At the June meeting of our Kirk Session and Congregational Board we considered this report on Mission. It is printed here in full to enable everyone to share in our discussions:
Towards a Mission Plan for Fogo Parish Church
Following the last meeting of the Kirk Session an open meeting to discuss our mission as a congregation was arranged and held in the home of Clare Fleming. This meeting was very well attended with more than half of our regular congregation present.
The meeting discussed our worship and witness through worship and then, following wonderful refreshments, considered the things which we might do as a congregation to reach out to other people. The meeting ended with a request that people present at the meeting think on the things which had been discussed and share thoughts with Dane, and with an agreement that once a mission plan had been drawn up there would be a second meeting which would look in more detail at our worship.
In the first part of the meeting there was a general agreement that we had nothing to fear from going it alone in the years ahead. Dane spelled out to the meeting that no matter how well we did as a little congregation there was no possibility of a stipendiary minister being appointed to serve us. It was possible that once our period of presbytery guardianship was over presbytery might incorporate us into another church grouping but in that circumstance it was very unlikely that there would continue to be a weekly service at Fogo and indeed in the future regular worship at Fogo might cease as the shortage of ministers and decreasing size of congregations continued.
Against that background the meeting was sure that the way forward for ourselves was to take control of our own destiny. There was nothing to be feared in planning to organise our own services. John spoke about his experience working abroad and sharing in leading worship because a Christian church was not permitted there. He and Kirsten would be delighted to share in this here. Chris echoed this thought and explained that for several years he had been a lay reader in the Church of Ireland. He was keen to play a full part in conducting worship. Dane also said that he, too, would hope to be allowed to continue at Fogo. He would be seventy-three by the time that our Guardianship came to an end in September, 2019 and would hope to be able to offer at least the following two years to the congregation – and longer if the congregation and health permitted.
A pattern began to emerge – services provided by ourselves in a building owned by our local Fogo Parish Church Community Trust – but with additional input from outwith the congregation. It was noted that one thing the Church of Scotland had in abundance was retired ministers. The idea was floated that we seek to have the use of a cottage to which we might invite ministers to come and spend six weeks, three months or whatever, enjoying a holiday in the Borders in exchange for conducting Sunday morning worship. If it is argued that the supply of retired ministers will inevitable eventually dry up as the number of ministers within the Church severely declines then there is the whole of the rest of the world from which to invite ministers to come. American ministers, in particular, are very keen on exchange visits, but what of those same ministers once they have retired and have nothing to offer by way of exchange? A base in the Borders in exchange for conducting services would be an attractive offer to many.
Against this background the meeting stated very firmly that in seeking to take control of its own destiny, the congregation wished to remain part of the Church of Scotland. This was not a seeking to declare independence from the Church of Scotland but a way of enabling a small historic congregation with a beautiful building and a small but growing number of members to remain an important part of the Kirk. The congregation will continue to pay its presbytery dues, and its ministry and mission allocations to the central offices of the Church of Scotland. It will also continue to be the Church of Scotland presence in the parish of Fogo.
In bringing this stage of the discussion to an end it was noted that we as a congregation are rich in resources: we have a committed regular attendance of around thirty-four folk with a further dozen or so who come from time to time. We don’t always see everyone in church but this is in large part because our congregation is so mobile. On one recent Sunday we had members in Australia, China, the West Indies, Budapest and the south of England – and yet we still mustered twenty-two in church! We have fabulous music which enables our services to be joyful and enthusiastic. We have a keen band of those who ensure that there are refreshments after the service and many are happy to read lessons or lead prayers during worship. We regularly have children in church and this enriches worship for adults as well as giving us the opportunity of remembering that church is for all ages. Anything we try to do is appreciated and supported and we have a great deal of good will from the parish and beyond. In terms of finance we are fortunate to have no concerns. We ended last year with at least £10,000 more than we started with and now many, if not most, contribute by direct debit ensuring that our treasurer can face the future with equanimity.
Finally in this stage of the report, it may seem strange that a meeting called to discuss mission started by considering our worship; but congregational life centres around worship. It is what we do as a church – we worship God – and any mission which is about sharing the good news of our faith and the love which we experience and which underlies our faith has to be underpinned by our worship and our commitment to enable that worship to continue at the heart of our community.
The second part of this report grows out of the second part of our mission meeting. However, it also incorporates the proposals and suggestions which have been brought forward as a result of that discussion. Within these following paragraphs you will perhaps recognise the voices of Tom T, Liz and Pete and others as well.
It was agreed that mission isn’t about one-off activities although there will inevitably be a number of such activities. Rather mission is a mindset in which everything we do is based on mission. Our service has to be about welcoming new people and sharing with them – having new folk in church changes who we are, keeps us fresh, challenges our views and keeps us growing. Everything we do we have to weigh against the question, ‘How does this help us grow?’ How does it help us grow and develop our faith as individuals and as a congregation and how does it help us reach out to other people to share God’s love because that is the purpose of the church and that is why our church was built so many years ago and why it has been so constantly rebuilt and altered over the years. If we are not using it to grow God’s kingdom then we are letting down all those who have done so much in times past.
It was Pete who expressed the view that it was important that people knew that there was a goodly congregation in church because it was difficult to come along for your first visit if you felt that there might be only a handful of folk present and you feared you might stick out like a sore thumb. He explained that this was why he and Gill had decided to come for the first time on Palm Sunday when they felt sure there would be a good congregation. Incidentally this is also why our music is so important. We are fortunate to have music which leads worship – no matter what obscure hymn the minister chooses we know that the organ will lead and support singing and, as a result, worship takes off.
Building on Pete’s comments our first mission proposal is that we plan a special service for late summer, early autumn to be an ‘Everybody here Sunday’. On this Sunday each member will be asked to bring a friend – not a friend from another church but someone who doesn’t attend church. We will produce invitations to enable members to use them and also to send to other folk. We will produce an accompanying new members handbook or welcome pack to give to those who come. We will end the service with a picnic lunch using gazebos and maybe Pete’s famous bar-b-cue. We’ll distribute the invitations as wide as we can. We’ll seek press coverage and we’ll all get together and prepare something really special for the day. Then we will burst a gut in being welcoming and making folk who come wonder how on earth they could manage before they came into contact with Fogo Parish Church! We’ll go into it all absolutely convinced that it will bear fruits and we’ll throw off our inhibitions and shyness about speaking to people and inviting people and it will be hugely successful.
Our second mission proposal is based on the realisation that now we are living in a situation which is so different from any previous time. Our Scottish story is of a country at the heart of which has been Christian faith. In times past everyone has known the Christian stories. In the more recent past people have known bits of the Christian story but much of it has been garbled and not properly understood at all. Now we have at least one generation which doesn’t know even the most basic Bible stories so we have the opportunity of telling the story without so much of the impedimenta of the past; and we do it at a time when many have enjoyed the freedoms which changes in society have brought but which folk are already beginning to realise do not answer the important questions in life — and we do it at a time when there are so many resources unavailable to previous generations. We can visit the Holy Land by DVD and see the places where everything happened; we can watch dramatised accounts of the Bible story; we can buy cheaply books filled with pictures and written by experts in the faith. We are not on our own.
Against this background Liz noticed that it is hoped to set up a Duns Branch of the University of the Third Age. This group sets up courses of talks, reading groups and trips for its members who are, as the name suggests, now usually retired. Her suggestion is that she offers to host a group which would explore something like ‘Our Bible and how it came to us’. This might run weekly for a season or monthly for a session. Dane would be asked to lead the course and several of us would be encouraged to attend to befriend and encourage folk to take the step beyond learning about something which is deliberately historical to joining in a faith group – ours at Fogo. Obviously we have to wait until the University of the Third Age is set up here and then we would have to see if folk were interested in something along the lines suggested by Liz but it could provide a way in for us to those who are on the verges and for those people it could provide a way into a community of faith.
Our third mission proposal (can you hear Tom T’s voice in this?) takes seriously the responsibility of every congregation to reach out to young people, one of the generations which is missing from most congregations. We can claim to have every primary school-age child living in our parish present at worship but as that only amounts to two children we cannot be complacent, although caring for their Christian upbringing is very important and the opportunity of doing that is a privilege we appreciate and for which we thank their parents. Last year we made a small donation to the Berwickshire Christian Youth Trust. We have also over the past eighteen months welcomed several teenagers into our regular concerts where they have astounded us with their musical talents. Also we live in a glorious rural setting. This proposal seeks to take all of these opportunities and make of them something which might be quite special. It can only be a tentative proposal because it would require the permission, help and support of several people to make it happen but if it did it might create the start of a real youth ministry.
The suggestion is that we seek the use of a field and arrange a one day (afternoon, bar-b-cue, and evening) Youth Christian Music Festival. We would ask Heather and Harris to take a leading part in the music side of the event. They could bring many youngsters from Berwickshire High School – but we would cast the net wider. Harris could also bring many of his musical contacts and, as we have seen from recent concerts, he has many of huge quality. The Berwickshire Christian Youth Trust might help with the preparations and be able to bring in some good Christian communicators, as well as working with us to help us create something through which we might reach out to young people. We would staff bar-b-cues (there you are again, Pete), look after the logistics and be the responsible body behind the event. The idea would be to plan the event at least a year ahead because much of the value would be in the planning stages which would bring youngsters together with us and during which we might hope to engage some of them with us in our worshipping family, always recognising that in so doing we may have to make changes to what we do to be relevant to them. It could be quite a thing and who knows where it might lead!
Mission is also about developing ourselves and developing our own faith so that we may become better missionaries. Another suggestion, our fourth mission proposal, originating with a word from Tom T is that we plan a congregational pilgrimage to the Holy Land for those who might like to take part. Dane has led such pilgrimages before so we have the knowledge, skills and ability to do this. The proposal would be to discover if enough people wanted to come on such a pilgrimage and, if so, when would be the most convenient time. (We are sure that people from other congregations might wish to join us.) Having planned a time at least a year ahead we would then meet once a month as a group to learn about the places we would visit so that when we went we would really get the most out of our journey. Everyone would have the opportunity of leading, or sharing in the leading of a short service at one of the special pilgrimage places and would come back refreshed and enthused by the experience. Dane has the programmes of previous pilgrimages and a great deal of extra information such as the daily Newspapers he used on the tours he led. If we wanted to take this forward, the first step would be to arrange a meeting and invite those interested to attend.
Our fifth mission proposal is that we take a look at our church setting and see how we can make it speak more of our welcome to those who pass by. This proposal might include the creation of a more attractive and welcoming notice board, or maybe even more than one; it might include arranging ourselves to cut the grass in the church yard (at least on either side of the path) now that the council has said that grass cutting will be much less frequent due to financial constraints. It might include the preparation of attractive information leaflets in the church encouraging people who visit to learn not only about the building but about the welcome which would await them as worshipping members. It might also include seeing that the church is signposted from the different road end approaches. Making people feel at home is very important. That is why we print a full Order of Service each week – so that everyone knows exactly what to expect and printing the Lord’s prayer each week so that no stranger feels awkward. It’s why we produce large-print versions for those who have difficulty seeing and full scripts for anyone who might have difficulty hearing. All of these things matter because they help us show that everyone really matters.
Our sixth proposal is something which is beyond our control. It is certainly true that there are communities adjacent to our parish who have not felt a Christian presence for quite a while. In these days of ever increasing parish size, perhaps we should be offering to serve a slightly bigger area – Polworth, perhaps, or Ladyflat – always being careful to avoid any home which attends another church (although we have been unable to discover attending Church of Scotland members from many of such areas). As we have the energy to visit folk and make contact with people in their homes possibly we could consider asking if this is a way in which we might help the wider church?
Our seventh proposal is a bit of fun. We could ask all of our members to take one of our post cards (made by Molly) and take it with them when they go away and when they are far from Fogo ask them to have their picture taken holding the postcard. We could make a great display of such pictures which would truly record all the places our folk get to. It would certainly create a picture of church folk which would be a bit different and if it made others think that these are folk who sound quite fun and I’d really like to get to know them, then who knows, someone might just come along and visit us!
Our eighth proposal is another small proposal and it is about creating identity. It’s very simple. Let’s have some Fogo Kirk mugs made. We can give them to special visitors such as our musicians, and they will remember us. We can sell them to ourselves and if we use them when friends come for coffee it can open the door easily to a conversation about our fabulous congregation and our beautiful church. Sometimes it’s hard to find ways of talking to folk we know well about our church and our faith and a simple little mug could be a real missionary aid.
Our ninth proposal is that we hold a summer fayre. Maybe not this year, although that is not excluded, but possibly planning this for next year which would give us time to make or purchase some stalls and develop a full programme of events for the day. We could hold it on the ground in front of the churchyard, or possibly even in a garden. If we set it a year ahead we could each bring something back from our holidays for a holiday stall and we could have a colour stall, where each of us would bring something in the colour of the year, perhaps yellow with yellow scarves, yellow ornaments, yellow covered books and all of the things we will each notice are yellow over the course of the year. We could explore our attics for things we no longer have room for but which would be special to someone else. We could set about making some fun fayre games, organise a tea tent and perhaps it wouldn’t even need to be summer and could be Christmas instead.
Our meeting and its ensuing conversations has been extremely worthwhile. Here are nine proposals, more may be in the pipeline. Whether we adopt them all or abandon them all, we can be sure that mission is now firmly on our agenda.