Categories: uncategorized
Date: 01 August 2006 09:55:25
On Sunday, whilst at the festival, I decided to go to church and settled for the local Baptist not because I will only go to my own denomination when away, but rather because Saturday had been a very good night and so I wanted somewhere where I would know the routine of when to stand & sit, etc. Anyway I found a gem of a church which was wonderful but confronted me with some hard truths, not through any sermon but simply through being.
I found my self wondering about this church, fairly near to the centre of a vibrant city almost as soon as I walked in. In the small congregation that had gathered there were no men sitting there at that point. Now I know the stats are that women outnumber men in our churches, but not by that amount. Initially I thought they might all be out the back praying / preparing but when the minister came and introduced herself that theory pretty much went out the window. Anyway eventually a few men turned up but it was still a strikingly female congregation. There was also something else thoughabout the congregation they were predominantly around 70+ (at a guess), & again I know that there are aging populations, but in my experience it was extreme.
The next thing I noticed was the warmth and natural inclusivity of the church, both people and surroundings. The cloth on the communion table had names embroidered in & there was a simple candle burning throughout the service. The people came and spoke to you in a natural way and you just knew it was not the sort of church where they were about to tell you that you were in somebody elses seat. During the service you could see that there was truly no descrimination on the grounds of ethnicity, disability or gender but that this was not the implementation of some sort of equal ops agenda of inclusion but rather the result of natural fellowship in a small congregation where everybody played their part.
I was also struck by the fact that there was no attempt at hyped up emotion, the music was simple & the ministers voice remained steady and gentle throughout. That is not to say it was cold, rather there was the soothing warmth of gentle reassurance about it & quiet rage against injustice at various points.
At the end of the service I was again spoken to warmly & infact pursued up the road by the ministers husband who I think had not picked up on the fact that I had been so warmly welcomed & so wanted to make sure I didn't feel I had been ignored. It was then I could voice my disquiet to him.
It had been a wonderful service, which whilst perfectly natural may have been labelled as alt worship elsewhere when simplicity is set as a target to be achieved to create an atmosphere, but here was just a simple service in a church which was seeking to meet the needs of the congregation. However, in not many years the majority of that congregation will be dead & what then? It was a church that on the surface atleast looks as if it is dying.
The ministers husband agreed that it was a major concern for them and then went on to describe the segmentation that had occured within that community. The families with children went to the CofE, the elderly went to the Baptist Church I had attended, the young professionals & students who had moved into the area tended to go to two nearby churches which had the full on worship band experience. He explained they had plans to convert the buildings and that it is hoped will address the decline but there is still a major issue here.
This is a picture that I know is one which is occuring across the country, (although because it had not been my experience I sought to ignore). It got me thinking will we simply be left in the suburbs with the churches which have marketed themselves accordingly, often with worship bands and hyped up emotion & a five point plan? Will the type of service I encountered today only be available to spiritual tourists going on retreat or in supposedly alt worship services where they will seek to artificially recreate this type thing? Is the segmentation healthy? Don't get me wrong I think that charismatic and lively churches have an important part to play in our society and God truly is in many of them blessing them but I also believe that He truly is in ones like I experienced in Cambridge but in a few years they will be gone, dead through a simplicity that religious reality tv has shown that we crave.