This morning I lead the annual Covenant Service for one of my smaller Chapels, when it came to the sermon I felt that I had to tackle the possibility of closure and it was painful. Now I didn't suddenly drop this on folk, it came about through prayer and conversations and reflecting together, but it had to be voiced and to saying nothing in worship but to simply put this on the Church Council Agenda seemed wrong!
Over many years this Chapel has been facing the same question, but eighteen months ago we decided to give it one last try with a project so big that it was beyond our natural capacity. In a sense we were throwing ourselves on God's mercy and grace; and God has been with us. The little fellowship gained a renewed sense of community, a renewed sense of hope, and a stronger confidence in God.....
...but at Church Council in February we will be voting on whether to close. Now when I say close I am talking about cessation of worship in the building, for the building is the thing that is sapping our life and strength. The church is not the building, and although the building has served the church well in generations past it does not do so any longer, in fact it is currently hindering the congregation and therefore the mission of the church.
We all know in our heads that the culture has changed, but when it comes to emotional attachments to places, maybe especially places of worship the reality and the nostalgia within us can clash violently. The word failure is then likely to be bandied around, but I think this is wrong, the building has served the church well, it is filled with memories of Sunday School Anniversaries and Harvest Festivals, of Christmas Concerts and Flower Festivals...
...but the community surrounding us has changed and in order to be a success in the future it is time to move on; taking the illustration of the vine from John 15 (a traditional Covenant text) I spoke of our need for pruning, we are worn out by trying to sustain something that is no longer fruitful or useful.
The Chapel members will probably move to a larger Chapel nearby, but I hope to encourage them to maintain a praying worshipping presence in their community, for while there is a trhiving Anglican Church I can understand their need to continue to do something together.If we had not tried to do something new together then I think that people would simply have drifted away, but as it is the success has not come in maintaining the building but by building the people together. That success would become endangered if we were to keep slogging away trying to maintain the deadwood of a crumbling edifice....
Now the Church Council may decide to try to keep on keeping on as they are, but I hope they won't I hope they will see their past successes, and their current position not as polar opposites but as evidence of Gods work to be celebrated. The new may look very different, but if we insist on clinging to the old then we will die. BUT, and it is a big BUT, I do not beleive that this is failure, this is being, or could be being active participants in transformation, not the end, but a new beginning:
24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. (John 12)
O Lord hear our prayers....
