Saturday, October 6, 2007

Stats show church must act now to build positive future

Facing a 17 per cent decline in church attendance since 2001, the Uniting Church in New South Wales needs to shake itself out of its "business as usual" mentality and act strategically if it wants to make a difference to people's lives in the future.

This was the message to the New South Wales Synod meeting on Saturday October 6 from Dr Ruth Powell, Director of National Church Life Survey Research (NCLS) and Tina Rendell, Executive Director of the Board of Mission and Chair of the NCLS Steering Committee.

"It's the same message [the Synod Board of Mission staff have been saying for years], yes. But the crisis is here," said Dr Powell.

"It's got to be in your face this time.

"If nothing changes, the Uniting Church in New South Wales will halve its current size in the next 25 years."

Drawing from NCLS 2006 survey material and on expertise from overseas churches, Dr Powell and Ms Rendell challenged Synod participants to courageously imagine a future for the Uniting Church that focused on hope, growth and new possibilities.

"This is no time for fiddling," Dr Powell said. "We have to take courageous steps now to face this future.

"What is your succession plan? What inheritance will you leave?" she asked.

Examples given from the Methodist Church, the Church of England and the United Reformed Church in the UK should offer Synod hope that change for the better could happen, said Dr Powell.

But there was no room for complacency. Fresh expressions of church were needed and the church had to be "mission shaped".

Dr Powell told Synod members of an ageing membership (more than half of the church's members was now over 60) and a decline in numbers over the last five years in the Uniting Church in New South Wales and the ACT from 49,000 to 33,600 people - meaning the church was now 1/3 of the size it was 15 years ago.

Attention was drawn to three core qualities identified by NCLS as catalysts for healthy and vital churches.

The qualities included:

* A clear and owned vision. Do congregations, presbyteries and the Synod have a clear sense of direction? How are our hopes for the future affecting our plans and decision today? * Inspiring and empowering leadership. How are leaders equipping and empowering other? * Imaginative and flexible innovation. How open are we to new possibilities? Is innovation supported and encouraged?

Facing the future

Ms Rendell projected that the primary forms of church in 15 years time would be:

* Large/regional. * Smaller congregations resourced by shared ministers/pastors. * Small, lay-led congregations/faith communities.

There would be very few traditional neighbourhood congregations with one minister, Ms Rendell said.

Priorities for the future therefore should include:

* Training ministers, pastors and other leaders for the kind of situations they'd be likely to minister in. * Providing good "missional" funerals. * Jesus conversations in every congregation. * Contemporary worship development. * U-Turn: Starting small groups, faith communities, congregations with U-Turn placements. Sixty per cent of funding should support existing ministry with 40 per cent growing new ministry opportunities (ACOMP approved presbytery supported).

Synod table groups were asked, "If the Uniting Church New South Wales of the future is shaped by smaller numbers, different generational needs, four models of church (instead of one), then what is one way that our inheritance can be passed on?"

Synod members were urged to move from ideas to action - individually, in congregations, presbyteries and during the Synod meeting.

The Board of Mission would compile a report from table group responses to be given to the Moderator and the Council of Synod to consider.

Dr Powell explained that NCLS 2006 involved 400,000 church attendees in more than 7,000 churches in 22 denominations -- with the Uniting Church in the New South Wales Synod returning 18,029 forms from 427 churches.

In 2006 there were some indications that the New South Wales Synod was "going in the right direction" with:

* 70 per cent of New South Wales Synod respondents aware of a vision for the future (an increase from 59 per cent in 2001) with 36 per cent fully confident and 39 per cent partly confident that the vision could be achieved. * 15 per cent strongly agreeing that congregations were always ready to try something new (up from 12 per cent in 2001) and 72 per cent agreeing that leaders encouraged innovation.

Other results showed:

* 59 per cent say gifts and skills were encouraged to a great or some extent (down from 66 per cent in 2001). * 40 per cent of the children of attendees aged 15 plus still attend the church of their childhood. 42 per cent do not attend any church.

The Uniting Church always topped the list for the NCLS core quality Practical and Diverse Service (serving the community). "This safety net is unmatched by any other church," Dr Powell said.

Dr Powell said that initial indications suggested that Uniting Church attendances in New South Wales had declined by 15 per cent but the figure was recently confirmed to be 17 per cent.

However, she said, a third of the Synod's churches were growing - with some 102 of the 307 churches who had provided data to date having grown in the last five years.

Ms Rendell also saw a positive future for the church, saying, "We believe the Uniting Church has enormous potential if we are willing to let go of some of the things that make us feel safe and in control; and if we are willing to allow our resources to be used to create a new initiative, new group, new worship services, a new church in our community."