This post served as inspiration for the series and contains helpful background information.
A history of Cumberland Uni Church through chairs #4
I don't normally appreciate when people speak from a position of ignorance on any given subject. And as I am not a parent you can dismiss my misgivings which are about to follow. There's a curious trend that has emerged over the past few years which I really struggle to get my head around: putting children on leashes. Have you seen these chained children? Of course, no one goes so far as to put an actual collar on the child, rather they are generally disguised in the form of a soft animal toy "backpack" with the "tail" forming the leash. Excuse my ignorance, but to me a furry chain is still a chain. I can see in this activity at its heart is a loving exercise of a parent to keep their child from harm. But I also see in the furry leash an extension perhaps of the umbilical cord, which was never severed quite as well as it should have been - and perhaps never will.
One of the big challenges of the method of church-planting whereby one congregation acts as the mother church is how long before the umbilical cord must be severed. Generally there is no single rule which dictates the change of relationship between mother and child, but there are a number of principles at work. The hope is like with most children that eventually they'll be set out on their own. Tension usually comes in the form of either the mother not being completely satisfied with the obedience of her offspring or alternately the adolescent child being less than satisfied with the cumbersome interventions of a domineering parent. The saying attributed to Richard Bach comes to mind "If you love someone, set them free. If they come back they're yours; if they don't they never were." However as is often the case when it comes to setting free daughter churches, it turns out they were never yours, and simply take their (long overdue) surplus budget and run.
Cumberland University Church was the offspring of St Paul's Anglican Church Carlingford. While from the very beginning we felt quite separate from St Paul's, our stagnant growth meant we have never been in a position to be set free. In fact, that umbilical cord was our lifeblood, and we were holding on for dear life. It wasn't just about the money. I mean, it was mostly about the money, but also that with a large turnover of leadership it was St Paul's that were maintaining our drive and vision.
As we left off the last chapter of Uni Church's history the core was shrinking and exhausted. Our move to the local community centre's red chairs had physically and mentally drained the ever-shrinking core. The negative aspect of a congregation with a high proportion of non-Christians and new Christians meant the leadership and administration were increasingly performed by the few. And even though the non-Christians were more than willing to lend a hand with many of the jobs, the decision was made that though this would relieve the workload of the core, it created an unhelpful view of why you serve at church. We wanted them to become Christians. Furthermore we wanted them to not confuse church attendance with trusting Jesus. So we were always praying for God to raise up more workers to inject some new life into the leadership team. There was a brief injection of energy when one of the young men who had come to trust in Jesus in the early days of Uni Church was now matured to a point to be invited into the leadership group. However after six months he too needed to leave for family reasons.
We were pretty well had it. It seemed by this stage that every few months the conversation would be had, should we shut down Uni Church? That's a hard question to ask. Especially when deep down I think we all wanted to say yes, shut it down. But unfortunately God was still bringing new non-Christians most weeks. God was still bringing them to trust in Jesus death for their sins, and Christians moving into the area or who had become Christians were maturing and learning to submit to Jesus as Lord. If only God would put an end to all these people wanting to learn about Jesus, then we could have finally shut down and instead driven each week to a larger church where we could sneak in after the service had started and be relatively passive members.
Maybe we should have shut it down. Because the answer for some of the older members was to leave. But we were still convinced we were filling a need that would not be met were we to jump ship and God was still mightily at work. Was Cumberland Uni Church a failure? In so many ways I'm tempted to think it was. We had a planting team of 13 which was more than halved after the first two years, the number of people attending plateaued at a modest level after 3 years and has steadily declined ever since, the main student accommodation was bulldozed and our contacts at the other college moved out, meanwhile those who stayed committed were burnt out.
So was Uni Church a failure? As I think about individual people I'm forced to conclude that CUC was not a failure. As always, I think about myself first, and the way God has used the people and Bible teaching, and example of each other striving to live the gospel out, to greatly encourage and strengthen me in living out the gospel message. I think too of the way God has grown new followers of Jesus. I have sentimentally been looking at old photos and keep being surprised at the number of people who have become Christians and then moved on, that I had forgotten about. That's quite astounding really, that in a church whose weekly attendance over six years has rarely touched thirty, that I could actually lose count of the number of people God brought to faith in Jesus. Our goals that we set were at least in part being met: we were reaching Cumberland campus with the gospel, we were encouraging students to persevere and we were training men and women for long term ministry.
You see, I was wrong (and let's face it, a little bitter) when earlier in the series I wrote of the godly spin-doctoring we performed as each person chose to leave our congregation, we would inevitably rebadge this leaving as "being sent". But I've changed my mind. We did send them. God through our feeble efforts as a church had raised up people who were going out with the gospel. Furthermore, we didn't ask them to stay. We could have but we didn't. No, we sent them. And knowing the people they are, who were going to serve mightily in other long-term ministries, if we'd begged them to stay they probably would have. Though no doubt we needed them, Uni Church was a sending church.
But there is one more twist in our tale. Our final relocation came about through a partnership with St Paul's and a local Anglican church near where Uni Church met; St James Anglican Berala. Berala Anglican is a church that has many faithful saints, who were unable to afford a full-time minister. St Paul's agreed to a partnership with St James whereby they adopted them for a short period of ten years or so to help them get back on their feet. Part of this agreement involved CUC becoming the resident night church. Just as it looked like the exhaustion of the community centre was about to spell an end for Uni Church, our umbilical cord rescued us. Uni Church with another move had more new seats. Or more accurately, pews. Old pews. Old, wooden pews. Old, wooden, uncomfortable pews.
Though most people would view a move from stackable plastic chairs back to pews as a step backwards, for us the thought of no longer having the demands of the weekly set-up at the community centre was a welcome relief. And at the very least the preacher needn't now worry about the distraction of kindergarten art anymore. And there is little chance of us falling asleep due to the discomfort of the congregation as each week for an hour and a half our spines are realigned to the somewhat unconventional curve of the pews.
While new people continued to join us, overall our numbers maintained their decline (20~).
The blessing of being in the church building is coupled with some architectural challenges. It's not that the feng shui is all wrong, but rather what does it mean to be in a big church with few people? It means at the very least you are acutely aware of your smallness. Sure, we have various means of bunching people together - getting everyone to sit on the one side. And then to force people even closer together pushing the back pews together on that side so you are forced to sit up the front. But in the cavernous space we drown. And I discovered something. For the first time in the history of Uni Church I was looking at the empty seats. Not just in the general sense of them being vacant, but every week I am consciously going through every single person I know who isn't present. I also have the problem of history because I've seen a much healthier version of the congregation. Thus inevitably on occasions of particularly small attendance not only do I realise who isn't there this week, but my mind wanders to those who have left permanently. Try as I might, the empty seats continue to get me down. I cannot tell you how many times I've had to force myself to pray that I wouldn't let the empty seats distract me from the ones that have people sitting in them. It is a great sadness to let the people who aren't there prevent me from serving those who are. I feel at this point a great affinity with those who attend the morning congregation at St James who I've spoken to. These older saints speak with equal parts happiness and sadness as they think back to the days when their congregation was full and teeming with children, which today is just a shadow of its former glory. They too have the problem of history, and yet for them it must be even more acute because they've seen the actual building at Berala full, whereas my memory is of just a slightly healthier Uni Church. I've never seen St James full. But I see it empty every Sunday night.
I remain thankful for our umbilical cord that has taken us to Berala. It means for the first time in the history of Uni Church we have a full-time minister in Andy Chung. Andy is employed to look after both the Berala morning congregation as well as CUC. It has been of great benefit to have Andy thinking strategically about the church and what is best for its people. Though Andy now one year into this role is only just starting to understand the ministry and be better able to determine the future and a new direction. Sadly, the core has now completely flatlined. And consequently the regular energy sapping work of following up newcomers and pastoral care has suffered leading to the regular Sunday meeting now attracting around 15 people each week. Critical mass has always been a problem at Uni Church, and my prayer is that those who remain are able to reinvigorate the ministry with the backing of Andy and the morning congregation at Berala Anglican.
It has been six years since we started Cumberland University Church with thirteen founding members. In ten days time, myself and the other two remaining founding members of Uni Church are leaving to pursue other ministries. It's time to move on. So what will the future hold for Uni Church? Finally six years late, the design of Uni Church is changing to reflect what is appropriate for a church of 13 people. And I tell you what, I'm as excited as a simile. Sarah and I are leaving to take up a student minister position as part of Bible College and we are sad to not be able to be a part of the next chapter of Uni Church. The bottom line is CUC could not continue with the same program. Less people, same program means more exhaustion. Our hand is being forced, and this means there is great potential for the future.
With the move to Berala, and the passage of time it has become apparent that our mission to be a church for Cumberland campus has somewhat changed. Our links with the campus have gradually decreased and while we still hope to reach out to local students, our status as a community church has increased. So Cumberland Uni Church is now Berala Night Church. It's really an acceptance of the way that gospel growth usually occurs, through people. It's not build it and they will come (even though that has happened), instead it is visualising each individual member as having unique links into their various networks. The members of Uni Church are more linked into the local community than exclusively with the uni campus. As our members sought to bring their friends along to church, and these friendship networks were increasingly separate from Cumberland, the name became a barrier to these new contacts feeling an attachment to the church and our vision.
Berala Night Church is getting a complete overhaul. We've been forced to ask the question about the essentials of the church meeting. What is fluff? Are there aspects of the way we do what is essential, not essential? Yes we want the Scriptures read publicly, but do we need a roster that gives another specific job to the few? How are we going to sit? What format best suits us? What sort of chairs should we have? Lounge chairs and meet as a house church in the manse? Should we meet over a meal around tables down in the smaller lower level of the church? How is the public gathering best structured to free up the members to develop relationships and do the work of evangelism? Can a single Sunday gathering be formatted in a way that doesn't require a mid-week Bible Study group and instead free up a night each week for dedicated contact with non-Christians. The remaining members of the church are working through these questions for a relaunch in January.
Though I leave with great sadness, the future of Berala Night Church is full of potential. It's exciting to not know what the chairs will be.
So there you have it. A history of Cumberland Uni Church through chairs. There is no fairy tale ending to my church planting experience. Just a bizarre mixture of joy and sadness, excitement and exhaustion, potential and regret. Was Cumberland University Church a failure? No way. Would I do things differently? Absolutely. But as we proclaimed Christ crucified non-Christians have heard the gospel clearly explained, some of them have then realised they needed to sort things out with God and been saved, Christians have matured, and others have been sent out with the gospel message to the world. While Cumberland University Church is not very impressive to look at presently, in God's sovereignty the evidence of its success will only be seen when the Lord Jesus returns.
