This Sunday I thought I should write about a really significant and strategic issue, something that matters.
Practically at our doorstep, here at Holy Trinity Coventry, there is a large university which serves 20,000 students. It's not clear to me whether collectively we at HTC are doing all we should for these 20,000 souls. One might put the point in sharper biblical focus: does this geographical closeness amount to a divine encouragement to lift up our eyes to the harvest, and consider whether we might be some of the labourers being called to assist? Of course, the need is not the call; obedience to our Master is not simply a matter of knee-jerk responses to every unmet opportunity that might come by (that way leads to burn-out). But on the other hand the need can be the signal to open our eyes to a genuine call, something which we should make a real priority. Let us consider together ...
My thoughts on this were given a sharp kick at the end of September. We were approached (by the other nearby university) to see if we might participate together with other churches in a student welcome event. Trouble was, we needed to supply a couple of students or near-students to speak; and that's where we ran into a road-block. HTC has plenty of older people who would be happy to come along and speak at such an event, but is very very short of students. We tried our best, but in the end we had to pass on that opportunity. That gave us pause for thought: as a church we lack people in the early part of the 20-30 age-range. It was a salutary experience for us to have to confess to this unwelcome fact, and to admit that we had no idea of what to do about it.
Now it's possible to overstate the matter. For example, just today I was chatting at the 0930 service to a student who is president of the university mountaineering club; moreover we offer a friendly welcome to several Nexus students each year. But it doesn't exactly match the 20,000 souls studying next door; moreover many of the thriving 20's groups of ten to fifteen years back have now moved on to the next stage of challenge in the Christian way. We need to face facts: we have a gap at that point of our age-spectrum, and that limits us in several significant and strategic ways,
A question one should always ask: is the perceived need actually already being met by someone else? I don't know the answer to this, though I know places to which we might address the question. It is my impression that other churches are in a better geographical position to provide well for the other nearby university, but perhaps this is not so true for our neighbour. Some of us are involved in the work amongst international students, and we should listen to what they have to say. Another of our number is the Anglican chaplain, so for sure we should ask her opinion! Certainly our Christian brothers and sisters at the Cathedral next door do their bit; but one wonders whether our Lord might be beckoning us over too, to take part in the demanding work of harvest: 20,000 souls.
So: if in fact it is right to hear the Lord's call in these facts, how then might we respond? Here comes the second trigger to my thoughts. My son has just started his first year at a university far from home, and has ended up finding himself with the Methodists there. Many things attracted him to them, but one thing struck me forcefully; they invite their students into family homes for lunch on Sundays. As a parent I wanted immediately to send these people a thank-you note for being so kind to my son - and I realized that for me and for my son part of the Good News here is that he is being given loving hospitality when far away from home, right to the direct and tangible point of being fed - rather well! So perhaps one possible ministry for HTC would be to seek to welcome students into our homes after our services for Sunday lunch.
Practical issues abound. If we were to take this on, then it would need to be a shared effort by a range of us, prepared to commit to this over an extended period of time. I talked to someone in the 0930 who had been involved with a similar ministry in his previous church, and he made that point strongly to me. No point in going off half-cock; if we were to do this then we should make sure we would stick at it. Luke 14:28 comes to mind.
Moreover, the natural families to do this are families with young children and families whose children have just left home; and these people are largely in our 0930 congregation. OK, so that makes for a problem; how do we cover the gap between the end of service at 1030, or the end of breakfast at 1100, and the start of the meal at 1300? It also thins out the number of students; fewer of them will roll up at 0930. (On the other hand, with 20,000 next door perhaps we need there to be a bit of thinning if the task is to be at all manageable.)
These and other matters would need to be thrashed out before taking on something like this. Moreover there's a kind of Gospel logic at work here; were we to take this on then we would need to be ready to change as new people were drawn in. For example our old 7:30 pm service changed hugely twelve years ago as a result of the influx then of young twenties. Christian hospitality and outreach is never just a one-way street; it changes us too, and we'd need to be ready to accept such changes. All the more reason to take some time to consider; is this really a call to us as a community, whether that be the whole church or the 0930 congregation? Might this be one of the adventures to which we are being called in the next couple of years of our Christian journey together? 20,000 souls ...
I would be so interested to hear other peoples' thoughts on this ... do feel free to leave comments in the comment-box!
Dear Wilfrid
ReplyDeleteI had written a comment and decided to add a full stop and then losty it. So this will be a summary.
I am very concerned about the missing generation at HT (6 formers to 30's I guess). The importance of this for our church life is shown by what I might call the current baby-boom generation which were the 20-30's some time ago. I suspect your idea of proceeding via hospitality is a good one, though it should be more than merely feeding hingry young people (worthy though that is) and the people involved should feel part of some kidn fo ministry team.
Having said that at the time of year when the welcome lunches are running that is probably all we can cope with for (non residential) hospitality.
My own world is composed of Warwick University, church and home. It will help me to be involved if I feel that such a ministry was part of the HT world - I personally can't cope with another sphere of activity.
Best wishes
Alison
Interesting and important topic!
ReplyDeleteI too was a little surprised to see only a handful of students coming to the 0930 service. I can think of a few factors off the top of my head:
1) The Cathedral have a full-time student worker as well as a part-time international student worker (though has a full-time role in the Cathedral as curate). This is helpful in finding, contacting and meeting up with students. I had a similar role when I worked in France where we had around 80 students every week in the evening service - after which we had a meal together cooked by a different group of students each week.
as well as this they have Cathedral Praise which is aimed at students on a Sunday evening.
2) There are a few students who come to the 11am service - about 10 or so yesterday and 1 or 2 at the 7pm. Mostly international from Coventry I believe.
3) Other churches like Mosaic and Vineyard have good student relations.
In terms of what we can do - perhaps we should speak with Jenn (the Anglican chaplain) and seek her wisdom about how we can plug in to what's going on by way of hospitality etc. over the weekends. This might be the first step...
Important issue. I think the two points above are particularly important: what's done needs to fit in and not overload people; and what's done needs to fit in with what is already happening across the city.
ReplyDeleteFrom my experience as a student and running student things there are different types of church-going student. Most will already be catered for by other churches, whether they want loud music, the kind of ["Biblical"] teaching they've grown up with, or a crowd of students similar to themselves. If the need indicates a call, it's probably not a call to replicate. But I think there's other, more exciting stuff you can do.
I understand the concern about the gap in the demographic. Where are the next batch of kids going to come from? But I think as you work your way through this problem, it's good to consider possible actions with as broad a lens as possible. If you try (and succeed) at encouraging students to a service, do you want it to be an early Sunday morning one? Do you want these students not to be socialising with their friends on Saturday evenings? Similarly, hospitality is great, but starting at 9:30am and running through various services, meals and groups until closing time at spoons might not be the best thing. I only bring that up because I know people who went to a church like that, and later regretted spending 1/7th of their waking university hours at church, just because that's what the church did. However, I am probably biased on the issue of hospitality as I found the "student hospitality" to be quite patronising. Yeah. So maybe don't listen to what I say on that.
Hi folks - just saw this in start the week...maybe the Lord is trying to say something to us?
ReplyDeleteGENERATION CONFERENCE - HELP CONNECT YOUR CHURCH
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A Conference to Help Connect Your Church to People in Their 20s to 40s on Sat 20th Nov 2010 from 9.30am - 1pm at St Mark's Church, Bilton, Rugby CV22 7RN. Open to All. Whatever Church you are part of and whatever age you are. For a copy of the booking form click here
James Hill