As the season changes by Stewart Perry
One of the things that I’ve realised as I look back at my ministry on the Gold Coast, & before that in Newcastle, was the church that I felt I was called to lead was one that helped re-orientate people to faith in Jesus. Those people who’d had a seed of faith planted while they were at school or by a family member or friend or even who use to be regular church members but found for whatever reason that they’d drifted away from both God & God’s Church. I strongly felt that the Anglican Churches God had called me to & placed me in a leadership role in were well equipped to allow people to re-engage with their faith.
As I look back at my ministry, I can see many examples of how that has actually happened. As people have relocated to the Gold Coast many have found a yearning to reconnect to their faith or to a Church community or both. As families were coming for baptism of their children or to mourn the loss of a loved one I’ve seen many moments of re-connection & re-commitment. I’ve also seen the churches I’ve been called to lead as places that have been a safe refuge when people have experienced hurt in other Christian communities, which is almost always about the people within those communities & not about God or God’s Church.
I thought I knew my specialty & limitations… I was happy to leave those who’d never had any faith or never been to any church to the Pentecostal & independent churches. I know from experience I’m not very good at altar calls so I was very happy to leave that to those with that gifting & focus my attention on what I thought God was calling me too.
It’s not that I’ve realised recently that that discernment of calling was wrong. Up until Covid both the churches in Newcastle & Robina grew significantly largely because of re-orientation growth. But what I’ve realised recently is that the season has changed & perhaps my calling is beginning to shift. I think I will always have a heart for the one who has had faith & is searching for a way back to it… but my experiences in the UK earlier this year have had me wondering how do I pastor & lead someone who has never been to any church before?
It’s not that I’m completely lost at sea, there have of course been people I’ve journeyed with over the years who have been the exception to the rule & have found themselves at the same Anglican Church that I attend but have never been to any church before… but what if they weren’t the exception, what if that was what was going to be the norm rather than the exception? How would I need to lead differently? How would we as a church need to be reshaped to welcome, receive & journey with them?
What would happen if, like we saw in the UK, someone just turned up on a Sunday to one of our services in Palm Beach, Burleigh Heads or Robina having never ever been to church before? What would happen if someone was scrolling through social media & started to think about faith & find their way to a church because their algorithm started to feed them bible verses… I heard stories like that at a church planting conference I was at a few weeks ago. Could that happen here & how would we handle it if it did? Would we just keep calm & carry on & hope & trust that they’d work it out & eventually fit in & become like us. Or do you think we might need to change our posture so we are more agile to turn towards them?
Would it shock you to hear that I’ve had 2 conversations in this last week with people who are now worshipping in one of our churches for whom their first experience of church… ever… is in one of our churches? And they’re seeming like they want to build connection with both God & our church - Praise God! They’re seeming like they’re hungry to learn, grow & know more of God.
There’s nothing more energising for someone in my role to hear someone exploring faith for the first time. I expect it would be as energising for other Christians who weren’t priests. I do believe that our calling as churches in Burleigh Heads, Palm Beach & Robina is starting to shift. There will always be a home for the rusted on Anglican, there will always be a home for the one who has wondered off and has returned… but… God is calling us to make room for the one who is new to faith or has no faith yet but is just compelled to seek. As they seek I do hope they will find communities who are preparing themselves to turn towards them… not so they can become “just like us” but so that their transformation might transform & renew us.
Are we ready… probably not… but it’s starting to happen ready or not… thanks be to God for the gift of the Holy Spirit who’ll equip our unpreparedness & help us turn towards those who seek. As we’ve just turned towards a new season from winter to spring we should prayerfully recognise that God is turning us towards this new season. I wonder if we should also think about some personal spring cleaning as part of our readiness for what’s next.