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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
Would you like to come to church with me?
Why are we talking about multiplying congregations? It often seems as though there is plenty of space still left at 9am. And sometimes there is. But experience and various bits of research tell us that 80% full is effectively full. What is more another ten people would probably push it to be quite full.
Is another ten people a good number? It would be a very good number compared to two or three. But not compared to twenty or fifty.
The simple answer to the question is that multiplying congregations gives us a good opportunity to increase the number of people who could join us.
It is also, at the moment, one of the good ways of allowing more people to hear the gospel and come to Christ.
There are however a couple of serious matters associated with the idea.
Read more: Would you like to come to church with me? 27 May 12
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
The people at Willetton
I was talking to my friendly hairdresser this week, who as usual asked me what I had been doing today. I said I had been to Mainly Music. Which required a certain amount of explanation. And what was my role in the church? I said I was the minister. Did I like the job?
Most of the time. Well, you know, jobs that involve people ... But this crowd at Willetton are a good bunch. A Number 2 haircut doesn’t take very long, so no time to say more.
What more could be said? Nice people? Certainly. Believers? Yes, believers. Grumpy? Not at the moment. Brave? Interesting question. Why would Christians need to be brave? Because Christians belong to a group faith. You have to get along with, cooperate with, actually, love, the other believers. And even if you try to run away to another church you have to do the same with them (run away to do it alone? - I think that disqualifies you).
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
Not Tom Sawyer’s Fence
Parents remember the birth of their first child, especially mum. It was an exciting time. Scary too. What kind of parents will we be? Will we know what to do with this new baby? Will it survive us?
The first child fixed any delusions we had about being super parents. And the second one? Well maybe we could get it right this time. But children are different and the next one just introduced us to more things we didn’t know much about.
But births and beginnings are exciting things. Starting new congregations is exciting – and scary. But there are some things that sound exciting but we doubt will be. Are we just listening to hype? Is the idea of growing a church a kind of con job?
Is it like Tom Sawyer’s fence painting? Are we being offered something that is just boring hard work with no real benefit in the end? Just something that interrupts our peaceful lives? Possibly.
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
Questions about Multiplying Congregations
What would multiplied morning congregations look like? They might look exactly the same as now. Probably at first they would be smaller. That would feel a bit strange. Some familiar faces will be in the other congregation. Ditto. New people will join. And maybe the two congregations won’t be the same.
One possibility is that one will be much the same as now and the other will adapt differently to a different membership. What we don’t want to see is either of them turn into a “rump” service. Both need to be at times that allow them to grow, that is, at times that people would want to come. To this end we will start to survey everyone next Sunday. Our aim will be to see at what times everyone would be willing to attend one of the congregations and also to see what time they prefer. Also for people to be able to say they don’t want to change the present arrangement.
If we proceeded, both congregations would have Morning Tea! One advantage of having two morning congregations is the shared morning tea after the first service where some mingling and catching up between the two services can happen. Both might use the same liturgy or maybe they will use different liturgies.
Read more: Questions about Multiplying Congregations 6 May 12
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
How big can a church get?
How big can a church get? Way back in the ‘70s research began to show that there were limits to the size of congregations. Attendances in a large number of congregations were surveyed in the UK over a number of denominations and over a period of years. One of the surprising results of this research was to show that the size of the congregation was not related to the size of its parish or catchment population.
One of the significant limitations was related to the number of people who could form some kind of relationship with the minister. At the time this was estimated to be around 100 people. Figures in Perth support this. My estimate is that 80 – 100 is our number. It was found that adding another member of staff did not double the number, but only added up to 80% of the original number.
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
What can you believe?
What can you believe? Martha believed Jesus was the resurrection and the life but didn’t want him to open Lazarus’ grave. Peter believed the body was not in the tomb but didn’t understand about the resurrection. Thomas didn’t believe Jesus had been raised from the dead – at least he refused to until he had finger-poking evidence.
It was one of those marvellous catches that had Jesus fronting Thomas and calling him out to see the evidence. To do more than see. To stop being unbelieving and to believe. Thomas didn’t need to poke around – he saw and believed. Thomas portrays the issue very clearly (the RSV and the NIV have confused us by introducing the unnecessary word “doubt”). Thomas states his position clearly – he will not believe. This is not doubt but unbelief.
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- Written by: Dale
- Category: Weekly Reflections
Being a follower of Jesus
News reports suggest that the city of Homs, the third largest in Syria, has now seen almost its entire Christian population of 50,000 to 60,000 flee for safety as fighting continues in the stricken country.
The number of Christians left in the city has reportedly fallen to below 1,000.
During the worst of the conflict, the opposition forces attacked churches and also occupied an evangelical school and home for the elderly, which were then shelled by the army. Church leaders have reported that Muslim neighbours are turning on the Christians, and that Muslim extremists from other countries have been coming to Homs to join the fighting.
In Sudan other news agencies reported that Khartoum denied that it had bombed civilians earlier this month, Sudanese aerial strikes last week were aimed at church buildings and schools in Kauda, South Kordofan state, a humanitarian aid worker said.