If your church shut what would they say?

If your church shut would your community feel and mourn it’s loss?

That’s the question I’ve had rattling round my head for a few weeks now.  It’s a question I’ve been mulling over and thinking about in relation to Grace Church.  Not would our members miss us if we shut, but if the church shut would our community miss us.  Would it feel the loss of a church that it may have vehemently disagreed with but which it recognised the love and care it received from.  Are our churches that engaged with our communities?

There are those that are.  But I wonder if all to often we are not.  We are part of the furniture but we’re not a vital cog in the community.  We run some nice events but they are just that, we don’t carry our essential services to the well being of our communities.  And that seems to fly in the face of so much of what we see in scripture.

What would it look like for our churches to meet social needs in a uniquely gospel shaped way?  What would it look like to do good given the needs of your community?  And not just the obvious ones but the hidden ones?  Who do we advocate for?  Who do we support and help?  What austerity terminated services are we replacing as a way to show people the love of Christ?