Church Army to advise on the Future of the Church

Organised by the 'Church Pastoral Aid Society (CPAS)', the six-venue conference named "The Shape of Things to Come" will continue this coming week from Saturday 25th September, after the first talk took place last week in Surrey.

Two of the UK's most influential Anglican Church-growth experts - the Rev George Lings, a member of the "Mission-shaped Church" working party, the Director of the Church Army’s Sheffield Centre, and CPAS Evangelist Rev Michael Moynagh, Co-Director of the Tomorrow Project - are speaking on a nationwide tour.

CPAS Evangelist Rev Daivd Banbury, the organiser of "The Shape of Things to come" spoke of the aim of the conference: "As we look to the Church that's emerging at the start of the new century, it's easy to be confused by the sheer variety of initiatives and approaches. How do 'fresh expressions of Church' begin and flourish? This tour will give clear and helpful insights into a rather confusing scene and some very practical 'How to do it' advice."

One of the key speakers, Rev George Lings will speak at the CPAS Centre at Warwick this Saturday. According to the Church Army's Research Unit, the Sheffield Centre which he headed, a recent poll shows nearly twice as many young people believe in horoscopes than in the Bible, and around forty percent of adults in England and Wales have left the Church in their lifetimes.

In response to this phenomena, Rev George Lings will challenge Christian leaders by addressing the following questions during the conference:

- How does a middle-class Church really connect with the needs of a local housing estate?

- How does a congregation, made of older adults, allow the Church to be created in a way that connects with teenagers?

- What would living Christianity look like for Pagans or New Agers?

- How can the Church connect with the people we engage with at work or through social circles?

- What about those people who did Alpha but still can’t hack Church?

The national census 2001 shows that 72% of the population of England identified themselves as "Christian", but only 7% of the English population are committed members of churches. Rev Lings comments on this statistic, "Nowadays, Christian 'is just a way of expressing belonging and national identity rather than an accurate confirmation of active faith in God.'"

Rev Lings is going to put forward the point based on his strong Mission-shaped Church model,

"Mainstream culture no longer brings people to the Church door. In the past, people might have come to us for the occasional offices, or maybe a crisis made them turn to the Church. In those cases, our job was to help them from interest to commitment. That shape is less and less true. We cannot wait for people to come to us; we must go to them."

One of the obvious examples he will use for an explanation is the form of worship in traditional churches. Rev Lings frankly challenged, "Worship is seen by many as outdated and irrelevant." He called it as "Christendom Distortion" which connects the Church too much with provisions of public worship and too often presents a poor image to the community, and is disconnected from mission.

Rev Lings advocates the approach of "mission re-discovery" whereby a community is sent to model and build communities from which a specific shape of mission arises. Only after that comes the evolutionary discovery of contextualised worship.

Nevertheless, Rev Lings warns the Church in terms of the mission-shaped approach clearly, "Mission-shaped Church calls for a process of 'double listening'. For the planting of churches, listening to both contemporary culture and Church traditions are vital. Only listen to culture and you will end up with syncretism - in which Gospel and Church are distorted by the culture. Only listen to the inherited tradition and the life and message of Jesus will not engage the culture - it will be disconnected and nothing will be gained for the Church delivering the message as it will be seen as an irrelevance."

A few months ago Lings spoke at the Church Army National Conferences in Australia and New Zealand where he introduced the Mission-Shaped Church report. Conrad Parsons, Project Consultant for Australian New Initiatives gave his feedback:

"George Lings blew the minds of some radical people. His powerful effect lies largely in his revelations concerning the reality of our situation and the possible responses - particularly that if the Church does not fit our experience-driven lifestyle then forms of Church must diversify."

Dates for the Lecture Tour
18 September
LONDON and SOUTH EAST: Christchurch and St John's, New Malden, Surrey

25 September
MIDLANDS:CPAS, Warwick

9 October
SOUTH and WEST: Holy Trinity, Bradley Stoke, Bristol

16 October
NORTH WEST: St Mark's, Haydock

13 November
NORTH EAST: St Augustine's, Bradford

20 November
SCOTLAND: International Christian College, Glasgow

Booking
Contact Jane Wigman or David Banbury on 01926 458458 or email them on jwigman@cpas.org.uk / dbanbury@cpas.org.uk.