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a healthy church...transformingLIFE

Tasmanian Anglican

August 2003

 

A Quick Word

by Paul Grayston

 

 

'Oh, no! Not another book about church growth!'

'Eureka!' 2,200 years ago, Archimedes leapt out of the bathtub and streaked through the agora to announce to the bewildered shoppers his discovery of the principle of buoyancy, and to show the King how to check the gold content of his new crown. 'Eureka! I have found it!' Or so the legend goes.

All of us who care about our Church need some Eureka flashes of insight right now. How should we do things? Which changes and new ways are right? What will work? So I'm thrilled to find plenty of Eureka moments in a new book with the odd title Church Next. The book is solid gold.

Witnesses must be worshippers

Church Next presents a fresh and vigorous review of the Church's situation and calls us back to our missionary role and to a deeper experience of Jesus Christ. It outlines the pressing need for change in the Church, for new styles of leadership, and more profoundly, for the need to rediscover what really matters and what the Church exists for.

Worship emerges as a major theme: 'Witnesses must be worshippers' for it is difficult to speak of a God we do not ourselves know and love (p.175). We need to seek for ourselves a first-hand experience of Jesus Christ that is worth sharing! Furthermore, an encounter with God in worship is what many are searching for in a culture hungering for spirituality and meaning.

There is surely much to hearten Anglicans here. We are heirs to a rich and diverse tradition of spirituality and worship. On the other hand, Church Next suggests that a rethink in many areas is also needed if we are to get in touch with the unchurched: 'The church will need to be turned inside out to bring those outside in' (p.228).

Solid gold

Which brings us back to Archimedes and three things about him: being out in the marketplace, stripping off, and finding solid gold: themes reflected in Church Next:

Firstly, that we be much more engaged out in the community. And before and while we go, be true worshippers of Jesus Christ lest we have little first-hand experience of God to share with those outside the Church.

Secondly, that symbols, colour, a sense of history and a rich tradition in corporate worship can be strengths in mission today. The crucial thing is that our worship reflects a real and deep encounter with God.

Thirdly, if you are questing for gold, read the book! Church Next is by Eddie Gibbs and Ian Coffey and is published by IVP. I understand that a copy has been sent to every parish in Tas, so perhaps you will be able to borrow it. But please don't read it in the bathtub! 'Eureka!'