More notes from Derek to consider :
'Evangelical churches are beating the trend. “For significant numbers of people these churches offer firm boundaries, clear guidance and considerable support -effective protection from vicissitudes of life. (They run the risk, of course,of the corresponding negative attributes; more than other types of churches they can become both excluding and exclusive.)” p 43 (my reflection: consumerist,safe, secure and comfortable)She adds: softer charismatic churches appear in particular to appeal to late modern populations. But so do cathedral churches, which are generally growing.“What, then, is the common feature in these very different stories? It is, I think, the experience of “feel good” factor, whether this be expressed in charismatic worship, in the Alpha weekend, in the tranquillity of cathedral evensong or in a special cathedral occasion. The point is that we feel something; we experience the sacred, the set apart. The purely cerebral is less appealing.” '
5 comments:
But:-
Is it simply the case that these churches (soft charismatic and Cathedrals) appeal to a particulr narrow grouping of people (and do it well) but the church is failing to reach others for whom that is not the way they want to express their faith?
I suspect that many people choose a church that appeals . We are no longer tied to the local - look at the locations of those often to be found at the Friday Service - few from the parish.
The question could be looked at the other way: do we appeal to the people not in the church? However we need then to be careful that we do not dilute our message to make it more appealing.
Are we in the marketplace where people actually shop for a church?
A thought has run through my mind linked to some of the previous posts: how would the regular attenders at the Friday Service act if we were the only part of St Marks that existed? What would we do differently to bring a Christian influence to bear on our community?
Perhaps if we were the only part of St Marks that existed we would be asking WHY ? in the same way we are asking why we are only a small group. Does this not demonstrate that people DO shop for the style of church that suits them. So does our style not appeal to others or is it a case of that it might but we are not advertising ourselves in the right way.
Interesteingly, FIVE people came to the service last Friday..
I mean five people who do not normally come turned up when we were not there!
Four were from another town and came to look at what we do (oops)
and one from down the road.
I don't think we could have done anything to stop that happening, but in another way it's encouraging!
I go to St Marks,it's the sort of church i feel really relaxed and comfortable in! I didn't like churches when i was younger and thought they were all still the same these days as well.But i knew nothing about st Marks before someone invited me to go try it,so maybe you need to advertise yourself more!?What's wrong with people wanting to 'shop' for the style of church they prefer? Surely we're all out there to worship god in our own way,so surely we should be comfortable in the surroundings we're worshiping in!!!
Post a Comment