by Phil Andrews
A Special Meeting held on July 14th involving Church Members, members of the congregation and guests took the bold step of venturing to imagine the unimaginable – the possible discontinuation of our poorly-attended Sunday evening service and its replacement with new activities which might better reach out to the wider community and bring some much-needed new blood into our depleted ranks.
It was not the first time that the issue had been raised. Several years ago the same discussion arose and on that occasion we agreed to retain the evening service. But since then attendances have diminished further to a point where generally only the deacons and, sometimes, one or two others attend – and all of them people who are present at morning services in any case. What justification could there be for continuing to incur the expense, and to use up time which might better be directed into growing the Church?
I was reprimanded by one of our guests for flippantly referring to our evening services as “entertainment” for a handful of old faithfuls. Which was fair enough I suppose, my sardonic sense of humour is not for everyone. But I would argue the fact remains that the Church does not exist for the personal gratification of a tiny handful of its regulars. We might “like” the evening service, it may get us out of the home, but we can surely no longer afford the luxury of being insular and self-indulgent?
No decision-making power
The meeting was a discussion, it had no decision-making power. It was clear there were some who would prefer to keep the evening service, and I do look forward to hearing the case being made for so doing. As Congregationalists our duty is to discuss these things, and ideally to try to find common cause in reaching a way forward.
Some “middle way” options have also been thrown into the mix. Keeping the evening Communion service was one (as well as, I am presuming, our traditional “Carols by Candlelight”). Another was to make evening services fortnightly, or twice a month (not always the same thing). At least one suggestion was made to continue with the services but to “do them differently” – possibly in the hall and in a less formal setting.
Whatever we decide, the present trend is certainly unsustainable. We need to recruit new members and new visitors or else the Church will not survive us. This is not an opinion, it is a self-evident fact. There may be other ways to achieve this, but if there are we need to hear and discuss them. Silence in the face of decline is not a plan.
One important caveat that we heard at the meeting was that any decision to discontinue the evening service need not be irreversible. If we are able to turn the tide and bring more people in through the doors this may, ironically, create a demand for their return. If that was to happen, nobody would be more happy than me.
But we do need to bring them in first, and I feel that needs to be our priority.