What's it all for?

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Created on Friday, 01 October 2010 01:00

Written by Richard Avery

Through September I patrolled our vegetable patch daily. We were late planting this year so some crops only came good as summer turned to autumn. Our harvest season. Some things produced a good harvest, especially the broccoli. Others have been a disappointment. The fancy variety of squash I chose to grow produced a mass of leaves and flowers but hardly any fruit. And runner beans produced little too. This frustrates Jenny and me. We don't plant just from habit. We don't prepare the soil, weed and water the patch because we're compulsive gardeners or to keep up a family tradition. We do it for a harvest.

We put a lot of time and effort into church life too. And what is that for?

A few years ago some of the Church of England leadership produced a report about where the church is in today's world and where we're going tomorrow. It was called 'Mission-Shaped Church' and encouraged some hard thinking about what churches do and why. At times we have to remind ourselves of the purpose of what we are doing. And we should ask whether we are 'harvesting' what we hope to.

So what is "church" for? Mission! That's both the answer of the report from the Archbishop's Council and the answer we find in the Bible. In church circles the word has a more particular meaning than in popular use. Our English 'mission' comes from the Latin for an act of sending. (And Apostolos is the Greek word, the New Testament language, for someone who is 'sent'.) God the Father sends his Son into the world. Jesus, the Son, sends his followers to carry forward the work that the Father gave him. And God the Holy Spirit is sent to followers of Jesus to help us carry out the task. Our 'mission' comes from God's 'mission'. It's about God's purposes being worked out in our world, now as well as in times past. Mission is about God's Kingdom coming 'on earth as it is in heaven'.

It's no secret that church life has been on the decline in this country over the last 50 years. Rather like a garden that used to produce ample crops, but now is struggling to fill the baskets. That's a generalisation and not all churches or parts of church life have been declining. However, the broad picture is stark enough to cause many to ask hard questions about what we are doing and why. Like a gardener looking to learn from a difficult season and make changes for the future.

In the Lent studies this year we looked at different aspects of the mission that we have from God:
• to make known the good news of the Kingdom
• to teach, baptise and nurture new believers
• to respond to human need with loving service
• to seek to transform unjust structures of society
• to look after creation and renew the life of the earth

Those studies raised some questions about our church life and challenged our priorities. I think we've barely begun to grapple with the implications of this.

Last month I attended a meeting of representatives from the Anglican churches of this area, the Wotton Deanery Synod. We were challenged to be mission-shaped churches and given some pointers to qualities in our church life that show this.

Five Values of a Missionary Church
• worship and prayer are at the heart of our life
• the communities we serve we seek to transform the communities we
• serve through the power of the Gospel
• we call people to faith in Jesus Christ and developing Christian lifestyle
• we build genuine community with fellow Christians, welcoming in new members

These five values are not a programme for the coming year, but rather characteristics that should undergird what we do. Our understanding of God's mission and how we can live that out may inspire fresh initiatives, like Open the Book, taking stories of our faith into schools. But that same understanding may give us fresh impetus with familiar things, like Harvest Supper or a Carol Service, and help us see how that fits into our mission. As one writer said, "this is not a question of 'Traditional church or Funky church’ -it may be that the most helpful mission-shape for a community looks very much like a traditional parish church". It is about what is right for our context and reviewing what we do in the light of our 'missionary' calling.

Here's a little exercise you might do.

Look at the 'Five Values of a Missionary Church' that are listed above.

Which of these values most characterize the church of which you are a part?

Which of these values most challenge the church of which you are a part?

Answers on a postcard or email to me or your churchwardens!

Richard

P.S. If you'd like to see the full report, 'Mission-Shaped Church', you can find it here.
And it is a good read!