Reflections on Growing Forward

09 Feb 2010

St Francis of Assisi did it in his own inimitable style. The story goes that he was journeying with some companions when they came to a crossroads, and none of them were entirely sure which way to go. “God will show us the path,” Francis said, and he began to spin around and around on the spot until he was so dizzy he fell over. The direction his prone body was facing was the one Francis’ companions took.
If only all decisions made by the church could be quite so simple. We could get rid of vestry meetings and synods and all their endless trails of paper. Sadly, spin-the-Bishop as a process of discernment has never really taken off in New Zealand.

One of the first tasks of the church after Pentecost was to get its structure right, and set a direction for itself. Acts tells us how Matthias was appointed to fill the place of Judas, and then seven new posts – the first deacons – were created. They sorted out the disputes, and prevented bust-ups and allocated the resources in the church so the apostles could carry on their world-facing, world-engaging mission without distraction. Like much of the book of Acts, it’s not sexy stuff, but it’s necessary. Before you can do anything else, you have to know who exactly you are and what you’re doing.

I suspect there are very few of us who wake up tingling with excitement at the Diocesan Strategic Plan. Many of us are caught up with the day-to-day practicalities of being the church instead. How do we keep the roof on? Where’s the money to pay the bills going to come from? What makes people come through the doors, and how do we get more of them to do it? The strategic plan feels slightly abstract and – perhaps – a bit of a luxury.

And yet, just as with the early church, it’s the opportunity to work out what we’re actually for. What are our values and priorities? What does proclaiming the good news actually mean to us? Growing Forward is about visualising the changes we want to happen – of which the roof, the money and the people are all a part – and then creating the future one vision at a time. It’s not a luxury – it’s a crucial roadmap for us. If we are not showing the love of God by what we do, how can anyone be drawn to him by what we say?

WORDS: Lynda Patterson