Richard Rugg's Audit of St Philips
Richard Rugg, ordination candidate from England, spent a month at St Philips in June 2011. Malcolm Potts set him an assignment to audit the church! (eek) here it is....
Introduction
I have thoroughly enjoyed my weeks here in Cottesloe learning about how St. Philips functions and being a part of the community. It has been a helpful and joyful experience both for me and my family. This report is written as an outsider looking in at the community of St Philips: it is not exhaustive and although I will be as accurate as possible, the observations will contain my own opinions and thoughts which may or may not be helpful. I pray that this report will be helpful in both seeing what God is doing in your community now and in hearing where God is calling you to go next.
Ethos
The three areas mentioned below are not ranked in order of importance, but are simply the three areas main areas that are part of the St. Philips DNA.It quickly became clear that St Philips places a strong emphasis on the importance of mission in the lives of its members, more so than most other churches that I have experienced. This emphasis became clear through talking to Malcolm as well as other members of the church that I was encouraged to speak to regarding mission (i.e. Deb Protter about Connect, Katrina Holgate regarding Stillpoint). The understanding of mission that the church is seeking to encourage is holistic mission; it is mission that is not simply something that is done by others, often in distant, faraway places, but mission done by everyone, both in distant places but also in their local community. The mission done in the local community also highlights that mission includes serving people or communities when there are specific needs. Stillpoint was born of a need to address the issue of the young adult/teenage drinking on the waterfront that affected the community, and did so through having a presence on the waterfront and seeking to serve or help those in need. Whereas Connect saw a need to help others become more part of the local community through connecting with new people in the area and helping them create friendships and become involved. Such activities highlighted that the church is seeking to engage with the local community, and it has been articulated by the leadership that it hoped to encourage more members of the church to be involved in missional activities.A second area of the church that impressed was the relational nature of the community. From the first experience that Ada and I had of entering the church on the Sunday, we were warmly welcomed and greeted by a number of people. It was encouraging to see a friendly environment, where new people are spoken to, made to feel welcome at the service. Over the weeks I realised that the relational nature went deeper than a warm welcome given to those on the Sunday. Malcolm endeavours to model a relational style of leadership which helps to create an environment where people know that they and their opinions can be voiced, as well as a culture that encourages apology when mistakes had been made. It was also healthy to see a leadership team that was willing to voice differing opinions and work through the discussion to reach agreement. It was also very encouraging to see the TOM (The Order of Mission) gathering striving to create a deeper Christian community that would further strengthen their relationships in order that they might better fulfil the missional ethos of the St Philips.The third area of the church was the use of ‘the triangle’ in all areas of the church strategy and thinking. The importance of the UP – right relation to God; the IN, deeper relationship within the community; and the OUT, reaching out to those who not part of the St Philips community. It was incredible the amount of times, as well as the number of people I spoke to who mentioned ‘the triangle’ when I asked about St Philips. It is clearly a very useful tool in communicating to the church members the importance of all three aspects of the triangle, in particular the OUT which is often forgotten be many churches, even if not all members had fully grasped what is meant by the OUT in the St. Philips’ community.
Strengths
- A committed leadership team who is clearly striving to continue to grow the mission and influence in the community to further the kingdom of God.
- The new children’s ministry that is seeking to nurture the young members of St. Philips
- A friendly and welcoming community to those who come into the church from outside.
- A church that is seeking to make a difference in the local community through missions such as Connect, and also the past success of Stillpoint.
- A church seeking to equip more members of the church to grow in their faith and equip them for mission through activities such as huddles.
- A church that has good facilities and space available for activities to run
- A commitment to prayer that underpins the activities of the church
Weaknesses
- Lack of both youth work and also the current number of teenagers
- Few younger adults/families in the congregation.
Opportunities
- There are many opportunities in the local community for more missional activities such as mission amongst backpackers, surfers and teenagers.
- The Future Fund: if this is successful it will be able to equip people with a heart for mission to have the time and resources to carry out new mission.
- The community is materially wealthy and is able to provide resources to help ensure the mission of the church can develop and meet the challenges that are ahead.
Threats
- The lack of younger people in the congregation means that in a few years the church could be really aging and the number of people attending decline.
- Church services in current form could be made more child/youth friendly.
My Thoughts
I think that the most important step for the church to take is to look with urgency to find the right person to develop a youth ministry in the church. I know that St Philips is looking for a youth worker, but I would like to encourage you to keep seeking to find the right person. I say this for a number of reasons: 1) It is great to see that St. Philips has appointed Liz to oversee the children’s work and it would be a great shame to see all the hard work and effort put into the spiritual growth of children be lost once they got older and there were no groups or provision for their spiritual development at St. Philips. 2) Having great children and youth work is one of the best ways that a church can reach and attract entire families, both children, teenagers and their parents. Children and teenagers are the best people to invite and attract other people their age, and will naturally do this if they see the church groups as fun, relevant and fulfilling. And if you get the children coming along, their parents will often come along to church with them! 3) Welcoming and blessing children/young people is part of God’s instruction (Mark 9 & 10) 4). While children and young people will be the church of the future they should also be part of the church of today too, otherwise many congregations have no future. As the church seeks to reach out to a younger generation (as well as the older generation) it will be necessary to develop the church services to be even more accessible to those with little to no church background. This may include more services with no communion, other forms of worship such as drama, video clips, etc. Overall I think St Philips is a church that has a lot going for it and has an opportunity now, with the resources available, that if it grasps and responds to God’s calling can grow and build his kingdom in Cottesloe for the future.