Chopping down the Sunday Tree

On April 26, 2009 / By maggi dawn / Reply

I read this on Digging a Lot:

Say your church is dying. You have good buildings and some community ministry, but Sunday service is dwindling. It consumes a lot of your energy, both from your pastoral leader and your volunteers – to run sound and play music.

Change proposal: chopping down the Sunday tree.

Keep meeting at 10:30 am Sunday. Keep the doors open. Keep the coffee fresh. Keep the muffins warm. But stop the sermons and stop the singing. Take all that energy and reclaim the time for mission. Read a creed. Dwell in Luke 10:1-12. Initiate some listening experiments. Share stories. Foray into the community for simple acts of service. Return to share stories. Re-read a creed. Re-dwell in Luke 10:1-12. Initiate some more listening experiments. Share stories. Foray into the community for further acts of service.

You get the idea.

If it fails, you were dying anyway.

If visitors do come, they are not meeting a shut door, nor are they finding a stressed group of people. Instead they are finding a warm community who like coffee and muffins. Who knows, they might just be attracted by a group of people taking mission and church and leadership seriously. In the meantime, you are reclaiming an existing resource – your time and your pastoral time – and you’re investing that in mission. And you are redefining your stretched life around mission and community.

Do this for 3 months and see what shoots begin to emerge. Who knows. Some shoots will need another prune. But some might be worth persevering with. Some might even need a new name’.

Edit: commenters have noted that this was written by Steve Taylor. Here's the link to his original post. If you like it buy his book (it's good!) 

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« Chaplaincy in the Church Times
The Sunday Tree – part 2 »

No Responses to “Chopping down the Sunday Tree”

Comments

  1. John
    On March 20, 2009 at 4:53 pm

    Thank you for that link, it is a great retelling. This encounter is a favorite of mine, too. I especially like Margaret Silf’s retelling of the story in her book “Sacred Spaces”. At least, I think it is hers!

  2. Steven Carr
    On March 20, 2009 at 8:22 pm

    I wonder what sort of Messiah the woman thought Jesus was.
    Probably a false Messiah.

  3. jane
    On March 21, 2009 at 8:48 pm

    Thanks too for the link – it is lovely reworking of the story. I’ve been listening to and reading the story alot these past days and weeks as a result of World Water Day tomorrow. thinking about what you said about women and cultural assumptions it too often assumed that women will take care of issues to do with providing water for their families – their role in giving people water to drink is still absolutely crucial in many parts of the world.

  4. Hugh A
    On March 21, 2009 at 10:51 pm

    Great link Maggi. It is only too easy to cast all the blame on her and to forget that she may have been the victim. It is another great example of Jesus affirming equality of women.

  5. Sally
    On March 21, 2009 at 11:42 pm

    Thank you for the link and the encouragement Maggi

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