On September 14th, Holy Cross Day, Peter Bunn and I did a ‘double act’ during the sermon slot in the 9.30am Parish Eucharist in which we talked about Mission and some of the hopes of the Holy Cross Church Mission Group going forward. We thought it would be a good idea to reproduce it in the parish magazine so that those who were unable to be present on the 14th of September could read it…

Matthew…

In the Bible, “mission” refers to God’s ongoing activity of sending individuals or groups to carry out His purposes for redemption and reconciliation. This divine outreach culminates in Jesus’ command to his followers in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) to make disciples of all nations, a mission that involves sharing the Gospel through word and deed.

Mission is any activity which forwards God’s purposes in God’s creation, and which may include spiritual, educational or practical help.

Mission is not simply about converting people!  Although it was often viewed like this in Victorian times!The Church is called to engage with world with God’s creation and to make connections with non-Church agencies. 

Through effective mission we see evangelisation which is about putting the truth claims of the Gospel in the public forum and then leaving the way open for the work of the Holy Spirit to prompt people to accept the truth claims of the Gospel.

Mission is not imperialistic… it is not about forcing belief or aid onto others, but rather it is holistic – engaging with the world which is God’s creation and allowing evangelisation to take place.

Through our baptism and membership of the church, the body of Christ, we all have an active part to play in mission, primarily through prayer, but also in being attentive to the opportunities open to us – it may be in the workplace or amongst friends and family.

By enthusiastically promoting the cause of mission and telling others we each play our part. Enthusiasm is infectious and it is great when an epidemic of enthusiasm spreads – there is no known cure!!!

Peter…

For those of you who know I am a former civil servant I can imagine your faces dropped a bit to hear I was going to be talking about Mission Action Plans.  So, I have just a few minutes to try and dispel the idea this is about something dry, dusty and theoretical (not that civil servants ever epitomise those qualities).

Matthew has already said a bit about the Biblical or theological imperative for Mission. I am going to talk about the practical imperative as well. Of course, as we celebrate our Patronal Feast Day, we joyfully think about the hundreds of years in which Christians have worshipped together on this site.  I am sure we all profoundly hope that in 2035 or 45 or 55 and indeed 2125 there will still be as many if not more Christians here celebrating the occasion with the same sense of joy. 

However, we can’t count on that happening without a sense of mission driving us.  It isn’t enough to think we have this superb and highly visible building as our Parish Church, and that by some process of osmosis people will be drawn into it.  When Matthew and I were talking about this slot about 10 days ago, he reminded me that we are perhaps now at least the second generation in our country of majority unchurched.  I suspect that many of us here today have in fact had a level of church upbringing going back much of our lives.  If, however, we were to stop a random selection of people on our High St, on a Stagecoach bus or GWR train, that church background would be relatively unusual.  For them simply stepping inside the building is not something that will come naturally. I want to give two examples of what this means.

The first concerns Heritage Open Days when many churches specially welcome the wider community in.  When we first did this in Dorking, we had people come in who said they had lived in the town a few years but had never stepped inside the church and didn’t realise it was open to all. Particularly given the unusual history of Holy Cross I wonder how many of this town besides its regular congregations realise that this is, in a sense shared only by two other churches in England, literally their own church.

My second example is an anecdote some of you will have heard before. It concerns a young teenage soprano who joined our choir in Dorking from a music background entirely in the secular world of school musicals.  She was known from those shows for a fabulous voice and as such had a number of school fans.  When it came to the first Nine Lessons and Carols after she joined, she asked some of their friends if they would like to come, and their reaction was “You mean anyone can come?”.

That example really brought home to me how we are now in a culture where people feel they need some form of permission or invitation to enter what should be their church as much as our church.  Michel Harvey – involved for many years with Back to Church Sunday – describes the need for churches to adapt to this culture of invitation.   In a world where for better or worse social media has a powerful influence, being invited to follow something or to become someone’s friend is a normal step even if it may sound odd to my generation. Today’s culture means crucially everyone owning the task of “inviting” – even if for most of us that will be by traditional means rather than social media.

Coming back to a Mission Action Plan, this is something the Church Mission Group (currently a very small group – we would love to have some more members.) has recently looked at again, conscious that the previous one is now quite dated.  Many good things have happened under that [ examples] and many which we would recognise as still going strong today.  Newer initiatives have been added     None of us on CMG wants to reinvent the wheel or develop a complex tome; we rather see it as pulling together a few practical things which we can implement to help not least in de-mystifying church.  They may flow from the health check work, but nothing needs to be complicated.  After all, for many of the unchurched, that first step on a spiritual journey is literally that first step of encouraging them through the door.  (I noted incidentally when we came from Dorking to Crediton that Holy Cross at least had glass panels in the south doors – one step in letting people see in! One vicar in Dorking loved to speculate on what it would be like if the church had glass walls.

The process of mission has to start with reaching out to where people are, not with any preconception of where they should be, and identifying what the possible connections might be.  Holy Cross has for some time now been reaching out to children and parents at the end of each half term with the churchyard giveaways championed by Anne.  Our monthly service for carers and cared for is an example of making new connections.  We are now planning a further step with developing some specially themed services – the first one is a pet service in November.  Others will follow. 

It won’t come as any surprise to you given my cassock and surplice that I firmly believe that choir and music is an important tool of mission.  In the language of business, it is one of our USPs.  How many of us – including our younger folk here today – have been attracted to church and retained by a love of music and sharing the joy of making music as part of a team.  My strong impression is that young people in church want to be actively involved and being a chorister very much meets that.

Now I know some will say that one of the biggest barriers in all of this is some of the physical constraints in this church.   I don’t dispute that; there are things I too would love to see done here and I know the Governors continue to explore ways to make this building more user-friendly, not just for church services but for other things that will bring people in.   I have never believed buildings should stay frozen in time whether as envisaged in Medieval times, In Victorian times, or indeed in the late 20^th century.  Buildings need to serve their purpose, not vice versa.  What I am convinced however is that project, however big and well thought out, alone would not deliver the outcome we seek; any development has to go hand in hand with that sense of personal outreach being owned by everyone. 

So, a new Mission Action Plan isn’t about some turgid piece of civil service drafting (not that I ever indulged in those!).  What it is (in the broadest sense of mission and outreach) is identifying some practical steps we can implement, review and update.   Not everything will succeed.  What however is vital is that we all recognise the part we can play in the process. Michel Harvey in his books identifies a number of factors which inhibits people from inviting others; a number are variants on “we fear the person invited will say no”.   Well, if that is really the worst thing that can happen, why not just try?!   I stress this is not just about regular Sunday services; we can invite people to all sorts of other things – quiz nights, concerts, drop-ins.  Who knows where that may lead?   And of course, one thing that we can all do is pray for the process of discerning by CMG and PCC just what those new connections might be.  

Perhaps I can end my part with that wonderful quote attributed to Archbishop William Temple “The church exists primarily for the sake of those who are outside it”.    If we remember that and that our role is to ensure they no longer stay outside it, we won’t go far wrong.

Matthew…

Mission is what we are about as Church and has sometimes been described as discerning what God is doing and joining in. The Church is both invitational and relational. Although some people may come through curiosity, research shows that most come through invitation. And once that invitation has been accepted, relationship is vital.  

What I do appeal to you to do though is to pray and consider using your talents to both consolidate and promote the missionary work of the Church. Perhaps the most important aspect is to consider prayerfully who you could invite. Who could you say to, in the words of Jesus, Come and see?  Christ asks this of us – we can’t refuse Him. 

Your friend and Rector

Matthew Tregenza