Whaley Bridge Parish
The Second Mark of Mission
“To baptise and nurture new believers”
I have a parable for you this morning. It is the parable of the running club and
the choir.
Some years ago I took up running and decided that the best way to improve was
to join a club. I arrived outside a gym one chilly evening, and discovered the was
a fast group, a medium group and a slow group. I joined the other beginners in
the slow group. The run leader led us off, and as I found my stride I noticed was
that every so often the runners at the front would peel off and run to the back
of the group. Matt the run leader came and ran alongside me for a while, and
we chatted. He explained that they always encouraged the strongest runners at
the front to peel off to the back, to give the runners at the back some
encouragement – and to make them run a longer distance! It was so good not
to feel on my own at the back of the group. A few days later I received a text
from Matt, congratulating me on finishing the run, and encouraging me to come
back the next week. I did.
Some years ago I joined a choir, which billed itself as a friendly choir. When I
arrived several people asked me what choir I had sung in before. When I said I
had never sung in a choir before they looked put out, and I felt this was not the
required answer! Most people seemed to have sung in the choir for several
decades , so it was hard to feel as a newcomer, that you had a right to be there.
In this choir everyone seemed to have a place where they sat, and a friend that
they sat with. I never knew where to sit, and had no friend to sit with. Once
we broke into two smaller choirs for some reason and had to move seats.
Someone told me crossly that I was sitting in her place. I was so upset I left the
choir rehearsal there and then. Someone did ring me to persuade me back, but
I didn’t feel I fitted in, and eventually I left.
Two contrasting experiences of being a beginner. The running club had a group
for beginners, and mutual support of beginners was encouraged by the practice
of the leaders running to the back to run alongside. There was personal
encouragement from the leader for me as a beginner, followed up with a text.
In short being a beginner was an OK thing to be. Whereas the choir had no group
for newcomers, and there was no one whose role was to support them and help
them find their place. The fact that many people had been there so long made
it hard to feel you had a right to be there as a beginner.
So think about Whaley Bridge Parish. Is it more like the running club? Or is it
more like the choir?
The second mark of mission is this: the church is called to baptise and nurture
new believers. So this is about being a church that prioritises people who are
beginners in the Christian faith, whether children or adults, helping them to
grow. In our 5 Ts this week is “teach” but nurture is actually something. If we
nurture someone it means we are giving our care and attention to help them
thrive.
Last week I suggested that the context for our life as a church is that we are no
longer in the era of Christendom. We are in a multi-faith and post Christian era.
In 2016 the British Social attitudes survey found that two-thirds (66%) of people
in Britain never attend church, apart from special occasions such as weddings,
funerals and - interesting in the context of today’s theme - baptisms. A
significant majority of the population have almost no contact with, or
experience of the Christian faith. So many of these people will carry burdens of
guilt without knowing the grace of forgiveness. So many will feel worthless in a
world where worth is defined as wealth and social status. So many will believe
that life is meaningless and death a fearful full stop.
The good news of grace is that this is not so. God comes to us in Christ to offer
us abundant life, to take the plain old tap water of our lives and to transform it
into the rich wine of the kingdom. We heard the gospel story of the Wedding at
Cana, and this is the sign of the new life that God is Christ is bringing about: life
in all its fullness, eternal life. In Christ we find the peace the world cannot give,
the hope the world cannot give, the joy the world cannot give. Why would we
not want to share that?
In our first reading we heard Paul writing to the new Christians in Corinth whom
he has been nurturing. He reminds them that growth in the church is what God
makes possibly: humanly we help it along. “I planted the seed, says Paul,
Apollos watered it, but God gave the growth.” Every church needs to have a
greenhouse where God’s new growth can take place.
Last week I described how a mission describes the love of God which flows ever
outward towards the world and that mission is about getting caught up in the
energy of that. And vital to that is the work of enabling people find a living faith
in the God who meets us in Jesus Christ. This is not something we can contract
out to someone else. It’s for us, the church, to do. If we don’t create the right
conditions, if we don’t do a bit of sowing and watering God’s work of growing
new believers will not flourish.
How do we nurture new believers? We need to do that in the context of small
groups that offer a safe space for people to ask questions and find out in a
supportive context. We need to understand that people will be complete
beginners in the Christian faith – but that doesn’t mean they are not intelligent
well-informed people. We operate in a climate of listening and mutual respect
for one another’s views.
My experience of running nurture groups is that people are easily embarassed
about what they don’t know. In session one we establish the ground rule –
there’s no such thing as a stupid question. I have found that video-based
courses work best as busy people don’t have time to read much. Peer group
relationships are important – it’s hard if you’re the only beginner in the room,
just as I would have found it hard if I was the only slow runner in the slow group!
And I found that gains are easily lost if there is nowhere for the group members
to go at the end of the group – the slow runners need be able to move up to a
medium runners group, if you like.
I met Lucy a few years ago. She was a working Mum, for whom combining work
with a three kids , one with special needs was a constant challenge. She had
been part of the life of her parish church for many years, but Sunday church
never seemed to connect with life as she lived it. She left the parish church and
started going to a house church where she joined a midweek group that met
regularly to read the bible, pray and give mutual support. Her faith, which had
been stuck at Sunday school stage for decades, became a mature and confident
faith, and now in Christ she found the resource that enabled her to live each day
well. In all her years of Anglican church-going this had never been on offer.
Meeting Lucy had a big impact on me: I rejoiced in her renewed faith, but
realised the parish church had failed her.
Perhaps you reflect that the second mark of mission is one our parish has not
found easy to get to grips with. If so we are not on our own. Many churches are
uncomfortable with evangelism and hope that by being caring and welcoming
people will join the dots and become committed Christians spontaneously.
Experience shows this simply doesn’t happen. If growing new believers is not a
clear priority, an explicit commitment, from the whole congregation, and not
just the leadership, then it won’t happen. Churches that grow numerically are
those that have moved the second mark of mission to the top of their agenda
for action.
So are we more like the choir – or more like the running club?
Eternal God, giver of love and power,
your Son Jesus Christ has sent us into all the world
to preach the gospel of his kingdom:
confirm us in this mission,
and help us to live the good news we proclaim;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Frances Eccleston 17.01.21