What does justice look like in the church?

Having decided it was time to move on from my appointment in the potteries it took a lot of discerning as to the right context for us and for my ministry. My thinking was around should we go really rural or inner city? In helping to decide Part I visited an Iona Community member in Bradford to explore ministry in the inner city. What became apparent all those years ago was that main stream denominations were withdrawing from the inner city and becoming more entrenched in the suburban enclaves. In reflection I  felt God was asking me to minister in the inner city. Part of that thinking was about the church needing not to withdraw from such areas. Yet the church seemed to do so because they are poorer and find it hard to maintain buildings and human resources are thinner on the ground. 

In being sent to visit what was then the Pilgrim Circuit in the north of Sheffield we were shown a manse out in the suburbs. This was despite having made it clear that I felt called to work in the inner city, and part of that call meant to live in the context, not in a suburban area and commute in. Thankfully there was a manse which they had intended to sell and we moved into that house. What followed were fourteen challenging and enjoyable years. I recognise that not everyone would have wanted to live and work where we did. We found ourselves to be the richer for it, and I believe it helped to make a statement about the churches commitment not to withdraw from the poorer areas of our cities. 

So fast forward 15 years.

It's a long time since I purchased a Methodist Recorder or read it come to that. But on my twitter feed came this tweet via the Methodist Recorder.

'Significantly more churches have closed in low income areas than affluent ones in the last decade according to a new report '

As my final appointment came to an end the Methodist circuit I was part of put their effort into finding ministers for the wealthier parts of the city and not mine. Now they are putting the manse up for sale. I understand what is happening. All through my fourteen years living and working in the inner city I had to keep arguing for justice in the use of resources. That meant putting people into the poorer areas as well as money.

Withdrawing from the inner city, selling the manse, giving my former churches to a minister with others  to look after, just highlights how the church finds itself biased towards the wealthy. Yes some buildings need to close in the inner city and I certainly argued that we could not maintain them all. But in closing some buildings I argued for the focus on others so that christian church presence remained in a sustainable way. 

My main church, bearing in mind I had five at one time while being a co- superintendent minister, was a very large building and a constant challenge to maintain. But the congregations who worship there, and the activities held there, make it a vibrant and relevant church community. It does not sit on vast sums of money just in case of the rainy day and the roof falls in. It seeks to serve and I suspect will always be living on the edge financially. New people who have joined the church from the local community do not have money because it's in one of the poorest wards of the city and one of the poorest wards in the country. Yet in the face of that it is continuing to offer a safe space for groups to meet, has created a soft play facility for the community, is beginning new work to create disciples in that facility which will evolve I pray into a new congregation not meeting on a Sunday. But it will always be vulnerable if the wider church is not prepared to commit ministry that lives in the area and ensures that financially not too large a burden is placed upon it. 

So a report has come out Is the Church Losing Faith in Low-Income Communities in Greater Manchester?,

So quoting from that report:-

Ms Tweedie said: “Sometimes while there’s fabulous work going on in deprived areas, sometimes there aren’t people to fight to save a church in the way that there are in some more affluent areas.”

Niall Cooper, director of Church Action on Poverty, said there must be a reason why churches in deprived areas were closed more frequently and there was another story going on. “I’m not saying in most cases it’s a deliberate strategy. But unconsciously, there are forces at play, where churches with less resource, less money, potentially fewer human assets are the ones that close — and those will be the ones in low-income community areas.”

Eunice Attwood, the church on the margins officer for the Methodists, said she had been aware of closures in low-income communities for many years, but sometimes in such communities the building was absolutely essential and her team pleaded with churches to keep those buildings open.

So another report comes out!!! So many through my ministry that you could be forgiven in thinking they are written as a smokescreen because nothing really seems to change in denominational planning.  Strategies are drawn up and re-drawn but still the withdrawal continues.

I can only truly comment on my own experience. Put bluntly it is about power, money, influence. It may be we can excuse it by calling it an unconscious bias towards those churches with greater numerical strength, wealth and influence. But churches in poorer/deprived areas need local leadership that gives a voice to their work and existence. That voice often has to be the minister who must not be afraid to argue, to disturb and frankly be a pain to those who would sweep those poorer churches under the carpet. 

What does justice look like in the church? Well it doesn't always look good when on the ground you see resources placed in affluent areas. There has to be a bias to the more deprived areas based around fewer buildings but located in such a way that they serve as a real hub for community life. Those buildings have to be made fit for purpose and that will cost. And I believe we need church leadership that wants to live in the community and does not commute in. 

God of the poor
may Your church 
hear the cry of those in need.
May Your church be willing 
to use its resources in a biased way
that changes lives
and create 
Kingdom communities.

Encourage
people to serve
in tough places
and be the  
voice that disturbs
until change is made
and signs of the Kingdom are seen.

Amen          (c) Mark Goodhand 5th March 2023