What is in Kelvin's Head?

75 questions for people who want to help churches to grow

22/09/2017
Helping churches to grow is hard work but there are some things that need to be addressed to help congregations to grow which seem to be fairly consistent across churches which are otherwise very different in style. Some time ago I published two lots of 25 questions for people who want to help churches to grow.

I thought it was time for 25 more. The new ones are the first 25 below and then come the ones that I’ve published before.
1. If someone were to hear about the congregation from a non-congregational member, what is the most likely thing they would be told?
2. What is the smallest number of words you could use to accurately explain the ethos of the congregation?
3. What are those words?
4. What strategies do you have to get good quality photographs of life of the congregation to use online?
5. Which of the arts does the congregation use in its worship and regular life?
6. How do the church education programmes relate to contemporary culture?
7. Do things start on time?
8. What steps have you implemented to ensure you don’t have the same meetings over and over again?
9. Do you have a set length of time for meetings and does someone stop them after they have gone on enough?
10. How do you stop people making decisions in the car park before or after the meetings?
11. Who chooses the hymns?
12. Why do they choose the hymns they do?
13. When was the last time the congregation learned a new hymn it sang more than once?
14. How many different styles of singing the psalms do you use and is that enough?
15. How many opportunities are there for weekly non-eucharistic worship?
16. Which would attract more people, a course in meditation or a course on prayer?
17. Is anyone working for the local congregation underpaid?
18. Does your bishop/presbytery/judicatory body or person help enable growth or are they a distraction from it?
19. Is there are three year budget?
20. Is the congregation moving into or out of debt?
21. What percentage of people in the congregation would have a basic understanding about the congregation’s finances?
22. Does anyone ever break copyright law whilst acting for the congregation?
23. How do you share good news about the denomination that you belong to?
24. When did you last issue a call to prayer for the congregation and what was it for?
25. If someone wants to make a confession is it clear who they should approach and how they should get in touch?
26. If you didn’t have to go to your church on Sunday would you still go?
27. Are the clergy happy?
28. Are the musicians happy?
29. Does the congregation have a stronger ethos than that of its denomination?
30. What one thing could you change this week to make the worship better?
31. Why didn’t you make that change last week?
32. What steps are you taking to make the phrase “All are Welcome” come true?
33. Do you do church business on a Sunday after church or is there a better time for that?
34. In the next month are you more likely to spend time on ecumenical activities or church growth activities?
35. Do people who leave become ex-members who have disappeared or do they still contribute to the life and ministry of the place?
36. What is the noticeboard like?
37. What is the first thing you see when you come through the door?
38. Did you implement the recommendations of the last “mystery worshipper” you asked to give you a candid assessment?
39. Which church events in the next six months will be newsworthy locally?
40. Which church events in the next six months will be reported in the local media?
41. Do you have enough staff and who decides this?
42. What would your clergy really like to do that they can’t because of the laity?
43. What would your laity really like to do that they can’t because of the clergy?
44. Which would attract young families more – a bible-based week long summer activity for children or letting it be known that gay people are welcome in your church?
45. Can you email those members of your congregation who want to receive regular updates?
46. Do you email those members of your congregation who want to receive regular updates?
47. Has someone done the work required to make sure emails sent to large numbers of people don’t end up in spam boxes?
48. Who in the congregation has gifts that could be better used doing a different job in the congregation than what they are currently doing?
49. Who is your volunteer co-ordinator and is it obvious how to contact them?
50. Can you volunteer without being a member of the church?
51. Do you have a decent church website?
52. Is it up to date?
53. Is it responsive – ie does it work on mobile phones?
54. Does your own online profile feature your ideas and hopes and dreams other than a desire for people to turn up to church?
55. Do you know what you are doing with twitter and facebook?
56. Who could you learn more about social media from?
57. Do you have a compelling reason why people should come to your church other than where it is or what denomination it belongs to?
58. Can everyone in the church tell you in one sentence what that compelling reason is?
59. What is your beginners’ course like?
60. What comes after the beginners’ course?
61. Do people like the preaching?
62. Do people enjoy the music?
63. Have you dealt with conflicts from the past?
64. Are the people friendly?
65. Do you have any new groups starting soon?
66. Do you talk about making the world a better place?
67. How will people experience joy if they come to your congregation?
68. If someone from your past turned up unexpectedly at worship how would it make you feel?
69. How do you identify newcomers and what do you offer them?
70. What problems will arise if you do grow and how will you deal with them?
71. Do claims that you welcome everyone stop you working at welcoming those who traditionally find it hard to find a home in church?
72. Do you use language that is inclusive of everyone?
73. How do you know?
74. Is there any identifiable group of people that you can’t explicitly say are welcome because of how an individual or group in the congregation will react?
75. Do you want to grow or not?
growth, mission, questions

19 responses to “Grace Received: communion on the battlefield”

robert e lewis

19/04/2020

RE “Spiritual Communion”–This prayer has been used in one form or another of late in various instances, including the Easter Sunday service at the National Cathedral.

My Jesus, I believe that you are truly present in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. I desire to offer you praise and thanksgiving as I proclaim your resurrection. I love you above all things, and long for you in my soul. Since I cannot receive you in the Sacrament of your Body and Blood, come spiritually into my heart. Cleanse and strengthen me with your grace, Lord Jesus, and let me never be separated from you. May I live in you, and you in me, in this life and in the life to come. Amen .

I detest this prayer. It is smarmy, dorky, and focused on ME ME ME. There must be something better that we can come up with in this unprecedented moment when we cannot gather for Eucharist.

As an alternative I have created this prayer (well, not “created,” but rather pieced together using phrases and motifs from the BCP and A New Zealand Prayer Book), which I offer as a starting point for dicsussion.

it has echoes of the sursum corda and the sanctus
it is WE language (not ME language)
it expresses both our fear and our hope
it points to working together to end our exile.
it includes the key phrase “receive into our hearts by faith”

Lord, the door of your church is locked.

We are not able to gather around your table;
we are not able to share your peace.
We are anxious and afraid.

Nevertheless, we lift up our hearts,
we join with angels and archangels
and all the company of heaven
as we proclaim you holy
and receive you into our hearts by faith.

Strengthen our love for you.
Give us patience and hope,
and help us work together with all your faithful people,
that we may restore health and wholeness to one another
and to all your creation.
Through Christ our Savior, Amen.

Reply
Father Ron Smith

20/04/2020

There will come a time – we are told in a certain Christian hymn: “When Sacraments shall cease” In the meantime, Jesus told his disciples that they were to “Do this to remember me”. In saying that, I’m pretty sure that Jesus meant that we were to gather together (whether in the body, corporately, or – in todays’s situation – possibly over the ether of the Internet – to re-member Him.

Having been given the Spirit of Christ in our Baptism, we are told that the Holy spirit now lives within us. Teilhard de Chardin, when faced with the prospect of celebrating Mass with neither bread not wine to hand, asked God to “be my bread and wine for today”. He believed that he was receving Christ sacramentally in that moment. Knowing that God is much great than our understanding of God, can we not believe that God will feed us sacramentally when our hearts are actually open to receive Him? “I will never leave you” said Jesus. Do we really believe Him in this time of extraordinary need?

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David Wood

20/04/2020

A typically helpful and generous reflection, Kelvin, thank you.

Thanks to you too Robert, for your simple and elegant prayer suggestion, which will hopefully replace that narcissistic rubbish.

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Anne Wyllie

05/05/2020

Thank you Kelvin for your helpful and thought-provoking reflection and questions. As a lay member of the Scottish Episcopal Church, I am following the current guidance from our College of Bishops and making ‘spiritual communion’ instead of partaking of bread and wine whenever I join in an online SEC Eucharistic Service. As a member also of the Church of Scotland, I gladly accept the invitation from Ministers in the Church of Scotland and other churches in the Reformed tradition to set apart a portion of bread and wine in order to receive it during an online Communion Service conducted by such a Minister. Do I feel more nourished by one of these acts of worship rather than the other? Actually, so far, no: I value both traditions and am grateful to belong to both.

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Rev. Lewis G. Walker

05/05/2020

And what exactly is the purpose of an article which is all to do with senseless sensationalism and nothing to do with good an sound Theology?… This is the sort of nonsensical gibberish I expect to find the Sun Newspaper, or the Daily Mail, or the Express… They all make a living out of hysterical spectacle passing as “journalism”!

What is the main objective of an article like this?… I have no idea! Irresponsible scaremongering certainly springs to mind, along with disbelief. What happened to Faith?

This is not a matter of public relations, Earthly Humanism, or marketing. And this is NOT the place, the time or the subject matter for senseless speculation of utmost gravity!

This is the MOST HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST, the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, instituted by Him at the Last Supper, with a simple and straight forward request: DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME.
For 2020 years Christendom has honoured that promise, through and through, amid endless wars, plagues, sieges, catastrophes in Europe and elsewhere and terrible tragedies such as World Wars 1 and 2, persecutions, and even evil, demonic dictatorships such as the Soviet Union and China.
Despite all that, Our Lord Jesus Christ emerges, always radiant, always loving, always REAL and PRESENT, a magnet of the Christian Faith, the ultimate catalyst of the New and Eternal Covenant, declared at every Holy Mass during the Canon, at the Elevation.

COVID-19 is no different than any other calamity the miserable History of Humanity has landed on our doorstep. And as before in 2020 years of Christian History, Our Lord Jesus Christ shall rise again, because we shall raise HIM again. We shall raise him in churches, and if we are forbidden to do so, we shall raise HIM in the streets, in processions, in Open Air Masses, in the open and in hiding if it needs be. And we shall raise HIM again, in public places and in private homes, in gilded altars and on kitchen tables if it comes to that!

And why?!… Because He promised and so far has never failed us, to fulfil His Mission NEVER TO LEAVE US ALONE, even though He ascended to the Heavens.

So the message for you, and ME, and all others in ALL CHURCHES is simple: Get AWAY from behind the comfort of a screen and a keyboard, put a washed and nicely ironed cassock on, get inside a cotta, grab a stole and get out, celebrate Mass as before. Ring the bells until they drop off the silent towers.

Get organised, invite local brass bands, CELEBRATE the Victory of Resurrection as it should be celebrated. Take the Holy Eucharist in procession from local churches to the Cathedral, stop all the traffic, make a splash, make noise. MAKE A FUSS!

Dying on the Cross for all of us is worth all of that and more, I believe.

Have FAITH! And for goodness sake, blog less, especially when you are bored, it results in train crash articles like this one. Do something else for the Love of God.

Regards.

The Faithful will come, because Love is more powerful than blogs, empty notions, cheap pseudo-debates and all that nonsense.

Reply