The Marks of Mission: to teach, baptise and nurture new believers

In the third part of our six-part series looking at the five Marks of Mission, Thomas Baldwin considers the second mark of mission.

THE second of the five Marks of Mission goes to the heart of the Church of Scotland’s current situation: ‘to teach, baptise and nurture new believers’.

The most important motivation for this, of course, should be that it is what Jesus told his followers to do. However, it is surely uncontroversial to say that the Church of Scotland also needs to attract more new believers for the sake of its own health, following decades of declining membership figures.

It is also unarguable that the context the Church is working in is discouraging to say the least, with the majority of Scots now saying they are not religious.

But there are churches which are bucking the trend. Among them are New Parish Church in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, which has had 20 new members since 2020, with another five currently in a new communicants class; and Sandyford Henderson Memorial Church in Glasgow, which welcomed 16 new members before Christmas.

The ministers of both churches have arrived in the past two years, but both attribute their recent success, at least partly, to long-term relationship-building work which predates their arrival.

The Rev William Boyle, minister of the Port Glasgow church, says: “When I first arrived in March 2020, the church already had a list of people who were interested. They had been vacant for five years but they didn’t sit still, they kept going. So I did the first new communicants class, which had to be online because of Covid-19, and just took it from there.

“Anyone who’s come forward (to bring their child) for baptism, I’ve also invited them along to the class – rather than just putting a date in the diary for the baptism, it’s about investing time in them, building a relationship, working with them.”

He adds that a part of the relationshipbuilding, as well as telling people what you can do for them, is to listen and find out what they have to offer. “We had a new member from our 2020 intake who talked a lot about his passions and interests, and one of them was mental wellbeing.

“He talked to us about walking football, which I’d never heard of before. But thanks to him we’ve now got a walking football team which helps and supports people’s mental wellbeing.

“It’s showing people that we’re listening to them, we value their opinion and we value their input, and thanks to him we’ve got something to benefit the whole parish. And I think for him it was someone’s listening, someone cares, someone wants to take this seriously. And he and his wife and children are now valued members of the congregation.”

William also credits the streaming of services on the internet with ‘a massive part’ in attracting new people: “Whereas in the past you might look at a church building and think ‘I don’t know what goes on in there’, people can jump online and see what the services are like, perhaps answer some of the questions or concerns they’ve got. We’ve certainly seen a lot of new faces saying ‘we watched you on Facebook’, ‘we watched you on YouTube’.”

The minister of Sandyford Henderson, the Rev Ben Thorp, says that the recent influx of new members is in large part due to understanding the parish and focussing on the opportunities it offers – in this case, students.

“In our parish we have something like 4500 students, mostly international students,” says Ben, who was ordained last year. “And so the church has been doing work with students for a long time.”

The church runs a student café on Friday nights, including activities such as Burns night, games nights, an art evening once a session. Then on Sundays after church there is a free lunch for students, which Ben says was still about building relationships – ‘getting to know folks, helping folks to get to know each other’.

“Then we run two student bible studies, one for Christians and one for people who are unsure or enquiring about the faith.”

He says this last one is particularly helpful for students coming from China, many of whom will never have even seen a Bible. The church also employs a full-time student worker who speaks Mandarin.

“So that’s the foundation of it: that long-term relational work and helping folks to make friends with each other and to make connections, and with those connections to encourage people to consider scripture and consider Jesus, and nurture whatever faith journey they are on.”

Ben also says he is encouraging his members to get out of their ‘Christian bubble’, to talk to non-Christians about their faith, and is exploring ways in which the church can help with that. “And then from there making sure there are obvious ways forward as those relationships develop. You can have those social things (such as the café), but then have something else that’s got a little more religious content, but not necessarily going down the full ‘let me tell you all about Jesus’ stage all at once. It’s about providing those stepping stones, making the path a bit more clearly signposted.”

What is clear from both Ben and William is that nurturing new believers takes time. And while it might feel like slow progress to begin with, once a church has some success it takes on a momentum of its own.

"It’s showing people that we’re listening to them, we value their opinion and we value their input, and thanks to him we’ve got something to benefit the whole parish.

“Because of the times we’re living through it would be very easy for people to feel negative,” says William. “But there’s such a positive atmosphere around the place. One member actually said to me ‘I’m losing count now, coming in to church every Sunday and seeing new people’ and she said ‘it’s just wonderful’.

“We’ve just been chipping away and chipping away, working at it, building relationships, listening to people and being there for people, and we’re starting to see the benefits of that.”