Don Dowling's Blog

Don's Blog

Hi all.

An article, “Fishing Nets for Safety Nets”, subtitled, “Remodelling Church to connect with the Unchurched”, by David Male, an Anglican Priest, has challenged my thinking this week about what we offer as a Church.

He says,

“Are we ….. creating new Christian communities that are connecting with people way out of the churches normal orbit and enabling them to be come fully functioning disciples of Christ’

Male argues that a huge change has created new generations who have very little contact with church. He quotes from research, conducted in England, which I think would have similarities here.

“The Tearfund report comments that,… “66% of the adult population are closed to attending church…. and this… “presents a major challenge to the churches. Most of them(the 66%) are unreceptive and closed to attending church: church-going is simply not on their agenda.”

He goes on to say,

“As leaders we need to understand that people are not sitting in their houses thinking ‘if only our local church would make their services more contemporary/ relevant / with better preaching/child friendly we will go’. We are simply not on their agendas at all.”

I wondered what would make coming to church, connecting with us, a possibility?

David Male offers a positive comment here through a question. ….maybe God is calling us into a new missionary period?

He refers to Alan Roxburgh who writes to help local leaders and their churches find solutions to issues . Roxburgh suggests five steps.

1. Awareness of what is happening in culture and society and its impact on the church.

2. An understanding of why this is happening.

3. An evaluation of what we are already doing in church and how it matches up to what needs to be done.

4. Experimentation at the edges. Don’t change everything overnight, but maybe pick one area you can change now.

5. Commitment. Out of this successful experiment, the church can move forward into a new future.

As we continue to think about Wesley’s place and our connection with the city it seems to me that we are doing some of these things and we are invited to do more.

If you would like to see David Male’s full article, I have placed it on our Web page at: http://www.perthunitingchurch.com.au/viewStory/Wesley

All good food for thought!!

Thanks for reading

Don