of this particular church, it is a church that is organized around the personality, theological leanings, liturgical proclivities, and political opinions of the priest who the proprietor of the chapel. In these days, of tribalization, the church is only likely to attract people who are members of the same tribe. In this regard it is more like a seventeenth century Royalist household chaplaincy during the Interregnum than a parish church.

While chaplaincies do meet a need, in this time of declining church attendance and growing numbers of Nones, young people with no religious affiliation, we need more churches which are geared to reversing these trends, churches that produce fully-committed disciples of Jesus who can replicate themselves.