Being faithful stewards
This sermon was accompanied by a powerpoint presentation, which you can see by clicking here.
(First Slide showing) You have been trustworthy in a few things - I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.
This morning’s gospel could leave nobody in doubt that faithful Christians are called to live their lives in partnership with God. More than that - we are called to be stewards for God. We are called to be stewards of our money and possessions, as well as our time and our talents. And, as that stark gospel reading points out, there are implications - real implications - about how we live up to the task of stewarding the resources that God has given us.
And so we heard of a good and trustworthy slave who doubled what his master had invested with him, and, as a consequence, was called to enter into the joy of his master. And, by comparison, we also heard about the wicked and lazy slave. SLIDE
This was the slave who simply buried in the ground what he had been given by the master, claiming to be afraid, and as a result simply handed back his talents without bothering to do anything with them. That didn’t go down well, did it: You wicked and lazy slave...you ought to have invested my money with the bankders, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest...
His reward is made painfully clear: SLIDE he is to be thrown into outer darkness - an image, clearly, of what we would usually call hell.
This morning, I want us to think about our stewardship of the resources that God has entrusted to us - and let’s not forget who that us is:
That us is, quite simply, you and me - the Body of Christ here at Ss Peter & Paul, Kettering. SLIDE Those of us who, like this morning, gather together to worship God each Sunday, and who then go in peace to love and serve the Lord during the rest of the week. This morning I want to think about the single biggest resource that God has given us, and about our stewardship of it in the coming decades. This morning I want to raise a question - a question which your elected representatives on the PCC have unanimously pledged themselves to spend at least the next year answering. And that question is: SLIDE
How do we make the most of our church building for our good, and the good of the wider community?
This building is literally priceless. If it were to be raised to the ground by fire, it could not be replaced by a duplicate. In its way it is a priceless treasure - and it is a treasure that is loved and valued by many, many people. But we have to ask - I believe God requires us to ask - how best we can use it both for us (by which I mean those who regularly worship here as part of the church family), and also for the far larger, wider community in amongst whom we live, and whom we are called by God to serve. But let’s start by thinking about our needs - the needs of us, the church...
It so happens that only last week, a leading expert on church growth gave a talk in Kettering Deanery. And he looked at life in the Diocese of Peterborough since 1991.SLIDE And during that time the number of adults attending church has fallen by 17%. What is worse, perhaps, is that the number of children attending church has dropped by 38%. In presenting these figures he challenged people to realize that we - the C of E, and other major churches - we are no longer a pastoral church on what some people call the Christendom model. In other words, it’s not a Christian culture out there any more, and folk aren’t routinely going to turn up so they can have a cuppa with the vicar, and a sick call when they are in hospital. Folk are not going simply to come to us. Instead, we are working in a missionary context, in a culture that is emphatically post Christian.
That’s talk that implies churches need to change. And I know full well that for some of you here this morning, that’s exciting talk - but for others, that is a frightening and disturbing sentiment. But consider this SLIDE
Over a six-year period from 1996 to 2002 a number of churches were observed. Those that carried on as they had been, without making any noticeable changes in their worship and outreach saw their electoral roll drop by 22%. Those that were able to make at least one change saw an increase - only a small one - but an increase of 3% in their membership. And so this speaker made some suggestions about the kind of changes you could make in order to grow your church. They included: SLIDE
Making worship more relaxed. Within our own tradition, I think we have managed that quite well in recent years. Make better provision for children - again, we constantly try and do this. Then he said we should improve how we welcome people and integrate them into the church family. Again, despite some very negative comments from a small minority, we have taken considerable steps to do this, and it is showing some positive results. We are actively trying to improve our pastoral care, which was another suggestion. And the climax of his suggestions to grow was Improve your buildings. And that, basically, is what we as a church community need to think about for this, our beloved parish church.
I want to take you back in history now, back to the 1470s. Roughly speaking, that’s when this church was built. And it was built to be the place where the Latin Mass was offered, and offered at the point at which liturgy had become about as complex, ritualistic, clergy-centred and non-participatory as you could have found before the Reformation. It was built to allow a priest, surrounded by minor clerics and servers, to mumble quietly some words in Latin, and, at one important point, to allow you - the non-ordained - to glimpse the Host, as he raised it above his head during the consecration. SLIDE That was the point of this church when it was built. There was no particular idea or demand that you might even be present for the whole mass, and there would not have been any seating for you. The craftsmen and architect who built this church would be bemused and horrified to see how it is laid out now.
Jumping forwards about 400 years, we come to the period when, not for the first time, the church was re-ordered, and re-ordered, of course, to suit the needs of the church in the latter part of Queen Victoria’s reign. SLIDE Long gone were the days of offering a celebration of the Eucharist as the main service. People came to church to attend Mattins and/or Evensong, where the listened to the Choir sing, the Bible being read, and the Rector preaching sermons of a length that nobody today would find encouraging. The only similarity, perhaps, with the late medieval period, was that you would not have been encouraged to feel you could participate in the worship. And how better to organize the church, than to provide serried ranks of pews for such a dry liturgy.
Life has changed just as radically since then. Since the 1960s, the Eucharist has returned to the heart of the life of the Church of England, and with an understanding that it is something that is mutually celebrated by all those present - old, not so old, and very young. But consider this.... This SLIDE is the view of the pulpit from the Lighthouse Corner, where our youngest members and their families spend the entire service. But it could be worse... This SLIDE is the view of the altar from the Lighthouse Corner. If you wonder why we don’t attract and retain more young families, bear those views in mind - along with the fact that our Sunday School meets in another building entirely. If one of our youngest worshippers wants to feel a part of what is going on as Jesus comes to us in bread and wine, it’s not exactly comfortable or accessible. SLIDE The use of our building, liturgically, has many drawbacks for worshippers of all ages, but, as is usually the case, it is the needs of our children and their families that are the most neglected. Which is a little odd, isn’t it, give that we are told SLIDE
And leaving aside matters to do with our liturgy, and how we make it accessible to a wider range of people, do any of you remember or recognize this scene? SLIDE That’s the set for the last play we, as a parish, presented by Riding Lights, just under a year ago. The venue, of course, was not (as it should have been), this church - that’s the hall at Bishop Stopford. And when we have presented their outstanding passion plays, we have had to spend hundreds of pounds building staging on top of these pews in order to do so. This building should be the host to plays, concerts, exhibitions, meetings, and anything else our community wants to bring to us - but it can’t be. And that, I believe, is a major disservice on our part. SLIDE So what can be done?
What I want to show you now is part of the fruit of my sabbatical, where I visited a number of medieval town centre churches whose congregations have also faced similar problems, and I want to show you that, actually, plenty can be done - and it is rather exciting to think we might be able to do something.
SLIDE Let’s start by going just down the road. It’s not a very good photo, I’m afraid, but I hope that a good number of you may recognize that that is the interior of Oundle Parish Church. They re-ordered about 18 years ago - and I was rather amused to be told by one lady looking after the church on a Saturday afternoon, "We all hated the vicar at the time for making us do this.... but now we are all so glad we did it!" But let’s journey a bit further. SLIDE
This majestic building is Bedford Parish Church - St Paul’s - right in the heart of Bedford town centre. Slightly larger than P&P, and, though I hate to say it, arguably even finer, and much of a similar age. Alison and I worshipped there in May, and delighted in finding a lovely nave altar SLIDE, and the nave full of comfortable chairs. As part of the re-ordering, they had installed a substantial gallery in the west end SLIDE, which allowed for some useful rooms to be built inside it, SLIDE as you can see. Indeed, not just meeting rooms, which are useful enough, but even....SLIDE practical relief!
The remarkable thing about St Paul’s Bedford is that they did this over 25 years ago. Not something, I think, that would have been on the agenda here in the early 1980s, and I congratulate them on this. It does mean, however, that, by today’s architectural standards, SLIDE the layout is a little dull and predictable, and they only tackled the challenge of what to do with the western half of the church - they didn’t dare do anything with the chancel and sanctuary.
Let me take you a little further afield now, down to Oxfordshire, and the beautiful market town of Thame SLIDE, which boasts the very fine St Mary’s Parish Church. Another fine medieval, grade one listed, town centre parish church. Rather more recently, St Mary’s, too, went down the road of re-ordering. SLIDE They went for a slightly more circular approach when it came to layout SLIDE as you can see in more detail. Like Bedford, their seating gives them great flexibility with the use of their nave; on the down side, they have a pair of recumbent lords and ladies laid to rest in their chancel, SLIDE and so the re-ordering went no further. But again, like Bedford, they were able to reclaim some useful space for various facilities! SLIDE
Oundle, Bedford and Thame are all quite long-standing re-orderings. They have their good points and their drawbacks, but the most amazing journey Alison and I enjoyed as we pursued other town-centre medieval parish churches was when we arrived in SLIDE Farnham town centre, in Surrey. I don’t know if any of you know Farnham, but it has some similarities with Kettering, although it is clearly rather wealthier, and has the feel of the stockbroker belt about it. But it, also, has a SLIDE fine medieval church right in the town centre. A church which some five years ago achieved a quite remarkable journey into the future, as we found the moment we entered the north door SLIDE to see a beautiful, simple, modern font and some fresh, simple seating.
And so we entered the church, and we looked east towards the altar SLIDE, to find an altar matching the font, simple and yet elegant. SLIDE Then we looked down on the church, for, remarkable, its re-ordering has included the provision of a rather amazing gallery. SLIDE Here you get a real sense of the space of the building. Of the accessible and inclusive layout for worship, and the feel of openness and space - space, of course, which is utterly flexible.
If you look back down the church from the altar, you can see how the gallery has been created, with a sort of lobby/exhibition space beneath the centre. SLIDE You can see that the more clearly, perhaps, looking from the west door. On either side of this space, they have purpose built rooms - one is a kitchen SLIDE - a kitchen neatly fitted with superb modern appliances that can properly service the needs of a church of this size. SLIDE. Interestingly, the matching room on the other side is used for the Sunday School - and it is the only weakness in this entire re-ordering, and proves an earlier point about improving buildings to grow your congregations. The room was ample for the Sunday School when they started the re-ordering, but they now have so many young families, they hardly fit any more!
And the truly amazing thing is that ten years ago, had you entered the church, SLIDE this is what you would have found! Apologies for the quality, but this is a photo of a photo. Victorian pews, not dissimilar to those on which you are sitting at the moment. Now, not only do I really defy anyone to claim that what you see here is, in any way, preferable to what they have created at Farnham, but one thing I realized - especially when I went up into the gallery there - was that by creating this amazing re-ordered space - SLIDE you can actually see the true beauty of the church built by those medieval craftsmen. If you think this building is beautiful, I promise you this - if we ever undertake a re-ordering in the same spirit of that in Farnham, then you will discover that the inside of this church is far, far more beautiful than you have ever previously seen.
All of which leaves us with one question for now SLIDE - What are we going to do with this church? And, for now, what we are doing is asking that question. SLIDE We are going to spend the coming months working out what we truly and properly want from this magnificent building. More about that process is contained in a paper I wrote for the PCC and which is reproduced in the service sheets. For now, we are going to explore, and we are going to dream dreams. We may talk to both consultants and architects, and I hope that together we might visit some of these churches in the flesh, along with others I have not mentioned in this presentation. Nothing is about to happen. We are starting a process of asking questions, and it will take months - months going into a year or two - before we could work out in proper detail what Kettering’s equivalent might be to Farnham, or to Oundle, or to Thame, or to Bedford. And once we have answered this most important of all questions, we will work out how we achieve what we want to do.
For have no doubt at all - this building is our greatest asset as a church community. And, as the gospel made clear SLIDE we can be foolish stewards and do the equivalent of burying our asset in the ground so that it doesn’t grow. And that will mean, slowly, or maybe even not so slowly, that our numbers will diminish, and as older people die, they will not be replaced at the same rate by young families. That will mean that the wider Kettering community is denied the kind of use and relationship with this church that it ought to have. That will mean that we - you and I - risk the same fate as the lazy and wicked servant.
Or, we can rejoice in what we have been given in this building, and we can prayerfully and joyfully ask the question about how it will serve us in the coming generations. And then, I pray and I hope, we will hear our Lord saying to us SLIDE You have been trustworthy in a few things - I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master. Amen.
Dominic Barrington, 16th November, 2008
