Today our church is having a day of prayer and fasting for the future of the Methodist Church. I started at 7am with our new (this was the 4th one) men's prayer breakfast...but...er...without the breakfast :-(
No lunch then today, so just time for a quick post.
Our District Chairman spoke at my church a few weeks ago about the decreasing numbers of of both members and ministers in Methodism. Apparently the way forward is to amalgamate adjacent circuits and we were asked to pray with and talk to adjoining circuits with a view to coming up with proposals for mergers. This, we were told, is much more radical than tinkering with the structures. However, it seems to me that it may not be nearly radical enough unless we find new ways of working in these 'super circuits'. We can't just invent mini-Districts or expect local preachers to go on 60 mile round trips for services. The two largest churches in my circuit are both growing (numerically and hopefully spiritually) and there is some feeling that although we'd like to be allowed to share our experience with others, we don't want the circuit's resources to get 'watered down'.
Whatever we do, it must be guided and underpinned by prayer - without prayer, we are lost.
Rob Frost, who passed on last weekend, did a great job in getting parts of the church closer to the evangelical roots of the Wesleys (despite less than wholehearted support at times from Conference) - I hope and pray that we can honour his work and his memory by seeking God's will for the people called Methodists and having the determination to carry it out.
Wednesday 14 November 2007
Monday 16 July 2007
Technology and eco-friendly churches
In the light of Methodist Conference last week discussing 'Empowering and equipping the Church in the face of climate change, I was thinking a bit about the increasing amounts of technical kit that my church is using.
Don't get me wrong - I am a huge fan of data projectors in churches (when used appropriately - can see another topic here!) and of using technology to enhance services and the life of the church (in fact, I have been active in introducing some of the kit) - it's just that at the same time that we're being encouraged to use less energy, we're potentially increasing our churches' 'carbon footprints' by using more electrically powered equipment. Our church now routinely uses a data projector and powered foldback speakers for the musicians, whilst the Junior Church/youth make more use of DVDs etc. Whilst this doesn't increase our power consumption hugely, compared to say leaving the church lights on for a few hours, the point is that it's more power being consumed rather than less.
I'm not at all sure what the answer is to this - maybe we'd better take a closer look at energy saving light bulbs.......answers on a postcard......
Don't get me wrong - I am a huge fan of data projectors in churches (when used appropriately - can see another topic here!) and of using technology to enhance services and the life of the church (in fact, I have been active in introducing some of the kit) - it's just that at the same time that we're being encouraged to use less energy, we're potentially increasing our churches' 'carbon footprints' by using more electrically powered equipment. Our church now routinely uses a data projector and powered foldback speakers for the musicians, whilst the Junior Church/youth make more use of DVDs etc. Whilst this doesn't increase our power consumption hugely, compared to say leaving the church lights on for a few hours, the point is that it's more power being consumed rather than less.
I'm not at all sure what the answer is to this - maybe we'd better take a closer look at energy saving light bulbs.......answers on a postcard......
Monday 11 June 2007
Patterns of Worship
Since I wrote the last post here, life seems to have particularly hectic (nothing new there then!). Apart from work, I was involved in leading worship yesterday; also during the last few days a fair bit of spare time has been taken up with organising our church's Spring Harvest booking.
Anyway, back now, albeit briefly! Thanks to those who have read this far. I've had a fairly brief browse around the blogosphere of various British Methodists - good to see all sorts of opinions, thoughts and debates going on - much more entertaining and thought provoking than the (IMHO) rather turgid 'Methodist Recorder'.
Our church has for the last 18 months or so had two morning services on each Sunday except the first Sunday of the month. This started as an experiment to create more space in the church - apparently research has shown that once a church gets more than about 75% full for services, it tends to stop growing numerically. As we were in this happy position and having had much prayer we set out on an experimental period with the idea of having two broadly similar services.
Because of Junior Church staffing constraints, this takes place during the second service only. For this or maybe other reasons too, we seem to have fallen into a pattern where the first service is now more traditional style (with choir and keyboard or organ) and the second service more contemporary (with some sort of ensemble of musicians). This isn't set in 'tablets of stone' but is more the way things tend to be on the whole.
The vagaries of the way the Circuit Plan works (for non-Meths - the allocation of ministers and lay preachers within a group of local churches) still means that we can have a more 'trad' preacher planned for the second service. This doesn't always make things easy - especially if a guitar-led music group/band is rota'd for then!
With all this in mind, I came across an interesting article http://www.lpma.co.uk/ichthus/newpatterns.htm by Revd Dr Mike Bossingham who also runs www.FamilyFriendlyChurches.org.uk. One part of the piece in particular I thought very relevant - he says "There really is no gentle way of saying this, but all this means that the hymn sandwich has come to the end of its shelf life."
It seems to me that if we are to have more contemporary style services in Methodist churches, somehow the way the Circuit Plan is made has to take notice of this. It is no good trying to shoehorn contemporary worship songs into a traditional 'hymn sandwich' service - they don't work well in this way. Further, many Methodist ministers and local preachers (not all!) have the traditional service format very firmly ingrained into them, making it difficult for them to see that any other format can be valid and helpful in leading people to God's throne of grace.
Anyway, back now, albeit briefly! Thanks to those who have read this far. I've had a fairly brief browse around the blogosphere of various British Methodists - good to see all sorts of opinions, thoughts and debates going on - much more entertaining and thought provoking than the (IMHO) rather turgid 'Methodist Recorder'.
Our church has for the last 18 months or so had two morning services on each Sunday except the first Sunday of the month. This started as an experiment to create more space in the church - apparently research has shown that once a church gets more than about 75% full for services, it tends to stop growing numerically. As we were in this happy position and having had much prayer we set out on an experimental period with the idea of having two broadly similar services.
Because of Junior Church staffing constraints, this takes place during the second service only. For this or maybe other reasons too, we seem to have fallen into a pattern where the first service is now more traditional style (with choir and keyboard or organ) and the second service more contemporary (with some sort of ensemble of musicians). This isn't set in 'tablets of stone' but is more the way things tend to be on the whole.
The vagaries of the way the Circuit Plan works (for non-Meths - the allocation of ministers and lay preachers within a group of local churches) still means that we can have a more 'trad' preacher planned for the second service. This doesn't always make things easy - especially if a guitar-led music group/band is rota'd for then!
With all this in mind, I came across an interesting article http://www.lpma.co.uk/ichthus/newpatterns.htm by Revd Dr Mike Bossingham who also runs www.FamilyFriendlyChurches.org.uk. One part of the piece in particular I thought very relevant - he says "There really is no gentle way of saying this, but all this means that the hymn sandwich has come to the end of its shelf life."
It seems to me that if we are to have more contemporary style services in Methodist churches, somehow the way the Circuit Plan is made has to take notice of this. It is no good trying to shoehorn contemporary worship songs into a traditional 'hymn sandwich' service - they don't work well in this way. Further, many Methodist ministers and local preachers (not all!) have the traditional service format very firmly ingrained into them, making it difficult for them to see that any other format can be valid and helpful in leading people to God's throne of grace.
Wednesday 30 May 2007
Hello
Well, here I am with my first ever blog. While I was away with the family last weekend it struck me that I ought to put down in words some of my thoughts on the state of Methodism in this country (well - what I see of it anyway!). It'll probably end up getting tangled up with all sorts of other things but we'll see...
We go to a Methodist church in a market town in the West of England (or possibly the south, depending on your perspective) with around 130 members. It's in what seems to be the relatively rare position of growing both spiritually and numerically - why our church is growing when many (although not all) others in Methodism aren't is something I'd like to discuss here in the near future.
Both my wife and myself grew up in Christian families and attending Methodist churches. Sadly though, our experience of many other Methodist churches in the last few years has left us with the feeling that if we moved to a different area, we'd be much less inclined to seek out a Methodist church at first, but instead would look for a church which was:
Enough said for now. Hope to continue soon.
We go to a Methodist church in a market town in the West of England (or possibly the south, depending on your perspective) with around 130 members. It's in what seems to be the relatively rare position of growing both spiritually and numerically - why our church is growing when many (although not all) others in Methodism aren't is something I'd like to discuss here in the near future.
Both my wife and myself grew up in Christian families and attending Methodist churches. Sadly though, our experience of many other Methodist churches in the last few years has left us with the feeling that if we moved to a different area, we'd be much less inclined to seek out a Methodist church at first, but instead would look for a church which was:
- Friendly
- Reasonably contemporary style worship (whatever that means?)
- Family-friendly
- Wanting and expecting to be led onwards by God
Enough said for now. Hope to continue soon.
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