A New World Needs a New Church

Staring into the season of the rural and coastal church it’s hard to understand what the season is, except to know that the season has changed.  Surrounding this changed season for the church, is our changed world, society and community.  One of the many missional authors I’ve read over past years has this succinct word to say about change.  “If you have a new world, you need a new church.  You have a new world!”[1]

Where once Presbyteries related primarily to the many ministers who were in the many congregations, now it is true that in most churches, especially in the rural and coastal areas, there are few ministers.  However, we have remarkable lay leaders and surrounding them is still a church that struggles to change even though the season has.

This season of change within our life urges us to consider a lived practice where we don’t consume our lay leaders with meetings, where we don’t expect their ministry just to replicate the past, where our education and training reflect our genuine missional context and where we actively consider how we encourage, practically, lay leaders in all their gifts of ministry.

The richest times of ministry for Saltbush are when, through Saltbush Gatherings, Lay Leader’s Retreats or simple being with congregations, we sit beside people from all across the state and both listen to their stories and enter into Christian community together.  But within these times there is, without exception, the voice of weariness and burden.  Perhaps those words from the Gospel of Matthew are difficult for us to imbue: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest….”.  Perhaps those words are hard for us to espouse, when the very body that embraces the Christ is often the body that imposes the burdens.

Our lay leaders often find themselves as the keystone of their church community and without many ministers, they are the people relied on by the organisational demands of their Presbyteries.  They are often key figures in their own local communities and towns and for some communities, seen as the Christian presence, the incarnational presence, in times of struggle and pain.  They are the leaders who seek to support others in their faith journeys and when there is a human need.

Our latest Saltbush Gatherings over the past couple of months have been in Lake Cargelligo and Gloucester, drawing people from far and wide, and our Saltbush Lay Leader’s Retreat at Galong, which again brought together people from literally all four corners of NSW.  These were such wonderful times of both encouragement and hospitality, but also of reality, as people shared stories of life and faith and the weight of expectation, distraction and the seasons of change in which they find themselves.

Embracing our lay leaders, irrespective of numbers or location and striving to explore life and faith together and the place of Christian community in 21^st. Century amongst our seasons of change is fundamental to the ministry of Saltbush.

We are thankful for our times together over these past months and already thankful for the times of encouragement and Christian ministry to be shared together throughout the years ahead.