What do we want?

I preached at Holy Cross today. The reading for the day was Matthew 15:21-28 - the Canaanite Woman. This gave me an opportunity to speak about marathon running - having sat up during the night to watch the women's marathon at the Beijing Olympics. Paula Radcliffe did her best to finish even though she clearly wasn't fit enough. The winner was a Rumanian who took off and kept going even though everyone else thought she would grind to a halt... This provided a great link to the reading, picking up themes of persistence and constant re-thinking in the pursuit of an important goal.

In the second part of the service I decided to experiment and ask the congregation what they thought they might need from Church in order to pursue their own calling to be disciples. I pointed out that Church is a "school for disciples" rather than a "club for saints". If this is really true, what do we need? What should preachers talk about? What themes would be worth exploring?

I collected the results and would like to say that the most common suggestions were:

a. Sharing the Gospel
b. Being a Disciple
c. Being Christians in our local community
d. The Communion Service
e. The Background to the Bible

I was suprised to see evangelism at the top of the list, but there were refrences to "getting more people to come to church" so there may be questions about motivation to unpack. I would be interesting to know if other churches would produce a similar list...

The question for me know is to think about how I follow this up in my preparation for worship.

Extended Schools

Went to an extended schools conference today, and spent some time thinking about what churches can contribute to the community. Here are some thoughts...

I believe that churches can offer ""gifts"" in four significant areas:

1. Gift of Infrastructure
Churches can offer community space, e.g. halls and churches. They can also offer formal and informal networks and structures of communication.

2. Gift of Services
Churches can offer groups and activities for particular groups, e.g. children and older people. They also offer explicitely "spiritual" activities within the community.

3. Gift of People
Churches are often significant providers of the people who make things hapen in the community. Church members can also be people who support and encourage community initiatives. Churches need to recognise that they need to support their people in these roles.

4. Gift of Meaning
Churches offer a space or a process for "interpretation" and reflection. They also embody a set of values that gives significance to individuals, families and to the community itself - in a way that the "market" can't.

These are four gifts that the church can give to the wider community. The interesting thing to do, would be to look at the life and work of our communities in the light of these criteria.