Why LYCIG Matters (Leading Your Church Into Growth)

Anne, Philippa, and I went on a course recently and I want to tell you why it is important to everybody.

Our world is a very different place to what it was in our childhood, and if we don’t adapt to the modern world, we will die as a church.

In our youth there were no computers or streaming services to bring 24/7 culture into our homes. On a Sunday it was a rest day and people went to church as a matter of course, it was the centre of life in the local area on that day, as the pubs didn’t open until a lot later, and it was more suitable for families.

But today, there are a lot of distractions, and we have been groomed by social media to expect instant success. So, a church like ours, who has the added disadvantage of not being in the main shopping area and being above their eyeline, will seem intimidating and boring to the main population. As religion is not about instant gratification or success, but about service to God and spreading God’s love to the world, it does not fit in to current culture.

I am not saying that we need to be like the current 24/7 culture where the focus is on “me” and the timescale is now, but I think that we need to go out into the community, identify the needs of our community, and try to address it.

For example: the modern community is not a community in the traditional sense, where everybody was part of a local wider family. Today our area is home to several different cultures and ethnic groups who live apart without many bridge builders.

Also, the local gathering places like pubs, local shops and local banks, are in steep decline – so people tend not to go so often to the local centres as they did even 10 years ago. The temptation now is to stay in the home and watch television, shop online or scroll through social media – all of which are passive time wasters and do not develop our social skills.

Humans are social animals and to feel good we need social interaction. Unfortunately, COVID was a severe blow and handicap to that and a lot of people have affected emotionally by the lockdown imposed by the government of the day, and we still have to work hard to counteract that.

This course that we went on is designed to equip congregations to go out into today’s fractured communities and help them to find the seekers looking for God, looking for something more than today’s culture can offer them. We need to overcome their suspicions that have been encouraged by modern culture and show the world at large that we can fulfil the need for human, face to face friendship that they do not realise that they need.

We have already started on this road by Identifying our problem and employing an Outreach Community Worker to raise awareness of us in the local community. Now we need to build on this by identifying the community’s needs and showing that we can fulfil them by supplying the gathering places that are so lacking today and by showing them the love of God.

We need to act now – tomorrow is too late. 

Helen.