Growing, being and dreaming

A couple of weeks ago I was on holiday. My holidays lately seem to involve visiting places that you wouldn't really think of for holidays - places with concrete buildings (and cows!) and roundabouts. The thing about those places though is they are places where friends live who are the kind of friends who you can meet irregularly but are the people who you feel like you see every day. 

Wherever I go on holiday, one part of holiday that has been something I have grown up with  is the trying of a new (and often very different) church. Going on holiday with my family we would always go and check times the night before and then turn up, to be then sometimes surprised, sometimes terribly bored, sometimes challenged and sometimes amused. It's not the same kind of experience when you go on holiday on your own, but there is still the chance to try something new and perhaps a little different. 

During my holiday I spent the day in London. I went on my own which meant I could do what I wanted when I wanted without worrying about anybody else. I acted like a tourist and late afternoon ended up in Westminster. The abbey was closed though, so I was disappointed, but then I noticed Evensong was due to start, so, for curiosities sake and to get out of the Arctic wind I decided to go. Not my normal type of worship. Good music (a bit of plainsong does you good) and slightly bemused by the man who had to lead the readers to the Bible to read. Nobody talked to me apart from the man who led me to my seat and the woman next to me who told me not to take my coat off because I'd freeze. I left relaxed and calm.....

Two days later I went with my friend to join a Vineyard congregation for their Sunday service. You couldn't get something much more different than the abbey. Food and very good coffee on arrival, lots of small talk, lots of chaos, loud worship band, children playing computer games, sharing of bread and wine with no formality at all, community being built in the offices of a charity in the middle of an industrial estate. I left feeling hyper (that's the coffee) and chaotic but welcomed....

In his book on Church Growth in Britain, David Goodhew describes how Cathedral congregations and new churches are among the growing churches, so what is it about these two seemingly polarised ways of being church that means they are growing? Both of them made me feel a little uncomfortable, yet both of them clearly have something to offer. 

I appreciated the anonymity of the abbey congregation. It was big. It was quiet. There was no need to get involved. I could just sit back and relax. I didn't have to listen to a sermon (there wasn't one) and as long as I stood and sat at the right time (guided by the lady in the hat next to me) it was all OK. I was on holiday so I didn't want to engage in conversation about what I do. I was able to leave the abbey shaking one persons hand and one person only and the gatekeepers were cheerful.The woman in the hat was giving out some kind of leaflet inviting people to an event where they could talk about faith but I managed to avoid the leaflet by walking behind her. The whole atmosphere inside the abbey gave me a sense of the awesomeness of God and made it possible just to be. 

If this was my every day congregation though? I'd miss the relationships. I'd miss the informality. I'd be frustrated by the sameness....... but perhaps some people appreciate that.... and perhaps by being in a place where you can just be you can build relationship with God on an individual basis. However, if we are meant to be a church that actively seeks to live out the Kingdom of God, the lack of community and commitment misses the point? Does being a follower of Jesus require more commitment?

The Vineyard congregation clearly had that community feel. Everyone knew one another. Someone new came in and a greeter introduced him to someone of a similar age who could sit with him during the service. The congregation heckled and discussed. The children could make as much noise as they wanted and nobody blinked (apart from me, who is not used to that!). There was not meant to be a sermon, but there was still a talk. 

If this was my every day congregation though? I'd miss the silence, the chance just to sit and be, the space. I think that the abbey congregation could teach the vineyard one a little bit about awe and wonder, just as the vineyard could teach the abbey about informality. (The informality clearly didn't spread to the music, though, which was perfected in similar detail to the abbey yet was very different). For this congregation belonging was vital and commitment was important. So very different, yet also growing. What I struggle with most about this church is that it felt like a pop up church - there today, gone tomorrow. Fragmented during the week as people travel in from far and wide and return to their local community. A different way of serving where perhaps people are invited into the church community rather than integrating into the community around the church. 

Whatever my struggles with these two ways of being church, the fact that they are growing cannot be denied. I wonder what I can learn from these places, but I also wonder if there is still space for something else. Something that embodies itself in local community, but learns a lot from the past. Something that is as messy as new church, but less controlled by leaders and as awe inspiring as cathedral church, but connects much more in community. 

I keep coming back to this though..... That the challenge is to be God's church embodying God's mission in the situation you are in, not necessarily in the situation where you strive to be. We can learn, we can theorize, but being God's called and sent people is where it is at. 

"A church which pitches its tents without constantly looking out for new horizons, which does not continually strike camp, is being untrue to its calling..... [We must] play down our longing for certainty, accept what is risky live by improvisation and experiment" - Hans Kung