Last week representative clergy and lay leaders from the seven Pakeha dioceses met in Whanganui [Diocese of Wellington] for a two day forum on revitalizing and replanting churches, reflecting on the possibilities for revitalizing and/or replanting a congregation. Our reflections were spurred on by meeting across four different Anglican church locations in this city - central Whanganui, Castlecliff, Gonville, East Whanganui - to hear from local leaders about the history of the past dozen years of so. In those years there was an initial phase in which four parishes prayed and discussed a new future, eventually agreeing to become one parish.
In the phase of being one parish - for the last eight years or so - some churches have been sold, and some important property work has taken place or is in the process of taking place in the four church buildings we visited. Along the way, some churches have been "fallow" for a period - no worship taking place on Sundays, for example, though the building may have been used for community purposes and/or a mid week communion service. I am not attempting here to give a detailed history - that is their story to tell - rather to draw out some "broad brush strokes" points of interest from that story for myself and our diocese as we also contemplate various changed futures for some of our parishes.
One recurring question for our discussions as we broke into small groups to respond to what we heard in presentations at each of the locations was the question of whether a parish which is experiencing its ministry and mission as needing significant strengthening and renewal should be
- "revitalised" (by one means or another, it continues but with a plan for renewal, some new people coming into lead a way forward) or (after an appropriate closing down)
- "replanted" (so that, after a fallow period, a genuine new start is made, with new vision, new energy and new people, all after much prayer and reflection).
In discussions I was in, there was no determination that one is the way forward and the other is not. Both revitalization and replanting feature in the collective story of the four parishes becoming one parish with four churches. As we reflected together from across our different dioceses, keeping one reflective eye on the situations we had come from and to which we would return, we could see that for this situation revitalization might be "best fit" for the present context and to fulfil a vision for the futre, and for another situation, replanting might be a more assured pathway to a stronger future.
The people who presented to us were impressive in their commitment, competency and calibre as Christian ministry and mission leaders, which is a reminder that, whatever we seek to do as church, whether to maintain well, to grow, to revitalize, to replant or even to "new" plant, we need called, gifted people whose hearts are open to God's leading. As four churches work within one parish, it was also clear that for any new way for the church which involves a team of leaders, there must be good chemistry between the leaders, and that was apparent, both as we observed the whole parish team and the smaller teams at work in each church.
A wonderful fruit of this process through the past dozen or so years, is that congregational life is growing in Whanganui. There are not currently heaps and heaps of stories of Kiwi Anglican church life flourishing and growing, so where there are such stories, there is much to celebrate. Thanks be to God!
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