What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • Sermon preached on 22 July 2012

    Here’s what I said on Sunday

    A number of years ago, when I was in my curacy, I was working in another Cathedral in Scotland. I was as interested in communications then as now and became convinced that we needed a clear corporate image, the better to represent ourselves to the world around us.

    Inevitably, there was some debate about what to use. We didn’t want to use the building because the church isn’t really all about buildings. We didn’t want to use a cross because that’s what so many churches have used and because it didn’t say anything particularly significant about who we were.

    In the end, we decided that we were going to use something which represented the fact that we were a cathedral – the place that the bishop calls home.

    (Well, I think historically, bishops tend to call their cathedrals a lot of other things, but that is another story and need not concern us for now).
    (more…)

3 responses to “25 More Questions for people who want to make their churches grow”

  1. Janet Avatar
    Janet

    ‘In the next month are you more likely to spend time on ecumenical activities or church growth activities?’ Do you have to chose between these two activities? Are they mutually exclusive?

    Reply
    1. Kelvin Avatar
      Kelvin

      Yes, that’s exactly the kind of choice many people do face frequently.

      The point really is that we all have choices to make and limited time. Churches which grow often have people in them who give up other worthy and worthwhile things to help make them grow.

      Reply
  2. Dharma N. Cuthbert Avatar
    Dharma N. Cuthbert

    Obviously I have read the 25 more things etc. Although I am a member of the local church,. The volunteer coordinator is not known to me. I have been attending the church for 14 months. Children are welcome to attend the church, as long as they don’t annoy the harpies. Recently a family who were involved in the music played in the church. Apparently there child was a bit of a handful, and one of the congregation said something about this,to the parents. Now they worship in a Church of Scotland, and will not be back.
    This leads to some people also leaving. I now pay for a bus to Inverness and go to the Cathedral’s services. If this continues the church will not survive. In one sense that may not be bad, this church is one of two joined together. As far as I know the entire congregation have cars, so travelling to the sister church would not be a problem. The comments are perhaps not immediately apparent, in the way you have written the list.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Previous Posts

  • None of their own

    Last night I was elected as the new convenor of the Liberal Democrats in Stirling, taking over from someone who has done the job with some passion o­n and off for almost thirty years. Right now, the local Lib Dems are getting very excited about the new voting arrangements for the next local elections (which…

  • Postcard Puzzle

    Someone put a postcard through my door last night whilst I was out taking a Vestry meeting. It has me puzzled. It is a nice picture of a stained glass window in Dunfermline Abbey. The back of the card is completely blank. It was in a brown office envelope which was sealed and bears my name…

  • Church Signs

    I remember the effort that it took to get the Church Sign boards updated when I first moved here. They were covered in cobwebs and offered in illegible script information o­n contacting a range of clergy, some of whom were no longer there and o­ne of whom was dead. There were also details of services…

  • Re-membering

    What is the opposite of remember?[Forget?]Well, in a sense, the opposite of remember is to forget. We do a lot of remembering in church, but what we are doing is not simply not-forgetting. Neither are we simply calling to mind.For the sake of this sermon, I invite you to consider that for the type of…