The decline and death of churches

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One of the initiatives to publicise the church has been a welcome leaflet for the town. It is now in it's seventh incarnation. When the church sold the building many assumed we ceased to exist!

The leaflet is distributed at tourist info. points and at the local hospital.

Anyone got ideas to similarly raise the profile of their church?
 

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Our church rotates pastors in the pulpit

Ah the penny drops: you have a half dozen pastors! We have a dozen members!

Have a similar problem with scale when we need to have a duly constituted meeting to authorise £6 p/m on a website while other fellowships I have attended have a 20K budget for the same! (Remember that scene from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy when two alien spacefleets scream across the galaxy and descend on earth to let loose the dogs of war - only to be swallowed by a small dog due to an error in scale)
 
you have a half dozen pastors

One of the six mentioned was the outgoing moderator of the denomination, so he wasn't one of our pastors.

And we don't have 6 pastors. We have 9 - we haven't replaced an Associate Pastor who left.
 
(Whats ADA by the way)

Americans with Disabilities Act - churches are exempt, but it's common sense to voluntarily comply with removing barriers. It's one area where the EU lags far behind the US. Too busy spending money on roundabouts, I suppose.

I remember one woman who posted on PB where her church wouldn't install a wheelchair ramp so she could easily access the sanctuary. It would have hurt the aesthetics of the view from the street. Hearts and heads clearly in the wrong place.
 
It would have hurt the aesthetics of the view from the street.

Over here it would be planning permission that would be the problem. (You know the story of how Noah had to carry out environmental impact assessments as part of his planning application...)
 
Reflecting on another church in the vicinity they too are dwindling in numbers and it looks terminal. The sermons there are what an American friend calls of the "ain't it awful" variety. It provides a commen on our countrys decline but doesnt set out an alternative programme. It strikes me that the Puritans would have been proactive and would be talking about how Christians should conduct themselves in practical ways much more than bemoaning that our culture is in terminal decline. That should make our culture shine all the clearer!
 
We start looking at "Renewal" this week. It is a little odd because it was suggested by the minister we issued a call to but will be led by our interim moderator. In a sense we are starting the discussion with a borrowed minister.

It dawned on me that we can't really ask too much of our borrowed minister. His time and energies have to really go into his home church. I had been thinking that we could do a sermon series on particular books or topics. Then I realised the burde that would impose on our shared minister. I guess I realise that we get the sermon he has already prepared for his home church, we get it first thing in the morning, they get it a little later. (was thinking we could record, compare with his sermon later in the morning and choose the better delivery :applause::stirpot:)

Anyway having thought of this, having read the book and felt it came up short. I was still looking for a good book on "doing church". I went back to 9 Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever. I really enjoyed his emphasis on Biblical solutions to things (and he is a Reformed Baptist). Then it dawned on me that the original book is pretty much about leadership and the direction the church is taking - minister stuff, when we don't have our own. Then I remembered the 9 marks book "What Makes a Health Church Member". That focuses on how we as church members should be responding and doing church. I feel that it is more appropriate given our current situation. I just have to think of a way to explain that to the rest of the fellowship - or not. The 9 marks series can always feed into my input and discussion.

Ironically it was John James reference to Mark Dever on p21 that reminded me I had the books.
 
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