The Very Rev Albert Bogle looks to the past to find answers for the future.

COMMENT

OVER past years I’ve been writing and reflecting on the need for presbyteries to re-imagine local church. Perhaps the bigger challenge is for presbyteries to re-imagine themselves.

Congregations will undoubtedly require to begin to think about what their future will look like in a world of advancing technology.

How do parish boundaries it into a culture where distance in time and space continues to be nullified by technological inventions?

In a world where people choose where and when they will worship. Often they are looking for what will be the best outcome for themselves and their immediate family. The ‘one size its all service’ in one place at a set time, may no longer be tenable.

Congregations have the potential to re-invent their usefulness by discovering what it means to diversify into smaller groups meeting at different times but being intentional about their purpose and ministry. Congregations who do this may well be the catalysts that bring about change in presbyteries.

The following reflections were written as a paper presented to the Commission Anent Review and Reform in 2000 and was subsequently a contribution to the thinking of the Church Without Walls report, published in 2001. It is by looking at alternative models of structuring ourselves that we as a church will find a way to serve God and the people of Scotland in a more creative and inspiring way.

A number of growing churches around the world operate a cell to satellite to centre or cathedral model. The cell is a small group of up to 12 people who meet weekly for prayer and mutual encouragement and may well become involved in social action activities.

The satellite is made up from the cell groups and can range from 20-400. This is the equivalent of the local congregation. They meet weekly on a Sunday morning or at an alternative time for worship. They may have a few people who work full time developing programmes for mission and outreach.

These satellite congregations are serviced and supported by the central hub or cathedral style church.

The centre or cathedral’s sole purpose is to resource the satellite congregations.

The centre is a worshipping community made up of all the satellite groups and models excellence for all the satellites.

The cathedral offers numerous worshipping opportunities during the weekend often one on a Saturday evening and in some cases up to four occasions on a Sunday. The satellite congregations take turns in sharing in the central worship events.

The centre acts as an inspirational partner to the satellite congregations becoming a resource to thousands of people who attend the satellite congregations. Often the centre hosts a Bible School and a Worship Leaders’ School, and a number of regular training programmes on a weekly basis for the satellite congregations.

The role of a Presbytery could be adapted similarly for the proactive resourcing of the church, rather than being a reactive business meeting at which comparative strangers seek to vote on issues far removed from their congregational lives. Presbytery needs to be relational and resourceful. The question to be asked is what is it that Presbytery currently does that is vital to the life and direction of the local congregations in Scotland?

What would happen if Presbytery changed from a business meeting to become a motivational centre for Christian worship, discipleship and development? The business and administration of Presbytery would change to be directly linked to the management and growth of the congregations in its bounds.

The Church of Scotland already has a wealth of talent employed in the parishes and at 121 George Street which could be relocated and used to stafffand service regional Centres of Excellence for training in areas including ministry and worship.

The model of one minister working in one parish or between three parishes is no longer viable. The local church according to Ephesians 4 is built around Christ the head, with the Holy Spirit imparting a gift of ministry to every believer. It is surely the gifts of the Spirit at work in the church that produces the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Ministry is therefore interdependent on each other’s gifts.

To speak of the minister as the one in whom all the gifts reside is to limit the power of God and paralyses the church.

The Very Rev Albert Bogle is a Pioneer Minister of Sanctuary First Church Online at www.sanctuary/irst.org.uk