What does it take to grow?
A few years ago I was in conversation with someone who had been in theological pedagogy, simply was now returning to parochial ministry. 'I am going to become and grow a church building' he quipped; 'It's not that hard.' He was heading to an inner urban area, and whilst I admired his optimism, I winced at his hubris. I thought afterwards (as i always does) of what I should have said at the moment: 'Yes, information technology is easy. All you need to do is requite yourself completely, submit to crucifixion, and be resurrected on the third twenty-four hours. After that is information technology all quite straightforward.'
In low-cal of that, I was fascinated to read the text of the third Lambeth Lecture delivered by Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London, and church growth in the capital. It is long—very long at 9,102 words, almost the length of a full Grove booklet. If read in full, it must have taken an hour and a quarter to deliver, merely there are plenty poetic pictures, moving metaphors and startling revelations to have kept listeners fully engaged. For the wider church, the interest in what Chartres says does not prevarication in reproducing the 'London feel'; he is quite aware that 'hostility to London in other parts of the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland is a significant political fact' and that ideas cannot simply be exported. But at that place were several things in the speech communication which struck me as of being of vital significance to whatsoever diocese which is committed to growth
ane. Honesty
The voice communication opens with a brutally honest business relationship of the dire situation facing the diocese in the 1980s, and what that meant both in parishes too equally across the organisation.
The parish of which I became Vicar in 1984 was an extreme instance study of these full general trends. St Stephen's Rochester Row in the mid-1980s had already experienced twenty years of decline. At the beginning of the social revolution in the 1960s at that place had been about 550 members on the electoral roll and an banana staff of six curates and 4 nuns. There was even a daughter church building, St John's, the result of a 1950s church found. By the time I arrived as the Reverend Mr Ichabod – "the glory has departed" – at that place was an average Sunday omnipresence of 40, no banana staff and the daughter church had been turned into the HQ of the London Diocesan Fund.
In one sense, it is easy to be honest about the by when looking dorsum. But it seems articulate that Chartres was enlightened of the situation at the time, and his piece continues to exist honest near the struggles he has faced in bringing change, including initiatives which haven't been very successful and which needed to be dropped. And the purpose of this honesty is not to be morose, just to protest that it doesn't take to exist this way. A realism in facing what is happening has become an engine for change.
2. Structures and direction
Chartres offers a fascinating business relationship of the process of simplifying structures inside the diocese. The Area scheme has get an obstacle to unified action and had added layers of administration, so needed rethinking. And the various Boards were creating talking shops which did not atomic number 82 to action and implementation.
One of the start tasks was to carry though the abolition of the extra tier of synodical authorities and all the Boards not protected by police force. The crucial changes were effected past 1997. At the same time we amalgamated all the statutory bodies with the Bishop'southward Council. No ane has e'er said to me "if only we had a Board of Mission we would have done some mission". Instead a black pigsty of free energy was closed and, as a result, effort directed to supporting those individuals and places which signalled life and possessed the missionary gene.
In all this, Chartres has an interested mixed reception of management insight. On the one paw, he appears to be highly sceptical about proposals in the Greenish Report on developing senior leadership in the Church building:
An MBA in ecclesiastical assistants is no substitute for the development of a beginner'due south mind and acquiring the teachability with which the Spirit can piece of work. I do non incertitude that nosotros tin learn much from the experience of other organisations, but the church should besides have a non-sectional confidence in its own feel.
On the other hand, he is very open most the insights that the diocese accept gained from the use of consultants (not to the lowest degree in the area of communication) and individuals who have brought management expertise to the running of the diocese. And he is committed to a proper understanding of mutual financial support; the Common Fund must non exist a 'tax on growth' as it has then often been.
three. People
1 of the about hit things about the oral communication is the consistent generosity which with Chartres refers to those he has worked with, even when they are very dissimilar from himself and might have made some errors in the past.
Any Diocesan should be clear almost his incompetencies and mine were only besides obvious. In particular, when I sometimes feel that I have made myself clear what others accept heard is often opaque and occasionally baffling. Pete Broadbent is straight and unvarnished in his communications. He has vast experience as a member of Islington Borough Quango and equally a serial Synodsman. In mode and political convictions he is a contrast to the Diocesan, but the partnership works because we are committed to the mutual cause.
I haven't counted them up, but I think there must be a dozen or more people praised by name in the speech communication. I am slightly reminded of Paul in Romans 16, list the 27 people to whom he owed a debt of gratitude arising from partnership in mission and ministry building. Chartres is, physically, a large and imposing presence. But he conspicuously has no anxiety that he needs to make himself bigger by making others look small.
4. Theological tradition
Some of Chartres' most startling comments arise in his affirmation of theological traditions very unlike from his own—and his impatience with those who would hesitate to partner with them. Not surprisingly, Holy Trinity Brompton in detail, and charismatic evangelicals in general, have a central place in this.
One such identify was Holy Trinity Brompton whose leaders had experienced a mensurate of frustration in their dealings with the Kensington Surface area bureaucracy. Blastoff was beginning to develop into the global movement that it is today, and there were voices within HTB urging that a base exterior the Church building of England would be more conducive to growth. The local hierarchy was unwilling to run across HTB equally much more than a conventional parish in the Expanse, and in item was keen to restrict the numbers of curates that the Church could employ, even though there was finance bachelor to enlarge the staff. The restrictions were fuelled by a liberal distaste for charismatic evangelicalism and a confidence that the supply of curates should exist evenly spread throughout the Diocese, irrespective of the chapters to pay.
For someone firmly committed to the Catholic tradition in the Church of England, it is remarkable to read him quoting Rick Warren, 'the American Mega-Church leader', and affirming the work of the 24/7 prayer initiative. Merely there is an important qualification here. Whilst he wants to encourage the contribution of Conservative Evangelicals (though it is difficult finding those 'who are capable and willing enough to work constructively beyond the whole gamut of church life') he has no time for 'farthermost churchmanship factions' and is only interested in working with the 'legitimate strands' of tradition.
One of the underlying principles of the by twenty years in London has been that every legitimate strand in the Anglican tradition should be honoured and reflected in the appointments fabricated in the Diocese. There is only one vital distinction which transcends the differences between different strands of churchmanship and that is the stardom between dead church and living church.
This is a healthy antitoxin to those who claim they believe in a 'wide church' without whatsoever qualifications.
5. Focus
I am not sure that the bishop has an equivalent of Alex Ferguson's 'pilus drier' treatment, but at points he comes across with a sense of steely determination to push through modify in the confront of opposition.
There was, and continued to be, active opposition from certain Area teams to whatever common framework. Publically expressed and constructive criticism should ever be welcome, but subversives, "weevils of the commonwealth", those who impairment morale by cynicism and gossip have to be weeded out. Bishops need a reliable intelligence system, and the resolve to deal with serial nay-sayers.
If I were in the diocese, I think I would be wary of crossing him!
6. Role of bishop
Chartres offers a fascinating insight into his own reflections on being a bishop, and they are remarkably refreshing. Despite his axiomatic love of anniversary and his personal gravitas, the comments suggest a postal service that (at some level at least) is lightly held. The bishop is the one person who tin have an overview of the bigger moving-picture show, whilst besides needing to ensure things go washed—'implementation' is a repeated mantra. Only the bishop is not the respond to everything.
Growth springs from movements of the Holy Spirit, and from communities and individuals in whom there is life-giving sap. Bishops tin can exercise very little alone. They tin can seek to remove obstacles, and to brand wise appointments. Pronouncements can usefully change an atmosphere, merely besides many "Diocesan initiatives" can exist a distraction and contribute to weariness and even cynicism among the clergy, peculiarly if they suspect that the bishop is trying to make a name for himself.
When my name survives only in a litter of plaques marking school extension openings and the refurbished loos at St James'southward Clerkenwell, I am convinced that hereafter Bishops of London will be able, with Haggai, to say, "the celebrity of this latter house shall exist greater than of the former saith the Lord of Hosts."
Chartres also offers a welcome reflection on the role of tradition.
Traditionalism is the obstinate adherence to the mores of the solar day before yesterday – the expressionless religion of living people. Tradition is the spirit-filled continuity of the Church's life, through which the truth is communicated from generation to generation in fresh ways in order to stay the same. Tradition is the living faith which we share with expressionless people. Actually oftentimes the hardest task is to persuade yesterday'southward avant-garde that they are today'south busted affluent.
If diocese and parishes could acquire from these principles, growth might come in surprising means.
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