Down and Dromore Church of Ireland diocese focused on rejuvenation
Down and Dromore Church of Ireland diocese has held a parish evening in Lisburn this past week, focusing on the importance of church growth.
Hundreds of worshippers from the 72 parishes which encompass Down and Dromore diocese – located in East Belfast, Co Down and Craigavon – packed the T3 conference centre on the old Maze site for the gathering, which was billed as "an opportunity to be encouraged by what God is doing in parish life and to think strategically together".
Alongside its church planting initiative, Down and Dromore diocese, led by Bishop David McClay, is committed to seeing existing parishes thrive and enter a new season of "fruitfulness, especially where there has been stagnation or decline".
Archdeacon Mark Harvey, who has special responsibility in this spiritual field, hosted the evening. He said parish rejuvenation begins with recognising there is a problem and being intentional in addressing decline. The archdeacon said the next steps involved reviewing the effectiveness of the Christian ministry and outreach alongside resources and their use. "Finally, a parish should put key elements in place," he added.
The gathering heard from three church leaders who are going through this process in very different settings: Rev Andrew Frame, from Knocknagoney parish church at the edge of large social housing on the outskirts of Belfast; Denise Wilson, community pastor in Bangor Primacy, which is joined with the Methodist church; and Rev Karen Salmon, from Magherally and Annaclone, two small rural churches outside Banbridge.
All have faced challenges, but all have seen growth in their congregations over time and a younger overall age-profile.
Some common threads emerged, one of which was community engagement. Rev Andrew Frame, for example, has connected extensively with the local primary school in Knocknagoney.
Another was accessible, context sensitive worship. Rev Karen Salmon shared how contemporary music is much less effective in her rural setting and so she has initiated a successful evening service with country gospel music.
Each spoke of the importance of prayer which contends for revival and renewal. Denise Wilson shared how she has gathered people together for early morning prayer zoom meetings. One of their prayers was for 40 new people in their 40th anniversary year, and she said God answered this call.
There are real challenges in church rejuvenation, including a lack of finances and personnel, and there was agreement that this was hard work.
When asked the most important priority for church growth, Bishop McClay said that as leaders they should “cry out to the Lord and get to the place where we do not settle for the way things are. We should also pray that this happens to our people”.
The bishop added: “We need to ask the Lord to raise up leaders for whom evangelism is a real priority.
"Let us ask God to break our hearts for people who do not know Jesus.
"This is the key, and we will find that everything else will fall into place."