Raising our mission temperature
Our Church's vision of building lives for Christ has four particular areas of focus:
Connecting
Growing
Serving
Belonging
At our weekend away last year I shared with those who were there a desire to see us become a church that helps people move from the hallway to the kitchen - that is from the fringes to a place of real belonging within our community. I think we're doing well at that, and our plan of building more opportunities for togetherness through various hospitality events (i.e, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”; 445 dinners and Maundy Thursday to name a few) will enhance that at different points throughout the year.
But while we're doing ok on that front, where we (and indeed churches right across our city) are struggling is with bringing people in; connecting meaningfully; seeing people drawn from darkness to light. We could say that COVID didn’t help us there (and that is true), however the statistics show that even before COVID hit, Sydney Anglican churches had by and large flatlined.
The graph here shows that over the 18 years (until 2019), despite annual giving increases of 5.3%, the number of people (adults) coming to church has started to decline. This is despite an increase in the Australian population of 30% over the same period. Many suspect that the data (once available) will show a notable decline (perhaps 10-20%?) after COVID.
There are many reasons for this, but it ought to force us to think about how we should approach our mission. So instead of focusing on the reasons, let me offer some factors which could shape the way we approach mission in our context:
A Secularising Australia
We live in a secularising context. The short story is: we used to be Christian, now we’re secular. That’s our context.
As you can see in these numbers, from 1971 to 2021 the number of Australians who identified as Christian has dropped from 86.2% in 1971 to 43.9% in 2021. That’s a huge drop! But notice where the movement has been. Very few have moved to another religion (the growth in other religions is almost all migration-related). Rather, an increasing number of our fellow Australians, who used to feel a need to say they were Christian now identify as having No Religion.
We have moved, in other words, from being a “Christian” nation to a “Secular” nation.
Secular doesn’t mean “no spiritual or religious beliefs”. Many people who say they have no religion pray, have spiritual experiences, believe in God, and even go to church! It’s complex!
2. An Alternative Gospel
Second, we are proclaiming the gospel not to a context that has no gospel but to a context that has an alternative gospel. We don’t speak the gospel in to vacuum of unbelief, but into the context of a powerful alternative gospel—the gospel of “Expressive Individualism.” and the gospel of self; the gospel of materialism; the gospel of comfort
3. A Bigger Knowledge gap
When it comes to the gospel, people are starting a long way back.
In 1959 Billy Graham came to Australia and set records across the nation for attendance, including the still undefeated record of the most people ever at the MCG. Not for a footy match, but for an evangelistic rally. When Graham spoke to the masses, the amount of background shared convictions he could call on was amazing. Almost all the mental furniture for faith was already in people’s heads. The concept of God; of judgment; of the person of Jesus. The need to live a moral life. I’m not saying it was easy, but Graham was able to come Australia where school and Sunday school and other things had put this furniture into people’s heads, and he could say: “Hey! You’ve got that in the wrong room! Move it around! Actually trust Jesus!” And away they went.
But in our day, people are starting a long way back. I think the average Australian in our mission field needs 12 months to get their heads around the gospel and to make a response. From initial connection, to meeting a Christian community, to hearing the gospel communicated—that’s a twelve month process in my humble opinion. Our strategy for local mission needs to reflect that.
There is also ...
4. An Openness to Christian things
NCLS research tells us that 4 in 10 people would come to church if a friend invited them! That's amazing isn't it
So what could a strategy for mission at Seaforth in 2023 look like?
Well on the one hand we don't really need to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. Our current vision of building lives for Christ and the building blocks to help us get there is a good foundation. I have tweaked it slightly to give our mission for 2023 a fresh perspective. It’s a mission strategy that involves connecting (still) with our suburb (and family & friends), sharing community (think belonging perhaps) with them; communicating the gospel to them; giving them an opportunity to commit their lives to the Lord Jesus.
Over the next few weeks I will share what it will look like to build the rest of our year (as a church and individually even) around those building blocks. We’ve started well with initiatives like Alpha post-Christmas, the food drive before Easter, and Easter itself which saw many visitors and guests drawn to church. The challenge before us now is how do we further build on and maintain that “mission heat”.