A Story: Risking the Future

Based on a true story.

There once was a local community church that that thrived with hundreds of families who participated in the constant buzz of activities and events that the church organised. Over the years however, the surrounding neighbourhood had changed, people had grown up and moved away, and the membership of the church had slowly declined. There was now a small but vibrant group of just under twenty loyal senior citizens meeting every Sunday morning together. However, they were struggling to meet the mortgage payments and it had been sometime since they could employ a minister.

But not having a minister to keep things going wasn’t all bad. There was increased participation as people started to put worship services together. New confidence had emerged as new skills were learned and gifts exercised. The sense of community and belonging was on the rise. It was a new and exciting time, full of challenges but rewarding all the same. However, as time continued, they began to recognise that they were struggling to keep things going.

Meanwhile a young person was working towards trying to help plant something new in the area… he was slowly building a network of people who were interested in creating a church to reach those who had never been to church, or were currently not attending any church. He had previous experience as youth worker at a church in another city… but had moved to this neighbourhood to try something new.

As it happened the local community church came into contact with this network of young people and seeing an opportunity they approached the leaders to discuss the future. The local church proposed giving the young people the land and buildings without any strings attached (apart from the mortgage) so that they could start something new. Over the coming months the vision and values of both groups were shared very clearly in a number of meetings and get togethers. Everyone from both groups now involved, some 60 to 80 people, were asked to do various exercises and to start talking to people in their neighbourhoods, work places etc. about why they don’t go to church, what their views of church were. Everyone was excited about the future possibilities.

What emerged was a new church that took all they had learned so that everything was designed to reach someone who had never been to church.

The original community church group continued to meet in the church on Sunday mornings. Soon the original community church started to notice things change around the buildings. Sometimes they even heard some strange sounding music come from out of the church. They continued to spend time with the young people with regular get togethers. The young people would on occasion also be invited to help lead the worship service on Sunday morning so that the original church could hear more about what was happening. It was still a new and exciting time? still full of challenges? but it didn’t seem that it was as much of a struggle anymore.