There are to be no church services at St. Mark's from now until August 27th, but there's no need to go without spiritual guidance. All the new web-based technology (such as media players and mp3s) has led to a number of churches putting their sermons on the internet. The best examples are given below (including some sermons by John Ortberg).
Please note, all the church sites listed below are based in the US.
'MPPC Family' Sermons
'Peach Trees' Sermons
'South East Christian' Sermons
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Encounters on the Edge - the rural church today
For those interested in the problems of contemporary rural mission, the Church Army recently produced a very helpful edition of 'Encounters on the Edge' that includes a summary of the situation facing the rural church (by George Lings). Issue number 27 (click here for further details) includes some very helpful reflections on patterns of services in rural multi-parish benefices.
He refers to the lessons we can learn from the Methodist Church who reduced the number of services offered in their smaller rural chapels in the hope that people would travel to a nearby chapel where regular worship was considered sustainable. He notes: "The policy became to close small local chapels and ask people to come together to form critical mass or joinable churches. Conversations I had with Methodist leaders tell me one third of the people simply stopped going anywhere, one third stayed local but transferred (usually to the Anglicans) and only one third complied."
Turning to the practice in the Church of England, he writes: "Many services became no longer weekly but monthly, creating a context which demanded esoteric knowledge to find them, discouraged that favoured Anglican bird of passage, the casual attender, and created patterns of irregular attendance as an unwelcome norm in spirituality."
He also adds that "it is better to provide simple but sustainable weekly lay-led services of the word, with Eucharist less frequently, than to operate with the priest as a whirling dervish Eucharistic machine, flying around the benefice, parachuting in for the magic words, splitting the integrity of word and sacrament and unable to build pastoral contacts."
Some thought-provoking remarks there and something, perhaps, for browsers from other rural parishes to pursue further. The suggestion of 'lay-led services' is particularly fascinating and apposite in these days of priest shortages.
Here at the small church of St Mark's in Flecknoe, faced with just such a shortage, we have already taken the difficult decision to 'close' in terms of regular services and only offer the four major services of Easter Sunday, Harvest Festival, the annual Carol Service and, of course, Christmas Day itself. It does mean that the 'casual attender' referred to above is going to be discouraged. But in a tiny rural community like ours, even the casual attender is practically extinct. And in the age of the car, worshippers are not worried by the idea of travelling a few extra miles to larger and more lively churches. It is our hope, naturally, that they will continue to worship in the absence of regular services here at St Mark's and not leave the Church altogether ...
He refers to the lessons we can learn from the Methodist Church who reduced the number of services offered in their smaller rural chapels in the hope that people would travel to a nearby chapel where regular worship was considered sustainable. He notes: "The policy became to close small local chapels and ask people to come together to form critical mass or joinable churches. Conversations I had with Methodist leaders tell me one third of the people simply stopped going anywhere, one third stayed local but transferred (usually to the Anglicans) and only one third complied."
Turning to the practice in the Church of England, he writes: "Many services became no longer weekly but monthly, creating a context which demanded esoteric knowledge to find them, discouraged that favoured Anglican bird of passage, the casual attender, and created patterns of irregular attendance as an unwelcome norm in spirituality."
He also adds that "it is better to provide simple but sustainable weekly lay-led services of the word, with Eucharist less frequently, than to operate with the priest as a whirling dervish Eucharistic machine, flying around the benefice, parachuting in for the magic words, splitting the integrity of word and sacrament and unable to build pastoral contacts."
Some thought-provoking remarks there and something, perhaps, for browsers from other rural parishes to pursue further. The suggestion of 'lay-led services' is particularly fascinating and apposite in these days of priest shortages.
Here at the small church of St Mark's in Flecknoe, faced with just such a shortage, we have already taken the difficult decision to 'close' in terms of regular services and only offer the four major services of Easter Sunday, Harvest Festival, the annual Carol Service and, of course, Christmas Day itself. It does mean that the 'casual attender' referred to above is going to be discouraged. But in a tiny rural community like ours, even the casual attender is practically extinct. And in the age of the car, worshippers are not worried by the idea of travelling a few extra miles to larger and more lively churches. It is our hope, naturally, that they will continue to worship in the absence of regular services here at St Mark's and not leave the Church altogether ...
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Easter Lilies
Easter is almost upon us but there's still time if you would like to make a donation towards our Easter lilies in memory of a loved one. Donations for flowers to Sarah Jolley at Underwood Cottage, Flecknoe by Wednesday 12th April, please.
Prayer requests can be left in the secure postbox in the church porch.
And don't forget, our Easter Day service is a service of Holy Communion at 10.30pm Sunday 16th April. Everyone especially welcome for this, our last official service until the Harvest Festival in September, although a United Service for all churches in the benefice is to be held at St. Mark's on August 27th, 10.30am.
Prayer requests can be left in the secure postbox in the church porch.
And don't forget, our Easter Day service is a service of Holy Communion at 10.30pm Sunday 16th April. Everyone especially welcome for this, our last official service until the Harvest Festival in September, although a United Service for all churches in the benefice is to be held at St. Mark's on August 27th, 10.30am.
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