Friday 18 September 2015

The problem with unwritten rules...

The greatest difficulty with moving the church forward is the unwritten rules.  There seem to be so many of them and I don't know what they all are. I constantly bang into them and realise that my ability to see God in all things and all situations I struggle to deal with the sacrosanct. Can't use the communion table for anything but communion, can't use the sanctuary for non worship events, only ministers and those suitably trained can preach, lead worship - honestly put the children in control of worship and we might actually get the point of worship!

The institution is full of written laws that by their very nature mean we have unwritten rules - the interpretation of them.  And the biggest unwritten rule because it stems from identity is that of the minister.  I remember during training going to a wonderful bible study but because I was the minister I had to read it out loud. It is the privilege of the minister to read God's word out loud. So much has become the ministers job - just read a parish profile and it will tell you what is expected of a minister. And I know as my diary starts filling up with all good things that meet the list in the parish profile that other things I am expected to do will fall.  And as much as I am loved in one camp I am failing in another.

We don't need any more rules - written or unwritten.

What if we follow the teaching of St Paul - one body but many members? Keep Jesus as the head - most definitely - but if Jesus is the head then surely the minister is just another part of the body not the whole of it?

What if we started to pull together as one body, sharing our resources and building together? Then I believe people would want to become part of the church again because everyone would have a purpose and a sense of belonging. Jesus engendered that feeling in his disciples and certainly not everyone got on board but to still have 11 out of 12 at the end of those three years was pretty impressive. Maybe change, maybe embracing the body of Christ, maybe moving away from the rules (written or otherwise) and living with hope, faith and love we can change the church and the world.

Is it time to stop worrying about who is the pulpit and start concentrating on who is in the pews (so to speak!)? Have we been looking at this back to front? As a minister on ministries council I know that there is much good happening but I wonder, dangerously perhaps, is focusing on 800 people rather than the 44000 (or whatever our current membership is not forgetting the regular non members) keeping our vision small and missing the bigger part of the body?

Do congregations want to be empowered? The unwritten rule is they don't - most want to be consumers! Is that another unwritten rule that needs challenged?

Thoughts for another day perhaps.

What do you think ministers are for and what can you do to change the rules...?

Peace
Sarah