Revitalising a dying church: what’s the secret? EN

Of making many strategies there is no end, and many training sessions weary the body.

As I have re-entered the Presbyterian ministry in a small church, Scots Kirk in Newcastle, New South Wales, I have been reflecting on my two previous ministries and on answering the question: how do you revitalise a traditional church, which is nearing the end of its life? It’s a situation I have faced before.

Not least in St Peters Free Church in Dundee – a large historical building which was noted for being the church of Robert Murray McCheyne. As such, it was the nearest thing Protestants get to an evangelical shrine. Busloads of tourists from all over the world (or at least the Reformed world – the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, the US) came to visit each year. But the congregation was a literal handful – we had no families, no young people and as a traditional psalm singing only acapella congregation, we were never going to attract the young, hip and happening evangelicals who moved to the city. Indeed, it was 18 years before one evangelical family came to us. We just had to grow our own.

In the providence of God, the church did grow – slowly, shakily and yet sincerely. There was a warmth and a life which people could sense. When I left after 27 years it was well established with a group of over 200 and had even seen a couple of church plants. Given that this was taking place in a post-industrial, post-Christian city this was quite unusual and so people came to visit us from different places asking what we did: What was our strategy? Our methodology? Did we have a manual? Did we offer training? They were usually disappointed to hear me say that my methodology was to preach the Word, pray and see what happens.

‘Oh yes,’ they would say. ‘We know that. We do that.’ And yet I questioned that. We literally had nothing that would attract people. Our building was rundown and in need of restoration. We were not a church where you would come and find your spouse, or have a well-developed youth programme for your children. When we began a new church plant in St Andrews, I recall a man from London saying that he believed God was calling him to come and help with that work. I invited him up for the weekend, but at the end he told me that it was not for him. Why? Because there are no families for my family. To which my response was ‘someone has to be first’. But that someone was not to be him. Incidentally St Andrews Free Church is now a thriving church, filled with young people, under the ministry of Paul Clarke.

Preaching the Word and then…

In general, I find that most evangelical churches believe in preaching the Word. It would be hard to call yourself a Christian church, let alone evangelical, if you did not. But then most finish that sentence not with ‘and see what happens’ but ‘and this will happen’. Too many churches talk about ‘ministry of the Word’ when we mean only one particular way of doing it and we have already predetermined how it will work – who we will reach and what our growth strategy is. For some of us it is a methodology, a virtue to be signalled, a badge to be worn. As a result, we end up with lectures, memes, cliches, and the ‘one size fits all’ style of teaching…. safe, comfortable, short and generally useless. But real ministry of the Word is something profoundly deep, Spirit-filled and powerful.

There is something deeply wrong with a church which operates on a plug and play mentality, in which we set up the system and then through rigorous programming and training, we produce a pipeline of preachers who all sound the same, use the same methodology and end up being as dull as dishwater.

Ministry of the Word is much more dynamic and diverse than that, and that includes out of the pulpit. It should be done in the public square as well as the temple. In most areas, perhaps street corner preaching is not the best way to do this in the 21st Century West, but we need to find the marketplace and there proclaim the Word of Christ through many different means: media, social media, debating, café evangelism and cultural outreach are all means I have tried to use.

When I left Scotland, I did not imagine in my wildest dreams/nightmares that in my early sixties I would be going back to the beginning – seeking to revitalise an elderly declining congregation in a post-industrial, post-Christian society. But here we are. Back to the future. A few months ago, a young couple with a baby came in. They were looking for a church and had enjoyed the service, but they were hesitant. I knew why and just simply said, ‘I know… but someone has to be first’. We haven’t seen them since!

It’s back to the drawing board. What are my strategies and plans? I don’t have any. We have nothing to offer except Christ. I’m just going to preach the Word, pray and see what happens…