Many people have spent as lot of time and energy in the last 30 years or more trying to define what "the local church" is. There are some good summaries and Robin Greenwood's "Practising \Community" 1996 is a good start, although he is writing pre-internet age and so the context we live in has changed incredibly fast since published. Email, Facebook, Twitter, Skipe and Facetime have all transformed the way we connect to each other and the world.
Particularly for rural areas, where the internet has reduced cultural isolation and eased local economic dependency. We have to remember that the "parish" system, which has carpeted all of Europe for over 1000 years is based on local economic, relational inter-dependence. Such dependence no longer exists for much of the continent or in other parts of the world. For example, if a piece of farm machinery breaks down the replacement part probably comes from the other side of the world rather than the local blacksmith's forge, What remains for many is a sense of attachment to a location and if that location has been chosen from amongst many an association of values and identification with the location that, for the time being makes it home and they a citizen of it. It might be that the church, a place marking specific events in life or the architecture of the building or the community of the faithful is part of this association and identity.
It is certainly part of the labour of the local church community to make it so. Personally I challenge congregations to ask themselves something along the lines of the following: "If you asked a neighbour for three or four things that make our community a great place to live would the church be on the list?" My hope and challenge in this age of dispersed circles of intimacy is that the local church makes it it's mission to so serve the local community at large that is experienced as one of the main, if not the hub of community life.
In the new economy of church oversight that we are moving into there are as many different sorts of church as their are building in which they meet in. Every one is unique, shaped by those who have gone before and the members of the faith community in our own day. Some will be small and very simple in dynamic and their pattern of activity, others much more complex, perhaps many generals and not many foot soldiers. Yet all have some things in common as part of the church of God, in all its different expressions.
Firstly that it is God's church not ours locally or our denomination's. It follows that God calls people to faith, a faith marked by the initiation of baptism. By virtue of our baptism all called into the service of Christ. my own tradition, the Church of England still expresses this mainly, though not exclusively, through the open provision of worship and pastoral service to every parish community.
Not a bad start. Such a pattern can be seen as a burden, too many churches, too few people all scattered around "spinning plates" ever faster to keep things going as they used to be. In this way of looking at things the church becomes a hindrance to its members. If we turn the such difficulties on their head and look at what God has provided the picture can look different.I have been led to reflect on this through looking at the Anglican guidelines on the formation and governance of religious communities "The Handbook of the Religious Life"(2004, Canterbury Press).
In the formation of a new community members are guides to start out with a simple pattern or rule of life and practice it. After a period of some time if it proves stable and the purpose of the community has become clear they can then clarify and formalise it with the help of a bishop's Visitor or facilitator, binding themselves by vows to their new community. The entire process can take three to five years. The "magic number" again crops up that four core members are needed if the community is to be established and seven upwards if it to appoint its own leader. This is a common pattern throughout Western monasticism and I believe contains a wisdom based on centuries of natural faith community development that can help us again today.
If we are able to marry these threads together we can see that the body/fellowship of Christ in a village/district/town is the God given resource for providing Christian hospitality in worship and service. By their baptism all are part of this, bringing their gift to this common good of all God's children in that place, who ever they may be.
The resource might be keen or "solid", it might be large or small, like a small religious community of a few souls, but it is called to "be" as the Holy Spirit has enabled it in particular locations. I think here we need an honesty check. As the saying goes "clementines are not small oranges". In our new century we need to encourage faith communities to let go of past patterns of church activity and not measure themselves by what was done in former ages and to be cautious of the temptation to take their temperature and judge their health against the latest programmes of activity that the franchised para-church bodies market as the panacea for success.
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| Wouldn't life be boring if all tomatoes looked and tasted the same. "You who have ears to hear, hear"! |
While the mission of local churches will always be fostered within the hospitality of worship and service, local expression will vary depending on local circumstance. As local communities are bunched into ever greater administrative units (the local minister where I am writing in Dorset, while on retreat, has 16 church communities in his care) some will be blessed with a gift of providing specific ministry, e.g. a "Messy Church", a pastoral visiting team, Mother's Union Branch or "house group", not all will have all these giftings and the sharing of good gifts across sub clusters or communities, a form of"local charism sharing" is to be encouraged. Cultivating a generosity of spirit between neighbouring church communities and disarming jealousies between God's children to allow this to happen in a spirit of joy when any is blessed in a particular gift is a tough part of the mission given to those in oversight.
To recap on this posting, trust, hospitality and a generosity of spirit are needed if the churches are to thrive in their unique context. Provision of worship and service to the community at that heart of the call of Christ, into which he has called all baptised/dedicated in his name.
Next time more of a look at ministry "teams" and the role of overseer and how the circles of intimacy idea and the balance of capabilities diagrams can help us map a way through the current times.....
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