Kia ora e te whanau
Sunday afternoon saw me at the closing service for the New Brighton Union Parish in Christchurch. Since the worship space was too small, we all squeezed into the hall. Ironic really. We fill the church more than a couple of times over for its closing event, but not for a ‘normal’ Sunday service. The tragedy is that the congregation had reached a low ebb, and required only one ‘significant’ loss to tip it into closure. I’m close to certain that many of our CVs and partner congregations find themselves in a similar precarious situation.
What’s to be done?
Over the past 3 weeks I’ve been building a case for the priority of ministry with seniors. Recognising the reality of the situation of most of our congregations – heavily populated by seniors, with maybe a small smattering of the young – perhaps a young family, or two – that experience the love and support of the team of oldies – usually until the kids reach high school age, and then they’re gone.
I’m not suggesting in such churches that ministry with seniors is supplementary, I’m suggesting that the church become very focused and intentional, that ministry with seniors become the main thing – that we become intentional and focused in our ministry with seniors. Reaching seniors in the wider community becomes part of the central strategic goal of the church. Wonderful as it is the want to focus on the younger generations, we only have so much energy and resources. What if we did the counter-cultural / counter- intuitive thing and made ministry with seniors, for seniors, and by seniors our razor sharp focus?
One of the learnings of Steve Jobs was the importance of saying ‘no’ – to the good and worthy, if it distracts from the ‘best’, if it dilutes the attention to that which needs to be front and centre. In this context, “Crazy,” you may say – “focusing on the young – children, youth, young families – is the best”. That’s because we’ve always thought that way, it’s accepted wisdom. What if we chose to move away from that – difficult though it might be for our psyche’s to change because we’ve never seriously thought any other way before. I encounter it on a consistent basis in the leadership courts of the church – our minds invariably default to – “We must minister to the young and families if our church is to have a future.” And even though it’s not working, we continue to cling obsessively to the hope that it one day will. Meanwhile the fate of New Brighton Union draws ever closer.
I remember G.K Chesterton (amazing man that he was) responding to the call of the Gospel by suggesting that “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” Maybe we could apply the Chesterton principle to a priority of ministry with seniors – it’s not that it’s been tried and found wanting, but that it’s not really been tried.
Errata. Last week I reflected on the induction at Chartwell of Rev. Peter Bargh, and implied that the congregation was aging and therefore facing the same significant challenges faced by many smaller churches. While there remains truth in this, I’ve subsequently discovered that while the induction was populated by the older demographic, the congregation does in fact have significant children’s ministries which are fully integrated into the church’s life. Hallelujah!! The joy of being wrong when the news is actually good! 
Lent Resource:
A lenten study guide has been written by our Chair Rev Hana Popea-Dell: It can be accessed on our resources page and at the following link:
Leadership & Personal Development Resources
5 Ways Execution Outperforms Ideas
A few weeks back I reflected on the ‘knowing/doing gap’ in relation to a link I posted here. This article picks up a similar theme, in helping us move from having great ideas, to actually enacting them. It seems that the inability to put great ideas into effect is extremely common – enough to be normative. Those leaders able to overcome the inertia of nothing changing are, apparently, a rarity. This excellent article offers a small step strategy for simply following through on the decisions we’ve agreed need to be enacted. It can be accessed here: https://www.inc.com/scott-schwefel/5-ways-execution-outperforms-ideas/91281296
How to Stop Overthinking Your Decisions
In a not unrelated article, Phil McKinney offers some useful strategies in when to know we have enough information to move forward with a decision. I recently read Jacinda Ardern’s book ‘A Different Kind of Power’ and as I’ve reflected on this article, realised that she almost certainly used the kind of strategies advocated here to make timely decisions in the face of tremendous challenges in times of crisis. We can rarely wait for all the information to come in in order to make a perfect decision – by then it will be too late. So, when is enough information enough? This article helps. It can be accessed here: https://www.philmckinney.com/how-to-stop-overthinking-your-decisions/
Homilies and Preaching Resources
My response to the lectionary for the 22nd of February is titled ‘Temptations in Common’ – reflecting on Matthew’s account of Jesus’ temptations in the desert as found in Matthew 4 vs 1-11. The homily can be engaged with here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG6uFYK2IC4
Gospel Conversations – out of the Dunedin Anglican Diocese. They host a conversation of 4 Theologians / Practitioners – until this year around the Gospel lectionary text for the coming Sunday. The site with all its options can be accessed here: https://www.calledsouth.org.nz/gospel-conversations/. Led by Michael Godfrey, rather than the Gospel text, they are focusing on the first reading (traditionally known as Old Testament). For this coming Sunday the 22nd of February, it’s Genesis 2 vs 15-17, 3 vs 1-7. It can be accessed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyktzSofSec