Where we are now.
When we began to to look at ourselves as part of the process of calling a new minister in 2014 it began to be clear that we needed to address our biggest concern, that our churches were getting older. We realised that we have to change if we wanted to continue to have a presence in our communities. With a new minister to the team we started to consider what we might do.
After many discussions between congregants, elders and ministers a discussion paper was written and distributed to the four churches. In it the churches were offered 3 options:
a) Gradual planned closure
b) A church led growth
initiative
c) A strategic consultation
with community, building users and the churches to come up with a joint way
forward based on social research.
All churches voted overwhelmingly for option C at Church meetings. Option C was renamed the ´Jerusalem Plan´ (after the Council in Acts 15):
“It is
my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles
who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to
abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of
strangled animals and from blood. For the law of Moses has been preached in
every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every
Sabbath”.
(Acts 15:19–21)
Or, in other words, we would seek to attract new people but understood that they may not want to be part of traditional Sunday church or value the same ways of doing things that we do.