The Very Rev Albert Bogle explains why congregations need to work together in reimagining Church.

IF we are to rediscover the power and effectiveness of Presbyterianism to help us re-imagine the church for the future, it will be that we have rediscovered as congregations what it means to be interdependent on each other.

Presbytery should be the community into which we bring our gifts and resources in order that we support each other in our common cause which is, following Jesus.

In the Church Without Walls report of 2001 there is a sentence that, for me, sums up the importance and relevance of local congregation: “The priority of the Church is the renewing, refocusing, relocating, and planting of the local worshipping congregation for mission across Scotland.”

This kind of thinking cannot be done by each congregation in isolation. It invites congregations to consider what it means to be interdependent on each other and it helps us begin to see the missional role that Presbytery can play in shaping and re-imagining the mission in the localities where we live.

Living, working and acting together is at the heart of the teaching of Jesus. In John 17:21, during his great prayer for the unity of the church, he prays: “that all of them may be one Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, May they also be in us so that the world may believe you have sent me”

In this short sentence Jesus gives us a perfect example of what it means to believe and live out interdependence as Christian communities. It is our unity and love for each other that makes the gospel believable to the outsider.

We need to respond as congregations to each other in a more positive and creative way. Twenty years ago Loren Mead of the Alban Institute challenged the mainline Churches in North America and Northern Europe to understand the crisis they faced. She wrote: “The storm buffeting the churches is very serious indeed. Much more serious than we have admitted to ourselves and much more serious than our leaders have comprehended… The storm is so serious that I believe it marks the end of’ ‘business as usual’ for the churches and marks the need for us to begin again building the church from the ground up”

If we were in crisis 20 years ago we are now reaching the point where we require to get the lifeboats out because the storms are overwhelming us. For me, we require to seriously begin to rebuild our Christian communities all across Scotland and we need to start small and go deep. I also believe we need to start talking to each other across the denominations. In doing so we will re-discover Jesus’ teaching on servanthood by being interdependent on each other.

In my last article I was suggesting the importance of small groups in our congregations meeting to grow in friendship and fellowship. It is from these small groups that we can reach out into our neighbourhoods in mission and service.

Perhaps when we are considering linking congregations or bringing unions about we should also consider the place of intercongregational small groups in helping establish friendships and relationship.

A more radical idea might be to invite a congregation to rebuild itself. To start again. To leave the old model behind and venture out into a new place. We might be surprised at the number of ministers and congregations who would take up this challenge. It is at this point Presbytery becomes the catalyst to encourage new forms of ministry within an area.

“This surely is the time for us to begin to re-imagine church making use of the new technologies to build a spirit of interdependency and collaboration.

This surely is the time for us to begin to re-imagine church making use of the new technologies to build a spirit of interdependency and collaboration. Presbyterianism need not breed mistrust and suspicion. Our committee structure need not be as cumbersome as we make it.

Let us capture the excitement of reaching out across our parish boundaries to neighbours and friends and begin to allow the Holy Spirit to show us the possibilities and potential that lies beyond the narrow limitations of our congregational historical identities.

When we ask the local to lead we also expect the local to lead relationally. It can no longer be all about the survival of a congregation’s name, minister or building. It’s about following Jesus.

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