January 19

 



I usually go for a hike on Saturday afternoons. Along the way I found this tree - and noticed one side of the trunk where the bark was stripped off. Too high for it to be an animal, I think, maybe it was struck by lightening? We have had a some major storms in Ottawa in recent years, a few tornados and a derecho, which have caused major damage to some of our forests and on the paths I like to hike. Other than clearing the paths, the damaged trees have been left to fall and rot, they say they are "letting the forest be the forest". Eventually the lightening tree will also fall and so nature will take its course.

Sometimes I wonder if churches are going through the same process, where some will survive and others will fall.  I have visited churches packed with people, and also tiny congregations and every size in between. I would not say that only the large churches were valid or successful. On Sunday I went back to a Baptist Church that I had visited once when the minister was away.  I was glad I did. What a great preacher, a great service. But the congregation was tiny (to be fair it was -20C and there were probably more people worshipping online than braving the cold.) It certainly wasn't because of poor preaching or a lack of mission by the congregation, which also houses a shelter in the neighbourhood. Maybe it is suffering a loss of members leaving for a mega-church in our city. But is bigger always better? 

How does a denomination plan for the future if the only determinant seems to be the size of the congregation or a balanced financial statement? Do we just let nature take its course? We should do better at analyzing the trends and figuring out where the church needs to be seen in our area. Perhaps we could pool our resources so we don't lose communities of faith that are taking bold new steps in ministry, rather than letting them fizzle out because they are not "successful."

Meanwhile those tall steeples on our traditional churches are being eclipsed by condos and bank towers. Who is going to survive? And, if churches are closed, how does God's spirit find its way to people's hearts to build a more compassionate world?

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