Today I visited my childhood Church for the first time in about ten years. A little background: When my family started going to this Church when I was about 7 years old, it was thriving and lively with a full Sunday school, but over the years the numbers dwindled until only a handful of older couples and a couple of teenagers who went out of tradition remained. Despite the fact it’s quite an “old-fashioned” church, I have so many good memories and without it, I probably wouldn’t be a Christian – since it had links with a Christian youth centre I attended for many years that encouraged me to give my life to Christ. It was in that Church that I met some other girls the same age as me who are my closest friends to this day, we had a self-organised house group until we left for uni, and were encouraged to have an active part in Church life.
Anyway, the Church was shrinking and my parents did their best to try and encourage change to bring more people through the doors, but their efforts were met with hostility from Church members who wanted things to stay just as they were, thank you very much. Eventually, they joined a bigger, growing Church in a different town, and I ended up moving with them.
It annoyed me too that the Church was so “stuck in its ways”; I longed to be a part of a big Church – one with a band, not an organ; with central heating and comfy chairs! Although I liked the other Churchgoers, I wanted to go somewhere where the average age was less than 60. Nothing against old people, but it didn’t always feel relevant to me.
Revisiting my old Church, I was prepared to feel saddened by the state of it nowadays – that I would see the Church where I was “born” as a Christian dying. Instead, I was encouraged. Here’s why:
Small churches have just as much value as bigger ones.
The congregation was the size of a small group. But Jesus says: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them”. (Matt 18:20). God doesn’t just visit megachurches. He’s there in the little ones too. Big churches are inspiring – so many people dedicated to Jesus! But I was struck by how “at home” I felt in a little Church.
I always thought I would love to go to a big Church, and indeed, the Church we moved to was one of the biggest in the area. But with so many people, sometimes it was hard to feel like a real part of it. Even after I’d gone there for years people would still ask me: “are you new here?!”. I’m not the most outgoing girl in the world and tend to feel shy meeting new people, so I often felt like I was on the outside looking in and despite the wide variety of people there never “found my place”.
But when I went back to my old Church I saw women I hadn’t seen in years who knew me, had been keeping up with my news via my parents, who didn’t confuse me with my sister (even my mum and dad can’t manage that!).
For me, Church is about fellowship. Good teaching and worship is important – but I kind of feel, I can listen to a sermon or praise God through song at home! Friendships with other Christians are so important and can only be developed through Church. It’s opened my eyes that small Churches can be just as encouraging as big ones.
One lady hadn’t come, and this had been noted by the Elder who was going to ring and check she was OK. When I stopped going to the new Church, I don’t think anyone noticed. A small congregation meant that a detail like that was taken care of.
Some people call small Churches “dying Churches”. One look at the friendship and faith that little congregation had proved that isn’t the case.
Everyone has different tastes
Traditional Churches are not as popular as they once were. I think a lot of Churches are moving away from things like organs and hymn books in favour of guitars and PowerPoint presentations, and that’s great because we need to move with the times, but I also think when Churches don’t change, they’re criticised and seen as old-fashioned.
As I sang along with the old hymns, seeing the boy on the organ playing with such joy, I thought: “why does sticking to the old ways have to be bad?”. I still reckon I prefer a backing band and new songs to the style of worship there was this morning, but that doesn’t mean organs are bad!
Everybody has different preferences. I don’t care for classical music – but I don’t think it’s wrong. It’s just a matter of opinion.
The traditional style of worship isn’t just for “old fogeys” either! One of my friends can’t stand the newer worship songs and would much rather sing along to some of the old great hymns instead.
There’s a place for modern Churches, a place for traditional ones. My parents put a lot of effort into trying to modernise the Church, but now I wonder if they should have just left it alone? It might have bought a new “crowd” in – but would it have pushed away the people who want to sing a 1700s hymn over the latest Matt Redman?
Don’t overlook the elderly
Most of the Church members were OAPs. It got me thinking how the older members of our congregation can sometimes be overlooked. We hear about how we need to encourage our youth; they’re the church of the future etc etc…and don’t get me wrong, it’s vitally important we encourage and inspire youngsters. But I’m guilty of ignoring the older folk when they can teach us so much. The faith and devotion of a ninety year old can be so inspiring and with all that life experience under their belt surely they’ll have enough life lessons to fill a good few sermons! But they can feel like they’re “past it”; too old and frail to serve the Church anymore.
As I was writing this it also struck me that there isn’t really much evangelism to the elderly. I’m not sure if it’s just something I don’t notice, but it seems the majority of evangelism efforts go into youth. It’s a myth too that older people usually believe in Jesus anyway – none of my Grandparents have any Christian belief. I am going to have a think about how I can witness to them.
From an outsiders perspective, my old Church can be seen as old-fashioned; small; dying. I disagree. Just because they aren’t singing Tim Hughes and replacing the pews with sofas doesn’t mean they’re on some kind of spiritual death row. They are not only devoted to God but to one another – to me, the very definition of what Church should be. I wasn’t discouraged and saddened. I’ve been inspired.
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