London: Lessons for the Church of England

A couple of days ago Richard Chartres, Bishop of London, delivered a lecture on the remarkable turnaround in the Diocese of London. For the last 20 years, London has been just about the only place in the CofE which has been growing, whilst all but 1 of the other 42 Dioceses have been shrinking, some at an alarming rate.

In terms of England, London is an exceptional place, but there are other Dioceses (Southwark, Chelmsford) which also cover parts of the capital, and there are particular things that London Diocese has done that others could learn from. Some will be more controversial than others.

Here's a few of them, with some quotes from the lecture.

The mission of the church is to all sectors of society, not just the most vulnerable: We can regret this now, but at the time it seemed to be inevitable and even meritorious that the Church should retreat from what could be regarded as imperial over-reach to associate itself with the voiceless in the back streets. Sympathy with vulnerable local communities also led the church into sustained opposition to major new developments, notably Canary Wharf where no attempt was made to establish a Christian presence in what was effectively a new town with a working population which now exceeds that of Leicester.

Scrap the boards: there was an energy-sapping superstructure of boards and committees for Mission, Unity, Ministry, Social Responsibility and the like, all of which had been established during the period of decline with the professed aim of widening participation in decision-making and stimulating action. The result, of course, was the very opposite as I discovered as Chairman of the Board of Ministry. Over-worked members of the Diocesan staff found themselves discussing the same issues over and over again in slightly different forums. There were ideas in plenty and not a few “initiatives” but little energy left over for implementation..........No one has ever said to me “if only we had a Board of Mission we would have done some mission”. Instead a black hole of energy was closed and, as a result, effort directed to supporting those individuals and places which signalled life and possessed the missionary gene.....We significantly reduced the number of Diocesan advisers in the belief that financial resources were better deployed in local mission initiatives.

If a Diocese doesn't have a focus and a vision, everyone will do their own thing, and internal divisions will increase: a sense of drift and consequent fragmentation as people identified with their own parish or Area over against the “Diocese”..... introduction of Mission Action Planning focussed attention on growth rather than on the various divisive issues.

Back the missionaries, even if they aren't your type: The local hierarchy was unwilling to see HTB as much more than a conventional parish in the Area, and in particular was keen to restrict the numbers of curates that the Church could employ, even though there was finance available to enlarge the staff. The restrictions were fuelled by a liberal distaste for charismatic evangelicalism and a conviction that the supply of curates should be evenly spread throughout the Diocese, irrespective of the capacity to pay

parish clergy need to be held to account: in one parish which sociologically offered good prospects for the Church of England, an elderly single- handed parson was replaced by the standard bearer for one of the extreme churchmanship factions. The new man was given two able curates financed by the London Diocesan Fund, and within two years the electoral roll which had stood at 110 had been reduced to 75. It apparently occurred to no one that this was a scandalous situation. What right had any outsider to criticise parochial policies?

Technique is no substitute for holiness: The one thing that cannot be delegated is one’s own prayer and study of the scriptures. An MBA in ecclesiastical administration is no substitute for the development of a beginner’s mind and acquiring the teachability with which the Spirit can work.

Find new purposes for old buildings: Chartres gives several examples of redundant churches which were given a new focus - e.g. as a centre for reconciliation. Not every building has to be used to house a congregation, but neither do they all have to be sold off. 

Abolish the 'tax on growth' system of collecting funds from parishes to finance the work of the church: We reduced the mysteries of the old formula by inviting each parish to pay for its ministry costs .... Well-financed parishes were encouraged to pay over the odds to support Christian ministry in areas of need. The effect was to abolish the fine on growth and release money to be spent close to where it was raised. It proved to be possible to support the work of the church in less affluent areas although, as so often, parishes which had been subsidised proved willing and able to rise to the challenge of greater self-sufficiency. 

Reform Diocesan structures so that people are accountable for their actions, and pursue a shared vision: Unity in the Diocesan team and in the structure of the Diocese has been an important ingredient in being able to pursue consistent policies addressed to growth. 

The current way of ever more thinly spread clergy is not sustainable: The healthier financial situation enabled the diocese to avoid the widespread formula of reducing clergy numbers by multiplying the number of churches for which an individual cleric is responsible. This may be an effective cost-cutting strategy but it is not an effective mission strategy and is calculated only to maintain congregations rather than growing them.

The parish system is good, but it's not enough: It is obvious that, while there is huge virtue in the parish church ideal, the parochial system in the Church of England, with its excess of law, is open to being manipulated by small groups who wish to frustrate unwelcome mission initiatives. In an urban setting, while flexible agreements about areas of pastoral care for each parish church are clearly desirable, mission to networks that are not principally defined geographically argues for an unfreezing of rigid parochial boundaries that have long since ceased to correspond to sociological realities. 

criticise well, or don't criticise at all: Publically expressed and constructive criticism should always be welcome, but subversives, “weevils of the commonwealth”, those who damage morale by cynicism and gossip have to be weeded out.

Invest in church planting: ....our pledge of establishing 100 new worshipping communities in London by 2020 ...My prayer is that it will be possible to learn from our experience -- and especially our mistakes -- so that other places will be able to surpass our successes.

Recognise where to engage: The need for greater clarity and a confident response to the incessant propaganda directed against so called “faith schools” has been recognised in the Diocese, and is one of the themes of Capital Vision 2020 which has risen to the top of the agenda in the current year.  

Prayer and vision are fundamental: The Christian community will continue to thrive as long as it is vision-led and not problem-led. Prayer of the persevering kind that marks the 24/7 prayer movement really does open the door to God’s future while the Holy Spirit never leaves himself without witnesses.

sorry about the uneven formatting! Good old Blogger....

Update: Cranmer has also done a presee of the lecture, with chunky quotes from it. Imitation is the sincerest form.... ;-)

And Now the Good News

News from St. Pauls:

Capital Vision 2020 has the goal of creating or renewing a hundred worshipping communities and doubling the number of young people involved in local Christian community in London.

Bishop Richard Chartres quipped that he was constantly told by the media he must be very depressed because of dwindling church numbers. However, he said the opposite was true.

"How can we get the message through that the reality is quite different?" he said.

He quoted figures from a new report due to be published by the diocese stating that there are now 1,000 projects being run by Anglican churches across the capital, benefitting 200,000 people, and supported by 10,000 volunteers. According to the report, £17 million has been raised by churches to meet social needs in their areas.

and it's not just London:

•      A Church Army study of Fresh Expressions of church covering 6 dioceses in detail so far, has identified discovered 360 newly planted churches. They make up 10% of diocesan membership, and roughly 75% of members are people who had previously dropped out of church, or who had never been involved and had no Christian background.
•       Prior to his consecration, Justin Welby did a prayer pilgrimage to 6 cathedrals. Expected turnout to pray with him was 3-400, actual turnout was 2-3000, and several people became Christians at those events.
•       Exeter Diocese set a target for growing its church membership in 2009, which was met with a mixed reaction at the time. It's since grown by 11%, 2^nd best in the CofE. Using money from Exeters mission fund, a church in one rural village (pop 200) established a new all-age service, and now has 10 new adults and 15 new children regularly attending it.
•       In Lichfield  diocese, 2000 people joined local churches in  2011-12 who previously had no Christian faith or church connection. 
•       There are 1800 registered ‘Messy Churches’ in the UK, with an average of 55 at each one. There were none in 2005.
•        750,000 ‘Diamond Jubilee Bibles’ were sold last year, 5x more than expected, as a Jubilee themed gift for people to give away.

in the meantime the CofE is at the forefront of global campaigns to tackle world hunger and poverty, focused on the G8 summit next week, and at the local level the church is hugely involved in practical work to support and bless the vulnerable. I'm not sure where the stat comes from, but I heard that of 30,000 parent and baby groups in the UK, 27,000 are run by churches.

Because this is good news, it generally won't find its way into the media, but each stat here is a life touched, changed, blessed by God through his people.

Diocesan Church Growth Strategies - Case Study: London

Last weeks Diocesan church growth strategies conference mixed input on particular streams & topics (leadership, research, Fresh Expressions of church) with case studies and presentations from particular Dioceses. 3 case studies going up today, London first, Birmingham and Coventry later.

1. London

For a long time London has been the exception to the rule of Church of England decline, owing a great deal to the leadership of David Hope, and Richard Chartres (worth noting that neither of these could be described as an evangelical, church growth is not the property of 1 section of the church only)

The Diocese is about to launch Capital Vision 2020. Ric Thorp, the Bishop of Londons' church planting advisor (how many Bishops have one of those?) talked us through their vision of planting 100 churches across the diocese. Having a bishop who is pro- church planting, not just allowing it "is a game changer".

There are currently 30 church plants in the diocese from the Holy Trinity Brompton family alone, mostly grafting new people into an existing, but struggling, congregation "we have managed to keep nearly 100% of the existing congregation in the parish on board... they are seeing something happen that they have only ever dreamt about", and we heard several stories of small churches growing from 10-20 members to over 100 in a very short space of time. Some of this may be made easier by the large turnover of population - Ric spoke of areas where 30-40% of the population changes each year. On one level, that means simply to stand still you have to replace 1/3 of the congregation, but it may also make it easier to do outreach than in a more stable and fixed community.

The Diocese is pretty well resourced for this, with St. Mellitus college offering training, a church planting advisor, the track record and resources of HTB and its various plants, and over £2m set aside over the period. They also have a very clear but distinctive Anglican church planting policy. There are 4 main areas targeted: regeneration areas (e.g. Olympic Park, where the developers are building a new church), parishes needing a new start, new communities within parishes (e.g. a new congregation within an existing church "the fastest and easiest way to grow your church") and mission communities (e.g. in networks, schools, among certain social groups). There's some creative thinking about funding going on too, including a lending scheme to enable the diocese to buy housing for pioneer ministers in strategic places.

There are targets for each type of plant, and each year, which seemed a bit over-planned, but "if we don't plan it at all, it won't happen". The result of talking through the plans in details is that people now think it's manageable, in fact, 100 is seen as a conservative estimate of what's possible.

The diocese is deliberately looking at partnership working - e.g. with Scripture Union to plant into schools, with Vineyard and Eden in neighbourhoods. It makes a lot of sense, and cuts across the standard 'go it alone' mentality which often means that Anglicans end up doing nothing, because it's beyond our capacity.

Identifying where to plant is done within Deaneries, and there's a diocesan team headed up by a deputy bishop keeping a steer on the whole thing. One interesting development is that they've started asking grant making bodies to fund several projects, rather than 1, which actually excites more interest because it's seen as something more significant. Aiming high is releasing more resources.

Planted churches are themselves expected to plant, Ric talked about planting 'pregnant' churches. Churches are also being asked to put 2% of their income into a church planting fund to back future growth. That makes a lot of sense - I'd much rather invest in a growing concern than prop up a declining one, and there's a good theology of giving underlying that too.

There's also work going on with a group of Anglo-Catholic clergy "who are all fantastic at growing churches" to explore what Anglo-Catholic church planting looks like.

Finally, the diocese is using 'learning communities' to share expertise, a facilitated group with teams from several planting churches. With key decision makers (usually 3-5) from each church, those teams can make plans during the session, and are then accountable to the other groups for following them through, as well as being able to learn from the other groups in the process. That sounded fascinating, and again is something made possible by aiming high. My experience is generally of parishes being left to get on with it, with little central co-ordination, encouragement or resourcing.

a couple of quotes
"church planting is not dependent on resources, it's dependent on leader-readiness...if you want to plant a church, if you see an opportunity of need, then you can do it."
"we've got to focus as parish priests on raising up leaders for mission."

It was breathtaking stuff, though at times a bit overwhelming. One or two thoughts:

 - Consistent diocesan leadership in the same direction is key: Richard Chartres has continued what David Hope started, not dismantled it and started again.

 - The model is much more clearly planned, costed and strategised than just about anything else I've seen in the CofE. That may be  because we've become too used to amateurism - whilst our schools have rigorous school improvement plans, inspection mechanisms, targets and clear leadership, somehow we think that mission, worship and discipleship will just happen if we keep the building open and the liturgy handle cranked up. We are in an incense-induced stupor when it comes to good practice.

 - There are only a few places in Bath and Wells where we could think of something similar on a small scale, with an urban area where struggling churches and  growing churches exist side by side. But it's worth remembering that the resources and expertise built up in London are part of a 20 year journey, church growth is long term and hard work, and it doesn't look the same everywhere.

For other posts from the conference (7 so far, more to come) go here.

update 25/5:
a couple of London policy papers, which give a bit more background:
http://www.london.anglican.org/kb/church-planting
http://www.london.anglican.org/mission/missional-communitie

What the Church of England Needs

If you want one explanation for London Diocese 'outperforming' the rest of the CofE when it comes to church growth, then it's here. Over the last 10 years London has commissioned 2 substantial reports into the reasons for church growth and/or decline, and fed them into Diocesan policy. Other Dioceses will need to do their own work (not every Diocese has a Holy Trinity Brompton accounting for 25% of its growth), but if we are serious about reversing the trend of membership decline, then this is a key part of the solution.

It's interesting to look at the conclusions drawn in the most recent report. Key factors in growth include:
 - church planting
 - investing in childrens work
 - being a smaller church (the bigger you are, the less likely to grow)
 - short vacancies between clergy
 - a big investment in welcome, in an area which sees a lot of population turnover.

Some of these lessons will apply in any Diocese, and maybe to any church whether Anglican or not.

One of the other things we need is a serious engagement with the reasons people leave. Here was what one commenter posted here a few days ago:

I left the church 12 months ago, for a number of reasons. Some of the reasons include a real lack of spiritual help in the church, poor quality preaching by people who although mean well, lack the ability to get the facts right when preaching, the failure of general synod to make public the millions of pounds lost in an unethical property investment in New York recently... There is more ....

Pastoral care, preaching, integrity, ethics, and that's just one person....

Trafalgar Square Passion Play

Trafalgar Square is to play host to a passion play on Good Friday this year, 2nd April.

full report at the Guardian:
With a cast of about 150 actors, donkeys, horses and an artificial tomb, the organisers anticipate some 25,000 spectators. It is less ambitious than the Life of Christ, a six-hour epic performed annually at the Wintershall estate in Surrey involving camels, a lake acting as both the River Jordan and the Sea of Galilee, more than 200 actors and 30 sheep.

The play is being put on by the Wintershall estate, who regularly stage Nativities and plays about the life of Jesus in the grounds of the estate in Surrey.

2010 is also the year for the 10-yearly passion play in Oberammergau, so maybe London is a carbon-friendly alternative for people who are watching the air miles.

Links
Passion Play UK
BBC
Telegraph, which is cut and paste from the BBC. Or perhaps a press release.