Hospice or Renewal #Discussion

Spoiler alert = there is no easy answer to this one.

I recently looked at the church congregation around me, and did the ‘grey vote’. Have you ever done this?

I counted the proportion of people attending who had grey hair. It’s not a strictly scientific study, I agree, but it could be indicative of the age who attend. I certainly wasn’t going to ask them! Now, for many people, the result is fine. Those who attend are all like-minded (possibly a cause for concern which we could return to) and are comfortable with ‘their lot’. The role of the church may be clearly stated and used on any social media website. It could be looking to make a difference in the society where they are. I have experienced that with addiction recovery, and wow, it is making such a difference!

That said, the people need to be available and commit to such work, as just an hour or so on a Friday, for example, may not cut it. Alternatively, we could be focussed upon pastorally supporting the church congregation, some of whom have been there for many (many) decades. That takes time to visit folk, especially those who now can’t leave their property due to mobility issues or lack of transport to and from Church (especially on a Sunday). Visiting folk can be a bright spot in their week. However, to take ministers away from one area of their work ie societal change to visit folk is very demanding. Many of the pastoral supporters now are also facing that issue of the lack of mobility as well. It looks very much like it’s an OR situation. You can visit folk but that societal change stuff needs to be done by others; or we drop the societal change work and focus upon the people. (You could also have a focus about evangelism: sharing the ‘good news’ either verbally or online. Again, this can be time-consuming and additionally requiring specific skill sets.)

There will be ministers you may have met who can do both or all, and I’ll take my hat off to them. Many other ministers need to commit to one of them, and that’s it.

Where are you seeing the greatest focus in the church you might attend?

So, as the church continues to age, what’s the next step?

As one person said – “give it 5 years, and we won’t be here anymore“. That’s so sad, but it is at least facing the facts. Some years ago modelling was undertaken given the number of people within Methodism. This has since been updated. No model is accurate by its very nature. It infers a predicted result given prior data. It might be difficult to refute the overall suggestion that the church is, to use their word, in decline. Compare that with the modelling data for the Church of England, and in particular, their Cathedrals.

Why are we so afraid to confront the truth, when in our own life, we may plan for our own death?

At the recent series of Death Cafe sessions we discussed how our last decade might look, maybe our last few years, what we would like at the funeral, and what would be our desire afterwards, our legacy. Why do we not do this for churches?

Hope, that’s why!

If Church has anything, it has hope! If we don’t have hope, what do we have? But, don’t we have hope in our own later years? That we can still achieve something but recognise that our time may be coming to an end. Retirement is now deemed to be squeezing more out of the extra quarter of our life, those 20 or so years. Also think of those hospice workers who day in, day out, go to work, and give life to those they treat. They see the world in a different way, as they recognise that there can be hope even in this phase of life.

Many times we might use the word revival. You may be able to identify those times of revival from the graph below. But what else can we conclude?

So, we face that uncomfortable dilemma: do we wish to remain comfortable in what we are doing, ignoring the possibility of the church closing; or have a part to play in deciding how we might close and what we might do in that phase, to own that phase?

What next then?

If a church is to eventually close then it is not the financial situation which is the primary concern, but who are left. The closure of the church may leave a number of folk unable to attend a church further away – what plans might we have to support them, even if that means that they could attend another denomination? Or perhaps still, people could meet at someone’s house and be encouraged to further discussion about topical issues whilst offering pastoral support – this could be multi-denominational including those who don’t have any religious faith. It doesn’t have to be along church lines. But there does need to be a strategy for caring for and supporting those who are left.

So, now we need to have strong connections with other denominations

Not just with ‘pulpit swaps’, but making connections at the grass roots level, so divisions are not going to be barriers – that labels are not used negatively. Some may elect to consider amalgamation but this can be prone to legal difficulties, albeit understandably given the trustees responsibilities. If we knew what we were eventually seeking, we could liaise to discern a mutually beneficial situation. I’m guessing that the other local churches may be in a similar position with congregational numbers. If not, there is a potential solution of informally merging with them, but keeping our Methodist identity. One local example is that one Methodist congregation were offered to attend another denominational church, where they could keep their own collection, and even have a Methodist minister preaching once a month.

What we may be seeking to strive for is not a replica of the comfortable like-minded situation we may have today. The ‘echo chamber of comfort‘ is great but may not allow us to grow in understanding, and permit others to engage and discuss what faith might mean to them.

We need to be working with others now

We need to ensure that societal change initiatives, whether these be addiction recovery centres, food banks, hostels etc, are closely entwined with secular agencies, not only for professional expertise, but for potential legacy. It was the dream of the church to set up this initiative. Own that dream even if we are not able to continue with it.

Not the same everywhere

We need to understand that, geographically, there will be wide variations. There will be regions where there are no churches, whilst others are still doing better overall. Congregation size may not be the best marker for success, but we also need to include age profiles.

Time Frame

So, should we allocate an action item to the next Church Council to discuss this? I would suggest, just as we might take years to plan our own funeral, our last desires, we might seek to give this phase some years to bring to fruition. The congregation will need to determine its own position; the locals to the church may well wish to share their opinion, which will require further debate. This will be a lengthy consultation but will bring about fruitful and healthy conclusions. To limit the time frame for this phase is surely to exacerbate hurt feelings in many communities, inside and outside of the church, and possibly result in continuing tensions at the end.

Church Living Will

There needs to be Church Closing Plan, akin to our own Will. How do we see our Church closing gracefully, with a ‘good death’? Jesus didn’t have what was said to be a good Jewish death: “a long life, no male heir, and a good burial” (Paula Gooder, Heaven, p81). Can we, as a church, have the equivalent?

People may have elected to have what is known as a living will, where we can decide how our medical care will be given in our last months/weeks/days. We may have a Power of Attorney who can help us to manage that last period. What they have in common is that our desires have been previously discussed, agreed and recorded. It isn’t a surprise, or mandated from a higher authority, or rushed. We can discuss this, write it down, and return and update it – that cycle mentioned above in time frames – but at least we own that last phase of the church we have been in for so long.

Just like we may not be able to recognise what the initial church house groups looked like from Acts when compared to our usual morning Sunday service, we might not recognise what life will be like in the years ahead. What we should not do is to grasp the comfortable life we have now, and then fight that we didn’t know it was coming, if our church is to close.

I’m not seeking the end of the Church, far from it, just, please let us prepare properly.

Unless we start to prepare for the end of our church life, we will not recognise the level of disturbance until it is too late.